Lecture Notes for ASTR:7830 Space and Astrophysical Plasmas
Below are links to the scanned PDF versions of the lecture notes handed out in class:
Basic Plasma Physics
- 1/17/24 - 1/19/24 Lecture #1: Introduction and Characteristic Scales in a Plasma
- 1/19/24 - 1/22/24 Lecture #2: Single Particle Motion
- 1/24/24 - 1/26/24 Lecture #3: Mirror Force, Adiabatic Invariance, Polarization Drift, and Collisions
- 1/26/24 - 1/29/24 Lecture #4: Distribution Functions, Moments, Moment Equations, and Equations of State
- 1/31/24 - 2/2/24 Lecture #5: MHD, Dimensionless Numbers, Frozen-In Flux, and Magnetic Diffusion
- 2/2/24 - 2/5/24 Lecture #6: MHD Waves
Magnetospheric Physics
- 2/7/24 - 2/9/24 Lecture #7: Overview of the Earth's Magnetosphere
- 2/9/24 - 2/12/24 Lecture #8: The Earth's Magnetic Field and MHD Discontinuities and Shocks
- 2/14/24 - 2/16/24 Lecture #9: MHD Shock Properties, Bowshock, and Magnetopause
- 2/16/24 - 2/26/24 Lecture #10: Boundary Layers, Magnetopause Current, and Magnetotail Current
- 2/28/24 - 3/1/24 Lecture #11: Ring Current and Field-Aligned Currents
- 3/1/24 - 3/4/24 Lecture #12: Magnetospheric Convection, Plasmasphere, and Partial Ring Current
- 3/6/24 - 3/8/24 Lecture #13: Radiation Belts, Ionosphere, Ionospheric Sounding, and Magnetic Reconnection
- 3/8/24 - 3/18/24 Lecture #14: Magnetic Reconnection, Sweet-Parker Model, and Petschek Model
- 3/20/24 - 3/22/24 Lecture #15: Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection,Geomagnetic Storms and Substorms
- 3/22/24 - 3/25/24 Lecture #16: Auroral Physics
Heliospheric Physics
- 3/27/24 - 3/29/24 Lecture #17: The Sun
- 3/29/24 - 4/1/24 Lecture #18: The Solar Dynamo and Connection to Solar Activity
- 4/3/24 - 4/5/24 Lecture #19: The Parker Solar Wind Solution
- 4/5/24 - 4/8/24 Lecture #20: The Structure of the Heliosphere
Astrophysics
- 4/10/24 - 4/12/24 Lecture #21: The Physics of Accretion
- 4/12/24 - 4/15/24 Lecture #22: The Magnetorotational Instability
- 4/17/24 - 4/19/24 Lecture #23: Magnetic Buoyancy and the Parker Instability
- 4/19/24 - 4/22/24 Lecture #24: Gravitational Collapse of Non-rotating and Rotating Molecular Clouds
- 4/24/24 - 4/26/24 Lecture #25: Magnetized Molecular Clouds and Ambipolar Diffusion
- 4/26/24 - 4/29/24 Lecture #26: Dimensional Analysis, Pi Theorem, and Self-Similarity
- 5/1/24 - 5/3/24 Lecture #27: Blast Waves and Supernova Remnants