Lecture Notes for 029:235 Space and Astrophysical Plasmas
Below are links to the scanned PDF versions of the lecture notes handed out in class:
Basic Plasma Physics
- 1/17/12 Lecture #1: Introduction and Characteristic Scales in a Plasma
- 1/19/12 Lecture #2: Single Particle Motion
- 1/24/12 Lecture #3: Mirror Force, Adiabatic Invariance, Polarization Drift, and Collisions
- 1/26/12 Lecture #4: Distribution Functions, Moments, Moment Equations, and Equations of State
- 1/31/12 Lecture #5: MHD, Dimensionless Numbers, Frozen-In Flux, and Magnetic Diffusion
- 2/2/12 Lecture #6: MHD Waves
Magnetospheric Physics
- 2/7/12 Lecture #7: Overview of the Earth's Magnetosphere
- 2/9/12 Lecture #8: The Earth's Magnetic Field and MHD Discontinuities and Shocks
- 2/14/12 Lecture #9: MHD Shock Properties, Bowshock, and Magnetopause
- 2/16/12 Lecture #10: Boundary Layers, Magnetopause Current, and Magnetotail Current
- 2/21/12 Lecture #11: Ring Current and Field-Aligned Currents
- 2/23/12 Lecture #12: Magnetospheric Convection, Plasmasphere, and Partial Ring Current
- 2/28/12 Lecture #13: Radiation Belts, Ionosphere, Ionospheric Sounding, and Magnetic Reconnection
- 3/1/12 Lecture #14: Magnetic Reconnection, Sweet-Parker Model, and Petschek Model
- 3/6/12 Lecture #15: Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection,Geomagnetic Storms and Substorms
- 4/24/12 Lecture #27: Auroral Physics (by Prof. Craig Kletzing)
Heliospheric Physics
- 3/8/12 Lecture #16: The Sun
- 3/20/12 Lecture #17: The Solar Dynamo and Connection to Solar Activity
- 3/22/12 Lecture #18: The Parker Solar Wind Solution
- 3/27/12 Lecture #19: The Structure of the Heliosphere
Astrophysics
- 3/29/12 Lecture #20: The Physics of Accretion
- 4/3/12 Lecture #21: The Magnetorotational Instability
- 4/5/12 Lecture #22: Magnetic Buoyancy and the Parker Instability
- 4/10/12 Lecture #23: Gravitational Collapse of Non-rotating and Rotating Molecular Clouds
- 4/12/12 Lecture #24: Magnetized Molecular Clouds and Ambipolar Diffusion
- 4/17/12 Lecture #25: Turbulence
- 4/19/12 Lecture #26: Dimensional Analysis, Pi Theorem, and Self-Similarity
- 4/26/12 Lecture #28: Nonlinear Alfven Waves (by Prof. Steve Spangler)
- 5/1/12 Lecture #29: Blast Waves and Supernova Remnants
- 5/3/12 Lecture #30: Thermodynamics of Galaxy Clusters