Lecture Notes for 029:278 Space and Astrophysical Plasmas

Below are links to the scanned PDF versions of the lecture notes handed out in class:

Basic Plasma Physics

• 1/21/14 Lecture #1: Introduction and Characteristic Scales in a Plasma
• 1/23/14 Lecture #2: Single Particle Motion
• 1/28/14 Lecture #3: Mirror Force, Adiabatic Invariance, Polarization Drift, and Collisions
• 1/30/14 Lecture #4: Distribution Functions, Moments, Moment Equations, and Equations of State
• 2/4/14 Lecture #5: MHD, Dimensionless Numbers, Frozen-In Flux, and Magnetic Diffusion
• 2/6/14 Lecture #6: MHD Waves

Magnetospheric Physics

• 2/11/14 Lecture #7: Overview of the Earth's Magnetosphere
• 2/13/14 Lecture #8: The Earth's Magnetic Field and MHD Discontinuities and Shocks
• 2/18/14 Lecture #9: MHD Shock Properties, Bowshock, and Magnetopause
• 2/25/14 Make-up Lecture #10: Boundary Layers, Magnetopause Current, and Magnetotail Current
• 2/25/14 Lecture #11: Ring Current and Field-Aligned Currents
• 2/27/14 Lecture #12: Magnetospheric Convection, Plasmasphere, and Partial Ring Current
• 3/4/14 Lecture #13: Radiation Belts, Ionosphere, Ionospheric Sounding, and Magnetic Reconnection
• 3/6/14 Lecture #14: Magnetic Reconnection, Sweet-Parker Model, and Petschek Model
• 3/11/14 Lecture #15: Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection,Geomagnetic Storms and Substorms
• 4/3/14 Lecture #20: Auroral Physics (by Prof. Craig Kletzing)

Heliospheric Physics

• 3/13/14 Lecture #16: The Sun
• 3/25/14 Lecture #17: The Solar Dynamo and Connection to Solar Activity
• 3/27/14 Lecture #18: The Parker Solar Wind Solution
• 4/8/14 Lecture #21: The Structure of the Heliosphere

Astrophysics

• 4/1/14 Lecture #19: Nonlinear Alfven Waves (by Prof. Steve Spangler)
• 4/10/14 Lecture #22: The Physics of Accretion
• 4/15/14 Lecture #23: The Magnetorotational Instability
• 4/17/14 Lecture #24: Magnetic Buoyancy and the Parker Instability
• 4/22/14 Lecture #25: Gravitational Collapse of Non-rotating and Rotating Molecular Clouds
• 4/25/14 Lecture #26: Dimensional Analysis, Pi Theorem, and Self-Similarity
• 4/29/14 Lecture #27: Magnetized Molecular Clouds and Ambipolar Diffusion
• 5/1/14 Lecture #28: Turbulence
• 5/6/14 Lecture #29: Blast Waves and Supernova Remnants