Lecture Notes for PHYS:4731 Plasma Physics I
Below are links to the scanned PDF versions of the lecture notes handed out in class:
Introduction to Plasmas
- 8/26/24 - 8/28/24 Lecture #1: Introduction to Plasmas
- 8/28/24 - 8/30/24 Lecture #2: Characteristic Scales in a Plasma
Single Particle Motion
- 9/4/24 Lecture #3: Single Particle Motion in Constant Uniform Fields
- 9/6/24 Lecture #4: Multiple Timescale Methods
- 9/9/24 - 9/11/24 Lecture #5: Particle Motion in Constant, Nonuniform Magnetic Fields
- 9/11/24 - 9/13/24 Lecture #6: Magnetic Moment and the Mirror Force
- 9/16/24 - 9/18/24 Lecture #7: Particle Motion in Temporally Varying Magnetic Fields and Adiabatic Invariance
- 9/18/24 - 9/20/24 Lecture #8: Computational Methods for Plasma Physics
- 9/23/24 - 9/25/24 Lecture #9: Particle Motion in Slowly Varying Electric Fields and Polarization Drift
- 9/25/24 - 9/27/24 Lecture #10: The Ponderomotive Force
- 9/30/24 - 10/2/24 Lecture #11: Collisions and Resistivity
From Kinetic to Fluid Plasma Descriptions
- 10/14/24 - 10/16/24 Lecture #12: Kinetic Description of a Plasma
- 10/16/24 - 10/18/24 Lecture #13: Moment Equations
- 10/21/24 - 10/23/24 Lecture #14: The Two Fluid Equations
Ideal Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and MHD Waves
- 10/23/24 - 10/25/24 Lecture #15: The Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Equations
- 10/28/24 - 10/30/24 Lecture #16: The Frozen-in Flux Theorem
- 10/30/24 - 11/1/24 Lecture #17: Magnetic Diffusion and Intro to MHD Waves
- 11/4/24 - 11/6/24 Lecture #18: MHD Waves: Alfven, Fast, and Slow Waves
- 11/6/24 - 11/8/24 Lecture #19: More About MHD Waves
MHD Equilibria
- 11/11/24 - 11/13/24 Lecture #20: MHD Wave Observations and MHD Equilibria
- 11/13/24 - 11/15/24 Lecture #21: Force-Balanced MHD Equilibria
Cold and Warm Unmagnetized Plasma Waves
- 11/20/24 - 12/2/24 Lecture #22: Waves in a Cold, Unmagnetized Plasma
- 12/2/24 - 12/4/24 Lecture #23: Properties of Waves in Cold, Unmagnetized Plasmas
- 12/6/24 - 12/13/24 Lecture #24: Cold vs. Warm Unmagnetized Plasma Waves