PHYS:7730 Advanced Plasma Physics
General Course Information
| Professor | Gregory Howes |
| Office | 213 Van Allen Hall |
| Phone | (319) 335-1221 |
| gregory-howes {at} uiowa dot edu | |
| Office Hours | Tuesday 10:45-11:45am Wednesday 9:30-11:30am or by appointment |
| Catalog Description | The aim of this course is to explore fundamental plasma processes at the frontier of modern research in plasma physics: turbulence, magnetic reconnection, shocks, instabilities, and radiation. These critical processes impact the evolution of plasma systems, from laboratory and fusion plasmas, to heliospheric plasmas such as the solar corona or Earth's magnetosphere, to more extreme environments in distant astrophysical systems such as galaxy clusters and black hole accretion disks. The course will not only serve to provide a fundamental foundation to understand these topics in ongoing research, but will also aim to provide key connections to the current literature on these topics. |
| Meeting | Tuesday and Thursday 9:30am - 10:45am, 618 Van Allen Hall |
| Textbook | These three texts are available electronically through
the University of Iowa Libraries as part of the Cambridge Core collection: 1. Introduction to Plasma Physics: With Space, Laboratory and Astrophysical Applications, Donald A. Gurnett and Amitava Bhattacharjee, 2nd edition, 2017. 2.The Physics of Plasmas, T. J. M. Boyd, and J. J. Sanderson, 2003. 3. Fundamentals of Plasma Physics, Paul M. Bellan, 2006. |
| Grading | Homework: 60% Final Project: 40% |
| Topics | 1. Fundamental Plasma Physics Concepts (3 weeks) 2. Turbulence (4 weeks) 3. Collisionless Shocks (3 weeks) 4. Magnetic Reconnection (3 weeks) 5. Instabilities (1 week) 6. Radiation (1 week) |