Physics of Fully Ionized Gases Second Revised Edition

by Spitzer, Lyman

• ISBN13: 9780486449821
• ISBN10: 0486449823
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-07-07
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

Written in 1955, this classic graduate-level volume was the first general but simple introduction to the fields of plasma and fusion research, and it has served as a valuable reference ever since. Lyman Spitzer, Jr., (1914-97) was the first to propose the idea of placing a large telescope in space and the driving force behind the development of the Hubble Space Telescope. Founder and director of Princeton's Plasma Physics Laboratory, a pioneering program in controlled thermonuclear research, he taught and inspired a generation of plasma physicists.

Table of Contents

Motion of a Particle	1	(19)
Equations of Motion	1	(2)
Particle Drifts	3	(6)
Electric field	3	(2)
Gravitational field	5	(1)
Inhomogeneous magnetic field	6	(1)
Confinement in axial fields	7	(2)
Magnetic Moment	9	(6)
Acceleration of Particles	15	(5)
Macroscopic Behaviour of a Plasma	20	(29)
Electrical Neutrality	21	(2)
Basic Equations	23	(7)
Relation between Macroscopic and Microscopic Velocities	30	(5)
Electric Currents	35	(5)
Motion of Material Across Lines of Force	40	(9)
Change of flux through a moving surface	40	(2)
Diffusion across a strong magnetic field	42	(7)
Waves in a Plasma	49	(46)
Electromagnetic Waves with No Magnetic Field	52	(3)
Electrostatic Waves with No Magnetic Field	55	(6)
Hydromagnetic Waves	61	(6)
Waves in a Cold Uniform Plasma	67	(14)
Propagation across B	68	(9)
Propagation parallel to B	77	(2)
Propagation in an arbitrary direction	79	(2)
Damping and Excitation of Waves	81	(14)
Landau damping	82	(4)
Cyclotron damping	86	(2)
Excitation, two-stream instability	88	(7)
Equilibria and Their Stability	95	(25)
Principles of Stable Equilibrium	95	(5)
Plane System	100	(8)
Equilibrium	100	(2)
Stability, isotropic pressure	102	(3)
Stability, anisotropic pressure	105	(3)
Cylindrical System	108	(8)
Equilibrium	108	(4)
Stability	112	(4)
Axisymmetric System	116	(4)
Encounters between Charged Particles	120	(35)
Distant Encounters	121	(2)
Diffusion Coefficients	123	(8)
Relaxation Times	131	(5)
Electrical Resistivity	136	(7)
Thermal Conductivity and Viscosity	143	(4)
Radiation	147	(8)
Photon scattering by free electrons	147	(1)
Photon emission in electron-ion collisions	148	(4)
Synchrotron radiation	152	(3)
Appendix. The Boltzmann Equation	155	(5)
Symbols	160	(5)
Index	165