Physics 8120, Plasma Physics

Paul J. Wiita

Announcements

22Oct: MORE ERRATA in CHAPTER 8:

p. 207, expression below (46): the v' in the denominator should be in bold

p. 210, 2nd para of Sect 8.5, 3rd line: v_x should be v_z

p. 211, Eq (52): the last term should include a factor of m

p. 217, Eq (79): the F should have a subcript 1 in both places it appears, there should be a d^3v in the second integral,
and the term neE_1 should be added to both the first and second integrals, as it comes from the piece of (76) that doesn't require integration by parts.
Or the neE_1 term could be dropped from (79) and reintroduced explicitly in (82).

16 Oct: ERRATA in CHAPTER 8:

p. 200, Eq(7) and (8): $\mu$ should be in the denominator of both on the RHS

p. 201, para after (17): the equation for the Debye length is missing a square root sign over the RHS, a Boltzman constant in the numerator and a closing parenthesis in the denominator.
Eq. (19) and (20): the g's in the denominators should be g_0's

p. 202, Eq(23), a k_B is missing from the numerator of the penultimate term

p. 203, Eq(25), technically, the subscript AB in the numerator should not be in bold

p. 242, Problem 2: the final expression has an equals sign in the denominator; this should be a plus.

1 October: MORE ERRATA in CH 9

p. 266: Problem 9.2, 2nd line: the vector E requires the subscript 1.

p. 265: Eq(79): the second vector E requires the subscript 0.

24 Sept: ERRATA in CHAPTER 9

p. 249: Eq(28) has multiple errors. It should be (directly from the expression above):
\omega^2 = k^2 c^2 / [1 + c^2/v_A^2] \approx k^2 v_A^2

p. 252, last line: add "of" between "function" and "\omega".

VERIFIED ERRATA IN CHAPTERS 4, 5 and 7 FOLLOW

p. 79, 4th para: the word "cylinder(s)" should be substiuted for "sphere(s)" in lines 3, 5 and 8.

p. 80, Eq(32) and p. 81, Eq(33): a factor of 1/2 is missing from the first terms on the RHS.

p. 84, l. 1: insert an equals sign after \delta \phi and before GM.

p. 85, Eq(52): the last term on the RHS of both lines should be subtracted, not added.

p. 95, Eq(95), first line: the middle term on the RHS should be V_p (\del \dot B_T).

p. 114, 2nd line above Eq(30): the argument t of F_ext shouldn't be bold.

p. 115, integral for W after (32): lower bound of the integral should be -/inf.

p. 116, Eq(37): again, lower bound of the integral is -infinity.
and the denominator of the RHS of the equation two lines below should be \omega (not v_phi).

p. 117, Eq(39): the argument of f^2 in the middle expression should be (z-v_A t) [not (x-v_A t0].

p. 119, 2nd para, 2nd line: the argument of the exponential needs parentheses to become: i(kx - omega t).

p. 120/121: in the para that spans those pages the word "median" should twice be substituted for "medium".

p. 121, last line: insert a minus sign before (k_z V_0/L).

p. 153, Eq(4): substitute a "dot" for a "hat" above \xi_0 on the RHS of the 2nd line.

p. 155, first l. of Eq(17) and line immediately following that eq: the lower bound of the integral should be -t_0 (not t_0).

p. 161, Eq(45): add right parenthesis between "Q" and "]"
p.161, Eq(46): add left parenthesis between "+" and "xi"

17 Sept: ERRATA IN CHAPTER 3 FOLLOW:

(This one is in Ch 1: p.3, Eq (1): Insert k_B before T in first radical)

p. 48, Eq(21): the first "A" should be in bold

p. 48, Eq(22): "dt" should not be in bold

p. 49, Eq(25): the X following E should be a +

p. 52, 2nd line after Eq(31): the unit is sec (delete ^{-1})

p. 52, 5th para, 2nd line: the subscript eV can be removed from 10^4

p. 52, 6th para, 9th line: the unit is ergs/cm^3

p. 60, Fig 3.7: note that D' is the distance between the slab and the plate

p. 60, 2nd para, 6th line: the expression should be: B_x \approx B_0 L/D'

p. 60, Eq(44): there should be a minus sign before the second quantity (V_x)
AND the last term is missing a factor of B_0

p. 67, Problem 3.1, for consistency, the V_A in the first expression should be v_A
AND B_0 should be followed by {\hat z} -- a unit vector along the z axis -- in the second expression.

Syllabus

Physics 8120 Syllabus as a Postscript file.
Physics 8120 Syllabus as a pdf file.

Assignments and Final Examination

Are no longer available.

Notes

Are no again temporarily available. Double spaces denote the beginning of new sections and words denote new subsections.
Most of the following are .jpg files, some are .gif.

Nature of Plasmas 1 page 2 page 3 page 4 page 5 page 6

Individual Particle Motions 7 page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12

Adiabatic Invariants 13 page 14 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 19

Bulk Plasma Behavior 20 page 21 page 22 page 23 page 24 page 25

MHD Approximation 26 page 27 page 28 page 29 page 30 page 31 page 32 page 33

Waves in Plasmas 34 page 35 page 36

Langmuir Oscillations 37 page 38 page 39 page 40 page 41

Plane Waves 42 page 43 page 44 page 45 page 46

Parallel to B 47 page 48 page 49 page 50

Perpendicular to B 51 page 52 page 53 page 54

Wave Generation 55 page 56 page 57 page 58

Plasma Stability 59 page 60 page 62 (there is no p. 61)