Preface
1 Introduction
2 Characteristic parameters of a plasma
2.1 Number density and temperature
2.2 Debye length
2.3 Plasma frequency
2.4 Cyclotron frequency
2.5 Collision frequency
2.6 Number of electrons per Debye cube
2.7 The de Broglie wavelength and quantum effects
2.8 Representative plasma parameters
3 Single particle motions
3.1 Motion in a static uniform magnetic field
3.2 Motion in perpendicular electric and magnetic fields
3.3 Gradient and curvature drifts
3.4 Motion in a magnetic mirror field
3.5 Motion in a time varying magnetic field
3.6 Adiabatic invariants
3.7 The Hamiltonian method
3.8 Chaotic orbits
4 Waves in a cold plasma
4.1 Fourier representation of waves
4.2 General form of the dispersion relation
4.3 Waves in a cold uniform unmagnetized plasma
4.4 Waves in a cold uniform magnetized plasma
4.5 Ray paths in inhomogeneous plasmas
5 Kinetic theory and the moment equations
5.1 The distribution function
5.2 The Boltzmann and Vlasov equations
5.3 Solutions based on constants of the motion
5.4 The moment equations
5.5 Electron and ion pressure waves
5.6 Collisional drag force
5.7 Ambipolar diffusion
6 Magnetohydrodynamics
6.1 The basic equations of MHD
6.2 Magnetic pressure
6.3 Magnetic field convection and diffusion
6.4 The energy equation
6.5 Magnetohydrodynamic waves
6.6 Static MHD equilibrium
6.7 MHD stability
6.8 Magnetic reconnection
7 Discontinuities and shock waves
7.1 The MHDjump conditions
7.2 Classification of discontinuities
7.3 Shock waves
8 Electrostatic waves in a hot unmagnetized plasma
8.1 The Vlasov approach
8.2 The Landau approach
8.3 The plasma dispersion function
8.4 The dispersion relation for a multi-component plasma
8.5 Stability
9 Waves in a hot magnetized plasma
9.1 Linearization of the Vlasov equation
9.2 Electrostatic waves
9.3 Electromagnetic waves
10 Non-linear effects
10.1 Quasi-linear theory
10.2 Stationary non-linear electrostatic potentials
11 Collisional processes
11.1 Binary Coulomb collisions
11.2 Importance of small-angle collisions
11.3 The Fokker-Planck equation
11.4 Conductivity of a fully ionized plasma
11.5 Collision operator for Maxwellian distributions of electrons and ions
Appendix A Symbols
Appendix B Vector differential operators
Appendix C Vector calculus identities
Index
