The book provides an extensive theoretical treatment of whistler-mode propagation, instabilities and damping in a hot, anisotropic and collisionless plasma. Most of the results are original and have never been published in a monograph on a similar subject before.
Kappa Distributions: Theory and Applications in Plasmas presents the theoretical developments of kappa distributions, their applications in plasmas, and how they affect the underpinnings of our understanding of space and plasma physics, astrophysics, and statistical mechanics/thermodynamics. Separated into three major parts, the book covers theoretical methods, analytical methods in plasmas, and applications in space plasmas. The first part of the book focuses on basic aspects of the statistical theory of kappa distributions, beginning with their connection to the solid backgrounds of non-extensive statistical mechanics. The book then moves on to plasma physics, and is devoted to analytical methods related to kappa distributions on various basic plasma topics, spanning linear/nonlinear plasma waves, solitons, shockwaves, and dusty plasmas. The final part of the book deals with applications in space plasmas, focusing on applications of theoretical and analytical developments in space plasmas from the heliosphere and beyond, in other astrophysical plasmas. Kappa Distributions is ideal for space, plasma, and statistical physicists; geophysicists, especially of the upper atmosphere; Earth and planetary scientists; and astrophysicists. - Answers important questions, such as how plasma waves are affected by kappa distributions and how solar wind, magnetospheres, and other geophysical, space, and astrophysical plasmas can be modeled using kappa distributions - Presents the features of kappa distributions in the context of plasmas, including how kappa indices, temperatures, and densities vary among the species populations in different plasmas - Provides readers with the information they need to decide which specific formula of kappa distribution should be used for a certain occasion and system (toolbox)
This book presents recent results on the modelling of space plasmas with Kappa distributions and their interpretation. Hot and dilute space plasmas most often do not reach thermal equilibrium, their dynamics being essentially conditioned by the kinetic effects of plasma particles, i.e., electrons, protons, and heavier ions. Deviations from thermal equilibrium shown by these plasma particles are often described by Kappa distributions. Although well-known, these distributions are still controversial in achieving a statistical characterization and a physical interpretation of non-equilibrium plasmas. The results of the Kappa modelling presented here mark a significant progress with respect to all these aspects and open perspectives to understanding the high-resolution data collected by the new generation of telescopes and spacecraft missions. The book is directed to the large community of plasma astrophysics, including graduate students and specialists from associated disciplines, given the palette of the proposed topics reaching from applications to the solar atmosphere and the solar wind, via linear and quasilinear modelling of multi-species plasmas and waves within, to the fundamental physics of nonequilibrium plasmas.
Reviews of Plasma Physics, Volume 23, presents two high quality reviews from the cutting-edge of Russian plasma physics research: "Plasma Models of Atom and Radiative-Collisional Processes", by V.A. Astapenko, L.A. Bureyeva, V.S. Lisitsa, is devoted to a unified description of the atomic core polarization effects in the free-free, free-bound and bound-bound transitions of the charged particles in the field of multielectron atom. "Asymptotic Theory of Charge Exchange And Mobility Processes for Atomic Ions" by B.M. Smirnov reviews the process of resonant charge exchange, and also the transport processes (mobility and diffusion coefficients) for ions in parent gases which are determined by resonant electron transfer.
Low-frequency waves in space plasmas have been studied for several decades, and our knowledge gain has been incremental with several paradigm-changing leaps forward. In our solar system, such waves occur in the ionospheres and magnetospheres of planets, and around our Moon. They occur in the solar wind, and more recently, they have been confirmed in the Sun’s atmosphere as well. The goal of wave research is to understand their generation, their propagation, and their interaction with the surrounding plasma. Low-frequency Waves in Space Plasmas presents a concise and authoritative up-to-date look on where wave research stands: What have we learned in the last decade? What are unanswered questions? While in the past waves in different astrophysical plasmas have been largely treated in separate books, the unique feature of this monograph is that it covers waves in many plasma regions, including: Waves in geospace, including ionosphere and magnetosphere Waves in planetary magnetospheres Waves at the Moon Waves in the solar wind Waves in the solar atmosphere Because of the breadth of topics covered, this volume should appeal to a broad community of space scientists and students, and it should also be of interest to astronomers/astrophysicists who are studying space plasmas beyond our Solar System.
TO THE SECOND EDITION In the nine years since this book was first written, rapid progress has been made scientifically in nuclear fusion, space physics, and nonlinear plasma theory. At the same time, the energy shortage on the one hand and the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn on the other have increased the national awareness of the important applications of plasma physics to energy production and to the understanding of our space environment. In magnetic confinement fusion, this period has seen the attainment 13 of a Lawson number nTE of 2 x 10 cm -3 sec in the Alcator tokamaks at MIT; neutral-beam heating of the PL T tokamak at Princeton to KTi = 6. 5 keV; increase of average ß to 3%-5% in tokamaks at Oak Ridge and General Atomic; and the stabilization of mirror-confined plasmas at Livermore, together with injection of ion current to near field-reversal conditions in the 2XIIß device. Invention of the tandem mirror has given magnetic confinement a new and exciting dimension. New ideas have emerged, such as the compact torus, surface-field devices, and the EßT mirror-torus hybrid, and some old ideas, such as the stellarator and the reversed-field pinch, have been revived. Radiofrequency heat ing has become a new star with its promise of dc current drive. Perhaps most importantly, great progress has been made in the understanding of the MHD behavior of toroidal plasmas: tearing modes, magnetic Vll Vlll islands, and disruptions.
This textbook begins with a description of the Earth's plasma environment, followed by the derivation of single particle motions in electromagnetic fields, with applications to the Earth's magnetosphere. Also discussed are the origin and effects of collisions and conductivities, formation of the ionosphere, magnetospheric convection and dynamics, and solar wind-magnetosphere coupling.The second half of the book presents a more theoretical foundation of plasma physics, starting with kinetic theory. Introducing moments of distribution function permits the derivation of the fluid equations, followed by an analysis of fluid boundaries, with the Earth's magnetopause and bow shock as examples, and finally, fluid and kinetic theory are applied to derive the relevant wave modes in a plasma.This revised edition seamlessly integrates new sections on magnetopause reconstruction, as well as instability theory and thermal fluctuations based on new developments in space physics. Applications such as the important problems of collisionless reconnection and collisionless shocks are covered, and some problems have also been included at the end of each chapter.