PH-613 Plasma Physics-I

  1. Relation between fluid equations and guiding center drifts, diamagnetic drift in uniform and non-uniform magnetic fields, polarization current in the fluid model and parallel pressure balance.
  2. Single fluid magnetohydrodynamic equations, quasi-neutrality approximation, small Larmor radius approximation, approximation of infinite conductivity of plasma, conservation of magnetic flux and energy, MHD equilibrium, magnetic pressure: the concept of plasma beta, the cylindrical pinch: the cylindrical tokamak.
  3. Diffusion in fully and partially ionized plasmas, diffusion as a random walk, the diffusion equation, steady state solutions, diffusion across a magnetic field, diffusion in fully ionized plasma, Bohm diffusion and solution of diffusion equation.
  4. Classification of instabilities, two-streaming instability, the Rayleigh-Taylor and flute instabilities, the gravitational R-T instability, physical mechanisms of R-T instability, Flute instability due to field curvature, MHD stability of the tokamak.
  5. Kinetic theory of plasmas, the need for a kinetic theory, the particle distribution function, the Boltzmann-Vlasov equation, the Vlasov-Maxwell equations, kinetic effects on plasma waves: Vlasov’s treatment, the linearized Valsov equation for electrostatic perturbations, time asymptotic solutions, simplified derivation for electrostatic waves for Maxwellian and nonMaxwellian plasmas: Langmuir waves, ion-sound waves and Landau damping.  
                         
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