Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion [Paperback]

This complete introduction to plasma physics and controlled fusion by one of the pioneering scientists in this expanding field offers both a simple and intuitive discussion of the basic concepts of this subject and an insight into the challenging problems of current research. In a wholly lucid manner the work covers single-particle motions, fluid equations for plasmas, wave motions, diffusion and resistivity, Landau damping, plasma instabilities and nonlinear problems. For students, this outstanding text offers a painless introduction to this important field; for teachers, a large collection of problems; and for researchers, a concise review of the fundamentals as well as original treatments of a number of topics never before explained so clearly. This revised edition contains new material on kinetic effects, including Bernstein waves and the plasma dispersion function, and on nonlinear wave equations and solitons. For the third edition, updates was made throughout each existing chapter, and two new chapters were added; Ch 9 on Special Plasmas and Ch 10 on Plasma Applications (including Atmospheric Plasmas). Introduction.- Single-particle motions.- Plasmas as fluids.- Waves in plasmas.- Diffusion and resistivity.- Equilibrium and stability.- Kinetic theory .- Nonlinear effects.- Special plasmas.- Plasma applications.Francis F. Chen, known as Frank in the physics community, got his B.A. from Harvard Observatory in 1950. His all-star oral committee consisted of famous astronomers Harlow Shapley, Bart J. Bok, Donald Menzel, and Earl Whipple. With pulsars and quasars still undiscovered, he switched to High Energy Physics, receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1954. He had been sent by his adviser, Nobelist Norman Ramsey, to Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he worked on the Cosmotron and wrote the first experimental thesis for energies at or above 1 GeV. To avoid the Korean War draft, he then went to work for the astronomer Lyman Spitzer, Jr., who had just lS.