The Framework Of Plasma Physics

Series: Frontiers in Physics

This book provides the scientific background for understanding the scientific and technological applications of plasma physics, but it emphasizes something else: the intrinsic scientific interest of the plasma state. It attempts to develop an understanding of this state, and of plasma behavior, as thoroughly and systematically as possible. Building its explanations from carefully identified physical laws, the book avoids the occasional tendency of plasma texts to present the subject in terms of a collection of ad hoc recipes. In particular, the book emphasizes the relation between the various conceptual tools used to describe plasma (such as MHD and the Vlasov equation) and their common origin in laws of nature.