Module Identifier PH48510  
Module Title PLASMA AND SPACE PHYSICS  
Academic Year 2000/2001  
Co-ordinator Dr Eleri Pryse  
Semester Semester 1  
Other staff Dr Andrew Breen, Professor Leonard Kersley  
Pre-Requisite Successful Completion of Year 3 of the MPhys Scheme  
Course delivery Lecture   20 lectures  
Assessment Exam   End of Semester Examinations   100%  

Module description
The core of the course will cover the essentials of plasma physics, including the nature of a plasma, motion of single charged particles in a magnetic field, magnetohydrodynamics, waves in plasma, and instabilities. The theory will be illustrated by examples from interplanetary space and the magnetosphere.

Learning outcomes
After taking this module students should be able to:

Outline syllabus
Occurrence of plasmas, temperature of a plasma, Debye shielding, plasma oscillations.

Motion of a single charged particle in
(a) a homogenous magnetic field; gyro-radius and frequency.
(b) a converging magnetic field; magnetic mirror.
(c) an inhomogenous magnetic field; drift motion.
(d) a magnetic field with a perpendicular electric field.

Magnetohydrodynamics: Maxwell's equations applied to a plasma; diffusion time of magnetic field in a plasma; "frozen-in" fields, magnetic Reynold's number.

Waves in a plasma: electron plasma waves, ion-acoustic waves, MHD waves, shear Alfven waves, fast-mode (compressional) waves.

Types of instability, two-stream instability (simple "doppler-shift" treatment), Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (qualitative treatment).

Reading Lists
Books
** Reference Text
Francis F Chen. Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion.
Kivelson M G and Russell C T. Introduction to Space Physics.