Course syllabus

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Course-PM

RRY085 RRY085 Plasma physics with applications lp1 HT24 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Space, Earth and Environment

Contact details

Examiner

Pär Strand, ED4433, par.strand@chalmers.se 

Teachers

Dmitriy Yadykin, ED4412, dimitriy.yadykin@chalmers.se  

Johan Anderson, ED4437, johan.anderson@chalmers.se

Pär Strand, ED4433, par.strand@chalmers.se 

Course purpose

The course aims at developing a physical understanding for the characteristic properties of plasmas, including how they can be created and where they appear. An important part of the course is to illustrate plasma physics concepts and phenomena by considering applications ranging from fusion energy generation to space physics and astrophysics.

Schedule

TimeEdit

Course literature

The course is largely based on the book Basic Plasma Physics, Theory and Applications by Anderson et al. that closely follows the Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion by F. F. Chen, but it is more detailed. It will be handed out free of charge and uploaded to the course website in PDF format. Additional material (lecture notes and slides, book references, etc.) will be handed out during the lectures and published online.

Course design

Lectures

Lectures Mondays 13:15 – 15:00  and Thursdays 10:00 – 11:45 (mostly lecture hall ES52)

Content

  • Introduction: Definition, generation, classification and occurrence of plasmas
  • Plasma descriptions: Single particle motion, kinetic models, fluid models
  • Magnetohydrodynamics: equilibrium, stability and waves
  • Waves in plasmas and Landau damping
  • Coulomb collisions and resistivity
  • Diffusive transport
  • Nuclear fusion
  • Turbulent transport

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

- understand the basic, distinguishing features of plasmas and explain how the plasma state is quantitatively defined in terms of those properties.

- explain the differences between and similarities among the various plasma descriptions presented during the lectures, gain knowledge on what model to apply for a specific problem and roughly estimate their respective validity ranges.
- derive the motion of a single particle in a static and uniform electromagnetic field.
- understand and describe single particle motion in inhomogeneous, temporally varying fields.
- understand the physics underlying Liouville's theorem and explain how it leads to the Vlasov and Boltzmann equations.
- briefly summarize how a fluid model may be constructed from kinetic theory.
- illustrate how to construct a one-fluid model, such as e.g. MHD, from a two-fluid description.
- understand the general mathematical approach used to describe linear plasma waves and apply those methods to new systems (not covered during the lectures).
- derive and interpret plasma wave dispersion relations for the plasma waves covered in the course.
- summarize the physics content of various limits (e.g. high/low frequency limits) of dispersion relations.
- understand the basic mechanism of particle diffusion and what effects it leads to.
- pinpoint the difference between free diffusion, ambipolar diffusion and diffusion in magnetic fields, and explain how to introduce the relevant terms in the one- and two-fluid equations.
- understand how the MHD set of equations are used to determine equilibria and assess stability.
- analyze simple MHD equilibria and stability problems.
- discuss fusion reactions semi-classically in terms of concepts such as cross section, Coulomb and nuclear potentials, energy balance etc.
- understand and recite the reaction chains and the plasma confinement in our Sun.
- discuss and contrast various paths towards controlled fusion energy on Earth.
- describe some typical magnetic confinement devices in terms of geometry, magnetic field structure, stability and technology (e.g. heating and diagnostic systems).
- discuss the various particle orbits in a tokamak and explain the need for a magnetic field twist.
- understand the importance of the fusion triple product and derive the reaction power balance condition.

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

Examination form

The following scheme is applied:

  1. Written exam at the end of the course with total 50 points. To pass the exam (grade 3), 40% of the maximum points is required. Grade 4 requires 60% and grade 5 requires 80%, of the maximum points.

   2. Assignments will be issued during the course that could provide additional points added to the exam results (75% or above of the solved assignments will give 5 bonus points, 50% will give 3 points, 30% will give 1 point ).   Assignments will be issued each second week on Thursday after the Lecture and should be completed till the next Thursday (24:00 CET)

   3. The following  aids are permitted during the exam: 

  • Formulas (one A4 page self written by the student)
  • Chalmers approved calculator
  •  Beta, physics handbook

Course summary:

Date Details Due