| Individual course details | ||||||||||
| Study programme | Theoretical and experimental physics | |||||||||
| Chosen research area (module) | ||||||||||
| Nature and level of studies | Undergraduate studies | |||||||||
| Name of the course | Theoretical Plasma Physics | |||||||||
| Professor (lectures) | Assoc. Prof. Dr Đorđe Spasojević | |||||||||
| Professor/associate (examples/practical) | PhD student: Aleksandra Dimić | |||||||||
| Professor/associate (additional) | ||||||||||
| ECTS | 6 | Status (required/elective) | Optional | |||||||
| Access requirements | Electrodynamics, Atomic Physics, Statistical Physics | |||||||||
| Aims of the course | To introduce students to the fundamental concepts in theoretical plasma physics | |||||||||
| Learning outcomes | Qualification for independent research | |||||||||
| Contents of the course | ||||||||||
| Lectures | 1. Definition of plasma state of matter; plasma parameters and types of plasmas. 2. Criteria for plasma state. 3. Ionization and recombination processes in plasma. 4. Thermodynamic equilibrium of plasma; degree of ionization; criteria for weak and strong ionization. 5. Debye shielding. 6. Weakly nonideal plasma and its thermodynamic functions. 7. Saha equation. 8. Collisional processes in plasma: Rutherford scattering, Ramsauer cross section, Spitzer-Harm formulas. 9. Kinetic method for plasma dynamics: single-particle distribution functions and kinetic equations. 10. Entropy of irreversible processes. 11. Continuity equation and equation of motion. 12. Equation of energy balance. 13. Collision integrals and their fundamental properties. 14. Most important types of single-particle distribution functions. 15. Ferraro and BGK approximation. 16. Boltzmann collision integral. 17. Vlasov equations; entropy and irreversibility. 18. Bogolyubov formalism and BBGKY hierarchy. 19. Klimontovich formalism. 20. Kinetic equations with Fokker-Planck collision integral. 21. Landau collision integral. 22. Method of small perturbations; fundamentals of electromagnetic wave propagation in plasmas. 23. Complex tensor of plasma conductivity and complex tensor of plasma permeability; approximate solution for weakly damped modes and for weakly growing modes. 24. Application of multi-fluid models in the study of wave-propagation in cold and in high-temperature isotropic plasma. 25. Kinetic theory of wave-propagation in plasma; Landau amortization. 26. Hydrodynamic theory of wave propagation in cold magnetoactive plasma; complex tensor of permeability and dispersion equation; direct waves in plasma with a single type of ions; dispersion equation at low frequencies. 27. Magnetohydrodynamic waves in cold magnetoactive plasma. 28. Plasma in nature and in laboratory. 29. Thermonuclear reactions; basic problems of controlled nuclear fusion. 30. Application of theoretical models in plasma spectroscopy. 31. Fundamentals of plasma surface interaction. | |||||||||
| Examples/ practical classes | Examples; exercises (homework) | |||||||||
| Recommended books | ||||||||||
| 1 | Božidar Milić, Osnove fizike gasne plazme (Građevinska knjiga, Beograd, 1989) | |||||||||
| 2 | Božidar Milić, Statistička fizika (Naučna knjiga, Beograd, 1970) | |||||||||
| 3 | F.F. Chen, Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (Springer, 2006). | |||||||||
| 4 | P. M. Bellan, Fundamentals of Plasma Physics (Cambridge, 2008) | |||||||||
| 5 | T. J. M. Boyd and J.J. Sanderson, The Physics of Plasmas (Cambridge, 2003) | |||||||||
| Number of classes (weekly) | ||||||||||
| Lectures | Examples&practicals | Student project | Additional | |||||||
| 3 | 2 | |||||||||
| Teaching and learning methods | Lectures (theory and examples), exercises (homework), seminar. | |||||||||
| Assessment (maximal 100) | ||||||||||
| assesed coursework | mark | examination | mark | |||||||
| coursework | 10 | written examination | 35 | |||||||
| practicals | 10 | oral examination | 35 | |||||||
| papers | ||||||||||
| presentations | 10 | |||||||||