Plasma physics course
Course NS-CP430M
Utrecht University (masters level) periods 1 and 2, 2009-2010
Thursdays, 9:00-10:45, room OL-260
Lecture notes introductory plasma physics
News
Thu, Jan 21, 2010
Oral exam information
Study guide of topics required for the exam.
Thu, Jan 21, 2010
Lecture notes and exercises
| topic | exercise | solution |
|---|---|---|
| Fusion energy slides, article | exercise | solution |
| Tokamak equilibirum particle orbits and MHD equilibrium | exercise | solution |
| Tokamak transport slides, article | exercise | analytical and numerical | solution
| Industrial plasma slides | exercise | solution |
| Plasma chemistry slides | ||
| Dusty plasma slides, PhDthesis | exercise | solution |
| Plasma Astrophysics slides |
Tue, Jan 12, 2010
Exercise due 14 January
You are invited to hand in the exercise on magnetic islands (distributed on 16/12/2010) on January 14.
Tue, Jan 12, 2010
Particle orbits in toroidal systems
In addition to Chapter 3 of the lecture notes, in class charged particle orbits in toroidal magnetic confinement was treated. The material is covered by this text . (Also uploaded to Blackboard)
Fri, Nov 20, 2009
Solutions of the midterm exam of November 2
Questions and solutions are given in midtermexam.pdf.
The numerical calculations can be found in this Mathematica notebook (change file-extension to ".nb").
and its pdf-image.
Fri, Oct 23, 2009
Extra lecture about exercises Monday 26 October
Extra lecture about exercises will take place on Monday 26 October , 13:15 -..., in OL260
Tue, Oct 6, 2009
Midterm exam: November 2
The written exam Plasma Physics will take place on November 2, 14:00 - 17:00, in BBL 426
Tue, Oct 27, 2009
Schedule of exercises
| exercise | hand in by: | solution |
|---|---|---|
| exercise 1 | September 17 | solution and more (pdf of Mathematica notebook) |
| solution 1 cde(pdf) | ||
| exercise 2 | September 24 | solution 2 |
| exercise 3 | October 8 | |
| exercise 4 | October 15 | solution 4 |
| exercise DC/RF discharges | October 22 | solution DC/RF discharges and lecture notes |
| exercises 5, 6 | October 29 | |
| midterm exam 2008 | - |
Fri, Oct 9, 2009
Exercise 4- Hand in by October 15
The 5th lecture (October 8) treated collisionless vs. collisional and isothermal vs. adiabatic processes (covering part of exercise 3).
A start was made with Chapter 6: Using the kinetic (Boltzmann) equation to construct a (multi-)fluid plasma model from individual particle motion (sections 6.1, 6.2, 6.3).
Exercise 4 refers back to Chapter 3.
Fri, Oct 2, 2009
Exercise 3- Hand in by October 8
The 4th lecture (October 1) treated diamagnetic currents, fluid equations for particle-, momentum-, and energy-conservation. See Chapter 4 and of the lecture notes
As an introduction to Chapter 5 in the lecture notes (waves in unmagnetized plasma), the derivation of sound waves in an ordinary ideal gas was treated. Chapters 4 and 5 contain all information to make Exercise 3.
Thu, Sep 17, 2009
Exercise 2- Hand in by September 24
The 2nd lecture (September 17) treated charged particle orbits in electric and magnetic fields, guiding center motion, drift velocity, inhomogeneous fields, magnetic mirror, see Chapter 3 of the lecture notes
. This chapter contains all information to make Exercise 2.
Thu, Sep 10, 2009
Exercise 1- Hand in by September 17
The 1st lecture (September 10) treated the definition of a plasma, ideal plasma, plasma parameters, debye shielding, plasma frequency, and the basics of Coulomb scattering, see Chapters 1 and 2 of the lecture notes
These chapters contain all information to make Exercise 1.
Here is the general introduction of the course in pdf and powerpoint formats.
Wed, Aug 26, 2009
FIRST LECTURE 10 SEPTEMBER !!!
The date of the first plasma physics lecture is shifted one week: from September 3 to September 10
on 9:00-10:45 in room OL-260 (Ornstein Lab)
Mon, Aug 3, 2009
First lecture 3 September
The first plasma physics lecture will be on Thursday, September 3
on 9:00-10:45 in room OL-260 (Ornstein Lab)
Old messages
Wed, Jan 7, 2009
Copies of lecture notes last year
Copies of the lectures on Plasma diagnostics and Industrial plasmas can be found here:diagnostics, industrial plasmas.
Additional reading on industrial plasmas is available in these old plasma chemistry lecture notes, in particular chapter 6 on etching and deposition.
The excursion is planned for Monday January 19. You are expected at the FOM Institute Rijnhuizen at 14:00 h. Details on how to get there will be posted soon.
Copies of the lectures on Tokamak Transport, Dusty plasmas, and Astrophysical Plasmas can be found here:Tokamak Transport, DustyPlasmas, AstroPlasmas.
For additional reading Prof. Keppens refers to the book of Goedbloed, sections 4.1, 8.2 and 8.4. You can find a link to the homepage of Goedbloed with details about the book on the Rijnhuizen-CPP webpage, under "education". There will no doubt be a copy in the library.
The lecture notes on "energy from controlled nuclear fusion" are available here. Additional reading can be found in the following articles on burn criteria, energy scenarios, and fusion machines
Fri, Aug 22, 2008
Second part lecture course
For the second trimester of the plasma physics course, a number of choices are possible. As an illustration, some of last year's lecture notes are listed here.
Options 2nd half of the course.
- Plasma chemistry (prof W Goedheer)
Also includes DC discharges, radio-frequent discharges, plasma-surface interactions.
(Handout notes)
Dusty plasmas.
Industrial plasmas. - High-temperature plasma theory (dr HJ de Blank)
Theory of high-temperature laboratory and astrophysical plasmas, with emphasis on the role of magnetic fields. Material includes the magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) model and MHD equilibrium of toroidal plasmas and particle orbits in toroidal plasmas. - Fusion physics (prof W Goedheer / dr HJ de Blank)
Lectures on magnetic confinement, nuclear fusion experiments and plasma measurement techniques:
Plasma diagnostics.
Transport in fusion plasmas.
plasma surface interaction in fusion devices.
Energy from fusion.
Older slides:
Requirem_FusionReact.pdf,
Tokamak_System1.pdf,
Tokamak_System2.pdf,
Tokamak_System3a.pdf,
Tokamak_System3b.pdf,
Tokamak_System4.pdf,
Further downloads
- The 2006 NRL Plasma Formulary in PDF format. Print double-sided to make an A6-sized booklet. The original can be found here.
- Lecture notes by H.J. de Blank at the 2007 Carolus Magnus plasma physics summer school (graduate student level). The 2005 notes were published in Transactions of fusion science and technology 49, 2T (2006) 59, 111, 118.
Notes and slides `Guiding center motion'
Notes and slides `Plasma equilibrium in tokamaks'
Notes and slides `MHD instabilities in tokamaks' - Extra reading: R.R. Weynant's lecture on the different approaches to fusion machines given at the 2003 Carolus Magnus plasma physics summer school, published in Transactions of fusion science and technology 45, 2T (2004) 57-63.
- More summer school lectures can be downloaded from their website (click on "papers")
Links
Web links about plasma physics and nuclear fusion can be found on a separate links page.
For further information please contact Hugo de Blank
H [dot] J [dot] deBlank [te] Rijnhuizen [dot] nl