Collisional Transport in Magnetized Plasmas

Collisional transport theory is of central importance to modern plasma physics. This book provides a self-contained treatment of the subject, starting from elementary concepts and developing the theory through to the research frontier. Basic tools of kinetic plasma theory, such as the drift kinetic equation and the Coulomb collision operator, are derived, and are then used to calculate classical and neoclassical transport occurring in high-temperature plasmas. Important phenomena such as neo-classical diffusion, bootstrap current, and plasma rotation are carefully explained. Students, theoreticians and experimentalists in both fusion and space plasma physics will benefit from this book, which emerged from a graduate student level course taught at MIT.

Author Biography

PER HELANDER is a research scientist at the Culham Science Centre of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. After obtaining his doctorate from Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden, he held a post-doctoral position at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he remains a regular visitor. His scientific interests include most topics of theoretical plasma physics, in particular kinetic theory. DIETER SIGMAR received his doctorate from the Technical University of Vienna where he is now a.o. Professor of Theoretical Physics. He has had a long career in the US Fusion Program, and is now retired from his position as head of the Plasma Theory Group at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, and Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.