University of California San Diego, Department of Physics
Winter 2006 Physics 218B
Course Handouts

Course Syllabus

Course Outline

Texts and References

"Gravitational Resistive Instability of an Incompressible Plasma in a Sheard Magnetic Field", Roberts & Taylor

Problem Sets

Problem Set I

Problem Set II

Problem Set III

Problem Set IV

218B Background Notes:

Unit I - Basics of MHD: Theory and Applications

Unit II - Deriving MHD and Reduced MHD

Unit III - Linear and Nonlinear MHD Waves

Unit IV - MHD Stability I: Interchanges - Fluid and Kinetic, Magnetic Buoyancy Instability

Unit V - Kadomtsev on MHD Energy Principle - A "Must Read" Review

Unit VI - MHD Stability II: Macrostability: Sausage and Kink Modes in Pinches

Unit VII - MHD Stability III: Ideal and Resistive Interchanges in Sheared Magnetic Fields

Unit VIII - Magnetic Reconnection and the Resistive Tearing Mode

Unit IX - Particle Orbits, Adiabatic Invariants and an Introduction to Gyrokinetics

210B Background Notes:

Section 1: Kinetic Theory of Relaxation and Transport

Section 2: Theory of Fluctuations and Diffusive Random Walks

Section 3: Kinetic Equations I: Fokker-Planck Theory and Applications

Section 4: Kinetic Equations II: Theory of the Master Equation and Applications

Section 5: Kinetic Equations III: Projection Operator and Zwanzig-Mori Theory, with Applications to Slow Modes and Long-Time Tails

Section 6: Introduction to the Theory of First Order Phase Transitions (Special Topic)