Physics 218B | Winter 2018

Lecture Notes

This page was last updated 19 March 2018


Notes from Winter 2018

Lecture 1: Basic Equations, Alfven's Theorem, Freezing-inposted 18 January 2018

Lecture 2: Conservation Laws, Virial Theorem, Self-confinement and Collapseposted 18 January 2018

Lecture 3: Linear Waves in MHDposted 18 January 2018

Lecture 4: Reduced Modelsposted 29 January 2018

Lecture 5: Introduction to DNLS and Collisionless Shocksposted 29 January 2018

Lecture 6: Simple Ideas in Non-Ideal MHDposted 29 January 2018

Lecture 7: Non-Ideal MHD II — Flux Expulsion and Homogenizationposted 12 February 2018

Lecture 8: Magnetic Helicity, Taylor Relaxation, Mean Field Theoryposted 15 February 2018

Lecture 9: Notes on Wave Interactionsposted 22 February 2018

Lecture 10: MHD Turbulence Iposted 01 March 2018

Lecture 11: MHD Turbulence IIposted 05 March 2018

Lecture 12: Energy Principle and Ideal Instabilitiesposted 01 March 2018

Lecture 13: Introduction to Cosmic Ray Dynamicsposted 19 March 2018


Notes from Spring 2015

Lecture 1: Basics of MHD - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 2: Conservation Laws in MHD - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 3: Linear Waves in MHD - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 3a: Reduced MHD - posted 2 March 2015

Supplement-Reduced MHD - reposted 8 April 2015

Basics of Gas Dynamic and MHD Shocks - posted 13 April 2015

Lecture 4: Foundations of Wave Kinetics - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 5: Energy Principle and Stability - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 6: Simple Ideas in Non-Ideal MHD I - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 7: Non-Ideal MHD II - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 7a: Homogenization and Expulsion - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 8: Stochastic Magnetic Fields and Relaxation - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 9: A Very Brief Intro to Mean Field Electrodynamics - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 9a: Quasilinear Theory I - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 9b: Quasilinear Theory II - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 9c: See Chapter 3 for Quasilinear Theory Discussion - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 10: Nonlinear Waves, Shocks and Turbulence - An Introduction - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 10a: Nonlinear Waves - posted 2 March 2015

Lecture 10b: "Nonlinear Plasma" by "Wave Kinetics" - posted 2 March 2015


Supplementary Material

"Hydromagnetic Stability of a Plasmas" - B.B. Kadomtsev

"MHD Description of Plasma" - Russell M. Kulsrud

"The Variational Principle for Problems of Ideal Magnetohydrodynamic Stability" - Ira B. Bernstein

"Relaxation and Magnetic Reconnection in Plasmas"- J.B. Taylor

"On Steady Laminar Flow with Closed Streamlines at Large Reynolds Number" - G.K. Batchelor

"How Rapidly is a Passive Scalar Mixed Within Closed Streamlines?" - P.B. Rhines and W.R. Young

Electron Heat Transport in a Tokamak with Destroyed Magnetic Surfaces" - A.B. Rechester and M.N. Rosenbluth

A New Look at the Instability of a Stratified Horizontal Magnetic Field - D.W. Hughes and F. Cattaneo

Magnetic Buoyancy and the Boussinesq Approximation - E.A. Spiegel and N.O. Weiss

PV Homogenization - Peter B. Rhines and William R. Young

The Expulsion of Magnetic Flux by Eddies - N.O. Weiss

50 years of fusion research - Dale Meade

The Physics Basis of ITER Confinement - F. Wagner

Pseudo-three dimensional turbulence in magnetized nonuniform plasma - Akira Hasegawa and Kunioki Mima

A collisional drift wave description of plasma edge turbulence - Masahiro Wakatani and Akira Hasegawa

A quarter-century of H-mode studies - F. Wagner

Low Frequency Modes in Confined Plasmas - K. Itoh, S.-I. Itoh and A. Fukuyama

Turbulence in Toroidal Systems - B.B. Kadomtsev and O.P. Pogutse

Zonal Flows: From Wave Momentum and Potential Vorticity Mixing to Shearing Feedback Loops and Enhanced Confinement - P.H. Diamond

Zonal flows in plasma-a review" - P.H. Diamond, S.-I. Itoh, K. Itoh and T.S. Hahm

Vorticity dynamics, drift wave turbulence, and zonal flows: a look back and a look ahead - P.H. Diamond, A. Hasegawa and K. Mima

Eddy Motion in the Atmosphere - G.I. Taylor

Multiple Jets as PV Staircases: The Phillips Effect and the Resilience of Eddy-Transport Barriers - D.G. Dritschel and M.E. McIntyre

The General Circulation of the Atmosphere - Isaac M. Held and GFD/2000 Fellows

Gravitational Resistive Instability of an Incompressible Plasma in a Sheared Magnetic Field - K.V. Roberts and J.B. Taylor

High mode number stability of an axisymmetric toroidal plasma - J.W. Connor, R.J. Hastie and J.B. Taylor

Shear, Periodicity, and Plasma Ballooning Modes - J.W. Connor, R.J. Hastie, and J.B. Taylor

Nonlinear growth of the tearing mode - P.H. Rutherford

Intro to Mixing Length Theory - Douglas Gough; D.O. Gough and E.A. Spiegel

Reviews of Plasma Physics - B.B. Kadomtsev

Electron Magnetohydrodynamics - A.S. Kingsep, K.V. Chukbar, V.V. Yankov

From Reconnection to Relaxation: A Pedagogical Tale of Two Taylors - P.H. Diamond

Rayleigh-Taylor, Part 1

Rayleigh-Taylor, Part 2

Cooperative Phenomena and Shock Waves in Collisionless Shocks - R.Z. Sagdeev


Notes by Jiacong Li and P.H. Diamond - posted 06-25-15


Supplementary Material on Turbulence

Turbulence theory is a huge and vital subject. In 218B, we only scratch the surface. For additional reading, see below:

A) Fluid/Navier-Stokes Turbulence

i.) "Turbulence: The Legacy of A.N. Kolmogorov", - U. Frisch, C.U.P. - superb, short book

ii.) Kulsrud: 11.7, 11.8 - summary of basics

iii.) Diamond, Itoh, Itoh: 2.3 - summary of basics

iv.) Frisch, Sulem, Nelkin '78 - good basic OV of cascades and fractal intermittency. Accessible

A Simple Dynamically Model of Intermittent Fully Developed Turbulence - Uriel Frisch, Pierre-Louis Sulem and Mark Nelkin

v.) Falkovich, et al., 2001 - review of particle dispersion in turbulence. Difficult, but worth it.

Particles and Fields in Fluid Turbulence - G. Falkovich, K. Gawedzki and M. Vergassola

B) MHD Turbulence

i.) Kulsrud: 11.9 - basics

ii.) Diamond, Itoh, Itoh: 9.1, 9.2 - basics; 9.3 - steepening of Alfven waves

iii.) Goldreich, Sridhar '95, '97: basic papers. GS'97 is particularly accessible

Toward a Theory of Interstellar Turbulence II. Strong Alfvenic Turbulence - P. Goldreich and S. Sridhar

Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence Revisited - P. Goldreich and S. Sridhar

iv.) Pouquet, Frisch, Leorat '78: classic paper on strong MHD turbulence

Strong MHD Helical Turbulence and the Nonlinear Dynamo Effect - A. Pouquet, U. Frisch and J. Leorat

v.) Pouquet '78: classic paper on 2D MHD turbulence

On Two-Dimensional Magnetohydrodynamics Turbulence - A. Pouquet

vi.) Galtier, et al., 2000: technical but useful paper on wave interactions in MHD turbulence

A Weak Turbulence Theory for Incompressible Magnetohydrodynamics - S. Galtier, S.V. Nazarenko, A.C. Newell and A. Pouquet


Supplementary Material on the Energy Principle

    - Kulsrud, Chapter 7 - presents an introductory exposition of the Energy Princple.

Some additional material may be found at:

    - Rayleigh-Taylor notes I, II (posted)
    - Supplementary Notes on Energy Principle
    - Kadomtsev Review Article (posted)
    - Kulsrud Review Article (posted)
    - R.B. White, "Theory of Tokamak Plasmas", Chapter 4

For Kinetic Energy Principles:

    - Binney and Tremaine, Chapter 5: 5.2, 5.4
    - R. Kulsrud and J.W.-K. Mark, Ap. J. 160, 471 (1970)
    - J. Goodman, Ap. J. 329, 612 (1988)
    - M.D. Kruskal and C. Oberman, Phys. Fluids 1, 275 (1958)