Physics / research
Kinetic waves, damping, and plasma transport
Connect distribution-function dynamics to plasma waves, resonances, collisions, and transport while distinguishing linear theory from nonlinear saturation.
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Module 01 research
Kinetic waves, damping, and plasma transport
Connect distribution-function dynamics to plasma waves, resonances, collisions, and transport while distinguishing linear theory from nonlinear saturation.
- 01
Vlasov–Poisson as an initial-value problem
Normalize a velocity distribution, specify consistent electrostatic initial data, and distinguish characteristic transport from a fluid closure.
36 min - 02
Plasma dielectric function and dispersion
Derive longitudinal kinetic response with explicit distribution normalization and obtain cold and high-phase-speed Maxwellian limits.
36 min - 03
Landau contours and collisionless damping
Connect causal initial data to the resonant contour, determine the damping sign, and distinguish phase mixing from irreversible collisional heating.
36 min - 04
Ion-acoustic waves and electron response
Combine fast electron shielding with ion inertia, derive finite-Debye-length dispersion, and state when kinetic damping invalidates an acoustic fluid picture.
36 min - 05
Two-stream and bump-on-tail instabilities
Derive an exact cold two-beam instability band and distinguish reactive coupling from resonant growth driven by a positive velocity-space slope.
36 min - 06
Cyclotron resonances and magnetized waves
Track signed cyclotron frequencies and harmonic resonances, then distinguish polarization selection and finite-Larmor-radius response from an unmagnetized slope rule.
36 min - 07
Coulomb collision operators
Understand the grazing-collision Landau operator, conservation across species, entropy production, and the limits of fixed-bath relaxation models.
36 min - 08
Classical and neoclassical plasma transport
Compare collision-induced steps along and across a magnetic field, then derive the geometric enhancement and ordering of banana-regime transport.
36 min - 09
Quasilinear diffusion and particle trapping
Contrast incoherent resonant diffusion with coherent wave trapping and calculate the amplitude-dependent scale at which linear resonance dynamics can fail.
36 min - 10
Gyrokinetic ordering and turbulent transport
Use scale separation to remove fast gyrophase while retaining kinetic resonances, finite orbit averaging, and the fluctuation correlations that drive transport.
36 min