Magnetic Reconnection in Plasmas: 3 (Cambridge Monographs on Plasma Physics, Series Number 3)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Revised ed., 8/21/2008
EAN 9780521020367, ISBN10: 0521020360
Paperback, 404 pages, 24.4 x 17 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This book, first published in 2000, provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory of magnetic field line reconnection, now a major subject in plasma physics. The book focuses on the various reconnection mechanisms dominating magnetic processes under the different plasma conditions encountered in astrophysical systems and in laboratory fusion devices. The book consists of two major parts: the first deals with the classical resistive approach, while the second presents an overview of weakly collisional or collisionless plasmas. Applications primarily concern astrophysical phenomena and dynamo theory, with emphasis on the solar and geodynamo, as well as magnetospheric substorms, the most spectacular reconnection events in the magnetospheric plasma. The theoretical procedures and results also apply directly to reconnection processes in laboratory plasmas, in particular the sawtooth phenomenon in tokamaks. The book will be of value to graduate students and researchers interested in magnetic processes both in astrophysical and laboratory plasma physics.
1. Introduction
2. Basic kinematic concepts
3. Current sheets
4. Resistive instabilities
5. Dynamo theory
6. Noncollisional reconnection processes
7. Microscopic theory of magnetic reconnection
8. Magnetospheric substorms.