Kosmická elektrodynamika (NAST008)

Pracovní verze skript/Textbook (being updated continuously)

Recordings from the lectures in winter semester 2024/2025...

... which will be made public for the enrolled students always after the corresponding lecture.

Introduction to statistical physics I

N-particle system and its state; phase space; Liouville's theorem; statistical description of the system; distribution function; Liouvelle's equation; reduced distribution functions; Boltzmann equation (to be continued).

Recording (3-Oct-2024):

Introduction to statistical physics II

Boltzmann equation (collision term, Vlasov approximation); BBGKY hierarchy; velocity moments of the Boltzmann equation, bulk quantities; hydrodynamic equations: equation of continuity, Euler equation, energy-balance equation; closing the equation set, approximations of fluid properties.

Recording (10-Oct-2024):

Introduction to statistical physics III

Thermodynamical equilibria; maximal-entropy principle, contraints; partition functions (state sums); statistical ensembles; Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution, Saha's equation

Recording (17-Oct-2024):

Plasma and drift-description approach

Plasma: the concept of quasineutrality and collective behaviour. Debye shielding. Criteria for plasmas. Examples for the drift description: motion of a testing particle in the homogeneous magnetic field, E-B drift, grad-B drift.

Recording (24-Oct-2024):

Drift-description approach (continued)

Drifts in the curved magnetic field. General description of the motion of the gyration centre.

Recording (31-Oct-2024):

Drift-description approach (continued)

General description of the motion of the gyration centre (continued). Magnetic mirrors, magnetic moment and its conservation. Loss cone. Adiabatic invariant (general approach). First, second, and third adiabatic invariants in plasmas.

Recording (07-Nov-2024):

van Allen belts, fluid approximation for plasmas (to be continued...)

Qualitative description of the van Allen belts, trapped particles in the axisymmetric magnetic field and their permitted trajectories. Double-fluid model for plasmas. Specific resistivity, collisions in the highly ionised plasmas.

Recording (14-Nov-2024):

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