Swedish Institute of Space Physics

Waves in Space Plasmas

by Anders Eriksson

The compendium "Waves in Space Plasmas" is an introduction aimed at advanced physics undergraduate students, written by Anders Eriksson and used in different versions for Space Physics courses at Uppsala university since 1990. The emphasis is on the basic physics, following the philosophy that an application to some space phenomenon should follow immediately on the introduction of a new theroretical concept. Dispersion relations are regarded as tools for understanding, not as the endpoint of analysis (though quite a large fraction of the 239 equations are devoted to their derivation). There is almost no kinetic theory, and waves in magnetized plasmas are treated in the ideal MHD description only. There are 26 figures (very artistic, I must say) and 29 problems.

The present version 0.7.3 is dated April 21, 2004, differing from previous version 0.7.2 only in corrections to two of the problems. Thanks to all who have pointed out errors in this and previous versions, particularly to Daniel Söderström and Alessandro Retino. Any further comments and error reports are most welcome. If you use the compendium, I would be happy for a mail telling me, as it is much nicer to work on the text when you know somebody is using it.

Numbers: 5 chapters, 54 pages, 26 figures, 29 problems, 239 equations

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http://www.space.irfu.se/waves
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Latest update 2004-04-21