--- title: Plasma Physics description: Plasma physics studies ionized gases and the collective behaviour of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields. You will understand plasma confinement, waves and instabilities, and the diagnostics used in fusion energy research and astrophysical plasmas. category: sciences subcategory: physics difficulty: intermediate, advanced url: /subject/plasma-physics --- # Plasma Physics Plasma physics studies ionized gases and the collective behaviour of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields. You will understand plasma confinement, waves and instabilities, and the diagnostics used in fusion energy research and astrophysical plasmas. ## Where to start Start with the PPPL SULI Introductory Course in Plasma Physics, a free week of recorded lectures from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory on fusion basics, waves, tokamaks and stellarators. If you only use one resource, make it Francis F. Chen's Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, a paid textbook and the standard first course. For graduate depth, continue with Richard Fitzpatrick's free Plasma Physics: Graduate Lecture Notes. ## Available Resources 2 Books • 5 Courses ## Courses ### 1. Principles of Plasma Diagnostics (MIT 22.67J) **Author:** Jack D. Hare The physical principles behind measuring plasma properties in fusion and high-energy-density plasmas: magnetic and electric probes, particle flux, interferometry and refractive index, emission and scattering of electromagnetic waves, and nuclear diagnostics. 23 lecture videos, problem sets and supplemental exam materials. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/22-67j-principles-of-plasma-diagnostics-fall-2023/ **Tags:** plasma-diagnostics, plasma-physics, interferometry, thomson-scattering, fusion-energy ### 2. PPPL SULI Introductory Course in Plasma Physics A week of recorded lectures and slides from PPPL's summer course for undergraduate interns: fusion basics, waves, tokamaks and stellarators, turbulence, plasma-material interaction and laboratory astrophysics, taught by working national-lab researchers. Gives the physical and experimental orientation pure theory notes omit, from the lab that runs the machines. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://suli.pppl.gov/2025/course/ **Tags:** fusion, tokamak, stellarator, plasma-waves, lecture-series ### 3. Lecture Notes on Introduction to Plasma Astrophysics (AST521) **Author:** Matthew W. Kunz Princeton AST521 notes, 216 pages, running from Debye shielding and single-particle motion through Vlasov theory, ideal and non-ideal MHD, shocks, reconnection and magnetokinetics. Readers gain the framework used for accretion discs and the solar wind. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.astro.princeton.edu/~kunz/Site/AST521/AST521_lecture_notes_Kunz.pdf **Tags:** plasma-astrophysics, mhd, vlasov-theory, magnetic-reconnection, lecture-notes ### 4. Kinetic Theory and Plasma Kinetics (Oxford MMathPhys) **Author:** Alexander Schekochihin, Paul Dellar, Robert Ewart Oxford master's course pages with typed notes, problem sets and solutions on Vlasov-Maxwell kinetics, Landau damping, quasilinear theory, collision operators and resistive MHD. Working the problems gives derivation-level command of collisionless and collisional plasma theory. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www-thphys.physics.ox.ac.uk/people/AlexanderSchekochihin/KT/ **Tags:** kinetic-theory, vlasov-equation, landau-damping, collision-operators, problem-sets ### 5. Plasma Physics: Graduate Lecture Notes (University of Texas at Austin) **Author:** Richard Fitzpatrick Complete graduate lecture notes in hyperlinked HTML covering particle orbit theory, fluid and MHD descriptions, wave propagation, and kinetic theory, plus a C++ particle-in-cell code. Readers can work through a full first-year graduate plasma sequence unaided. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/plasma/plasma.html **Tags:** plasma-physics, mhd, kinetic-theory, plasma-waves, lecture-notes ## Books ### 1. Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy **Author:** Jeffrey P. Freidberg Grew out of graduate lectures and connects plasma theory to fusion reactor design: power balance, magnetic confinement geometries, MHD equilibrium and stability, transport, and heating. Readers finish able to judge why tokamaks and stellarators look the way they do. The confinement/fusion-engineering axis the theory notes do not cover: reactor power balance, coil geometry, equilibrium and stability limits. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521733170?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** fusion-energy, magnetic-confinement, mhd, tokamak, reactor-design ### 2. Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (3rd Edition) **Author:** Francis F. Chen The standard first course in plasma physics, covering single-particle motion, fluid and kinetic descriptions, waves, diffusion, and instabilities with worked examples. After it you can set up and solve standard dispersion-relation and confinement problems. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/3319223089?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** plasma-physics, controlled-fusion, plasma-waves, instabilities, textbook --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/plasma-physics