A groundbreaking textbook on twenty-first-century plasma physics and its applications.

Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford’s monumental Modern Classical Physics is now available in five stand-alone volumes that make ideal textbooks for individual graduate or advanced undergraduate courses on statistical physics; optics; elasticity and fluid dynamics; plasma physics; and relativity and cosmology. Each volume teaches the fundamental concepts, emphasises modern, real-world applications, and gives students a physical and intuitive understanding of the subject.

Plasma Physics provides an essential introduction to the subject. A gas that is significantly ionised, usually by heating or photons, a plasma is composed of electrons and ions and sometimes has an embedded or confining magnetic field. Plasmas play a major role in many contemporary applications, phenomena, and fields, including attempts to achieve controlled thermonuclear fusion using magnetic or inertial confinement; in explanations of radio wave propagation in the ionosphere and the behaviour of the solar corona and wind; and in astrophysics, where plasmas are responsible for emission throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, including from black holes, highly magnetised neutron stars, and ultrarelativistic outflows. The book also can serve as supplementary reading for many other courses, including in astrophysics, geophysics, and controlled fusion.

Includes many exercise problems Features colour figures, suggestions for further reading, extensive cross-references, and a detailed index Optional ‘Track 2’ sections make this an ideal book for a one-quarter or one-semester course An online illustration package is available to professors