Lecture

Kinetic Theory: Distribution Function Evolution

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In course

PHYS-423: Plasma I

Following an introduction of the main plasma properties, the fundamental concepts of the fluid and kinetic theory of plasmas are introduced. Applications concerning laboratory, space, and astrophysical plasmas are discussed throughout the course. ...

Description

This lecture delves into the kinetic theory, focusing on the evolution of the distribution function f(x, v, t) describing the number of particles in phase space. It covers topics such as macroscopic and microscopic scales, continuum descriptions, statistical techniques, and examples like the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution and monoenergetic beams.

Instructor

Christian Gabriel Theiler

Christian Theiler obtained his Master’s degree in physics from ETH Zurich in 2007 and his PhD from EPFL in 2011. He then joined MIT as a postdoctoral associate to work on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak. In 2014, he returned to EPFL as a EUROfusion fellow, to join the TCV tokamak team. Two years later, he was named Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Plasma Physics at EPFL. Christian’s research focuses on tokamak boundary physics and related diagnostic techniques. He has contributed to the understanding of the formation, propagation, and control of turbulent plasma structures, called blobs, and gained new insights on the structure of transport barriers in the plasma periphery in different high-confinement regimes. His current research focuses on detachment physics and turbulence characteristics in conventional and alternative divertor magnetic geometries.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Thermodynamics: Statistical mechanics

Statistics

Statistical inference: Mathematical statistics

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