Physics 218A | Fall 2018

Course Handouts

This page was last updated 30 Nov 2018.


Course Handouts

Course Syllabusposted 01 Oct 2018

Texts-References posted 17 Sep 2018

Topicsposted 17 Sep 2018

Problem Sessionsposted 17 Sep 2018

9 Big Ideasposted 17 Sep 2018



Problem Sets

Problem Set 1due 10 Oct 2018

Problem Set 2due 22 Oct 2018

Problem Set 3due 05 Nov 2018

Problem Set 4due TBA



Supplementary Material for 218A


Manheimer and Dupree (1968) on Nonlinear Landau Damping and Relaxation Due to Wave Interactionsposted 30 Nov 2018

BBGKY Hierarchyposted 25 Oct 2018

Cooperative Phenomena and Shock Waves in Collisionless Plasmas (R.Z. Sagdeev, 1966) in Reviews of Plasma Physics, Vol. 4 (M.A. Leontovich, ed.)posted 11 Oct 2018

On Kinematic Waves, II. A theory of traffic flow on long crowded roads (Lighthill et al. 1955, P. Roy. Soc. A-Math Phy) — posted 05 Oct 2018

On Kinematic Waves, I. Flood Movements in Long Rivers (Lighthill et al. 1955, P. Roy. Soc. A-Math Phy) — posted 04 Oct 2018

A General Approach to Linear and Non-linear Dispersive Waves Using a Lagrangian (Whitman 1965, J. Fluid Mech.)posted 04 Oct 2018

Reviews of Plasma Physics - Vol 22 - B.B. Kadomtsev - Highly Recommended - posted 22 December 2015

Basic OV Paper on Rayleigh-Taylor Instability - posted 22 December 2015

Review of R-T Instability - posted 22 December 2015

Turbulent Mixing from R-T - posted 22 December 2015

Schematics of Brownian Motion and Fluctuation - Dissipation Theory - posted 22 December 2015

On the Instability of Superposed Fluids in a Gravitational Field - David Layzer - posted 22 December 2015

Thermal Equilibrium Fluctuations and Transport - posted 22 December 2015

Lectures on Random Walks and Diffusion - Highly Recommended - posted 22 December 2015

Chandrasekha Review - Highly Recommended - posted 22 December 2015

Ryutov: 50 Years of Landau Damping - posted 22 December 2015

Debye on Screening - posted 07 January 2016

Whitham Wave Trains - posted 11 January 2016

Sturrock Negative Energy - posted 15 January 2016

Dawson Landau Damping - posted 15 January 2016

Basics of Fluctuations Near Equilibrium - REposted 25 January 2016

Rostoker and Rosenbluth on Test Particle Model - posted 1 February 2016

Roberts and Berk on Saturation of Two-Stream Instability - posted 1 February 2016

Berk, Nielsen, Roberts on Phase Space Fluid Dynamics - posted 1 February 2016

Chapter 2 - Includes Lenard-Balescu - posted 16 February 2016

Chapter 3 - Quasilinear Theory - posted 16 February 2016

Violent Relaxation, D. Lynden-Bell - posted 16 February 2016

A Perturbation Theory for Strong Plasma Turbulence, T.H. Dupree - posted 16 February 2016

Solving Linear Stochastic Differential Equations, A. Brissaud and U. Frisch - posted 17 February 2016

7 Big Ideas - posted 3 March 2016

Falkovich on NLS - posted 7 March 2016

Langmuir Turbulence and Collapse Review - posted 8 March 2016


Scaing and Estimation:

Lecture 1: Buckingham Pi Theorem - posted 22 December 2015

Comments on Lecture 1 - posted 22 December 2015

Lecture 2: A Second Piece of Pi / Turbulence - posted 22 December 2015

Lecture 3: More on Turbulence/Fractals and Intermittency - posted 22 December 2015

Lecture 4: Gases, Diffusion → Transport - posted 22 December 2015

Lecture 5: Wakes - posted 22 December 2015

Transport 1(1) - posted 22 December 2015

Wakes-Supplement - posted 22 December 2015

Transport II - Scaling and Scales - posted 22 December 2015

Transport III - Dielectrics and Conductors - posted 22 December 2015

Transport in Metals: Review - posted 22 December 2015

Transport V - Metals - posted 22 December 2015