What is a plasma? an introduction

T. Intrator
P-24 Plasma Physics Summer School
TA35, bldg 86, room 205
noon-1PM
some food for grazing

We briefly outline the recent historical story of how plasma physics came to exist in the 20th century. 
We define the fourth state of matter, ie what a plasma is, where we find plasmas on earth and beyond, 
and why they are interesting to study. Some of the applications to many consumer items, fusion energy, 
scientific devices, satellite communications, etc. will be discussed. Since 99% of our known (ie not dark matter) 
universe is comprised of plasma, plasma physics also forms the basis of many important phenomena in 
astrophysics, space physics, and magnetosphere physics in our solar system. We will discuss how to make 
plasmas, what they are used for, some theoretical framework including the connection between kinetic and
fluid descriptions, quasi neutrality, Debye shielding, ambipolar electric fields, some plasma waves. 
We will include some hands on demonstrations.