Statistical Mechanics Of Charged Particles

The year 1985 represents a special anniversary for people dealing with Ooulomb systems. 200 years ago, in 1785, Oharles Auguste de Ooulomb (1736-1806) found "Ooulomb's law" for the interaction force between charged particles. The authors want to dedicate this book to the honour of the great pioneer of electrophysics. Recent statistical mechanics is mainly restricted to systems of neutral particles. Except for a few monographs and survey articles (see, e. g., IOHIMARU, 1973, 1982; KUDRIN, 1974; KLIMONTOVIOH, 1975; EBELING, KRAEFT and KREMP, 1976, 1979; KALMAN and CARINI, 1978; BAUS and HANSEN, 1980; GILL, 1981, VELO and WIGHT MAN, 1981; MATSUBARA, 1982) the extended material on charged particle systems, which is now available thanks to the efforts of many workers in statistical mechanics, is widely dispersed in many original articles. It is the aim of this monograph to represent at least some part of the known results on charged particle systems from a unified point of view. Here the method of Green's functions turns out to be a powerful method especially to overcome the difficulties connected with the statistical physics of charged particle systems; some of them are . mentioned in the introduction. Here we can point, e.g., to the appearance of bound states in a medium and their role as new entities.

Plasma physics is an integral part of statistical physics, complete with its own basic theories. Designed as a two-volume set, Statistical Plasma Physics is intended for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses on plasma and statistical physics, and as such, its presentation is self-contained and should be read without difficulty by those with backgrounds in classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, and statistics. Major topics include: plasma phenomena in nature, kinetic equations, plasmas and dielectric media, electromagnetic properties of Vlasov plasmas in thermodynamic equilibria, transient processes, and instabilities.