Newsgroups: sci.physics.plasma
From: ehchao@phoenix.princeton.edu (Edward H. Chao)
Subject: Re: Intro textbook

groover@netcom.com (Robert Groover) writes:
> Wonderful to see this newsgroup appear!
> Opening thread: what would people recommend for a strong
>introductory text? I liked Ichimaru a lot, but is that ancient history by
>now?

I like Dendy's "Plasma Physics - An Introductory Course"
published in 1993. It has a clear, rigorous section on kinetic
theory and the derivations of the 2 fluid and 1 fluid (MHD)
equations from the kinetic equations. It also has a good
section on MHD. There are numerous qualitative discussions
on turbulence, transport, computer simulations, tokamak experiments,
etc. I have not read the sections on space plasmas and laser plasmas.
Finally, since this book is so recently published, the references at
the end of each section are more up to date than older intro texts.
The book is used for the Summer School in Plasma Physics at Culham
Laboratory in England.
I have not read Ichimaru's book. Other introductory texts
are Chen - "Intro to Plasma Physics & Controlled Fusion"
Nicholson - "Intro to Plasma Theory"
Krall & Trivelpiece - "principles of Plasma Physics"

It could be that I just like pretty pictures and so am
influenced by the numerous pictures in Dendy's book.

Edward Chao, Graduate Student