Candidacy Topic - Space Plasma
(Version, 7/1/2016)
Introduction: The following list of topical areas and subtopics covers Space Plasma Physics, which includes Solar Physics and Magnetospheric Physics. The more specialized topics under Solar and Magnetospheric Physics pertain to students in those respective areas.
Electricity and Magnetism
Maxwell’s Equations: Basic properties, electrostatics, magnetostatics, boundary value problems, waves
Basic Numerical Methods
Roundoff and truncation errors, curve fitting and interpolation, numerical integration, basic linear algebra, solutions to ordinary and partial differential equations
Basic Plasma Physics
• Plasma characteristics:
Plasma Frequency, Debye Length, coulomb collision frequencies, Spitzer resistivity
• Particle motion in electric and magnetic fields.
Drifts, adiabatic invariants Waves in plasmas
Cold unmagnetized and magnetized plasma waves
• Magnetohydrodynamic description of plasma
MHD Approximation, frozen-in-Flux, MHD equilibria, waves, instabilities, shocks, force and motion in MHD
• Magnetic reconnection
Basic features, MHD models
• Kinetic Description of plasma
Vlasov theory, Landau damping, basic kinetic instabilities, the Fokker-Planck equation and binary coulomb collisions
Solar Physics
• Basic Information About the Sun:
The radius, mass, and luminosity
The structure of theinterior
The structure of theatmosphere
• EUV & X-RayRadiation:
The coronal model approximation
Collisional and radiative bound-boundtransitions
Ionization andrecombination
Non-equilibrium ionization
Spectroscopic diagnostics
• Observations:
Imaging instruments
Spectroscopic instruments
Imaging versus spectroscopic
Remote sensing versus in-situ measurements
• Coronal Heating:
DC mechanisms
AC mechanisms
• Coronal Hydrostatics:
Basic properties of hydrostatic equilibrium
Isothermal and non-isothermal solutions
Scaling Law
Instabilities
• Coronal Hydrodynamics:
The hydrodynamic equations
Collisionality
The coronal heating and cooling cycle
Spitzer-Harm conductivity
• Coronal Magnetohydrodynamics:
Magnetic fields
Open versus closed field regions
• Solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections:
The "Standard Model"
The role of magnetic reconnection
Particle acceleration and transport
Thermal versus non-thermal hard X-ray emission
The electron distribution
• The Solar Wind:
The fast and slow solar wind
The Parker model for steady expansion of the solar corona
The Parkerspiral
Magnetospheric Physics
• Basic information about the Magnetosphere
Magnetopause, bow shock, plasma sheet, ring current, radiation belts, plasmasphere and associated current systems
• Basic information about the Ionosphere
Structure, Chapman Theory, conductances
• Solar wind magnetosphere interaction
Energy transfer processes, role of the solar wind and the ionosphere
• The aurora
Types of aurora, acceleration processes
• Magnetospheric Storms and Substorms
Definition, basic properties, relation magnetic Indices
• Magnetospheric Convection
Basic properties, theoretical foundations
• Magnetosphere Ionosphere coupling
Basic properties, theoretical foundations
• Basic information about the magnetospheres of the other planets
Rotation dominated planets, Ionosphere dominated planets