Melrose D. Quantum Plasmadynamics: Magnetized Plasmas

Springer-Verlag, New York, 2013, 490 pages, ISBN: 978-1-4614-4044-4, 978-1-4614-4045-1Lecture Notes in Physics 854The motivation and background for the two-volume book on Quantum Plasmadynamics (QPD) were explained in the Preface to volume 1 (Quantum Plasmadynamics: Unmagnetized Plasmas (Springer, New York, 2008)). In brief, author's objective in QPD is to synthesize quantum electrodynamics (QED) and the kinetic theory of plasmas. Author has used the development of QPD as a training tool for some of his students in theoretical physics. As a result, his collaborators have mostly been research students, who have written theses either partially or completely on problems in this field.Volume 2 is essentially an extension of the theory in volume 1 from unmagnetized plasmas to magnetized plasma. Both volumes consist of two parts, with the first part concerned with a covariant reformulation of nonquantum plasma kinetic theory, and the second part concerned with the use of QED to calculate plasma processes and plasma responses.Quantum Plasmadynamics is a synthesis of the kinetic theory of plasmas and quantum electrodynamics (QED). In this volume, the approach applied to unmagnetized plasmas in volume 1 is generalized to magnetized plasmas. First, a covariant version of nonquantum kinetic theory is formulated for single-particle (emission and scattering) processes and the collective-medium response. The relativistic quantum treatment is based on solutions of Dirac's equation for an electron in a magnetostatic field, and single-particle processes are treated using a magnetized version of QED. The response of an electron gas is derived by generalizing the derivation of the response of the magnetized vacuum.