Customer Reviews

The Physics of Fluids and Plasmas: An Introduction for Astrophysicists

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This book is really going to help those who are interested in Astrophysical Plasma. I have got this book just at the begining of my research career. "The Physics of Fluids and Plasmas" has made a unique attempt, where theories of neutral fluids and plasmas are developed simultaneously. Mathemetical details is very rare, but it understandable, since the title of this book contains "Introduction".

This book is a modern introduction to the fascinating topics of fluids and plasmas. The author develops both the topics from first principles and treats them in a unified manner. His style is informal and narrative without being casual or chatty.

He starts off with showing how Navier-Stokes equations are a plausible consequence of Boltzmann equation thus assuring the reader that there is nothing new in the former. He then goes on to standard topics in fluid dynamics peppering his course with examples from astrophysics. Although the choice of topics leans towards those of astrophysical interests, the book never gives an impression that it is meant only for a select audience. Through out the course, it emphasizes essential physics relegating technicalities either to exercises or references.

The second part of the book develops plasma theory in a fashion similar to fluids in first part. It begins with motion of charged particles in an assortment of electromagnetic fields and plasma orbit theory.Later chapters gradually inch towards MHD via Vlasov equation and two-fluid model. The section ends with intriguing and rather hard topics of magnetic topologies and dynamo theory. I will credit the author for taking pains to make these topics accessible to a beginner in plasma physics. Of course, we pay price for simplicity by sacrificing rigor. But the reader is cautioned of it each time the author does so.

The book does not abruptly end after introducing basics but has an epilogue in which the author whets the readers' appetite by offering a glimpse into relativistic & radiation hydrodynamics. The venerable and old-fashioned hydrodynamics still has a lot of unchartered areas and the book succeeds in persuading the reader that these topics are relevant even today, rather more so now.

This is a great book. It is clear, and organized very well. I wish it went into more detail, but it sets up a very solid foundation for understanding, and covers a very broad range of topics- it covers the board for Astrophysics.

This book is intended for astrophysicists who want to learn some fluid dynamics and plasma physics. The book does cover traditional topics of plasma physics books--kinetic theory, continuum hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics, and plasma theory. There is a definite emphasis on astrophysical topics, although there are tidbits on aerodynamic lift, tokamaks, etc. It is sufficiently interesting to be of at least some interest to general students of fluid dynamics or plasma physics.

The book begins with a sketch of the kinetic theory derivation of the Navier Stokes equations, beginning with the Hamilton equations, and moving through Liouville's theorem, the Boltzmann equation, and taking the BGK approximation. It is only a sketch, not a full scale tutorial on kinetic theory, but I believe something along these lines does belong in any fluid dynamics course taught by a physics department. (Such courses are sadly uncommon.)

The continuum derivation of the Navier-Stokes equations is presented next, and I find it weak. I prefer the systematic, integral-based approaches found in books by, e.g., Panton and Kundu. There is NO discussion of the deformation (a.k.a. strain rate) tensor and the Cauchy-Stokes decomposition. There are brief discussions of some standard flows (e.g, potential flow around a cylinder, viscous Poiseuille flow, aerodynamic lift) and a brief discussion of boundary layers.

The remaining fluid dynamics chapters are on gas dynamics, waves and instabilities, turbulence, and rotation. The turbulence chapter is the best short introduction to Kolmogorov's -5/3 law that I've found; a good preface to reading the chapter on turbulence in other intro books, or even a dedicated turbulence book like Frisch. The remaining 7 chapters of the book are on plasma physics, including magnetohydrodynamics (I'm not an expert here, so I won't comment on them).

The book was favorably reviewed in "Comtemporary Physics" and "Journal of Fluid Mechanics", both reviewers praising the author's "engaging style" but expressing disappointment at the lack of more special topics in astrophysics. As long as a reader does not study this book in isolation, though, I think this would be an excellent supplement to his or her studies. I took this book with me on a vacation and enjoyed the reading.

A clear exposition of all areas of astrophysical fluid dynamics (along with some plasma physics). I'm disappointed not to have found anything from the recent (and exciting) advances in MHD instabilities during the 1990s. The Balbus-Hawley Instability is completely ignored, which is a huge failure; this instability has revolutionized accretion disk theory and angular momentum transport, and has been the groundwork for a surge in numerical simulations of accretion disks. It's a great fundamental book nonetheless.