Physics of Nonideal Plasmas

Frank-Olaf Radtke ist Professor am Institut für Allgemeine Erziehungswissenschaft der Universität Frankfurt am Main.

The VI. International Workshop on Physics of Nonideal Plasmas (PNP VI) took place from November 18th to 21th, 1991, in Gosen (Germany) at the Science communication & Conference Centre of the Humboldt University of Berlin. The workshop was organized by the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Humboldt University and by the Central Institute of Electron Physics, Berlin, with financial support given by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn, and the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung, Stuttgart. The workshop was attended by more than 100 scientists from 14 countries who presented about 120 papers, including 18 invited lectures. The series of PNP workshops, which started in 1980, provides a biennial forum for both experimental and theoretical research in the field of nonideal plasmas. These meetings are organized alternately by the Central Institute of Electron Physics, Berlin, and/or by one of the universities of Berlin, Greifswald, and Rostock. They took place in Matzlow-Garwitz (1980), Wustrow (1982 and 1988), Biesenthal (1984), and Greifswald (1986). Since the beginning, the workshop has been concerned mainly with fundamental studies of the thermodynamic, transport, and radiative properties of nonideal plasmas. These fields were also covered at PNP VI in Gosen, but new topics such as high-pressure laser plasmas, dense astrophysical plasmas, molecular dynamics and Monte-Carlo results, and the kinetics of transitions have completed the programme. In particular, several papers addressed the role of nonideal plasmas for radiation sources, for inertial confinement fusion, for helio-seismology, and for the determination of the structure of the giant planets.

1: Molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo results.- Numerical simulation of Coulombic freezing.- Monte Carlo simulation study of dense plasmas.- Large Coulomb and Lennard-Jones crystals and quasicrystals.- Localization of quantum electrons in one, two and three dimensional disordered systems of scatterers. Monte Carlo investigations.- N log N code for dense plasma simulations.- 2: Thermodynamics and phase transitions.- Statistical thermodynamics of bound states and phase transitions in nonideal plasmas.- A simple statistical mechanical model for pressure induced ionization.- Single and two particle properties in dense plasmas.- Second-moment sum rules for correlation functions in a classical ionic mixture.- The Saha equation for a two-temperature plasma.- Phase transition in simplest plasma models.- Mean spherical approximation for the thermodynamics of partially ionized and strongly coupled plasmas.- Quasiclassical shell model and thermodynamical functions of dense plasma.- A model for the ionization equilibrium of a very dense hydrogen plasma.- Microfield, quasi-zones and plasmas nonideality.- Behavior of the electrical microfield in a plasma, for a strong field.- Critical point of lithium under influence of Coulomb interaction.- High pressure - high temperature thermophysical measurements on liquid metals.- 3: Kinetics of transitions.- Equation of motion for higher order distribution functions and linear response theory.- Kinetic theory of ionization processes in dense plasmas.- Ionization and recombination coefficients of excited states in nonideal hydrogen plasmas.- 4: Collective modes and transport properties.- Collective modes in strongly coupled plasmas.- Viscosity and ion sound in strongly coupled plasma.- Interpolation formulae for the transport coefficients indense plasmas.- Strong electric fields and nonlinear current-voltage characteristic non-ideal plasmas in liquid semiconductors at high temperatures and high pressures.- Measurement of the electrical conductivity of a strongly coupled metal plasma.- Recent development of experiments on non-ideal plasmas with the Kiel ballistic compressor.- 5: Radiation and spectroscopy.- Electric field dynamics at a charged point strong coupling limit.- About the influence of dense plasmas on spectral line shapes of different atomic radiators - Theory.- About the influence of dense plasmas on spectral line shapes of different atomic radiators - Experiment.- IR spectra of dense xenon and argon plasmas.- Light from dense plasmas.- Collision frequency of non-ideal plasmas: Influence of plasma oscillations.- Gas-liner pinch as a source for high density plasma spectroscopy.- 6: Astrophysical Problems.- Nuclear fusion in dense plasmas: supernovae to ultrahigh-pressure liquid metals.- The equation of state for stellar envelopes.- The plasma phase transition of hydrogen in giant planets.- 7: Laser and Ion Fusion.- Particle driven inertial fusion through cluster ion beam.- Strongly coupled plasma in laser-target experiments.- Thomas-Fermi calculation of laser beam and particle beam ranges in strongly coupled plasma.- Author Index.