Kinetic Theory of Nonideal Plasmas

Abstract

The International Workshop `Kinetic Theory of Nonideal Plasmas' was held on September 27–29 2004 at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, Germany. There were about 60 participants from Germany, The Netherlands, Russia, Spain, The Ukraine and the United States.The focus was on a many-particle nonequilibrium description of charged particle systems, where special attention was devoted to kinetic theory methods. Among the topics presented in this volume,there are plasma kinetic equations, theory of fluctuations, interaction of plasmas with electromagneticfields, transport and optical properties, and also unusual comparatively novel kinds of charged particlesystems, such as dusty or colloidal plasmas.At the same time, this workshop intended to honour one of the founders of kinetic theory methods in nonideal plasmas—Yuri Lvovich Klimontovich (1924–2002)—whose 80th birthday would have been during the workshop period. Yuri Klimontovich's remarkable contributions to statistical physics, to kinetic theory and to the theory of fluctuations have had profound influence on the development of plasma theory. Very many of the contributors to this volume were students or co-workers of Yuri Klimontovich.This workshop would not have been possible without the generous financial support by the DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft, by the State of Schleswig-Holstein, and by the Christian-Albrechts-University,Kiel. Furthermore we are grateful to Doris Schulz and to Fanny Geisler for their assistance during theworkshop and Dirk Semkat for assistance in preparing this volume.