This textbook is intended as an introduction to the physics of solar and stellar coronae, emphasizing kinetic plasma processes. It is addressed to observational astronomers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates without a back ground in plasma physics. Coronal physics is today a vast field with many different aims and goals. Sort ing out the really important aspects of an observed phenomenon and using the physics best suited for the case is a formidable problem. There are already several excellent books, oriented toward the interests of astrophysicists, that deal with the magnetohydrodynamics of stellar atmospheres, radiation transport, and radiation theory. In kinetic processes, the different particle velocities play an important role. This is the case when particle collisions can be neglected, for example in very brief phenomena - such as one period of a high-frequency wave - or in effects produced by energetic particles with very long collision times. Some of the most persistent problems of solar physics, like coronal heating, shock waves, flare energy release, and particle acceleration, are likely to be at least partially related to such pro cesses. Study of the Sun is not regarded here as an end in itself, but as the source of information for more general stellar applications. Our understanding of stellar processes relies heavily, in turn, on our understanding of solar processes. Thus an introduction to what is happening in hot, dilute coronae necessarily starts with the plasma physics of our nearest star.

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Authors and Affiliations

Institute of Astronomy, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Arnold Benz

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Plasma Astrophysics
Book Subtitle: Kinetic Processes in Solar and Stellar Coronae
Authors: Arnold Benz
Series Title: Astrophysics and Space Science Library
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2064-7
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1993
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-7923-2429-4Published: 30 September 1993
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-010-4915-3Published: 29 October 2012
eBook ISBN: 978-94-011-2064-7Published: 06 December 2012
Series ISSN: 0067-0057
Series E-ISSN: 2214-7985
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 299
Topics: Astrophysics and Astroparticles, Nuclear Physics, Heavy Ions, Hadrons

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

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