Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter; the other three being solid, liquid and gas. Several components, such as molecular clouds, diffuse interstellar gas, the solar atmosphere, the Earth's ionosphere and laboratory plasmas, including fusion plasmas, constitute the partially ionized plasmas. This book discusses different aspects of partially ionized plasmas including multi-fluid description, equilibrium and types of waves. The discussion goes on to cover the reionization phase of the universe, along with a brief description of high discharge plasmas, tokomak plasmas and laser plasmas. Various elastic and inelastic collisions amongst the three particle species are also presented. In addition, the author demonstrates the novelty of partially ionized plasmas using many examples; for instance, in partially ionized plasma the magnetic induction is subjected to the ambipolar diffusion and the Hall effect, as well as the usual resistive dissipation. Also included is an observation of kinematic dynamo in partially ionized plasmas.

‘Professor Krishan is to be congratulated for such a mathematically detailed presentation of her material, which allows the reader to follow the developments step by step. Make no mistake, this is a challenging book, but it is also an extremely rewarding one for anyone who wants to acquire a thorough grounding in the theory of partially ionized plasmas.’

Terry Robinson Source: The Observatory