Statistics – Applications
Scientific paper
Aug 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998nucfu..38.1255o&link_type=abstract
Nuclear Fusion, Volume 38, Issue 8, pp. 1255 (1998).
Statistics
Applications
Scientific paper
This book gives a comprehensive treatment of plasma spectroscopy, the quantitative study of line and continuous radiation from high temperature plasmas. This highly interdisciplinary field combines elements of atomic, plasma and statistical physics, and has wide application to simulations and diagnostics of laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. Plasma spectroscopy is naturally intertwined with magnetic and inertial fusion energy science. Radiative processes in plasmas are important in the design of fusion facilities, and can be used to diagnose and control conditions in fusion plasmas. In turn, fusion scientists and facilities have played a central role in developing plasma spectroscopy theory and applications.
The book covers radiation from plasmas, spectral line broadening, atomic processes in plasmas and level kinetic models, radiative transfer and applications to spectroscopic plasma diagnostics. It is successful both as an introductory text and as a source book of theoretical and experimental research. The book presents a broad development of the theoretical foundations of these topics, and discusses the seminal papers and critical experiments. There is a strong emphasis on applications of plasma spectroscopy, primarily to plasma diagnostics and calculations of radiative cooling rates. Extensive references (current through the end of 1995) point readers to original material and detailed discussions of advanced topics. Of course, a single text cannot treat all aspects of plasma spectroscopy in depth. The strongest and most detailed section of the book is a long chapter on spectral line broadening. For me, the most significant omission is lack of a discussion of laser assisted transitions which can occur in plasmas produced by high intensity lasers.
The book was intentionally written to be accessible to young researchers and graduate students. The level is roughly that of a graduate text. It assumes some familiarity with quantum mechanics and statistical thermodynamics, but develops most of the advanced concepts. Plasma spectroscopy is widely used by non-specialists, and the level and organization of the book are suited to use by researchers developing applications of plasma spectroscopic techniques. Finally, the specialist will profit from the comprehensive overview and excellent bibliography presented.
The author is highly qualified to write a general book on the spectroscopy of plasmas. Professor Griem has worked in the field of plasma spectroscopy for more than four decades. He is the author of Plasma Spectroscopy (1964, McGraw-Hill), the first general, quantitative book on the subject of radiation from plasmas, as well as Spectral Line Broadening by Plasmas (1974, Academic Press). Both of these monographs were tremendously influential books. In addition to his long career at the University of Maryland, Professor Griem has worked extensively with numerous research groups in the United States of America and Europe. The depth and breadth of his experience is reflected in the book.
The present book is largely new, rather than an update of the 1964 monograph. The two books have a similar organization, especially in the chapters introducing the classical and quantum theories of radiation. The later chapters of the two books diverge strongly as the present text incorporates a vast amount of modern material. The nomenclature and formalism have been updated, and I find this book more accessible than Professor Griem's earlier texts. The other significant changes are that the present book omits the problems at the end of the chapters, many of the tables of numerical results, and the chapters on plasma sources and detectors. While the tables of atomic and line shape results contained in the original book were extremely useful, they have been updated and extended in more recent works.
I enthusiastically recommend this book to all scientists interested in the spectroscopy of hot plasmas. Early in his career, Professor Griem wrote the seminal book on plasma spectroscopy. It is gratifying that as a senior scientist he has written a comprehensive monograph incorporating the past three decades of development in the field he so strongly influenced. It is certain to become a coveted and classic book.
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