Charged particles in dense matter exhibit strong correlations due to the exchange and Coulomb interactions, and thus make a strongly coupled plasma. Examples in laboratory and astrophysical settings include solid and liquid metals, semiconductors, charged particles in lower dimensions such as those trapped in interfacial states of condensed matter or beams, dense multi-ionic systems such a superionic conductors and inertial-confinement-fusion plasmas . The aim of the conference was to elucidate the various physical processes involved in these dense materials. The subject areas covered include plasma physics, atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter physics and astrophysics.

The International Conference on Strongly Coupled Coulomb Systems was held on the campus of Boston College in Newton, Massachusetts, August 3–10, 1997. Although this conference was the first under a new name, it was the continuation of a series of international meetings on strongly coupled plasmas and other Coulomb systems that started with the NATO Summer Institute on Strongly Coupled Plasmas, almost exactly twenty years prior to this conference, in July of 1977 in Orleans la Source, France. Over the intervening period the field of strongly coupled plasmas has developed vigorously. In the 1977 meeting the emphasis was on computer (Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics) simulations which provided, for the first time, insight into the rich and new physics of strongly coupled fully ionizedplasmas. While theorists scrambled to provide a theoretical underpinning for these results, there was also a dearth of real experimental input to reinforce the computer simulations. Over the past few years this situation has changed drastically and a variety of direct experiments on classical, pure, strongly correlated plasma systems (charged particle traps, dusty plasmas, electrons on the surface of liquid helium, etc. ) have become available. Even more importantly, entire new area of experimental interest in condensed matter physics have opened up through developments in nano-technology and the fabrication of low-dimensional systems, where the physical behavior, in many ways, is similar to that in classical plasmas. Strongly coupled plasma physics has always been an interdisciplinaryactivity.

Strongly Coupled Plasma Physics covers the proceedings of the 24th Yamada Conference on Strongly Coupled Plasma Physics, held from August 29 to September 2, 1989 at Hotel Mount Fuji near Lake Yamanaka on the outskirts of Tokyo. The book focuses on the reactions, technologies, interactions, and transformations of charged particles. The selection first offers information on phase transitions in dense astrophysical plasmas and plasma thermodynamics and the evolution of brown dwarfs and planets, as well as solidification of dense astrophysical plasmas, evolution of brown dwarfs, and structure of Jupiter. The text then examines the discovery of low mass objects in Taurus and topics in X-ray astronomy from observations with GINGA. The publication ponders on proton abundance in hot neutron star matter; thermonuclear reaction rates of dense carbon-oxygen mixtures in white dwarfs; and quantum simulation of superconductivity. The text also examines dynamic simulation of mixed quantum-classical systems and Monte-Carlo simulations for the surface properties of the strongly coupled one-component plasma. The selection is a dependable reference for readers interested in strongly coupled plasma physics.

Charged particles in dense matter exhibit strong correlations due to the exchange and Coulomb interactions, and thus make a strongly coupled plasma. Examples in laboratory and astrophysical settings include solid and liquid metals, semiconductors, charged particles in lower dimensions such as those trapped in interfacial states of condensed matter or beams, dense multi-ionic systems such a superionic conductors and inertial-confinement-fusion plasmas . The aim of the conference was to elucidate the various physical processes involved in these dense materials. The subject areas covered include plasma physics, atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter physics and astrophysics.

A NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Strongly Coupled Plasma Physics was held on the Santa Cruz Campus of the University of California, from August 4 through August 9, 1986. It was attended by 80 participants from 13 countries, 45 of whom were invited speakers. The present volume contains the texts of the invited talks and many of the contributed papers. The relative length of each text is roughly proportional to the length of the workshop presentation. The aim of the workshop was to bring together leading researchers from a number of related disciplines in which strong Coulomb interactions play a dominant role. Compared to the 1977 meeting in Orleans-la-Source, France and the 1982 meeting in Les-Houches, France, it is apparent that the field of strongly coupled plasmas has expanded greatly and has become a very significant field of physics with a wide range of applications. This workshop had a far greater participation of experimental researchers than did the previous two, and some confrontations of real experiments with theoretical calculations occurred. In the two earlier meetings the theoretical presentations were dominated by numerical simulations of static and dynamic properties of various strongly coupled plasmas. The dearth of experiments in the 1970's is now replaced by some very good experimental efforts.

TO THE SECOND EDITION In the nine years since this book was first written, rapid progress has been made scientifically in nuclear fusion, space physics, and nonlinear plasma theory. At the same time, the energy shortage on the one hand and the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn on the other have increased the national awareness of the important applications of plasma physics to energy production and to the understanding of our space environment. In magnetic confinement fusion, this period has seen the attainment 13 of a Lawson number nTE of 2 x 10 cm -3 sec in the Alcator tokamaks at MIT; neutral-beam heating of the PL T tokamak at Princeton to KTi = 6. 5 keV; increase of average ß to 3%-5% in tokamaks at Oak Ridge and General Atomic; and the stabilization of mirror-confined plasmas at Livermore, together with injection of ion current to near field-reversal conditions in the 2XIIß device. Invention of the tandem mirror has given magnetic confinement a new and exciting dimension. New ideas have emerged, such as the compact torus, surface-field devices, and the EßT mirror-torus hybrid, and some old ideas, such as the stellarator and the reversed-field pinch, have been revived. Radiofrequency heat ing has become a new star with its promise of dc current drive. Perhaps most importantly, great progress has been made in the understanding of the MHD behavior of toroidal plasmas: tearing modes, magnetic Vll Vlll islands, and disruptions.

The book is devoted to the physics of plasma at high density, which has been compressed so strongly that the effects of interparticle interactions and non-ideality govern its behavior. Interest in this non-traditional plasma has been generated in recent years when states of matter with high concentration of energy became accessible experimentally as the basis of modern technologies and facilities. The greatest part of the matter in the Universe is in this exotic state. In this book, the methods of generation and diagnostics of strongly coupled plasmas are presented, along with the main theoretical methods and experimental results on thermodynamical, kinetic and optical properties. Particular attention is given to fast developing modern directions of strongly coupled plasma physics such as metallization of dielectrics and dielectrization of metals, non-neutral plasmas, dusty plasmas and their crystallization. The book is written for physicists and astrophysicists, engineers, and material scientists.