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Selected Highly Cited Papers from 50 Years of Plasma Physics
[ Foreword | Contents | Photos—Founding Physicists | Journal Covers—Retrospective | Printed Version | Related Links ]
Plenary Talks Given at the 50th Division of Plasma Physics Meeting, Dallas, Texas, November 2008
Foreword: Frontiers in Plasma Physics Research—A Fifty-Year Perspective from 1958 to 2008
Prepared for the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics
Dallas, Texas, November 2008
Selected Papers Published in:
- Physics of Fluids, 1958–1988
- Physics of Fluids B, 1989–1993
- Physics of Plasmas, 1994–2008
This special anniversary web page—and accompanying hardcopy version—have been assembled by the Editorial Office of Physics of Plasmas to feature many of the outstanding papers published by the journal and its predecessors that have significantly advanced the fundamental understanding of plasmas over the past fifty years. In the PDF files available through this website, the abstracts of 221 highly cited papers are included in chronological order by subfield, reproduced as they appeared in the original issues.
The earliest papers included in this anniversary site appeared in the first journal published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) to include plasma physics, Physics of Fluids. The first issue of this journal appeared in January 1958, under the editorship of François N. Frenkiel. As noted by John T. Scott in his recent history of Physics of Fluids [J. T. Scott, Phys. Fluids 20, 011301 (2008)], the emphasis on plasma physics grew markedly from the first year of publication. In 1982, two editors replaced Frenkiel, with Fred L. Ribe taking on the role of Editor for the plasma physics papers. In 1989, the journal was divided into two separate publications, with the plasma physics papers appearing in Physics of Fluids B—Plasma Physics. Ronald C. Davidson became Editor of the journal in 1991, and in 1994, the journal was renamed again, as Physics of Plasmas. Shown in the photos below are the covers of the first issues of each of these journals along with photos in memory of some of the founding physicists of the field; the covers and photos are also reproduced on the front cover of the hardcopy version of this anniversary publication.
Selecting highly significant papers covering a fifty-year time period has been challenging, and an effort has been made to include papers that represent the diverse subfields of plasma physics. The selection of many papers will be obvious to the reader, while the selection of others may be somewhat surprising. Our apologies to those readers who have candidate papers that are not included. In any case, we believe you will agree that this anniversary publication indicates that plasma physics is a healthy and vibrant field of physics. We look forward to another fifty years of significant progress and landmark publications in Physics of Plasmas.
We wish to thank everyone in the production team at AIP, whose conscientious efforts made the concept for this anniversary publication a reality.
Ronald C. Davidson
Editor, Physics of Plasmas
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey
Contents
By clicking on a section’s listed file size in the table below, you may download the accompanying Adobe PDF file for that section. Within those PDF files are links to the published versions of the selected highly cited papers included therein. Click on the topic categories to view the abstracts online. You can link to the full paper by clicking on the citation under the abstract. The first item listed below provides a link to download the entire anniversary booklet, including covers, as a single PDF file, with embedded links.
Visit the Physics of Plasmas booth, at the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics (Dallas, Texas, November 2008), to obtain bound copies of this anniversary publication.
| Selected Highly Cited Papers from 50 Years of Plasma Physics (ISBN 978-0-7354-0583-7; AIP Publication No. R-443) |
Page Range | File Size (kB) |
| Entire Anniversary Booklet (as a single Adobe PDF file) | S1–S113 | 50790 |
| Covers (front & back; including collage of founding physicists of the field) | 6225 | |
| Front Matter (title page, copyright, contents, photo credits, foreword) | S1–S5 | 33 |
| Selected Papers in: | ||
| Basic Plasma Phenomena, Waves, Instabilities | S7–S21 | 1064 |
| Nonlinear Phenomena, Turbulence, Transport | S22–S48 | 1515 |
| Magnetically Confined Plasmas, Heating, Confinement | S49–S74 | 1648 |
| Inertially Confined Plasmas, High Energy Density Plasma Science, Warm Dense Matter |
S75–S85 | 678 |
| Ionospheric, Solar-System, and Astrophysical Plasmas | S86–S91 | 352 |
| Lasers, Particle Beams, Accelerators, Radiation Generation | S92–S100 | 592 |
| Radiation: Emission, Absorption, Transport | S101–S103 | 168 |
| Low-Temperature Plasmas, Plasma Applications, Plasma Sources, Sheaths | S104–S109 | 379 |
| Dusty Plasmas | S110–S113 | 259 |
Photos—Founding Physicists
Shown below are photos of some of the founding physicists of the field. The source of each original photograph is also listed; direct questions concerning reuse of the photos shown below to AIP’s Office of Rights & Permissions (rights@aip.org).
 William P. Allis (standing) and Adolf Hurwitz (seated) Photograph by Jacqueline; courtesy of AIP's Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection
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 Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar Photograph by Dorothy Davis Locanthi; courtesy of AIP's Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
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 Inspecting the torus at John Jay Hopkins Laboratory's fusion research building are, from left to right: Richard Courant, Hideki Yukawa, Marshall N. Rosenbluth, Marcus Oliphant, Niels Bohr, Edward C. Creutz, and Donald W. Kerst, General Atomic, Division of General Dynamics Corporation Courtesy of AIP's Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
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 John M. Dawson Courtesy of AIP's Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection
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 Burton D. Fried Courtesy of AIP's Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
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 Harold P. Furth Courtesy of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
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 Boris Kadomstev Courtesy of AIP
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 Lev D. Landau Courtesy of AIP's Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection
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 Derek C. Robinson Courtesy of EURATOM-UKAEA
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 Marshall N. Rosenbluth Courtesy of AIP's Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection
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 Lyman S. Spitzer, Jr. Courtesy of AIP's Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
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 Edward Teller Courtesy of AIP's Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
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 James A. Van Allen Courtesy of AIP's Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
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 Katherine E. Weimer Courtesy of American Physical Society, Division of Plasma Physics
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Journal Covers—Retrospective
A selection of the front covers of Physics of Plasmas and its predecessors appears below.
 The Physics of Fluids (1958–1988; Volumes 1–31) ISSN 0031-9171 CODEN: PFLDAS The American Institute of Physics founded the original journal, The Physics of Fluids, in 1958; François N. Frenkiel was the Founding Editor. See John T. Scott's retrospective, "Fifty years of Physics of Fluids,"
Phys. Fluids 20, 011301 (2008) |
 Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics (1989–1993; Volumes 1–5) ISSN 0899-8221 CODEN: PFBPEI In 1989, the American Institute of Physics split the original journal into Physics of Fluids A (for papers in fluid dynamics) and Physics of Fluids B (for papers in plasma physics).
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 Physics of Plasmas (1994–present; Volume 1–present) Print ISSN 1070-664X Online ISSN 1089-7674 CODEN: PHPAEN In 1994, the American Institute of Physics retitled Physics of Fluids A as Physics of Fluids and Physics of Fluids B as Physics of Plasmas.
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Physics of Plasmas Introduced cover images in 2008; a selection of recent covers is presented below:
 Download PDF |
 Download PDF |
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Printed Version
Visit the Physics of Plasmas booth, at the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics (Dallas, Texas, November 2008), to obtain bound copies of this anniversary publication.
After the Dallas meeting, a limited number of printed booklets may be available. Direct requests for a single copy of the anniversary booklet to:
Physics of Plasmas Editorial Office
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
James Forrestal Campus, MS 20
Princeton, New Jersey 08543
USA
E-mail: physplas@pppl.gov
Related Links
Explore some of the websites related to the journal, Physics of Plasmas, through the links listed below.
| Physics of Plasmas (published by the American Institute of Physics): |
American Physical Society—Division of Plasma Physics:
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| American Institute of Physics (AIP): |
Physics of Fluids (published by the American Institute of Physics):
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