Collisionless Plasmas in Astrophysics

Collisionless Plasmas in Astrophysics examines the unique properties of media without collisions in plasma physics. Experts in this field, the authors present the first book to concentrate on collisionless conditions in plasmas, whether close or not to thermal equilibrium. Filling a void in scientific literature, Collisionless Plasmas in Astrophysics explains the possibilities of modeling such plasmas, using a fluid or a kinetic framework. It also addresses common misconceptions that even professionals may possess, on phenomena such as “collisionless (Landau) damping”. Abundant illustrations are given in both space physics and astrophysics.

Gerard Belmont works as a 'Directeur de Recherches' at the French CNRS since about twenty years. His activity is linked to space missions such as Cluster but is mainly of theoretical nature. He is a specialist of collisionless media, and their description through kinetic and fluid theories.
Roland Grappin received his PhD from the Paris VII University. Since 1979 he works as an Astronomer at the Paris Observatory in the LUTH ('Laboratoire Univers et theories'). His scientific activity covers turbulence in fluids and plasmas, dynamics of the solar wind, corona and transition region.
Fabrice Mottez is a scientist at the 'Laboratoire Univers et theories' at the Paris Observatory. He has got his academic degree at the 'Ecole Superieure d'Electricite' and a PhD of plasma physics at the Orsay-Paris XI University. He has devoted his career to collisionless space plasmas, the terrestrial and jovian magnetospheres, fundamental plasma physics, and numerical simulation. He has received the 'Prix Plasma de la Societe Francaise de Physique'.
Filippo Pantellini has got his physics diploma at the ETH Zurich and a PhD in astrophysics from the Paris VII University, followed by a two years postdoctoral fellowship in the astronomy unit at Queen Mary University London. His main research field covers the theoretical and numerical investigation of collisionless and weakly collisional space plasmas, with a particular interest for the solar wind and the solar corona.
Guy Pelletier is a professor at the University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble. He founded the theoretical group of the Laboratory for Astrophysics. The main activities were oriented towards the understanding of accretion-ejection flows, instabilities and transport in them, the environment of compact objects, the formation of relativistic flows, particle acceleration in them and their radiation; his main task during these last years was devoted to the physics of relativistic shocks, generation of supra-thermal particles and electromagnetic turbulence in them and their specific radiations. He has applied these theoretical works to Active Galactic Nuclei, especially Blazars, micro-quasars, Pulsar Wind Nebulae and Gamma Ray Bursts. He was nominated at the Institut Universitaire de France from 1995 to 2005.