Complexity and simplicity of plasmas

TL;DR

This paper explores the underlying simplicity in microscopic plasma physics phenomena like Debye screening and Landau damping, while also discussing the challenges and methods for understanding plasma complexity.

Contribution

It provides a direct derivation from microscopic dynamics to key plasma phenomena and discusses new approaches to teaching and studying plasma complexity.

Findings

Simpler microscopic explanations for plasma phenomena

Challenges in modeling plasma complexity

Proposals for new educational and research directions

Abstract

This paper has two main parts. The first one presents a direct path from microscopic dynamics to Debye screening, Landau damping and collisional transport. It shows there is more simplicity in microscopic plasma physics than previously thought. The second part is more subjective. It describes some difficulties in facing plasma complexity in general, suggests an inquiry about the methods used empirically to tackle complex systems, discusses the teaching of plasma physics as a physics of complexity, and proposes new directions to face the inflation of information.