An introduction to magnetohydrodynamics by P. H Roberts
Publisher: American Elsevier Pub. Co (1967) | ASIN: B0007DXE62 | Pages: 264 | PDF | 9.32 MB

This book is based on a postgraduate (M.Sc.) course held in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne during the academic year 1964/65. Although I endeavoured to set the subject in a physical framework, I did, as befitted the audience, lay the major emphasis on the mathematical ideas.

There is, perhaps, some absolute justification for this, for physical ideas are most valuable when they are backed up by mathematical theories in particular cases, or by experiments. In magnetohydrodynamics, unfortunately, experiments are difficult to perform and have, in any case, only a limited range of validity (cf. § 1.1 and Chapters 2 and 7 below). Also, in the extremely important fields of astrophysics and geophysics, the observations of magnetohydrodynamic phenomena are generally of a superficial kind. It is, then, rather more necessary to pay attention to the mathematical arguments, to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and to appreciate the significance of the conditions under which they are developed.