"Plasma physics is concerned with the study of a state of matter that essentially corresponds to ionized gas, i.e. that consists of ions and electrons. Plasma is the most abundant ordinary matter in the Universe and can also be created artificially on Earth for a wide variety of technologies and applications, ranging from plasma displays to semiconductor device fabrication to fusion energy research. Understanding and predicting the behavior of plasmas is highly non-trivial as it requires, for each concrete case, the analytical and numerical solution of the constituent equations of continuum mechanics, hydrodynamics, electron-ion transport, and optical and electronic excitations"-- Provided by publisher.