Writing a book on The Plasma Boundary of Magnetic FusionDevices is a challenge and few others than Peter Stangeby wouldhave been capable of such a task. Indeed, heat load controlonto plasma facing components or helium ash removal can only beresolved by fully integrating all the physics of fusion. Furthermore, they are among the key issues that remain to besolved for the next step machine on the way to Nuclear Fusionwith magnetic confinement.As the Preface of the book rightly points out, this handbook iswell suited for experimentalists or code scientists who wish tointerpret their results and bring some common sense into acomplex story. Part 1, which includes may problems, will alsobe appropriate to students and those plasma physicists who arenot specialists of boundary physics but wish to capture thephysics of this field of research. The very worthy choice ofputting physics forward, backing at each step the modellingeffort with experimental facts (and vice versa), is performed atthe cost of a rigorous and mathematical analysis. The book alsofalls short of establishing the connection between theengineering issues, such as heat removal in the steady state,and the physics at hand, although the former are clearly theincentive for the present effort in the physics. Anotherweakness of the book is too short a section dedicated toturbulent plasma transport depited its importance in definingthe boundary plasma itself and despite the fact that most of theavailable data are measured in the boundary plasma.In a busy book of more than 700 pages, Peter Stangeby hascovered many years of research, from pioneering work, forinstance sheath physics by Tonk and Langmuir in the late 1920's,to areas that remain the subject of active investigation likedrifts in the boundary plasma. The book is divided into 3 partsof very different footing. Part 1, An introduction to thesubject of the plasma boundary, is the textbook of variouscourses given by Peter throughout the world. In this part, thereader is introduced to many of the concepts and facets of thephysics of the boundary plasma. Part 2, Introduction to fluidmodelling of the boundary plasma, is a review of thetheoretical background and the modelling effort of the boundaryplasma. Rather naturally, Part 3, Plasma boundary research,addresses several issues that are currently the scope ofexperimental, modelling and theoretical investigation. The textis further divided in numerous sections and subsections thatorganise this complex subject in a series of well-definedtopics. The style is in the very spirit of Peter's talks, solively that one can nearly hear him.Part 1, written for the largest audience, is more than half ofthe book (about 380 pages). This part starts with thedefinitions of the Scrape Off Layer (SOL), i.e. that region ofopen field lines that surrounds the magnetically confined plasmaand the sheath, namely the standing shock wave between theplasma and wall material. A third section is dedicated to themost important aspects of atomic physics in the SOL, such asionization of incoming particles and erosion of wall material. The following sections are then dedicated to more and moresophisticated description of the SOL, a long section addressingthe issue of impurity generation and subsequent transport. Part2 of the book deals with modelling issues and is relativelyshort (80 pages). The issue of 1-D versus 2-D models as well asthe intermediate so-called onion skin models are introduced. Most of this part assumes a fluid analysis although some kineticaspects are also included. The most important sections in Part3 are dedicated to currents and drifts in the SOL as well asdivertor detachment.Peter Stangeby thus offers the community of fusion physicists avery precious survey of boundary plasma physics. This effort isall the more welcomed since the previous reference book, theoften quoted Physics of Plasma Wall Interactions in ControlledFusion, edited by D E Post and R Behrisch (Nato ASI series,Plenum Press, N.Y. 1986), was written prior to the ITERinternation project that definitely boosted this field ofresearch.Philippe Ghendrih Association Euratom-CEA sur la Fusion Contrôlée,CEA-Cadarache, F-13108 St-Paul-lez-Durance Cedex, France
要撰写一本关于《磁约束聚变装置中的等离子体边界》的书是一项挑战，除了彼得·斯坦比之外，很少有人能胜任这项任务。事实上，面向等离子体部件的热负荷控制或氦灰排出问题，只有通过全面整合聚变物理学的各个方面才能解决。此外，这些问题正是通往磁约束聚变核聚变的下一个关键步骤中亟待解决的核心问题。正如该书前言所指出的，这本手册非常适合实验物理学家或代码开发者，他们希望解释自己的结果，并为这个复杂领域带来一些常识性的理解。第一部分包含了大量问题，也适合那些并非边界物理专业、但希望掌握该研究领域物理本质的学生和等离子体物理学家。将物理问题置于首位、并以实验事实支撑每一步建模的出色选择，是以牺牲严格数学分析为代价的。该书也未能建立起工程问题（如稳态下的热排出）与手头物理问题之间的充分联系，尽管前者显然是当前物理研究工作的动力所在。该书的另一个不足之处在于，关于湍流输运的章节篇幅过短，未能充分体现其在定义边界等离子体本身方面的重要性，而且尽管现有的大多数数据都是在边界等离子体中测量的。在这本超过700页的繁忙著作中，彼得·斯坦比涵盖了多年的研究成果，从开拓性的工作，例如20世纪20年代末汤克斯和朗缪尔的鞘层物理，到至今仍是主动研究课题的领域，如边界等离子体中的漂移。本书分为三个部分，各部分的基础截然不同。第一部分是边界等离子体物理导论，是面向全球各类课程的基础教材。在这一部分中，读者将接触到边界等离子体物理的许多概念和方面。第二部分是边界等离子体流体建模导论，回顾了理论背景和建模工作。第三部分很自然地转向边界等离子体研究，涉及当前实验、建模和理论研究的若干问题。全书进一步细分为许多章节和小节，将这一复杂主题组织成一系列定义明确的问题。文风极具彼得·斯坦比的个人特色，生动得仿佛能听到他本人讲述。第一部分面向最广泛的读者，占全书一半以上（约380页）。本部分从刮削层（SOL）的定义开始，即环绕磁约束等离子体的开放磁力线区域，以及鞘层，即等离子体与壁材料之间的驻立激波层。第三部分则专门讨论原子物理在SOL中的最重要方面，如入射粒子的电离和壁材料的侵蚀。接下来的章节则对SOL进行越来越精细的描述，其中一长节专门讨论杂质产生及其后续输运问题。第二部分涉及建模问题，篇幅相对较短（80页）。该部分讨论了一维与二维模型以及介于两者之间的所谓“洋葱皮”模型的问题。这部分大部分内容基于流体分析，但也包含了一些动力学方面的考虑。第三部分中最重要的章节专门讨论SOL中的电流和漂移，以及偏滤器脱靶问题。因此，彼得·斯坦比为聚变物理学家群体提供了一份极其宝贵的边界等离子体物理综述。这项工作之所以更受欢迎，是因为此前常被引用的参考书《受控聚变中等离子体与壁相互作用的物理》（由D. E. Post和R. Behrisch编辑，Nato ASI系列，Plenum Press，纽约，1986年）是在ITER国际项目之前编写的，而该项目极大地推动了这一研究领域的发展。菲利普·根德里，法国原子能委员会-欧洲聚变协议（Association Euratom-CEA sur la Fusion Contrôlée），CEA-Cadarache，F-13108 St-Paul-lez-Durance Cedex，法国。