The Fokker-Planck equation, and its application in plasma physics†

In a classic paper Max Planck derived an equation, now known as the Fokker-Planck equation, which plays a central role in the statistics description of many body problems. The equation is used in many branches of physics as well as chemistry and biology to describe a variety of different processes. In plasma physics, on which this paper concentrates, it forms the corner stone for the description of the Coulomb collisions. Furthermore, it is pointed out that also the so-called quasi-linear theory is closely related to the Fokker-Planck equation. (c) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.