ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a description of fluctuations and correlations in plasmas, and microscopically formulates space-time evolution of the fluctuations in the phase space. The study of fluctuations represents one of the central subjects in statistical physics. Fluctuations are connected directly with the correlation functions. For a system in thermodynamic equilibrium, fluctuations remain small in magnitude; these are thermal fluctuations. The chapter introduces the "space-time average over scales substantially greater than those associated with fluctuations". It reviews the fundamental relation between fluctuations and correlations. Electromagnetic fluctuations in weakly coupled plasmas are described; these calculations lead to an important notion concerning the superposition of dressed test-particles. The space-time evolution of microscopic fluctuations in Yu. L. Klimontovich distributions is analyzed for a classical multicomponent plasma. The dynamic and transport properties of plasmas are described in terms of the kinetic equations which govern the evolution of the single-particle distribution functions in phase space.
