Introduction to Landau Damping

The mechanism of Landau damping is observed in various systems from plasma oscillations to accelerators. Despite its widespread use, some confusion has been created, partly because of the different mechanisms producing the damping but also due to the mathematical subtleties treating the effects. In this article the origin of Landau damping is demonstrated for the damping of plasma oscillations. In the second part it is applied to the damping of coherent oscillations in particle accelerators. The physical origin, the mathematical treatment leading to the concept of stability diagrams and the applications are discussed.