  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.
