Natural and Laboratory Plasmas II – Example sheet 1

Orbit Theory and Radiation from a Charged Particle

May 2004 (some errors corrected)

DATA

Electron mass me = 9.11  10-31 kg

Proton mass mp = 1.673  10-27 kg
Speed of light c = 2.998  108 ms-1
Elementary charge e = 1.602 10-19 C
Boltzmann constant kB = 1.381  10-23 J K-1
Earth Mass M = 5.794  1024 kg
Earth Radius R = 6.731  106 m

1. Calculate the Larmor radius, rL, of

- an electron travelling at 0.6c, with pitch angle 25o, in a coronal magnetic field of 10-3 T
- an alpha particle in a tokamak plasma with temperature 10 6K and B = 8T (here, calculate
the maximum value of rL)
- a 10keV electron in the Earth’s magnetic field at a distance of 5R  above its surface (R is
the Earth’s radius). Assume that the equatorial field strength at the Earth’s surface is 3 
10-5 T.

2. Show that the gravitational force on a 1eV proton in the Earth’s ionosphere (which extends from
about 50km above the Earth to 10 R) is negligible compared to the Lorentz force it experiences. You
may use the value of the Earth’s magnetic field from question (1).

3. A particle with charge q is emitted from the origin with momentum p, directed at angle  to a
uniform magnetic field B which lies in the z-direction. At what point does the particle next intersect
the z-axis?

4. Calculate the loss-cone angle for charged particles at the midpoint of a symmetric magnetic bottle of
length L, with longitudinal magnetic field strength Bz which varying as Bz(z) = Bo(1+(z/L)2). How
does the loss-cone angle vary with position along the bottle?

5. Show that the magnetic field at the mirror point for a particle with speed v is
2
 v 
B m  B ( z ) 
v ( z ) 
where v(z) is the perpendicular speed of the particle at position z, and B(z) is the z-component of the
magnetic field at this position. Hence, show that – in the field structure given above – the time, ,
taken for a trapped particle on the z-axis to bounce between its two mirror points at z = L and z = -L
is

2L
 
v
6. A column of electrons has density ne = 1010m-3, and radius a = 103 cm. It is confined by a 0.1T
magnetic field, with B in the positive z-direction. Use Poisson’s equation to work out the electrostatic
field due to the electrons, and hence the magnitude and direction of the EB drift at r = a.

If the electrons are flowing along the column at uniform speed, how will the EB drift change?

7. Suppose that a region of free space has a magnetic field B  B ( r )eˆ  , where  is the azimuthal
direction. Show that the guiding centre of a gyrating charged particle of mass m and charge q has a
combination of curvature and gradient drifts given by

m RC  B  2 1 2 
v gc   v ||  v  
q R C2 B 2  2 

where Rc is the radius of curvature of the field lines, and v||, v are the parallel and perpendicular
components of the particle velocity.

8. Show for a relativistic accelerating particle, with collinear velocity and acceleration vectors that the
angle to these vectors at which the peak power is radiated is given by

cos  max 
1
3

1  15 2  1/ 2

1

where  = v/c

9. Prove that

d 
R 
ˆ  R
ˆ     1
Rˆ  Rˆ      
 
dt' 
  
 2

where R̂ is a unit vector.