Trajectories of charged particles in radial electric and uniform axial magnetic fields
Abstract
Trajectories of charged particles were determined over a wide range of parameters characterizing motion in cylindrical low-pressure gas discharges and plasma heating devices which have steady radial electric fields perpendicular to uniform steady magnetic fields. Consideration was given to radial distributions characteristic of fields measured in a modified Penning discharge, in two NASA Lewis burnout-type plasma heating devices, and that estimated for the Ixion device. Numerical calculations of trajectories for such devices showed that differences between cyclotron frequency and qB/m and between azimuthal drift and a guiding center approximation are appreciable.
- Publication:
-
IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
- Pub Date:
- June 1979
- DOI:
- 10.1109/TPS.1979.4317198
- Bibcode:
- 1979ITPS....7...72E
- Keywords:
-
- Charged Particles;
- High Temperature Plasmas;
- Magnetic Fields;
- Magnetohydrodynamics;
- Particle Trajectories;
- Trajectory Analysis;
- Cyclotron Frequency;
- Electric Field Strength;
- Gas Discharges;
- Gas Pressure;
- Ion Motion;
- Particle Energy;
- Plasma Heating;
- Radial Distribution;
- Plasma Physics