Drift of a Charged Particle in a Static Magnetic Field Having a Power Law Dependence

Abstract

As a generalization of Seymour's (1959) exact solution for the drift velocity of a charged particle in a static magnetic field of constant gradient, exact solutions are obtained for charged particle drift in a static magnetic field represented by B. = AX', where A and IX are constants. Four cases of bound orbits are analysed. Exact solutions in terms of hypergeometric, confluent hypergeometric and gamma functions are obtained for the displacement Ay per cycle, the periodic time T and the drift velocity Vd. The special solutions in terms of complete elliptic integrals obtained by Seymour (1959) are also recovered. Calculated exact drift velocity characteristics for representative conditions are presented, and the manner in which the exact curves merge into the Alfven approximate drift velocity region is indicated.