EXERCISE 1: MOTION OF A CHARGED PARTICLE IN A UNIFORM MAGNETIC FIELD
Consider a uniform magnetic field, of strength 10−4 T,
in the z-direction.
An α-particle
enters the magnetic field at initial position (0.0,0.0,0.0),
with an initial velocity 31000ms in
the x-direction.
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What do you expect the α-particle’s
trajectory to be shaped like?
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Write the equations of motion for the α-particle
in the uniform magnetic field. Solve the equations analytically.
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Describe in words (or pseudocode) a procedure to numerically solve
these equations of motion for the trajectory of the α-particle.
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Now, use your numerical method or a differential equation solver to
find a numerical solution to the equations of motion you wrote down.
The special case of a uniform magnetic field has an analytical
solution, but many cases do not. Validate your code: Does the shape of
the α-particle’s
trajectory match your expectation and your analytical calculation?
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How would your results be different for an H− ion
that enters the magnetic field? Confirm by running the code with
parameters for the H− ion
with the same initial velocity that the α-particle
had. Plot the α-particle’s
trajectory and the negative ion’s trajectory on the same plot.