On the validity of the guiding-center approximation in the presence of strong magnetic gradients

Journal Article · Tue Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4981217· OSTI ID:1465758

Brizard, Alain J.  ^[1]

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1. Saint Michael's College, Colchester, VT (United States). Dept. of Physics

The motion of a charged particle in a nonuniform straight magnetic field with a constant magnetic-field gradient is solved exactly in terms of elliptic functions. The connection between this problem and the guiding-center approximation is discussed. Here, it is shown that, for this problem, the predictions of higher-order guiding-center theory agree very well with the orbit-averaged particle motion and hold well beyond the standard guiding-center limit $$\epsilon$$ $$\equiv$$ p/L << 1, where p is the gyromotion length scale and L is the magnetic-field gradient length scale.

• Research Organization: Saint Michael's College, Colchester, VT (United States). Dept. of Physics
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0014032
• OSTI ID: 1465758
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1361830
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 4; ISSN 1070-664X
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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