Abstract
The motion of particles in the presence of other forces, or in an inhomogeneous field, is rather complicated. On the one hand the motion along the magnetic field lines is accelerated. On the other hand (and this is a remarkable peculiarity of charged particle motion in a magnetic field), a force acting at right angles to the field gives rise to particle motion in a direction perpendicular both to the forces and the magnetic field. This motion is known as a drift.† Drift motion differs from free motion in that the particles do not experience constant acceleration under the influence of constant forces; rather, they move with a constant velocity.
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© 1972 Plenum Press, New York
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Frank-Kamenetskii, D.A. (1972). Drift Motion. In: Plasma: The Fourth State of Matter. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-1896-5_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-1896-5_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-1898-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-1896-5
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