Single Particle Motion in Electric and Magnetic Fields

Abstract

Plasmas belong to two different categories, unmagnetized and magnetized. The plasma in a fluorescent tube is unmagnetized, because the motion of electrons and ions is determined by electric fields and collisions, and the Earth magnetic field is too weak to bend the trajectories. The ionosphere, the magnetosphere, the solar wind, the interstellar medium and the solar surface are examples for natural magnetized plasmas. There, the motion of the particles is strongly affected by the magnetic field.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky