Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2012/s16/1/5/solution

Use eV and eV. The nonrelativistic beam speed and cross-sectional area are
Here , , and the exponential in the requested threshold is . With ,
Converting beam density to the magnitude of its electric current gives
This is an order-of-magnitude estimate from the source's asymptotic formula. The numerical hierarchy is only moderate: . Retaining the background slope at instead gives about A as a sufficient positive-slope current at that chosen velocity. The difference quantifies the sensitivity of the exponential-tail approximation; an exact kinetic instability threshold requires the dispersion relation. The requested estimate is therefore on the scale of tens of kiloamperes, rather than a precisely determined current.

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