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/2015/s16/3/2/solution

Seek a constant transverse guiding-centre drift whose magnetic Lorentz force balances the applied force. Define
Since , the vector triple-product identity gives . Writing therefore reduces the full equation to , the ordinary gyromotion equation. Its transverse orbit is circular in the drifting frame, so
Averaging over a gyroperiod removes the transverse oscillatory velocity and leaves this drift, together with any constant parallel velocity. For an electric force , this becomes the charge-independent drift; a charge-independent force instead gives opposite drift directions for opposite charge signs.

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