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/2018/s7/1/f/i/solution

Dividing the two velocities gives
Here : the orbit always advances toward increasing , except for instantaneous zeros at each midplane crossing . The transverse motion oscillates between and . At these outer turning points and the trajectory is tangent to the direction; at the midplane while , so the tangent is along . The sign of the initial only chooses the phase or reflected trace.
Figure 1.
Crossing and separatrix orbits in a reversing magnetic field
. The left panel shows the orbit with zero conserved axial canonical momentum, advancing monotonically in z. The right panel shows a positive-x separatrix with the negative extreme canonical momentum; its arrows and marked axial-velocity zeros distinguish it from an ordinary periodic orbit. Both panels use dimensionless coordinates. Details.

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