Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-symmetry-and-relativity-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/2/d/b/solution

For the magnetic-dominated crossed-field orbit, choose along , which is subluminal when . Then and . The initial velocity in this frame is , and the constant particle Lorentz factor is because a magnetic field does no work.
Define the signed relativistic cyclotron frequency , retaining . With as parameter, the exact primed trajectory is
It is a circle of radius with centre ; its initial velocity is as required. Transforming back gives
In the laboratory this is a stretched cycloidal trajectory with cusps where the electron is instantaneously at rest. Its average drift is , along for the positive field orientation. Its energy oscillates as the electric field exchanges energy with it; it does not accelerate without bound. If , the initially stationary electron remains stationary. At , neither of these finite boosts exists; that separate null-field limit is not one of the two strict cases requested.
Figure 1.
Exact electron trajectories in electric-dominated and magnetic-dominated crossed fields
. Original curves use and an electron released from rest in the laboratory. Adapted inertial frames eliminate the magnetic field or electric field, respectively. The lab magnetic-dominated curve has cycloidal cusps; the electric-dominated curve has an oblique relativistic asymptote. Details.

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