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Let $\mathbf{E}=E\hat{\mathbf{x}}$ and $\mathbf{B}=B\hat{\mathbf{y}}$, and choose $\hat{\mathbf{z}}=\hat{\mathbf{x}}\times \hat{\mathbf{y}}$. Part (a) gives $y=0$. With the origin at ${\mathbf{x}}_0$, the remaining Cartesian components areThe initial conditions are $x=z=\dot{x}=\dot{z}=0$. Integrating the second equation gives $\dot{z}=\omega x$, soSolving this forced harmonic oscillator and then integrating $\dot{z}=\omega x$ yieldsThus the position vector is ${\mathbf{x}}_0+x(t)\hat{\mathbf{x}}+z(t)\hat{\mathbf{z}}$. The oscillation occurs at the signed cyclotron frequency, superposed on the usual E-cross-B drift.

A purely toroidal magnetic field is stronger on the inner side of the torus and its field lines are curved. The resulting magnetic gradient drift and curvature drift move ions and electrons vertically in opposite directions. Charge separation can then produce an electric field whose E-cross-B drift moves the plasma across the nominal toroidal confinement region. Closing field lines into circles therefore does not by itself guarantee confinement.

A tokamak combines a strong externally produced toroidal field with a poloidal field supplied largely by toroidal plasma current. Field lines wind helically around nested magnetic flux surfaces. A particle following a field line samples different vertical and radial parts of the torus, so the systematic displacements associated with the toroidal geometry can compensate over its orbit rather than accumulating as in the pure-toroidal case. The poloidal field also provides the magnetic structure needed for force balance. This improves confinement but does not eliminate all orbit losses or transport: trapped particles, collisions, turbulence and magnetohydrodynamic instabilities remain important. Maintaining the plasma current and suitable field-line winding is part of the confinement problem.

In the magnetic-dominated case the suitable Lorentz boost instead hasThe hypothesis gives $|w|<c$. The electromagnetic field invariants now have $E^2-c^2{B}^2<0$, allowing a purely magnetic inertial frame. The initial velocity is again $-w\hat{\mathbf{z}}$, perpendicular to ${\mathbf{B}}^{\prime }$. Since a magnetic field does no work, the electron's relativistic energy and speed in this inertial frame remain constant. Its trajectory is a circle in the $x^{\prime }{z}^{\prime }$ plane with Lorentz factor ${\gamma }_w$ and cyclotron frequency $\Omega =e{B}^{\prime }/({\gamma }_{w}m)$.

For $E,B>0$, set $\theta =\Omega t^{\prime }$ and $\rho =w/\Omega$. A parametrization with the correct initial velocity and Lorentz force isTransforming the world line back to the laboratory givesThe laboratory trajectory is a stretched cycloid, with cusps at $\theta =2\pi n$ where the electron is momentarily at rest. It first accelerates toward $-x$, then curves toward $+z$, returning to its original $x$ coordinate each cycle while advancing in $z$. Its mean drift is $\Delta z/\Delta t=w=E/B$, the E-cross-B drift. Its laboratory kinetic energy oscillates as the electric field does positive and then negative work; it does not grow indefinitely. The strict inequalities in the two branches exclude the null case $|E/B|=c$, where neither field can be removed by a finite Lorentz boost.