Single-Particle Motion: Drifts in E and B
A charged particle obeying , integrated with the Boris pusher, a time-reversible leapfrog that conserves the speed exactly in a pure magnetic field. In a uniform the orbit is a helix at the cyclotron frequency . Add a perpendicular and the guiding centre drifts at , the same for every charge and mass. A gradient or curvature of gives the grad-B and curvature drifts; a converging field (a magnetic bottle) reflects the particle, conserving the adiabatic invariant . The trail is the real 3D orbit drawn in an orthographic Canvas2D projection (deterministic and gate-robust; the 3D motion is honestly a projection, not a WebGL scene). The headline readouts are (constant to in pure ) and .
preset
B strength1.00
charge
speed3
|v|0
mu0
omega_c0
aux-
000-WHAT TO TRY
- Vary each control and watch the rail readouts respond.
- Compare the diagnostic plot against the live scene.