ExB_drift¶

plasmapy.formulary.drifts.ExB_drift(E: Unit(‘V / m’), B: Unit(‘T’))¶

Calculate the “electric cross magnetic” particle drift.

Aliases: veb_

Parameters

E (Quantity) – Electric field vector
B (Quantity) – Magnetic field vector

Returns

v – Drift velocity, in m/s

Return type

Quantity

Examples

>>> import astropy.units as u
>>> ex = np.array([1, 0, 0])
>>> ey = np.array([0, 1, 0])
>>> ExB_drift(ex * u.V/u.m, ey * u.T)
<Quantity [0., 0., 1.] m / s>
>>> ExB_drift(ex * u.V/u.m, ex * u.T)
<Quantity [0., 0., 0.] m / s>
>>> ExB_drift(ex * u.V/u.m, 100 * ey * u.T)
<Quantity [0.  , 0.  , 0.01] m / s>

Notes

The E cross B drift is given by

\[\vec{v} = \frac{\vec{E} \times \vec{B}}{|B|^2}\]

and is independent of particle charge.

References

PM Bellan, Fundamentals of Plasma Physics, 3.57