Derivation
If the charged particle is moving, then it will experience a Lorentz force given by:
where is the velocity vector, is the magnetic field vector, and is the particle's electric charge.
Notice that the direction of the force is given by the cross product of the velocity and magnetic field. Thus, the Lorentz force will always act perpendicular to the direction of motion, causing the particle to move in a circle (gyrate). The radius of this circle can be determined by equating the magnitude of the Lorentz force to the centripetal force:
where
- is the particle mass (for high velocities the relativistic mass),
- is the velocity component perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field, and
- is the strength of the field.
Solving for, the gyroradius is determined to be:
Thus, the gyroradius is directly proportional to the particle mass and velocity, and inversely proportional to the particle electric charge, and the magnetic field strength.
Read more about this topic: Gyroradius