ExB_drift

plasmapy.formulary.drifts.ExB_drift( E: Annotated[Quantity, Unit('V / m')], B: Annotated[Quantity, Unit('T')], ) → Annotated[Quantity, Unit('m / s')][source]

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

Notes

The E × B drift is given by

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

and is independent of particle charge.

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>