QM theory of the thermal electron gyroradius

Abstract

The average (thermal) gyroradius of charged particles is re-examined from a quantum-mechanical point of view. The straight quantum-mechanical calculation clearly reproduces its conventionally used random-mean-square (rms) expectation value. The quasi-classical approach reproduces its mean expectation value as well thus confirming the purely classical calculation. It shows that the fluctuations in the gyroradius amount to 21.5% of its rms value. This fluctuation is, however, within the usual $\sqrt{2}$-"freedom" range of choice in the definition of the rms gyroradius respectively the mean thermal speed on which the rms value is based, its correct (nonrelativistic) value $v_t^2=2T_{\perp }/m_e$ and its simplified version $v_t^2=T_{\perp }/m_e$.

4 pages, no figures

References in corpus (1)

• Covariant Thermodynamics of an Object with Finite Volume