Study of the relativistic charged particle beam propagation in Earth's magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how relativistic charged particle beams behave in Earth's magnetic field, focusing on their trajectories, uncertainties, and the magnetic pinch effect, with implications for space debris removal applications.

Contribution

It introduces models for charged particle beam propagation in Earth's magnetic field using COMSOL and IGRF, highlighting the magnetic pinch effect's role in beam focusing.

Findings

Gyro-radius and uncertainty vary with altitude.

Magnetic pinch effect limits beam spreading.

Beam spot divergence can be simulated accurately.

Abstract

Relativistic charged particle beam can be used as destructive beam weapons in space for debris removal tasks. The trajectories of charged particles are affected by both electric and magnetic forces in the Earth's magnetic field. In this paper, we firstly analyzed the correlation parameters of the charged particle beam as a weapon when it propagated in the geomagnetic field. Then the models were constructed based on COMSOL Multiphysics and the IGRF model was adopted in the simulation. The gyro-radius and the related uncertainty were analyzed by simulation of the charged particle transport in the geomagnetic field at different altitudes. The charged beam spot radius divergency was also simulated. The magnetic field pinch effect can be found and can limit the beam spreading.