Magnetic transport and chaotic orbits of charged particles

TL;DR

This paper investigates electron trajectories in electromagnetic fields beyond the adiabatic approximation, classifying orbits into regular, quasiperiodic, and chaotic, and discusses implications for neutrino experiments.

Contribution

It applies Stormer theory to analyze non-adiabatic electron orbits, highlighting the prevalence of chaotic behavior and its potential impact on neutrino physics measurements.

Findings

Regular orbits are measure zero among all possible orbits.

Most orbits are chaotic or hyperchaotic, or involve scattering.

Spectral changes from Stormer theory may influence neutrino mass limits.

Abstract

I study electron movement in electromagnetic fields beyond the adiabatic approximation, using so-called Stormer theory. Some of the electron orbits are regular or integrable, but their measure is zero. Other orbits, called quasiperiodic, are unstable, but only for infinite times. All other orbits are chaotic or hyperchaotic, or simple scattering states. Examples for typical electron orbits are given for all these cases. An open question still is whether the spectral changes due to Stormer will translate into changes in the limits on neutrino masses and on errors in neutrino-electron correlation experiments.