Relativistic ponderomotive force, uphill acceleration, and transition to chaos
plasm-ph
2009-10-30 v1 Plasma Physics
Abstract
Starting from a covariant cycle-averaged Lagrangian the relativistic oscillation center equation of motion of a point charge is deduced and analytical formulae for the ponderomotive force in a travelling wave of arbitrary strength are presented. It is further shown that the ponderomotive forces for transverse and longitudinal waves are different; in the latter, uphill acceleration can occur. In a standing wave there exists a threshold intensity above which, owing to transition to chaos, the secular motion can no longer be described by a regular ponderomotive force. PACS number(s): 52.20.Dq,05.45.+b,52.35.Mw,52.60.+h
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.plasm-ph/9604002,
title = {Relativistic ponderomotive force, uphill acceleration, and transition to chaos},
author = {D. Bauer and P. Mulser and W. -H. Steeb},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:plasm-ph/9604002},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
8 pages, RevTeX, 3 figures in PostScript, see also http://www.physik.th-darmstadt.de/tqe/