Paper 3, Section II, 36C

Electrodynamics | Part II, 2021

(a) Derive the Larmor formula for the total power PP emitted through a large sphere of radius RR by a non-relativistic particle of mass mm and charge qq with trajectory x(t)\mathbf{x}(t). You may assume that the electric and magnetic fields describing radiation due to a source localised near the origin with electric dipole moment p(t)\mathbf{p}(t) can be approximated as

BRad(x,t)=μ04πrcx^×p¨(tr/c)ERad(x,t)=cx^×BRad(x,t)\begin{aligned} &\mathbf{B}_{\operatorname{Rad}}(\mathbf{x}, t)=-\frac{\mu_{0}}{4 \pi r c} \widehat{\mathbf{x}} \times \ddot{\mathbf{p}}(t-r / c) \\ &\mathbf{E}_{\mathrm{Rad}}(\mathbf{x}, t)=-c \widehat{\mathbf{x}} \times \mathbf{B}_{\operatorname{Rad}}(\mathbf{x}, t) \end{aligned}

Here, the radial distance r=xr=|\mathbf{x}| is assumed to be much larger than the wavelength of emitted radiation which, in turn, is large compared to the spatial extent of the source.

(b) A non-relativistic particle of mass mm, moving at speed vv along the xx-axis in the positive direction, encounters a step potential of width LL and height V0>0V_{0}>0 described by

V(x)={0,x<0f(x),0xLV0,x>LV(x)= \begin{cases}0, & x<0 \\ f(x), & 0 \leqslant x \leqslant L \\ V_{0}, & x>L\end{cases}

where f(x)f(x) is a monotonically increasing function with f(0)=0f(0)=0 and f(L)=V0f(L)=V_{0}. The particle carries charge qq and loses energy by emitting electromagnetic radiation. Assume that the total energy loss through emission ΔERad \Delta E_{\text {Rad }} is negligible compared with the particle's initial kinetic energy E=mv2/2E=m v^{2} / 2. For E>V0E>V_{0}, show that the total energy lost is

ΔERad=q2μ06πm2cm20Ldx1Ef(x)(dfdx)2\Delta E_{\mathrm{Rad}}=\frac{q^{2} \mu_{0}}{6 \pi m^{2} c} \sqrt{\frac{m}{2}} \int_{0}^{L} d x \frac{1}{\sqrt{E-f(x)}}\left(\frac{d f}{d x}\right)^{2}

Find the total energy lost also for the case E<V0E<V_{0}.

(c) Take f(x)=V0x/Lf(x)=V_{0} x / L and explicitly evaluate the particle energy loss ΔERad \Delta E_{\text {Rad }} in each of the cases E>V0E>V_{0} and E<V0E<V_{0}. What is the maximum value attained by ΔERad \Delta E_{\text {Rad }} as EE is varied?

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