Relativistic Acceleration of Charged Particles by an Electromagnetic Pulse

Abstract

The kinetic energy imparted to a charged particle by an electromagnetic pulse is $\frac{1}{2}{q}^2{\phi }^2{\mathrm{/mc}}^2$ , where $\phi$ is the “magnetic flux” in the pulse. The particle can acquire any velocity $\mathrm{<\hspace{0.17em}c}$ in the propagation direction, but not more than $2^{\text{−1/2}}c$ in the transverse direction. An ionized medium is able to perturb the wave significantly whenever ${\omega }^2{\mathrm{<\omega }}_p^2$ , no matter how powerful the wave.