13.

3 Effect of Terrestrial Magnetic Field 283

where 7 is the relaxation time, i.e. the mean time interval between successive
collisions of the particle with other particles. We put
< = x' + iy', so that (r' x Be)x= y'Be (13.16)

and
E = Ex+ iEy (13.17)
and define the Larmor f r e q u e n c y WL by
qB, = mwL (or mwL cos 0,). (13.18)

The equation of motion then leads to

or
(13.19)

Setting

1 1
E - -Eo cos(wt - kz), E9 = f-Eosin(wt - k z ) , (13.20)
" - 2 2
where the latter are the x,y-components of the real part of ( e x ey
, again unit
vectors)
1 i(kJt-lc2)
E R ( Z , t ) = 5E0(ex7 iey)e 7 (13.21)
L
i.e.
1 1
EE,(z, t ) = -230 cos(wt - k z ) e x f -Eo sin(wt - kz)ey
L 2 2
= Exex f Eyey.

These waves are described as right polarised and left polarised respectively.
The sum
E~ + E~ = Eoe'(wt-'z) e x ,
or its real part
E(ER+ EL)= Eo cos(wt - Icz)e,
represents a linearly polarised wave in the direction of z. With