Paper 2, Section I, A

Electromagnetism
Part IB, 2015

In a constant electric field E=(E,0,0)\mathbf{E}=(E, 0,0) a particle of rest mass mm and charge q>0q>0 has position x\mathbf{x} and velocity x˙\dot{\mathbf{x}}. At time t=0t=0, the particle is at rest at the origin. Including relativistic effects, calculate x˙(t)\dot{\mathbf{x}}(t).

Sketch a graph of x˙(t)|\dot{\mathbf{x}}(t)| versus tt, commenting on the tt \rightarrow \infty limit.

Calculate x(t)|\mathbf{x}(t)| as an explicit function of tt and find the non-relativistic limit at small times tt.