HAIT Journal of Science and Engineering
Volume 1, Issue 3, pp. 498-507
© 2004 Holon Academic Institute of Technology

 

Streamer propagation in magnetic field

Vladimir N. Zhuravlev1,*, Tsofar Maniv1,
Israel D. Vagner2,3, and Peter Wyder3

1Chemistry Department, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel
2Research Center for Quantum Communication Engineering
at Department of Communication Engineering,
Holon Academic Institute of Technology, 52 Golomb Str., Holon 58102, Israel
3Grenoble High Magnetic Fields Laboratory,
Max-Planck-Institute für Festkörperforschung and CNRS,
25 Avenue des Martyrs, BP166, F-38042, Grenoble, Cedex 9, France
*Corresponding author: chrvlzh@techunix.technion.ac.il
Received 1 April 2003, accepted 10 June 2004

 

The propagation of a streamer near an insulating surface under the influence of a transverse magnetic field is theoretically investigated. In the weak magnetic field limit it is shown that the trajectory of the streamer has a circular form with a radius much larger than the cyclotron radius of electron. The charge distribution within the streamer head is strongly polarized by the Lorentz force exerted perpendicular to the streamer velocity. A critical magnetic field for the branching of a streamer is estimated. Our results are in a good quantitative agreement with available experimental data.


PACS: 52.20.Dq, 52.80.Mg

 

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