| drift motion | <radiobiology> Ordinarily particles placed in a magnetic field will simply orbit in circles, but if the magnetic field is not uniform, or curves, or there is an electrical field perpendicular to the magnetic field, or another force is applied perpendicular to the magnetic field, then the guiding centres of the particle orbits will drift (generally perpendicular to the magnetic field and to the applied force). (09 Oct 1997) |
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| drift movements | Slow ocular movements of greater amplitude than flicks, occurring during ocular fixation. Synonym: drift movements. (05 Mar 2000) |
| drift pumping | <radiobiology> A process that removes ions trapped in a thermal barrier using radial transport induced by an externally-applied radiofrequency field tuned to resonate with the azimuthal drift frequency. (09 Oct 1997) |
| drift surface | <radiobiology> Surface on which the guiding centre of a particle is constrained to move, due to the effects of the laws of adiabatic invariance on its drift motion. (09 Oct 1997) |
| drift velocity | <radiobiology> Characteristic velocity at which the centre of a particle's orbit (guiding centre) drifts when drift motion (see above) occurs. (09 Oct 1997) |
| drift wave | <radiobiology> Oscillations in a magnetically-confined plasma arising in the presence of density gradients (such as at the plasma's surface). These resemble the waves that propagate at the interface of two fluids with different density in a gravitational field. (09 Oct 1997) |