Störmer problem restricted to a spherical surface and the Euler and Lagrange tops

Abstract

In a recent work, Cortés and Poza (2015 Eur. J. Phys. 36 055009) analysed, in full, the dynamics of a charged particle in the field of a magnetic dipole restricted to a spherical surface with the dipole at its centre. This model can be considered as the classical non-relativistic Störmer problem on a sphere. Here, we started from a Lagrangian approach: we derived the Hamilton equations of motion and observed that in this restricted case the equations can be reduced to quadratures, and they were integrated numerically. From the Hamiltonian function we found, for the polar angle, an equivalent one-dimensional system of a particle in the presence of an effective potential. In the present work we start from a change of variable to the cosine of the polar angle. In terms of this variable we obtain an equation that turns out to be the same as the one of a particle in a quartic potential. Then, we can actually solve the equations of motion for the polar angle using Jacobi elliptic functions, and for the azimuthal angle we use the same integrals which were expressed by Jacobi in terms of theta functions, both in the Euler and Lagrange tops. In this restricted Störmer problem, the student at undergraduate or graduate level will have a good example of an integrable nonlinear physical system in which, after analysis of its complex dynamics, one can obtain an analytical solution by means of some special functions of mathematical physics. Additionally, one discovers that the equations of motion of this restricted case of a charge in a magnetic dipole field have the same mathematical structure as the corresponding equations of other well known integrable classical dynamical systems.