Compress ions in velocity space with magnetic field?

[Sven Andersson]

I was just wondering if a beam of whatever charged particles can be compressed in velocity space if you send the beam through a (strong) magnetic field that is parallel to the beam? The charged particles (that are not moving exactly along the field lines) should spiral in the field in my opinion and through magnetobremsstrahlung loose energy and be reduced to moving only in the direction of the field. Is this correct? Is this used to 'cool' ion beams? Is a hideously strong magnetic field needed? Where can I read about this?

 

[mfb]

The effect is too small to be useful.

The regions of inhomogeneous field have a strong influence, and you can rotate your beam in the velocity space. Both effects can be used in particle accelerators, e. g. Beam Dynamics in High Energy Particle Accelerators, page 106+.