# Is a charged particle at rest affected by magnetic field?

It is known that particles such as electrons and protons bear electric charge, but not a magnetic charge. When these particles are at rest, are they somehow affected by magnetic field?

The similar question applies to neutrons: are they affected by electric field?

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Electrons and protons have no "magnetic charge", but they do have magnetic moment. They experiences forces in non-uniform magnetic field. –  C.R. Mar 24 '12 at 7:07

Depends on what how far you are willing to go. If you have a solenoid with a uniform time-varying magnetic field, then an electric field is induced by Faraday's law. It will be a circular field, and will make an electron at rest spiral. So the electron at rest is affected by a time-varying magnetic field, though indirectly--via an induced electric field.

Without considering induced fields: An electron will align its spin with a uniform magnetic field, and if the field is nonuniform, it will move along with it. This is because the electron has a magnetic "spin" or dipole moment,

As far as neutrons are concerned, it depends if they have an electric dipole moment(afaict unknown). But, they can be affected in a similar manner by time-varying nonuniform electric fields, since they also have a magnetic moment.

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Thanks. Hence zero (total) magnetic charge does not mean that particle is not affected by magnetic field. –  Murod Abdukhakimov Mar 24 '12 at 8:23
@MurodAbdukhakimov yep. There's no such thing as a magnetic monopole--with net magnetic charge(well, not experimentally verified yet). Magnetic dipoles exist--these have no net magnetic charge, but can be thought of as pairs of opposing charge. –  Manishearth Mar 24 '12 at 8:29
It is not. The force on it goes like $F_{\rm Mag} = q\,{\mathbf v} \times {\mathbf B}$ and so if the velocity ${\mathbf v} = {\mathbf 0}$ the force will vanish.