Ion-acoustic solitary waves in a relativistic plasma
- Department of Physics, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735 (Korea, Republic of)
The possibility of an ion-acoustic solitary wave in a relativistic plasma comprised of hot electrons and cold ions is investigated by Sagdeev's pseudopotential method using a set of fully relativistic two-fluid equations. In the nonrelativistic limit, the general relativistic conditions for the existence of solitary waves found in the present study reduces exactly to the well known expressions for the nonrelativistic conditions. It is found by a graphical method that as the flow velocity of the plasma increases, the shape of the solitary wave becomes sharper and more prominent if the flow velocity is larger than the solitary-wave velocity. In the case in which the flow velocity is smaller than the solitary-wave velocity, however, the solitary wave is more pronounced for smaller flow velocity. It is also found that, for a fixed flow velocity, the sharpness and the height of the solitary wave decrease as the temperature increases as in nonrelativistic plasmas. Unlike in nonrelativistic plasmas, the present study predicts the existence of nonmoving soliton-like electrostatic structures.
- OSTI ID:
- 20974830
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 14, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2536581; (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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