Solitary kinetic Alfven waves in dusty plasmas

Journal Article · Fri Aug 15 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2975364· OSTI ID:21120545

Yangfang, Li ^[1]; Wu, D J ^[1]; Morfill, G E ^[2]

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1. Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing 210008 (China)
2. Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, 85748 Garching (Germany)

Solitary kinetic Alfven waves in dusty plasmas are studied by considering the dust charge variation. The effect of the dust charge-to-mass ratio on the soliton solution is discussed. The Sagdeev potential is derived analytically with constant dust charge and then calculated numerically by taking the dust charge variation into account. We show that the dust charge-to-mass ratio plays an important role in the soliton properties. The soliton solutions are comprised of two branches. One branch is sub-Alfvenic and the soliton velocity is obviously smaller than the Alfven speed. The other branch is super-Alfvenic and the soliton velocity is very close to or greater than the Alfven speed. Both compressive and rarefactive solitons can exist. For the sub-Alfvenic branch, the rarefactive soliton is bell-shaped and it is much narrower than the compressive one. However, for the super-Alfvenic branch, the compressive soliton is bell-shaped and narrower, and the rarefactive one is broadened. When the charge-to-mass ratio of the dust grains is sufficiently high, the width of the rarefactive soliton, in the super-Alfvenic branch, will broaden extremely and a electron depletion will be observed. It is also shown that the bell-shaped soliton can transition to a cusped structure when the velocity is sufficiently high.

• OSTI ID: 21120545
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 15; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALFVEN WAVES
DUSTS
ELECTRONS
MASS
PLASMA
SOLITONS
VARIATIONS
VELOCITY