Oblique propagation of arbitrary amplitude electron acoustic solitary waves in magnetized kappa-distributed plasmas

The linear and nonlinear properties of large amplitude electron-acoustic waves are investigated in a magnetized plasma comprising two distinct electron populations (hot and cold) and immobile ions. The hot electrons are assumed to be in a non-Maxwellian state, characterized by an excess of superthermal particles, here modelled by a kappa-type long-tailed distribution function. Waves are assumed to propagate obliquely to the ambient magnetic field. Two types of electrostatic modes are shown to exist in the linear regime, and their properties are briefly analyzed. A nonlinear pseudopotential type analysis reveals the existence of large amplitude electrostatic solitary waves and allows for an investigation of their propagation characteristics and existence domain, in terms of the soliton speed (Mach number). The effects of the key plasma configuration parameters, namely, the superthermality index and the cold electron density, on the soliton characteristics and existence domain, are studied. The role of obliqueness and magnetic field are discussed.Comment: Submitted to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusio

Comment on "Plasma ionization by annularly bounded helicon waves" [Phys . Plasmas 13, 063501 (2006)]

The neoclassical calculation of the helicon wave theory contains a fundamental flaw. Use is made of a proportional relationship between the magnetic field and its curl to derive the Helmholtz equation describing helicon wave propagation; however, by the fundamental theorem of Stokes, the curl of the magnetic field must be perpendicular to that portion of the field contributing to the local curl. Reexamination of the equations of motion indicates that only electromagnetic waves propagate through a stationary region of constant pressure in a fully ionized, neutral medium.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Phys. Plasmas, http://link.aip.org/link/?PHPAEN/16/054701/

Obliquely propagating large amplitude solitary waves in charge neutral plasmas

International audienceThis paper deals in a consistent way with the implications, for the existence of large amplitude stationary structures in general plasmas, of assuming strict charge neutrality between electrons and ions. With the limit of pair plasmas in mind, electron inertia is retained. Combining in a fluid dynamic treatment the conservation of mass, momentum and energy with strict charge neutrality has indicated that nonlinear solitary waves (as e.g. oscillitons) cannot exist in electron-ion plasmas, at no angle of propagation with respect to the static magnetic field. Specifically for oblique propagation, the proof has turned out to be more involved than for parallel or perpendicular modes. The only exception is pair plasmas that are able to support large charge neutral solitons, owing to the high degree of symmetry naturally inherent in such plasmas. The nonexistence, in particular, of oscillitons is attributed to the breakdown of the plasma approximation in dealing with Poisson's law, rather than to relativistic effects. It is hoped that future space observations will allow to discriminate between oscillitons and large wave packets, by focusing on the time variability (or not) of the phase, since the amplitude or envelope graphs look very similar

Chaotic pulsations in variable stars with harmonic mode coupling

Some variable stars show multi-periodic behaviour with, among others, peaks in their power spectra at harmonically spaced frequencies with ratios 1:2:4. Such modes are nonlinearly coupled by two second-harmonic interactions and their amplitude equations are shown by a Painlevé analysis to be nonintegrable in a hamiltonian sense. Chaotic phenomena are thus expected, especially when other modes and dissipation are included. An example of stars to which this might apply is G191–16 among the variable white dwarfs

Reply to J. F. McKenzie et al.'s comment on "Obliquely propagating large amplitude solitary waves in charge neutral plasmas"

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Necessary conditions for the generation of acoustic solitons in magnetospheric and space plasmas with hot ions

International audienceNecessary conditions are discussed for the possible generation of large solitary acoustic modes in plasmas with one or more ion species which are hotter than some or all of the electron species. The analysis is based on a fluid dynamic approach. It is found that in most of these configurations the existence ranges for the solitary wave velocities are very narrow and close to one of the thermal velocities. In the latter situation, linear Landau damping may prevent the generation of nonlinear structures. The analysis indicates that both inertial and thermal effects for the ions need to be kept in the description, thus rendering an analytical investigation much more intricate

Experimental study of nonlinear dust acoustic solitary waves in a dusty plasma

The excitation and propagation of finite amplitude low frequency solitary waves are investigated in an Argon plasma impregnated with kaolin dust particles. A nonlinear longitudinal dust acoustic solitary wave is excited by pulse modulating the discharge voltage with a negative potential. It is found that the velocity of the solitary wave increases and the width decreases with the increase of the modulating voltage, but the product of the solitary wave amplitude and the square of the width remains nearly constant. The experimental findings are compared with analytic soliton solutions of a model Kortweg-de Vries equation.Comment: The manuscripts includes six figure

Whistler oscillitons revisited: the role of charge neutrality?

International audienceWhen studying transverse modes propagating parallel to a static magnetic field, an apparent contradiction arises between the weakly nonlinear results obtained from the derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation, predicting envelope solitons (where the amplitude is stationary in the wave frame, but the phase is not), and recent results for whistler oscillitons, indicating that really stationary structures of large amplitude are possible. Revisiting this problem in the fluid dynamic approach, care has been taken not to introduce charge neutrality from the outset, because this not only neglects electric stresses compared to magnetic stresses, which is reasonable, but could also imply from Poisson's equation a vanishing of the wave electric field. Nevertheless, the fixed points of the remaining equations are the same, whether charge neutrality is assumed from the outset or not, so that the solitary wave solutions at not too large amplitudes will be very similar. This is borne out by numerical simulations of the solutions under the two hypotheses, showing that the lack of correspondence with the DNLS envelope solitons indicates the limitations of the reductive perturbation approach, and is not a consequence of assuming charge neutrality

Study of nonlinear ion- and electron-acoustic waves in multi-component space plasmas

Large amplitude ion-acoustic and electron-acoustic waves in an unmagnetized multi-component plasma system consisting of cold background electrons and ions, a hot electron beam and a hot ion beam are studied using Sagdeev pseudo-potential technique. Three types of solitary waves, namely, slow ion-acoustic, ion-acoustic and electron-acoustic solitons are found provided the Mach numbers exceed the critical values. The slow ion-acoustic solitons have the smallest critical Mach numbers, whereas the electron-acoustic solitons have the largest critical Mach numbers. For the plasma parameters considered here, both type of ion-acoustic solitons have positive potential whereas the electron-acoustic solitons can have either positive or negative potential depending on the fractional number density of the cold electrons relative to that of the ions (or total electrons) number density. For a fixed Mach number, increases in the beam speeds of either hot electrons or hot ions can lead to reduction in the amplitudes of the ion-and electron-acoustic solitons. However, the presence of hot electron and hot ion beams have no effect on the amplitudes of slow ion-acoustic modes. Possible application of this model to the electrostatic solitary waves (ESWs) observed in the plasma sheet boundary layer is discussed