Analytical solution for nonplanar waves in a plasma with q-nonextensive nonthermal velocity distribution: Weighted residual method

Abstract

Abstract The basic nonlinear equations describing the dynamics of a two component plasma consisting of cold positive ions and electrons obeying hybrid q- nonextensive nonthermal velocity distribution are examined in the cylindrical(spherical) coordinates through the use of reductive perturbation method and the cylindrical(spherical) KdV and the modified KdV equations are obtained. An approximate analytical method for the progressive wave solution is presented for these evolution equation in the sense of weighted residual method. It is observed that both amplitudes and the wave speeds decrease with the time parameter τ. Since the wave profiles change with τ, the waves cannot be treated as solitons. It is further observed that the amplitudes of spherical waves are larger than those of the cylindrical waves; and the wave amplitudes of modified KdV equation are much larger than those of the KdV equation. The effects of physical parameters (α, q) on the wave characteristics are also discussed.