Arbitrary amplitude fast electron-acoustic solitons in three-electron component space plasmas

Abstract

We examine the characteristics of fast electron-acoustic solitons in a four-component unmagnetised plasma model consisting of cool, warm, and hot electrons, and cool ions. We retain the inertia and pressure for all the plasma species by assuming adiabatic fluid behaviour for all the species. By using the Sagdeev pseudo-potential technique, the allowable Mach number ranges for fast electron-acoustic solitary waves are explored and discussed. It is found that the cool and warm electron number densities determine the polarity switch of the fast electron-acoustic solitons which are limited by either the occurrence of fast electron-acoustic double layers or warm and hot electron number density becoming unreal. For the first time in the study of solitons, we report on the coexistence of fast electron-acoustic solitons, in addition to the regular fast electron-acoustic solitons and double layers in our multi-species plasma model. Our results are applied to the generation of broadband electrostatic noise in the dayside auroral region.