Current interruption in a collisionless plasma by non-linear electrostatic waves

Abstract

The existence of current-interrupting non-linear electrostatic waves in the form of negative solitons is demonstrated. Self-consistent, non-linear electrostatic potentials are constructed assuming that a current may be interrupted by trapping current-carrying electrons in such a potential. A significant fraction of the current-carrying electrons is trapped by the potential if the electron thermal velocity is much less than the electron streaming velocity. In one class of solutions, the negative solitons, the current may be reduced to a fourth of its initial value in the limit of high ion-electron temperature ratio.