Cylindrical and spherical ion acoustic waves in a plasma with nonthermal electrons and warm ions

Abstract

Using the reductive perturbation technique, nonlinear cylindrical and spherical Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) and modified KdV equations are derived for ion acoustic waves in an unmagnetized plasma consisting of warm adiabatic ions and nonthermal electrons. The effects of nonthermally distributed electrons on cylindrical and spherical ion acoustic waves are investigated. It is found that the nonthermality has a very significant effect on the nature of ion acoustic waves.