Double layers in an inhomogeneous magnetized bi‐ion plasma

Abstract

A simpler analytical approach is employed to obtain energy integral equation for a pseudo‐particle in a pseudo‐potential, which admits double layer (DL) solutions for the non‐linear low‐frequency electrostatic perturbations in non‐uniform plasma consisting of electrons and two kinds of ions. One of the ion species has field‐aligned shear flow and electrons are superthermal kappa distributed. This theoretical model is applied to the upper ionospheric oxygen‐dominated plasma that has small concentration of protons along with upward flow of oxygen ions. Under suitable boundary conditions, both rarefactive (density dip) and compressive (density hump) DLs are obtained solving energy integral equation using the plasma parameters of ionosphere around altitude of 800 km. The amplitude and width of the DLs depend upon the scale lengths of density and temperature gradients as well as on the ratio of equilibrium densities of oxygen and hydrogen.