Evolution of relativistic solitons in underdense plasmas

Abstract

Relativistic solitons arising from the interaction of an intense laser pulse with underdense plasmas are investigated. We show the formation and evolution of the relativistic solitons in a collisionless cold plasma with two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Such a kind of solitons will evolve into postsolitons if the time scale is longer than the ion response time. Generally, a substantial part of the pulse energy is transformed into solitons during the soliton formation. This fairly high efficiency of electromagnetic energy transformation can play an important role in the interaction between the laser pulse and the plasma. The energy exchange between the electromagnetic field and the kinetic energy of the soliton is discussed. In homogeneous plasmas, the solitons tend to stay close to the region where they are generated and dissipate due to the interaction with surrounding particles eventually. While the laser pulse propagates through inhomogeneous plasmas, the solitons are accelerated along the plasma density gradient towards lower density.