Ion-acoustic shock waves in a plasma with weakly relativistic warm ions, thermal positrons and a background electron nonextensivity

Abstract

A weakly nonlinear analysis is carried out to derive a Korteweg–de Vries-Burgers-like equation for small, but finite amplitude, ion-acoustic waves in a dissipative plasma consisting of weakly relativistic ions, thermal positrons and nonextensive electrons. The travelling wave solution has been acquired by employing the tangent hyperbolic method. Our results show that in a such plasma, ion-acoustic shock waves, the strength and steepness of which are significantly modified by relativistic, nonextensive and dissipative effects, may exist. Interestingly, we found that because of ion kinematic viscosity, an initial solitonic profile develops into a shock wave. This later evolves towards a monotonic profile (dissipation-dominant case) as the electrons deviate from their Maxwellian equilibrium. Our investigation may help to understand the dissipative structures that may occur in high-energy astrophysical plasmas.