Ion-acoustic solitons and double layers in a two-electron temperature plasma with hot isothermal electrons and cold ions

Abstract

It is found that a two-electron temperature plasma with isothermal electrons and cold ions admits both compressive and rarefactive solitons, as well as compressive and rarefactive double layers (depending on the concentration of low-temperature electrons). In this paper, a Korteweg–de Vries (K-dV) equation and a K-dV-type equation with cubic and fourth-order nonlinearity at the critical density of the low-temperature isothermal electrons are derived to discuss the properties of ion-acoustic solitons in a two-electron temperature plasma. In the vicinity of the critical electron density of low-temperature isothermal electrons, we have derived a K-dV-type equation with mixed nonlinearity, and the solution of this equation will have both compressive and rarefactive double layers for those values of critical electron density of low-temperature electrons for which ion-acoustic solitons do not exist. By using quasipotential analysis, critical Mach numbers M1c and M2c are obtained such that compressive ion-acoustic solitons exist when 1<M<M1c and rarefactive ion-acoustic solitons exist when 1<M<M2c.