Modulational instability of ion-acoustic waves in fully relativistic two-component plasma

Abstract

Nonlinear amplitude modulation of ion-acoustic waves (IAWs) in a fully relativistic unmagnetized two-fluid plasma has been theoretically studied by using complete set of fully relativistic dynamic equations. To describe the nonlinear evolution of the wave envelope a nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation is derived by using standard multiple scale perturbation technique. Using this equation it is shown that the wave becomes modulationally unstable as the wavenumber exceeds certain critical value. This critical wavenumber is found to decrease with increase in relativistic effect. The instability growth rate has also been calculated numerically for different values of plasma drift velocity. The growth rate is shown to decrease with increase in the relativistic effect.