Nonlinear ion-acoustic waves in a degenerate plasma with nuclei of heavy elements

Abstract

The ion-acoustic (IA) solitary waves propagating in a fully relativistic degenerate dense plasma (containing relativistic degenerate electron and ion fluids, and immobile nuclei of heavy elements) have been theoretically investigated. The relativistic hydrodynamic model is used to derive the Korteweg-de Vries (K-dV) equation by the reductive perturbation method. The stationary solitary wave solution of this K-dV equation is obtained to characterize the basic features of the IA solitary structures that are found to exist in such a degenerate plasma. It is found that the effects of electron dynamics, relativistic degeneracy of the plasma fluids, stationary nuclei of heavy elements, etc., significantly modify the basic properties of the IA solitary structures. The implications of this results in astrophysical compact objects like white dwarfs are briefly discussed.