Perpendicular propagation of electromagnetic solitons in magnetized thermal pair plasmas

Abstract

The properties of perpendicularly propagating large amplitude electromagnetic solitons are investigated in a thermal, magnetized pair plasma. To obtain a tractable description, these solitons are assumed to be charge neutral and have a linearly polarized magnetic field, and thus represent the nonlinear extension of part of the linear extraordinary mode. From a Sagdeev pseudopotential analysis it transpires that these solitons are compressive and characterized by a wave magnetic field parallel to the static field. The existence domain in compositional parameter space shows pressure-dependent maxima for the soliton velocities, densities and total magnetic field. Physically, an increase in pressure yields a decrease in the acceptable maxima. This is also illustrated on typical pseudopotential and soliton profiles.