Planar dust-acoustic waves in electron-positron-ion-dust plasmas with dust size distribution

Abstract

Nonlinear dust-acoustic solitary waves which are described with a Kortweg-de vries (KdV) equation by using the reductive perturbation method, are investigated in a planar unmagnetized dusty plasma consisting of electrons, positrons, ions and negatively-charged dust particles of different sizes and masses. The effects of the power-law distribution of dust and other plasma parameters on the dust-acoustic solitary waves are studied. Numerical results show that the dust size distribution has a significant influence on the propagation properties of dust-acoustic solitons. The amplitudes of solitary waves in the case of a power-law distribution is observed to be smaller, but the soliton velocity and width are observed to be larger, than those of mono-sized dust grains with an average dust size. Our results indicate that only compressed solitary waves exist in dusty plasma with different dust species. The relevance of the present investigation to interstellar clouds is discussed.