Propagation and Interaction of Ion-Acoustic Solitary Waves in a Two-Dimensional Plasma Consisting of Isothermal Electrons and Hot Ions

Abstract

We study the propagation and interaction of ion-acoustic solitary waves in a simple two-dimensional plasma by using the extended Poincaré–Lighthill–Kuo perturbation method. We consider the interaction between two ion-acoustic solitary waves with different propagation directions in such a system, and obtain two Korteweg-de Vries equations for small but finite amplitude solitary waves along both ξ and η trajectories. The effects of the ratio of ion temperature σ, the ratio of heat capacity γ and the colliding angle α. on the amplitude, the width of the new nonlinear wave created by the collision between two solitary waves are studied. The effects of these parameters on both the colliding solitary waves are examined as well. It is found that all the above-mentioned parameters have significant effects on the properties of these nonlinear waves.