Propagation of ion-acoustic waves in a dusty plasma with non-isothermal electrons

Abstract

For an unmagnetised collisionless plasma consisting of warm ions, nonisothermal electrons and cold, massive and charged dust grains, the Sagdeev potential equation, considering both ion dynamics and dust dynamics has been derived. It has been observed that the Sagdeev potential V(ϕ) exists only for ϕ > 0 up to an upper limit (ϕ ≃ 1.2). This implies the possibility of existence of compressive solitary wave in the plasma. Exhaustive numerics done for both the large-amplitude and small-amplitude ion-acoustic waves have revealed that various parameters, namely, ion temperature, non-isothermality of electrons, Mach numbers etc. have considerable impact on the amplitude as well as the width of the solitary waves. Dependence of soliton profiles on the ion temperature and the Mach number has also been graphically displayed. Moreover, incorporating dust-charge fluctuation and non-isothermality of electrons, a non-linear equation relating the grain surface potential to the electrostatic potential has been derived. It has been solved numerically and interdependence of the two potentials for various ion temperatures and orders of non-isothermality has been shown graphically.