Shock waves in magnetized plasmas with superthermal trapped electrons.

Abstract

Formation of ion-acoustic shock waves (IAShWs) and their propagation nature in a magnetized plasma in the presence of superthermal trapped electrons are investigated for the first time via the fluid dynamical approach. A magnetized plasma system, comprising of inertial ions and non-inertial electrons following κ-superthermal trapped distribution, is considered to examine the basic features (amplitude, width, phase speed, etc.) of IAShWs in such a plasma. A diffusion effect (due to the ion kinematic viscosity) is taken into account. The reductive perturbation technique is adopted to derive the modified Korteweg de-Vries Burgers’ (mKdVB) equation and the solution of mKdVB equation (derived by adopting the tangent hyperbolic method) is used to investigate the dynamical and structural characteristics (speed, amplitude, width, etc.) of IAShWs. The influence of relevant plasma (configuration) parameters (e.g., the superthermality index κ, concentration of trapped electrons, external magnetic field, and obliquity angle, etc.) on the nature of IAShWs is examined. The applications of the results in space and laboratory plasma environments, where nonthermal trapped electrons are available, are briefly discussed.