Theory and particle simulation of nonlinear double layers in a magnetized plasma

Abstract

Theoretical investigation and particle simulation of obliquely propagating nonlinear double layers (NDLs) of nonmonotonic type are performed in a magnetized plasma, which consists of a positively charged ion fluid and trapped, as well as free electrons. The modified Zakharov-Kuznetsov equation is derived by the usual reductive perturbation technique in a three-dimensional system. A nonlinear double layer solution is presented. Furthermore using Sagdeev’s pseudopotential technique, nonlinear double layer solution, which is associated with a set of nonlinear eigenvalue conditions, is also presented. These solutions are the analytic extensions of the monotonic double layers and solitary holes. The effects of physical parameters of nonlinear double layers are discussed. In particle simulations of a current driven system, physical relations among the obliqueness, the propagating velocity, the inverse scale length, and the maximum potential are investigated. The maximum potential and the width of the NDL decreases as the degree of the angle increases. In a chosen field, a decrease of potential width (or maximum potential) is clearly shown in the case of less than 10°. Variation of propagating velocity is clearly shown in the range of 10°–16°. Particle simulations are performed with an axially bounded electrostatic particle-in-cell code XPDP1, which is a workstation version of a one-dimensional bounded plasma code PDW1 [J. Comput. Phys. 80, 253 (1989)]. These particle simulation results are in good agreement with the qualitative theoretical results.