Collisionless Unmagnetized Plasma Research Articles

Exact evaluation of the quadratic longitudinal response function for an unmagnetized Maxwellian plasma

The quadratic longitudinal response function describes the second-order nonlinear response of a plasma to electrostatic wave fields. An explicit expression for this function in the weak-turbulence regime requires the evaluation of velocity-space integrals involving the velocity distribution function and various resonant denominators. Previous calculations of the quadratic longitudinal response function were performed by approximating the resonant denominators to facilitate the integration. Here, we evaluate these integrals exactly for a non-relativistic collisionless unmagnetized isotropic Maxwellian plasma in terms of generalized plasma dispersion functions, and correct certain aspects of expressions previously derived for these functions. We show that in the appropriate limits the exact expression reduces to the approximate form used for interactions between two fast waves and one slow wave, such as the electrostatic decay of Langmuir waves into Langmuir waves and ion sound waves, and the scattering of Langmuir waves off thermal ions.

Time-fractional study of electron acoustic solitary waves in plasma of cold electron and two isothermal ions

AbstractIn this paper, a homogeneous system of unmagnetized collisionless plasma consisting of a cold electron fluid, low-temperature ion obeying Boltzmann-type distribution and high-temperature ion obeying non-thermal distribution is considered. The perturbation method with two different forms of stretching will be considered to drive the KdV and modified KdV (mKdV) equations. The Agrawal's method is applied to formulate the time-fractional KdV and mKdV equations. A variational iteration method is used to solve these equations. The results show that the fractional order of the differential equations can be used to modify the shape of the solitary pulse instead of adding higher order dissipation terms to the equations. This study may be useful to construct the compressive and rarefactive electrostatic potential pulses associated with the broadband electrostatic noise type emissions.

Cylindrical ion-acoustic solitary waves in electronegative plasmas with superthermal electrons

By using the standard reductive perturbation technique, a three-dimensional cylindrical Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation (CKPE), which governs the dynamics of ion acoustic solitary waves (IASWs), is derived for small but finite amplitude ion-acoustic waves in cylindrical geometry in a collisionless unmagnetized plasma with kappa distributed electrons, thermal positrons, and cold ions. The generalized expansion method is used to solve analytically the CKPE. The existence regions of localized pulses are investigated. It is found that the solution of the CKPE supports only compressive solitary waves. Furthermore, the effects of superthermal electrons, the ratio of the electron temperature to positron temperature, the ratio of the positron density to electron density and direction cosine of the wave propagation on the profiles of the amplitudes, and widths of the solitary structures are examined numerically. It is shown these parameters play a vital role in the formation of ion acoustic solitary waves.

Ion-acoustic waves in unmagnetized collisionless weakly relativistic plasma of warm-ion and isothermal-electron using time-fractional KdV equation

Collisionless unmagnetized plasma consisting of a mixture of warm ion-fluid and isothermal-electron is considered, assuming that the ion flow velocity has a weak relativistic effect. The reductive perturbation method has been employed to derive the Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation for small – but finite-amplitude electrostatic ion-acoustic waves in this plasma. The semi-inverse method and Agrawal’s method lead to the Euler–Lagrange equation that leads to the time fractional KdV equation. The variational-iteration method given by He is used to solve the derived time fractional KdV equation. The calculations show that the fractional order may play the same rule of higher order dissipation in KdV equation to modulate the soliton wave amplitude in the plasma system. The results of the present investigation may be applicable to some plasma environments, such as space-plasmas, laser-plasma interaction, plasma sheet boundary layer of the earth’s magnetosphere, solar atmosphere and interplanetary space.

Time-fractional KdV equation for plasma of two different temperature electrons and stationary ion

Using the time-fractional KdV equation, the nonlinear properties of small but finite amplitude electron-acoustic solitary waves are studied in a homogeneous system of unmagnetized collisionless plasma. This plasma consists of cold electrons fluid, non-thermal hot electrons, and stationary ions. Employing the reductive perturbation technique and the Euler-Lagrange equation, the time-fractional KdV equation is derived and it is solved using variational method. It is found that the time-fractional parameter significantly changes the soliton amplitude of the electron-acoustic solitary waves. The results are compared with the structures of the broadband electrostatic noise observed in the dayside auroral zone.

Solitary, explosive and periodic solutions for electron acoustic solitary waves with non-thermal hot ions

A theoretical investigation has been made for electron acoustic waves propagating in a system of unmagnetized collisionless plasma consists of a cold electron fluid and ions with two different temperatures in which the hot ions obey the non-thermal distribution. The reductive perturbation method has been employed to derive the Korteweg–de Vries equation for small but finite amplitude electrostatic waves. It is found that the presence of the energetic population of non-thermal hot ions δ, initial normalized equilibrium density of low temperature ions μ and the ratio of temperatures of low temperature ions to high temperature ions β do not only significantly modify the basic properties of solitary structure, but also change the polarity of the solitary profiles. At the critical hot ions density, the KdV equation is not appropriate for describing the system. Hence, a new set of stretched coordinates is considered to derive the modified KdV equation. In the vicinity of the critical hot ions density, neither KdV nor modified KdV equation is appropriate for describing the electron acoustic waves. Therefore, a further modified KdV equation is derived. An algebraic method with computerized symbolic computation, which greatly exceeds the applicability of the existing tanh, extended tanh methods in obtaining a series of exact solutions of the various KdV-type equations, is used here. Numerical studies have been reveals different solutions e.g., bell-shaped solitary pulses, singular solitary “blowup” solutions, Jacobi elliptic doubly periodic wave, Weierstrass elliptic doubly periodic type solutions, in addition to explosive pulses. The results of the present investigation may be applicable to some plasma environments, such as Earth’s magnetotail region.

Effect of the presence of excess superthermal hot electrons on electron-acoustic solitary waves in auroral zone plasma

A theoretical investigation is carried out for the nonlinear properties of small amplitude electron acoustic solitary waves (EAWs) in an unmagnetized collisionless plasma consisting of a cold electron fluid and hot electrons obeying κ velocity distribution, and stationary ions. The Korteweg de Vries (KdV) equation that contains the lowest-order nonlinearity and dispersion is derived from the lowest order of perturbation and a linear inhomogeneous (KdV-type) equation that accounts for the higher-order nonlinearity and dispersion is obtained. A stationary solution for equations resulting from higher-order perturbation theory has been found using the renormalization method. The effects of the spectral index κ and the higher-order corrections are found to significantly change the properties (viz. the amplitude, width, electric field ) of the EASWs. A comparison with the Viking Satellite observations in the dayside auroral zone are also discussed.

Nonplanar ion acoustic waves with kappa-distributed electrons

Using the standard reductive perturbation technique, nonlinear cylindrical and spherical Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equations are derived for the propagation of ion acoustic solitary waves in an unmagnetized collisionless plasma with kappa distributed electrons and warm ions. The influence of kappa-distributed electrons and the effects caused by the transverse perturbation on cylindrical and spherical ion acoustic waves (IAWs) are investigated. It is observed that increase in the kappa distributed electrons (i.e., decreasing κ) decreases the amplitude of the solitary electrostatic potential structures. The numerical results are presented to understand the formation of ion acoustic solitary waves with kappa-distributed electrons in nonplanar geometry. The present investigation may have relevance in the study of propagation of IAWs in space and laboratory plasmas.

Ion-acoustic waves in plasma of warm ions and isothermal electrons using time-fractional KdV equation

The ion-acoustic solitary wave in collisionless unmagnetized plasma consisting of warm ions-fluid and isothermal electrons is studied using the time fractional KdV equation. The reductive perturbation method has been employed to derive the Korteweg-de Vries equation for small but finite amplitude ion-acoustic wave in warm plasma. The Lagrangian of the time fractional KdV equation is used in a similar form to the Lagrangian of the regular KdV equation with fractional derivative for the time differentiation. The variation of the functional of this Lagrangian leads to the Euler—Lagrange equation that gives the time fractional KdV equation. The variational-iteration method is used to solve the derived time fractional KdV equation. The calculations of the solution are carried out for different values of the time fractional order. These calculations show that the time fractional can be used to modulate the electrostatic potential wave instead of adding a higher order dissipation term to the KdV equation. The results of the present investigation may be applicable to some plasma environments, such as the ionosphere plasma.

First-order thermal correction to the quadratic response tensor and rate for second harmonic plasma emission

Three-wave interactions in plasmas are described, in the framework of kinetic theory, by the quadratic response tensor (QRT). The cold-plasma QRT is a common approximation for interactions between three fast waves. Here, the first-order thermal correction (FOTC) to the cold-plasma QRT is derived for interactions between three fast waves in a warm unmagnetized collisionless plasma, whose particles have an arbitrary isotropic distribution function. The FOTC to the cold-plasma QRT is shown to depend on the second moment of the distribution function, the phase speeds of the waves, and the interaction geometry. Previous calculations of the rate for second harmonic plasma emission (via Langmuir-wave coalescence) assume the cold-plasma QRT. The FOTC to the cold-plasma QRT is used here to calculate the FOTC to the second harmonic emission rate, and its importance is assessed in various physical situations. The FOTC significantly increases the rate when the ratio of the Langmuir phase speed to the electron thermal speed is less than about 3.

Nonlinear ion acoustic waves in a quantum degenerate warm plasma with dust grains

A study is made of the propagation of ion acoustic waves in a collisionless unmagnetized dusty plasma containing degenerate ion and electron gases at nonzero temperatures. In linear theory, a dispersion relation for isothermal ion acoustic waves is derived and an exact expression for the linear ion acoustic velocity is obtained. The dependence of the linear ion acoustic velocity on the dust density in a plasma is calculated. An analysis of the dispersion relation reveals parameter ranges in which the problem has soliton solutions. In nonlinear theory, an exact solution to the basic equations is found and examined. The analysis is carried out by Bernoulli’s pseudopotential method. The ranges of the phase velocities of periodic ion acoustic waves and the velocities of solitons are determined. It is shown that these ranges do not overlap and that the soliton velocity cannot be lower than the linear ion acoustic velocity. The profiles of the physical quantities in a periodic wave and in a soliton are evaluated, as well as the dependence of the critical velocity of solitons on the dust density in a plasma.

Nonlinear theory of the isothermal ion-acoustic waves in the warm degenerate plasma

The collisionless unmagnetized degenerate plasma with zero-temperature components is considered. The exact barometric formulas for the electron and ion degenerate gases and the exact expressions for the electron and ion Debye radii are derived. A dispersion relation for the isothermal ion-acoustic waves is obtained and analyzed and an exact solution for the linear velocity of the ion sound is found. The domains of parameters in which the soliton solutions can be found are determined using the analysis of the dispersion relation. The nonlinear theory of the isothermal ion-acoustic waves is developed and employed to obtain and to analyze the exact solution of the original equations. The analysis is based on the method of the Bernoulli pseudopotential. The ranges of the phase velocities of the periodic ion-acoustic waves and the soliton velocities are determined. It is demonstrated that the ranges are not overlapped and that the soliton velocity cannot be less than the linear velocity of the ion sound. The profiles of physical quantities in the periodic wave and soliton are constructed.

Generation and amplification of terahertz electromagnetic waves in a plasma waveguide with a dielectric rod and an annular degenerate plasma

The theoretical investigation of terahertz waves and their excitation by electron beam injection in a cylindrical metallic plasma waveguide is investigated. This metallic waveguide includes a cold collisionless unmagnetized annular degenerate plasma and a dielectric rod. The dispersion characteristics of these waves, the frequency spectra of fast and slow E-modes waves (transverse magnetic field), are studied. Also, the effects of the dielectric permittivity, the radius of the dielectric rod and the radius of the plasma on the frequency spectra and the time growth rate of waves are simulated. In addition, the electric field profiles in this waveguide are plotted.

Electron-acoustic solitons in plasma with nonthermal electrons

Nonlinear electron-acoustic solitary waves (EASWs) are studied using Sagdeev’s pseudo-potential technique in a collisionless unmagnetized plasma consisting of a cold electron fluid, nonthermal hot electrons and stationary ions. It is shown that the presence of fast nonthermal electrons may modify the parametric region where electron-acoustic solitons may exist. Our investigation is of wide relevance to astronomers and space scientists working on interstellar space plasmas.

Plasmons with orbital angular momentum

Electron plasma waves carrying orbital angular momentum are investigated in an unmagnetized collisionless plasma composed of inertial electrons and static ions. For this purpose, the usual plasmon dispersion relation is employed to derive an approximate paraxial equation. The latter is analyzed with a Gaussian beam solution. For a finite angular momentum associated with the plasmon, Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) solutions are employed for solving the electrostatic potential problem which gives approximate solution and is valid for plasmon beams in the paraxial approximation. The LG potential determines the electric field components and energy flux of plasmons with finite angular momentum. Numerical illustrations show that the radial and angular mode numbers strongly modify the profiles of the LG potential.

Localized electrostatic excitations in a Thomas–Fermi plasma containing degenerate electrons

By using the Thomas–Fermi electron density distribution for quantum degenerate electrons, the hydrodynamic equations for ions, and the Poisson equation, planar and nonplanar ion-acoustic solitary waves in an unmagnetized collisionless plasma are investigated. The reductive perturbation method is used to derive cylindrical and spherical Korteweg–de Vries equations. Numerical solutions of the latter are presented. The present results can be useful in understanding the features of small but finite amplitude localized ion-acoustic solitary pulses in a degenerate plasma.

(2+1)-Dimensional Electron Acoustic Solitary Waves inan Unmagnetized Collisionless Plasma with Vortex-Like HotElectrons

In this paper, (2+1)-dimensional electron acoustic waves (EAW) inan unmagnetized collisionless plasma have been studied by thelinearized method and the reductive perturbation technique,respectively. The dispersion relation and a modifiedKadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) equation have been obtained for theEAW in the plasma considering a cold electron fluid and avortex-like hot electrons. It is found from some numerical resultsthat the parameter β (the ratio of the free hot electrontemperature to the hot trapped electron temperature) effects on theamplitude and the width of the electron acoustic solitary waves(EASW). It can be indicated that the free hot electron temperatureand the hot trapped electron temperature have very importanteffect on the characters of the propagation for the EASW.

Nonlinear structure of the electromagnetic waves in underdense plasmas

The interaction of a high-frequency electromagnetic wave with a collisionless unmagnetized nonisothermal plasma, taking into account the ponderomotive force per unit volume acting on the plasma electrons, is studied. The electron density distribution is found. Obtaining the nonlinear differential and integral equations for the electric field and using the Maxwell equations, we investigate the electric and magnetic field profiles in plasma. It is shown that the profiles of the electric and magnetic field departure from a sinusoidal shape and the electron density becomes highly peaked for the higher electromagnetic energy flux.

Linear and nonlinear properties of electron-acoustic solitary waves with non-thermal electrons

Abstract Propagation of linear and nonlinear electron-acoustic waves (EAWs) in an unmagnetized collisionless plasma consisting of a cold electron fluid, non-thermal hot electrons and stationary ions are investigated. The standard normal-mode analysis is used to study the stability condition of linear (EAWs) waves. For nonlinear (EAWs) waves, a reductive perturbation method was employed to obtain a Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation for the first-order potential. The effects of a non-thermal distribution of hot electrons on the amplitude, width and energy of electrostatic solitary structures are also discussed.

Higher-order solution of an electron-acoustic solitary waves with non-thermal electrons

Abstract Higher-order nonlinearity and dispersion to nonlinear electron acoustic waves are studied using the reductive perturbation method in an unmagnetized collisionless plasma consisting of a cold electron fluid and non-thermal hot electrons and stationary ions. Beside the KdV equation obtained from the lowest order of perturbation, a linear inhomogeneous (KdV-type) equation accounting for the higher-order nonlinearity and dispersion is derived. A stationary solution for equations resulting from higher order perturbation theory has been found using the renormalization method. The effect of higher-order correction and the energetic population parameter δ on the amplitude and width of the soliton are also discussed.