A two-dimensional ion acoustic solitary wave in a weakly relativistic plasma
Abstract
The two-dimensional Korteweg-de Vries equation is first derived for a weakly relativistic ion acoustic wave propagating in a collisionless plasma. We show that the relativistic effect greatly influences the phase velocity, the amplitude and the width of a solitary wave solution, and that the presence of streaming ions gives rise to the formation of a precursor. We also discuss three limiting cases of the present results.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Plasma Physics
- Pub Date:
- December 1987
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S0022377800012708
- Bibcode:
- 1987JPlPh..38..439N
- Keywords:
-
- Collisionless Plasmas;
- Ion Acoustic Waves;
- Korteweg-Devries Equation;
- Relativistic Plasmas;
- Solitary Waves;
- Wave Propagation;
- Coupling Coefficients;
- Flow Velocity;
- Plasma Frequencies;
- Poisson Equation;
- Plasma Physics