Arbitrary-amplitude rarefactive ion-acoustic double layers in warm multi-fluid plasmas
Abstract
Large- and small-amplitude rarefactive ion-acoustic double layers have recently been studied in a fluid plasma with double Maxwellian electrons and a single cold ion species. Here the stationary large-amplitude theory is generalized to include two warm ion species. A technique for numerically solving the full nonlinear problem is presented. With it, useful predictions of the effect of ion temperatures and of light-ion contamination on the double-layer structure are made. A generalization to an arbitrary number of similar fluid components is pointed out. The small-amplitude perturbation theory is also extended to such a plasma, and in its restricted regime good qualitative agreement is obtained with the results of the large-amplitude theory.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Plasma Physics
- Pub Date:
- August 1988
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S0022377800013180
- Bibcode:
- 1988JPlPh..40..163B
- Keywords:
-
- Ion Acoustic Waves;
- Landau Damping;
- Perturbation Theory;
- Plasma Layers;
- Rarefaction;
- Boundary Value Problems;
- Iterative Solution;
- Korteweg-Devries Equation;
- Mach Number;
- Maxwell-Boltzmann Density Function;
- Poisson Equation;
- Plasma Physics