Ion Acoustic Solitons and Double Layers in the Solar Wind Having Kappa Distributed Electrons

It is shown that two types of, slow and fast, ion-acoustic solitary waves can occur in a solar wind plasma consisting of fluid hot protons, hot alpha particles streaming with respect to protons, and suprathermal electrons having k- distribution. The fast ion-acoustic mode is similar to the ion-acoustic mode of proton-electron plasma, and can support only positive potential solitons. The slow ion-acoustic mode is a new mode that occurs due to the presence of alpha particles. This mode can support both positive and negative solitons and double layers. The slow ion-acoustic mode can exist even when the relative streaming, U0, between alphas and protons is zero, provided alpha temperature, Ti, is not exactly equal to 4 times the proton temperature, Tp. An increase of the k- index leads to an increase in the critical Mach number, maximum Mach number and the maximum amplitude of both slow and fast ion-acoustic solitons. The model can explain the amplitudes and widths, but not shapes, of the weak double layers (WDLs) observed in the solar wind at 1 AU by Wind spacecraft in terms of slow ion-acoustic double layers. It is proposed that both slow and fast ion-acoustic solitons may be responsible for the ion- acoustic like wave activity in the solar wind.