Nonlinear Landau damping of wave envelopes in a quantum plasma

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum plasma model for wave envelope damping, revealing that quantum effects significantly reduce Landau damping and modulational instability compared to classical predictions.

Contribution

It derives a nonlinear Schrödinger equation for quantum plasma wave envelopes, incorporating quantum dispersion effects on Landau damping and modulational instability.

Findings

Quantum parameter H reduces Landau damping rate.

Quantum effects decrease decay rate of solitary waves.

Modified coefficients in the NLS equation due to quantum dispersion.

Abstract

The nonlinear theory of Landau damping of electrostatic wave envelopes (WEs) is revisited in a quantum electron-positron (EP) pair plasma. Starting from a Wigner-Moyal equation coupled to the Poisson equation and applying the multiple scale technique, we derive a nonlinear Schr{\"o}dinger (NLS) equation which governs the evolution of electrostatic WEs. It is shown that the coefficients of the NLS equation, including the nonlocal nonlinear term, which appears due to the resonant particles having group velocity of the WEs, are significantly modified by the particle dispersion. The effects of the quantum parameter $H$ (the ratio of the plasmon energy to the thermal energy densities), associated with the particle dispersion, are examined on the Landau damping rate of carrier waves, as well as on the modulational instability of WEs. It is found that the Landau damping rate and the decay rate of the solitary wave amplitude are greatly reduced compared to their classical values $(H=0)$.