Propagation of shock structures in a high density plasma

TL;DR

This paper theoretically studies electron-acoustic shock waves in a high-density, unmagnetized quantum plasma with two electron populations, deriving a modified Burgers equation to analyze shock properties and effects of plasma parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a new theoretical model for nonplanar electron-acoustic shock waves in quantum plasmas using the reductive perturbation method.

Findings

Only rarefactive shock waves can propagate in this plasma.

Plasma pressure and electron densities significantly affect shock properties.

Nonplanar shocks differ notably from planar shocks.

Abstract

A theoretical investigation has been made to study the cylindrical and spherical electron-acoustic shock waves (EASWs) in an unmagnetized, collisionless degenerate quantum plasma system containing two distinct groups of electrons (one inertial non-relativistic cold electrons and other inertialess ultra-relativistic hot electrons) and positively charged static ions. By employing well known reductive perturbation method the modified Burgers (mB) equation has been derived. It is seen that only rarefactive shock waves can propagate in such a quantum plasma system. The effects of degenerate plasma pressure and number density of hot and cold electron fluids, nonplanar geometry, and positively charged static ions are responsible to modify the fundamental properties of EASWs. It is also observed that the properties of planar mB shocks are quite different from those of nonplanar mB shocks. The findings of the present investigation should be useful in understanding the nonlinear phenomena associated with nonplanar EAWs in both space and laboratory plasmas.