Self-gravitating envelope solitons in astrophysical compact objects

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nonlinear behavior of ion-acoustic waves in self-gravitating quantum plasmas relevant to astrophysical objects, deriving a nonlinear Schrödinger equation to analyze stability and soliton formation.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical model for IAWs in self-gravitating degenerate quantum plasmas and derives a nonlinear Schrödinger equation to study their stability and soliton solutions.

Findings

IAWs are modulationally unstable or stable depending on the wave number relative to a critical value

Self-gravitating bright envelope solitons are stable

Results aid understanding of wave dynamics in white dwarfs and neutron stars

Abstract

The propagation of ion-acoustic waves (IAWs) in a collisionless unmagnetized self-gravitating degenerate quantum plasma system (SG-DQPS) has been studied theoretically for the first time. A nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation is derived by using the reductive perturbation method to study the nonlinear dynamics of the IAWs in the SG-DQPS. It is found that for $k_c > k$ ($k_c < k$) (where $k_c$ is critical value of the propagation constant $k$ which determines the stable and unstable region of IAWs) the IAWs are modulationally unstable (stable), and that $k_c$ depends only on the ratio of the electron number density to light ion number density. It is also observed that the self-gravitating bright envelope solitons are modulationally stable. The results obtained from our present investigation are useful for understanding the nonlinear propagation of the IAWs in astrophysical compact objects like white dwarfs and neutron stars.