Modulational instability of ion-acoustic waves and associated envelope solitons in a multi-component plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates how various plasma parameters influence the modulational instability of ion-acoustic waves in a complex plasma model, deriving a nonlinear Schrödinger equation to analyze stability conditions relevant to space and laboratory plasmas.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized plasma model with multiple particle species and derives a nonlinear Schrödinger equation to study the modulational instability of ion-acoustic waves.

Findings

MI criteria are significantly affected by plasma parameters

Derived nonlinear Schrödinger equation for IAWs

Results applicable to space and laboratory plasmas

Abstract

A generalized plasma model having warm ions, iso-thermal electrons, super-thermal electrons and positrons is considered to theoretically investigate the modulational instability (MI) of ion-acoustic waves (IAWs). A standard nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation is derived by applying reductive perturbation method to study the MI of IAWs. It is observed that the MI criteria of the IAWs are significantly modified by various plasma parameters. The present results should be useful in understanding the conditions for MI of IAWs which are relevant to both space and laboratory plasma system.