Formation of dispersive shock waves in evolution of a two-temperature collisionless plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates the formation and evolution of dispersive shock waves in a two-temperature collisionless plasma, providing analytical descriptions and comparing them with numerical solutions to understand wave dynamics post wave-breaking.

Contribution

It offers an analytical framework for describing dispersive shock waves in two-temperature plasmas, extending existing theories to arbitrary initial disturbances.

Findings

Dispersive shock waves form after wave breaking in the plasma.

Analytical models agree well with numerical simulations.

Edge motion of shock waves is characterized by Gurevich-Pitaevskii and Whitham theories.

Abstract

The nonlinear dynamics of pulses in a two-temperature collisionless plasma with formation of dispersion shock waves is studied. An analytical description is given for arbitrary form of an initial disturbance with smooth enough density profile on a uniform density background. For large time after the wave breaking moment dispersive shock waves are formed. Motion of their edges is studied in framework of Gurevich-Pitaevskii theory and Whitham theory of modulations. The analytical results are compared with numerical solution.