Solitary waves and double layers in complex plasma media

TL;DR

This paper investigates how various plasma components like dust, nonthermal electrons, and warm ions influence ion-acoustic solitary waves and double layers in complex plasma media, with implications for space and laboratory environments.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of IA waves and DLs in a complex plasma with Cairns nonthermal electrons, warm ions, and stationary dust using the pseudo-potential approach.

Findings

Presence of dust reduces IA wave phase speed.

Higher ion temperature and nonthermal electrons suppress subsonic SW formation.

Existence of both positive and negative potential IA SWs and DLs at certain nonthermal parameters.

Abstract

A complex plasma medium (containing Cairns nonthermal electron species, adiabatically warm inertial ion species, and stationary positively charged dust (PCD) species (making a plasma system very complex) is considered. The effects of PCD species, nonthermal electron species, and adiabatic ion-temperature on ion-acoustic (IA) solitary waves (SWs) and double layers (DLs) are investigated by the pseudo-potential approach, which is valid for the arbitrary amplitude time-independent SWs and DLs. It is observed that the presence of the PCD species reduces the phase speed of the IA waves, and consequently supports the IA subsonic compressive SWs in such electron-ion-PCD plasmas. On the other hand, the increase in both adiabatic ion-temperature and the number of nonthermal or fast electrons causes to reduce the possibility for the formation of the subsonic SWs, and thus convert subsonic SWs into supersonic ones. It is also observed that after at a certain value of the nonthermal parameter, the IA supersonic SWs with both positive and negative potentials as well as the DLs with only negative potential exist. The applications of the work in space environments (viz. Earth's mesosphere, cometary tails, Jupiter's magnetosphere, etc.) and laboratory devices, where the warm ion and nonthermal electron species along with PCD species have been observed, are briefly discussed.