Obliquely propagating ion-acoustic shock waves in degenerate quantum plasma

TL;DR

This paper theoretically studies how nonlinear ion-acoustic shock waves propagate in a degenerate quantum plasma with multiple ion species and relativistic electrons, revealing how various plasma parameters influence shock characteristics.

Contribution

It introduces a model for ion-acoustic shock waves in degenerate quantum plasma and analyzes the effects of plasma parameters on shock properties using the Burgers' equation.

Findings

Shock waves support only positive potential structures.

Amplitude and steepness are affected by viscosity, oblique angle, and plasma composition.

Results are relevant for astrophysical objects like white dwarfs and neutron stars.

Abstract

A theoretical investigation has been carried out on the propagation of nonlinear ion-acoustic shock waves (IASHWs) in a collsionless magnetized degenerate quantum plasma system composed of inertial non-relativistic positively charged light and heavy ions, inertialess ultra-relativistically degenerate electrons and positrons. The reductive perturbation method has been employed to drive the Burgers' equation. It has been observed that under consideration, our plasma model supports only positive potential shock structure. It is also found that the amplitude and steepness of the IASHWs have been significantly modified by the variation of ion kinematic viscosity, oblique angle, number density, and charge state of the plasma species. The results of our present investigation will be helpful for understanding the propagation of IASHWs in white dwarfs and neutron stars.