Ion Acoustic Travelling Waves

Abstract

Models for travelling waves in multi-fluid plasmas give essential insight into fully nonlinear wave structures in plasmas, not readily available from either numerical simulations or from weakly nonlinear wave theories. We illustrate these ideas using one of the simplest models of an electron-proton multi-fluid plasma for the case where there is no magnetic field or a constant normal magnetic field present. We show that the travelling waves can be reduced to a single first order differential equation governing the dynamics. We also show that the equations admit a multi-symplectic Hamiltonian formulation in which both the space and time variables can act as the evolution variable. An integral equation useful for calculating adiabatic, electrostatic solitary wave signatures for multi-fluid plasmas with arbitrary mass ratios is presented. The integral equation arises naturally from a fluid dynamics approach for a two fluid plasma, with a given mass ratio of the two species (e.g. the plasma could be an electron proton or an electron positron plasma). Besides its intrinsic interest, the integral equation solution provides a useful analytical test for numerical codes that include a proton-electron mass ratio as a fundamental constant, such as for particle in cell (PIC) codes. The integral equation is used to delineate the physical characteristics of ion acoustic travelling waves consisting of hot electron and cold proton fluids.