Large amplitude ion-acoustic double layers in a double Maxwellian electron plasma
- 1 October 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Physics of Fluids
- Vol. 29 (10) , 3214-3218
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.865839
Abstract
A finite amplitude theory for an ion‐acoustic double layer (DL) in a plasma with cold ions and two distinct groups of Boltzmann–Maxwellian distributed hot electrons is presented. Conditions are obtained under which large amplitude stationary double layers can exist. For physical parameters of interest, the DL profiles and the relationship between the maximum DL amplitude and the Mach number are found. A perturbation technique is introduced to derive a modified Korteweg–de Vries (MKdV) equation which governs the dynamics of a weak double layer. It is found that the parameter regimes for the existence of small and finite amplitude DL are not complementary to each other. The relevance of this investigation to space and laboratory plasmas is pointed out.Keywords
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