Effect of cold electrons on linear and nonlinear ion acoustic waves

Abstract

The propagation of ion acoustic waves in a two temperature plasma is discussed theoretically. The cold electrons in this system behave like ions with reduced mass. Owing to their high velocity, these electrons can produce significant amounts of convective nonlinearity, out of phase with the ion nonlinearity. Above a critical value of cold electron density, electron nonlinearity overtakes the ion nonlinearity. A rarefaction solution is presented.