The effects of Bohm potential on ion-acoustic solitary waves interaction in a nonplanar quantum plasma

The interaction of ion-acoustic solitary waves (IASWs) in a nonplanar unmagnetized quantum plasma consisting of electrons, positrons, and ions are studied by employing the quantum hydrodynamic model and the Korteweg-de Vries description. We provide the theoretical predictions about the phase shifts for the compressive IASWs and the rarefactive IASWs collisions, respectively. The effects of the positron to electron Fermi temperature ratio, the positron to ion number density ratio, and the quantum Bohm potential on phase shift are investigated. It is found that these factors can significantly modify the properties of the IASWs collisions. In particular, we find that the variations of phase shifts with quantum Bohm potential for two types of IASWs are apparently different. The validity of the results of present study is also pointed out. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3476275]