Ion-acoustic solitons in a plasma consisting of positive and negative ions with nonisothermal electrons

In this research paper, the authors study the propagation of ion-acoustic solitons in a plasma consisting of warm positive and negative ions with different concentration of masses, charged states, and nonisothermal electrons. To account for the full nonlinearity of plasma equations, a quasipotential method is used here. The potential so obtained is characterized for solitons as a function of Mach number, positive and negative ions temperature, nonisothermal electrons, different concentration of negative and positive ions over a wide range of parameter space. Corresponding to isothermal case with beta=1, coexistence of compressive and rarefactive solitons is obtained. For non-negative betanot equal1, only compressive solitons are observed. The prediction, that with introduction of negative ions there exists a critical ion concentration below which compressive solitons exist and above which rarefactive solitons exist, is ruled out for nonisothermal electrons. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.