Effects of ion temperature on electrostatic solitary structures in nonthermal plasmas

Abstract

Effects of ion temperature on compressive and rarefactive ion-acoustic solitary waves, which have been found to coexist in non-thermal plasmas, are investigated by the pseudopotential approach, which is valid for arbitrary amplitude solitary waves. It is shown that the effects of ion temperature change the minimum value of \ensuremath{\alpha} (the parameter that determines the number of nonthermal electrons present in the plasma under consideration) as well as M (the Mach number) for which these solitary waves coexist and also change the width and amplitude of these solitary waves. It is also shown that for cold ions, the present results completely agree with the existing published results [Cairns et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 22, 2709 (1995); J. Phys. (France) IV 5, C6-43 (1995)].