Cylindrical and spherical positron-acoustic Gardner solitons in electron-positron-ion plasmas with nonthermal electrons and positrons

Abstract

A theoretical investigation has been performed on the nonlinear propagation of nonplanar (cylindrical and spherical) Gardner solitons (GSs) associated with the positron-acoustic (PA) waves in a four component plasma system consisting of nonthermal distributed electrons and hot positrons, mobile cold positrons, and immobile positive ions. The well-known reductive perturbation method has been employed to derive the modified Gardner (MG) equation. The basic features (viz. amplitude, polarity, speed, etc.) of nonplanar PA Gardner solitons (GSs) have been examined by the numerical analysis of the MG equation. It has been observed that the properties of the PA GSs in a nonplanar geometry differ from those in a planar geometry. It has been also investigated that the presence of nonthermal (Cairns distributed) electrons and hot positrons significantly modify the amplitude, polarity, speed, and thickness of such PA GSs. The results of our investigation should play an important role in understanding various interstellar space plasma environments as well as laboratory plasmas. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.