Nonlinear electrostatic shock waves in inhomogeneous plasmas

with nonthermal electrons

W. Masood,
1,2
H. Rizvi,
1,a)
and H. Hasnain
3,4
1
Theoretical Plasma Physics Division (TPPD), PINSTECH, P. O. Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan
2
National Center for Physics (NCP), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
3
NILOP, P. O. Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan
4
PIEAS, P. O. Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan
(Received 27 September 2011; accepted 23 January 2012; published online 29 March 2012)
Density inhomogeneity driven linear and nonlinear ion drift waves are investigated in a plasma
consisting of heavy ions and non-thermal electrons. The dissipation is introduced in the system by
the ion-neutral collision frequency. The nonlinear Korteweg de Vries Burgers (KdVB) and Burgers
like equations are derived in the small amplitude limit, and the solution is obtained using the
tangent hyperbolic method. It is found that the system under consideration admits rarefactive shock
structures. It is observed that the ion-neutral collision frequency, nonthermal electron population,
inverse density inhomogeneity scalelength, and the ambient magnetic eld affect the propagation
characteristics of the drift shock waves. The present study may be applicable in regions of space
where nonthermal electrons and heavy ions have been observed. VC
2012 American Institute of
Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3688869]
I. INTRODUCTION
The nonuniform magnetized plasmas are known to sup-
port a variety of drift oscillations. The interest in these insta-
bilities arose owing to their importance in the anomalous
transport of a plasma transverse to a magnetic eld. The
electrostatic drift waves involve a two-dimensional ion
motion in a plane perpendicular to the external magnetic
eld B
0
^z, along with the Boltzmann distributed inertialess
electrons. Thus, the low-frequency (by comparison with the
ion gyrofrequency X
ci
= eB
0
=m
i
c) waves having parallel
(meaning along B
0
) phase velocity much smaller than the
electron thermal velocity arise due to a balance between the
time derivative density uctuations and the E B
0
convec-
tion of the unperturbed density. The dispersion of the drift
waves is provided by the ion polarization drift.
There has been a great deal of interest in the study of
shock wave-like and soliton-like solutions of drift waves in
electron-ion plasmas. Many years ago, Buchelnikova
1
showed
that under the condition of Q-machine, the development of the
drift instabilities results in regular drift structures of a saw-
shaped form like cnoidal waves, i.e., a train of solitons. This
led to the development of a theory to explain these nonlinear
structures. The possibility of the existence of regular struc-
tures was originally discussed theoretically by Tasso
2
and
Oraevskii.
3
The ideology was also carried out in the papers by
Refs. 4 and 5. It followed, from the above mentioned papers,
that the necessary condition for the existence of such struc-
tures is the presence of an electron temperature gradient.
However, in the Buchelnikova
1
experiment conditions, the
temperature gradient disappeared in the region of localization
of the drift structures. The possibility of the existence of such
structures in the absence of the temperature gradient followed
also from the experiments of Hendel et al.
6
Lakhin et al.
7
showed that for the correct analysis of the problem of drift sol-
itons, the vector nonlinearity must be taken into account. The
authors showed the existence of the drift solitons in the ab-
sence of the temperature gradient. It was also shown that for
the existence of the drift solitons, a sufciently high level of
the drift activity is necessary, which is characterized by the
qualitative relation ~ n=n
0
_ 1=k
l
L
n
, where n
0
and ~ n are the
equilibrium and perturbed parts of the plasma number density,
k
l
is the characteristic transverse wave number of the soliton,
and L
n
is the characteristic scale of inhomogeneity of the
plasma number density.
It is a well established idea that in a non-linear dispersive
media, shock waves are formed owing to the interplay
between the non-linearity (causing wave steepening) and dis-
sipation (e.g., caused by viscosity, collisions, wave particle
interaction, etc.). When the wave breaking due to non-
linearity is balanced by the combined effect of dispersion and
dissipation, a monotonic or oscillatory dispersive shock wave
is generated in a plasma.
8
A number of papers have explored
the effects of various dissipative processes on the propagation
of ion inertia driven waves both in homogeneous and inhomo-
geneous plasmas. Ostrikov et al.
9
studied the current driven
ion acoustic instability in a collisional dusty plasma and found
that the threshold for the excitation of the dust ion-acoustic
waves could become higher on account of the large dissipa-
tion rate induced by the dust particles. The effects of the elec-
trons, ions, and neutrals as well as the dust charge uctuation
on the ion acoustic waves have also been investigated.
10,11
The nonlinear propagation of drift waves in multicomponent
plasmas has also been studied in recent years with regard to
space, astrophysical, and laboratory plasmas.
1215
Over the last two decades, the observations of space
plasmas have indicated the ubiquitous presence of ion and
electron populations which are far away from their respec-
tive thermodynamic equilibria.
1619
Cairns et al.
20
showed
that the presence of a nonthermal distribution of electrons
a)
Electronic mail: hdrrizvi@gmail.com. Tel.: 92-321-4244674.
1070-664X/2012/19(3)/032314/5/$30.00 VC
2012 American Institute of Physics 19, 032314-1
PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 19, 032314 (2012)
could change the nature of ion acoustic solitary structures to
allow for the existence of structures observed by the Freja
and Viking satellites.
21,22
Nonthermal distributions are com-
mon feature of the auroral zone.
23,24
In this paper, we investigate the non-linear propagation
of drift waves in a nonuniform magnetized plasma compris-
ing of oxygen ions and electrons (both thermal and nonther-
mal) in a one dimensional (1-D) planar geometry. In this
regard, we derive the one dimensional nonlinear Korteweg
deVries-Burgers (KdVB) and Burgers like equations in the
small amplitude limit. The paper is organized in the follow-
ing manner. In Sec. II, the basic set of equations for the sys-
tem under consideration are given. In Secs. III, we derive the
linear dispersion relation for the system under consideration.
In Secs. IV and V, we derive the 1-D nonlinear equations for
the KdVB and Burgers like equations and obtain the solution
using the tangent hyperbolic method. In Sec. VI, we show
the results obtained numerically and discuss them. Finally, in
Sec. V, we recapitulate the main ndings of the paper.
II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL
Consider a plasma consisting of heavy ions (oxygen in
our case) and electrons of mass M

and m
e
, respectively,
where M

= Zm
i
(M

= 16m
p
in our case). Such a considera-
tion has been motivated by observations of heavy ions and
nonthermal electrons in different regions of space. The gov-
erning equations for the system under consideration are
@N

@t
$ (N

) = 0: (1)
The equation of motion for heavy ions is
M

dv

dt
= qN

(E
1
c
v

B
0
) M

n
v

; (2)
where we have assumed cold ions and N

; v

; M

, q, and
n
denote the number density, uid velocity, ion mass, charge,
and neutral-ion collisions, respectively. The system of equa-
tions is closed with the help of quasineutrality condition.
~ n
e

~
N

; (3)
where
~
N

is the perturbed ion number density. Since the ox-

ygen atoms are singly charged, therefore, Z =1 is assumed
here. The perpendicular velocity component of ion becomes
v
l

c
B
0
\u ^z
c
B
0
X

d
dt
\lu
c
B
0

n
X

\lu
= v
E
v
p
v
c
; (4)
where v
E
= c=B
0
\u ^z; v
p
= c=B
0
X

d
dt
\lu; v
c
= c

(\lu)=B
0
X

, and
d
dt
= (@=@t v
E
:\). We use
drift approximation @=@t [ [ X

. Ignoring the parallel

motion, the ion continuity equation can be written as
d
dt
N

c
B
0
^z \u \N

cN

B
0
X

d
dt
\
2
l
u

c
B
0
1
X

n
\
2
l
u = 0; (5)
where N

is the total ion number density that contains both

the unperturbed and the perturbed contributions. The non-
thermal electron density is given by
20
~ n
e
= n
e0
(1 bU bU
2
) exp U ( ); (6)
where ~ n
e
is the perturbed number density of electrons and
the quantity with subscript zero represents its equilibrium
counterpart. b is given by 4C=(1 3C), where C is a param-
eter that determines the population of the nonthermal elec-
trons. Using Eq. (6), the quasineutrality condition in the
normalized form becomes
~
N

= (1 b)U
1
2
U
2
; (7)
where
U = eu=T
e
:
III. LINEAR ANALYSIS
Assuming that the perturbations are proportional to
exp[ik
l
y xt[ in the linear case, the algebraic manipulation
of Eqs. (5) and (7) yields the following dispersion relation
for the dispersive ion drift waves.
x =
x
+

i
n
q
2

k
2
l
(1 b q
2

k
2
l
)
; (8)
q

= c
s
=X

is the ion Larmor radius that moves with the

ion acoustic speed c
s
; x
+

= v
+

k
y
is the drift frequency, v
+

is
the diamagnetic drift velocity and is given by cT
e
=eB
0
( )j
ni
,
where j
ni
= (1=N
0
) dN
0
=dx ( ), where N
0
is the back-
ground density inhomogeneity.
IV. NONLINEAR ANALYSIS I (KDVB LIKE EQUATION)
In order to obtain the nonlinear structure, we proceed as
follows. Using Eq. (7), the ion continuity equation. (i.e.,
Eq. (5)) becomes
(1 - b)
@
@t
U U
@
@t
U v
+

(1 b)U
@U
@y
v
+

@U
@y
q
2

@
@t
@
2
U
@y
2
q
2

n
@
2
U
@y
2
= 0: (9)
To nd the stationary solution, we transform by introducing
the variable n = k y ut ( ) and obtain the following equation
for the nonlinear dispersive ion drift waves
u
v
+

(1 b)

@U
@n
v
+

u
1 b

U
@U
@n

uq
2

k
2
(1 b)
@
3
U
@n
3

q
2

n
k
(1 b)
@
2
U
@n
2
= 0; (10)
where second term second, third and fourth terms in the
above equation represent the nonlinear, dispersive, and dissi-
pative terms, respectively. Using the tangent hyperbolic
method,
25,26
Eq. (10) in the comoving frame of the nonlinear
structure admits the following shock type solution
032314-2 Masood, Rizvi, and Hasnain Phys. Plasmas 19, 032314 (2012)
U n; s ( ) =
9
25
q
2

2
n
u u v
+

(1 b) ( )

6
25
q
2

2
n
u u v
+

(1 b) ( )
tanh(n)

3
25
q
2

2
n
u u v
+

(1 b) ( )
tanh
2
(n); (11)
where the nonlinear velocity u is
u =
v
+

2(1 b)
1

1
24
25
(1 b)
q
2

2
n
v
+

( )
2
s " #
:
The above equation shows that the nonlinear dispersive drift
wave potential depends upon the temperatures of electrons
and ions, magnetic eld strength, density inhomogeneity,
and the propagation velocity of the nonlinear structure.
V. NONLINEAR ANALYSIS II (BURGERS LIKE
EQUATION)
In order to obtain the nonlinear structure in a dispersion-
less plasma, we proceed as follows. Using Eq. (7), the ion
continuity (i.e., Eq. (5)) in the absence of the polarization
drift (note that the polarization drift gives us the wave dis-
persion) reads as follows:
(1 b)
@
@t
U U
@
@t
U v
+

(1 b)U
@U
@y
v
+

@U
@y
q
2

n
@
2
U
@y
2
= 0: (12)
To nd the stationary solution, we transform by introducing
the variable n = k y ut ( ) and obtain the following equation
for the nonlinear ion drift shock waves
u
v
+

(1b)

@U
@n
v
+

u
1b

U
@U
@n

q
2

n
k
(1b)
@
2
U
@n
2
=0:
(13)
Using the tangent hyperbolic method,
25,26
Eq. (10) in the
comoving frame of the nonlinear structure admits the follow-
ing shock type solution
U(n; s) =
2q
2

n
1 b ( )v
+

u
1 tanh n ( ) [ [; (14)
where the nonlinear velocity u is
u =
2q
2

n
v
+

1 b ( )
:
FIG. 1. Variation of the electrostatic drift potential U with decreasing
O

neutral collision frequency

n
i.e.,
n
= 0:2 Hz (small dashed),

n
= 0:1 Hz (long dashed), and
n
= 0:05 Hz (thick). Other parameters
are T
e
= 1000 K; C = 0:3, and B
0
= 0:3 G.
FIG. 2. Variation of the electrostatic drift potential U and perturbed number density
~
N

with nonthermal electron population C i.e., C = 0:1 (small dashed),

C = 0:2 (long dashed), and C = 0:3 (thick). Other parameters are T
e
= 1000 K;
n
= 0:1 Hz, and B
0
= 0:3 G.
FIG. 3. Variation of the electrostatic shock potential with magnetic eld B
0
i.e., B
0
= 0:1 (small dashed), B
0
= 0:2 (long dashed), and B
0
= 0:3 (thick).
Other parameters are T
e
= 1000 K;
n
= 0:1 Hz, and C = 0:3:
032314-3 Masood, Rizvi, and Hasnain Phys. Plasmas 19, 032314 (2012)
Note that the advantage of using tangent hyperbolic method
is that it gives us the velocity of the nonlinear structure in
terms of the plasma parameters of the system under
consideration.
VI. RESULTS
In this section, we numerically explore the dependence
of one-dimensional nonlinear drift shock waves on various
plasma parameters. For illustration, we have chosen the pa-
rameters that are typically found in the ionosphere.
27,28
The
value of the ion Larmor radius that moves with the ion
acoustic speed, q

, for the chosen parameters turns out to be

~ 400 cm. Using the condition k
l
< 1=q

and j
ni
< k
l
, the
values of k
l
and j
ni
have been calculated. It is observed that
the rarefactive shock potential is obtained for the system
under consideration. Fig. 1 investigates the effect of increas-
ing collision frequency of oxygen ions with neutrals affects
the drift shock wave propagation. It is observed that the
increase in ion-neutral collision frequency enhances, in terms
of magnitude, the drift shock wave potential owing to the
fact that the increase in collision frequency increases the dis-
sipation in the system. Fig. 2 explores the effect of the
increasing nonthermal electron population on the nonlinear
drift shock wave potential. It is found that the increase in the
nonthermal electron population mitigates the shock strength
in terms of magnitude. Note that we have also plotted a
graph besides the rarefactive shock potential to show the cor-
responding effect on the number density which shows that
the increasing nonthermal population decreases the depletion
of heavy (O

in our case) ions.

Fig. 3 explores the effect of the increasing magnetic
eld on the propagation characteristics of drift shock poten-
tial. It is observed that the increasing magnetic eld brings
about an increase (in terms of magnitude) in the drift shock
wave potential. Fig. 4 explores the effect of inverse scale-
length of density inhomogeneity, j
ni
, on the propagation
characteristics of the drift shock wave potential. It is
observed that, in terms of magnitude, the increasing j
ni
decreases the shock potential.
In Fig. 5, we investigate the effect of increasing collision
frequency, electron thermal population, and magnetic eld on
the coefcients of nonlinearity, dispersion, and dissipation. It
is observed that the increase in collision frequency and non-
thermal population enhances the nonlinearity and dissipation
coefcients, whereas they decrease the dispersion. On the
other hand, the increase in magnetic eld decreases the nonli-
nearity and dissipation coefcients, whereas they enhance the
dispersion. Fig. 5 enables us to understand the overall behav-
ior of the drift shock potential by varying different plasma
parameters.
Finally, Fig. 6 explores the effect of the increasing non-
thermal electron population on the nonlinear drift shock
wave potential. It is found that the increase in the nonthermal
electron population enervates the Burger shock strength in
terms of magnitude; however, it should be noted that the
Burgers shock is stronger (two orders of magnitude) than the
KdVB shock due to the fact that the competing dispersive
term is absent in the Burgers shock. Furthermore, it is noted
that the Burgers equation does not get affected appreciably
by the observed values of other plasma parameters in the
ionosphere. However, if the magnetic eld gets increased or
the ion-neutral collisional frequency gets decreased in some
other region of space, the effect will then be signicant on
the Burgers shock.
It is worth mentioning here that since the variable n is
normalized by q

, therefore, the width of the shock turns out

to be of the order of one tenth of a kilometer, whereas the
width of the F2 layer is 80 100 km. Hence, we arrive at the
conclusion that the shock formation in the F2 layer is
possible.
FIG. 4. Variation of the electrostatic shock potential with inverse density
inhomogeneity scalelength, j
ni
. Other parameters are T
e
= 1000 K,

n
= 0:1 Hz, and C = 0:3.
FIG. 5. Variation of the coefcients of nonlinear (solid), dispersive (thin dashed), and dissipative (thick dashed) terms corresponding to O

neutral collision
frequency
n
(blue, 1), nonthermal electron population C (red, 2), and magnetic eld B
0
(green, 3).
032314-4 Masood, Rizvi, and Hasnain Phys. Plasmas 19, 032314 (2012)
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the linear and nonlinear propagation of
small amplitude drift shock waves are investigated in a
plasma consisting of heavy ions (oxygen in our Case) and
electrons (both thermal and nonthermal). In this regard, non-
linear KdVB and Burgers like equations are derived in an in-
homogeneous plasma using the drift approximation, and the
solutions are obtained using the tangent hyperbolic method.
It is found that the system under consideration admits rare-
factive shocks. The effects of varying ion-neutral collision
frequency, nonthermal electron thermal population, inverse
density inhomogeneity scalelength, and the magnetic eld
strength on the nonlinear drift shock potential are numeri-
cally illustrated in Figs. 15. Moreover, the drift Burgers
shock is also investigated, and it is found that the nonthermal
electron population affects the Burgers shock, and it is also
observed that the Burgers shock is stronger by comparison
with the drift KdVB shock. It is observed that the increase in
ion-neutral collision frequency and magnetic eld strength
increases the rarefactive drift shock potential, whereas the
increasing nonthermal population mitigates it. The shock
width turns out to be of the order of one tenth of a km, and it
is shown that the shock formation is possible in the F2 layer.
The results presented here may have relevance in regions of
space where the satellite observations have indicated the
presence of nonthermal electrons and heavy ions.
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FIG. 6. Variation of the electrostatic drift potential U for dispersionless
plasma with nonthermal electron population C i.e., C = 0:3 (small dashed),
C = 0:325 (long dashed), and C = 0:35 (thick). Other parameters are
T
e
= 1000 K;
n
= 0:1 Hz, and B
0
= 0:3 G.
032314-5 Masood, Rizvi, and Hasnain Phys. Plasmas 19, 032314 (2012)