Ion-acoustic solitary waves in a magnetized plasma with arbitrary electron equation of state

Abstract

The oblique propagation of fully nonlinear, slow ion‐acoustic solitary waves in a collisionless, low‐beta, magnetized plasma is examined. The analysis includes the effects of a finite ion pressure, electron trapping, and multicomponent particle populations. The existence of both compressive and rarefactive modes propagating obliquely to the magnetic field in a plasma with two distinct Boltzmann electron populations and cold ions is demonstrated. It is shown that paired electrostatic shocks observed over the Earth’s auroral zone may be closely related to the rarefactive modes. As a measure of the collisionless dissipation encountered by the solitary waves, the linear response of the plasma to slow ion‐acoustic waves is also examined.