Propagation of ion acoustic waves in a warm multicomponent plasma with an electron beam

Abstract

The nonlinear wave structures of small-amplitude ion acoustic waves in a warm plasma with adiabatic negative-ion, positron and electron constituents traversed by a warm electron beam (with different temperatures) in the vicinity of the critical negative-ion density are investigated using reductive perturbation method. The basic set of equations is reduced to an evolution equation that includes quadratic and cubic nonlinearities. The effective potential of this equation agrees exactly, for small wave amplitudes, with the Sagdeev potential obtained from the original fluid equations using a pseudopotential method. This implies that the evolution equation holds not only in the vicinity of the critical negative-ion density but also in the whole range of negative-ion density under the condition of small wave amplitude.