Asymmetry-driven structure formation in pair plasmas

The nonlinear propagation of electromagnetic waves in pair plasmas, in which the electrostatic potential plays a very important but subdominant role of a "binding glue" is investigated. Several mechanisms for structure formation are investigated, in particular, the "asymmetry" in...

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Published inPhysical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics Vol. 80; no. 6 Pt 2; p. 066404
Main Authors Mahajan, S M, Shatashvili, N L, Berezhiani, V I
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.12.2009
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Summary:The nonlinear propagation of electromagnetic waves in pair plasmas, in which the electrostatic potential plays a very important but subdominant role of a "binding glue" is investigated. Several mechanisms for structure formation are investigated, in particular, the "asymmetry" in the initial temperatures of the constituent species. It is shown that the temperature asymmetry leads to a (localizing) nonlinearity that is qualitatively different from the ones originating in ambient mass or density difference. The temperature-asymmetry-driven focusing-defocusing nonlinearity supports stable localized wave structures in 1-3 dimensions, which, for certain parameters, may have flat-top shapes.
ISSN:1550-2376
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevE.80.066404