Oblique propagation of ion acoustic shock waves in weakly and highly relativistic plasmas with nonthermal electrons and positrons

Abstract

This work investigates the oblique nonlinear propagation of ion acoustic (IA) shock waves for both weakly and highly relativistic plasmas composed of nonthermal electrons and positrons with relativistic thermal ions. The KdVB-like equation, involving dispersive, weakly transverse dispersive, nonlinearity and dissipative coefficients, is derived employing the well known reductive perturbation method. The integration of this equation is carried out by the $\mathit{tanh}$ method taking the stable shock formation condition into account. The effects of nonthermal electrons and positrons, nonthermal electrons with isothermal positrons, isothermal electrons with nonthermal positrons, and isothermal electrons and positrons on oblique propagation of IA shock waves in weakly relativistic regime are described. Furthermore, the effects of plasma parameters on oblique propagation of IA shock waves in highly relativistic regime are discussed and compared with weakly relativistic case. It is seen that the plasma parameters within certain limits significantly modify the structures of the IA shock waves in both cases. The results may be useful for better understanding of the interactions of charged particles with extra-galactic jets as well as astrophysical compact objects.