Nonlinear dust acoustic waves in electronegative dusty plasmas

Abstract

The problem of nonlinear localized dust acoustic (DA) is addressed in a plasma comprising positive ions, negative ions, and mobile negatively charged dust grains. We first consider the case when the grain charge remains constant and discuss later the case when the charge variations are self-consistently included. It is found that a relative increase of the positive ion density favors the propagation of the DA solitary waves, in the sense that the domain of their admissible Mach numbers enlarges. Furthermore, electronegativity makes the dust acoustic solitary structure more spiky. When the dust grain charge Q _d is allowed to fluctuate, the latter is expressed in terms of the Lambert function and we take advantage of this transcendental function to investigate the variable charge DA solitary wave. Q _d adopts a localized profile and becomes more negative as the number of charges Z ₍₋₎ of the negative ion increases. The dust grains are found to be highly localized. This localization (accumulation) caused by a balance of the electrostatic forces acting on the dust grains becomes more effective for lower values of Z ₍₋₎. An increase of Z ₍₋₎ may lead to a local depletion of the negative ions from the region of the soliton’s localization. The results are useful to understand the salient features of localization of large amplitude dust acoustic waves in cosmic plasmas such as the ionospheric D-region and the mesosphere.