Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2016
In this paper, an Airy-like electron plasma wave is investigated in an unmagnetized collisionless plasma consisting of inertial electrons and static ions. Just like the optical Airy beam, the Airy-like electron plasma wave also has two interesting propagation characteristics: it has transverse acceleration and is diffraction-free, which display that the Airy-like electron plasma wave propagates along a curved trajectory and retains the basic structure for longer distances in the propagation direction, respectively. We give a numerical simulation for the electrostatic potential of the Airy-like electron plasma wave and show that, with the increase of the propagation distance, the electrostatic potential decreases in the propagation direction but increases in the transverse direction.