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Three-dimensional stability of ion-acoustic solitary waves in a magnetized plasma consisting of non-isothermal electrons
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 1998
Abstract
A stability analysis is performed for solitary ion-acoustic waves in a magnetized plasma in which the electrons are non-isothermal. Including the effect of ion drift velocity and magnetic perturbation, a three-dimensional mKdV equation is derived for ion-acoustic waves. The solitary-wave solution of this equation is found to have a sech4 profile. A stability analysis of this solitary wave is performed using the small-k perturbation expansion method of Rowlands and Infeld. A condition for the onset of instability is obtained. The growth rate of the instability is found to attain a maximum for perturbations in the plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the solitary wave.
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- © 1998 Cambridge University Press
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