IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 33, NO.

6, DECEMBER 2005

1995

Small Amplitude Soliton Propagation in a Weakly

Relativistic Magnetized Space Plasma: Electron
Inertia Contribution
Hitendra K. Malik and Khushvant Singh

AbstractSoliton propagation in a weakly relativistic two-uid

space related plasma is studied under the effect of an external magnetic eld, and the contribution of electron inertia to the soliton
characteristics is evaluated. It is found that fast and slow modes
are possible in such a plasma that correspond to the propagation
of compressive solitons, namely fast compressive soliton and slow
compressive soliton, respectively. These solitons occur for a particular range of angle between the directions of wave propagatan 1
tion and the magnetic eld, given by
0
0+
(1 + 2 )
( 0
) . This range of the wave prop0
agation angle depends on the temperature ratio (=
), mass
ratio
, and and components
0 and
0 and
0
and 0 of the ion and electron velocities, respectively. Further,
the dominance of the components of ion and electron velocities on
the soliton characteristics via peak soliton amplitude, soliton width
and soliton energy together with the effect of electron inertia is examined. It is also realized that both types of the solitons attain the
same height, width, and energy when the electron inertia is neglected, and the effect of electron inertia is more pronounced on
the propagation of the slow compressive solitons.
Index TermsElectron inertia, fast and slow compressive
solitons, magnetized plasma, small amplitude soliton, weakly
relativistic ions and electrons.

I. INTRODUCTION

OLITARY waves that neither crest nor dissipate and preserve

their shape during propagation and collision are referred to
as solitons. Solitons can also be dened as stationary, localized
nite energy wave packets that arise due to a dynamical balance
between the effects of nonlinearity and dispersion in the medium.
They can contribute to the transport of anomalous particles,
as well as energy from one region to another in laboratory,
astrophysical, and space related plasmas. Washimi and Taniuti
[1] were rst to show that the evolution of ion acoustic solitary
waves (solitons) in a plasma could be described with the
Korteweg-deVries (K-dV) equation. After this pioneering work,
researchers have attempted to investigate the soliton propagation
using the K-dV equation in nonrelativistic [2][5] as well as in

Manuscript received March 29, 2005; revised September 15, 2005. This work
was supported by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India.
H. K. Malik is with Plasma Waves and Particle Acceleration Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi-110 016,
India.
K. Singh is with the Department of Physics, BSA College Mathura, Mathura
281 001, India.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPS.2005.860137

relativistic plasmas [6][10]. Taking relativistic speed of ions

and zero electron inertia, it was shown that the phase velocity
and amplitude of ion acoustic soliton are greatly inuenced
by the ion temperature and relativistic effect [6]. The effect of
plasma density on the soliton characteristics in a collisionless
relativistic plasma was also studied, but with the neglect of
electron inertia [7]. The signicance of nite electron inertia
was discussed and suggested that it should not be neglected in
order to analyze the true behavior of the solitons [8]. Taking
into account the nite ion temperature and electron inertia,
a limit on ion drift velocity was subsequently obtained for
existence of the solitons in a plasma [9]. Later, the effect
of electron inertia was shown to decrease the phase velocity
and soliton amplitude in a relativistic plasma that includes
effects along the coordinate transverse to the direction of soliton
propagation [11]. On the other hand, using pseudopotential
approach a solitary wave solution was obtained in a relativistic
plasma by neglecting the electron inertia, and a condition was
obtained for existence of the solitary waves [12]. Then taking
the relativistic effects of ions and electrons, large amplitude
Langmuir waves and ion acoustic waves were studied in a
plasma together with the condition for their existence [13].
Also, the effect of ion and electron drifts on the existence of
arbitrary amplitude solitary waves was analyzed in a relativistic
plasma, but ion and electron temperatures were neglected [14].
It can be noted for most of the analyses on relativistic plasmas
that only the ions are taken to be relativistic and generally the
electron inertia and/or ion temperature are/is neglected. However, in the plasma sheet boundary layer of the earths magnetosphere [15], solar are [16], solar wind [17], etc., ions as well
as electrons are found to be streaming with relativistic speeds
and have nite temperatures. Also, they cause the excitation
of various kinds of nonlinear waves such as shock waves and
solitary waves. For this reason, the relativistic effect and the
nite mass of electrons should be taken into account with the
streaming ions together with their nite temperature in order to
realize the true behavior of the soliton propagation in relativistic
plasmas. Moreover, since the soliton characteristics have been
found to be modied by the magnetic eld [4], [18][20] and
the effect of electron inertia is shown to be dominant over the
relativistic effect and the effect of ion temperature [10], it will
be of much interest to evaluate the contribution of electron inertia to the soliton propagation in a weakly relativistic two-uid
plasma under the effect of an external magnetic eld.

0093-3813/$20.00 2005 IEEE

1996

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 33, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2005

II. BASIC EQUATIONS AND LIMIT ON WAVE

PROPAGATION ANGLE
A nite amplitude ion acoustic wave propagating in a twouid plasma having nite temperature weakly relativistic ions
and electrons is considered under the effect of a uniform external
. The wave propagation is considered to
magnetic eld
plane at an angle with the direction of magnetic
be in the
eld. Kinetic effects such as Landau damping, heat conduction,
viscosity, etc., are neglected. Under such conditions, the normalized form of continuity and momentum equations for ion
and electron uids, and the Poisons equation is used to study
the dynamics of present plasma model.
For ion uid:

for the case of electrons considering them to be isothermal but

in the case of ions, it is taken as two since the number of degrees
plane.
of freedom is two in
The normalized uid equations (1.1)(1.9) are treated with
the reductive perturbation technique with the stretched coordinates [4], [20]
(2)
together with as a small dimensionless expansion parameter
space. The
and as the phase velocity of the wave in
and are expanded
quantities , , , , , , ,
around the equilibrium state in terms of as [4], [20]

(1.1)
(3)
(1.2)
(1.3)

,
, and
.
where
The following solutions at different orders of are obtained
when (2) and (3) are used in the basic uid equations (1.1)(1.9).
At order :
(4)

(1.4)

At order

For electron uid:

(1.5)

(5.1)
(5.2)

(1.6)

(5.3)

(1.7)
(5.4)

(1.8)
(5.5)
Poissons equation:
(5.6)
(1.9)
In these equations, the densities
and
are normalized
by the unperturbed plasma density , ion uid velocity
and electron uid velocity
by the ion acoustic speed
, time by the ion plasma
, spatial length and by the electron Debye length
period
and the potential by
. The ion to electron temperature
ratio
is , relativistic factor
with
as the ion streaming speed with weak relativistic effect,
with as the electron streaming speed, and the ratio
of ion cyclotron frequency to ion plasma frequency
is . The specic heat ratio is taken as unity

(5.7)

(5.8)
and
are
When we analyze (5.3) & (5.7), we nd that
vanished for nite magnetic eld or the ratio
and
masses of ions and electrons, which implies that the -components of the ion and electron velocities remain unaltered. Considering this point we integrate rest of the (5) under the boundary
,
,
,
,
when
conditions that

MALIK AND SINGH: SMALL AMPLITUDE SOLITON PROPAGATION IN A WEAKLY RELATIVISTIC MAGNETIZED SPACE PLASMA

1997

. This gives the following relations in the rst order

quantities

(9.1)

(6.1)

(9.2)

(6.2)
(6.3)

(9.3)

(9.4)

(6.4)
One can obtain the following phase velocity relation from (6)
(7)

(9.5)
At order

where

(10.1)

The above phase velocity relation reveals that fast and slow
modes, corresponding to plus and minus signs in (7), can be
possible in the present model of weakly relativistic two-uid
plasma. However, for their propagation, the phase velocity
should be real and positive. For the real phase velocity, we obtain
.
, this can be approximated to
Since

(10.2)
(10.3)

(8.1)

However, for the positive the rst term of right hand side of
(7) should be greater than the second term, which yields

(10.4)

(8.2)
(10.5)
III. K-dV EQUATION AND SOLITON
This section is devoted to the derivation and the solution of a
relevant K-dV equation for the present plasma model. For this
purpose, we use the following equations obtained at higher orders of .
At order :

(10.6)
(10.7)

1998

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 33, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2005

[(7)] or (6.4). This leads to the following equation in rst-order

perturbed potential
(14)
In the above equation
(10.8)
At order

(11.1)
(11.2)

One can write the following K-dV equation directly from (14)
together with the coefcients of nonlinearity and the dispersion
and
as
(15)

(11.3)
(11.4)
With the help of relations in rst order quantities [(6.1)(6.4)]
in (9)(11), one can obtain the following expressions for the
and
second order perturbed densities

If we transform the coordinates to

and integrate
the K-dV equation considering that and its derivatives vanish
, we nd the following soliton
at large distances
solution [21]
(16)
and the soliton
Here, the peak soliton amplitude is
width is
.
In addition to the above, the soliton energy is also one of its
important characteristics, which can be calculated as [22]
(17)

(12)

IV. RESULTS

(13)
Here,

,and

are given by

When we put the values of

and
in the rst
derivative of (9.5), we realize that the coefcient of
vanishes, since
from the phase velocity relation

We have obtained expressions for the phase velocity of the

and slow mode
, soliton amplitude
,
fast mode
and soliton energy
, which show the desoliton width
. Since our main concern in
pendence on the electron mass
the present paper is to evaluate the contribution of electron inertia to the soliton propagation characteristics, we give typical
(or ), wave propavalues to the strength of magnetic eld
gation angle , plasma density , and components of ion velocity
and
and electron velocity
and
to analyze
,
,
, and phase velocities
the soliton characteristics
and .
and
Table I shows the variation of the phase velocities
with the ion speed
for different values of electron speed
and for nite electron mass
and when
. Other parameters are
,
,
,
,
, and
. It is

MALIK AND SINGH: SMALL AMPLITUDE SOLITON PROPAGATION IN A WEAKLY RELATIVISTIC MAGNETIZED SPACE PLASMA

1999

TABLE I
ELECTRON INERTIA EFFECT ON PHASE VELOCITIES OF THE MODES WHERE B = 0:06 T,
 = 15 , n = 7 10 =m , u = 100, v = 120,  = 0:001

Fig. 1. Variation of the phase velocity  ( for fast mode &  for slow
mode) with the wave propagation angle  . Here m =m = 1835, n = 7
10 =m , u = 80, u = 100, v = 90, v = 120,  = 0:001, and
B = 0:06 T.

Fig. 2. Proles of the perturbed density n1 for the fast mode (solid line) and
slow mode (dotted line) when  = 15 and other parameters are the same as in
Fig. 1.

clear from the table that the phase velocity of the fast mode
decreases and that of slow mode
increases for the higher
; however, both the phase velocities
values of electron speed
increase with the increase of ion speed
. When we compare
and
for the two cases of nite
and
, it turns
out that the effect of electron inertia is to decrease the phase
velocity of the fast mode and to increase the velocity of the slow
mode, and the effect of electron inertia becomes less signicant
. Also, the phase velocities
for the higher values of ion speed
become independent of the electron speed for the case of zero
, which is clear from the expression
electron inertia
(7). The phase velocities of both types of the modes vary in the
same fashion with the wave propagation angle : rst they get
increased and then reduced for the increasing angle ; this is
,
,
shown in Fig. 1, where
,
,
,
,
, and
. This gure also shows that both the velocities
reach highest value when the angle is around 40 , however,
this will depend on the ion and electron velocity components,
temperature ratio, and the magnetic eld. Here, it may also be
noted that the velocity of the fast mode attains higher values and
the difference in the velocities is signicant only until the angle
where they get maximum values.

Since the K-dV equation (15) is achieved when the coefcient

is vanished with the use of the relation
of
[yielding (7)], the slow mode as well as the fast mode should
correspond to the soliton propagation. It is also found that the
dispersion coefcient attains positive values for the fast mode
and it carries negative values for the slow mode. In view of this
and the expression for the soliton width this can be seen that the
soliton width would be real for the positive (negative) values of
for the fast (slow) mode. Since the velocity describes the
phase velocity shift of the soliton, the positive (negative) value
would mean the phase velocity slightly greater (lower)
of
[8] than the one given by the dispersion relation (7). Therefore, the solitons would be possible for the fast mode, as well
as for the slow mode. Since the propagation of both types of the
modes is possible only when the wave propagation angle
, i.e., the
maximum possible value of angle is
, the solitons would
occur in the plasma when the ion and electron speeds, their temperature and mass ratios satisfy this condition, as the condition
8.2 is always satised.
In order to examine the nature of the solitons, we nd the perfrom (15) and (6.4) as
turbed density

2000

Fig. 3. Effect of ion velocity u (u ; u ) or electron velocity v (v ; v )

on the soliton amplitude  when  = 15 (thin line graphs) and  = 60
(thick line graphs). Other parameters are: m =m = 1835,  = 0:001, n =
7
10 =m and B = 0:06 T (a = 0:05); u (vz 0) = 100, v (u ) =
90, v (u ) = 120 for the variation of u (v ) and u (v ) = 100,
v (u ) = 90, v (u ) = 120 for the variation of u (v ).

where
or
. We plot in Fig. 2 the proles of this perturbed density for the fast mode (solid line) and slow mode
,
,
(dotted line) when
,
,
,
,
,
and
. It is clear from the gure that we obtain only
density humps for both types of the modes in the plasma. Therefore, only the compressive solitons, for which is also positive
( 0), are possible in the present plasma model. We name them
as slow compressive soliton (SCS) and fast compressive soliton
(FCS) which propagate for the slow mode and fast mode, respectively.
A. FCS
In this subsection, we will study FCS in order to examine the
electron inertia contribution to their propagation characteristics
under the effects of magnetic eld, wave propagation angle, ion
and electron speeds, and ion temperature.
Effect of Streaming Speeds of Ions and Electrons: Evaluation of Their Dominance: The relativistic effect of ion and elecis shown in Fig. 3 for
tron speeds on the soliton amplitude
(thin line graphs) and
(thick line graphs).
This gure shows the variation of the soliton amplitude with
and
and of
all the components of ion velocity i.e.,
electron velocity i.e.,
and
. Here
,
,
for the variation of
and
,
,
for the
. Other parameters are
,
variation of
and
.
It is clear from the gure that the amplitude behaves in the
and
for both the cases of
same fashion with
and
. Also it is evident that the amplitude
signicantly changes with the component of ion/electron velocity when the wave propagates at an angle of 15 with the
direction of magnetic eld, i.e., the component of ion/electron velocity is dominant over the component; however, the
component of ion/electron velocity is dominant for the wave
propagation angle of 60 . When we concentrate on the variation
of amplitude with the components of ion velocity, we nd that
the soliton amplitude increases with the ion velocity when ion

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 33, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2005

Fig. 4. Variation of maximum possible wave propagation angle 

with the
ion velocity u (u ; u ) or electron velocity v (v ; v ) for the propagation
of solitons under the same conditions (parameters) as in Fig. 3.

and it despeed is less than the electron speed i.e., when

; the amplitude gets maximum value when
creases when
ion and electron speeds are almost equal
. However, we
notice for the amplitude variation with the electron speed that it
and it increases when
. This means
decreases when
the soliton amplitude behaves oppositely with the electron and
ion speeds; however, when the wave propagates very close to
the direction of magnetic eld the amplitude always increases
for the increasing value of ion or electron speed.
Since the maximum possible value of wave propagation angle
depends on ion to electron temperature ratio and the
,
,
, and
of the ion and electron vecomponents
for the soliton propagation
locities, the allowed values of
will vary whenever we analyze the soliton characteristics by
changing any of these parameters. Therefore, to give a clear
depiction we have plotted in Fig. 4 the region(s) in parameter
space for which the solitary wave solutions exist, e.g., the graph
describes the maximum possible value of the
marked with
wave propagation angle when the varying parameter is
for
studying the soliton characteristics. Therefore, the region be,
,
or
and the horizontal axis reptween the graph
resents the regime of soliton propagation. For any given value of
or electron
velocity, one can easily nd the value of
ion
from the gure. Here, it would be worth mentioning that
is 62 with reference to the
the lowest possible value of
varying parameters in Fig. 3. Therefore, the values of in this
gure were selected as 15 and 60 for studying the relativistic
effects of ion and electron speeds on the soliton amplitude.
Effect of Magnetic Field and Electron Inertia: Fig. 5 shows
and soliton energy
with
the variation of the soliton width
the external magnetic eld
when
,
,
,
,
,
,
. Since the maximum possible value of i.e.,
and
for these parameters comes out to be 66.39 , here we select
. This gure shows that the soliton width and energy
decrease for the stronger magnetic eld. This can be explained
on the basis of the expression of the dispersion coefcient that
. Since the
varies in inverse proportion to
dispersion coefcient decreases with the increasing magnetic
eld, the dispersive properties of the plasma are altered and the
plasma becomes less dispersive in the presence of the magnetic
eld, which causes the solitons to evolve with smaller width

MALIK AND SINGH: SMALL AMPLITUDE SOLITON PROPAGATION IN A WEAKLY RELATIVISTIC MAGNETIZED SPACE PLASMA

Fig. 5. Dependence of the soliton width W and soliton energy E on the

magnetic eld B . Here, m =m = 1835, n = 7 10 =m , u = 80,
u = 100, v = 90, v = 120,  = 0:001 and  = 15 . Dotted graph is
for m = 0 and solid graphs are for nite m .

2001

Fig. 6. Opposite behavior of the soliton amplitude  and soliton width W

with the wave propagation angle  when B = 0:06 T (a = 0:05) and other
parameters are the same as in Fig. 5. Dotted graphs represent  and W when
m = 0.

and hence with the lesser energy [(17)]. In addition, when we

with the dotted one (for
),
compare the solid graph of
we realize that the soliton propagates with wider width in the
. Therefore, the contribution of electron inertia is
absence of
to reduce the soliton width and hence the soliton energy.
Effect of Wave Propagation Angle : Electron Inertia Conand
tribution: Opposite behavior of the soliton amplitude
soliton width
with the wave propagation angle is shown
and other parameters
in Fig. 6 when
are the same as used in Fig. 5. Here, dotted graphs represent
and
when
and the solid graphs are for the nite
.
This is evident from the gure that whereas the soliton amplitude gets smaller the soliton width gets wider for the increasing
values of wave propagation angle. This is probably due to the
increasing dispersive effects in the plasma, as the component
of magnetic eld along the direction of wave propagation carries lesser magnitude (see expressions of and ) for the larger
values of and, therefore, the soliton experiences larger dispersive effects during its propagation. When we compare the solid
, we nd that the effect of
graphs with the dotted ones
is to reduce the soliton amplitude. Also, for
electron inertia
, the soliton amplitude and width change more prominently with the angle , i.e., they show comparatively stronger
dependence on the propagation angle in the case of zero electron
. Moreover, the soliton amplitude shows oppoinertia
site behavior with the wave propagation angle for the cases of
and when
.
nite

Fig. 7. Variation of the soliton width W , soliton amplitude  and soliton

energy E with ion to electron temperature ratio  (= T =T ) when B =
0:06 T (a = 0:05) and other parameters are the same as in Fig. 5.

Fig. 8. Dependence of maximum possible wave propagation angle 

on
the ion to electron temperature ratio  for the propagation of solitons under the
same conditions (parameters) as in Fig. 7.

Ion Temperature Effect: Variation of the soliton width

,
, and soliton energy
with ion to elecsoliton amplitude
is depicted in Fig. 7 where
tron temperature ratio
and other parameters are the same
as in Fig. 5. Clearly, the effect of ion temperature is to decrease
the soliton amplitude and to increase the soliton width. Since
the width is increased from 10.15 to 11.70 and the amplitude
is reduced from 0.62 to 0.59 when the temperature ratio is
increased from 0.01 to 0.09, the change in the soliton width
is comparatively faster than the change in the amplitude. As
per (17), the soliton energy changes in direct proportion to the
soliton width, it means the soliton would evolve with larger energy when higher temperature ions are present in the plasma.
The same effect of ion temperature on the soliton amplitude has
been observed by various researchers in different plasma models
[5][7], [10], [19], [20].
In order to specify the region of the soliton propagation, we
with the
have prepared Fig. 8 that shows the variation of
varying parameter . The region between the line PQ and the
horizontal axis is the region where the solitary solutions are pos)
sible. This is clear from the gure that the region (value of
gets larger for the increasing value of ion temperature (or ).
Moreover, it is evident from the gure that the wave propagataken for Fig. 7 falls within this region.
tion angle
Sketch of Soliton: Electron Inertia Effect: Sketch of the
soliton solution [(16)] is portrayed in Fig. 9 together with
for different values of wave
the effect of electron inertia
and other
propagation angle when

2002

Fig. 9. Sketch of the soliton solution [(16)], showing the effect of electron
inertia m for different values of wave propagation angle  when B = 0:10 T
(a = 0:087) and other parameters are the same as in Fig. 5.

parameters are the same as in Fig. 5. In this gure, the thick

and the
graphs represent the case of nite electron inertia
.
thin graphs are for zero electron inertia, i.e., when
A comparison of thick and thin graphs yields that the effect
of electron inertia is to reduce the soliton amplitude for both
the values of wave propagation angle . Moreover, this can be
analyzed from the gure that the amplitude is reduced from
0.96 (0.99) to 0.66 (0.62) when the angle is 5 (15 ). Therefore,
it may be concluded that the effect of electron inertia on the
soliton propagation is more pronounced for the case of larger
wave propagation angle , i.e., when the wave propagates at
larger angle with the direction of magnetic eld. This is due to
acting on the electrons in
the stronger Lorentz force
the presence of larger angle .
B. SCS
Now we will evaluate the electron inertia contribution to the
propagation characteristics of the SCS that are possible in the
plasma for the slow mode. Our numerical calculations with due
consideration of limit on the wave propagation angle [(8.1)] reveal that the similar effects of the magnetic eld, wave propagation angle, ion temperature and ion and electron velocities
on the soliton amplitude, width and energy are realized as in
the case of FCS. For example, the width (energy) of the SCS
decreases from 9.44 (4.36) to 5.86 (2.70) when the magnetic
eld is increased from 0.06 T to 0.10 T under the same conditions as in Fig. 5. When we compare this change with the one of
width and energy of FCS, we notice that the effect of magnetic
eld is more pronounced on the FCS. Similarly, we obtain that
the effects of wave propagation angle and ion temperature are
more signicant on the slow compressive soliton characteristics
in comparison to the fast compressive solitons.
Sketch of Fast and Slow Compressive Solitons: Electron Inertia Effect: Fig. 10 shows the sketch of both types of the solitons, i.e., FCS and SCS, on the same scale in order to examine
the effect of electron inertia under the same conditions as in
Fig. 9. A comparison of the FCS and SCS graphs in this gure
infers that the SCS evolves with relatively smaller amplitude and
width under the same conditions in the plasma. It is also seen
that the amplitude and width of both the solitons attain the same
.
values in the absence of electron inertia, i.e., when
Moreover, when we evaluate the FCS and SCS graphs (for ) with the one marked with
, it is obtained that
nite

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 33, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2005

Fig. 10. Sketch of FCS and SCS, showing the effect of electron inertia m for
the same parameters as in Fig. 9. Thin line graph is for m = 0 for both types
of the solitons.

Fig. 11. Sketch of the solitons in magnetized (thick line graphs) and
unmagnetized (thin line graphs marked with UM) plasmas, showing the effect
of electron inertia m when m =m = 1835, n = 7 10 =m , u = 80,
u = 100, v = 90, v = 120, and  = 0:001 for the magnetized case
and m =m = 1835,  = 0:001, u = 128:0625, and v = 150 for the
unmagnetized case.

the effect of electron inertia is more signicant on the SCS in

comparison to the FCS.
C. Comparison of Results With Previous Studies
Here, we make an attempt to compare our results with the
ones obtained by other investigators in the past for different
cases of unmagnetized plasma with both streaming ions and
electrons [10] and unmagnetized plasma having streaming ions
with nite mass nonstreaming electrons [8].
Case I of Ref. [10]: Itisseenthatour calculationsreducetothe
unmagnetized case when
and
, i.e., when
the magnetic eld is applied along the direction of wave propagation. Under such conditions, we realize that our phase velocity
relations and the K-dV equation take the similar forms as of [10]
and our results are in good agreement with their results. In addition,wemakeacomparativestudyontheeffectsofelectroninertia
on these solitons under the same conditions using Fig. 11, which
shows that the effect of electron inertia is to reduce the soliton
amplitude in magnetized (thick line graphs) and unmagnetized
(thin line graphs) cases. However, when we compare the thick
(zero electron inertia),
and thin line graphs marked with
we nd that the effect of electron inertia is more pronounced on
the solitons propagating in a magnetized plasma.
Case II of Ref. [8]: By taking streaming ions with nite
mass nonstreaming electrons in an unmagnetized plasma
Kuehl and Zhang [8] obtained a limit on ion drift velocity for

MALIK AND SINGH: SMALL AMPLITUDE SOLITON PROPAGATION IN A WEAKLY RELATIVISTIC MAGNETIZED SPACE PLASMA

existence of the ion acoustic solitons. When we set

,
,
, our analysis infers
that the modes propagate (hence, the soliton solutions exist)
, i.e., when the ion drift velocity
only when
. This is the same limit on the ion
is less than
velocity as obtained in [8]. Moreover, the same variation of
the coefcients and and the soliton width (and amplitude)
is obtained under the effects of electron inertia and relativistic
speeds. However, we point out that it does not seem logical
to take nite mass of electrons and neglect their velocities, as
done in [8]. The more realistic situation where ion and electron velocities are taken into account together with the nite
electron mass reveals that the solitons are possible when the
difference of ion and electron velocities satisfy the condition
rather than
.
V. CONCLUSION
In the present paper, we have attempted to evaluate the electron inertia contribution to the soliton propagation in a magnetized plasma that has weakly relativistic ions and electrons. The
main results of the present analysis are summarized as follows.
1) Two types of the solitons, namely fast compressive solitons and slow compressive solitons, are possible in the
plasma.
2) The soliton propagation is possible only when the
streaming speeds of ions and electrons, their temperature, and mass ratios satisfy the condition (8.1) on the
wave propagation angle .
3) The range of angle gets reduced in the presence of the
electron inertia (nite
).
4) The effect of electron inertia is to decrease the phase
velocity of the fast mode and to increase the velocity of
the slow mode.
5) An analysis on the velocity components reveals that the
components ( components) of the ion and electron
velocity are dominant over the components ( -components) when the wave propagates near (away from) the
direction of magnetic eld.
6) The soliton amplitude shows opposite behavior with the
speeds of ions and electrons: it increases with the ion
speed when it is less than the electron speed i.e., when
and it decreases when
; the amplitude gets
maximum value when ion and electron speeds are almost
.
equal
7) In the presence of magnetic eld, the dispersive properties of the plasma are altered and both types of the solitons evolve with smaller width and lesser energy under
the effect of stronger magnetic eld.
8) The soliton amplitude and width show opposite behavior
with the wave propagation angle : the amplitude gets
reduced and the width gets wider when the wave propagates at a larger angle with the direction of magnetic
eld.
9) The change in soliton characteristics with the angle
is more pronounced in the case of zero electron inertia
.

2003

10) The soliton amplitude behaves oppositely for the cases

and
.
of nite
11) The effect of electron inertia is more signicant when
the wave propagates at a larger angle with the direction
of magnetic eld.
12) Both types of the solitons attain the same height and
in
width when electron inertia is neglected
the plasma under the same conditions.
13) A comparison of the electron inertia effect on the fast
and slow compressive solitons reveal that it is more pronounced on the propagation characteristics of the slow
compressive solitons.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
One of the authors, K. Singh, would like to thank University
Grants Commission (UGC), Government of India, for providing
leave to conduct the research work at IIT Delhi. The referees are
also acknowledged for giving valuable comments.
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Hitendra K. Malik received the Ph.D. degree in

plasma physics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, India, in 1995.
He is currently an Assistant Professor at IIT Delhi,
India. He has worked twice in Japan under a Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship and in South Africa under a Foundation for Research Development (FRD) Fellowship. He has also
worked as Research Associate and Pool Scientist of
Council of Scientic and Industrial Research, Government of India, and Lecturer of Physics at the Institute of Engineering and Technology Lucknow, India. At IIT, he is having a
key role in setting up the new Plasma Waves and Particle Acceleration Laboratory in the Department of Physics. His current areas of interest are nonlinear
waves in space related relativistic plasmas, negative ion and dusty plasmas, and
particle acceleration using lasers and microwaves.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 33, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2005

Khushvant Singh was born on July 31, 1972. He

graduated from Meerut University, Meerut, India, in
1991. He completed postgraduate work in physics at
the University of Roorkee, Roorkee, India, in 1993.
He received the M.Tech. degree in biomedical engineering from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi,
India, and was awarded Gold Medal for obtaining
highest marks in 1995. He received the Ph.D. degree
in plasma physics from Dr BRA University, Agra,
India, under the supervision of Dr. H. K. Malik.
He is currently a Lecturer of Physics at BSA College, Mathura, India. His eld of research interest is solitary waves in plasmas.