Dust acoustic solitons in plasmas with kappa-distributed electrons and/or ions

Abstract

An investigation into both small and large amplitude dust acoustic solitary waves in dusty plasmas with cold negative dust grains and kappa-distributed ions and/or electrons is discussed. Existence conditions for the arbitrary amplitude case are found in an appropriate parameter space, viz., an effective Mach number of the structure speed and the fraction of the charge density that resides with the free electrons, expressed in terms of the ion density. Results indicate that the kappa distribution has only a quantitative, not a qualitative effect on the existence domains and only negative potential solitons exist regardless of whether the electrons or the ions, or both, have a kappa distribution. Despite a wide-ranging search, we have not found double layers in such a plasma. In the case of positive dust, an equivalent set of results holds.