Asymmetry-driven structure formation in pair plasmas.
The nonlinear propagation of electromagnetic waves in pair plasmas, in which the electrostatic potential plays a very important but subdominant role of a "binding glue" is investigated. Several mechanisms for structure formation are investigated, in particular, the "asymmetry" in the initial temperatures of the constituent species. It is shown that the temperature asymmetry leads to a (localizing) nonlinearity that is qualitatively different from the ones originating in ambient mass or density difference. The temperature-asymmetry-driven focusing-defocusing nonlinearity supports stable localized wave structures in 1-3 dimensions, which, for certain parameters, may have flat-top shapes.
Mahajan
S M
SM
Institute for Fusion Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. mahajan@mail.utexas.edu
Shatashvili
N L
NL
Berezhiani
V I
VI