Abstract:
Cylindrical and spherical Gardner solitons (GSs) and double
layers (DLs) in a two-electron-temperature plasma system
(containing cold electrons, hot electrons obeying a Boltzmann
distribution, and hot ions obeying a nonthermal distribution) are
studied by employing the reductive perturbation method. The
modified Gardner (MG) equation describing the nonlinear
propagation of the electron-acoustic (EA) waves is derived, and
its nonplanar GS- and DL-solutions are numerically analyzed. The
parametric regimes for the existence of GSs, which are associated
with both positive and negative potential, and DLs which are
associated with positive potential, are obtained. The basic
features of nonplanar EA GSs, and DLs, which are found to be
different from planar ones, are also identified. The implications
of our results in space and laboratory plasmas are briefly
discussed.