https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06005-9
Regular Article
Fast-moving electrostatic solitons in a plasma with turbulence heating
1
Department of Physics, Gauhati University, 781014, Guwahati, India
2
Department of Physics, University of Science & Technology Meghalaya, 793101, Ri-Bhoi, India
Received:
1
November
2024
Accepted:
11
January
2025
Published online:
31
January
2025
In this work, it is shown that electrostatic solitons in a plasma with turbulent heating of the electrons through an accelerating electric field can form with very high velocities, reaching up to several order of magnitudes larger than the equilibrium ion-sound speed. The possible parameter regime, where this work may be relevant, can be found in the so-called dead zones of a protoplanetary disk. Though these zones are stable to magnetorotational instability, the resultant turbulence can in fact heat the electrons making them follow a highly non-Maxwellian velocity distribution. We show that these fast-moving solitons can reach very high velocities. With electron velocity distribution described by the Davydov distribution function, we argue that these solitons can be an effective mechanism for energy equilibration in such a situation through soliton decay and radiation.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.