https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06717-y
Regular Article
Dynamics and stability of modulated electrostatic wave packets in non-maxwellian dusty plasma: insights from space observations
1
Department of Physics, Government Post Graduate College, 27200, Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
2
Department of Physics, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad Campus, Park Road, Chak Shahzad, 44000, Islamabad, Pakistan
a
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Received:
10
April
2025
Accepted:
2
August
2025
Published online:
22
August
2025
Abstract
Motivated by NASA spacecraft observations of localized wave profiles in planetary magnetospheres, the present work explores the evolution of modulated electrostatic wave packets in a non-Maxwellian dusty plasma environment. The evolution of dust-ion-acoustic (DIA) wave packets is explored using a two-dimensional theoretical framework based on the Davey–Stewartson (DS) model. The plasma system under consideration consists of a nonthermal electron population with a generalized (r, q) distribution that departures from Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution and stationery positively (negatively) charged dust grains. The modulational instability and stability of DIA wave packets under the influence of positive dust are the primary focus of the investigation. The degree of electron nonthermality (r, q) and the dust concentration have a substantial impact on the wave dynamics, as shown by the broad range of conditions obtained for the onset of modulational instability. Positive dust is found to play a substantiating role in the amplitude modulation process, as higher dust concentrations are found to increase the instability growth rate and widen the instability region. Similar to this, more prominent instability features over a larger wavenumber range are caused by stronger nonthermal effects in the electron distribution. On the other hand, the instability window shrinks and the instability growth rate is suppressed for higher negative dust concentrations. Important distinctions between wave modulation in two-dimensional dusty plasmas and conventional one-dimensional Maxwellian systems are highlighted by the establishment of a generalized dispersion relation that describes the amplitude perturbation. These qualitatively and numerically consistent results provide information about the behavior of multidimensional waves in realistic plasma environments. The results may be useful for interpreting electrostatic structures seen in other space or lab plasma conditions, such as planetary magnetospheres.
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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.
