Oblique propagation of electrostatic waves in a magnetized electron-positron-ion plasma with superthermal electrons

A theoretical investigation is carried out to understand the basic features of linear and nonlinear propagation of ion-acoustic (IA) waves subjected to an external magnetic field in an electron-positron-ion plasma which consists of a cold magnetized ion fluid, Boltzmann distributed positrons, and superthermal electrons. In the linear regime, the propagation of two possible modes (fast and slow) and their evolution are investigated. It is shown that the electron superthermality and the relative fraction of positrons cause both modes to propagate with smaller phase velocities. Also, two special cases of dispersion relation are found, which are related to the direction of the wave propagation. In the nonlinear regime, the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation describing the propagation of fast and slow IA waves is derived. The latter admits a solitary wave solution with only negative potential in the weak amplitude limit. It is found that the effects of external magnetic field (obliqueness), superthermal electrons, positron concentration, and temperature ratio significantly modify the basic features of solitary waves. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3656982]