Effect of magnetic field and plasma density on nonlinear solitary waves in a relativistic plasma

Modified Korteweg-deVries (mK-dV) equation is derived for perturbed potential and solved in order to study the potential structure for the propagation of nonlinear solitary waves (solitons) in a magnetized spatially inhomogeneous plasma having relativistic ions and electrons. It is found that fast and slow modes occur in the plasma and only the fast modes correspond to the solitons. Solitons are possible for a particular range of wave-propagation angle θ (angle between wave vector and direction of the magnetic field) governed by mass ratio (mi/me), temperature ratio (Ti/Te) and relativistic speeds of ions and electrons. Effect of magnetic field is to decrease the soliton width and energy. The amplitude and energy of soliton get lower and the width gets wider when it propagates into higher plasma density region. The waves propagating at larger angles with the direction of magnetic field correspond to the solitons of higher amplitude and smaller width. (author)