Electrostatic dust-acoustic envelope solitons in an electron-depleted plasma

A standard nonlinear Schrödinger equation has been established by using the reductive perturbation method to investigate the propagation of electrostatic dust-acoustic waves, and their modulational instability as well as the formation of localized electrostatic envelope solitons in an electron-depleted unmagnetized dusty plasma system comprising opposite polarity dust grains and super-thermal positive ions. The relevant physical plasma parameters (viz., charge, mass, number density of positive and negative dust grains, and super-thermality of the positive ions, etc.) have rigorous impact to recognize the stability conditions of dust-acoustic waves. The present study is useful for understanding the mechanism of the formation of dust-acoustic envelope solitons associated with dust-acoustic waves in the laboratory and space environments. (© 2020 Wiley‐VCH GmbH)