Electrostatic Ion-Acoustic Shock Waves in a Magnetized Degenerate Quantum Plasma

Abstract

A theoretical investigation has been carried out to examine the ion-acoustic shock waves (IASHWs) in a magnetized degenerate quantum plasma system containing inertialess ultra-relativistically degenerate electrons, and inertial non-relativistic positively charged heavy and light ions. The Burgers equation is derived by employing the reductive perturbation method. It can be seen that under the consideration of non-relativistic positively charged heavy and light ions, the plasma model only supports the positive electrostatic shock structure. It is also observed that the charge state and number density of the non-relativistic heavy and light ions enhance the amplitude of IASHWs, and the steepness of the shock profile is decreased with ion kinematic viscosity. The findings of our present investigation will be helpful in understanding the nonlinear propagation of IASHWs in white dwarfs and neutron stars.

Keywords

• shock waves
• Burgers equation
• degenerate quantum plasma
• reductive perturbation method