Propagation of Compressional Alfvén Waves in a Magnetized Pair Plasma Medium

Abstract

The reductive perturbation approach was used to explore the nonlinear propagation of fast (compressive) and slow (rarefactive) electron–positron (EP) magnetoacoustic (EPMA) modes in an EP plasma medium. The solitary wave solution of the Korteweg-de Vries (K-dV) equation is used to identify the basic properties of EP compressional Alfvén waves. It is shown that the fast (slow) EPMA mode is predicted to propagate as compressive (rarefactive) solitary waves. The basic features (i.e., speed, amplitude, and width) of the compressive (i.e., fast) EPMA waves are found to be completely different from those of rarefactive (i.e., slow) EPMA ones. It is also examined that hump (dip) shape solitary waves are found for the fast (slow) mode. The significance of our findings is in understanding the nonlinear electromagnetic wave phenomena in laboratory plasma and space environments where EP plasma may exist.