Finite-difference modeling of solitons induced by a density hump in a plasma multi-fluid

A Lax-Wendroff type semi-implicit numerical scheme is employed to numerically integrate the nonlinear one-dimensional unmagnetized plasma multi-fluid equations for ideal gases to obtain soliton solutions from an initial density hump profile. The time evolution of such solitons is studied and is found to be similar to those obtained with previous simulation techniques and to those that have been observed in experimental studies. What is interesting and new here, is that, effects such as two soliton collisions and soliton-boundary reflections are observed by means of a model involving a fully nonlinear time evolutionary numerical fluid treatment of a plasma. (C) 2001 IMACS. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.