Self-focusing of nonlinear ion-acoustic waves and solitons in magnetized plasmas. Part 2. Numerical simulations, two-soliton collisions

Abstract

Nonlinear waves and solitons satisfying the Zakharov-Kuznetsov equation for a dilute plasma immersed in a strong magnetic field are studied numerically. Growth rates of perpendicular instabilities, found theoretically in part 1, are confirmed and extended to arbitrary wavelengths of the perturbations (the calculations of part 1 were limited to long-wave perturbations). The effects of instabilities on nonlinear waves and solitons are illustrated graphically. Pre-vious, approximate results of other authors on the perpendicular growth rates for solitons are improved on. Similar results for perturbed nonlinear waves are presented. The effects of two-soliton collisions on instabilities are investigated. Rather surprisingly, we find that the growth of instabilities can be retarded by collisions. Instabilities can also be transferred from one soliton to another in a collision. This paper can be read independently of part 1.