Effect of wave—particle interaction on recurrence of a nonlinear ion wave

Abstract

The recurrence of ion waves has been examined experimentally in the region where the nonlinearity is so weak that recurrence length is determined oniy by dispersion. We observe that the recurrence length is longer than the theoretical prediction derived from the Korteweg–de Vries equation of hot ions, and that the recurrence is imperfect. The result is qualitatively explained by wave–particle interaction.