Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 40
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2011-20518-0

Regular Article

Applications of a simplified bilinear method to ion-acoustic solitary waves in plasma

¹ Department of Mathematics, Hashemite University, Zarqa 13115, Jordan
² Department of Mathematics, Al al-Bayt University, Mafraq 25113, Jordan

^a e-mail: awawdeh@hu.edu.jo

Received: 5 September 2011
Received in final form: 6 December 2011
Published online: 24 February 2012

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a computational method for nonlinear partial differential equations modeling ion-acoustic waves as well as dusty plasmas in laboratory and space sciences. Many types of solitary waves including soliton solutions, N-soliton solutions and singular N-soliton solutions are derived. The characteristic line method and graphical analysis are applied to discuss the solitonic propagation and collision, including the bidirectional solitons and elastic interactions. Furthermore, the effects of inhomogeneities of media and nonuniformities of boundaries, depicted by the variable coefficients, on the soliton behavior are discussed.