Eur. Phys. J. D (2014) 68: 340
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2014-50381-2

Regular Article

Theoretical study on the interaction of electron-acoustic shock waves in a generalized Lorentzian plasma

¹ College of Physics and Electromechanical Engineering, Hexi University, Zhangye 734000, P.R. China
² College of Civil Engineering, Hexi University, Zhangye 734000, P.R. China

^a e-mail: hanjiuning@126.com

Received: 14 May 2014
Received in final form: 4 August 2014
Published online: 6 November 2014

Abstract

The nonlinear interaction between electron-acoustic shock waves in a dissipative, non-Maxwellian plasma composed of cold fluid electrons, stationary background ions, and inertialess superthermal electrons has been studied. The effects of plasma parameters on the trajectory changes (i.e., phase shifts) of shock waves after their head-on collision is our main concern. The results indicate that the interactions between shocks are different from those of solitons. Also, it is found that the occurrence and variation of trajectory shifts may be due to the combined role played by the dispersion and dissipation of the colliding nonlinear structure.