Propagation of cylindrical ion acoustic waves in a plasma with q-nonextensive electrons with nonthermal distribution

Abstract. The propagation of ion acoustic waves (IAWs) in a cylindrical collisionless unmagnetized plasma,
containing ions and electrons is investigated. The electrons are considered to be nonextensive and follow
nonthermal distribution. The reductive perturbation technique (RPT) is used to obtain a nonlinear cylindrical
Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (CKP) evolution equation. This equation is solved analytically. The effects
of plasma parameters on the IAWs characteristics are discussed in details. Both compressive and rarefactive
solitons are found to be created in the proposed plasma system. The profile of IAWs is found to depend
on the nonextensive and nonthermal parameters. The present study is useful for understanding IAWs in
the regions where mixed electron distribution in space, or laboratory plasmas, exist.