Head-on collision of ion-acoustic solitary waves in a Thomas-Fermi plasma containing degenerate electrons and positrons

Head-on collision between two ion acoustic solitary waves in a Thomas-Fermi plasma containing degenerate electrons and positrons is investigated using the extended Poincare-Lighthill-Kuo (PLK) method. The results show that the phase shifts due to the collision are strongly dependent on the positron-to-electron number density ratio, the electron-to-positron Fermi temperature ratio and the ion-to-electron Fermi temperature ratio. The present study might be helpful to understand the excitation of nonlinear ion-acoustic solitary waves in a degenerate plasma such as in superdense white dwarfs. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.