Dust acoustic solitary waves in a quantum plasma

By employing one-dimensional quantum hydrodynamic (QHD) model for a three species quantum plasma, nonlinear properties of dust acoustic solitary waves are studied. For this purpose a Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation is derived, incorporating quantum corrections. The quantum mechanical effects are also examined numerically both on the profiles of the amplitude and the width of dust acoustic solitary waves. It is found that the amplitude remains constant but the width shrinks for different values of a dimensionless electron quantum parameter H-e=root(Z(d0)h(2)omega(2)(pd))/m(e)m(d)C(d)(4), where Z(d0) is the dust charge state, h is the Planck constant divided by 2 pi, omega(pd) is the dust plasma frequency, m(e) (m(d)) is the electron (dust) mass, and C-d is the dust acoustic speed. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.