Ion-acoustic soliton-like waves undergoing Landau damping

Effects of Landau damping on ion-acoustic soliton-like waves are investigated experimentally and numerically. Landau damping is enhanced by increasing the ion temperature in the experiments. A ramp which is composed of resonant ions is observed in front of a soliton-like wave. The ramp is also seen in numerical simulations of an extended Korteweg-de Vries equation with a term of Landau damping. Experimental results of the height of the ramp are found to agree with numerical ones. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.