Linearly polarized superluminal electromagnetic solitons in cold relativistic plasmas

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2009 Jul;80(1 Pt 2):016406. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.016406. Epub 2009 Jul 15.

Abstract

We investigate a special class of coupled nonlinear superluminal solitons arising from the interaction of an intense linearly polarized electromagnetic pulse with a cold plasma. These modulated envelope structures are obtained as numerical solutions of the classic Akhiezer-Polovin model equations [Sov. Phys. JETP 3, 696 (1956)]. We also present a multiple time scale perturbation analysis in the small amplitude limit that provides a close analytic description of these nonlinear solutions.