Effect of Electron Inertia on Double Layers in a Relativistic Hot Plasma

Abstract

The ion-acoustic double layer in a relativistic hot plasma is studied by considering the effect of electron inertia. The critical region is analysed with the help of a combination of the KdV and mKdV equations obtained via a reductive perturbation technique. The profiles of the double layer are explicitly obtained for various values of the plasma parameters and of the electron-ion mass ratio.