Finite amplitude electron-acoustic waves in the electron diffusion region

Abstract

The electron-acoustic solitons are studied with two temperature electrons (a hot trapped having vortex-like velocity distribution and a warm adiabatic fluid) and stationary ions. The theoretical model is based on the observations of a mixture of the hot, tenuous magnetospheric and warm, dense magnetosheath plasma particles associated with the asymmetric magnetic reconnection at the Earth’s magnetopause by Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS). Using the reductive perturbation technique, the model supports the existence of nonlinear electron-acoustic structures derived from the mKdV-like equation. The electron-acoustic waves propagate at supersonic speeds above the electron sound speed. The results are applied to observations of electric field structures in the electron diffusion region (EDR).