Ion-acoustic cnoidal waves in a non-Maxwellian plasma with regularized κ-distributed electrons

This study examines how regularized kappa distributed (RKD) electrons affect the characteristics of the ion-acoustic cnoidal waves (IACWs) in normal plasma. The RKD is a generalized form of the standard kappa distribution that accounts for the impacts of thermal broadening and finite size effects on the plasma particles. By employing the reductive perturbation technique, the Korteweg–de Vries equation is derived, and its nonlinear cnoidal wave (CW) solution is obtained and analyzed both analytically and numerically. It is found that the amplitude of compressive IACWs increases with an enhanced cutoff parameter α and decreases with increasing superthermality κ. Rarefactive IACWs yield opposing results as compared to compressive IACWs under the impact of κ and α. The results provide insight into the behavior of CWs in normal plasmas with non-Maxwellian distributions and contribute to the understanding of wave-particle interactions in laboratory and space plasmas.