Driving large-amplitude multiphase ion acoustic waves

It is demonstrated how to excite and control large-amplitude ion acoustic waves by nonlinear phase locking to the corresponding driving small amplitude traveling waves. The Lagrangian formulation and the Whitham's averaged variational principle are used to analytically derive the equations describing the evolution of the slowly varying amplitudes and the phases of the wave. The conditions for double autoresonance are studied. Finally, the fully nonlinear numerical simulations are used to corroborate analytical results.