Experimentally Observed Two-Dimensional Precursor Solitons in a Dusty Plasma Modelled by the forced Kadomtsev–Petviashvili Equation.

Space debris, comprising defunct artificial satellites, rocket fragments, and naturally formed objects, often carries significant charge due to interactions with ionospheric plasma [1]. Laboratory experiments simulating such an environment have confirmed the generation of nonlinear excitations when a dust fluid flows supersonically over a charged obstacle, either by potential modification or gas injection [2-4]. This study presents a theoretical model for dust acoustic precursor solitons excited by a supersonically moving charged cylindrical object in a dusty plasma, using the forced Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (fKP) equation [5]. Derived from a three-fluid Poisson system via the reductive perturbation method, the fKP equation is numerically solved with parameters closely matching experimental observations of cylindrical precursor solitons [4]. The resulting solutions accurately reproduce the two-dimensional geometric features, velocities, amplitudes, and temporal behavior observed in dusty plasma experiment [4]. These results demonstrate the fKP equation’s effectiveness in modeling precursor soliton dynamics and its potential applicability in practical contexts such as space debris detection and tracking—where streaming, highly charged objects interact nonlinearly with the ionospheric plasma. Additionally, our model shows good qualitative correspondence with kinetic simulation results [6] and enables investigation into the influence of dust charge fluctuations and damping mechanisms.



References:

[1] Fundamentals of Spacecraft Charging: Spacecraft Interactions with Space Plasmas (Princeton University Press, 2012).

[2] Experimental observation of precursor solitons in a flowing complex plasma, Phys. Rev. E 93, 041201 (2016).

[3] Experimental observation of pinned solitons in a flowing dusty plasma, Phys. Rev. E 103, 013201 (2021).

[4] Excitation of cylindrical and spherical precursor solitons in a flowing dusty plasma: Experimental and simulation studies, Phys. Plasmas 31, 023705 (2024).

[5] Modeling of Experimentally Observed Two-Dimensional Precursor Solitons in a Dusty Plasma by the forced Kadomtsev–Petviashvili Equation, Phys. Rev. E 111, 065201 (2025).

[6] Signatures of an energetic charged body streaming in a plasma, Phys. Rev. E 107, 025207 (2023).