Self-consistent expansion of a multicomponent plasma into a vacuum

The problem of the one-dimensional collisionless expansion of a multicomponent plasma into a vacuum is considered. In the hydrodynamic approximation, an approximate analytical solution for an arbitrary set of ion species with masses M1,..., Mn and charge numbers Z1e, Z2e,..., Zne is found by using the technique of self-similar variables employed by Gurevich, Pariiskaya, and Pitaevskii for the case of single-species ions. A numerical iterative algorithm is developed in which the analytical solution is used as a first approximation.