Weakly nonlinear dust ion-acoustic shock waves in a dusty plasmawith nonthermal electrons

Weakly nonlinear dust ion-acoustic (DIA) shock waves are investigated in a dusty plasma with nonthermal electrons. A modified Korteweg-de Vries equation with a cubic nonlinearity is derived. Due to the net negative dust charge μ Z d and electron nonthermality, the present plasma model can admit compressive and rarefactive weak DIA shock waves. The effect of increasing μ Z d is to lower the critical nonthermal parameter β c above which only rarefactive DIA shock waves are admitted. Our investigation may help to understand the nonlinear structures observed in the auroral acceleration regions.