Effect of nonthermal distributed electrons and temperature on phase shifts during the collision of inward and outward ion-acoustic solitary waves in nonplanar geometry

Interaction of nonplanar ion-acoustic solitary waves is an important source of information for studying the nature and characteristics of ion-acoustic solitary waves (IASWs). The head-on collision between two cylindrical/spherical IASWs in un-magnetized plasmas comprising of nonthermal distributed electrons and warm ions is investigated using the extended version of Poincaré–Lighthill–Kuo (PLK) perturbation method. How the interactions are taking place in cylindrical and spherical geometries are shown numerically. Analytical phase shifts are derived for nonplanar geometry. The effects of the ion to electron temperature parameter and the nonthermal electrons parameter on the phase shift are studied. It is shown that the properties of the interaction of IASWs in different geometries are very different.