Two-dimensional evolution of an ion-acoustic soliton

Abstract

The two-dimensional evolution of an ion-acoustic soliton from a grid with regular or random perturbations in the direction transverse to the direction of the soliton propagation is experimentally examined. The soliton initially follows the contour of the exciting grid but evolves into a planar structure. These experimental results are compared with a model based on the higher dimensional Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation. Both the theoretical and numerical predictions agree with the experiment.