See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/272241084

Van der Pol Equation for Nonlinear Plasma Oscillations

Article in Journal of Advanced Physics · December 2014

DOI: 10.1166/jap.2014.1144

CITATIONS READS
4 189

2 authors, including:

Hafeez Y Hafeez
The Federal University Dutse
49 PUBLICATIONS 243 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Determination of Heavy Metals and Radioactivity Concentration in Drinking Water Collected from Local Wells and Boreholes of Dutse Town, North West, Nigeria View project

Big Data Analysis: Cluster Analysis of Structured and Unstructured Data View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Chifu Ebenezer Ndikilar on 11 August 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Copyright © 2014 by American Scientific Publishers Journal of Advanced Physics
All rights reserved. Vol. 3, pp. 1–4, 2014
Printed in the United States of America (www.aspbs.com/jap)

Van der Pol Equation for Nonlinear Plasma

Oscillations
Hafeez Y. Hafeez∗ and Chifu E. Ndikilar∗
Physics Department, Federal University Dutse, Nigeria

A non linear Plasma Oscillation governed by two fluid-Model which treats the plasma as two interpenerating
conducting fluid with background situation representing a uniform infinite plasma for a small amplitude wave
and charge neutrality is considered. Also a Maxwellian equation, Boltzmann distribution equation of electron
and Eulerian equation of motion in Electric and Magnetic field for non linear plasma oscillation is studied.
Expression for the Classical Van der Pol equation and numerical solution for various values of the damping
coefficient
is obtained.

KEYWORDS:

ARTICLE
1. INTRODUCTION piecewise linear version and showed that the equation has
Plasma can be defined as the fourth state of matter. Inter- singular solution also.
ests according to such state of matter are due to their In this article, the non linear plasma oscillation governed
potential application. Indeed, radio-wave propagation in by two fluid model which treats plasma as two interpener-
the ionosphere was really an early stimulus for the devel- ating conducting fluids is considered.
opment of the theory of plasma. Nowadays, plasma pro-
cessing is viewed as a critical technology, in a large 2. FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM
number of industries, whilst semiconductor device fab- The Eulerian equations of motion in electric field E and
rication for computers may be the best known. It is magnetic field B are given as follow:10
also important in other sectors such as bio-medicine,
automobile, defence, aerospace optics, solar energy, dv
n  m = n q E + v × B − J  − p (1)
telecommnication, textiles, papers, polymers and waste d
management.1 dn
+  · n v  = S (2)
Balthazar Van der Pol (1899-1959) was a Dutch elec- d
trical engineer who initiated experimental dynamics in the dp n −
laboratory during the 1920’s and 1930’s. He first intro- =0 (3)
d
duced his (now famous) equation in order to describe
triode oscillations in electric circuit, in 1927. The mathe- where  is the resistive collision defined as:
matical model for the system is a well known second order m 
= (4)
ordinary differential equation with cubic non linearity-the ne2
Van der Pol equation. During the first half of the twentieth and is the electric charge density and current density J
century, Balthazar van der Pol pioneered the field of radio are given by
telecommunication.2–7

Later, in 1945, Cartwright and Littlewood8 analyzed the = n q (5)
Van der Pol equation with large value of non linearity 


parameter and showed that the singular solution exist. J= n q v (6)
In 1949, Lavinson,9 analytically analyzed the Van der 
Pol equation by substituting the cubic non linearity for These quantities (5) and (6) are the source terms for
Maxwellian equations;
∗
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.  ·B = 0 (7)
Emails: hafeezyusufhafez@gmail.com, ebenechifu@yahoo.com
Received: xx Xxxx xxxx
 ·E = (8)
Accepted: xx Xxxx xxxx
o

J. Adv. Phys. 2014, Vol. 3, No. 4 2168-1996/2014/3/001/004 doi:10.1166/jap.2014.1144 1

 Van der Pol Equation for Nonlinear Plasma Oscillations Hafeez and Ndikilar

 × B =
o J +
o o Ė (9) Also from (6), we have

 × E = −Ḃ (10) J = ni vi e (22)
For small amplitude waves a backward situation repre- from (19), we get
senting a uniform infinite plasma is considered. Also tak- kB Te n1
ing v = E = 0 in the unperturbed state, we then have = (23)
eno
J = 0 and all of Eqs. (1)–(10) are satisfied except (5) and
(6) which requires = 0, hence: Putting (4), (22) and (23) into (21), we get

 
n q = 0 (11) dvi k e
· = B Te + Ti  2 n1 +  · vi × Bo 
 d n o mi mi
For two species plasma,the condition of charge neutral- − i  · vi  (24)
ity becomes: no = noi = no , the me = 0 ion sound insta-
bility is considered and introducing perturbations terms Putting  · vi = 1/no S − dn1 /d into (28), we have:
which are denoted by the suffix 1, namely  
dvi k e
· = B Te + Ti  2 n1 +  · vi × Bo 
ni = no = n1 (12) d n o mi mi
 
pi = po = p1 dn
(13) − i S− 1 (25)
no d
Bi = Bo = B1 (14)
Putting (25) into (20), we get the following equation:
ARTICLE

Note that, for other variables which vanish at the unper-

turbed state, the labels 0 and 1 are not necessary. Inserting dS d 2 n1 kB en
= T + Ti  2 n1 + o  · vi × Bo 
the expression (12)–(14) into Eqs. (1)–(3) and discarding d d 2 mi e mi
second order pertubatives terms, the following equations  
dn
were obtained: − i S− 1 (26)
no d
dvi
n o mi = no eE + vi × Bo − J  − p1 (15) Choosing the source term to be of the form:
d
dn1
+ no  · vi = S (16) S = n1 − n31 + n51 − n71 (27)
d
p1 n and considering that n1 is proportional to the quantity
= 1 (17) 
po no e−j k·n , Eq. (26) becomes
Considering Eq. (3) and assuming that each species is a d 2 n1 kB en
perfect gas with unperturbed temperature T (which could 2
− Te + Ti  2 n1 + o  · vi × Bo  − i S
d mi mi
be different for each species), we have po = no kB T and
Eq. (15) can be rewritten as follows: dn1 dS dn1
+ i − =0 (28)
d dn1 d
dv
no mi i = no eE + vi × Bo − J  − kB Ti n1 (18)
d Differentiating (27) w.r.t n1 , we obtain
Now, investigating the two-fluid model, (assuming that dS
E = − ), we consider the Boltzmann distribution equa- = − 3n21 + 5n41 − 7n61 (29)
dn1
tion of electron given as follows.
Putting (29) in (28), we get
n1 e
= (19)
no kB Te d 2 n1 dn
2
+  i − + 3n21 − 5n41 + 7n61 1
d d
By differentiating Eq. (16) w.r.t , we get.
  
k k 2

dS d 2 n1 dvi + B Te + Ti n1 − i  n1 − n31 + n51 − n71 

= + no  · (20) mi
d d 2 d
ejno
− v × Bo  · k = 0 (30)
From Eq. (18), we have mi i
dvi e k T Considering i → 0 and using the slab geometry for
= E + vi × Bo − J  − B i n1 (21)
d mi n o mi which density varies in the x-direction and the z-axis

2 J. Adv. Phys., 3, 1–4, 2014

Hafeez and Ndikilar Van der Pol Equation for Nonlinear Plasma Oscillations

Fig. 1. Plot of yt and dy/dt againts ts for
= 0. Fig. 3. Plot of yt and dy/dt againts ts for
= 10.

coinciding with the magnetic field direction, Eq. (30) takes It can be shown that, the equation that governs the
the following form: system is:
d 2 n1 dn d2x

ARTICLE
+ − + 3n21 − 5n41 + 7n61 1 dx
d 2 d 2
−
1 − x2 − x4 − x6 + x = 0 (34)
dt dt
+ o n 1 = 0
2
(31)
Hence, the solution of the Maxwellian equation,
where Boltzmann distribution equation of electron and Eulerian
equation of motion in Electric and Magnetic field is given
o = kz Ck (32) by nonlinear differential Eq. (34).
  When  =  = 0, (34) reduces to:
kB Te + Ti  1/2
Ck = (33)
mi d2x dx
2
−
1 − x2 + x = 0 (35)
Using the rescaling dt dt
 1/2 Equation (35) is classical Van der Pol equation which
5 
t = o  n1 = x
=  = and has also been used to investigate non linear resonance
3 o 9 2 effects in a plasma by Keen and Fletcher in 196911 and the
2
7  solution has a limit cycle, where
is a scalar parameter
= indicating the strength of the non linear damping.
27 3

Fig. 2. Plot of yt and dy/dt againts ts for
= 1. Fig. 4. Plot of yt and dy/dt againts ts for
= 20.

J. Adv. Phys., 3, 1–4, 2014 3

 Van der Pol Equation for Nonlinear Plasma Oscillations
Fig. 5. Plot of yt and dy/dt againts ts for
= 50.
3. NUMERICAL SOLUTION
The numerical solution to the Van der Pol equation for
various values of
are presented in Figures 1 to 5.
ARTICLE
4. DISCUSSION
The Classical Van der Pol equation represents a paradigm
in oscillations theory and non linear dynamics. From these
figures, we can notice that in the absence of any exterior
excitation, from Figure 1, the wave generated by this oscil-
lator is periodic with sinusoidal form for the week values
of
= 0; Figure 2 is quasi-sinusoidal for the intermediates
values of
(unit order) and Figures 3 and 4 are relaxative
for the large values of
= 10 20,12 with a fix amplitude
equal to 2. Also we can deduce from these figures, the
existence of a single stable limit cycle which is almost
circular when the value of
are very small and almost
rectangular for the large values of
as seen in Figure 5.
4 J. Adv. Phys., 3, 1–4, 2014
View publication stats
Hafeez and Ndikilar
5. CONCLUSION
In the above analysis, a class of solution of Non linear
Plasma Oscillation Governed by two fluid-Model of Van
der Pol Equation is presented. The non linearity of Eq. (35)
depends on the damping co-efficient
which has varying
behaviour: when
= 0, there is no damping, and we get
a simple harmonic oscillator and when,
≥ 0, the sys-
tem will enter a limit cycle, where energy continues to be
conserved.
Acknowledgment: The authors wish to thank
Dr. Saminu I. Bala for his time, useful discussions and
help in preparing the numerical solution to this Problem.
References and Notes
1. J. Proud and al., Plasma processing of materials, Scientific Oppor-
tunities and Technologies Challenges, National Academy Press,
Washington D.C (1991).
2. M. L Cartwright and Balthazar van der Pol, J. London Math. soc.
35, 367 (1960).
3. M. Cartwright, Van der Pol equation for relaxation oscillation, in
contribution to the theory of nonlinear oscillation II, Princeton Amm,
Math. Stud. 2, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ (1952),
pp. 3–18.
4. B. Van der Pol, A Theory of amplitude of force and force triode
vibration, Radio Review, 1, 701, 754 (1920).
5. B. Van der Pol, Phyil Mag. 2, 978 (1926).
6. B. Van der Pol, Proc. IRE 22, 1051 (1934).
7. B. Van der Pol and J. Van der Mark, Nature 120, 363 (1927).
8. M. L. Cartwright and J. E. Littlewood, J. London Math. Soc. 20, 180
(1945).
9. N. Levinson, A second order differential equation with singular solu-
tions, The Annals of Mathematics, 2nd ser, January (1949), Vol. 50,
pp. 127–153.
10. R. Dendy, Plasma Physics: An Introduction Course, Cambridge
University Press (1993).
11. B. E. Keen and W. H. Fletcher, Phys. Rev. Lett. 23, 14 (1969).
12. B. Vander Pol, Phyl Mag. 3, 64 (1927).