Abstract For two-dimensional unmagnetized dusty plasmas with many different dust grain species, a Kadomtsev--Petviashvili (KP) equation, a modified KP (mKP) equation and a coupled KP(cKP) equation for small, but finite amplitude dust-acoustic solitary waves are obtained for different physical conditions respectively. The influence of an arbitrary dust size distribution described by a polynomial expressed function on the properties of dust-acoustic solitary waves is investigated numerically. How dust size distribution affects the sign and the magnitude of nonlinear coefficient A (D) of KP (mKP) equation is also discussed in detail. It is noted that whether a compressive or a rarefactive solitary wave exists depends on the dust size distribution in some dusty plasmas.
Received: 20 August 2008
Revised: 22 October 2008
Accepted manuscript online:
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