Kinetic electrostatic structures in current-carrying pair plasmas

The existence and properties of phase-space structures in current-carrying pair plasmas is studied by means of the finite amplitude expressions of the pseudo-potential method. Emphasis is given to double layers, solitary structures and periodic waves. The results can be applied to electron–positron plasmas as well as to plasmas containing heavier charged particles with the same mass and opposite charges, such as fullerene ions and dust particles. They can also help to understand numerical simulations that showed the spontaneous formation of phase-space holes in linearly stable regimes