Dust ion-acoustic solitary waves in a dusty plasma with positive and negative ions

Properties of small but finite amplitude dust ion-acoustic (DIA) solitary waves in a dusty plasma composed of inertialess electrons, positive and negative inertial ions, and immobile negative/positive charged dust grains are investigated. By using the multifluid dusty plasma model, the Kortweg-de Vries equation and energy integral for small and large amplitude solitary pulses, are derived. It is found that the presence of the negative ions modifies the properties of the solitary DIA waves, and provides the possibility of positive and negative solitary potential structures to coexist. The present results may be useful for understanding the salient features of localized DIA excitations that may appear in data from forthcoming laboratory experiments and space observations. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.