Abstract
The theoretical and numerical studies have been investigated on the nonlinear propagation of electrostatic ion-acoustic waves (IAWs) in an un-magnetized Thomas–Fermi plasma system consisting of electron, positrons, and positive ions for both of ultra-relativistic and non-relativistic degenerate electrons. Korteweg-de Vries (K-dV) equation is derived from the model equations by using the well-known reductive perturbation method. This equation is solved by employing the generalized Riccati equation mapping method. The hyperbolic functions type solutions to the K-dV equation are only considered for describing the effect of plasma parameters on the propagation of electrostatic IAWs for both of ultra-relativistic and non-relativistic degenerate electrons. The obtained results may be helpful in proper understanding the features of small but finite amplitude localized IAWs in degenerate plasmas and provide the mathematical foundation in plasma physics.