Abstract
Nonlinear ion-acoustic solitary waves in a warm collisionless plasma with nonthermal electrons are investigated by a direct analysis of the field equations. The Sagdeev's potential is obtained in terms of ion acoustic speed by simply solving an algebraic equation. It is found that the amplitude and width of the ion-acoustic solitons as well as the parametric regime where the solitons can exist are sensitive to the population of energetic non-thermal electrons. The soliton and double layer solutions are obtained as a small amplitude approximation. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4731715]