Abstract
The propagation of electron-acoustic waves (EAWs) in an unmagnetized plasma, comprising (r,q)-distributed hot electrons, cold inertial electrons, and stationary positive ions, is investigated. Both the unmodulated and modulated EAWs, such as solitary waves, rogue waves (RWs), and breathers are discussed. The Sagdeev potential approach is employed to determine the existence domain of electron acoustic solitary structures and study the perfectly symmetric planar nonlinear unmodulated structures. Moreover, the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE) is derived and its modulated solutions, including first order RWs (Peregrine soliton), higher-order RWs (super RWs), and breathers (Akhmediev breathers and Kuznetsov-Ma soliton) are presented. The effects of plasma parameters and, in particular, the effects of spectral indices r and q, of distribution functions on the characteristics of both unmodulated and modulated EAWs, are examined in detail. In a limited cases, the (r,q) distribution is compared with Maxwellian and kappa distributions. The present investigation may be beneficial to comprehend and predict the modulated and unmodulated electron acoustic structures in laboratory and space plasmas.