Abstract
A two-component dense magnetoplasma consisting of ions and degenerate electrons is considered. The basic set of hydrodynamic and Poisson equations are reduced to the Zakharov-Kuznetsov (ZK) equation by using the reductive perturbation technique. The basic features of the electrostatic excitations are investigated by applying a new direct method to the ZK equation. It is found that the latter has new solutions, which admit the propagation of either solitary or explosive pulses. The relevance of the new direct method to other nonlinear partial differential equations is also discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.