Abstract
The characteristics of the head-on collision (HOC) between two positron acoustic solitary waves (PASWs) in a four component electron-positron-ion (EPI) space plasma have been investigated theoretically, using the extended Poincaré-Lighthill-Kuo (PLK) method. The analytical phase shifts after the collision of the two solitary waves occurs are derived. Numerically, the influences of the cold/hot positron parameters on the phase shifts are explicitly investigated. The present theory is applied to analyze the formation and the interaction of localized coherent PASWs structures in space plasmas (pulsar environments).