- 1Department of Mathematical Sciences, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 2Department of Mathematics, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, Pakistan
- 3Mathematics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
- 4Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Al-Baha University, Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia
- 5Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt
It is known that the family of nonlinear Korteweg-de Vries-type (KdV) equations is widely used in modeling many realistic phenomena that occur in nature, such as the propagation of solitons, shock waves, multiple solitons, cnoidal waves, and periodic waves in seas and oceans, plasma physics, fluid mechanics, and electronic circuits. Motivated by these applications, we proceed to analyze the time-fractional forms of this family, including the planar quadratic nonlinear fractional KdV (FKdV) and planar cubic nonlinear fractional modified KdV (FmKdV) using Elzaki Homotopy perturbation method (HPTM). By implementing this method, we can derive some highly accurate approximations to both FKdV and FmKdV equations. Using the suggested method, the nonlinear planar FKdV equation is solved and analytical FKdV-soliton approximation is obtained. For the nonlinear planar FmKdV equation, two general formulas are derived depending on the polarity of the cubic nonlinearity coefficient “
1 Introduction
Fractional differential equations are a generalization of integer differential equations. Thus, fractional calculus (FC) is a more comprehensive version of classical integer-order calculus. FC investigates integrals and derivatives of fractional order [1]. Over the past 30 years, fractional calculus has been regarded as a valuable tool for addressing sustainable and complex issues due to its numerous benefits, including nonlocality, heritability, high dependability, and analyticity. FC was employed extensively and effectively to characterize a wide range of phenomena that arise in various fields, including engineering, physics, economics, and science [2–7]. Many physical systems can be more precisely represented by the formulation of fractional derivatives, as evidenced by recent investigations [8–11]. As a result, FDEs are widely used in many fields like physics (e.g., interstellar matter’s ability to absorb light) [12], chemistry [13, 14], biology [15], water treatment model [16], modeling COVID-19 pandemic [17], science and engineering [18], and many other applications [19–24] including visco-elasticity, electrical circuits, fractional multipoles, electroanalytical chemistry, entropy theory, image processing, fluid mechanics, and modeling plasma waves [25–28].
Solving nonlinear fractional differential equations (FDEs) presents computing challenges due to the nonlocal characteristics of fractional derivatives. Many researchers have recently examined FDEs from various perspectives. They have developed and used numerical simulation techniques as part of their study to solve these equations and accurately predict their behavior [29–31]. Consequently, numerous practical approaches employed to investigate FDEs, including the Adomian decomposition method (ADM) [32, 33], Variational Iteration Method (VIM) [34], Spectral Method [35], Homotopy analysis method (HAM) [36], new iterative method (NIM) [37, 38], Differential transform method [39, 40], residual power series method [41–43], Chebyshev plynomial method [44], Haar wavelet collocation method [45], Homotopy perturbation method (HPM) [46–50], the Tantawy Technique [25–27], among others [51, 52]. All of these methods have effectively produced approximations for various types of fractional differential equations, which have also proven successful in modeling a broad range of physical and engineering phenomena.
Nonlinear physical systems have significantly advanced the study of nonlinear equations for traveling wave solutions. Nonlinear wave dynamics have been studied in many scientific and engineering domains. These include hydrodynamics, solid-state physics, fiber optics, geological sciences, and plasma physics. Nonlinear wave theory is a recent mathematical study that often investigates asymptotic conditions (e.g., fluctuating over several scales, significant amplitude, high frequency) that are not readily accessible by numerical simulations. In addition, nonlinear wave theory is crucial to investigating actual water waves, light-matter interactions, optical fiber transmission, earthquakes, galaxy formation, traffic flow, and the steepening of short gravity waves over long wave crests. The Korteweg–de Vries (KdV)-type equations and their family are among the most significant evolutionary wave equations, extensively utilized to explain and model various nonlinear structures that arise and propagate in many physical and engineering systems. For instance, this family were used for modeling nonlinear structures in various practical fields, including electronic circuits [53, 54], fluid mechanics [55, 56], shallow water waves [57–60], plasma physics [61], and many others. For example, in the framework of the planar KdV equation, the overtaking collisions of Alfvén solitons have been investigated in a low beta collisionless magnetoplasma composed of electron and ion fluids [62]. Also, the propagation of nonlinear electron-acoustic CWs (EACWs) in a homogeneous magnetoplasma comprising fluid cold electrons and inertialess nonthermal electrons, as well as stationary ions, has been investigated in the framework of the planar KdV equation [63]. Moreover, the non-fractional form of this equation has been used to analyze many other phenomena that propagate in various plasma models, whether directly, such as describing phenomena that propagate at the phase velocity [64], or indirectly, such as describing the wave that propagates at the group velocity (e.g., dark solitons), by transforming it to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) [65]. The integer-order forms of this family has been widely used to study the propagation and interaction of solitary waves (SWs) and cnoidal waves (CWs) in various plasma models. However, some theoretical results obtained using the integer forms of these equations may differ slightly from some observed data. Thus, one way to overcome this deviation is to treat these phenomena in fractional forms. Therefore, in this work, we focus our efforts on analyzing this family in its fractional form using some effective methods, which may reveal the mystification surrounding specific experiments or space observations. The general forms for nonlinear time-fractional quadratic nonlinearity KdV equation [26] and cubic nonlinearity modified KdV (mKdV) equation [27, 66, 67] are, respectively, given by
and
where
The goal of the study is to analyze the fractional planar nonlinear KdV-type equations, including quadratic nonlinearity planar fractional KdV (FKdV) Equation 1 and cubic nonlinearity planar fractional mKdV (FmKdV) Equation 2 and derive some analytical approximations to model nonlinear ion-acoustic waves (IAWs) in a collisionless, unmagnetized plasma composed of inertial cold ions and inertialess Cairns-Tsallis distributed electrons [68–70]. It is well-known that FKdV Equation 1 does not support shock waves, but it does support solitary and periodic waves. In the current study, we will focus on fractional solitary waves (SWs), with the possibility of also studying fractional periodic waves, as we will derive a general formula for the fractional approximation as a function of the initial solution. Through this formula, fractional periodic waves can also be studied. On the other hand, the FmKdV Equation 2 can support both solitary and shock waves, depending on the sign of the cubic nonlinearity coefficient “
with the initial condition (IC)
where
With the IC
where
Now, Elzaki HPM (EHPM) can be implemented for analyzing these fractional Equation 1 in order to model the IAWs in the mentioned plasma model. Note that this approach is considered a combination between Elzaki transform (ET) [71] and the conventional HPM [72, 73]. EHPTM, a synthesis of ET and HPM, was first employed by Mohamed et al. [74] to solve initial value problems both analytically and numerically. Based on the numerous applications of this approach and its efficacy in analyzing various evolutionary wave equations (EWEs), thus, this method will be employed to investigate the different types of fractional IAWs (fractional solitary and shock waves) inside the aforementioned plasma model.
2 Preliminaries
Here, we briefly overview a few fractional calculus concepts, traits, and results.
Definition 1. The Riemann–Liouville’s (RL) fractional integral operator is expressed as [75, 76]
with the following properties
where
Definition 2. The Caputo fractional derivative operator (FDO) is expressed as [75, 76]
with the following properties
Definition 3. Elzaki transform (ET) for the function
Theorem 4. If
3 Elzaki homotopy perturbation method (EHPM) for analyzing FPDES
Here, EHPM is employed for analyzing the following general FPDE:
with the initial condition (IC)
where
To analyze problem (12) using the EHPM, the following brief points are introduced:
Step 1: Taking ET to Equation 12 yields
Step 2: Using ET to the Caputo FDO as given in Equation 11 in Equation 13, we get
which leads to
or
Step 3: Taking the inverse ET to Equation 16 implies
Step 4: The approximate solution according to the HPM is given by the following convergent series solution:
where
Step 5: In the following manner, the nonlinear term is decomposed
where
where
Step 6: Inserting Equations 18, 19 into Equation 17 yields
Step 7: Collecting the coefficients of various order of
Step 8: For
4 Plasma applications and test examples
This section is considered for examining and analyzing some fractional EWEs, such as the planar FKdV and FmKdV equations, which are critical differential equations for analyzing various nonlinear phenomena in numerous physical systems, including fluids, optical fibers, communications, seawater, oceans, and plasma physics, which is characterized by a plethora of nonlinear phenomena. Here, we apply EHPTM to analyze the proposed models and attempt to derive highly accurate analytical approximations for these models.
4.1 Fluid plasma model
Since both quadratic nonlinearity KdV and cubic nonlinearity mKdV equations are among the essential EWEs that are widely used to study various nonlinear phenomena (such as solitons, cnoidal waves, shock waves, and so on) in various plasma systems, thus, we can take a realistic application model of a multicomponent plasma and then derive these equations by employing the reductive perturbation technique (RPT). For this purpose, we consider the propagation of nonlinear ion-acoustic waves (IAWs) in a collisionless, unmagnetized plasma composed of inertial cold ions and inertialess Cairns-Tsallis distributed electrons. In this model, the ion mass is responsible for providing inertia, while the electron thermal pressure is responsible for providing the restoring force. The fluid-governed equations in the normalized form are given by [68–70].
In this context,
The normalized number density of the electrons according to the Cairns-Tsallis distribution reads
with
The acceptable physical values of the parameters
The reductive perturbation technique is utilized to examine the propagation of nonlinear electrostatic waves in the current plasma model. According to this technique, the independent space-time variables
where
By inserting both the mentioned stretching and expansion into Equations 23–25, and after straightforward calculations, the following planar KdV equation is obtained [70].
where
It is well-known that the polarity of the nonlinear waves described by the KdV Equation 26 depends on the sign of the nonlinearity coefficient
Now, by using the new stretching:
with
To examine the influence of fractionality on the dynamics of nonlinear wave propagation characterized by the planar KdV and mKdV Equations 26, 27, it is necessary to transform these equations from their integer representations to their fractional counterparts. To do this, we will follow the same methodology explained in detail in Refs. [79–81], which ultimately arrive at the following fractional forms:
and
where
4.2 Example (I): planar nonlinear FKdV equation
In this section, we proceed to analyze the following planar nonlinear FKdV Equation 70.
with the IC
By setting
where
To analyze problem (30) using the HPTM, we start from Equation 37 in addition to the following brief points:
Step 1: Applying ET on Equation 30 yields
Step 2: Using ET to the Caputo FDO as given in Equation 11 in Equation 33, we get
which leads to
or
Step 3: Taking the inverse ET to Equation 36 implies
Step 4: The approximate solution according to the HPM is given by the following convergent series solution:
where
Step 5: In the following manner, the nonlinear term
where
which leads to
Step 6: Inserting Equations 38, 39 into Equation 37 yields
Step 7: Collecting the coefficients of various order of
• For
• For
with
• For
with
where the coefficients
• For
with
where the coefficients
• For
Step 8: For
It is clear that both approximation (46) aligns perfectly with the solution derived from the Tantawy technique, as discussed in Refs. [26].
To study how fractionality affects the dynamics of the ion-acoustic FKdV-solitons in the current plasma model, the following values of plasma parameters are considered: for compressive solitons

Figure 1. The profile of compressive ion-acoustic FKdV-soliton according to the approximation (46) is investigated against the fractional-order parameter

Figure 2. The profile of rarefactive ion-acoustic FKdV-soliton according to the approximation (46) is investigated against the fractional-order parameter

Figure 3. A comparison between the generated approximation (46) for compressive FKdV-soliton and the exact solution (32) at

Figure 4.

Table 1. The absolute error for the generated approximations for compressive ion-acoustic FKdV-soliton is estimated at

Table 2. The absolute error for the generated approximations for rarefactive ion-acoustic FKdV-soliton is estimated at
4.3 Example (II): planar cubic nonlinear FmKdV equation
Here, we proceed to analyze the following planar cubic nonlinear FmKdV equation [70].
with IC
where
which, the following exact soliton solution to Equation 47 for
where
To derive the shock wave solution for Equation 47 in its integer case, we rewrite it in the following new form based on the negative sign of the cubic nonlinear coefficient
Note that we separate the negative sign from the nonlinearity coefficient; therefore, this coefficient must take positive values during the analysis.
Now, by applying tanh method to Equation 51, the following exact shock wave solution at
where
To analyze problems (47) and (51) using EHPM, we start from Equation 58 in addition to the following brief points:
Step 1: Applying ET on Equations 47, 51 yields
Note that the positive sign refers to Equation 47, which supports solitons, while the negative sign indicates Equation 51, which supports shock waves.
Step 2: Using ET to the Caputo FDO as given in Equation 11 in Equation 54, we have
which leads to
or
Step 3: Taking the inverse ET to Equation 57 yields
Step 4: The approximate solution according to the HPM is denoted by the subsequent convergent series solution:
where
Step 5: In the following manner, the nonlinear term
where
which leads to
Step 6: Inserting Equations 59, 60 into Equation 58 yields
Step 7: Collecting the coefficients of various order of
• For
By considering the ICs for the solitary and shock waves as given in Equations 49, 53, respectively, we can get the explicit values for the zeroth-order approximations to the two nonlinear structures:
• For
By considering the ICs for the solitary and shock waves as given in Equations 49, 53, respectively, we can get the explicit values for the
with
• For
By considering the ICs for the solitary and shock waves as given in Equations 49, 53, respectively, we can get the explicit values for the
with
where the coefficients
• For
where the coefficients
with
where the coefficients
Step 8: For
• Soliton solution up to
• Shock wave solution up to
It is clear that the generated soliton approximation (74) using EHPM is identical to the derived soliton approximation using the Tantawy technique, as discussed in Refs. [27].
To investigate how fractionality affects the dynamics of the ion-acoustic FmKdV-solitons in the current plasma model, the value of the nonextensive parameter is considered:

Figure 5. The profile of compressive ion-acoustic FmKdV-soliton according to the approximation (74) is investigated against the fractional-order parameter

Figure 6. A comparison between the generated approximation (74) for compressive FmKdV-soliton and the exact solution (50) at

Table 3. The absolute error for the generated approximations for compressive ion-acoustic FmKdV-soliton is estimated at
The profile of the fractional compressive FmKdV-shock waves according to the generated approximation (75) is examined against the fractional parameter

Figure 7. The profile of compressive FmKdV-shock waves according to the approximation (75) is investigated against the fractional-order parameter

Figure 8. A comparison between the generated approximation (75) for compressive FmKdV-shock waves and the exact solution (52) at

Table 4. The absolute error for the generated approximations for compressive FmKdV-shock waves is estimated at
5 Conclusion
In this study, two of the most fundamental nonlinear evolutionary wave equations, which are widely used in various physical and engineering applications, have been analyzed. These equations are called the nonlinear planar fractional KdV (FKdV) and fractional modified KdV (FmKdV) equations, and they examined using Elzaki homotopy perturbation method (EHPM). For the quadratic nonlinear planar FKdV equation, a general formula up to the third order has been derived as a function of initial condition. After that, the soliton solution has been used as an initial solution, and an analytical fractional soliton approximation up to the third order has been generated. On the other hand, the cubic nonlinear planar FmKdV equation was divided into two parts: For the first part, if the cubic nonlinearity coefficient is positive, in this case, the FmKdV equation supports solitons and does not support shock waves. For this case, a general formula has been derived using the proposed approach as a function of initial condition. Subsequently, the soliton solution has been used as an initial solution, and an analytical fractional soliton approximation has been derived up to the third order. For the second form of the cubic nonlinear planar FmKdV equation, if the cubic nonlinearity coefficient is negative, in this case, the FmKdV equation does not support solitons, but rather shock waves. Using the proposed technique, a general formula has been derived as a function of initial condition. As a practical application to the obtained results, the fluid-governed equations for a collisionless and unmagnetized plasma composed of inertial cold ions and inertialess Cairns-Tsallis distributed electrons have been reduced to both the FKdV and FmKdV equations. After that, the effect of the fractional parameter on the dynamic behavior of the propagation of ion-acoustic waves in the plasma model under study has been investigated. We also performed a graphical comparison between all derived approximations and the exact solutions for the integer cases, i.e., at
The derived approximations demonstrated that the provided approach can successfully and precisely solve problems with strong nonlinearity. We may conclude from the results that the used method is accurate in simulating the nonlinear structures (solitons and shock waves) in plasma physics and other scientific fields. The suggested results provide a comprehensive and valuable examination of the behavior of these waves. Several authors, particularly those working in nonlinear sciences, can benefit from the results in evaluating and interpreting their experimental and observational data.
6 Future work
This investigation has examined both the nonlinear planar FKdV and FmKdV equations. However, in numerous instances, the nonplanar and damped cases are more realistic for describing nonlinear phenomena in various plasma models. Consequently, in forthcoming studies, we will apply the two proposed approaches, in addition to the Tantawy technique [25–28], to analyze various nonlinear fractional EWEs that are extensively utilized in modeling numerous nonlinear phenomena in different plasma models, such as the nonplanar/damped FKdV-type equations [82, 83], the nonplanar/damped fractional Kawahara-type equations [84–87], the nonplanar/damped fractional Schrödinger-type equations [88–90], etc.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Author contributions
WA: Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review and editing. AK: Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft. AA-J: Formal Analysis, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review and editing. SE-T: Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Supervision, Writing – review and editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. The authors express their gratitude to Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2025R229), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Acknowledgments
The authors express their gratitude to Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2025R229), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Generative AI statement
The author(s) declare that no Generative AI was used in the creation of this manuscript.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1604640/full#supplementary-material
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Keywords: Elzaki transform, caputo operator, homotopy perturbation method, nonlinear fractional (modified) KdV equations, fractional solitons and shock waves, a non-maxwellian plasma
Citation: Alhejaili W, Khan A, Al-Johani AS and El-Tantawy SA (2025) Elzaki homotopy perturbation method for modeling fractional ion-acoustic solitary and shock waves in a non-maxwellian plasma. Front. Phys. 13:1604640. doi: 10.3389/fphy.2025.1604640
Received: 04 April 2025; Accepted: 18 July 2025;
Published: 02 September 2025.
Edited by:
Chun-Hui He, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, ChinaReviewed by:
Abdelhalim Ebaid, University of Tabuk, Saudi ArabiaLiaqat Ali, Southern University of Science and Technology, China
Copyright © 2025 Alhejaili, Khan, Al-Johani and El-Tantawy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Samir A. El-Tantawy, dGFudGF3eUBzY2kucHN1LmVkdS5lZw==, c2FtaXJlbHRhbnRhd3lAeWFob28uY29t