The nonlinear evolution of oblique collisions is investigated experimentally on plane ion-acoustic solitons in two-dimensional space. Many of the observed characteristics of inelastic collisions of solitons are found to be similar to those of resonance interactions described by nonlinear ion-acoustic waves.

• Received 5 August 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.45.1626