AbstractRelativistic ion-acoustic waves are investigated in an electronegative plasma. The use of the reductive perturbation method summarizes the hydrodynamic model to a nonlinear Schrödinger equation which supports the occurrence of modulational instability (MI). From the MI criterion, we derive a critical value for the relativistic parameter α1documentclass[12pt]{minimal} usepackage{amsmath} usepackage{wasysym} usepackage{amsfonts} usepackage{amssymb} usepackage{amsbsy} usepackage{mathrsfs} usepackage{upgreek} setlength{oddsidemargin}{-69pt} […]