We consider the two dimensional pure gravity water waves with nonzero constant vorticity in infinite depth, working in the holomorphic coordinates introduced by Hunter, Ifrim, and Tataru. We show that close to the critical velocity corresponding to zero frequency, a solitary wave exists. We use a fixed point argument to construct the solitary wave whose profile resembles a rescaled Benjamin-Ono soliton. The solitary wave is smooth and has an asymptotic expansion in terms of powers of the Benjamin-Ono soliton.
This paper considers two-dimensional steady solitary waves with constant vorticity propagating under the influence of gravity over an impermeable flat bed. Unlike in previous works on solitary waves, we allow for both internal stagnation points and overhanging wave profiles. Using analytic global bifurcation theory, we construct continuous curves of large-amplitude solutions. Along these curves, either the wave amplitude approaches the maximum possible value, the dimensionless wave speed becomes unbounded, or a singularity develops in a conformal map describing the fluid domain. We also show t…
In this paper, we consider capillary-gravity waves propagating on the interface separating two fluids of finite depth and constant density. The flow in each layer is assumed to be incompressible and of constant vorticity. We prove the existence of small-amplitude solitary wave solutions to this system in the strong surface tension regime via a spatial dynamics approach. We then use a variant of the classical Grillakis--Shatah--Strauss (GSS) method to study the orbital stability/instability of these waves. We find an explicit function of the parameters (Froude number, Bond number, and the depth…
We investigate the existence of solitary gravity waves traversing a two-dimensional body of water that is bounded below by a flat impenetrable ocean bed and above by a free surface of constant pressure. Our main interest is constructing waves of this form that exhibit a discontinuous distribution of vorticity. More precisely, this means that the velocity limits both upstream and downstream to a laminar flow that is merely Lipschitz continuous. We prove that, for any choice of background velocity with this regularity, there exists a global curve of solutions bifurcating from a critical laminar …
In this paper, we study solitary waves propagating along the surface of an infinitely deep body of water in two or three dimensions. The waves are acted upon by gravity and capillary effects are allowed --- but not required --- on the interface. We assume that the vorticity is localized in the sense that it satisfies certain moment conditions, and we permit there to be finitely many point vortices in the bulk of the fluid in two dimensions. We also consider a two-fluid model with a vortex sheet. Under mild decay assumptions, we obtain precise asymptotics for the velocity field and free surface…
This paper considers the existence and stability properties of two-dimensional solitary waves traversing an infinitely deep body of water. We assume that above the water is vacuum, and that the waves are acted upon by gravity with surface tension effects on the air--water interface. In particular, we study the case where there is a finite dipole in the bulk of the fluid, that is, the vorticity is a sum of two weighted $δ$-functions. Using an implicit function theorem argument, we construct a family of solitary waves solutions for this system that is exhaustive in a neighborhood of $0$. Our mai…
A fundamental question in the study of water waves is the existence and stability of solitary waves. Solitary waves have been proved to exist and have been studied in many interesting situations, and often arise from the balance of different forces/factors influencing the fluid dynamics, e.g. gravity, surface tension or the fluid bottom. However, the existence of solitary waves has remained an open problem in two of the simplest cases, namely for either pure gravity waves or pure capillary waves in infinite depth. In this article we settle both of these questions in two space dimensions. Preci…
We consider two- and three-dimensional gravity and gravity-capillary solitary water waves in infinite depth. Assuming algebraic decay rates for the free surface and velocity potential, we show that the velocity potential necessarily behaves like a dipole at infinity and obtain a related asymptotic formula for the free surface. We then prove an identity relating the "dipole moment" to the kinetic energy. This implies that the leading-order terms in the asymptotics are nonvanishing and in particular that the angular momentum is infinite. Lastly we prove a related integral identity which rules ou…
We prove that the 2D finite depth capillary water wave equations admit no solitary wave solutions. This closes the existence/non-existence problem for solitary water waves in 2D, under the classical assumptions of incompressibility and irrotationality, and with the physical parameters being gravity, surface tension and the fluid depth.
We present a large-amplitude existence theory for two-dimensional solitary waves propagating through a two layer body of water. The domain of the fluid is bounded below by an impermeable flat ocean floor and above by a free boundary at constant pressure. For any piecewise smooth upstream density distribution and laminar background current, we construct a global curve of solutions. This curve bifurcates from the background current and, following along the curve, we find waves that are arbitrarily close to having horizontal stagnation points. The small-amplitude waves are constructed using a cen…
This paper considers two-dimensional gravity solitary waves moving through a body of density stratified water lying below vacuum. The fluid domain is assumed to lie above an impenetrable flat ocean bed, while the interface between the water and vacuum is a free boundary where the pressure is constant. We prove that, for any smooth choice of upstream velocity field and density function, there exists a continuous curve of such solutions that includes large-amplitude surface waves. Furthermore, following this solution curve, one encounters waves that come arbitrarily close to possessing points of…
We prove the first bifurcation result of time quasi-periodic traveling waves solutions for space periodic water waves with vorticity. In particular we prove existence of small amplitude time quasi-periodic solutions of the gravity-capillary water waves equations with constant vorticity, for a bidimensional fluid over a flat bottom delimited by a space-periodic free interface. These quasi-periodic solutions exist for all the values of depth, gravity and vorticity, and restricting the surface tension to a Borel set of asymptotically full Lebesgue measure.
We prove the nonexistence of two-dimensional solitary gravity water waves with subcritical wave speeds and an arbitrary distribution of vorticity. This is a longstanding open problem, and even in the irrotational case there are only partial results relying on sign conditions or smallness assumptions. As a corollary, we obtain a relatively complete classification of solitary waves: they must be supercritical, symmetric, and monotonically decreasing on either side of a central crest. The proof introduces a new function which is related to the so-called flow force and has several surprising prope…
This article is concerned with the incompressible, infinite depth water wave equation in two space dimensions, with gravity and constant vorticity but with no surface tension. We consider this problem expressed in position-velocity potential holomorphic coordinates, and prove local well-posedness for large data, as well as cubic lifespan bounds for small data solutions.
We prove a long-term regularity result for three-dimensional gravity water waves with small initial data but nonzero initial vorticity. We consider solutions whose vorticity vanishes on the free boundary and use this to derive a system for the evolution of the free boundary which reduces to the Zakharov/Craig-Sulem formulation in the irrotational case. We are able to continue the solution until a time determined by the size of the initial vorticity in such a way that if the vorticity is zero, one recovers a lifespan $T\sim ε^{-N}$ where $N$ can be taken arbitrarily large if the initial data is…
We prove the existence of small amplitude time quasi-periodic solutions of the pure gravity water waves equations with constant vorticity, for a bidimensional fluid over a flat bottom delimited by a space periodic free interface. Using a Nash-Moser implicit function iterative scheme we construct traveling nonlinear waves which pass through each other slightly deforming and retaining forever a quasiperiodic structure. These solutions exist for any fixed value of depth and gravity and restricting the vorticity parameter to a Borel set of asymptotically full Lebesgue measure.
This article is concerned with infinite depth gravity water waves with constant vorticity in two space dimensions. We consider this system expressed in position-velocity potential holomorphic coordinates. We show that, for low-frequency solutions, the Benjamin-Ono equation gives a good and stable approximation to the system on the natural cubic time scale. The proof relies on refined cubic energy estimates and perturbative analysis.
We study stationary capillary-gravity waves in a two-dimensional body of water that rests above a flat ocean bed and below vacuum. This system is described by the Euler equations with a free surface. Our main result states that there exist large families of such waves that carry finite energy and exhibit an exponentially localized distribution of (nontrivial) vorticity. This is accomplished by combining ideas drawn from the theory of spike-layer solutions to singularly perturbed elliptic equations, with techniques from the study of steady solutions of the water wave problem.
This paper studies the classical water wave problem with vorticity described by the Euler equations with a free surface under the influence of gravity over a flat bottom. Based on fundamental work \cite{ConstantinStrauss}, we first obtain two continuous bifurcation curves which meet the laminar flow only one time by using modified analytic bifurcation theorem. They are symmetric waves whose profiles are monotone between each crest and trough. Furthermore, we find that there is at least one inflection point on the wave profile between successive crests and troughs and the free surface is strict…
The two-dimensional free-boundary problem describing steady gravity waves with vorticity on water of finite depth is considered. Under the assumption that the vorticity is a negative constant whose absolute value is sufficiently large, we construct a solution with the following properties. The corresponding flow is unidirectional at infinity and has a solitary wave of elevation as its upper boundary; under this unidirectional flow, there is a bounded domain adjacent to the bottom, which surrounds an interior stagnation point and is divided into two subdomains with opposite directions of flow b…
