We consider the two-dimensional capillary water waves with nonzero constant vorticity in infinite depth. We first derive the Babenko equation that describes the profile of the solitary wave. When the velocity $c$ is close to a critical velocity and a sign condition involving the physical parameters is met, the Babenko equation can be reduced to the stationary focusing cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation plus perturbative error. We show the existence of a critical value of a dimensionless physical parameter below which at least two families of velocities satisfy the focusing condition and above which only one does. This gives the existence of small-amplitude solitary wave solutions for the water wave system with constant vorticity.
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.
The aim of this paper is to prove the existence of gravity-capillary Crapper waves with the presence of vorticity. In particular, we consider a concentrated vorticity: point vortex and vortex patch. We show that for small gravity and small vorticity it is possible to demonstrate that the waves are overhanging.
We investigate the particle trajectories in solitary waves with vorticity, where the vorticity is assumed to be negative and decrease with depth. We show that the individual particle moves in a similar way as that in the irrotational case if the underlying laminar flow is favorable, that is, the flow is moving in the same direction as the wave propagation throughout the fluid, and show that if the underlying current is not favorable, some particles in a sufficiently small solitary wave move to the opposite direction of wave propagation along a path with a single loop or hump .
We consider two-dimensional solitary water waves on a shear flow with an arbitrary distribution of vorticity. Assuming that the horizontal velocity in the fluid never exceeds the wave speed and that the free surface lies everywhere above its asymptotic level, we give a very simple proof that a suitably defined Froude number $F$ must be strictly greater than the critical value $F=1$. We also prove a related upper bound on $F$, and hence on the amplitude, under more restrictive assumptions on the vorticity.
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…
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 study the existence of traveling wave solutions to a unidirectional shallow water model which incorporates the full linear dispersion relation for both gravitational and capillary restoring forces. Using functional analytic techniques, we show that for small surface tension (corresponding to Bond numbers between $0$ and ${1}/{3}$) there exists small amplitude solitary waves that decay to asymptotically small periodic waves at spatial infinity. The size of the oscillations in the far field are shown to be small beyond all algebraic orders in the amplitude of the wave. We also present numeric…
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…
Using a nonlocal version of the center manifold theorem and a normal form reduction, we prove the existence of small-amplitude generalized solitary-wave solutions and modulated solitary-wave solutions to the steady gravity-capillary Whitham equation with weak surface tension. Through the application of the center manifold theorem, the nonlocal equation for the solitary wave profiles is reduced to a four-dimensional system of ODEs inheriting reversibility. Along particular parameter curves, relating directly to the classical gravity-capillary water wave problem, the associated linear operator i…
In this paper we construct periodic capillarity-gravity water waves with a piecewise constant vorticity distribution. They describe water waves traveling on superposed linearly sheared currents that have different vorticities. This is achieved by associating to the height function formulation of the water wave problem a diffraction problem where we impose suitable transmission conditions on each line where the vorticity function has a jump. The solutions of the diffraction problem, found by using local bifurcation theory, are the desired solutions of the hydrodynamical problem.
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 …
We consider a multi-fluid system with several free interfaces. For this system we prove existence of three-dimensional steady gravity-capillary waves with non-zero vorticity. We obtain non-zero vorticity by prescribing the relative velocity fields to be Beltrami fields, for which the vorticity and velocity are parallel. The main result is a multi-parameter bifurcation result for small amplitude waves given in two variants: a first theorem guaranteeing existence under some general parameter assumptions; and a second specific but less exhaustive theorem, for which the assumptions may be explicit…
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…
In this paper we construct periodic capillarity-gravity water waves with an arbitrary bounded vorticity distribution. This is achieved by reexpressing, in the height function formulation of the water wave problem, the boundary condition obtained from Bernoulli's principle as a nonlocal differential equation. This enables us to establish the existence of weak solutions of the problem by using elliptic estimates and bifurcation theory. Secondly, we investigate the a priori regularity of these weak solutions and prove that they are in fact strong solutions of the problem, describing waves with a …
We construct small-amplitude solitary traveling gravity-capillary water waves with a finite number of point vortices along a vertical line, on finite depth. This is done using a local bifurcation argument. The properties of the resulting waves are also examined: We find that they depend significantly on the position of the point vortices in the water column.
Fully localised solitary waves are travelling-wave solutions of the three-dimensional gravity-capillary water wave problem which decay to zero in every horizontal spatial direction. Their existence for water of finite depth has recently been established, and in this article we present an existence theory for water of infinite depth. The governing equations are reduced to a perturbation of the two-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which admits a family of localised solutions. Two of these solutions are symmetric in both horizontal directions and an application of a suitable version of…
This paper is concerned with two-dimensional, steady, periodic water waves propagating at the free surface of water in a flow of constant vorticity over an impermeable flat bed. The motion of these waves is assumed to be governed both by surface tension and gravitational forces. A new reformulation of this problem is given, which is valid without restriction on the geometry or amplitude of the wave profiles and possesses a structure amenable to global bifurcation. The existence of global curves and continua of solutions bifurcating at certain parameter values from flat, laminar flows is then e…
We prove an almost global in time existence result of small amplitude space periodic solutions of the 1D gravity-capillary water waves equations with constant vorticity. The result holds for any value of gravity, vorticity and depth and any surface tension belonging to a full measure set. The proof demands a Hamiltonian paradifferential Birkhoff normal form reduction for quasi-linear PDEs in presence of resonant wave interactions: the normal form may be not integrable but it preserves the Sobolev norms thanks to its Hamiltonian nature. A major difficulty is that usual paradifferential calculus…
We present an existence and stability theory for gravity-capillary solitary waves with constant vorticity on the surface of a body of water of finite depth. Exploiting a rotational version of the classical variational principle, we prove the existence of a minimiser of the wave energy $\mathcal H$ subject to the constraint $\mathcal I=2μ$, where $\mathcal I$ is the wave momentum and $0< μ\ll 1$. Since $\mathcal H$ and $\mathcal I$ are both conserved quantities a standard argument asserts the stability of the set $D_μ$ of minimisers: solutions starting near $D_μ$ remain close to $D_μ$ in a suit…
We consider two-dimensional inviscid irrotational flow in a two layer fluid under the effects of gravity and surface tension. The upper fluid is bounded above by a rigid lid, and the lower fluid is bounded below by a rigid bottom. We use a spatial dynamics approach and formulate the steady Euler equations as a Hamiltonian system, where we consider the unbounded horizontal coordinate $x$ as a time-like coordinate. The linearization of the Hamiltonian system is studied, and bifurcation curves in the $(β,α)$-plane are obtained, where $α$ and $β$ are two parameters. The curves depend on two additi…
In this paper we consider the steady water wave problem for waves that possess a merely $L_r-$integrable vorticity, with $r\in(1,\infty)$ being arbitrary. We first establish the equivalence of the three formulations--the velocity formulation, the stream function formulation, and the height function formulation-- in the setting of strong solutions, regardless of the value of $r$. Based upon this result and using a suitable notion of weak solution for the height function formulation, we then establish, by means of local bifurcation theory, the existence of small amplitude capillary and capillary…
We present an existence and stability theory for gravity-capillary solitary waves on the top surface of and interface between two perfect fluids of different densities, the lower one being of infinite depth. Exploiting a classical variational principle, we prove the existence of a minimiser of the wave energy $\mathcal{E}$ subject to the constraint $\mathcal{I}=2μ$, where $\mathcal{I}$ is the wave momentum and $0< μ< μ_0$, where $μ_0$ is chosen small enough for the validity of our calculations. Since $\mathcal{E}$ and $\mathcal{I}$ are both conserved quantities a standard argument asserts the …
In this paper we show that the hydrodynamic problem for three-dimensional water waves with strong surface-tension effects admits a fully localised solitary wave which decays to the undisturbed state of the water in every horizontal direction. The proof is based upon the classical variational principle that a solitary wave of this type is a critical point of the energy subject to the constraint that the momentum is fixed. We prove the existence of a minimiser of the energy subject to the constraint that the momentum is fixed and small. The existence of a small-amplitude solitary wave is thus as…
We prove real analyticity of all the streamlines, including the free surface, of a steady stratified flow of water over a flat bed in the absence of stagnation points, with a Hölder continuous Bernoulli function and a Hölder continuously differentiable density function. Furthermore, we show that if the Bernoulli function and the density function possess some Gevrey regularity of index s, then the stream function admits the same Gevrey regularity throughout the fluid domain; in particular if the Gevrey index s equals to 1, then we obtain analyticity of the stream function. The regularity result…
We consider the angle $θ$ of inclination (with respect to the horizontal) of the profile of a steady 2D inviscid symmetric periodic or solitary water wave subject to gravity. Although $θ$ may surpass 30$^\circ$ for some irrotational waves close to the extreme wave, Amick [Ami87] proved that for any irrotational wave the angle must be less than 31.15$^\circ$. Is the situation similar for periodic or solitary waves that are not irrotational? The extreme Gerstner wave has infinite depth, adverse vorticity and vertical cusps ($θ= 90^\circ$). Moreover, numerical calculations show that even waves of…
This paper is concerned with two-dimensional, steady, periodic water waves propagating at the free surface of water either in a flow of finite depth and constant vorticity over an impermeable flat bed or in an irrotational flow of great depth. In both cases, the motion of these waves is assumed to be governed both by surface tension and gravitational forces. By considering a particular scaling regime, it can be shown that both these schemes approach a limiting form, corresponding to flows of great depth where the effect of gravity is neglected. An application of the Implicit Function Theorem d…
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 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…
In this paper, we prove the existence of two-dimensional, traveling, capillary-gravity, water waves with compactly supported vorticity. Specifically, we consider the cases where the vorticity is a $δ$-function (a point vortex), or has small compact support (a vortex patch). Using a global bifurcation theoretic argument, we construct a continuum of finite-amplitude, finite-vorticity solutions for the periodic point vortex problem. For the non-periodic case, with either a vortex point or patch, we prove the existence of a continuum of small-amplitude, small-vorticity solutions.
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.
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…
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…
We study the existence of solitary waves in a diatomic Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou (FPUT) lattice. For monatomic FPUT the traveling wave equations are a regular perturbation of the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation's but, surprisingly, we find that for the diatomic lattice the traveling wave equations are a singular perturbation of KdV's. Using a method first developed by Beale to study traveling solutions for capillary-gravity waves we demonstrate that for wave speeds in slight excess of the lattice's speed of sound there exists nontrivial traveling wave solutions which are the superposition an e…
We show the existence of periodic traveling waves at the free surface of a two dimensional, infinitely deep, and constant vorticity flow, under gravity, whose profiles are overhanging, including one which intersects itself to enclose a bubble of air. Numerical evidence has long suggested such overhanging and touching waves, but a rigorous proof has been elusive. Crapper's celebrated capillary waves in an irrotational flow have recently been shown to yield an exact solution to the problem for zero gravity, and our proof uses the implicit function theorem to construct nearby solutions for weak g…
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.
We prove real analyticity of all the streamlines, including the free surface, of a gravity- or capillary-gravity-driven steady flow of water over a flat bed, with a Hölder continuous vorticity function, provided that the propagating speed of the wave on the free surface exceeds the horizontal fluid velocity throughout the flow. Furthermore, if the vorticity possesses some Gevrey regularity of index $s$, then the stream function admits the same Gevrey regularity throughout the fluid domain; in particular if the Gevrey index $s$ equals to 1, then we obtain analyticity of the stream function. The…
