Internal gravity-capillary solitary waves in finite depth

TL;DR

This paper analyzes internal gravity-capillary solitary waves in a two-layer fluid with finite depth, using a Hamiltonian framework to identify bifurcations and solitary wave solutions, revealing new phenomena not seen in surface waves.

Contribution

It introduces a Hamiltonian approach to study bifurcations and solitary waves in internal gravity-capillary flows, highlighting differences from surface wave behavior and analyzing special resonance cases.

Findings

Bifurcation curves depend on density and depth ratios.

Hamiltonian-Hopf and real 1:1 resonance bifurcations are identified.

Existence of homoclinic solutions indicating solitary waves.

Abstract

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 $(\beta,\alpha)$-plane are obtained, where $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are two parameters. The curves depend on two additional parameters $\rho$ and $h$, where $\rho$ is the ratio of the densities and $h$ is the ratio of the fluid depths. However, the bifurcation diagram is found to be qualitatively the same as for surface waves. In particular we find that a Hamiltonian-Hopf bifurcation and a Hamiltonian real 1:1 resonance occur for certain values of $(\beta,\alpha)$. Of particular interest are solitary wave solutions of the Euler equations. Such solutions correspond to homoclinic solutions of the Hamiltonian system. We investigate the parameter regimes where the Hamiltonian-Hopf bifurcation and the Hamiltonian real 1:1 resonance occur. In both these cases we perform a center manifold reduction of the Hamiltonian system and show that homoclinic solutions of the reduced system exist. In contrast to the case of surface waves we find parameter values $\rho$ and $h$ for which the leading order nonlinear term in the reduced system vanishes. We make a detailed analysis of this phenomenon in the case of the real 1:1 resonance.