Interaction of soliton gases in deep-water surface gravity waves

TL;DR

This study experimentally investigates the interaction of soliton gases in deep water, demonstrating how their dynamics align with kinetic theory predictions despite perturbations that break integrability.

Contribution

First experimental validation of soliton gas interactions in water tanks, confirming kinetic theory predictions in a physical setting.

Findings

Good quantitative agreement with spectral kinetic theory

Interaction strength affects soliton gas density and velocity

Higher-order effects cause slight deviations from ideal integrable dynamics

Abstract

Soliton gases represent large random soliton ensembles in physical systems that display integrable dynamics at the leading order. We report hydrodynamic experiments in which we investigate the interaction between two "beams" or "jets" of soliton gases having nearly identical amplitudes but opposite velocities of the same magnitude. The space-time evolution of the two interacting soliton gas jets is recorded in a 140-m long water tank where the dynamics is described at leading order by the focusing one-dimensional nonlinear Schrodinger equation. Varying the relative initial velocity of the two species of soliton gas, we change their interaction strength and we measure the macroscopic soliton gas density and velocity changes due to the interaction. Our experimental results are found to be in good quantitative agreement with predictions of the spectral kinetic theory of soliton gas despite the presence of perturbative higher-order effects that break the integrability of the wave dynamics.