Proof of the Stokes conjecture for compressible gravity water waves

TL;DR

This paper proves the Stokes conjecture for compressible gravity water waves, demonstrating the formation of a sharp crest with a 120-degree angle at stagnation points, extending classical results to compressible fluids.

Contribution

It introduces a new monotonicity formula and a nonlinear frequency formula for analyzing free boundary problems in compressible water waves, providing the first proof of the conjecture in this context.

Findings

Sharp crest with 120-degree angle at stagnation points

New monotonicity formula for Bernoulli-type free boundary problems

Application of compensated compactness to compressible Euler system

Abstract

In 1880, Stokes examined an incompressible irrotational periodic traveling water wave under the influence of gravity and conjectured the existence of an extreme wave with a corner of $120^{\circ}$ at the crest. The first rigorous proof of the conjecture was given by Amick, Fraenkel and Toland, as well as by Plotnikov independently via the Nekrasov integral equation. In the early 2010s, Weiss and Varvarucva revisited the conjecture by applying a new geometric method, which provided an affirmative answer to the conjecture without requiring structural assumptions such as the isolation of the stagnation points, the symmetry and the monotonicity of the free surface that were necessary in the previous works. The main purpose of this paper is to establish the validity of the Stokes conjecture in the context of compressible gravity water waves. More precisely, we prove that a sharp crest forms near each stagnation point of a compressible gravity water wave with an included angle of $120^{\circ}$, which gives a first proof to the compressible counterpart of the classical conjecture by Stokes in 1880. The central aspect of our approach is the discovery of a new monotonicity formula for quasilinear free boundary problems of the Bernoulli-type. Another observation is the introduction of a new nonlinear frequency formula, along with a compensated compactness argument for the compressible Euler system. The developed monotonicity formula enables us to do blow-up analysis at each stagnation point and helps us obtain the singular profile of the free surface near each stagnation points. The degenerate stagnation points can be further analyzed with the help of the compensated compactness argument using the frequency formula.