Benjamin-Feir Instability of Interfacial Gravity-Capillary Waves in a Two-Layer Fluid. Part II. Surface-Tension Effects

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how surface tension influences the stability of interfacial gravity-capillary waves in a two-layer fluid, extending previous work with a detailed asymptotic and geometric framework.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analytical approach to understand the effects of surface tension on wave stability across various depth ratios and density contrasts.

Findings

Surface tension significantly alters stability regimes.

Resonant and dispersive effects create capillary cuts in stability diagrams.

Critical surfaces reveal geometric degeneracies like equal layer depths and golden ratio.

Abstract

This second part of the study develops a geometric and asymptotic description of how surface tension governs the modulational stability of interfacial waves in a two-layer fluid. Extending the analytical framework of Part~I, surface tension is treated as a freely adjustable parameter, enabling one to trace how nonlinear and dispersive properties evolve across a broad range of depth ratios and density contrasts. Using the nonlinear Schr\"odinger reduction together with long-wave asymptotics, the mechanisms shaping the boundaries between stable and unstable regimes are identified and their dependence on surface tension is quantified. The long-wave structure is governed by two density values that determine the bases of the loop and the corridor on the stability diagrams. Their ordering switches only when the lower layer is deeper, and loop-type structures arise exclusively in this regime. A second organising parameter is the classical Bond threshold, at which the dispersive and nonlinear singularities coincide. When surface tension exceeds this value and the upper layer is sufficiently deep, resonant and dispersive effects generate a capillary cut that replaces the corridor and characterises strongly capillary, upper-layer-dominated configurations. To unify these observations, full three-dimensional critical surfaces separating different types of nonlinear and dispersive behaviour are computed. The loop, corridor, and cut arise as planar sections of these surfaces, and their transitions follow from the deformation of the intersection between the resonant and dispersive sheets. Two depth ratios correspond to geometric degeneracies: equal layer depths, where the intersection reduces to a straight line, and the golden-ratio configuration, where the critical surface becomes horizontally tangent at the Bond threshold.