146 research outputs found
Dispersive and diffusive-dispersive shock waves for nonconvex conservation laws
We consider two physically and mathematically distinct regularization
mechanisms of scalar hyperbolic conservation laws. When the flux is convex, the
combination of diffusion and dispersion are known to give rise to monotonic and
oscillatory traveling waves that approximate shock waves. The zero-diffusion
limits of these traveling waves are dynamically expanding dispersive shock
waves (DSWs). A richer set of wave solutions can be found when the flux is
non-convex. This review compares the structure of solutions of Riemann problems
for a conservation law with non-convex, cubic flux regularized by two different
mechanisms: 1) dispersion in the modified Korteweg--de Vries (mKdV) equation;
and 2) a combination of diffusion and dispersion in the mKdV-Burgers equation.
In the first case, the possible dynamics involve two qualitatively different
types of DSWs, rarefaction waves (RWs) and kinks (monotonic fronts). In the
second case, in addition to RWs, there are traveling wave solutions
approximating both classical (Lax) and non-classical (undercompressive) shock
waves. Despite the singular nature of the zero-diffusion limit and rather
differing analytical approaches employed in the descriptions of dispersive and
diffusive-dispersive regularization, the resulting comparison of the two cases
reveals a number of striking parallels. In contrast to the case of convex flux,
the mKdVB to mKdV mapping is not one-to-one. The mKdV kink solution is
identified as an undercompressive DSW. Other prominent features, such as
shock-rarefactions, also find their purely dispersive counterparts involving
special contact DSWs, which exhibit features analogous to contact
discontinuities. This review describes an important link between two major
areas of applied mathematics, hyperbolic conservation laws and nonlinear
dispersive waves.Comment: Revision from v2; 57 pages, 19 figure
Symmetries and reductions of integrable nonlocal partial differential equations
In this paper, symmetry analysis is extended to study nonlocal differential
equations, in particular two integrable nonlocal equations, the nonlocal
nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and the nonlocal modified Korteweg--de Vries
equation. Lie point symmetries are obtained based on a general theory and used
to reduce these equations to nonlocal and local ordinary differential equations
separately; namely one symmetry may allow reductions to both nonlocal and local
equations depending on how the invariant variables are chosen. For the nonlocal
modified Korteweg--de Vries equation, analogously to the local situation, all
reduced local equations are integrable. At the end, we also define complex
transformations to connect nonlocal differential equations and
differential-difference equations.Comment: 10 page
Transformation of a shoaling undular bore
We consider the propagation of a shallow-water undular bore over a gentle monotonic bottom slope connecting two regions of constant depth, in the framework of the variable-coefficient Korteweg-de Vries equation. We show that, when the undular bore advances in the direction of decreasing depth, its interaction with the slowly varying topography results, apart from an adiabatic deformation of the bore itself, in the generation of a sequence of isolated solitons - an expanding large-amplitude modulated solitary wavetrain propagating ahead of the bore. Using nonlinear modulation theory we construct an asymptotic solution describing the formation and evolution of this solitary wavetrain. Our analytical solution is supported by direct numerical simulations. The presented analysis can be extended to other systems describing the propagation of undular bores (dispersive shock waves) in weakly non-uniform environments
Nonlinear stability of mKdV breathers
Breather solutions of the modified Korteweg-de Vries equation are shown to be
globally stable in a natural H^2 topology. Our proof introduces a new Lyapunov
functional, at the H^2 level, which allows to describe the dynamics of small
perturbations, including oscillations induced by the periodicity of the
solution, as well as a direct control of the corresponding instability modes.
In particular, degenerate directions are controlled using low-regularity
conservation laws.Comment: 24 pp., submitte
Modulational Instability in Equations of KdV Type
It is a matter of experience that nonlinear waves in dispersive media,
propagating primarily in one direction, may appear periodic in small space and
time scales, but their characteristics --- amplitude, phase, wave number, etc.
--- slowly vary in large space and time scales. In the 1970's, Whitham
developed an asymptotic (WKB) method to study the effects of small
"modulations" on nonlinear periodic wave trains. Since then, there has been a
great deal of work aiming at rigorously justifying the predictions from
Whitham's formal theory. We discuss recent advances in the mathematical
understanding of the dynamics, in particular, the instability of slowly
modulated wave trains for nonlinear dispersive equations of KdV type.Comment: 40 pages. To appear in upcoming title in Lecture Notes in Physic
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