Classification of the line-soliton solutions of KPII

In the previous papers (notably, Y. Kodama, J. Phys. A 37, 11169-11190 (2004), and G. Biondini and S. Chakravarty, J. Math. Phys. 47 033514 (2006)), we found a large variety of line-soliton solutions of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili II (KPII) equation. The line-soliton solutions are solitary waves which decay exponentially in $(x,y)$-plane except along certain rays. In this paper, we show that those solutions are classified by asymptotic information of the solution as $|y| \to \infty$. Our study then unravels some interesting relations between the line-soliton classification scheme and classical results in the theory of permutations.Comment: 30 page

KP solitons in shallow water

The main purpose of the paper is to provide a survey of our recent studies on soliton solutions of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equation. The classification is based on the far-field patterns of the solutions which consist of a finite number of line-solitons. Each soliton solution is then defined by a point of the totally non-negative Grassmann variety which can be parametrized by a unique derangement of the symmetric group of permutations. Our study also includes certain numerical stability problems of those soliton solutions. Numerical simulations of the initial value problems indicate that certain class of initial waves asymptotically approach to these exact solutions of the KP equation. We then discuss an application of our theory to the Mach reflection problem in shallow water. This problem describes the resonant interaction of solitary waves appearing in the reflection of an obliquely incident wave onto a vertical wall, and it predicts an extra-ordinary four-fold amplification of the wave at the wall. There are several numerical studies confirming the prediction, but all indicate disagreements with the KP theory. Contrary to those previous numerical studies, we find that the KP theory actually provides an excellent model to describe the Mach reflection phenomena when the higher order corrections are included to the quasi-two dimensional approximation. We also present laboratory experiments of the Mach reflection recently carried out by Yeh and his colleagues, and show how precisely the KP theory predicts this wave behavior.Comment: 50 pages, 25 figure

KP line solitons and Tamari lattices

The KP-II equation possesses a class of line soliton solutions which can be qualitatively described via a tropical approximation as a chain of rooted binary trees, except at "critical" events where a transition to a different rooted binary tree takes place. We prove that these correspond to maximal chains in Tamari lattices (which are poset structures on associahedra). We further derive results that allow to compute details of the evolution, including the critical events. Moreover, we present some insights into the structure of the more general line soliton solutions. All this yields a characterization of possible evolutions of line soliton patterns on a shallow fluid surface (provided that the KP-II approximation applies).Comment: 49 pages, 36 figures, second version: section 4 expande