Nonlinear stage of the Benjamin-Feir instability: Three-dimensional coherent structures and rogue waves

A specific, genuinely three-dimensional mechanism of rogue wave formation, in a late stage of the modulational instability of a perturbed Stokes deep-water wave, is recognized through numerical experiments. The simulations are based on fully nonlinear equations describing weakly three-dimensional potential flows of an ideal fluid with a free surface in terms of conformal variables. Spontaneous formation of zigzag patterns for wave amplitude is observed in a nonlinear stage of the instability. If initial wave steepness is sufficiently high ($ka>0.06$), these coherent structures produce rogue waves. The most tall waves appear in ``turns'' of the zigzags. For $ka<0.06$, the structures decay typically without formation of steep waves.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR

"Breathing" rogue wave observed in numerical experiment

Numerical simulations of the recently derived fully nonlinear equations of motion for weakly three-dimensional water waves [V.P. Ruban, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 71}, 055303(R) (2005)] with quasi-random initial conditions are reported, which show the spontaneous formation of a single extreme wave on the deep water. This rogue wave behaves in an oscillating manner and exists for a relatively long time (many wave periods) without significant change of its maximal amplitude.Comment: 6 pages, 12 figure

Quasi-planar steep water waves

A new description for highly nonlinear potential water waves is suggested, where weak 3D effects are included as small corrections to exact 2D equations written in conformal variables. Contrary to the traditional approach, a small parameter in this theory is not the surface slope, but it is the ratio of a typical wave length to a large transversal scale along the second horizontal coordinate. A first-order correction for the Hamiltonian functional is calculated, and the corresponding equations of motion are derived for steep water waves over an arbitrary inhomogeneous quasi-1D bottom profile.Comment: revtex4, 4 pages, no figure

Numerical modeling of quasiplanar giant water waves

In this work we present a further analytical development and a numerical implementation of the recently suggested theoretical model for highly nonlinear potential long-crested water waves, where weak three-dimensional effects are included as small corrections to exact two-dimensional equations written in the conformal variables [V.P. Ruban, Phys. Rev. E 71, 055303(R) (2005)]. Numerical experiments based on this theory describe the spontaneous formation of a single weakly three-dimensional large-amplitude wave (alternatively called freak, killer, rogue or giant wave) on the deep water.Comment: revtex4, 8 pages, 7 figure

Branch cuts of Stokes wave on deep water. Part I: Numerical solution and Pad\'e approximation

Complex analytical structure of Stokes wave for two-dimensional potential flow of the ideal incompressible fluid with free surface and infinite depth is analyzed. Stokes wave is the fully nonlinear periodic gravity wave propagating with the constant velocity. Simulations with the quadruple and variable precisions are performed to find Stokes wave with high accuracy and study the Stokes wave approaching its limiting form with $2\pi/3$ radians angle on the crest. A conformal map is used which maps a free fluid surface of Stokes wave into the real line with fluid domain mapped into the lower complex half-plane. The Stokes wave is fully characterized by the complex singularities in the upper complex half-plane. These singularities are addressed by rational (Pad\'e) interpolation of Stokes wave in the complex plane. Convergence of Pad\'e approximation to the density of complex poles with the increase of the numerical precision and subsequent increase of the number of approximating poles reveals that the only singularities of Stokes wave are branch points connected by branch cuts. The converging densities are the jumps across the branch cuts. There is one branch cut per horizontal spatial period $\lambda$ of Stokes wave. Each branch cut extends strictly vertically above the corresponding crest of Stokes wave up to complex infinity. The lower end of branch cut is the square-root branch point located at the distance $v_c$ from the real line corresponding to the fluid surface in conformal variables. The limiting Stokes wave emerges as the singularity reaches the fluid surface. Tables of Pad\'e approximation for Stokes waves of different heights are provided. These tables allow to recover the Stokes wave with the relative accuracy of at least $10^{-26}$. The tables use from several poles to about hundred poles for highly nonlinear Stokes wave with $v_c/\lambda\sim 10^{-6}.$Comment: 38 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables, supplementary material