Numerical study of the Kadomtsev--Petviashvili equation and dispersive shock waves

Abstract

A detailed numerical study of the long time behaviour of dispersive shock waves in solutions to the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) I equation is presented. It is shown that modulated lump solutions emerge from the dispersive shock waves. For the description of dispersive shock waves, Whitham modulation equations for KP are obtained. It is shown that the modulation equations near the soliton line are hyperbolic for the KPII equation while they are elliptic for the KPI equation leading to a focusing effect and the formation of lumps. Such a behaviour is similar to the appearance of breathers for the focusing nonlinear Schrodinger equation in the semiclassical limit.

Improved resolution on several figures. The derivation of the Whitham modulation equations has been revised. Long version w.r.t. the published one

Cited by in corpus (4)

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• Lie symmetry analysis and one-dimensional optimal system for the generalized 2+1 Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation
• Integrability, exact reductions and special solutions of the KP-Whitham equations
• Obliquely interacting solitary waves and wave wakes in free-surface flows