Well-posedness for a Whitham-Boussinesq system with surface tension

Abstract

We regard the Cauchy problem for a particular Whitham-Boussinesq system modelling surface waves of an inviscid incompressible fluid layer. The system can be seen as a weak nonlocal dispersive perturbation of the shallow water system. The proof of well-posedness relies on energy estimates. However, due to the symmetry lack of the nonlinear part, in order to close the a priori estimates one has to modify the traditional energy norm in use. Hamiltonian conservation provides with global well-posedness at least for small initial data in the one dimensional settings.