Guided solitary waves.
Transversely periodic solitary-wave solutions of the Boussinesq equations (which govern wave propagation in a weakly dispersive, weakly nonlinear physical system) are determined. The solutions for negative dispersion (e.g., gravity waves) are singular and therefore physically unacceptable. The solutions for positive dispersion (e.g., capillary waves or magnetosonic waves in a plasma) are physically acceptable except in a limited parametric interval, in which they are complex. The two end points of this interval are associated with (two different) resonant interactions among three basic solitary waves, two of which are two-dimensional complex conjugates and the third of which is one-dimensional and real.
Miles
J
J
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, San Diego, California 92093.