title: Weierstrass's criterion and compact solitary waves.
abstract: Weierstrass's theory is a standard qualitative tool for single degree of freedom equations, used in classical mechanics and in many textbooks. In this Brief Report we show how a simple generalization of this tool makes it possible to identify some differential equations for which compact and even semicompact traveling solitary waves exist. In the framework of continuum mechanics, these differential equations correspond to bulk shear waves for a special class of constitutive laws.
authors.affiliation: Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, UMR 7190, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 4 Place Jussieu, Case 162, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France. destrade@lmm.jussieu.fr
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Destrade
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gaeta
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Saccomandi