Experimental observation and theoretical description of multisoliton fission in shallow water

We observe the dispersive breaking of cosine-type long waves [Phys. Rev. Lett. 15, 240 (1965)] in shallow water, characterizing the highly nonlinear "multisoliton" fission over variable conditions. We provide new insight into the interpretation of the results by analyzing the data in terms of the periodic inverse scattering transform for the Korteweg-de Vries equation. In a wide range of dispersion and nonlinearity, the data compare favorably with our analytical estimate, based on a rigorous WKB approach, of the number of emerging solitons. We are also able to observe experimentally the universal Fermi-Pasta-Ulam recurrence in the regime of moderately weak dispersion.

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530: Physik

600: Technik

620: Ingenieurwissenschaften

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To cite this version: S. Trillo, G. Deng, G. Biondini, M. Klein, G. F. Clauss, A. Chabchoub, and M. Onorato. Experimental Observation and Theoretical Description of Multisoliton Fission in Shallow Water. Physical Review Letters, American Physical Society, 2016, 117 (14), pp. 144102. 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.144102

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PhysRevLett.117.144102.pdf

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Experimental observation and theoretical description of multisoliton fission in shallow water