Asymmetric gravity–capillary solitary waves on deep water

Abstract

AbstractWe present new families of gravity–capillary solitary waves propagating on the surface of a two-dimensional deep fluid. These spatially localised travelling-wave solutions are non-symmetric in the wave propagation direction. Our computation reveals that these waves appear from a spontaneous symmetry-breaking bifurcation, and connect two branches of multi-packet symmetric solitary waves. The speed–energy bifurcation curve of asymmetric solitary waves features a zigzag behaviour with one or more turning points.