Dispersive shock wave interactions and asymptotics.

Dispersive shock waves (DSWs) are physically important phenomena that occur in systems dominated by weak dispersion and weak nonlinearity. The Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation is the universal model for systems with weak dispersion and weak, quadratic nonlinearity. Here we show that the long-time-asymptotic solution of the KdV equation for general, steplike data is a single-phase DSW; this DSW is the "largest" possible DSW based on the boundary data.

Nonlinear shallow ocean-wave soliton interactions on flat beaches.

Ocean waves are complex and often turbulent. While most ocean-wave interactions are essentially linear, sometimes two or more waves interact in a nonlinear way. For example, two or more waves can interact and yield waves that are much taller than the sum of the original wave heights.