Rogue waves: a unique approach to multidisciplinary physics

Year: 2017

Authors: Residori S., Onorato M., Bortolozzo U., Arecchi F.T.

Autors Affiliation: INLN, CNRS, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Valbonne, France; Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy; INFN, Sezione di Torino, Torino, Italy; Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Firenze, Firenze, Italy; CNR-INO, Firenze, Italy

Abstract: Rogue waves are giant waves appearing erratically and unexpectedly on the ocean surfaces. Their existence, considered as mythical in the ancient times, has recently been recognised by the scientific community and, since then, rogue waves have become the object of numerous theoretical and experimental studies. Their relevance is not restricted to oceanography, but it extends in a wide spectrum of physical contexts. General models and mathematical tools have been developed on a interdisciplinary ground and many experiments have been specifically conceived for the observation of rogue waves in a variety of different physical systems. Rogue wave phenomena are, nowadays, studied, for instance, in hydrodynamics, optics, plasmas, complex media, Bose–Einstein condensation and acoustics. We can, therefore, consider rogue waves as a paradigmatic description, able to account for the manifestation of extreme events in multidisciplinary physics. In this review, we present the main physical concepts and mathematical tools for the description of rogue waves. We will refer mostly to examples from water waves and optics, the two domains having in common the non-linear Schrödinger equation from which prototype rogue wave solutions can be derived. We will highlight the most common features of the rogue wave phenomena, as the large deviations from the Gaussian statistics of the amplitude, the existence of many uncorrelated ‘grains’ of activity and their clustering in inhomogeneous spatial domains via large-scale symmetry breaking.

Journal/Review: CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS

Volume: 58 (1)      Pages from: 53  to: 69

More Information: This work was supported by MIUR [grant number PRIN 2012BFNWZ2].
KeyWords: breathers and solitons; multimode systems; non-Gaussian statistics; non-linear optical cavities; non-linear Schröedinger equation; optical fibers; Rogue waves; water waves
DOI: 10.1080/00107514.2016.1243351

Citations: 16
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