Two-dimensional bifurcations of stokes waves

Bifurcation techniques are used to obtain a new class of small amplitude water waves of permanent form. This calculation illustrates an approach which can be applied to nonlinear waves of various types to generate new steady solutions from old.Stokes waves are used as a starting point, and the critical value of steepness at which bifurcation can occur is computed for various choices of modulation wavelength and angular orientation. It is found that, for two-dimensional surfaces, bifurcation can occur at small values of wave steepness.Second-order corrections to the wave amplitude, modulation, frequency, and speed, which apply when one moves off the bifurcation point onto a new branch of solutions, are also computed. Two types of new solutions are found, one symmetric with respect to the carrier wave propagation direction, and one asymmetric.The nonlinear Schrödinger equation is used to model water waves, and thus the calculation can be applied rather directly to other systems governed by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation.