Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 51: Extreme Events
DY 51.2: Talk
Thursday, March 23, 2017, 16:30–16:45, HÜL 186
Caustics in nonlinear waves — •Gerrit Green1,2 and Ragnar Fleischmann1 — 1Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Am Fassberg 17, 37077 Göttingen, Germany — 2Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics, Departement of Physics, Georg-August University Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
Rogue waves appear suddenly and unpredictably on the ocean surface in otherwise benign conditions and have a large amplitude. Potential formation mechanisms are random focusing as well as modulational instability in nonlinear wave equations. The former leads to branched flow, a universal phenomenon occurring in wave or particle flows that propagate through weakly scattering media, closely connected to the occurrence of random caustics. We investigate caustics in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation which is used as a model for deep water surface waves, as well as Bose-Einstein condensates and for light propagating through a nonlinear medium. We study the impact of small nonlinearities on branched flows and the distance to the onset of random caustics.