On Whitham's averaging method (Q1907469)

The paper presents a proof that two different methods allowing to derive the Witham's approximation for a given system of nonlinear Lagrangian PDEs are equivalent. The Witham's equations are a system of first-order quasilinear equations which describe a slow evolution in time and space (only the one-dimensional case is considered) of parameters of a periodic traveling-wave solution (``cnoidal wave'') of the underlying PDEs. The classical Witham's derivation is based on performing averaging not in terms of the underlying equations, but rather in terms of their Lagrangian, into which a trial wave form in the form of the cnoidal wave with slowly varying parameters is inserted. An alternative derivation, due to Dubrovin and Novikov, starts from the Hamiltonian structure (the Poisson bracket) of the underlying PDEs. In the present work, it is shown that both derivations are tantamount to each other, and they finally produce the same Poisson bracket for the Witham's equations. It is also demonstrated that the energy and momentum conservation in the original equations produce, on averaging, the ``number of waves'' conservation law in terms of the Witham's equations. If the underlying equations have additional conservation laws, they will produce certain conservation laws of the Witham's system, which can also be derived by means of the averaging procedure.