Stokes waves with vorticity (Q542048)

The author studies the deep water equations for two spatial variables. These are the Euler equations for horizontal and vertical velocities and pressure. The only driving force is gravity. The surface is free with the dynamical boundary condition on it. The flow is allowed to be rotational; the general class of vorticities \(v_x-u_y\) is considered. The existence of periodic waves (Stokes waves) propagating downstream on the surface and the global bifurcation result are established. In more detail, for a general class of vorticities it is proved that a global connected set of Stokes-wave solutions exists and contains solutions with arbitrarily large wave speed (cavitation) and with arbitrarily low relative horizontal velocity somewhere (stagnation). For monotone vorticities with constant sign the possible positions of stagnation is determined.