Fourth order evolution equations with slowly varying depth and current and stability of Stokes waves (Q1199565)

The authors derive the fourth order evolution equations for the two- dimensional modulation of the Stokes waves in the presence of slowly varying depth and current. The main result is that the Stokes waves are always unstable to small sideband disturbances. The effects of bottom slope and current on the growth rate of instability are discussed. Several earlier results due to {K. B. Dysthe} [Proc. R. Soc. Lond., Ser. A 369, 105-114 (1979; Zbl 0429.76014)], Turpin et al. [\textit{F.-M. Turpin}, \textit{C. Benmoussa} and \textit{C. C. Mei}, J. Fluid Mech. 132, 1-23 (1983; Zbl 0533.76016)], and \textit{U. Brinch-Nielsen} and \textit{I. G. Jonsson} [Wave Motion 8, 455-472 (1986; Zbl 0625.76020)] are found to follow as special cases of this analysis. This is a long paper containing a lot of grammatical errors due to the authors' lack of English language skills. However, some of the errors could have been avoided by proper editing. At any rate, this is mathematically a good paper on nonlinear instability of water waves with interesting results.