Homoclinic solutions of a fourth-order travelling wave ODE (Q2474787)

The authors study the existence of homoclinic solutions to the following fourth-order ordinary differential equation \[ \gamma u^{iv} = u'' + \mu \left (2 u u'' + (u')^2\right ) + u - u^2 \] with \(\gamma>0\) and \(\mu>-1/2\), arising in the theory of water waves. In particular, via the shooting method, the authors prove that if \(\gamma \leq {(1+2\mu)^2 \over 4} \) for \(\mu \leq {1\over 2}\), or \(\gamma \leq 2\mu\) for \(\mu > {1 \over 2}\), then there exists an even homoclinic solution \(u(x)\) satisfying \(u(\pm\infty)=1\), \(u(0)<0\), \(- {1 \over 2} < u(x)< 1\) and \(u'(x)>0\) for every \(x>0\).