No label defined (Q4520119)

This interesting book offers a fairly self-contained introduction to the theory of periodic, progressive, permanent waves on the surface of incompressible inviscid fluid. Many aspects of this form of wave propagation are included, though the authors have chosen to pay most attention to periodic progressive waves, in the sense that the waves travel at a constant speed without change of shape. Because of this, standing waves are excluded from the study, and only a partial account of solitary waves is given. The book comprises two parts: one in which the results of numerical experiments using the authors' own numerical schemes are reported, while the second part presents the analysis of bifurcation equations which arise. A reader is assumed to have an elementary knowledge of numerical analysis, some familiarity with Euler equations for incompressible inviscid fluid, to understand the rudiments of bifurcation theory, and to be familiar with the elements of functional analysis. The book achieves its objectives well, and it introduces a reader to pure capillary waves, gravity waves, capillary-gravity waves, waves with negative parameters, rotational waves, interfacial progressive waves, and to some aspects of solitary waves. The English in the text could have been improved in places, though this is never likely to lead to any misunderstanding about the mathematical or physical content of the book.