Computation of time-periodic solutions of the Benjamin-Ono equation (Q989646)

The authors discuss spatially periodic stationary and traveling solutions of the Benjamin-Ono equation (B-OE), the bifurcations from constant solutions to traveling waves, and the pole dynamics of meromorphic solutions. Then time-periodic solutions of the linearization of B-OE about stationary solutions discussed previously. To analyze the linearized problem, the spectrum and eigenfunctions of the relevant linear operator is numerically computed and their analytic form by trial and error is deduced. The resulting formulae can be verified rigorously (the authors omit details). Numerical method is suggested which involves minimizing a nonnegative functional that is zero if and only if the solution is periodic. An adjoint PDE is solved to compute the variational derivative of this functional with respect to perturbation of the initial condition and using the BFGS minimization algorithm [\textit{J. Necedal} and \textit{S. J. Wright}, Numerical optimization, Springer, NY (1999)] to minimize the functional. The B-OE and adjoint equations are solved with a pseudo-spectral collocation method using a fourth order, semiimplicit Runge-Kutta scheme. A penalty function is used to rule out constant solutions and traveling waves, and to prescribe the free parameters, and is varied to study the global properties of these nontrivial solutions. Here this method is applied to the B-OE, but this method is applicable to virtually any system of partial differential equations that possesses time-periodic solutions. Further this method is used to study the global behavior of nontrivial time-periodic solutions far beyond the realm of validity of the linearization about stationary and traveling waves. One such path, the authors discover that the one-hump stationary solution is connected to the two-hump traveling wave by a path of non-trivial time periodic solutions. The ODE governing the evolution of poles is reformulated to reveal an exact formula for the solutions on the path numerically studied. Thus, it is proved that nontrivial time-periodic solutions bifurcate from stationary solutions by exhibiting a family of them explicitly. In future the authors will classify all bifurcations from traveling waves, study the paths of nontrivial solutions connecting several of them, propose a conjecture explaining how they all fit together and describe their analytic form.