Abstract
Abstract We study the coaxial collision between two modons by using a point vortex formulation due to Zabusky and McWilliams. This leads to a set of ordinary differential equations for the motion of two pairs of point vortices, each of which make up a finite-sized dipole. Due to the symmetry present in the coaxial system, these equations reduce to a planar Hamiltonian system which can be studied analytically. We study the nature of this system and the bifurcations which occur in order to classify the behavior of the point vortices as a function of parameters. We show all the possible types of collisions which occur and discuss their relevance to collisions between two modons which are initially far apart.
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