Branch Cuts of Stokes Wave on Deep Water. Part I: Numerical Solution and Padé Approximation

Abstract

Complex analytical structure of Stokes wave for two‐dimensional potential flow of the ideal incompressible fluid with free surface and infinite depth is analyzed. Stokes wave is the fully nonlinear periodic gravity wave prop agating with the constant velocity. Simulations with the quadruple (32 digits) and variable precisions (more than 200 digits) are performed to find Stokes wave with high accuracy and study the Stokes wave approaching its limiting form with radians angle on the crest. A conformal map is used that maps a free fluid surface of Stokes wave into the real line with fluid domain mapped into the lower complex half‐plane. The Stokes wave is fully characterized by the complex singularities in the upper complex half‐plane. These singularities are addressed by rational (Padé) interpolation of Stokes wave in the complex plane. Convergence of Padé approximation to the density of complex poles with the increase in the numerical precision and subsequent increase in the number of approximating poles reveals that the only singularities of Stokes wave are branch points connected by branch cuts. The converging densities are the jumps across the branch cuts. There is one square‐root branch point per horizontal spatial period λ of Stokes wave located at the distance from the real line. The increase in the scaled wave height from the linear limit to the critical value marks the transition from the limit of almost linear wave to a strongly nonlinear limiting Stokes wave (also called the Stokes wave of the greatest height). Here, H is the wave height from the crest to the trough in physical variables. The limiting Stokes wave emerges as the singularity reaches the fluid surface. Tables of Padé approximation for Stokes waves of different heights are provided. These tables allow to recover the Stokes wave with the relative accuracy of at least 10−26. The number of poles in tables increases from a few for near‐linear Stokes wave up to about hundred poles to highly nonlinear Stokes wave with