Recent developments of extreme wave events in integrable resonant systems

Abstract

From a microscopic perspective, the single extreme rogue wave event can be thought of as the spatiotemporally localized rational solutions of the underlying integrable model. A typical example is the fundamental Peregrine rogue wave, who in general entails a three-fold peak amplitude, while making its peak position arbitrary on a finite continuous-wave background. This kind of bizarre wave structure agrees well with the fleeting nature of realistic rogue waves and has been confirmed experimentally, first in nonlinear fibers, then in water wave tanks and plasmas, and recently in an irregular oceanic sea state. In this review, with a brief overview of the current state of the art of the concepts, methods, and research trends related to rogue wave events, we mainly discuss the fundamental Peregrine rogue wave solutions as well as their recent progress, intended for three typical integrable models, namely, the long-wave short-wave resonant equation, the three-wave resonant interaction equation, and the nonlinear Schrödinger and Maxwell–Bloch equation. Basically, while the first two models can describe the resonant interaction among optical waves, the latter governs the interaction between the optical waves and the resonant medium. For each integrable model, we present explicitly its Lax pair, Darboux transformation formulas, and fundamental Peregrine rogue wave solutions, in a self-consistent way. We confirm by convincing examples that these fundamental rogue wave solutions exhibit universality and can be applied to the multi-component or the higher-order versions of the current integrable models. By means of numerical simulations, we demonstrate as well several novel rogue wave dynamics such as coexisting rogue waves, complementary rogue waves, and Peregrine solitons of self-induced transparency.