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Numerical study of a multiscale expansion of the Korteweg-de Vries equation and Painlevé-II equation

TitleNumerical study of a multiscale expansion of the Korteweg-de Vries equation and Painlevé-II equation
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2008
AuthorsGrava, T, Klein, C
JournalProc. R. Soc. A 464 (2008) 733-757
Abstract

The Cauchy problem for the Korteweg de Vries (KdV) equation with small dispersion of order $\\\\e^2$, $\\\\e\\\\ll 1$, is characterized by the appearance of a zone of rapid modulated oscillations. These oscillations are approximately described by the elliptic solution of KdV where the amplitude, wave-number and frequency are not constant but evolve according to the Whitham equations. Whereas the difference between the KdV and the asymptotic solution decreases as $\\\\epsilon$ in the interior of the Whitham oscillatory zone, it is known to be only of order $\\\\epsilon^{1/3}$ near the leading edge of this zone. To obtain a more accurate description near the leading edge of the oscillatory zone we present a multiscale expansion of the solution of KdV in terms of the Hastings-McLeod solution of the Painlev\\\\\\\'e-II equation. We show numerically that the resulting multiscale solution approximates the KdV solution, in the small dispersion limit, to the order $\\\\epsilon^{2/3}$.

URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1963/2592
DOI10.1098/rspa.2007.0249

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