Mathematics Colloquia and Seminars

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Surface waves are waves that propagate along a boundary, interface,
or free surface and decay exponentially away from it. Water waves
are a familiar example of surface waves. Other examples include
Rayleigh waves on an elastic half-space and surface plasmons on the
interface between a dielectric and a conductor. An asymptotic
analysis of nonlinear surface waves typically leads to spatially
nonlocal, quasilinear equations that describe the nonlinear mixing
of the spectral components of the wave. We will describe a number
of examples and discuss the effects of nonlinearity, including the
possible formation of singularities in these surface waves.

Reception to follow