I address the problem of breather turbulence in ocean waves from the point of view of the exact spectral solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation using two tools of mathematical physics: (1) the inverse scattering transform (IST) for periodic/quasiperiodic boundary conditions (also referred to as finite gap theory (FGT) in the Russian literature) and (2) quasiperiodic Fourier series, both of which enhance the physical and mathematical understanding of complicated nonlinear phenomena in water waves. The basic approach I refer to is nonlinear Fourier analysis (NLFA). The formulation describes wave motion with spectral components consisting of sine waves, Stokes waves and breather packets that nonlinearly interact pair-wise with one another. This contrasts to the simpler picture of standard Fourier analysis in which one linearly superposes sine waves. Breather trains are coherent wave packets that “breath” up and down during their lifetime “cycle” as they propagate, a phenomenon related to Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) recurrence. The central wave of a breather, when the packet is at its maximum height of the FPU cycle, is often treated as a kind of rogue wave. Breather turbulence occurs when the number of breathers in a measured time series is large, typically several hundred per hour. Because of the prevalence of rogue waves in breather turbulence, I call this exceptional type of sea state a breather sea or rogue sea. Here I provide theoretical tools for a physical and dynamical understanding of the recent results of Osborne et al. (Ocean Dynamics, 2019, 69, pp. 187–219) in which dense breather turbulence was found in experimental surface wave data in Currituck Sound, North Carolina. Quasiperiodic Fourier series are important in the study of ocean waves because they provide a simpler theoretical interpretation and faster numerical implementation of the NLFA, with respect to the IST, particularly with regard to determination of the breather spectrum and their associated phases that are here treated in the so-called nonlinear random phase approximation. The actual material developed here focuses on results necessary for the analysis and interpretation of shipboard/offshore platform radar scans and for airborne lidar and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements.

The goal of this paper is to investigate the importance of the four-wave nonlinear interactions (SNL4) on the shape of the power spectrum of ocean waves. To this end, the following results are discussed: a number of authors have conducted modern experimental measurements of ocean waves over the past decades and found that the measured power spectrum has (a) a very high central peak (characterized by the parameter γ, developed in the 1970s in the JONSWAP program) and (b) enhanced high-frequency channels which lead to the phenomenon of “bimodality”, also a well-known phenomenon. We discuss how a numerical hindcast of the Draupner storm (1995) with the standard code WAVEWATCH-III with full Boltzmann interactions also reflects these previously experimentally determined spectral shapes. Our results suggest that the use of the full Boltzmann interactions (as opposed to the discrete interaction approximation often employed for forecasting/hindcasting) is important for obtaining this characteristic physical spectral shape of the power spectrum.

Nonlinear Fourier Analysis (NLFA) as developed herein begins with the nonlinear Schrödinger equation in two-space and one-time dimensions (the 2+1 NLS equation). The integrability of the simpler nonlinear Schrödinger equation in one-space and one-time dimensions (1+1 NLS) is an important tool in this analysis. We demonstrate that small-time asymptotic spectral solutions of the 2+1 NLS equation can be constructed as the nonlinear superposition of many 1+1 NLS equations, each corresponding to a particular radial direction in the directional spectrum of the waves. The radial 1+1 NLS equations interact nonlinearly with one another. We determine practical asymptotic spectral solutions of the 2+1 NLS equation that are formed from the ratio of two phase-lagged Riemann theta functions: Surprisingly this construction can be written in terms of generalizations of periodic Fourier series called (1) quasiperiodic Fourier (QPF) series and (2) almost periodic Fourier (APF) series (with appropriate limits in space and time). To simplify the discourse with regard to QPF and APF Fourier series, we call them NLF series herein. The NLF series are the solutions or approximate solutions of the nonlinear dynamics of water waves. These series are indistinguishable in many ways from the linear superposition of sine waves introduced theoretically by Paley and Weiner, and exploited experimentally and theoretically by Barber and Longuet-Higgins assuming random phases. Generally speaking NLF series do not have random phases, but instead employ phase locking. We construct the asymptotic NLF series spectral solutions of 2+1 NLS as a linear superposition of sine waves, with particular amplitudes, frequencies and phases. Because of the phase locking the NLF basis functions consist not only of sine waves, but also of Stokes waves, breather trains, and superbreathers, all of which undergo complex pair-wise nonlinear interactions. Breather trains are known to be associated with rogue waves in solutions of nonlinear wave equations. It is remarkable that complex nonlinear dynamics can be represented as a generalized, linear superposition of sine waves. NLF series that solve nonlinear wave equations offer a significant advantage over traditional periodic Fourier series. We show how NLFA can be applied to numerically model nonlinear wave motions and to analyze experimentally measured wave data. Applications to the analysis of SINTEF wave tank data, measurements from Currituck Sound, North Carolina and to shipboard radar data taken by the U. S. Navy are discussed. The ubiquitous presence of coherent breather packets in many data sets, as analyzed by NLFA methods, has recently led to the discovery of breather turbulence in the ocean: In this case, nonlinear Fourier components occur as strongly interacting, phase locked, densely packed breather modes, in contrast to the previously held incorrect belief that ocean waves are weakly interacting sine waves.

The survivability, safe operation, and design of marine vehicles and wave energy converters are highly dependent on accurate characterization and estimation of the energy content of the ocean wave field. In this study, analytical solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) using periodic inverse scattering transformation (IST) and its associated Riemann spectrum are used to obtain the nonlinear wave modes (eigen functions of the nonlinear equation consisting of multiple phase-locked harmonic components). These nonlinear wave modes are used in two approaches to develop a more accurate definition of the energy content. First, in an ad hoc approach, the amplitudes of the nonlinear wave modes are used with a linear energy calculation resulting in a semi-linear energy estimate. Next, a novel, mathematically exact definition of the energy content taking into account the nonlinear effects up to fifth order is introduced in combination with the nonlinear wave modes, the exact energy content of the wave field is computed. Experimental results and numerical simulations were used to compute and analyze the linear, ad hoc, and exact energy contents of the wave field, using both linear and nonlinear spectra. The ratio of the ad hoc and exact energy estimates to the linear energy content was computed to examine the effect of nonlinearity on the energy content. In general, an increasing energy ratio was observed for increasing nonlinearity of the wave field, with larger contributions from higher-order harmonic terms. It was confirmed that the significant increase in nonlinear energy content with respect to its linear counterpart is due to the increase in the number of nonlinear phase-locked (bound wave) modes. ²

In the development of quantum mechanics in the 1920s, both matrix mechanics (developed by Born, Heisenberg and Jordon) and wave mechanics (developed by Schrödinger) prevailed. These early attempts corresponded to the quantum mechanics of particles. Matrix mechanics was found to lead directly to the Schrödinger equation, and the Schrödinger equation could be used to derive the alternative problem for matrix mechanics. Later emphasis lay on the development of the dynamics of fields, where the classical field equations were quantized (see, for example, Weinberg). Today, quantum field theory is one of the most successful physical theories ever developed. The symmetry between particle and wave mechanics is exploited herein. One of the important properties of quantum mechanics is that it is linear, leading to some confusion about how to treat the problem of nonlinear classical field equations. In the present paper we address the case of classical nonlinear soliton equations which are exactly integrable in terms of the periodic/quasiperiodic inverse scattering transform. This means that all physical spectral solutions of the soliton equations can be computed exactly for these specific boundary conditions. Unfortunately, such solutions are highly nonlinear, leading to difficulties in solving the associated quantum mechanical problems. Here we find a strategy for developing the quantum mechanical solutions for soliton dynamics. To address this difficulty, we apply a recently derived result for soliton equations, i.e., that all solutions can be written as quasiperiodic Fourier series. This means that soliton equations, in spite of their nonlinear solutions, are perfectly linearizable with quasiperiodic boundary conditions, the topic of finite gap theory, i.e., the inverse scattering transform with periodic/quasiperiodic boundary conditions. We then invoke the result that soliton equations are Hamiltonian, and we are able to show that the generalized coordinates and momenta also have quasiperiodic Fourier series, a generalized linear superposition law, which is valid in the case of nonlinear, integrable classical dynamics and is here extended to quantum mechanics. Hamiltonian dynamics with the quasiperiodicity of inverse scattering theory thus leads to matrix mechanics. This completes the main theme of our paper, i.e., that classical, nonlinear soliton field equations, linearizable with quasiperiodic Fourier series, can always be quantized in terms of matrix mechanics. Thus, the solitons and their nonlinear interactions are given an explicit description in quantum mechanics. Future work will be formulated in terms of the associated Schrödinger equation.