Study of nonlinear waves described by the cubic Schroedinger equation

The cubic Schroedinger equation (CSE) is ubiquitous as a model equation for the long-time evolution of finite-amplitude near-monochromatic dispersive waves. It incorporates the effects of the radiation field pressure on the constitutive properties of the supporting medium in a self-consistent manner. The properties of the uniformly transiating periodic wave solutions of the one-dimensional CSE are studied here. These (so-called cnoidal) waves are characterized by the values of four parameters. Whitham's averaged variational principle is used to derive a system of quasilinear evolution equations (the modulational equations) for the values of these parameters when they are slowly varying in space and time. Explicit expressions for the characteristic velocities of the modulational equations are obtained for the full set of cnoidal waves. Riemann invariants are obtained for several limits for the stable case, and growth rates are obtained for several limits, including the solitary wave chain, for the unstable case. The results for several nontrivial limiting cases agree with those obtained by independent methods by others. The dynamics of the CSE generalized to two spatial dimensions are studied for the unstable case. A large class of similarity solutions with cylindrical symmetry are obtained systematically using infinitesimal transformation group techniques. The methods are adapted to obtain the symmetries of the action functional of the CSE and to deduce nine integral invariants. A numerical study of the self-similar solutions reveals that they are modulationally unstable and that singularities dominate the dynamics of the CSE in two dimensions. The CSE is derived using perturbation theory for a specific problem in plasma physics: the evolution of the envelope of a near-monochromatic electromagnetic wave in a cold magnetized plasma. 13 figures, 2 tables