Rogue waves in Alfvenic turbulence

Rogue waves, in the form of giant breathers, are shown to develop in the Alfven wave (AW) turbulence regime described by the randomly driven derivative nonlinear Schroedinger equation in the presence of a weak dissipation. The distribution of the instantaneous global maxima of the AW intensity fluctuations is seen to be accurately fitted by power laws, which contrasts with the integrable regime (absence of dissipation and forcing) where the behavior is rather exponential. As the dissipation is reduced, freak waves form less frequently but reach larger amplitudes. -- Highlights: → Rogue wave formation in long-wavelength Alfvenic turbulence. → Huge waves form by quasi-collapse of breathers in presence of weak dissipation. → Amplitude distribution of rogue waves is fitted by power laws. → Possible relation with SLAMS pulses observed near the Earth bow shock.