Miracles, misconceptions and scotomas in the theory of solitary waves

ABSTRACT In an age of billion dollar particle accelerators and Mars rovers, it is surprising that solitary waves were first discovered by a man on horseback with no tools but his own eyes. A century and a half later, more complicated patterns of ridges, so-called hyperelliptic two-polycnoidal waves, were discovered in the ocean during a beach vacation. The inverse scattering method, which solves nonlinear partial differential equations through a sequence of solving purely linear equations, is a blend of quantum theory and hydrodynamics that arose from informal, unstructured conversations (i.e. goofing off) among a group of postdocs from different disciplines who were randomly assigned to the same office. The cnoidal wave in the lemniscate case is well-approximated by a nonlinear solitary wave and equally well approximated by a linear sine wave. It is always and exactly the superposition of solitary waves even in the limit in which it is an infinitesimal sine wave. The history and science of solitary waves has the disorienting quality of an M. C. Escher drawing. Here, we cannot give an understanding of these deep subjects in so brief an article; rather we strive to unveil the beauty and unexpectedness of these topics to give the reader a reason to pursue these in the much more comprehensive reviews and books we cite. Further, we stress the “scotomas” (blind spots), misconceptions and surprises, the sociology and epistemology of science. It is true that failed theories, scotomas, serendipity and cognitive saltation (progress in jumps) is characteristic of science. It is also true that the invention of the train was the invention of the train wreck. Engineering learns from each disaster and science should do the same. The highly nonlinear history of nonlinear waves is reported not to disrespect the past but to replace scientific fatalism with a constructive wariness. We are not smarter or more enlightened than Scott Russell or Stokes or Landau, but we can learn from their scotomas and misconceptions as much as from their triumphs.