Evolution of statistically inhomogeneous degenerate water wave quartets

A discretized equation for the evolution of random surface wave fields on deep water is derived from Zakharov's equation, allowing for a general treatment of the stability and long-time behaviour of broadbanded sea states. It is investigated for the simple case of degenerate four-wave interaction, and the instability of statistically homogeneous states to small inhomogeneous disturbances is demonstrated. Furthermore, the long-time evolution is studied for several cases and shown to lead to a complex spatiotemporal energy distribution. The possible impact of this evolution on the statistics of freak wave occurrence is explored. This article is part of the theme issue 'Nonlinear water waves'.