Instability and long-time evolution of cnoidal wave solutions for a Benney–Luke equation

We investigate numerically the stability of periodic traveling wave solutions (cnoidal waves) for a generalized Benney–Luke equation. By using a high-accurate Fourier spectral method, we find different kinds of evolution depending on the period of the perturbation. A cnoidal wave solution with period T is orbitally stable with regard to perturbations having the same period T, within certain range of wave velocities. This is a fact proved recently by Angulo and Quintero [Existence and orbital stability of cnoidal waves for a 1D boussinesq equation, International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences (2007), in press, doi:10.1155/2007/52020] and our numerical experiments are consistent with their theory. In the present work we show numerically that cnoidal waves with period T become unstable when perturbed by small amplitude disturbances whose period is an integer multiple of T. Particularly, if the period of the perturbation is 2 T , the evolution of the deviation of the solution from the orbit of the cnoidal wave is found to be approximately a time-periodic function. In other cases, the numerical experiments indicate a non-periodic behavior.