Traveling water waves with compactly supported vorticity

Abstract

In this paper, we prove the existence of two-dimensional, traveling, capillary-gravity, water waves with compactly supported vorticity. Specifically, we consider the cases where the vorticity is a $\delta$-function (a point vortex), or has small compact support (a vortex patch). Using a global bifurcation theoretic argument, we construct a continuum of finite-amplitude, finite-vorticity solutions for the periodic point vortex problem. For the non-periodic case, with either a vortex point or patch, we prove the existence of a continuum of small-amplitude, small-vorticity solutions.