Rigidity of singularities of 2D gravity water waves

Abstract

We consider the Cauchy problem for the 2D gravity water wave equation. Recently Wu \cite{Wu15, Wu18} proved the local well-posedness of the equation in a regime which allows interfaces with angled crests as initial data. In this work we study properties of these singular solutions and prove that the singularities of these solutions are "rigid". More precisely we prove that an initial interface with angled crests remains angled crested, the Euler equation holds point-wise even on the boundary, the particle at the tip stays at the tip, the acceleration at the tip is the one due to gravity and the angle of the crest does not change nor does it tilt. We also show that the existence result of Wu \cite{Wu15} applies not only to interfaces with angled crests, but also allows certain types of cusps.