A different derivation of conservation laws for water waves

Abstract

We consider a new nonlocal formulation of the water-wave problem for a free surface with an irrotational flow based on the work of Ablowitz, Fokas, and Musslimani and presented in the recent work of Oliveras. The main focus of the short paper is to show how one can systematically derive Olver's eight conservation laws not only for an irrotational fluid, but also for constant vorticity (linear shear flow) without explicitly relying on the underlying Lie symmetries. This allows us to make draw new conclusions about conservation laws and posit the existence of additional, nonlocal, conservation laws for the water-wave problem.