A statistical theory of rogue waves is proposed and tested against experimental data collected in a long water tank where random waves with different degrees of nonlinearity are mechanically generated and free to propagate along the flume. Strong evidence is given that the rogue waves observed in the tank are hydrodynamic instantons, that is, saddle point configurations of the action associated with the stochastic model of the wave system. As shown here, these hydrodynamic instantons are complex spatiotemporal wave field configurations which can be defined using the mathematical framework of large deviation theory and calculated via tailored numerical methods. These results indicate that the instantons describe equally well rogue waves created by simple linear superposition (in weakly nonlinear conditions) or by nonlinear focusing (in strongly nonlinear conditions), paving the way for the development of a unified explanation to rogue wave formation.

中文翻译：

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流体动力学瞬子的实验证据：流浪的普遍途径

提出了流氓波的统计理论，并针对在一个长水箱中收集的实验数据进行了测试，在该水箱中，机械地生成了具有不同非线性度的随机波，并且可以自由地沿着水槽传播。有力的证据表明，在水箱中观察到的流浪是流体动力瞬变，即与波浪系统随机模型有关的作用的鞍点构造。如此处所示，这些流体动力瞬变是复杂的时空波场配置，可以使用大偏差理论的数学框架定义并通过定制的数值方法进行计算。