The main research area of the laboratory is concerned with the analytical studies in the theory of nonlinear wave: extreme waves, wave collapse and solitons in various nonlinear media.
One of the research areas is the study of extreme waves in the ocean, i. e. killer waves and waves of tsunami, which are described by the same hydrodynamic equations with a free boundary. The main theoretical task is to check the integrability of the hydrodynamic equations with free surface at final depth.
Another important task of paramount practical importance, which is being solved by the laboratory staff, is to determine the probability of freak waves’ occurrence with a given spectrum of wind waves. A computer program is being developed that will allow to estimate the probability of occurrence of killer waves for a given time in any part of the world's oceans.
Research areas of the laboratory are the following:
- nonlinear interaction of two- and three-dimensional waves in an isothermal film flow;
- successive stages of the three-dimensional wave evolution in the interaction with high-frequency two-dimensional waves;
- inverse cascade of energy in three-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional turbulent flows;
- study of waves of different structures in gas-liquid media in non-isothermal conditions with phase transformations.
The laboratory has been established as a part of the grant of the Russian Federation Government for state support of scientific research conducted under the supervision of leading scientists (RF Government Resolution № 220). The laboratory is headed by Vladimir Zakharov – a physicist theoretician, whose name is related to the formation and development of modern nonlinear physics, professor at the University of Arizona and head of the Mathematical Physics Sector at Physics Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, winner of Dirac medal.
Head of Laboratory: Doctor in Physics and Mathematics, Professor Vladimir Zakharov,
zakharov@itp.ac.ru
Laboratory site
Section of physics of nonequilibrium processes at NSU 