Gravity travelling waves for two superposed fluid layers, one being of infinite depth: a new type of bifurcation

In this paper, we study the travelling gravity waves in a system of two layers of perfect fluids, the bottom one being infinitely deep, the upper one having a finite thickness h. We assume that the flow is potential and the dimensionless parameters are the ratio between densities rho = rho(2)/rho(1) and lambda = gh/c(2). We study special values of the parameters such that lambda(1 - rho) is near 1(-), where a bifurcation of a new type occurs. We formulate the problem as a spatial reversible dynamical system, where U = 0 corresponds to a uniform state (velocity c in a moving reference frame), and we consider the linearized operator around 0. We show that its spectrum contains the entire real axis (essential spectrum), with, in addition, a double eigenvalue in 0, a pair of simple imaginary eigenvalues +/-ilambda at a distance O(1) from 0, and for lambda(1 - rho) above 1, another pair of simple imaginary eigenvalues tending towards 0 as lambda(1 - rho) --> 1(+). When lambda(1 - rho)