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# A class of steady solutions to two-dimensional free convection

## I Introduction

Rayleigh–Bénard convection is very rich in nature. It has been a source of inspiration in studies of universality in the route to turbulence cvitanovic89 . At the same time, there have been extensive researches both experimental and theoretical on turbulent states of convection siggia94 .

Recently, convection turbulence has attracted attention as a good example of active scalar systems. One interesting observation is scaling behavior of structure functions of temperature, active scalar. In this context, a two-dimensional Boussinesq convection model has been studied by direct numerical simulations (DNS) in a doubly periodic square domain. The results indicate that the scaling exponents of the temperature structure functions saturate as the order goes to infinity cmv01 ; bhs01 . It has been pointed out that coherent structures like plumes or sharp interfaces (shocks) between hot and cold regions can play an important role in this behavior. Moreover it is shown phenomenologically l91  and numerically ts94  that the temperature variance (entropy l91 ) cascades from larger scales to smaller scales in the turbulent two-dimensional Boussinesq system (referred to as two-dimensional free convection, 2DFC) when the turbulent state is maintained by a large scale temperature forcing. However, the relation between the entropy cascade and the dynamics of coherent structures, if any at all, is still far from understood.

In the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes (3DNS) turbulence, vortical fine coherent structures, so-called worms, are observed. These worms are well known to be approximated locally by the Burgers vortex tube. In this sense, 2DFC turbulence is quite similar to 3DNS turbulence, although the former is more feasible than the latter. We expect that the understanding of the former may help us understand the latter and also elucidate the universal characteristics of turbulence.

The motivation of this paper is to explain some properties of the long-lived coherent structures observed in DNS in terms of a class of steady solutions of 2DFC. For this we search for steady solutions to the incompressible two-dimensional Boussinesq approximation equations without mean temperature gradient (2DFC):

$`_tT+\left(𝒖\right)T`$ $`=`$ $`\kappa \mathrm{}T,`$ (1)
$`_t𝒖+\left(𝒖\right)𝒖`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{p}{\rho _0}}+\alpha gT\widehat{𝒆}+\nu \mathrm{}𝒖,`$ (2)
$`𝒖`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (3)
Here $`\kappa `$, $`\rho _0`$, $`\alpha `$, $`g`$, and $`\nu `$ are the molecular diffusivity, the mean density of the fluid (we take $`\rho _0`$ to be unity for simplicity), the thermal expansion coefficient, the gravitational acceleration and the kinematic viscosity, respectively. The vector $`\widehat{𝒆}`$ is the unit vector in the direction opposite to the gravity. In DNS of free convection turbulence, to keep the system statistically stationary, a large-scale forcing term is added to Eq.(1), but the details are not mentioned here.

In the turbulent temperature field, long-lived sharp interfaces between hot and cold regions, i.e. shock fronts are often formed and regarded as coherent structures. Thus coherent structures are highly elongated; The typical length is the order of the integral scale and the typical width the order of ten times of Kolmogorov dissipation length scale. We expect that steady solutions to Eqs. (1)-(3) have common properties with the coherent structures formed spontaneously in DNS.

To deal with temperature shocks more directly, we use the following vector quantity ky84 ; c94 :

$$𝝌=(_yT,_xT).$$
(4)
We call $`𝝌`$ T-vorticity. T-vorticity obeys the following evolution equation similar to the three-dimensional vorticity equation:

$$_t𝝌+\left(𝒖\right)𝝌=\left(𝝌\right)𝒖+\kappa \mathrm{}𝝌.$$
(5)
Thus T-vorticity is expected to play an essential role in turbulence like vorticity in 3DNS. In contrast with T-vorticity, the governing equation for the vorticity $`\omega (x,y,t)`$ in 2DFC can be written

$$_t\omega +\left(𝒖\right)\omega =\alpha g\{\times (T\widehat{𝒆})\}_z+\nu \mathrm{}\omega .$$
(6)
Here $`\{\}_z`$ denotes taking the $`z`$-component. Note that because of the buoyancy term, i.e. the first term in the r.h.s. of Eq.(6), vorticity is not a conservative quantity even for $`\nu =0`$. For simplicity, we assume $`\nu =\kappa `$ , i.e. Prandtl number $`Pr=\nu /\kappa =1`$ here.

In the following sections, we look for steady solutions to Eqs. (5) and (6), where the flow is decomposed into the external part given by a stream function $`\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{A}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{f}(\mathrm{x})`$ and a response to it. In section II, we deal with the case $`f(x)=x`$, i.e. a stagnation flow. In Section III, extended stagnation flows, $`f(x)x`$, are considered, where we show two examples of $`f(x)`$. The realizability of the extended external flow is discussed. Concluding remarks are made in Section IV.

## II Burgers vortex layer type solutions

We assume that the system (5) and (6) is exposed to a stagnation flow

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{x},\mathrm{y})=\mathrm{A}\mathrm{x}\mathrm{y},$$
(7)
where $`A`$ is a positive constant so that we take the directions of contraction and expansion as $`x`$-axis and $`y`$-axis, respectively. The angle between $`x`$-axis and $`\widehat{𝒆}`$ is also a parameter and denoted by $`\phi `$ as shown in Fig. 1. Then the unit vector $`\widehat{𝒆}`$ in Eq. (1) is given in this coordinate as $`\widehat{𝒆}=(\mathrm{cos}\phi ,\mathrm{sin}\phi )`$. We use this coordinate throughout this paper.

We further assume the following forms of the temperature and velocity fields:

$`T(x,y,t)`$ $`=`$ $`\theta (x),`$ (8)
$`𝒖(x,y,t)`$ $`=`$ $`(_y\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{x},\mathrm{y}),_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{x},\mathrm{y}))+(0,\mathrm{v}(\mathrm{x}))`$ (9)
$`=`$ $`(Ax,Ay+v(x)).`$
In terms of $`\theta `$ and $`v`$, T-vorticity and vorticity are expressed as

$`𝝌(x,y,t)`$ $`=`$ $`(0,_x\theta (x))(0,\chi _y(x)),`$ (10)
$`\omega (x,y,t)`$ $`=`$ $`\omega (x)={\displaystyle \frac{dv(x)}{dx}}.`$ (11)
Consequently, Eqs. (5) and (6) are reduced to the following ordinary differential equations:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dx}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\kappa }{A}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\chi _y}{dx}}+x\chi _y\right)=0,`$ (12)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\nu }{A}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^2\omega }{dx^2}}+x{\displaystyle \frac{d\omega }{dx}}=\chi _y{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}.`$ (13)
After integrating once, Eq.(12) can be written

$$\frac{\kappa }{A}\frac{d\chi _y}{dx}+x\chi _y=C.$$
(14)
Here $`C`$ is an integration constant.

Let us consider the general boundary conditions at the origin:

$`\chi _y(x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0,`$ (15)
$`\chi _y^{}(x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0^{},`$ (16)
$`\omega (x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _0,`$ (17)
$`\omega ^{}(x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _0^{},`$ (18)
where $`\chi _y^{}(x)`$ and $`\omega ^{}(x)`$ denote the derivatives of T-vorticity and vorticity respectively; $`\chi _0,\chi _0^{},\omega _0`$ and $`\omega _0^{}`$ are constants. These conditions yield the relation $`C=\kappa \chi _0^{}/A`$. With $`\kappa =\nu `$ the solutions to Eqs.(12) and (13) are obtained

$`\chi _y(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }x^2}+\chi _0^{}e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }x^2}{\displaystyle _0^x}e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }\xi ^2}𝑑\xi ,`$ (19)
$`\omega (x)`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _0+\omega _0^{}{\displaystyle _0^x}e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }\xi ^2}𝑑\xi +\chi _0{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}(1e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }x^2})`$
$`+\chi _0^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}{\displaystyle _0^x}𝑑\zeta e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }\zeta ^2}{\displaystyle _0^\zeta }𝑑\mu {\displaystyle _0^\mu }𝑑\xi e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }\xi ^2}.`$
Here only the last two terms of Eq.(LABEL:e:sol\_omega\_gen) are the buoyancy generated vorticity. The first two are homogeneous solutions, i.e., the solutions to the vorticity equation (13) setting the r.h.s. (the buoyancy force) zero. When $`\chi _0^{}=0`$, the solution (19) which is the same as the Burgers vortex layer, takes finite value of temperature at $`x=\pm \mathrm{}`$. We call this solution finite temperature (FT) type solution. In contrast, when $`\chi _0^{}0`$, the temperature corresponding to the solution (19) diverges as $`x\pm \mathrm{}`$. We then call this solution infinite temperature (IT) type solution. We treat the two cases separately in the following subsections.

### II.1 Finite temperature type solutions

Let us consider the following boundary conditions:

$`\chi _y(x)`$ $``$ $`0(x\pm \mathrm{}),`$ (21)
$`\omega (x)`$ $``$ $`0(x\pm \mathrm{}).`$ (22)
These conditions (21) and (22) are equivalent to $`\chi _0^{}=0`$ and $`\omega _0^{}=0`$. The general solutions (19) and (LABEL:e:sol\_omega\_gen) are then reduced to Burgers vortex layer type solution:

$`\chi _y(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Theta }_0\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{A}}{2\pi \kappa }}}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{A}}{2\kappa }}\mathrm{x}^2\right),`$ (23)
$`\omega (x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}\mathrm{\Theta }_0\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{A}}{2\pi \kappa }}}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{A}}{2\kappa }}\mathrm{x}^2\right)`$ (24)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}\chi _y(x),`$
where $`\mathrm{\Theta }_0=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\chi _\mathrm{y}(\xi ,\mathrm{t}=0)d\xi =\theta (\mathrm{},0)\theta (\mathrm{},0)`$. In the Burgers vortex layer, this temperature difference corresponds to the circulation of the vortex layer. In Fig. 2 we plot the solutions; T-vorticity (23), and the corresponding temperature $`\theta (x)`$ and vorticity (24). As mentioned before, the temperature takes finite value at $`x=\pm \mathrm{}`$. Since the temperature $`\theta (x)`$ is a monotonic function, $`\chi _y(x)`$ contains a single bump. We call this solution Burgers T-vortex layer solution.

Now we make several remarks on the FT solutions (23) and (24). First, we note that $`\omega (x)`$ is proportional to $`\chi _y(x)`$ and $`\mathrm{sin}\phi `$. That is, $`\chi _y(x)`$ is independent of the direction of the gravity, but $`\omega (x)`$ is not. This is because the former is maintained by the balance between the imposed strain and the diffusion of T-vorticity like the Burgers vortex layer solution to the 3DNS equations and the latter does by the balance between the diffusion of vorticity and the buoyancy induced by the temperature difference across the Burgers T-vortex layer. Therefore vorticity is maximized when the direction of the T-vortex layer coincides with that of the gravity.

Secondly, it is possible to estimate a characteristic time of the relaxation to the steady state (23) after the temperature difference $`\mathrm{\Theta }_0`$ is fixed. Under the stagnation flow (9), the time-dependent solution to Eq. (5) is obtained l82  as

$`\chi _y(x,t)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(4\pi \kappa {\displaystyle \frac{1e^{2At}}{2A}}\right)^{1/2}`$ (25)
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}\chi _y(\xi ,t=0)\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{(xe^{At}\xi )^2}{4\kappa \frac{1e^{2At}}{2A}}}\right]𝑑\xi `$
$``$ $`\mathrm{\Theta }_0\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{A}}{2\pi \kappa }}}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{A}}{2\kappa }}\mathrm{x}^2\right)\text{as}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{}.`$
The characteristic time for the relaxation is thus estimated as $`1/A`$.

Thirdly, the characteristic width of the bump of T-vorticity and vorticity is $`\sqrt{2\kappa /A}`$. This agrees with an observation about structures of a passive scalar advected by a two-dimensional synthetic random velocity field with a finite correlation time in Ref. hs94 . (Of course, vorticity is not considered in that case.) Although a passive scalar with non-zero mean gradient was considered, the solution (23) may describe locally coherent structures of the passive scalar because of the following features: The width of those was found to scale well with $`\sqrt{\kappa /s}`$, where $`s`$ was a root mean square of the rate of strain calculated from the low-path filtered velocity. They also showed a stagnation flow accompanied by a coherent structure in Fig. 7 of Ref. hs94 .

Finally, concerning the relevance of the FT solutions (23) and (24) to the coherent structures observed in DNS of free convection turbulence, we refer the reader to Ref. tm01 . Here suffice it to say that the solutions (23) and (24) can give a good local approximation of the coherent structures in DNS, where we compared $`A`$ with the (positive) eigen-value of the velocity-gradient tensor although the latter is defined only locally.

However, it is well-known that, in the limit of $`\kappa 0`$, the temperature dissipation rate per unit length along $`y`$-axis, $`ϵ_\theta `$, of the Burgers (FT type) solution (23) vanishes. That is, $`ϵ_\theta =_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\kappa \chi _y(x)^2𝑑x\sqrt{\kappa A}0`$ as $`\kappa 0`$. It suggests that this Burgers layer type solution is irrelevant in this limit. In DNS, however, the situation can be different because we have to consider feedback to $`A`$ (the eigen-value of the velocity-gradient tensor) from other ingredients of the flow. Indeed, the probability distribution functions of $`A(x,y)`$ obtained in DNS of various $`\kappa `$’s are observed to fall into a unique curve under a suitable normalization. In other words, $`A(x,y)`$ field may have some nontrivial dependency on $`\kappa `$. Thus it is conjectured that the dissipation rate of the FT type solution (23), $`\sqrt{\kappa A}`$, would take non-zero value in the limit of vanishing diffusivity in real flows. Therefore the relevance of the Burgers vortex layer type solutions might not be ruled out. The detail of the observation on $`A(x,y)`$ field in DNS will be reported elsewhere.

### II.2 Infinite temperature type solutions

In this subsection, we consider the case where the temperature slowly diverges as $`x\pm \mathrm{}`$, which we call infinite temperature type solutions. In terms of the boundary conditions at the origin, it corresponds to

$`\chi _y(x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (26)
$`\chi _y^{}(x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0^{},`$ (27)
$`\omega (x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (28)
$`\omega ^{}(x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (29)
where $`\chi _0^{}0`$. We set $`\chi _0=0`$ to examine an IT type solution solely. The general solutions (19) and (LABEL:e:sol\_omega\_gen) then take the form:

$`\chi _y(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0^{}e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }x^2}{\displaystyle _0^x}e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }\xi ^2}𝑑\xi ,`$ (30)
$`\omega (x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}{\displaystyle _0^x}𝑑\zeta e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }\zeta ^2}{\displaystyle _0^\zeta }𝑑\mu {\displaystyle _0^\mu }𝑑\xi e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }\xi ^2}.`$ (31)
The boundary conditions for the vorticity (28) and (29) are chosen to involve only the buoyancy effect on vorticity since we focus on the vortical structure induced by the buoyancy. It should be noted that the homogeneous solutions of Eq.(13) are neglected. We plot the IT solutions:T-vorticity Eq.(30) ,the corresponding temperature $`\theta (x)`$ and vorticity Eq.(31) in Fig. 3.

It should be noted that unlike the Burgers type solutions T-vorticity and vorticity of IT type solutions take the same sign around $`\chi `$-bumps. This behavior seems to contradict physical intuition that hot fluid rises and then vorticity with the sign opposite to that of T-vorticity is induced.

However, vorticity is maintained by the balance between the buoyancy and not only the diffusion of vorticity but the vorticity transfer by a stagnation flow. In fact, if vorticity takes non-zero value with the same sign of T-vorticity, say positive, at infinity, vorticity flux $`Ax\omega `$ through a region with the width $`\delta `$ centered at some point ,e.g. $`x_0`$, always increases vorticity in the region. The substantial increase in vorticity $`Q_\omega `$ is given by

$`Q_\omega `$ $`=`$ $`F_uF_d`$ (32)
$`=`$ $`A\left(x_0+{\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{2}}\right)\omega \left(x_0+{\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{2}}\right)A\left(x_0{\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{2}}\right)\omega \left(x_0{\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{2}}\right)`$
$`=`$ $`A\delta \omega (x_0)+A\delta x_0\omega ^{}(x_0),`$
where the first term in the r.h.s balances with the vorticity flux in $`y`$ and the second term does with $`F_\chi =\delta \chi _y(x_0)\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi /A`$ if $`\omega ^{\prime \prime }(x_0)`$ is negligible in Eq.(13) as shown in Fig. 4. That is, vorticity induced by the buoyancy cancels out the excess of the vorticity flux. On the other hand, if the sign of vorticity around infinity is oppose to that of T-vorticity, the excess of the vorticity flux cannot be canceled out by the vorticity induced by the buoyancy so that the vorticity is not kept steady.

When vorticity is localized around the origin, i.e, vanishes rapidly as $`x`$ goes to infinity, the vorticity transfer is turned off and the vorticity induced by the buoyancy works as the vorticity input which balances with the diffusion of vorticity. This means that to keep the vorticity steady, $`\omega (\mathrm{})`$ should be null or take the same sign as that of the T-vorticity. Even in the IT case, using the homogeneous solution to Eq.(13), vorticity can be localized around the origin. In Fig. 3 with dash-dotted line, we show this localized vorticity, which consists of the buoyancy-induced vorticity (31) and the homogeneous solution,

$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _0^{}{\displaystyle _0^x}e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }\xi ^2}𝑑\xi `$ (33)
$`+`$ $`\chi _0^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}{\displaystyle _0^x}𝑑\zeta e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }\zeta ^2}{\displaystyle _0^\zeta }𝑑\mu {\displaystyle _0^\mu }𝑑\xi e^{\frac{A}{2\kappa }\xi ^2}.`$
Here the value for the parameter $`\omega _0^{}`$ is chosen to cancel out the uniform vorticity of the solution (31). The form of this localized response vorticity matches the intuition that hot fluid goes up and cold fluid down. Such a localized vorticity structure associated with T-vorticity structure is one of the striking features of active scalar turbulence.

For any non-vanishing value of $`\chi _0^{}`$, $`\chi _y(x)`$ is an odd function having a double bump and consequently the temperature $`\theta (x)=\theta (x=0)_0^x\chi _y(\xi )𝑑\xi `$ forms a ridge. Such temperature ridges are often observed in DNS. However, far away from the origin, temperature diverges logarithmically. bo78 . We think that the divergence at infinite distances is not necessarily pathological, since we are interested only in the local behavior of the structures (around the origin). Furthermore, this divergence prevents the strain of the external flow from squashing the temperature ridge. Like the FT type, the typical width of the vorticity structure is estimated as $`\sqrt{\kappa /A}`$. It is noted that this IT solution (30) is also the Burgers vortex layer solution to the three-dimensional barotoropic vorticity equation. (Recall that the governing equation (5) for $`𝝌`$ is the same as that of three-dimensional barotropic vorticity.)

## III extension

In this section, we consider the following external flow:

$`\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{x},\mathrm{y})=\mathrm{A}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{f}(\mathrm{x}),`$ (34)
where $`f(x)`$ is a function satisfying a condition mentioned later. When $`f(x)=x`$, this flow becomes a stagnation flow. A major difference from the $`f(x)=x`$ cases is that the external flow (34) has in general non-zero vorticity,

$$\mathrm{\Omega }(\mathrm{x},\mathrm{y})\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{A}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{f}^{\prime \prime }(\mathrm{x}).$$
(35)
Thus $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ should satisfy the vorticity equation. We will discuss the realizability of (34) in detail later in this section.

Under the extended stagnation flow (34), we further assume functional forms of temperature and velocity as follows:

$`T(x,y,t)`$ $`=`$ $`\theta (x),`$ (36)
$`𝒖(x,y,t)`$ $`=`$ $`(_y\mathrm{\Psi },_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{\Psi })+(0,\mathrm{v}(\mathrm{x}))`$ (37)
$`=`$ $`(Af(x),Ayf^{}(x)+v(x)).`$
Then $`𝝌`$ and the total vorticity $`\omega `$ are given by

$`𝝌(x)`$ $`=`$ $`(0,\theta ^{}(x))(0,\chi _y(x)),`$ (38)
$`\omega (x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Psi }+\mathrm{v}^{}(\mathrm{x})\mathrm{\Omega }(\mathrm{x},\mathrm{y})+\stackrel{~}{\omega }(\mathrm{x}).`$ (39)
We call $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }`$ response vorticity. The velocity field Eq. (37) is uniquely decomposed into the $`y`$-dependent and the $`y`$-independent parts.

Imposing the general boundary conditions

$`\chi _y(x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0,`$ (40)
$`\chi _y^{}(x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0^{},`$ (41)
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_0,`$ (42)
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }^{}(x=0)`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_0^{},`$ (43)
steady solutions to Eqs.(5) and (6) are easily obtained for any $`f(x)`$ as follows:

$`\chi _y(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }_0^xf(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }`$ (44)
$`+\chi _0^{}e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }_0^xf(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }{\displaystyle _0^x}e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }_0^\xi f(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }𝑑\xi ,`$
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_0+\stackrel{~}{\omega }_0^{}{\displaystyle _0^x}e^{\frac{A}{\nu }_0^\zeta f(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }𝑑\zeta `$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}{\displaystyle _0^x}𝑑\zeta e^{\frac{A}{\nu }_0^\zeta f(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }{\displaystyle _0^\zeta }\chi _y(\mu )e^{\frac{A}{\nu }_0^\mu f(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }𝑑\mu `$ (45)
$`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_0+\stackrel{~}{\omega }_0^{}{\displaystyle _0^x}e^{\frac{A}{\nu }^\zeta f(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }𝑑\zeta `$
$`+\chi _0{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}{\displaystyle _0^x}\zeta e^{\frac{A}{\nu }^\zeta f(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }𝑑\zeta `$
$`+\chi _0^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}{\displaystyle _0^x}𝑑\zeta e^{\frac{A}{\nu }^\zeta f(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }`$
$`\times {\displaystyle _0^\zeta }d\mu {\displaystyle _0^\mu }d\xi e^{\frac{A}{\nu }_0^\mu f(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }d\mu `$
The last two terms of Eq.(45) represent the vorticity induced by the buoyancy.

Now we discuss the realizability of the external flow (34). If we claim that Eq. (35) is a steady solution of the barotropic two-dimensional vorticity equation

$$(𝑼)\mathrm{\Omega }=\nu \mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega },$$
(46)
where $`𝑼=(_y\mathrm{\Psi },_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{\Psi })`$. Then the equation for $`f(x)`$ is

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\nu }{A}}f^{(4)}(x)+f(x)f^{(3)}(x)f^{}(x)f^{\prime \prime }(x)=0,`$ (47)
where $`f^{(j)}(x)`$ denotes the $`j`$-th order derivative. Equation (47) has been studied by many authors as a model of a flow near a rigid wall b67 . In Ref. co00  the authors, who were interested in the finite time blow-up of the solution, dealt with the time-dependent stream function $`\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{A}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{f}(\mathrm{x},\mathrm{t})`$ in a bounded domain and discussed asymptotic behavior ($`t\mathrm{}`$) of the solution to the equation for $`f(x,t)`$, the Proudman-Johnson equation pj61 . They showed that every solution decays to zero as $`t\mathrm{}`$ with homogeneous boundary conditions.

Here instead of solving Eq. (47), we examine the realizability of the external field (34). We do not think that the flow (34) should be an exact solution of the vorticity equation (46). Rather, we assume that the flow (34) is formed by a larger scale flow in the turbulence field. That is, from a practical point of view, a steady solution subjected to an external flow is no more than a local model of coherent structures in the turbulent field, so that the external flow need not satisfy Eq.(46). Thus it may be possible to add an forcing term describing an effect of the larger scale motions to Eq.(46). Denoting the forcing term by $`F(x,y)`$, the equation for $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ (or $`f(x)`$) can be rewritten

$`(𝑼)\mathrm{\Omega }=\nu \mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }+\mathrm{F}.`$ (48)
Then the steady-state equation for the total vorticity (39) can be written

$$(𝒖)(\mathrm{\Omega }+\stackrel{~}{\omega })=\chi _\mathrm{y}(\mathrm{x})\alpha \mathrm{g}\mathrm{sin}\phi +\nu \mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Omega }+\stackrel{~}{\omega })+\mathrm{F},$$
(49)
which yields the equation for the response vorticity $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }`$

$$\frac{\nu }{A}\frac{d^2\stackrel{~}{\omega }}{dx^2}+f(x)\frac{d\stackrel{~}{\omega }}{dx}=\chi _y(x)\frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A},$$
(50)
from which the solution (45) is obtained.

By substituting $`f(x)=x`$, it is easily checked that the solutions (44) and (45) contain Burgers vortex layer type solutions.

In the following, we show two examples of $`f(x)`$. Each has both FT and IT type solutions. As the first example, we deal with an external flow

$`f(x)=4x^32x,`$ (51)
which itself has vorticity $`\mathrm{\Omega }(x,y)=24Axy`$. The stream lines of the external flow is shown in Fig. 5. Here we assume an additional forcing $`F(x,y)`$ that keeps the external field (51) steady. ( Equation (48) prescribes the forcing as $`F(x,y)=192A^2x^3y`$)

For FT type solutions, we impose the boundary conditions

$`\chi _y(x=0)=\chi _0`$ $``$ $`0,`$ (52)
$`\chi _y^{}(x=0)=\chi _0^{}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (53)
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x=0)=\stackrel{~}{\omega }_0`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (54)
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x=0)^{}=\stackrel{~}{\omega }_0^{}`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (55)
The conditions for the vorticity Eqs.(54) and (55) are chosen again to reflect only the effect of the buoyancy. The solutions (44) and (45) are then reduced to

$`\chi _y(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(x^4x^2)},`$ (56)
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}{\displaystyle _0^x}\xi e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(\xi ^4\xi ^2)}𝑑\xi .`$ (57)
These solutions are plotted in Fig. 6.

For IT type solutions, we use the boundary conditions

$`\chi _y(x=0)=\chi _0`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (58)
$`\chi _y^{}(x=0)=\chi _0^{}`$ $``$ $`0,`$ (59)
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x=0)=\stackrel{~}{\omega }_0`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (60)
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x=0)=\stackrel{~}{\omega }_0^{}`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (61)
Hence the solutions (44) and (45) is rewritten

$`\chi _y(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0^{}e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(x^4x^2)}{\displaystyle _0^x}e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(\xi ^4\xi ^2)}𝑑\xi ,`$ (62)
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}{\displaystyle _0^x}𝑑\zeta e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(\zeta ^4\zeta ^2)}`$
$`\times {\displaystyle _0^\zeta }d\xi {\displaystyle _0^\xi }d\mu e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(\mu ^4\mu ^2)}.`$
We plot the T-vorticity (62), the corresponding temperature $`\theta (x)`$ and the response vorticity (LABEL:e:ext1-sp-sol-omega) in Fig. 7. T-vorticity (62) has a double-bump for any non-vanishing $`\chi _0^{}`$. For this shape of the response vorticity (LABEL:e:ext1-sp-sol-omega), the vorticity-flux balance argument given in the previous section can be also applied. In addition, we can obtain a localized $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }`$ solution by adding the homogeneous solution of Eq.(50) in a similar way to the Burgers layer type solutions.

As an another example, let us consider the periodic flow:

$$f(x)=\mathrm{sin}x.$$
(64)
This flow has vorticity $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{A}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{x}`$. The corresponding forcing $`F(x,y)`$ is then $`\nu Ay\mathrm{sin}x`$. The streamlines of this external flow Eq.(64) are shown in Fig. 8, where stagnation points are located periodically.

For FT type solutions, we impose the boundary conditions (52)-(55). Then the general solutions (44) and (45) is expressed as

$`\chi _y(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(1\mathrm{cos}x)},`$ (65)
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}{\displaystyle _0^x}\xi e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(1\mathrm{cos}\xi )}𝑑\xi .`$ (66)
They are plotted in Fig. 9. Multiple bumps in $`\chi _y(x)`$ are seen. From the monotonic behavior of the temperature which is similar to the Burgers T-vortex layer solution, these solutions (65) and (66) are classified to FT solutions. The remarkable feature of this solution is the staircase-like behavior of $`\theta (x)`$. This kind of staircase-like change of the temperature is sometimes observed in DNS. Hence the solution (65) and (66) can be useful to describe the small wavy behavior embedded on a temperature front.

To obtain IT type solutions, we use the boundary conditions (58)-(61). The solutions (44) and (45) are then expressed as

$`\chi _y(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0^{}e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(1\mathrm{cos}x)}{\displaystyle _0^x}e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(1\mathrm{cos}\xi )}𝑑\xi ,`$ (67)
$`\stackrel{~}{\omega }(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\chi _0^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g\mathrm{sin}\phi }{A}}{\displaystyle _0^x}𝑑\zeta e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(1\mathrm{cos}\zeta )}`$ (68)
$`\times {\displaystyle _0^\zeta }d\mu {\displaystyle _0^\xi }d\xi e^{\frac{A}{\kappa }(1\mathrm{cos}\xi )}.`$
These IT type solutions are shown in Fig. 10. Its temperature behavior is similar to the Burgers IT solution. The vorticity-flux balance argument can explain the shape of $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }`$ in this case as well. However the response vorticity (68) does not seem to converge as $`x\pm \mathrm{}`$, it would be no use considering the localized response vorticity in this case.

## IV concluding remarks

We have examined a class of steady solutions to the two-dimensional Boussinesq approximation equations. We believe that these solutions well describe coherent structures observed in DNS of 2DFC. Under an extended stagnation flow $`\mathrm{\Psi }=Ayf(x)`$, we obtained two types of exact solutions; FT and IT types. In both cases, T-vortex layers are maintained steady by the balance between the strain of the external stagnation flow and the diffusion of T-vorticity. Furthermore, in the FT case a pair of T-vortex layers with opposite signs are annihilated by the compression of the extended stagnation flow without the continuous supply of T-vorticity which is maintained by the infinity of temperature at $`x=\pm \mathrm{}`$.

For the former (FT) type including the Burgers vortex layer type solution when $`f(x)=x`$, temperature remains finite as $`x`$ goes to $`\pm \mathrm{}`$ and both T-vorticity and vorticity are localized around the origin. In contrast, for the latter (IT) type, the absolute value of temperature should diverge as $`x`$ goes to $`\pm \mathrm{}`$ as mentioned above; T-vorticity tends to zero quite slowly and vorticity is saturated to a finite value. If $`f(x)=x`$, T-vorticity takes at most two bumps. On the other hand, if $`f(x)x`$ then it may take as many bumps as possible. although we only dealt with $`f(x)=4x^32x`$ and $`f(x)=\mathrm{sin}\phi `$ where two and infinite number of bumps are observed, respectively. These bumps seem to correspond to fine T-vortex structures observed in DNS of 2DFC turbulence.

So far we have taken for granted the independence of an external flow and a response. This view may be reasonable if we focus on local behavior of the coherent structures. Indeed the local shape of the structures are quite similar to the steady solutions. Thus it is suggested that the characteristic time scale of the external strain field are well separated from that of structure’s motions. The role of the coherent structures on statistical properties of turbulence expected to be universal, is still an open question. Since the coherent structures have quite long correlation length comparable to the scale of the energy (temperature variance, i.e. entropy) containing range, their existence may break the locality hypothesis significantly. However, the authors have examined the relative diffusion in 2DFC turbulence recently and found that the coherent structures rather play an essential role in keeping the locality. These contradicting characteristics of the coherent structures make research on turbulence challenging.

In this sense, free convection turbulence is quite similar to 3DNS turbulence. We believe that coherent structures are universal and essential ingredients of turbulence. Therefore extensive researches on coherent structures are required.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work has been partially supported by Grant-in-Aid for Science Research on Priority Areas (B) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. Numerical computation in this work was carried out at the Yukawa Institute Computer Facility.


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# Landau Damping and Coherent Structures in Narrow-Banded 1+1 Deep Water Gravity Waves

## Abstract

We study the nonlinear energy transfer around the peak of the spectrum of surface gravity waves by taking into account nonhomogeneous effects. In the narrow-banded approximation the kinetic equation resulting from a nonhomogeneous wave field is a Vlasov-Poisson type equation which includes at the same time the random version of the Benjamin-Feir instability and the Landau damping phenomenon. We analytically derive the values of the Phillips’ constant $`\alpha `$ and the enhancement factor $`\gamma `$ for which the narrow-banded approximation of the JONSWAP spectrum is unstable. By performing numerical simulations of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation we check the validity of the prediction of the related kinetic equation. We find that the effect of Landau damping is to suppress the formation of coherent structures. The problem of predicting freak waves is briefly discussed.

In many different fields of nonlinear physics, local nonlinear effects such as the modulational instability (MI) have played a very important role in spectral energy transfer processes (see for example ). For ocean gravity waves, the same instability (now commonly known as the Benjamin-Feir instability) has been discovered independently by Benjamin and Feir  and by Zakharov  in the sixties. The instability predicts that in deep water a monochromatic wave is unstable under suitable small perturbations. In this framework it has been established that the MI can be responsible for the formation of freak waves . The aim of this Letter is to discuss a statistical approach that allows one to predict the appearance of the modulational instability in a continuous spectrum. The theory is applied directly to ocean waves but it could as well be applied to many other nonlinear wave systems.

In order to approach statistically the nonlinear energy transfer processes involved in the MI, one is interested in finding a suitable kinetic description. As far as ocean waves are concerned, today the most common models for wave forecasting (WAM, SWAM and newer generation models, see ) are based on the nonlinear energy transfer process that is ruled by the kinetic wave equation that has been derived independently by K. Hasselmann  and by V. Zakharov . The theory predicts that the energy is transferred in an irreversible manner under the resonant 4-wave interaction. Besides the quasi-gaussian approximation , one of the major hypothesis required to derive this kinetic equation is the homogeneity of the surface, i.e., $`<A(k)A^{}(k^{})>=n(k)\delta (kk^{})`$, where $`A`$ is a complex wave amplitude describing the evolution of the wave train, $`k`$ and $`k^{}`$ are wave numbers and $`n(k)`$ is the spectral density function. Unfortunately, the Hasselmann-Zakharov kinetic theory is not able to predict the Benjamin-Feir instability. This basically means that the kinetic equation is unable to predict local nonlinear effects such as freak waves. Indeed the MI is the result of an interaction of waves that are phase-locked: the carrier wave is phase-locked with the side-bands and therefore the mechanism cannot be predicted by the assumption that the Fourier components are delta-correlated. Thus, if the hypothesis of homogeneity of the system is relaxed, an improved kinetic equation can be derived which is able to show a random version of the Benjamin-Feir instability. Actually, for surface gravity waves, this improvement is contained in the pioneering work by Alber , followed by the works of Crawford et al.  and Janssen . The prediction of the theory developed in  has never been verified numerically or experimentally. Unfortunately these works, written more than 15 years ago, did not receive the deserved attention by the wave forecast/hindcast community and the ideas developed remained basically unconsidered with the only exception of the recent work by M. Stiassnie . More recently, but independently of the works , a similar approach has been developed for the large-amplitude electromagnetic wave-envelope propagation in nonlinear media , for the quantum-like description of the longitudinal charged-particle beam dynamics in high-energy accelerating machines in the presence of an arbitrary coupling impedance  and for the resonant interaction between an instantaneously-produced disturbance and a partially incoherent Langmuir wave .

In this paper, we outline the approach formulated in  and discuss the modulational instability for random wave spectra. In particular we identify the values of the parameters of the JONSWAP spectrum for which the spectrum itself is unstable. Moreover, using numerical simulations we associate the MI with the presence of coherent structures in physical space, pointing out the importance of the role played by the phenomenon of Landau damping.

We start by considering the simplest and prototypical weakly nonlinear equation for water waves: the Nonlinear Schroedinger equation (NLSE). This choice is dictated by the following motivations. First of all, we want to avoid dealing with the dynamics of the four-wave resonant interactions because otherwise we would not be able to discern whether the effects we are describing are due to inhomogeneity or are already contained in the Hasselmann-Zakharov theory. We point out that, while the two dimensional NLSE (and higher order equations (see )) contains the four-wave resonant interaction mechanism , the one-dimensional NLSE does not include this sort of energy transfer, because of the shape of the linear dispersion relation (see for instance ). Second, while the NLSE should not be appropriate for describing the dynamics in the tail of the spectrum or in the inertial range, it should describe with satisfactory accuracy the short time scale behavior around the peak. Formally the NLSE can be derived from the Zakharov equation  under the narrow band approximation; in dimensional form the equation reads:

$$\frac{A}{t}+i\mu \frac{^2A}{x^2}+i\nu |A|^2A=0,$$
(1)
where in deep water $`\mu =\omega _0/8k_0^2`$ and $`\nu =\omega _0k_0^2/2`$, with $`\omega _0`$ the carrier angular frequency and $`k_0`$ the respective wave number.

Eq. (1) is our starting point for deriving the required kinetic equation. Following Alber , the Wigner-Moyal transform  can be applied directly to the NLSE. This transform allows one to give a representation of a function $`A(x)`$ both in configuration space, $`x`$, and in phase space or wave number, $`k`$, namely

$$n(x,k)=\frac{1}{2\pi }<A^{}(x+y/2)A(xy/2)>e^{iky}𝑑y.$$
(2)
Alternatively, one may follow the approach presented both in  and in  consisting in writing the NLSE in Fourier space and then writing an evolution equation for the correlator $`n(k,k^{})=<A(k)A^{}(k^{})>`$. Both approaches need a closure in order to reduce the fourth-order correlator into the sum of the product of the two-point correlation functions. Using any of the methods outlined the resulting kinetic equation is the following von Neumann-Weyl-like equation

$`{\displaystyle \frac{n(x,k,t)}{t}}+2\mu k{\displaystyle \frac{n(x,k,t)}{x}}+4\nu {\displaystyle \underset{m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^m}{(2m+1)!2^{2m+1}}}\times `$ (3)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{^{2m+1}<|A(x,t)|^2>}{x^{2m+1}}}{\displaystyle \frac{^{2m+1}n(x,k,t)}{k^{2m+1}}}=0,`$ (4)
with

$$<|A(x,t)|^2>=n(x,k,t)𝑑k.$$
(5)
If the limit for small $`k`$ is taken the equation resembles the Vlasov-Poisson equation in plasma physics that is well known to describe the Landau damping phenomenon. The standard way to proceed consists in letting the distribution function $`n(x,k,t)`$ and the field $`A(x,t)`$ be expressed in terms of an equilibrium value plus a small perturbation and study the dispersion relation of the linearized equation for the perturbation. After standard algebra the following dispersion relation is obtained (see also ):

$$1+\frac{\nu }{\mu }\frac{n_0(k+K/2)n_0(kK/2)}{K(k\mathrm{\Omega }/(2\mu K))}𝑑k=0,$$
(6)
where $`n_0`$ is the homogeneous envelope spectrum.

According to experimental studies, the surface wave spectrum for gravity waves is given by the JONSWAP spectrum:

$$P(k)=\frac{\alpha }{2k^3}e^{\frac{3}{2}[\frac{k_0}{k}]^2}\gamma ^{exp[\frac{(\sqrt{(}k)\sqrt{(}k_0))^2}{2\delta ^2k_0}]},$$
(7)
with $`\alpha `$, $`\gamma `$ and $`\delta `$ constants ($`\delta `$ is usually set to 0.07, while $`\alpha `$ and $`\gamma `$ depend on the state of the ocean). In order to be consistent with the NLSE, as is done in , we Taylor-expand the spectrum around its peak and obtain the following Lorenzian spectrum:

$$P(k)=\frac{H_s^2}{16\pi }\frac{p}{p^2+(kk_0)^2},$$
(8)
where

$$p=\sqrt{\frac{8k_0^2\delta ^2}{24\delta ^2+Log(\gamma )}}\mathrm{and}H_s=4\sqrt{\pi \frac{\alpha \gamma p}{2E^{3/2}k_0^3}}.$$
(9)
$`H_s`$ is the significant wave height calculated as four times the standard deviation of the wave field and $`p`$ corresponds exactly to the half-width at half-maximum of the spectrum. It can be shown  that for a symmetric spectrum $`P(k)`$ of the surface elevation, the spectrum for the complex envelope is $`n_0(k)=4P(kk_0)`$, therefore a factor of four must be taken into account. Substituting in (6) we obtain the following dispersion relation:

$$\mathrm{\Omega }=K(\sqrt{K^2\mu ^2H_s^2\nu \mu }2i\mu p).$$
(10)
If $`K^2<H_s^2\nu /\mu `$, the first term on the right hand side is responsible for the MI (note that in the limit as $`p0`$, the dispersion relation (10) gives the Benjamin-Feir instability). The last term on the right hand side is responsible for the Landau damping phenomenon . Therefore there is a competition between exponential growth and damping of the perturbation that depends on the parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`\gamma `$ of the Lorenzian (or JONSWAP) spectrum. If $`p>\sqrt{K^2\mu /4+H_s^2\nu /4}`$ the damping dominates the MI, the opposite will occur if $`p<\sqrt{K^2\mu /4+H_s^2\nu /4}`$. In Fig. 1 we show the instability diagram in the $`\alpha \gamma `$ plane. In general spectra with higher values of $`\alpha `$ and $`\gamma `$ are more likely to show the MI. This results gives support to the results in  where it has been found that higher values of $`\alpha `$ and $`\gamma `$ increases the probability for the formation of freak waves.

Before comparing numerical simulations with the prediction of the Wigner-Moyal-like kinetic equation, we would like to point out that our analysis has been carried out linearizing around an equilibrium state of the system. In fact, the dispersion relation (10) has been derived for small amplitude perturbations. However, in the natural long-time evolution of a nonlinear wave train, perturbations are in general not small. Consequently, perturbations in the simulations should evolve according to the governing equations. To this end, numerical experiments have been carried out allowing the nonhomogeneities to develop by themselves according to the nonlinear dynamics of the NLSE.

Numerical simulations of Eq. (1) have been computed using a standard pseudo-spectral Fourier method. Initial conditions for the free surface elevation $`\zeta (x,0)`$ have been constructed as a random process , i.e. a linear superposition of Fourier modes (7) with random phases. The Hilbert transform is used in order to convert the free surface $`\zeta `$ to the complex envelope variable $`A`$ of the NLSE. The dominant wave number for the numerical simulation was selected to be $`k_0=0.1`$ $`m^1`$. This last choice is not restrictive: the parameters that rule the dynamics in the spectrum are its width and the steepness which, once $`k_0`$ is fixed, are univocally determined by $`\alpha `$ and $`\gamma `$.

We start the discussion on the numerical results by showing the evolution of $`|A(x,t)|`$ in the $`xt`$ plane for a case in which $`\gamma =3`$ and $`\alpha =0.02`$ ($`p/k_00.25`$ and $`H_sk_0/20.14`$ ), Fig. 2. According to Fig. 1 the spectrum should be unstable. How is this instability manifested in configuration space? From Fig. 2 we note the presence of a “coherent structure”, i.e. a structure (oblique darker zones in the $`xt`$ plane) that persists in the presence of nonlinear interactions and maintains statistically its shape and velocity during propagation (note that periodic boundary conditions are used). The presence of such coherent structures is related to the values of $`\alpha `$ and $`\gamma `$ and not to the particular random phases selected.

Every random realization shows similar results even though the resulting coherent structures may have different velocity and amplitude. The nonlinear stage of MI is therefore responsible for the formation of such coherent structures in the $`xt`$ plane. Indeed it is possible to show that the NLSE has periodic solutions such as, for example, breathers or unstable modes . These solutions, which are linearly unstable, are nevertheless very robust. Moreover they can grow up to more than three times the initial unperturbed solution and therefore have also been addressed as simple models for freak waves . In contrast to solitons that have constant amplitude in time, these unstable modes are characterized by a continuous exchange of energy among the Fourier modes. The energy is transferred from one mode to another and back again: the process is completely reversible and therefore coherent structures persist in physical space. We stress that these kinds of solutions appear naturally from initial conditions with random phases. We now consider a case with $`\gamma =1`$ and $`\alpha =0.02`$ ($`p/k_00.58`$ and $`H_sk_0/20.12`$); note that decreasing $`\gamma `$ has the effect of making the spectrum broader. This case, according to the stability criteria (see Fig. 1), should not present any instability because of the effect of Landau damping. We show the output of our numerical simulation in Fig 3. In the $`xt`$ plane, as a confirmation of what we have previously stated, there is no evidence of any coherent structure; numerical simulations with different random phases are in accordance with the result just shown.

In conclusion, the numerical simulations show that the presence of the coherent structures in the $`xt`$ plane is related to the instability of the wave field. The Landau damping phenomenon suppress the instability and prevent the formation of coherent structures. Many physical questions remain open. For example it would be interesting to investigate the case of a two dimensional wave field. It is well known that the NLSE in 2+1 is not integrable and the dynamics of coherent structures is still far from being understood. Numerical simulations with the fully nonlinear Euler equations are also under consideration in order to extend the validity of the result. Concerning the problem of wave forecasting, we may state that if one is interested in predicting freak waves arising from the MI, this new form of the kinetic equation, which includes nonhomogeneous effects should be considered.

P. Janssen and D. Grasso are acknowledged for valuable discussions. M. O. was supported by a Research Contract from the Università di Torino. This work was supported by the O.N.R. (T. F. Swean, Jr.) and by the Mobile Offshore Base Program of O.N.R. (G. Remmers). Consortium funds and Torino University funds (60 %) are also acknowledged.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Understanding the physics and chemistry of comets can lead to significant improvements in our knowledge of the formation of the Solar System. Such studies allow constraints on the physical conditions in the solar nebula, on the dynamical evolution of the disk and of planetesimals, and on the chemical evolution of these bodies. High resolving power spectroscopic observations offer unique opportunities for studies of the origin and subsequent chemistry of comets. For example, measurement of atomic isotope ratios in a sample of “Kuiper belt” and “Oort cloud” comets can place valuable new constraints on physical processes in the solar nebula and proto-planetary disk during the comet formation epoch.

The complex molecular spectrum of the coma of a comet results in thousands of lines being visible in the spectral region from 3800–10200Å. In order to undertake studies of a particular feature or molecule, one must be able to identify most of the lines in the region of interest. Yet many spectral regions are complicated by the superposition of lines from more than one molecule. In addition, laboratory studies of diatomic and polyatomic molecules are often difficult to obtain and incomplete. Valk et al. (1992) published a catalogue of line identifications for the near-UV and blue region of the spectrum of Comet C/1989 X1 (Austin) from spectra at moderate spectral resolving power (R=2,500). Brown et al. (1996) published a catalog of cometary emission lines from comets 109P/Swift-Tuttle and C/1989 X1 (Austin). They found 2997 lines and were able to identify 2438 of them. Zhang et al. (2001) utilized high resolution spectra of C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) and the catalogue of Brown et al. in order to identify 532 emission lines (73 unidentified). These catalogues are a critical first step for cometary science.

This paper represents an update to the catalogues of Brown et al. and Zhang et al. We present observations of comet 122P/de Vico obtained at McDonald Observatory in October 1995. Comet de Vico is the perfect target for such a study since it has a very high gas-to-dust ratio and was reasonably bright, allowing for spectra of exceptionally high signal/noise with very little continuum (signal/noise at peak was $`>`$300). We identified 12,219 lines in the spectrum of de Vico. In addition, there are 4,055 unidentified lines in our spectra.

## 2 Observations and Reductions

We observed comet 122P/de Vico with the 2.7-m Harlan Smith telescope of McDonald Observatory and the 2DCoude spectrograph (Tull et al. 1995) during October 1995 (see table I for information on the observations). These observations were obtained at a spectral resolving power of 60,000 and covered the wavelength range from 3800–5776Å continuously, with spectra with increasing interorder gaps from 5776–10192Å. Table II indicates the spectral coverage of each of the echelle orders. In all cases, the slit was 1.2 arcsec wide by 8.2 arcsec long. The spectra were extracted using variance weighting along the spatial dimension, with no attempt made to preserve spatial information. The signal/noise was extremely high throughout. De Vico represents a perfect comet for such identification work since the gas/dust ratio is one of the highest known for a comet. This results in spectra with almost no continuum so that even weak features are unambiguously detected. In addition to spectra on the optocenter, we obtained one spectrum with the telescope offset 100 arcsec into the tail. These tail spectra are useful for distinguishing between neutral and ionized species.

Incandescent lamp spectra were obtained in order to flat field the data. The wavelength calibration was made by fitting a two-dimensional function to observations of a ThAr hollow-cathode lamp. Over 3100 lines were fit, with a fourth order fit along an order and fifth order fit across orders, resulting in an rms error of the wavelength of $``$2.5mÅ. This is comparable to, or better than, typical laboratory spectra described in this paper. The cometary spectra were Doppler-shifted by a velocity equal to the geocentric radial velocity of the comet (i.e by $`\dot{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ from table I to bring them onto the laboratory rest frame).

A cometary spectrum consists of molecular and atomic emission lines, superimposed on a continuum which results from sunlight reflecting off the dust. It is necessary to remove the underlying continuum from the emission spectrum if the goal of a study of the spectra is to determine the amount of a particular gas. However, removal of the continuum is fraught with uncertainties in the color of the dust and in photon statistics. Thus, removal of the continuum can induce noise into spectra. Fortunately, comet de Vico has a high gas/dust and the continuum is essentially negligible at all wavelengths. Given this and the problems associated with continuum removal, we chose not to remove the continuum for our purposes in this paper of line identification. This results in an offset of the spectrum from zero (typically the continuum for de Vico was about 350 counts and the emission lines are many thousands of counts). The continuum can also result in the apparent diminution of the strengths of emission lines when they coincide with a solar absorption feature. This might result in our not detecting a very weak feature.

In addition to the underlying continuum spectrum, there is a superposition of a telluric spectrum onto the cometary spectrum. This spectrum consists of emissions due to metastable oxygen, sodium, OH and O2 and absorption due to O2 and H2O. The telluric spectrum is at the rest frame of the Earth’s atmosphere and is, therefore, shifted by $`\dot{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ with respect to the cometary rest frame. Thus, we Doppler shifted by this same velocity the telluric emission line lists discussed in the next section to identify the telluric features present in the Doppler-shifted cometary spectra.

The telluric emission lines are generally narrow and only affect the wavelength at which they occur. The telluric absorption is a different problem entirely. In the regions of the strong absorptions, such as the O2 “A” band or the 9300Å H2O band, almost all photons entering the atmosphere are absorbed before they reach the telescope. Thus, even if a line at these wavelengths is excited in the cometary spectrum, we will not record the feature in our spectrograph. There is no way to remove the effect of these saturated telluric absorptions and the information from the comet is forever lost (unless a spectrum taken at a different time has a Doppler shift that moves the cometary line and the telluric absorption apart). The orders most affected by the telluric absorption are orders 50 (O2 “B” band), 48 and 47 (H2O “a” band), 45 (O2 “A” band), 42 and 41 (H2O “z” band), and 38–35 (H2O “$`\gamma `$” and “$`\rho `$” bands).

## 3 Linelists

One of the most difficult aspects of compiling a cometary spectral atlas is finding good laboratory line lists of all of the relevant molecules. As a first step in building our spectral atlas, we searched out many molecular line lists. Many of the molecules of importance were studied years ago and the line lists do not exist in digital form; we have spent many hours scanning line lists and typing in and checking large quantities of numbers by hand (possibly with undetected errors introduced). Some of the relevant molecules are not well understood and there are many unassigned lines. For some molecules, we have used work by several different authors to be as complete as possible. In the case of some molecules, such as CN, we had access to line lists which were much more inclusive than necessary. The tables of the identified molecular lines which we include as part of this paper list only those lines which we believe we detected. However, such over-complete line lists may prove useful for future cometary spectra. We note, also, that in the red and near-IR, there are interorder gaps in our data. In these regions, we leave gaps in the lists of identified lines. Refer to table II for a complete list of the wavelengths for which we have observations.

### 3.1 C2

There are two principal band systems of C2 which are observed in the optical in the spectra of comets. These are the Swan, or d $`{}_{}{}^{3}\mathrm{\Pi }_{g}^{}`$ – a $`{}_{}{}^{3}\mathrm{\Pi }_{u}^{}`$, system, and the Phillips, or A $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Pi }_{u}^{}`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{g}^{+}`$, system. The Swan system is dominant in the green, orange and red region of the spectrum, while the Phillips is important in the near-IR and IR.

For the Swan system, we used the line list of Phillips and Davis (1968). We extended this line list for high J-values of the 0–0, 0–1 and 2–1 bands using the wavelength spacing of the highest previously defined lines to identify which emission lines were the continuation of these bands. We derived slightly different wavelengths for four of the highest J-value lines of the R-branches of the 1–0 band than in the original reference ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda =`$0.042-0.076Å). Most of our extensions are in agreement with the additional wavelengths also derived by Brown et al. (1996), though we observed to higher J-levels for the 0–0 band.

For the Phillips system, we used the works of Ballik and Ramsay (1967) and Chauville et al. (1977).

### 3.2 C3

The C3 molecule was first observed in cometary spectra in 1882, although the species causing the emission feature in comets was unknown. It is difficult to study in the laboratory because it is relatively unstable. Thus, the molecule causing the emission lines was not identified until 1951. In cometary spectra, the important bands are known as the “4050-Å Group”, indicative of the peak of the spectrum. However, careful inspection of cometary spectra show that lines attributable to this band can be seen from approximately 3350Å to 4700Å, although the main part of the band is between 3900 and 4140Å with a maximum at 4050Å and an additional (but not well identified) peak at 4300Å.

The structure of this molecular band is quite complex since the bending frequency of the lower state is small and there is a large Renner-Teller splitting. The band has been identified as a A $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Pi }_{u}^{}`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{g}^{+}`$ electronic transition (Gausset et al., 1965). R-branch bandheads at 4072Å and 4260Å can be assigned to the (1,0,0)–(1,0,0) and (0,0,0)–(1,0,0) bands respectively (Merer, 1967). The density of the lines results in a pseudocontinuum from C3.

C3 is a linear, symmetric molecule containing nuclei which are identical in mass. For all $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ states of the molecule, every second line is missing. In other states, one member of the $`e/f`$-parity doublet of each rotational level is missing, although all rotational levels are represented (Tokaryk and Chomiak, 1997).

Most of our line identifications come from Gausset et al. (1965), with additional identifications from Merer (1967) and Tokaryk and Chomiak (1997). Tokaryk and Chomiak argue convincingly that the (0,2,0)–(0,0,0) and (0,2,0)–(0,2,0) rotational assignments of Gausset et al. are in error. Thus, in the wavelength region from 3990–4019Å we have preferentially used the Tokaryk and Chomiak assignments. However, Tokaryk and Chomiak do not report rotational assignments for these bands outside this wavelength region, so we have continued to use the Gausset et al. assignments for these two bands at other wavelengths.

The combination of the complexity of the spectrum and the difficulty of studying this molecule in the laboratory has meant that the line identifications are far from complete and may not always be accurate. This is readily apparent at 3949Å where we observe an obvious C3 bandhead which is not in the line lists cited here. The lines which are identified in this region arise from the (0,4,0) – (0,2,0) band Q-branch, but the line identifications of Gausset et al. do not include any assignments for the R- or P-branches. Balfour et al. (1994) have studied C3 at these wavelengths and do indeed identify this bandhead as the R-branch of the (0,4,0) – (0,2,0) band and identify other lines in the region as from the P-branch. However, the Q-branch assignments of Balfour et al. disagree with those of Gausset et al. Tokaryk and Chomiak have pointed out that the Balfour et al. spectra are at much lower resolution than the other spectra and that Balfour et al. may not have been able to disentangle the superimposed bands. We have no basis for choosing between the various assignments. We have chosen to neglect the Balfour et al. assignments entirely based on the arguments of Tokaryk and Chomiak. However, it is reasonably certain that the undentified lines near 3949Å are from the R-band of the (0,4,0) – (0,2,0) band.

We do not resolve cleanly the C3 lines in our spectra. The outflow of the gas in the coma broadens the line sufficiently that even at $`3\times `$ the resolution with R=180,000, a resolving power we used with comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp, the C3 is not resolved in the densest regions. Thus, we have not always been able to definitively match a line list with our spectra. In the densest regions, we have just assumed that all known lines were observed. There are some known lines (e.g. in the (0,0,0)–(0,4,0) or (0,0,0)–0,6,0) bands) which we definitely do not observe in our spectra.

### 3.3 CH

A wonderful new, inclusive line list has recently become available for studies of CH. This is the SCAN-CH list of Jørgensen et al. (1996). This list includes transitions of 12C1H and 13C1H for the infrared transition X $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }`$ and three electronic transitions A $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }`$, B $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{}`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }`$, and C $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }`$. A total of 112,821 lines are given for each isotope! We identified low-J lines of the 0–0 band of the B–X transition around 3900Å (some of which can be confused with isotopic lines of CN) and low-J lines of the 0–0 and 1–1 bands of the A–X transition around 4300Å. This new SCAN-CH line list includes the satellite transitions of the CH bands, which are observed in our spectra.

### 3.4 CN

Great effort has been expended to understand the CN molecule because it is a significant source of opacity in some stars. Thus, there are CN line lists which are much more inclusive than what is needed for cometary studies, where depopulation of the upper J-levels is relatively rapid.

Two different electronic band systems are seen in cometary spectra, the so-called violet system, or the B $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ band, and the so-called red system, or the A $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ band.

For the violet system, we used the line list of Kurucz (1995, CDRom 18) which contains about 350,000 lines. Lines of both 12C14N and 13C14N are included with J up to 150.5. For our purposes, we have only used the 12C14N wavelengths. Indeed, some of our “unidentified” lines may be lines of 13C14N. Since this band is a $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$$`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ transition, there are P- and R-branches but no Q-branch.

For the red system, we used the line list of Davis and Phillips (1963). Jørgensen and Larsson (1990) recently calculated CN red line lists with up to 1 million lines for 12C14N. However, the Jørgensen amd Larsson work is most concerned with completeness for line blanketing and is not derived from measured line positions. Thus, some of the line center uncertainties in this list are higher than we preferred, which is why we used the older reference.

### 3.5 NH2

Throughout much of the red region of a cometary spectrum, there are scattered emission lines which are attributable to NH2. The transitions responsible for these lines are the Ã2 A1 – X̃2 B1 electronic transition along with transitions between the high vibronic levels and the ground state of the X̃2 B1 electronic band (e.g. (0,13,0)X̃2 B1 – (0,0,0)X̃2 B1). The spectrum of the NH2 band is quite complex and irregular because the upper level is linear and the lower level is bent at an angle of 103. Also, perturbations are important, as is the Renner-Teller effect.

The traditional reference for cometary NH2 line lists is Dressler and Ramsay (1959). While this reference is moderately complete, it has been superseded in subsequent years by several other laboratory analyses. Most important in newer studies is the inclusion of more complete perturbation models and higher quality laboratory spectra. For our line lists, we have used the data of Ross et al. (1988) for the wavelength range 5400 – 6800Å. Redward of 7000Å we used the data of Johns et al. (1976) and of Huet et al. (1996), with updates by Hadj Bachir et al. (1999). From 6800–7000Å (the (0,2,0)–(0,0,0) and (0,1,0)–(0,0,0) bands), the data of Dressler and Ramsay and Johns et al. (1976) are most complete, so we use these two lists preferentially in that region. For regions blueward of 5400Å, the Dressler and Ramsay wavelengths are really the only data in existence; we used their wavelengths in this blue region.

Since NH2 has the perturbations and the bent state, modern works prefer to use the bent notation for the vibronic structure. This is in contrast with the work of Dressler and Ramsay and Johns et al., in which the vibronic states were denoted in the linear notation. In our line lists, we have converted all of the vibronic notation from the linear to the bent notation. In the linear notation, sub-bands were denoted by $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (for K$`=0,\pm 1,\pm 2,\pm 3,\pm 4`$ respectively). To convert from a linear to a bent notation, one uses the formula

$$v^{lin}=2v^{bent}+|l|$$

where $`l=\mathrm{K}\pm \mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Thus, the old notation for the band around 6500Å would have been (0,8,0) $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ or (0,8,0) $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, while now those bands are denoted (0,3,0) and (0,2,0) respectively \[in these examples the lower level is assumed to be (0,0,0)\]. Despite the fact that the linear notation has been exclusively in use by the comet community, we feel it is more appropriate to adopt the same notation as the physicists who measure these molecules.

### 3.6 CH+

The CH+ lines which are seen in cometary spectra are from a $`A^1\mathrm{\Pi }X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }^+`$ transition which contains P, Q and R branches. The line list used for these bands was from Douglas and Herzberg (1942). The bands degrade towards the red. We only see lines of the 0–0 branch with relatively low J-values. While we see very few CH+ lines in our spectra, they are visible in both the optocenter and the tail spectra.

### 3.7 CO+

There are three band systems which can be attributed to the CO+ molecule. These are the first negative carbon bands (B $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$), which occur in the UV, the comet-tail bands (A $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$), occurring in the violet through red, and the Baldet-Johnson bands (B $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{}^{+}`$ – A $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }`$) also in the violet. Observations in the optical bandpass do not include the first negative carbon bands (however, UV observers can find wavelengths for these lines in Rao (1950a). Rao (1950b) showed that previous optical band assignments were in error and that the Baldet-Johnson system was much weaker than the comet-tail bands. Thus, we adopted the band assignments of Rao (1950b) for the comet-tail bands and neglected the Baldet-Johnson system entirely.

For our comet-tail line list, we used four references: Coster et al. (1932), Schmid and Gerö (1933), Rao (1950b) and Haridass et al. (2000). We updated the band designations of the first two references with the designations in Table 2 of Rao and also corrected the values for N in these papers as outlined by Rao. Unlike for CH+ and H2O+, the CO+ lines could not be detected in the optocenter spectra. These were entirely found in the tail spectrum. Indeed, we detected only the 2–0 band of CO+ in the de Vico tail spectrum.

It is unusual to detect the 2–0 band without the 3–0 band since the 3–0 band is normally the strongest CO+ band in cometary spectra. The ion tail of de Vico was generally quite narrow so it is possible that our “tail” spectrum missed the strongest emissions, accounting for the weakness of the CO+ emissions.

### 3.8 H2O+

With H2O being the dominant ice in the cometary nucleus, it is not surprising to see H2O+ emission in the ion tail spectrum of a comet. The electronic transition is Ã2 A1 \- X̃2 B1, which is observed from 4000–7500Å. Much of the structure of the H2O+ molecule is similar to that of the NH2 molecule, including the strong Renner-Teller effect.

The most complete reference for the wavelengths of the H2O+ lines is Lew (1976). In this paper, the bands are denoted in the linear notation (see the section on NH2) whereas the bent notation is considered correct by current standards. Therefore, we have converted the H2O+ bands to the bent notation in a manner which is identical to the NH2.

As with the CH+, the H2O+ lines are apparent in both the optocenter and the tail spectra. We required that a line be visible in the tail spectrum before we attributed it to H2O+.

### 3.9 Night Sky Emission Lines

Finally, even at the high spectral resolving power of our spectra, coupled with the small entrance slit, one does end up observing emission lines produced in the Earth’s atmosphere. These lines must be accounted for when identifying lines. Fortunately, a high-resolution atlas of night sky emission lines has recently been compiled by Osterbrock et al. (1996) for just this purpose. The dominant molecular emission comes from OH, with contributions of O2 and some atomic lines. We have applied a Doppler shift equal to $`\dot{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ to the Osterbrock et al. wavelengths to compensate for correcting the cometary spectra to the laboratory rest frame. We confirmed that the correct Doppler shift was applied by checking the strong night sky atomic lines (Na D, O (1D) and H $`\alpha `$).

In the lists of identified lines which follow, we do not include the night sky lines, though they are represented on our plots. We have drawn no conclusions about their existence in our spectra, assuming they are all present. Instead, an otherwise unidentified line which is coincident with a night sky line is considered to be that night sky line without taking into account the line’s strength. Some unidentified cometary and night sky lines could, however, be coincident.

### 3.10 Additional Molecules

The molecules which have been identified above are the same ones which Brown et al. (1996) found in their spectra and which previous authors have identified. Brown et al. also investigated a range of other molecules which did not show up in their spectra and we have assumed they are not in our spectra either.

There are some potential molecules which we checked but our investigations proved inconclusive. One is H2O, which is the dominant molecule in cometary nuclei and which has many transitions in our spectral region. The wavelengths of these lines are well known. However, though we started out examining our spectra for H2O lines, we quickly realized that it would be implausible that we could detect these lines in our spectra when the Earth’s atmosphere is so full of H2O.

Another potential molecule in cometary spectra is N2. Again, the atmosphere of the Earth makes this molecule impossible to study, so we did not search for it.

One molecule for which we searched was N$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$. Cochran et al. (2000) showed that this molecule was not present in spectra of de Vico or Hale-Bopp and placed stringent upper limits on its presence.

## 4 Line Identifications

Once the molecular line lists were compiled, it was necessary to examine all of the spectral orders and determine which lines we detected. First, we scrutinized our spectra for wavelength coincidences of the emission features and lines in the line lists. The strongest lines are quite easy to see in the spectra, but the weakest lines needed verification. We utilized spectra from both nights to test the veracity of a detection of a weak line. We required that the line be in both night’s spectra before we would categorize the feature as a detection. Our very high signal/noise, coupled with having multiple spectra, allowed for the detection of some very weak features.

With the density of the lines in some of these bands and in our spectra, it is expected that there will be some coincidences which are accidental. When a line from the line list was coincident with an emission line, we checked to determine whether detection of the line made sense. This criterion took the form of requiring that the lines originating from lower energy levels be observed before believing that lines from higher energy transitions were detected. This is equivalent to assuming that the upper level populations can be described by some sort of effective Boltzmann temperature, which is not necessarily a physical temperature. Indeed, because C2 is a homonuclear molecule, with no allowed dipole transition, high-J levels can be quite strong because these levels get “pumped up”. This criterion was applied on a band-by-band basis. Thus, there were times when an “obvious” detection was deemed accidental because lines with lower excitation energies for the same band were not seen. We would then eliminate these accidental detections from our list.

Conversely, there are some times when we included a line, though it is not very obvious, because it is more favorable energetically than lines which were detected. A possible cause for the absence of an expected line is coincidence with a solar absorption feature.

For the ions, we checked the tail spectrum as well as the optocenter spectra in order to determine if a line was ionic in nature. A simple coincidence of the ionic species wavelength to a feature in the optocenter spectra was not considered sufficient evidence that a line was an ion. The line also had to be present in the tail spectrum. As noted above, the CH+ and H2O+ lines were observed in both the optocenter and tail spectra, but the CO+ was only observed in the tail spectrum. It was considered sufficient to identify an ionic line if it occurred solely in the tail spectrum.

We compared our tail spectrum of de Vico with the list of identified and unidentified species in the spectrum of the tail of comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) (Wyckoff et al. 1999). Some of Wyckoff et al.’s H2O+ lines are seen in our spectra, while others are not, and we detect many H2O+ lines that they did not see (however, our data are at much higher spectral resolution and so exact matches in wavelength with their identifications are difficult). We cannot confirm most of their lines; though a few of their lines other than H2O+ might be coincident with features in the de Vico tail spectrum, these features are generally also coincident with neutral lines identified in the optocenter spectra. The Hyakutake tail spectrum of Wyckoff et al. was obtained at larger distances from the nucleus than was our de Vico tail spectrum, which may explain why we do not see the same lines. In addition, with the high airmass of observations and a relatively small slit on our instrument, we could have missed the densest part of the ion tail (we do see some ions though). However, the explanation could as easily be that de Vico does not have a very strong tail spectrum.

In the blue part of the spectrum, there was an increasing wavelength overlap between the echelle orders as the wavelength decreased (higher order number). This allowed for the comparison of many lines in two different echelle orders. In general, we found the agreement excellent, with wavelength matches of $`0.01`$ Å or better. However, for the bluest orders, the spectral overlap regions were falling well off the blaze of the grating and, consequently, became noisy in the bluest quarter of these orders. Therefore, we gave priority for identification of lines in the overlap regions to the red end of one order over the blue end of the next lowest (and therefore redder) numbered order.

One interesting result of our identifications comes from the C2 Swan bands, particularly the $`\mathrm{\Delta }v=1,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},\mathrm{and}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$ bands. We observe lines with very high J-values, up to J=109! However, the lowest few J-value lines are missing or very weak. This is probably indicative of two different rotational temperatures for C2, though we have not modeled these lines yet to demonstrate this. Such an effect was also seen by Lambert et al. (1990) for comet Halley.

For the CN red system, we found that for a particular J level, the P12 and R12 lines were generally quite weak when compared with the P, R or Q lines of the same J level. Inspection of the line strengths in the laboratory work of Davis and Phillips (1963) shows that this is generally seen for this molecule and is normal.

In addition to the molecular emission lines, we found three atomic emission lines in the spectrum. These are the red metastable oxygen doublet, O (1D) 6300Å and 6364Å, and H $`\alpha `$. The green oxygen line at 5577Å is cloaked by the 1–2 C2 emission band; the Na “D” doublet is in the wavelength region of the C2 $`\mathrm{\Delta }v=2`$ bands. However, at most, there is just a weak hint of the cometary Na features at appropriate wavelengths. The weakness of any Na emission in de Vico is quite unusual in a comet at de Vico’s heliocentric distance.

Finally, when we had exhausted our line lists, we still had a great many emission lines in our spectra with no identifications. We have flagged these in our line lists with the tag “Unid” next to the measured wavelengths and computed vacuum frequencies. A few of these “unidentified” lines are probably isotopic lines, e.g. 13CN vs. 12CN. Isotopic lines are quite weak but we do know of several in our spectra. However, we have chosen to ignore them for now, because proper identification takes modeling the band in question, which is beyond the scope of this atlas.

Figure 1 shows a plot of the blue half of order 49, covering the wavelength range from 6957–7014Å. In this figure, we show spectra from both nights, offset from one another for clarity. The spectra are plotted with an expanded y axis in order to illustrate the weaker features. The spectra are plotted in three panels to allow for inspection of the features. Plotted below the spectra are tick marks for all of the identified lines, in this case lines of CN, C2, NH2 and H2O+. Plotted above the spectra are tick marks for the night sky OH (Doppler shifted to the appropriate rest frame for the comet) and the position of lines we could not identify. Dashed vertical lines mark the position of the features in the spectra. Examination of Fig. 1 shows that there are a substantial number of quite strong lines which are unidentified, including lines with more than 20,000 counts!

In contrast, Figure 2 shows order 77 from 4 October. There are obvious emission features (and solar absorptions) in this spectrum. Indeed, we have located 64 lines in this spectral region which are visible in spectra from both nights. However, we can not identify the molecule for any of these 64 features. This order is an excellent example of the desperate need for more laboratory studies.

Figure 3 shows a plot of all of our detected lines, by molecule, as a function of wavelength. Unidentified features are also marked. The gaps which can be seen in the red for molecules such as C2 and CN are the result of the interorder gaps in our spectra. Molecules such as C2 and NH2 can be found at almost any optical wavelength, while C3 and CH are confined to the blue.

Table III gives a representative listing of the identifications for the wavelength region from 6957–6976Å, the spectral region shown in the top panel of Fig. 1. A table similar to Table III for each of the molecules shown in Figure 3 is available in digital (ASCII text) form111These tables and the plots mentioned below may be obtained from the web site (currently pdssbn.astro.umd.edu) of the Small Bodies Node of the NASA Planetary Data System. These tables contain the wavelength and vacuum frequency of the lines, along with the band designations and transition. A table of the unidentified lines is also available in digital form. We also will make available a table of all of the identified and unidentified features, sorted by wavelength.

As with Table III, the digital tables will be entirely in ASCII characters and will not use any sub- or super-scripts; they can be utilized on any computer without having to deal with embedded special characters. The tables are in fixed format. For most molecules, the electronic transitions are listed by their letter designations (A, B, X) instead of their term designations. For C2, we use the more common names of Swan and Phillips, where the Swan band is the d $`{}_{}{}^{3}\mathrm{\Pi }_{g}^{}`$ – a $`{}_{}{}^{3}\mathrm{\Pi }_{u}^{}`$ band and the Phillips is the A $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Pi }_{u}^{}`$ – X $`{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{g}^{+}`$ band. As vibrational transitions carry designations with different forms for diatomic and polyatomic molecules, those transitions are listed in the manner appropriate for each molecule. In all cases, the upper state is listed first, then the lower state. For the rotational transitions, the designations are very dependent on the individual molecule, since some just have P, Q and R branches, some, such as CN A-X, have branches such as P12, and some, such as CH, have branches such as RQ$`{}_{21}{}^{}fe`$ (which is listed as “RQ21fe” in plain ASCII). Molecules such as NH2 and H2O+ have rotational states which are designated with three quantum numbers of the form $`N_{K_a^{}K_c^{}}^{}N_{K_a^{\prime \prime }K_c^{\prime \prime }}^{\prime \prime }`$. The NH2 and H2O+ rotational states are separated into F1 and F2 components. We have not included those designations in our tables.

Sometimes more than one transition occurs at the same frequency. We list all rotational transitions from the same vibrational and electronic band on the same line in the tables. When there are concurrent transitions from different vibrational bands, we list the two different band transitions on separate lines of the table.

We chose to list only the wavelength and frequency of the unidentified lines and not their strengths. There were several reasons behind this decision. First, we have no absolute flux calibration of these coudé spectra so there is no way to calibrate the blaze function. Additionally, we have not attempted to remove the atmospheric extinction and the comet was observed at an airmass of 2–3 airmasses. This means that relative strengths within an order are probably accurate, but order-to-order comparisons are less meaningful. We have made no attempt to model the Swings effect for any molecule. Without such a model, any line could be a different strength than expected from laboratory measurements. Also, the lines are often highly blended. Thus, to determine line strengths a full deconvolution model must be computed. For the over 4000 unidentified lines this is a huge undertaking. Such an exercise should be done for individual studies, but are not realistic for this atlas.

In addition to the tables of identified and unidentified features, we are making available PostScript files of plots of our spectra in two formats. The first format is plots similar to Fig. 1. For each order, there are two plots, each with 3 panels, showing two spectra and the identified and unidentified lines. These are all plotted with expanded y scales to show the weaker features. The features are marked in color, as with Fig. 1. The colors of the markers remain the same for each molecule across all plots. That is, there is space and a color allocated for each molecule even when that molecule is not present in a particular order. Included in these plots are the ionic species CH+ and H2O+, since they are visible in the optocenter spectra. The CO+ only shows up in order 81 in the tail spectrum. This spectrum is shown in Fig. 2 of Cochran et al. (2000) with the CO+ and CH+ identified.

The second form of plot which we are making available is the spectra without expansion of the y axis. These plots take the form of four panel plots with two orders per plot (each of two panels). Each panel is scaled in y to fit the maximum strength line in that panel. These plots are a valuable adjunct to the identification plots because they show the relative strength of the strong and weak lines. They also allow for the inspection of the telluric absorption features which plague some orders.

It is quite likely that there are a few real features which we have missed in our tabulations because the sheer quantity of data makes such misses inevitable. Indeed, every time we have inspected the plots of identifications, we have found an additional line or two. There are some lines which we may have located which may be less believable to a reader. Sometimes our choice to include these lines in our lists comes from our ability to manipulate the spectra digitally and to change the scaling to view a feature better; sometimes we may have overactive imaginations! There are times when an identified molecular line seems slightly off in wavelength from the peak of a feature. We have assumed that it is possible that the wavelengths of the laboratory line lists are not always entirely accurate. Additionally, in regions where lines are blended, or in the regions of strong telluric absorption features, the observed line center may be shifted from a laboratory value. This is true also for our measured positions of unidentified features. Therefore, it is imperative that a user of these data inspect the full scale plots for context and for absorptions and that they examine the feature plots for blending. Users who wish to model the unidentified features should contact us for access to the data, so that the lines can be properly deblended.

## 5 Summary

In 1995, we obtained high spectral resolution observations of the dust-poor comet 122P/de Vico at McDonald Observatory. We have compiled many laboratory studies of molecules thought to be present in the spectra of comets and have used these to identify 12,219 lines in the spectrum of de Vico. In addition, we found 4,055 lines we could not attribute to a particular molecule. We found emission lines of five neutral radicals: 6862 were of C2, 1282 of C3, 1167 of CN, 169 of CH, and 2569 of NH2. We also identified three atomic lines. We observed three ionic species: 129 lines of H2O+, 11 lines of CH+ and 27 lines of CO+. The CO+ can only be seen in the spectrum obtained 100 arcsec tailward, while the H2O+ and CH+ can be seen in both the tail and optocenter spectra.

Our lists of identified and unidentified emission lines are available in digital format from the Planetary Data System Small Bodies Node. In addition, we are making available annotated plots of high resolution spectra of a comet, covering almost the complete optical bandpass. The line lists, coupled with the plots, should prove to be an invaluable tool for future studies of high resolution cometary spectra. Only by first identifying the molecules which are present in a spectrum can the important chemical analyses be performed.

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by NASA Grant NAG5 9003. We are indebted to Dr. Claude Arpigny for encouragement and many helpful discussions. We thank Dr. Eric Bakker for pointers to several of the line lists. We thank Dr. Tony Farnham for a careful reading of the manuscript. We are particularly indebted to the various people who made digital line lists available, either at our requests or as part of a database attached to a paper. These include Drs. Balfour, Brown, Davis, Destombes, Haridass, Jørgensen, Kurucz, Osterbrock, and Ross.

## 6 Figure Captions

Figure 1: A representative spectral order is shown with an expanded y scale in order to demonstrate the detection of weak features. Two spectra are plotted. The bottom, black spectrum, is RV23257, from 4 October 1995. The top, blue spectrum, is RV23201, from 3 October 1995. The blue spectrum is offset vertically for clarity. Marked on the plot are all of the identified and unidentified features in the spectrum.

Figure 2: Spectral order 77 shows many strong emission features but we can not identify the molecule responsible for any of these lines. There are 64 emission lines in this spectral region.

Figure 3: The wavelengths of the detected lines of the various molecules and atoms we detected are plotted. The gaps at the red end for molecules such as C2 are caused by the interorder gaps in our spectra. The wavelengths where we have unidentified lines are also marked.