Gibbs phenomenon for dispersive PDEs

Gino Biondini, Thomas Trogdon

Published 2014-11-22Version 1

We investigate the Cauchy problem for linear, constant-coefficient evolution PDEs on the real line with discontinuous initial conditions (ICs). First, we establish sufficient conditions for any given order of differentiability of the solution for positive times. Importantly, these conditions allow for jump discontinuities in the IC. Second, we characterize the small-time behavior of the solution near such discontinuities, and we show that the leading-order solution near a discontinuity is given by a similarity solution expressed in terms of special functions which are generalizations of the classical special functions. Third, we present an efficient numerical method for the accurate evaluation of these special functions. Finally, we show that the leading-order behavior of the solution of dispersive PDEs near a discontinuity of the ICs is characterized by Gibbs-type oscillations, and we prove that, asymptotically, the overshoot of the solution near the discontinuity coincides exactly with the Wilbraham--Gibbs constant.