The Initial Value Problem

Abstract

It is not easy to see how a uniform or nearly uniform wave train can realistically emerge from some general initial condition or from a realistic forcing unless the initial condition or the forcing is periodic. That turns out not to be the case, and the ideas we have so far developed about group velocity and energy propagation turn out to be invaluable in getting to the heart of the general question of wave signal propagation. Indeed, it is the very dispersive nature of the wave physics (i.e., the dependence of the phase speed on the wave number) that is responsible for the emergence of locally nearly periodic solutions. This can be seen by examining the solution to the general initial value problem. This was first done by Cauchy in 1816. It was also solved at the same time by Poisson. The problem was considered so difficult at that time that the solution was in response to a prize offering of the Paris Academie (French Academy of Sciences). Now it is a classroom exercise.