Abstract
Experimental results of the evolution in space-time of high amplitude pulses in the surface wave mode are presented. In the linear regime, the pulse evolves into a wavepacket with an Airy like profile. At large amplitudes, a qualitatively similar wavepacket evolves. However, spectral analysis of these profiles shows that the high frequency components of the wave packet have grown in amplitude. This growth is taken to be indicative of weak nonlinear coupling among the wavepacket constituents.