Well-posedness of the Green-Naghdi and Boussinesq-Peregrine systems

Abstract: In this paper we address the Cauchy problem for two systems modeling the propagation of long gravity waves in a layer of homogeneous, incompressible and inviscid fluid delimited above by a free surface, and below by a non-necessarily flat rigid bottom. Concerning the Green-Naghdi system, we improve the result of Alvarez-Samaniego and Lannes (Invent. Math., 2008) in the sense that much less regular data are allowed, and no loss of derivatives is involved. Concerning the Boussinesq-Peregrine system, we improve the lower bound on the time of existence provided by M{\'e}sognon-Gireau (Adv. Differential Equations, 2017). The main ingredient is a physically motivated change of unknowns revealing the quasilinear structure of the systems, from which energy methods are implemented.