Measurement of asymmetrical water waves wake due to an anisotropic bathymetry

Metamaterials have the surprising property of modifying the wave propagation, and more precisely in our investigation, the waves forming the wakes. One example of wakes in metamaterials is the study of Luo et al [1] describing different behavior for the Cerenkov radiation in a photonic crystal. In our case, we consider ship wakes. This domain have received considerable attention over the last decade, even though this specific field of water waves has been studied for almost a century and a half, if we refered to the Lord Kelvin studies.
We show, experimentaly, that ship wakes can become highly asymmetrical when they propagate on an anisotropic metamaterial. In our study, the metamaterial is obtained with a periodic stratified bathymetry which varies at a subwavelength order. More precisely, vertical plates are placed in parallel on the bottom of a water tank, as in [2,3]. The experimental results can be numerically reproduced using a theory based on an anisotropic dispersion relation [3].
[1] C. Luo, M. Ibanescu, S. G. Johnson, and J. D. Joannopoulos, Science 299, 5605, (2003)
[2] C. P. Berraquero, A. Maurel, P. Petitjeans, and V. Pagneux, Physical Review E 88, 051002 (2013)
[3] A. Maurel, J.-J. Marigo, P. Cobelli, P. Petitjeans, and V. Pagneux, Physical Review B 96 (2017)