This dissertation revolves around various mathematical aspects of nonlinear wave motion in viscoelasticity and free surface flows. The introduction is devoted to the physical derivation of the stress-strain constitutive relations from the first principles of Newtonian mechanics and is accessible to a broad audience. This derivation is not necessary for the analysis carried out in the rest of the thesis, however, is very useful to connect the different-looking partial differential equations (PDEs) investigated in each subsequent chapter. In the second chapter we investigate a multi-dimensional scalar wave equation with memory for the motion of a viscoelastic material described by the most general linear constitutive law between the stress, strain and their rates of change. The model equation is rewritten as a system of first-order linear PDEs with relaxation and the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem is established. In the third chapter we consider the Euler equations describing the evolution of a perfect, incompressible, irrotational fluid with a free surface. We focus on the Hamiltonian description of surface waves and obtain a recursion relation which allows to expand the Hamiltonian in powers of wave steepness valid to arbitrary order and in any dimension. In the case of pure gravity waves in a two-dimensional flow there exists a symplectic coordinate transformation that eliminates all cubic terms and puts the Hamiltonian in a Birkhoff normal form up to order four due to the unexpected cancellation of the coefficients of all fourth order non-generic resonant terms. We explain how to obtain higher-order vanishing coefficients. Finally, using the properties of the expansion kernels we derive a set of nonlinear evolution equations for unidirectional gravity waves propagating on the surface of an ideal fluid of infinite depth and show that they admit an exact traveling wave solution expressed in terms of Lambert’s W-function. The only other known deep fluid surface waves are the Gerstner and Stokes waves, with the former being exact but rotational whereas the latter being approximate and irrotational. Our results yield a wave that is both exact and irrotational, however, unlike Gerstner and Stokes waves, it is complex-valued.

On étudie les propriétés de rigidité symplectique des difféomorphismes hamiltoniens en dimension finie et en dimension infinie. En dimension finie, les outils principaux qu'on utilise sont les fonctions génératrices et les capacités symplectiques. En dimension infinie on regarde les flots des équations en dérivées partielles (EDPs) hamiltoniennes et, en particulier, les flots qui peuvent être approchés uniformément par des flots hamiltoniens de dimension finie.Dans la première partie de la thèse on étudie les sélecteurs d'action définies à partir des fonctions génératrices et on construit des invariants hamiltoniens pour les sous-ensembles de $R^{2m}times T^*T^k$. Cela nous permet de démontrer un théorème non-squeezing coisotrope pour les difféomorphismes hamiltoniens à support compact de $R^{2n}$. On montre à continuation que cette propriété apparaisse dans certains cas non compacts. Finalement, on explique comment ce résultat donne aussi l'information sur le problème de rigidité symplectique en dimension intermédiaire. Encore en dimension finie, on démontre qu'on peut utiliser le théorème du chameau symplectique pour produire des sous-ensembles invariants compacts dans des surfaces d'energie.Dans la deuxième partie on étudie les propriétés de rigidité symplectique des flots des EDPs hamiltoniennes. On se place dans le contexte introduit par Kuksin et on étudie une classe particulière de EDPs semi-linéaires qui peuvent être approchées par flots hamiltoniens de dimension finie. D'abord on donne une nouvelle construction de capacité symplectique en dimension infinie à partir des capacités de Viterbo. Puis on démontre l'analogue de la rigidité intermédiaire pour certaines EDPs hamiltoniennes. Cette classe inclue l'équation d'ondes en dimension 1 avec une non-linéarité bornée, comme par exemple l'équation de Sine-Gordon. Dans la dernière partie de la thèse on s'intéresse à un analogue de la conjecture d'Arnold pour l'équation de Schrödinger périodique avec une non linéarité de convolution. / We study symplectic rigidity properties in both finite and infinite dimension. In finite dimension, the main tools that we use are generating functions and symplectic capacities. In infinite dimension we study flows of Hamiltonian partial differential equations (PDEs) and, in particular, flows which can be uniformly approximated by finite dimensional Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms.In the first part of this thesis we study the action selectors defined from generating functions and we build Hamiltonian invariants for subsets of $R^{2m}times T^*T^k$. This allows us to prove a coisotropic non-squeezing theorem for compactly supported Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of $R^{2n}$. We then extend this result to some non-compact settings. Finally we explain how this result can give information about the middle dimensional symplectic rigidity problem. Still in finite dimensions, we show that it is possible to use the symplectic camel theorem to create energy surfaces with compact invariant subsets.In the second part of the thesis we study symplectic rigidity properties of flows of Hamiltonian PDEs. We work in the context introduced by Kuksin and study a particular class of semi-linear Hamiltonian PDEs that can be approximated by finite dimensional Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms. We first give a new construction of an infinite dimensional capacity using Viterbo's capacities. The main result of this part is the proof of the analogue of the middle dimensional rigidity for certain types of Hamiltonian PDEs. These include nonlinear string equations with bounded nonlinearity such as the Sine-Gordon equation. In the final part of this thesis we study an analogue of Arnold's conjecture for the periodic Schrödinger equations with a convolution nonlinearity.