Integrable Nonlinear Evolution Equations on the Half-Line

Abstract:

 A rigorous methodology for the analysis of initial-boundary value problems on the half-line, is applied to the nonlinear §(NLS), to the sine-Gordon (sG) in laboratory coordinates, and to the Korteweg-deVries (KdV) with dominant surface tension. Decaying initial conditions as well as a smooth subset of the boundary values are given, where n=2 for the NLS and the sG and n=3 for the KdV. For the NLS and the KdV equations, the initial condition q(x,0) = q ₀ (x) as well as one and two boundary conditions are given respectively; for the sG equation the initial conditions q(x,0) = q ₀ (x), q _t (x,0) = q ₁ (x), as well as one boundary condition are given. The construction of the solution q(x,t) of any of these problems involves two separate steps: (a) Given decaying initial conditions define the spectral (scattering) functions {a(k),b(k)}. Associated with the smooth functions , define the spectral functions {A(k),B(k)}. Define the function q(x,t) in terms of the solution of a matrix Riemann-Hilbert problem formulated in the complex k-plane and uniquely defined in terms of the spectral functions {a(k),b(k),A(k),B(k)}. Under the assumption that there exist functions such that the spectral functions satisfy a certain global algebraic relation, prove that the function q(x,t) is defined for all , it satisfies the given nonlinear PDE, and furthermore that . (b) Given a subset of the functions as boundary conditions, prove that the above algebraic relation characterizes the unknown part of this set. In general this involves the solution of a nonlinear Volterra integral equation which is shown to have a global solution. For a particular class of boundary conditions, called linearizable, this nonlinear equation can be bypassed and {A(k),B(k)} can be constructed using only the algebraic manipulation of the global relation. For the NLS, the sG, and the KdV, the following particular linearizable cases are solved: , respectively, where χ is a real constant.