Integrability: mathematical methods for studying solitary waves theory

Abstract

In recent decades, substantial experimental research efforts have been devoted to linear and nonlinear physical phenomena. In particular, studies of integrable nonlinear equations in solitary waves theory have attracted intensive interest from mathematicians, with the principal goal of fostering the development of new methods, and physicists, who are seeking solutions that represent physical phenomena and to form a bridge between mathematical results and scientific structures. The aim for both groups is to build up our current understanding and facilitate future developments, develop more creative results and create new trends in the rapidly developing field of solitary waves.The notion of the integrability of certain partial differential equations occupies an important role in current and future trends, but a unified rigorous definition of the integrability of differential equations still does not exist. For example, an integrable model in the Painlevé sense may not be integrable in the Lax sense. The Painlevé sense indicates that the solution can be represented as a Laurent series in powers of some function that vanishes on an arbitrary surface with the possibility of truncating the Laurent series at finite powers of this function. The concept of Lax pairs introduces another meaning of the notion of integrability. The Lax pair formulates the integrability of nonlinear equation as the compatibility condition of two linear equations. However, it was shown by many researchers that the necessary integrability conditions are the existence of an infinite series of generalized symmetries or conservation laws for the given equation. The existence of multiple soliton solutions often indicates the integrability of the equation but other tests, such as the Painlevé test or the Lax pair, are necessary to confirm the integrability for any equation.In the context of completely integrable equations, studies are flourishing because these equations are able to describe the real features in a variety of vital areas in science, technology and engineering. In recognition of the importance of solitary waves theory and the underlying concept of integrable equations, a variety of powerful methods have been developed to carry out the required analysis. Examples of such methods which have been advanced are the inverse scattering method, the Hirota bilinear method, the simplified Hirota method, the Bäcklund transformation method, the Darboux transformation, the Pfaffian technique, the Painlevé analysis, the generalized symmetry method, the subsidiary ordinary differential equation method, the coupled amplitude-phase formulation, the sine–cosine method, the sech–tanh method, the mapping and deformation approach and many new other methods.The inverse scattering method, viewed as a nonlinear analogue of the Fourier transform method, is a powerful approach that demonstrates the existence of soliton solutions through intensive computations. At the center of the theory of integrable equations lies the bilinear forms and Hirota's direct method, which can be used to obtain soliton solutions by using exponentials. The Bäcklund transformation method is a useful invariant transformation that transforms one solution into another of a differential equation. The Darboux transformation method is a well known tool in the theory of integrable systems. It is believed that there is a connection between the Bäcklund transformation and the Darboux transformation, but it is as yet not known.Archetypes of integrable equations are the Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation, the modified KdV equation, the sine-Gordon equation, the Schrödinger equation, the Vakhnenko equation, the KdV6 equation, the Burgers equation, the fifth-order Lax equation and many others. These equations yield soliton solutions, multiple soliton solutions, breather solutions, quasi-periodic solutions, kink solutions, homo-clinic solutions and other solutions as well.The couplings of linear and nonlinear equations were recently discovered and subsequently received considerable attention. The concept of couplings forms a new direction for developing innovative construction methods. The recently obtained results in solitary waves theory highlight new approaches for additional creative ideas, promising further achievements and increased progress in this field.We are grateful to all of the authors who accepted our invitation to contribute to this comment section.