Multicomplex solitons

Abstract

We discuss integrable extensions of real nonlinear wave equations with multi-soliton solutions, to their bicomplex, quaternionic, coquaternionic and octonionic versions. In particular, we investigate these variants for the local and nonlocal Korteweg-de Vries equation and elaborate on how multi-soliton solutions with various types of novel qualitative behaviour can be constructed. Corresponding to the different multicomplex units in these extensions, real, hyperbolic or imaginary, the wave equations and their solutions exhibit multiple versions of antilinear or PT-symmetries. Utilizing these symmetries forces certain components of the conserved quantities to vanish, so that one may enforce them to be real. We find that symmetrizing the noncommutative equations is equivalent to imposing a PT-symmetry for a newly defined imaginary unit from combinations of imaginary and hyperbolic units in the canonical representation.