On soliton structure of isospectral Vakhnenko equation: WKI-eigenvalue problem

Abstract

In this Letter, an inverse scattering method is developed for the isospectral Vakhnenko equation, and the general N-solution is presented. Using this technique, a typical self-confined solitary wave hereafter named soliton, satisfying some vanishing boundary conditions is elicited. The detail on the scattering behavior of such structures including their phase shifts is outlined. This method is presented to be arguably more simple, tractable and straightforward than that recently investigated by Vakhnenko and Parkes [V.O. Vakhnenko, E.J. Parkes, Chaos Solitons Fractals 13 (2002) 1819] while solving the same equation. As a result, it is shown that when two single soliton solutions with ‘similar’ or ‘dissimilar’ amplitudes collide, there may be two types of features depending on the ratio of the two eigenvalues involved. It is then suggested an existence of some critical value for the ratio of the two eigenvalues at which the collision process changes its characteristic features.