Solitons, Bäcklund transformation and Lax pair for a (2+1)-dimensional B-type Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation in the fluid/plasma mechanics

Abstract

Under investigation in this paper is a (2[Formula: see text]+[Formula: see text]1)-dimensional B-type Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation for the shallow water wave in a fluid or electrostatic wave potential in a plasma. Bilinear form, Bäcklund transformation and Lax pair are derived based on the binary Bell polynomials. Multi-soliton solutions are constructed via the Hirota’s method. Propagation and interaction of the solitons are illustrated graphically: (i) Through the asymptotic analysis, elastic and inelastic interactions between the two solitons are discussed analytically and graphically, respectively. The elastic interaction, amplitudes, velocities and shapes of the two solitons remain unchanged except for a phase shift. However, in the area of the inelastic interaction, amplitudes of the two solitons have a linear superposition. (ii) Elastic interactions among the three solitons indicate that the properties of the elastic interactions among the three solitons are similar to those between the two solitons. Moreover, oblique and overtaking interactions between the two solitons are displayed. Oblique interactions among the three solitons and interactions among the two parallel solitons and a single one are presented as well. (iii) Inelastic–elastic interactions imply that the interaction between the inelastic region and another one is elastic.