The revised Riemann–Hilbert approach to the Kaup–Newell equation with a non-vanishing boundary condition: Simple poles and higher-order poles

Abstract

With a non-vanishing boundary condition, we study the Kaup–Newell (KN) equation (or the derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation) using the Riemann–Hilbert approach. Our study yields four types of Nth order solutions of the KN equation that corresponding to simple poles on or not on the ρ circle (ρ related to the non-vanishing boundary condition), and higher-order poles on or not on the ρ circle of the Riemann–Hilbert problem (RHP). We make revisions to the usual RHP by introducing an integral factor that ensures the RHP satisfies the normalization condition. This is important because the Jost solutions go to an integral factor rather than the unit matrix when the spectral parameter goes to infinity. To consider the cases of higher-order poles, we study the parallelization conditions between the Jost solutions without assuming that the potential has compact support, and present the generalizations of residue conditions of the RHP, which play crucial roles in solving the RHP with higher-order poles. We provide explicit closed-form formulae for four types of Nth order solutions, display the explicit first-order and double-pole solitons as examples and study their properties in more detail, including amplitude, width, and exciting collisions.