The stability of solitary waves

Abstract

The Korteweg-de Vries equation, which describes the unidirectional propagation of long waves in a wide class of nonlinear dispersive systems, is well known to have solutions representing solitary waves. The present analysis establishes that these solutions are stable, confirming a property that has for a long time been presumed. The demonstration of stability hinges on two nonlinear functionals which for solutions of the Korteweg-de Vries equation are invariant with time: these are introduced in § 2, where it is recalled that Boussinesq recognized their significance in relation to the stability of solitary waves. The principles upon which the stability theory is based are explained in § 3, being supported by a few elementary ideas from functional analysis. A proof that solitary wave solutions are stable is completed in § 4, the most exacting steps of which are accomplished by means of spectral theory. In appendix A a method deriving from the calculus of variations is presented, whereby results needed for the proof of stability may be obtained independently of spectral theory as used in § 4. In appendix B it is shown how the stability analysis may readily be adapted to solitary-wave solutions of the ‘regularized long-wave equation’ that has recently been advocated by Benjamin, Bona & Mahony as an alternative to the Korteweg-de Vries equation. In appendix C a variational principle is demonstrated relating to the exact boundaryvalue problem for solitary waves in water: this is a counterpart to a principle used in the present work (introduced in §2) and offers some prospect of proving the stability of exact solitary waves.