Discrete and Continuous Nonlinear Schrödinger Systems (repost)

Over the past thirty years significant progress has been made in the investigation of nonlinear waves–including “soliton equations”, a class of nonlinear wave equations that arise frequently in such areas as nonlinear optics, fluid dynamics, and statistical physics.

The broad interest in this field can be traced to understanding “solitons” and the associated development of a method of solution termed the inverse scattering transform (IST). The IST technique applies to continuous and discrete nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equations of scalar and vector type. This work presents a detailed mathematical study of the scattering theory, offers soliton solutions, and analyzes both scalar and vector soliton interactions. The authors provide advanced students and researchers with a thorough and self-contained presentation of the IST as applied to nonlinear Schrödinger systems.

In recent years there have been important and far reaching developments in the study of nonlinear waves and a class of nonlinear wave equations which arise frequently in applications. The wide interest in this field comes from the understanding of special waves called ’solitons’ and the associated development of a method of solution to a class of nonlinear wave equations termed the inverse scattering transform (IST). Before these developments, very little was known about the solutions to such ’soliton equations’. The IST technique applies to both continuous and discrete nonlinear Schr_dinger equations of scalar and vector type. Also included is the IST for the Toda lattice and nonlinear ladder network, which are well-known discrete systems. This book presents the detailed mathematical analysis of the scattering theory; soliton solutions are obtained and soliton interactions, both scalar and vector, are analyzed. Much of the material is not available in the previously-published literature.