PROPERTIES OF SOLUTIONS OF THE KADOMTSEV-PETVIASHVILI-I EQUATION

The Kadomtsev-Petviashvili I (KPI) equation is considered as a useful laboratory for experimenting with new theoretical tools able to handle the specific features of integrable models in 2+1 dimensions. The linearized version of the KPI equation is first considered by solving the initial value problem for different classes of initial data. Properties of the solutions in different cases are analyzed in details. The obtained results are used as a guideline for studying the properties of the solution u(t,x,y) of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili I (KPI) equation with given initial data u(0,x,y) belonging to the Schwartz space. The spectral theory associated to KPI is studied in the space of the Fourier transform of the solutions. The variables p={p(1),p(2)} of the Fourier space are shown to be the most convenient spectral variables to use for spectral data. Spectral data are shown to decay rapidly at large p but to be discontinuous at p=0. Direct and inverse problems are solved with special attention to the behavior of all the quantities involved in the neighborhood of t=0 and p=0. It is shown in particular that the solution u(t,x,y) has a time derivative discontinuous at t=0 and that at any t not equal 0 it does not belong to the Schwartz space no matter how small in norm and rapidly decaying at large distances the initial data are chosen.