An extended Jacobi elliptic function rational expansion method and its application to (2+1)-dimensional dispersive long wave equation

With the aid of computerized symbolic computation, a new elliptic function rational expansion method is presented by means of a new general ansatz, in which periodic solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations that can be expressed as a finite Laurent series of some of 12 Jacobi elliptic functions, is more powerful than exiting Jacobi elliptic function methods and is very powerful to uniformly construct more new exact periodic solutions in terms of rational formal Jacobi elliptic function solution of nonlinear partial differential equations. As an application of the method, we choose a (2 + 1)-dimensional dispersive long wave equation to illustrate the method. As a result, we can successfully obtain the solutions found by most existing Jacobi elliptic function methods and find other new and more general solutions at the same time. Of course, more shock wave solutions or solitary wave solutions can be gotten at their limit condition. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.