Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop, 16-26 July 1990, Dubna, USSR

The Workshop NEEDS '91 brought together, from all over the world, scientists engaged in research on nonlinear systems, either their underlying mathematical properties or their physical applications. Accordingly, many talks were devoted to present methods of solution (like spectral transform) and to the investigation of structural (geometrical and/or algebraic) properties of (continuous and discrete) nonlinear evolution equations. Peculiar nonlinear systems, such as cellular automata, were also discussed. Applications to various fields of physics, namely, quantum field theory, fluid dynamics, general relativity and plasma physics were considered.

This book develops a theory that can be viewed as a noncommutative counterpart of the following topics: dynamical systems in general and integrable systems in particular; Hamiltonian formalism; variational calculus, both in continuous space and discrete. The text is self-contained and includes a large number of exercises. Many different specific models are analysed extensively and motivations for the new notions are provided.

The principal aim of the book is to give a comprehensive account of the variety of approaches to such an important and complex concept as Integrability. Dev- oping mathematical models, physicists often raise the following questions: whether the model obtained is integrable or close in some sense to an integrable one and whether it can be studied in depth analytically. In this book we have tried to c- ate a mathematical framework to address these issues, and we give descriptions of methods and review results. In the Introduction we give a historical account of the birth and development of the theory of integrable equations, focusing on the main issue of the book – the concept of integrability itself. A universal de nition of Integrability is proving to be elusive despite more than 40 years of its development. Often such notions as “- act solvability” or “regular behaviour” of solutions are associated with integrable systems. Unfortunately these notions do not lead to any rigorous mathematical d- inition. A constructive approach could be based upon the study of hidden and rich algebraic or analytic structures associated with integrable equations. The requi- ment of existence of elements of these structures could, in principle, be taken as a de nition for integrability. It is astonishing that the nal result is not sensitive to the choice of the structure taken; eventually we arrive at the same pattern of eq- tions.

NEEDs '92 was held in Dubna, Russia in July 1992. This set of proceedings compiles the lectures and short contributions on the soliton theory and its applications presented during the conference. The topics covered included the most recent results on relevant problems of nonlinear evolution systems such as: Multidimensional Integrable Systems, Geometric and Algebraic Methods, Painleve Property, Lie-Backlund Symmetries, Spectral Methods, Solitons and Coherent Structures, Computational Methods, Quantum Field and String Theories, Nonlinear Optics and Hydrodynamics, Condensed Matter etc. The extent of coverage for these important topics makes this book useful, informative and insighful for the mathematics and theoretical physics community, both the senior researches and those just entering the field.

Exactly one hundred years ago, in 1895, G. de Vries, under the supervision of D. J. Korteweg, defended his thesis on what is now known as the Korteweg-de Vries Equation. They published a joint paper in 1895 in the Philosophical Magazine, entitled `On the change of form of long waves advancing in a rectangular canal, and on a new type of long stationary wave', and, for the next 60 years or so, no other relevant work seemed to have been done. In the 1960s, however, research on this and related equations exploded. There are now some 3100 papers in mathematics and physics that contain a mention of the phrase `Korteweg-de Vries equation' in their title or abstract, and there are thousands more in other areas, such as biology, chemistry, electronics, geology, oceanology, meteorology, etc. And, of course, the KdV equation is only one of what are now called (Liouville) completely integrable systems. The KdV and its relatives continually turn up in situations when one wishes to incorporate nonlinear and dispersive effects into wave-type phenomena. This centenary provides a unique occasion to survey as many different aspects of the KdV and related equations. The KdV equation has depth, subtlety, and a breadth of applications that make it a rarity deserving special attention and exposition.

Many physical phenomena are described by nonlinear evolution equation. Those that are integrable provide various mathematical methods, presented by experts in this tutorial book, to find special analytic solutions to both integrable and partially integrable equations. The direct method to build solutions includes the analysis of singularities à la Painlevé, Lie symmetries leaving the equation invariant, extension of the Hirota method, construction of the nonlinear superposition formula. The main inverse method described here relies on the bi-hamiltonian structure of integrable equations. The book also presents some extension to equations with discrete independent and dependent variables. The different chapters face from different points of view the theory of exact solutions and of the complete integrability of nonlinear evolution equations. Several examples and applications to concrete problems allow the reader to experience directly the power of the different machineries involved.