Important Developments In Soliton Theory

In the last ten to fifteen years there have been many important developments in the theory of integrable equations. This period is marked in particular by the strong impact of soliton theory in many diverse areas of mathematics and physics; for example, algebraic geometry (the solution of the Schottky problem), group theory (the discovery of quantum groups), topology (the connection of Jones polynomials with integrable models), and quantum gravity (the connection of the KdV with matrix models). This is the first book to present a comprehensive overview of these developments. Numbered among the authors are many of the most prominent researchers in the field.

Soliton theory is an important branch of applied mathematics and mathematical physics. An active and productive field of research, it has important applications in fluid mechanics, nonlinear optics, classical and quantum fields theories etc. This book presents a broad view of soliton theory. It gives an expository survey of the most basic ideas and methods, such as physical background, inverse scattering, Backlünd transformations, finite-dimensional completely integrable systems, symmetry, Kac-moody algebra, solitons and differential geometry, numerical analysis for nonlinear waves, and gravitational solitons. Besides the essential points of the theory, several applications are sketched and some recent developments, partly by the authors and their collaborators, are presented.

In the 25 years of its existence Soliton Theory has drastically expanded our understanding of “integrability” and contributed a lot to the reunification of Mathematics and Physics in the range from deep algebraic geometry and modern representation theory to quantum field theory and optical transmission lines.The book is a systematic introduction to the Soliton Theory with an emphasis on its background and algebraic aspects. It is the first one devoted to the general matrix soliton equations, which are of great importance for the foundations and the applications.Differential algebra (local conservation laws, Bäcklund-Darboux transforms), algebraic geometry (theta and Baker functions), and the inverse scattering method (Riemann-Hilbert problem) with well-grounded preliminaries are applied to various equations including principal chiral fields, Heisenberg magnets, Sin-Gordon, and Nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

In this engaging book, the concept of the soliton is traced from the beginning of the last century to modern times with its recent applications.

This volume is a collection of papers presented at a special session on integrable systems and Riemann-Hilbert problems. The goal of the meeting was to foster new research by bringing together experts from different areas. Their contributions to the volume provide a useful portrait of the breadth and depth of integrable systems. Topics covered include discrete Painleve equations, integrable nonlinear partial differential equations, random matrix theory, Bose-Einstein condensation, spectral and inverse spectral theory, and last passage percolation models. In most of these articles, the Riemann-Hilbert problem approach plays a central role, which is powerful both analytically and algebraically. The book is intended for graduate students and researchers interested in integrable systems and its applications.

Mathematics has been behind many of humanity's most significant advances in fields as varied as genome sequencing, medical science, space exploration, and computer technology. But those breakthroughs were yesterday. Where will mathematicians lead us tomorrow and can we help shape that destiny? This book assembles carefully selected articles highlighting and explaining cutting-edge research and scholarship in mathematics. Contents: Preface; Solvability of Quasilinear Elliptic Second Order Differential Equations in Rn without Condition at Infinity; Recent Topics on a Class of Nonlinear Integrodifferential Equations of Physical Significance'; Nonparametric Estimation with Censored Observations; Normalisers of Groups Commensurable with PSL2(Z); Spectral Analysis of a Class of Multigroup Neutron Transport Operators in Slab Geometry; Extremum of a Nonlocal Functional Depending on Higher Order Derivatives of the Unknown Function; On Quantum Conditional Probability Spaces; Index.

Glimpses of Soliton Theory addresses some of the hidden mathematical connections in soliton theory which have been revealed over the last half-century. It aims to convince the reader that, like the mirrors and hidden pockets used by magicians, the underlying algebro-geometric structure of soliton equations provides an elegant and surprisingly simple explanation of something seemingly miraculous. --