A dressing method in mathematical physics. (Q885894)

The term ``dressing'' generally implies a construction that contains a transformation from a simpler state to a more advanced state of a system. In particular cases, dressing transformations are realized in terms of Bäcklund transformations acting in the solution space of nonlinear equations or Darboux transformations acting in the solution space of associated linear problems. Another aspect of the dressing concept is largely analytic and based on Riemann-Hilbert problems and the \(\bar \partial \) formulism. The book collects the authors' works over more than 15 years, and comprises various dressing theories from Zakharov and Shabat's early works to the recent analytic theories of the local and nonlocal Riemann-Hilbert problems and the \(\bar \partial\) problem. It provides new insight into this significant research area of great importance. The book contains ten chapters. Chapter 1 gives the introduction of some mathematical notions used throughout the book. Chapters 2--5 are devoted to the dressing technology and its application to Darboux transformations using factorization of differential and difference operators. The resulting elementary, binary and compound elementary Darboux transformations are applied to Abelian, non-Abelian and operator Zakharov-Shabat problems to present potentials such as solitons, positons, finite-gap solutions and multikink solutions. Chapter 6 talks about applications of the dressing method to linear problems of quantum and classical mechanics, thereby exemplifying the inverse influence of the nonlinear theory on the linear one. Chapter 7 gives connections between the dressing approach and another important direct method -- the Hirota formalism. The last three chapters deal with a realization of the dressing method in terms of complex analysis, closely following the Zakharov-Shabat ideas. Included are the local and nonlocal Riemann-Hilbert problems and the \(\bar \partial \) problem, which aims to solve the Cauchy problem and to find localized solutions. All those describe an essential part of soliton analytic theory. The authors analyze a vast range of illustrative examples, including the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the modified nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the modified Korteweg-de Vries equation, the sine-Gordon equation, the Benjamin-Ono equation and the modified Manakov equation in \(1+1\) dimensions and the Boiti-Leon-Manna-Pempinelli equation, the Boiti-Leon-Pempinelli equation, the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili I and II equations, the Davey-Stewartson I and II equations in \(2+1\) dimensions. The book provides a good list of 480 references devoted to the main subjects. Within the text, a pretty sufficient ``linear experience'' of readers is exploited, with special attentions to algebraic aspects of primary mathematical constructions and to practical rules of generating new solutions. The book can be of very great use to graduate students and professional mathematicians and physicists. In many of the topics it treats, it is unique, up-to-date, and comprehensive. It provides a good introduction to the dressing method, and it is definitely a good job.