Similarity structure of wave-collapse (Q1070459)

The authors investigate the cubic Schrödinger equation \[ (CSE)\quad iu_ t+\nabla^ 2u+| u|^ 2u=0 \] as an example of a nonlinear evolution equation admitting solutions which become unbounded within a finite time. In the physics literature such problems of ''blow-up'' or ''wave-collapse'' are investigated by ''virial theory'' or alternatively by similarity methods, the latter being used in this paper. By a local 1- parameter transformation group the radially symmetric 2- and 3- dimensional CSE is reduced to a system of ordinary differential equations containing some parameters. Particular choice of these parameters leads to collapsing similarity solutions. Criteria for self-similar collapse and the nature of the collapsing singularity are then discussed extensively. Numerical calculations are also included, and some results in the physics literature are reviewed critically. Throughout, the arguments are essentially nonrigorous.