Nonlinear stability of solitary waves of a generalized Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation (Q1356103)

The authors study the generalized Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation \[ [u_t+ (u^{m+1})_x+ u_{xxx}]_x= \sigma^2u_{yy}, \] where \((x,y)\) are in \(\mathbb{R}^2\), or in a cube \(Q\subset\mathbb{R}^2\), and \(u\) satisfies periodic boundary conditions. They assume that \(0<m<4\) is the quotient of an even and an odd integer. In the first part of the paper, the authors prove the existence of a solitary wave solution, i.e. a solution of the form \(u(t,x,y)= \varphi(x-\omega t,y)\), \(\omega>0\). Their proof is based on a constrained minimization technique and uses the concentration-compactness lemma of Lions. In the second part, they show that solitary waves are stable in the case \(0<m<4/3\). This is proved by contradiction and certain estimates of functionals which involve second derivatives of the functional \[ d(\omega)= \int{1\over 2} [(D^{-1}_x\varphi y)^2+ u^2_x+\omega u^2]-{1\over m+2} u^{m+2}dx dy. \] A similar result has recently been proved independently by \textit{A. de Bouard} and \textit{J. C. Saut} [Remarks on the stability of generalized KP solitary waves, Contemp. Math. 200, 75-84 (1996; Zbl 0863.35095)].