Near integrable systems on the line. A case study -- perturbation theory of the defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation (Q1378343)

This paper is concerned with the Cauchy problem \[ iq_t+q_{xx}-2|q|^2q-2\varepsilon|q|^lq=0, \qquad-\infty < x <\infty, \tag{1} \] for perturbations of the integrable focussing NLS equation \[ iq_t+q_{xx}-2|q|^2q=0, \tag{2} \] and the free equation \[ iq_t+q_{xx} = 0.\tag{3} \] Here \(\varepsilon > 0\) and \(l>2\). Let \(U^{\varepsilon}_t(q_0)\) , \(U^{\text{NLS}}_t(q_0)\) and \(U^F_t(q_0)\) denote the solutions at time \(t\) of (1), (2) and (3) respectively with initial data \(q(x,t=0)=q_0(x)\), and \(U^{\text{NLS}}_t(q_0)=U^{\varepsilon=0}_t(q_0)\). The authors are concerned, in particular, with the following problem: Does an operator exist which intertwines the flows of (1) and (3) \[ T \circ U^{\text{NLS}}_t = U^F_t \circ T. \] Based on estimates \(||U^{\varepsilon}_t(q) - U^{\text{NLS}}_t(q)||_{L^{\infty}(dx)}= O(1/t^{1/2+\kappa})\), which they obtain, they give some answers to the problem.