Special solutions of bi-Riccati delay-differential equations (Q1743731)

The paper applies techniques used in the theory of integrable nonlinear PDEs to differential equations with deviating argument, which also have an infinite-dimensional state space. Equations for a complex-valued function \(u\) of one complex variable \(z\) are considered. They take the general form \(U^T(z)X(z)\bar U(z) = 0\), with \( X(z) \in \mathbb C^{4\times 4}, \, U(z) = (1, u, u^2,\frac{du}{dz})(z)\), and \(\bar U(z) = U(z + h)\) with some \(h \in \mathbb C\). Three concrete equations from this general class are motivated, and special solutions are constructed from Weierstraß \(\wp\)- and \( \zeta\)-functions for the first equation, and from Jacobi elliptic functions for the other two ones. The Hirota bilinear method (with the Ansatz \(u(z) = \frac{G(z)}{F(z)}\), and perturbation expansion around a nonzero constant solution) is then shown to yield \(N\)-soliton type solutions for the last two of the three equations.