On the well-posedness of Benney's interaction equation of short and long waves (Q1924498)

The authors consider the following initial-value problem \[ i\partial_tu+ \partial^2_xu= \alpha|u|^2u+\beta nu,\;t,x\in\mathbb{R},\;\partial_in= \partial_x(|u|^2),\;u(x,0)=u_0(x),\;n(x,0)=n_0(x). \] Their main concern is the minimal regularity assumptions necessary on the initial data \((u_0,n_0)\) which guarantee that the initial-value problem is locally well-posed. One of the main difficulties in dealing with initial data in a weaker class is making sense of the nonlinear term, which involves the interaction of \(u\) and \(n\). The largest Sobolev space for which each term makes sense is \(H^{1/2}\) up to the present. Thus, to deal with Sobolev spaces of lower index the authors rewrite the nonlinear term in a form with integral and fractional derivatives after eliminating \(n\), which makes possible to obtain commutator estimates. By this idea they prove the local well-posedness for \((u_0,n_0)\in H^s(\mathbb{R})\times L^{1/2}(\mathbb{R})\) with \(0<s<1/2\).