Symmetry reductions, dynamical behavior and exact explicit solutions to a class of nonlinear shallow water wave equation (Q2301843)

The authors carry out a qualitative study for the following \textit{nonlinear shallow water wave equation} in $\mathbb{R}^2$: \[ u_t-u_{xxt}+a_1\,u\cdot u_x +a_2\,u_x\cdot u_{xx}-u\cdot u_{xxx} = 0,\tag{$\star$} \] where $u = u(x,t):\mathbb{R}^2\to\mathbb{R}$ and $a_1,\,a_2\in\mathbb{R}$ are fixed parameters. As pointed out in the Introduction, equation $(\star)$ appears in several models of fluid dynamics and environmental science (for example, the choice $a_1 = 3$ and $a_2 = -2$ gives the Camassa-Holm equation, which models shallow water waves with non-hydrostatic pressure and a water layer on a horizontal bed). For this reason, the knowledge of exact solutions for this equation is surely of interest. The main contributions in this manuscript are essentially the following ones. \begin{itemize} \item[1.] By applying a Lie symmetry analysis, the authors prove that the semigroup of transformations in $\mathbb{R}^3 = \mathbb{R}^2_{x,t}\times\mathbb{R}_u$ \begin{align*} g_1^\varepsilon(x,t,u) &:= (x+\varepsilon,t,u),\\ g_2^\varepsilon(x,t,u) &:= (x,t+\varepsilon,u),\\ g_3^\varepsilon(x,t,u) &:= (x,te^{\varepsilon},ue^{-\varepsilon}), \end{align*} are Lie symmetries for the equation $(\star)$; as a consequence, if $u = u(x,t)$ is a solution of this equation, the same is true of \begin{align*} &u_1(x,t) := u_1(x-\varepsilon,t),\quad u_2(x,t) = u(x,t-\varepsilon),\quad \text{and} \\ &u(x,t) = e^{-\varepsilon}u(x,te^{-\varepsilon}). \end{align*} \item[2.] By making use of a traveling wave transform, the authors show that equation $(\star)$ can be reduced to the planar dynamical system \[ \begin{cases} u'(\xi) = y(\xi), \\ y'(\xi) = \frac{-(a_2+1)y^2(\xi)-a_1u^2(\xi)+2cu(\xi)}{2(c-u(\xi))}, \end{cases}\tag{S} \] where $u = u(\xi),\, \xi = x-c\,t$ and $c$ is the propagating velocity. They compute the first integral $H = H(u,y)$ of (S). Furthermore, using the symbol calculation software MAPLE, all possible bifurcations and phase portraits of (S) in the parametric space are computed and plotted. For example, it is shown that for $c > 0$ and $a_1 > 1$, system (S) always has two equilibrium points, where $A_1=(0,0)$ is a saddle point and $A_2 = (a_1,0)$ is a center point. Finally, with the explicit expression of $H$ at hand, the authors determine the exact expression of the traveling wave solutions for $(\star)$. \item[3.] By combining the Lie symmetries for the equation $(\star)$ obtained in 1. with a standard power series method, the authors derive the exact and explicit solutions of $(\star)$ taking the following form \[ u(x,t) = \frac{1}{t}f\big(x-\log(t)\big). \] \end{itemize}