Transverse nonlinear instability of solitary waves for some Hamiltonian PDE's (Q2517722)

The authors study the transverse nonlinear instability of solitary waves for some Hamiltonian partial differential equations. The authors first give introduction of the general frame work and their assumptions. Then they present two abstract instability results under the additional assumption of the existence on an unstable mode of the linearized equation. In addition the authors present criteria insuring the validity of the assumptions and in particular a criterion for the existence of unstable eigenmodes. Finally, various examples are given to illustrate the theory presented.