Non-existence of small-amplitude doubly periodic waves for dispersive equations (Q404418)

The authors study the question of existence of spatially periodic, time-periodic solutions for evolution equations as a fixed point problem, for certain temporal periods. They prove that if a certain estimate applies for the Duhamel integral, then time-periodic solutions cannot be arbitrarily small. This provides a partial analogue in the spatially periodic case of scattering results for dispersive equations on the real line, as scattering implies the non-existence of small-amplitude traveling waves. Furthermore, it also complements small-divisor methods (e.g, the Craig-Wayne-Bourgain method) for proving the existence of small-amplitude time-periodic solutions (again, for frequencies in certain set). The nonexistence result is thus established through the novel combination of small divisor estimates and dispersive smoothing estimates. The examples treated include the Korteweg-de Vries equation and the Kawahara equation.