The Cauchy problem for the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili–I equation without the zero mass constraint (Q4238797)

The authors develop a rigorous analysis of the Cauchy problem for the so-called Kadomtsev - Petviashvili equation of type I, \[ \left( q_{t}-6qq_{x}+q_{xxx}\right) _{x}=3q_{yy},\qquad q(x,y,0)=q_{0}(x,y). \tag{1} \] It is assumed that the initial function \(q_{0}(x,y)\) is small enough, satisfying the Schwartz condition, \[ \int_{\mathbb{R}^{2}}dy dp\left( 1+p^{2}\right) | \widetilde{q}_{0}(p,y)| \ll 1,\tag{2} \] where \(\widetilde{q}_{0}(p,y)\) is the Fourier transform of the function \( q_{0}(x,y)\) in the variable \(x\). However, on the contrary to what is usually assumed, the present work does \text{not} assume that the so-called ``zero-mass'' condition, \[ \int_{\mathbb{R}^{2}}dx dy q_{0}(x,y)=0, \] holds. Without the latter condition, many analytical estimates necessary for the proof of the existence and uniqueness of a solution to the corresponding Cauchy problem are much harder to obtain. In this work, the analysis is based on the inverse scattering transform, which is a well-known technique applicable to the exactly integrable equation (1). Technically, the inverse scattering transform for this equation amounts to solving a nonlocal Riemann-Hilbert problem for a sectionally analytical function, representing the corresponding scattering data. It is necessary to stress that the authors consider only the case when the initial configuration does not contain two-dimensional solitons (the so-called lumps), as the lump does not satisfy the condition (2) (it is, however, conjectured that the proof can be extended to the case when the lumps are present). The main result of the work is a rigorous proof of the existence, uniqueness, and smoothness of the solution to the Cauchy problem for all the values of \(t>0\). A number of additional rigorous bounds on the solution are also obtained which, essentially, imply that the solution's amplitude decays as \(O(1/t)\) at \( t\rightarrow \infty \).