Exact Boundary Controllability of the Korteweg--de Vries Equation (Q4253000)

Exact boundary controllability of the KdV equation \[ u_t+ u_x+ uu_x+ u_{xxx}= 0\quad\text{on }(\alpha, \beta) \] with control inputs \(u(\alpha, t)= h_1(t)\), \(u(\beta, t)= h_2(t)\), \(u_x(\beta, t)= h_3(t)\) is considered. Writing the system in the abstract form \[ {dy\over dt}= Ay+ F(y)+ Bh \] and applying a fixed point argument gives the controllability. However, the main difficulty is the nonlinear term \(uu_x\) and the trace operator \(B\), since both lose regularity. By extending the equation to the entire real line from \((\alpha, \beta)\), the required regularity is shown to be provided by the regularizing effect of the linearized system, using a subtle a priori inequality on a certain tempered space of distributions.