No label defined (Q4501730)

The article is devoted to the memory of the Schwedish mathematical physicist and geometer Albert Victor Bäcklund (1845-1922). It may be also regarded as an admirable overview of geometrical origins of Bäcklund transformations and applications in modern soliton theory. The article starts with classical results for the sine-Gordon equation arising as the reduction of the Bianchi system which describes the hyperbolic surfaces by means of the angle between the asymptotic lines. Then the auto-Bäcklund transformations arise by a simple geometric construction, however, the most important aspects lie in the Bianchi permutability. The motion of pseudospherical surfaces then leads to integrable systems. In particular, the modified Korteweg-de-Vries equation and the Weingarten system for a class of triply orthogonal surfaces are presented. Recalling moreover the Tzitzeica equations and the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the role of the Bäcklund transformations in the soliton theory is eventually clarified. Also, the recent achievements are succintly recalled: the Loewner reduction of the holograph equation of gas dynamics, the works of Konopelchenko and Rogers concerning the infinitesimal Bäcklund transformations and some famous hierarchies of actual integrable systems. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0940.00006].