Gain of regularity for the KP-I equation (Q932846)

The authors study local smoothing effects of solutions \(u=u(x,y,t)\) to the KP-I equation \((u_t+u_{xxx}+u_x +uu_x)_x-u_{yy}=0\) with \((x,y)\in \mathbb R^2\) and \(t\in \mathbb R\). In studying propagation of singularities, it is natural to consider the bicharacteristics associated with the differential operator. Unlike the KP-II equation, the bicharacteristics for the KP-I equation are not restricted to a half-plane but span all of \(\mathbb R^2\). As a result, singularities may travel in all of \(\mathbb R^2\). However, the authors prove that if the initial datum decays sufficiently fast as \(x\to\infty\) (namely, it is in some anisotropic Sobolev space) and the corresponding solution satisfies some bound condition, the solution possesses a gain of \(x\)-derivatives and mixed derivatives, but no gain in pure \(y\)-derivatives.