Subscriber access provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 75, 124001 (2006) [9 Pages]
FULL PAPERS

The Peakon Limits of Soliton Solutions of the Camassa–Holm Equation

+ Affiliations
1Department of Mathematical Physics, Toyama Prefectural University, 5180 Kurokawa, Imizu, Toyama 939-03982Division of Applied Mathematical Science, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamaguchi University, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8611

A method for obtaining peakon limits of multisoliton solutions of the Camassa–Holm equation is proposed and used to recover the peakon and two-peakon limits of the solitary wave and two-soliton solution, respectively. The limiting procedure is based on a novel representation of the soliton solutions – called PQ -decomposition – that is introduced in the study. The results shed light on the interaction dynamics of the two-soliton: it is shown that any single-crested collision eventually breaks down into a double-humped soliton as we proceed to the peakon limit. A criterion is obtained that discriminates between this dynamical behaviour of the two-soliton solutions and, by extension, determines the breakdown point in the interaction. This can be viewed as a direct analogue of the classical result for the Korteweg–de Vries equation whereby a critical amplitude-ratio dictates whether a two-soliton forms a single- or double-peaked wave at collision.

©2006 The Physical Society of Japan

References