General $N$-solitons and their dynamics in several nonlocal nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations

Abstract

General $N$-solitons in three recently-proposed nonlocal nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations are presented. These nonlocal equations include the reverse-space, reverse-time, and reverse-space-time nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations, which are nonlocal reductions of the Ablowitz-Kaup-Newell-Segur (AKNS) hierarchy. It is shown that general $N$-solitons in these different equations can be derived from the same Riemann-Hilbert solutions of the AKNS hierarchy, except that symmetry relations on the scattering data are different for these equations. This Riemann-Hilbert framework allows us to identify new types of solitons with novel eigenvalue configurations in the spectral plane. Dynamics of $N$-solitons in these equations is also explored. In all the three nonlocal equations, a generic feature of their solutions is repeated collapsing. In addition, multi-solitons can behave very differently from fundamental solitons and may not correspond to a nonlinear superposition of fundamental solitons.