Airy kernel determinant solutions to the KdV equation and integro-differential Painlev\'e equations

Abstract

We study a family of unbounded solutions to the Korteweg-de Vries equation which can be constructed as log-derivatives of deformed Airy kernel Fredholm determinants, and which are connected to an integro-differential version of the second Painlev\'e equation. The initial data of the Korteweg-de Vries solutions are well-defined for $x>0$, but not for $x<0$, where the solutions behave like $\frac{x}{2t}$ as $t\to 0$, and hence would be well-defined as solutions of the cylindrical Korteweg-de Vries equation. We provide uniform asymptotics in $x$ as $t\to 0$; for $x>0$ they involve an integro-differential analogue of the Painlev\'e V equation. A special case of our results yields improved estimates for the {tails} of the narrow wedge solution to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation.