Uniqueness of lump solutions of KP-I equation

Abstract

The KP-I equation has family of solutions which decay to zero at space infinity. One of these solutions is the classical lump solution. This is a traveling wave, and the KP-I equation in this case reduces to the Boussinesq equation. In this paper we classify the lump type solutions of the Boussinesq equation. Using a robust inverse scattering transform developed by Bilman-Miller, we show that the lump type solutions are rational and their tau function has to be a polynomial of degree $k(k+1)$. In particular, this implies that the lump solution is the unique ground state of the KP-I equation (as conjectured by Klein and Saut in \cite{Klein0}). Our result generalizes a theorem by Airault-McKean-Moser on the classification of rational solutions for the KdV equation.