Integrable and non-integrable equations with peakons

Abstract

We consider a one-parameter family of non-evolutionary partial differential equations which includes the integrable Camassa-Holm equation and a new equation first isolated by Degasperis and Procesi. A Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulation is presented for the whole family of equations, and we discuss how this fits into a bi-Hamiltonian framework in the integrable cases. The Hamiltonian dynamics of peakons and some other special finite-dimensional reductions are also described.