This book describes the remarkable connections that exist between the classical differential geometry of surfaces and modern soliton theory. The authors also explore the extensive body of literature from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by such eminent geometers as Bianchi, Darboux, Backlund, and Eisenhart on transformations of privileged classes of surfaces which leave key geometric properties unchanged. Prominent amongst these are Backlund-Darboux transformations with their remarkable associated nonlinear superposition principles and importance in soliton theory. It is with these transformations and the links they afford between the classical differential geometry of surfaces and the nonlinear equations of soliton theory that the present text is concerned. In this geometric context, solitonic equations arise out of the Gaus-Mainardi-Codazzi equations for various types of surfaces that admit invariance under Backlund-Darboux transformations. This text is appropriate for use at a higher undergraduate or graduate level for applied mathematicians or mathematical physics.

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Bäcklund and Darboux transformations : geometry and modern applications in soliton theory

This work develops the geometry and dynamics of mechanical systems with nonholonomic constraints and symmetry from the perspective of Lagrangian mechanics and with a view to control theoretical applications. The basic methodology is that of geometric mechanics applied to the formulation of Lagrange d'Alembert, generalizing the use of connections and momentum maps associated with a given symmetry group to this case. We begin by formulating the mechanics of nonholonomic systems using an Ehresmann connection to model the constraints, and show how the curvature of this connection enters into Lagrange's equations. Unlike the situation with standard configuration space constraints, the presence of symmetries in the nonholonomic case may or may not lead to conservation laws. However, the momentum map determined by the symmetry group still satisfies a useful differential equation that decouples from the group variables. This momentum equation, which plays an important role in control problems, involves parallel transport operators and is computed explicitly in coordinates. An alternative description using a ``body reference frame'' relates part of the momentum equation to the components of the Euler-Poincar\'{e} equations along those symmetry directions consistent with the constraints. One of the purposes of this paper is to derive this evolution equation for the momentum and to distinguish geometrically and mechanically the cases where it is conserved and those where it is not. An example of the former is a ball or vertical disk rolling on a flat plane and an example of the latter is the snakeboard, a modified version of the skateboard which uses momentum coupling for locomotion generation. We construct a synthesis of the mechanical connection and the Ehresmann connection defining the constraints, obtaining an important new object we call the nonholonomic connection. When the nonholonomic connection is a principal connection for the given symmetry group, we show how to perform Lagrangian reduction in the presence of nonholonomic constraints, generalizing previous results which only held in special cases. Several detailed examples are given to illustrate the theory. September 1994 Revised, March 1995 Revised, June 1995

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Nonholonomic Mechanical Systems with Symmetry

A classification of discrete integrable systems on quad-graphs, i.e. on surface cell decompositions with quadrilateral faces, is given. The notion of integrability laid in the basis of the classification is the three-dimensional consistency. This property yields, among other features, the existence of the discrete zero curvature with a spectral parameter. For all integrable systems of the obtained exhaustive list, the so called three-leg forms are found. This establishes Lagrangian and symplectic structures for these systems, and the connection to discrete systems of the Toda type on arbitrary graphs. Generalizations of these ideas to the three-dimensional integrable systems and to the quantum context are also discussed.

Classification of integrable equations on quad-graphs. The consistency approach

The main purpos e of this chapter is to present a direct and systematic way of finding exact solutions and Backlund transformations of a certain class of nonlinear evolution equations. The nonlinear evolution equations are transformed, by changing the dependent variable(s), into bilinear differential equations of the following special form 
 
$$ F\left( {\frac{\partial }{{\partial t}} - \frac{\partial }{{\partial {t^1}}},\frac{\partial }{{\partial x}} - \frac{\partial }{{\partial {x^1}}}} \right)f(t,x)f({t^1},{x^1}){|_{t = {t^1},x = {x^1}}} = 0 $$ 
 
, which we solve exactly using a kind of perturbational approach.

Direct Methods in Soliton Theory (非線形現象の取扱いとその物理的課題に関する研究会報告)

Variational iteration method for solving Burger's and coupled Burger's equations

Trapezoidal discrete surfaces: geometry and integrability

A classical nonlinear shell membrane system has recently been demonstrated to have underlying integrable structure. Here, a wide class of corresponding parallel membranes is shown to be generated via a Schrodinger equation of Lame type. This class is characterized by the existence of a multiplicity of stress distributions for a given membrane geometry. A variety of viable membrane geometries such as generalized Dupin cyclides are constructed explicitly together with the associated one-parameter families of stress resultants. A Lax pair which encapsulates both the Gauss-Mainardi-Codazzi and constrained equilibrium equations is also recorded.

The Lamé equation in shell membrane theory

It is demonstrated that a class of generalized Dupin cyclides arises naturally out of a classical system of equilibrium equations for shell membranes. This class consists of all families of parallel canal surfaces on which the lines of curvature are planar. Various examples of viable membrane geometries such as particular L-minimal surfaces are presented.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1751-8113/42/40/404016/pdf

On shell membranes of Enneper type: generalized Dupin cyclides

Log-aesthetic curves as similarity geometric analogue of Euler's elasticae

A large class of semi-Hamiltonian systems of hydrodynamic type is interpreted as the equations governing families of critical points of functions obeying the classical linear Darboux equations for conjugate nets.The distinguished role of the Euler-Poisson-Darboux equations and associated Lauricella-type functions is emphasised. In particular, it is shown that the classical g-phase Whitham equations for the KdV and NLS equations are obtained via a g-fold iterated Darboux-type transformation generated by appropriate Lauricella functions.

Wolfgang K. Schief

Papers

Trapezoidal discrete surfaces: geometry and integrability

The Lamé equation in shell membrane theory

On shell membranes of Enneper type: generalized Dupin cyclides

Log-aesthetic curves as similarity geometric analogue of Euler's elasticae

Critical points, Lauricella functions and Whitham-type equations