Alber, M., R. Camassa, Y. Fedorov, D. Holm and J. E. Marsden
The main results of the present paper are twofold. First, we exhibit some of the special features of integrable PDE's that admit piecewise smooth weak solutions, which make them different from equations whose solutions are globally meromorphic, such as the KdV equation. Second, we blend the techniques of algebraic geometry and weak solutions of PDE's to gain further insight into, and explicit formulas for, piecewise-smooth finite-gap solutions.
The basic technique used to achieve these aims is rather different from earlier papers dealing with peaked solutions. First, profiles of the finite-gap piecewise smooth solutions are linked to certain finite dimensional billiard dynamical systems and ellipsoidal billiards. Second, after reducing the solution of certain finite dimensional Hamiltonian systems on Riemann surfaces to the solution of a nonstandard Jacobi inversion problem, this is resolved by introducing new parametrizations.
Amongst other natural consequences of the algebraic-geometric approach, we find finite dimensional integrable Hamiltonian dynamical systems describing the motion of peaks in the finite-gap as well as the limiting (soliton) cases, and solve them exactly. The dynamics of the peaks is also obtained by using Jacobi inversion problems. Finally, we relate our method to the shock wave approach for weak solutions of wave equations by determining jump conditions at the peak location.