The elliptic sinh-Gordon equation in a semi-strip

Abstract

Abstract We study the elliptic sinh-Gordon equation posed in a semi-strip by applying the so-called Fokas method, a generalization of the inverse scattering transform for boundary value problems. Based on the spectral analysis for the Lax pair formulation, we show that the spectral functions can be characterized from the boundary values. We express the solution of the equation in terms of the unique solution of the matrix Riemann–Hilbert problem whose jump matrices are defined by the spectral functions. Moreover, we derive the global algebraic relation that involves the boundary values. In addition, it can be verified that the solution of the elliptic sinh-Gordon equation posed in the semi-strip exists if the spectral functions defined by the boundary values satisfy this global relation.