Classification of KPI lumps

Abstract

Abstract A large family of nonsingular rational solutions of the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) I equation are investigated. These solutions are constructed via the Gramian method and are identified as points in a complex Grassmannian. Each solution is a traveling wave moving with a uniform background velocity but have multiple peaks which evolve at a slower time scale in the co-moving frame. For large times, these peaks separate and form well-defined wave patterns in the xy-plane. The pattern formation are described by the roots of well-known polynomials arising in the study of rational solutions of Painlevé II and IV equations. This family of solutions are shown to be described by the classical Schur functions associated with partitions of integers and irreducible representations of the symmetric group of N objects. It is then shown that there exists a one-to-one correspondence between the KPI rational solutions considered in this article and partitions of a positive integer N.