A semi-periodic initial-value problem for the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili II equation

Abstract

We investigate the Cauchy problem on the cylinder, namely the semi-periodic problem where there is periodicity in the $x$-direction and decay in the $y$-direction, for the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili II equation by the inverse spectral transform method. For initial data with small $L^1$ and $L^2$ norms, assuming the zero mass constraint, this initial-value problem is reduced to a Riemann-Hilbert problem on the boundary of certain infinite strips with shift.