Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2005/ii/paper-3/31a/c/solution

Put . The Lax pair becomes , , with
Equality of mixed derivatives, using invertibility, gives the zero-curvature condition . The terms quadratic in cancel. The terms linear in cancel because , and commutes with . For the constant term, the identities
cancel the differentiated term, leaving . Multiplying by proves
Once is known, its time dependence enters through the explicit exponential conjugation. The boundary relation and normalization form a linear problem for , and reconstructs the nonlinear solution. This is the requested linearization. Its disadvantage as an initial-value method is that it does not itself determine from a prescribed . The inverse scattering transform supplies that direct-scattering step, including any discrete spectral data and their pole conditions, before reconstruction. Solvability cannot be inferred merely from writing an arbitrary jump.

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