Long-time asymptotics for the integrable nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equation

Abstract

We study the initial value problem for the integrable nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger (NNLS) equation \[ iq_{t}(x,t)+q_{xx}(x,t)+2σq^{2}(x,t)\bar{q}(-x,t)=0 \] with decaying (as $x\to\pm\infty$) boundary conditions. The main aim is to describe the long-time behavior of the solution of this problem. To do this, we adapt the nonlinear steepest-decent method \cite{DZ} to the study of the Riemann-Hilbert problem associated with the NNLS equation. Our main result is that, in contrast to the local NLS equation, where the main asymptotic term (in the solitonless case) decays to $0$ as $O(t^{-1/2})$ along any ray $x/t=const$, the power decay rate in the case of the NNLS depends, in general, on $x/t$, and can be expressed in terms of the spectral functions associated with the initial data.