On the Cauchy Problem for the Sawada-Kotera Equation: Soliton resolution conjecture, Painlevé transcendents and asymptotic stability

Abstract

We derive long-time asymptotics in different space-time regions for the Sawada-Kotera (SK) equation with admissible data involving continuous spectrum and finite discrete spectrum. Our result proves the soliton resolution conjecture, yields the asymptotics governed by the F-XVIII Painlevé transcendent, and establishes the asymptotic stability of \(N\)-soliton solutions. More importantly, this extends the long-time asymptotic theory to the coexistence of solitons and radiation, whereas previous results were restricted to the purely continuous spectrum. One key ingredient in our argument is a new meromorphic Riemann-Hilbert framework that incorporates the discrete spectrum through complete six-point pole orbits while preserving cofactor analyticity and the singular structure at the spectral origin. A second ingredient is the combination of an orbitwise, region-dependent pole reduction mechanism and the \(\bar{\partial}\)-nonlinear steepest descent method, which allows us to select the solitons contributing in each region and separate them from the continuous radiation. Our framework also resolves the coalescing stationary points at the singular spectral origin through the regular modified SK problem and the Miura map.