The inverse scattering transform for the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation with non-zero boundary conditions at infinity is presented, including the determination of the analyticity of the scattering eigenfunctions, the introduction of the appropriate Riemann surface and uniformization variable, the symmetries, discrete spectrum, asymptotics, trace formulae and the so-called theta condition, and the formulation of the inverse problem in terms of a Riemann-Hilbert problem. In addition, the general behavior of the soliton solutions is discussed, as well as the reductions to all special cases previously discussed in the literature.

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In dynamical systems with intrinsic chaos, many degrees of freedom, and many conserved quantities, a fundamental issue is the statistical relevance of suitable subsets of these conserved quantities in appropriate regimes. The Galerkin truncation of the Burgers-Hopf equation has been introduced recently as a prototype model with solutions exhibiting intrinsic stochasticity and a wide range of correlation scaling behavior that can be predicted successfully by simple scaling arguments. Here it is established that the truncated Burgers-Hopf model is a Hamiltonian system with Hamiltonian given by the integral of the third power. This additional conserved quantity, beyond the energy, has been ignored in previous statistical mechanics studies of this equation. Thus, the question arises of the statistical significance of the Hamiltonian beyond that of the energy. First, an appropriate statistical theory is developed that includes both the energy and Hamiltonian. Then a convergent Monte Carlo algorithm is developed for computing equilibrium statistical distributions. The probability distribution of the Hamiltonian on a microcanonical energy surface is studied through the Monte-Carlo algorithm and leads to the concept of statistically relevant and irrelevant values for the Hamiltonian. Empirical numerical estimates and simple analysis are combined to demonstrate that the statistically relevant values of the Hamiltonian have vanishingly small measure as the number of degrees of freedom increases with fixed mean energy. The predictions of the theory for relevant and irrelevant values for the Hamiltonian are confirmed through systematic numerical simulations. For statistically relevant values of the Hamiltonian, these simulations show a surprising spectral tilt rather than equipartition of energy. This spectral tilt is predicted and confirmed independently by Monte Carlo simulations based on equilibrium statistical mechanics together with a heuristic formula for the tilt. On the other hand, the theoretically predicted correlation scaling law is satisfied both for statistically relevant and irrelevant values of the Hamiltonian with excellent accuracy. The results established here for the Burgers-Hopf model are a prototype for similar issues with significant practical importance in much more complex geophysical applications. Several interesting mathematical problems suggested by this study are mentioned in the final section.

We present an extension of the Melnikov method which can be used for ascertaining the existence of homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits with many pulses in a class of near-integrable systems. The Melnikov function in this situation is the sum of the usual Melnikov functions evaluated with some appropriate phase delays. We show that a nonfolding condition which involves the logarithmic derivative of the Melnikov function must be satisfied in addition to the usual transversality conditions in order for homoclinic orbits with more than one pulse to exist.

This paper presents a new unified theory of orbits homoclinic to resonance bands in a class of near-integrable dissipative systems. It describes three sets of conditions, each of which implies the existence of homoclinic or heteroclinic orbits that connect equilibria or periodic orbits in a resonance band. These homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits are born under a given small dissipative perturbation out of a family of heteroclinic orbits that connect pairs of points on a circle of equilibria in the phase space of the nearby integrable system. The result is a constructive method that may be used to ascertain the existence of orbits homoclinic to objects in a resonance band, as well as to determine their precise shape, asymptotic behavior, and bifurcations in a given example. The method is a combination of the Melnikov method and geometric singular perturbation theory for ordinary differential equations.