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Local well-posedness for a system of modified KdV equations in modulation spaces

Analysis of PDEs 2026-03-20 v3

Abstract

In this work, we consider the initial value problem (IVP) for a system of modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) equations \begin{equation} \begin{cases} \partial_t v + \partial_x^3 v+ \partial_x (v w^2) = 0, \hspace{0.98 cm} v(x,0)=\psi(x),\\ \partial_t w + \alpha \partial_x^3 w+\partial_x (v^2 w) = 0,\hspace{0.5 cm} w(x,0)=\phi(x). \end{cases} \end{equation} The main interest is in addressing the well-posedness issues of the IVP when the initial data are considered in the modulation space Ms2,p(R)M_s^{2,p}(\mathbb{R}), p2p\geq 2. In the case when 0<α10<\alpha\ne 1, we derive new trilinear estimates in these spaces and prove that the IVP is locally well-posed for data in Ms2,p(R)M_s^{2,p}(\mathbb{R}) whenever s>141ps> \frac14-\frac{1}{p} and p2p\geq 2. In deriving the trilinear estimate, the fact that the Fourier supports of the solution components vv and ww lie on distinct cubic curves, namely τ=ξ3\tau = \xi^3 and τ=αξ3\tau = \alpha\xi^3, introduces additional difficulties in handling the resonant case. This makes the analysis substantially different from what one encounters in the single-equation setting. To overcome the difficulties arising in the resonant case, it was necessary to impose the more restrictive condition s>141ps> \frac14-\frac{1}{p} on the trilinear estimate, rather than the natural threshold s>1432ps> \frac14-\frac{3}{2p} , which would otherwise yield sharp local well-posedness for s>12s>-\frac12 when p=2p=2.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.12423,
  title  = {Local well-posedness for a system of modified KdV equations in modulation spaces},
  author = {Xavier Carvajal and Fidel Cuba and Mahendra Panthee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.12423},
  year   = {2026}
}

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29 pages