Soliton solutions associated with a class of third-order ordinary linear differential operators

Explicit solutions to the related integrable nonlinear evolution equations are constructed by solving the inverse scattering problem in the reflectionless case for the third-order differential equation $d^3\psi/dx^3+Q\,d\psi/dx+P\psi =k^3\psi,$ where $Q$ and $P$ are the potentials in the Schwartz class and $k^3$ is the spectral parameter. The input data set used to solve the relevant inverse problem consists of the bound-state poles of a transmission coefficient and the corresponding bound-state dependency constants. Using the time-evolved dependency constants, explicit solutions to the related integrable evolution equations are obtained. In the special cases of the Sawada--Kotera equation and the modified bad Boussinesq equation, the method presented here explains the physical origin of the constants appearing in the relevant $\mathbf N$-soliton solutions algebraically constructed, but without any physical insight, by the bilinear method of Hirota.