A.M. Kamchatnov^a, b
^aMoscow Institute of Physics and Technology (National Research University), Institutskii per. 9, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, 141701, Russian Federation
^bInstitute of Spectroscopy, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Fizicheskaya 5, Troitsk, Moscow, 108840, Russian Federation

We present an introduction to the theory of dispersive shock waves in the framework of the approach proposed by Gurevich and Pitaevskii (Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz., Vol. 65, p. 590 (1973) [Sov. Phys. JETP, Vol. 38, p. 291 (1974)]) based on Whitham's theory of modulation of nonlinear waves. We explain how Whitham equations for a periodic solution can be derived for the Korteweg—de Vries equation and outline some elementary methods to solve them. We illustrate this approach with solutions to the main problems discussed by Gurevich and Pitaevskii. We consider a generalization of the theory to systems with weak dissipation and discuss the theory of dispersive shock waves for the Gross—Pitaevskii equation.

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Keywords: soliton, dispersive shock wave, Bose—Einstein condensate, nonlinear optics, Gurevich—Pitaevskii problem, Whitham method
PACS: 03.75.Kk, 03.75.Lm, 05.45.Yv, 42.65.−k, 42.65.Tg, 47.35.Fg, 67.85.Fg (all)
DOI: 10.3367/UFNe.2020.08.038815
URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2021/1/d/
Citation: Kamchatnov A M "Gurevich—Pitaevskii problem and its development" Phys. Usp. 64 (1) (2021)

Received: 21st, July 2020, accepted: 11th, August 2020

Оригинал: Камчатнов А М «Задача Гуревича—Питаевского и её развитие» УФН 191 52–87 (2021); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.2020.08.038815