The 3D critical Zakharov--Kuznetsov equation: blow-up and soliton dynamics

Abstract

We study the full three-dimensional dynamics of the $L^2$-critical Zakharov-Kuznetsov equation with the fractional nonlinearity $|u|^{4/3}u$, equivalently $u^{7/3}$ for real-valued functions. This equation is a higher-dimensional extension of the generalized Korteweg-de Vries equation. In the critical setting solutions to this 3D ZK equation may blow up in finite time or exhibit global time dynamics. The novelties of this work is to treat a non-integer power and to study the dynamics of solutions in a higher dimension. We first review the finite time blow-up in 2D critical ZK, then do a formal analysis of the slightly mass-supercritical blow-up dynamics, deriving the corrections to the blow-up rate and profile for the critical ZK equation in any dimension. We then perform a computational study of solutions, utilizing full 3D numerical simulations. In particular, we use a Fourier pseudospectral discretization and an integrating factor fourth-order Runge-Kutta method on a full three-dimensional grid. A multi-GPU implementation makes it possible to follow blow-up solutions in a full 3D setting. We examine perturbations of the ground state, Gaussian data, and nonsymmetric two-bump configurations. The computations show dispersive and concentrating regimes, in both cases with radiation emitted in a conic-type region opposite to the direction of propagation and convergence of the concentrating core toward a rescaled ground-state profile. The two-bump experiments also demonstrate that total mass alone does not determine the blow-up dynamics. We discuss the numerical evidence for the predicted blow-up rate and identify the pre-asymptotic and resolution limitations that remain near the blow-up time.