Soliton asymptotics of solutions of the sine-gordon equation

An asymptotic analysis of the Marchenko integral equation for the sine-Gordon equation is presented. The results are used for a construction of soliton asymptotics of decreasing and some non-decreasing solutions of the sine-Gordon equation. The soliton phases are shown to have an additional shift with respect to the reflectionless case caused by the non-zero reflection coefficient of the corresponding Dirac operator. Explicit formulas for the phases are also obtained. The results demonstrate an interesting phenomenon of splitting of non-decreasing solutions into an infinite series of asymptotic solitons. © 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers.