A study of two interacting KdV-solitons

The dynamical behaviour of two interacting KdV-solitons, expressed in terms of squared eigenfunctions, is investigated. With the aid of analytical equations, insight is gained into the interaction process, in particular about the origin of the phase shifts. Numerical calculations confirm these results and, moreover, they reveal that the largest soliton can have one or two maxima, while the smallest one always has two maxima, of which the first one grows at the expense of the other one