Conservation Laws, Symmetry Reductions, and New Exact Solutions of the (2 + 1)-Dimensional Kadomtsev-Petviashvili Equation with Time-Dependent Coefficients

Abstract

The (2 + 1)-dimensional Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation with time-dependent coefficients is investigated. By means of the Lie group method, we first obtain several geometric symmetries for the equation in terms of coefficient functions and arbitrary functions of $t$. Based on the obtained symmetries, many nontrivial and time-dependent conservation laws for the equation are obtained with the help of Ibragimov’s new conservation theorem. Applying the characteristic equations of the obtained symmetries, the (2 + 1)-dimensional KP equation is reduced to (1 + 1)-dimensional nonlinear partial differential equations, including a special case of (2 + 1)-dimensional Boussinesq equation and different types of the KdV equation. At the same time, many new exact solutions are derived such as soliton and soliton-like solutions and algebraically explicit analytical solutions.