Bäcklund transformation and soliton interactions for the Zakharov–Kuznetsov equation in plasmas

Symbolically investigated in this paper is the Zakharov–Kuznetsov equation which describes the propagation of the electrostatic excitations in a magnetized, rotating and collisionless three-component plasma. Bilinear form and Bäcklund transformation for the Zakharov–Kuznetsov equation are derived with the Hirota method and symbolic computation. N -soliton solutions in terms of the Wronskian determinant are constructed, and the verification is finished through the direct substitution into bilinear equations. Propagation characteristics and interaction behaviors of the solitons are discussed through a graphical analysis. During the propagation, the one-soliton width and amplitude are both unchanged and not related to the coefficients, while the soliton interactions are elastic.