Solitons in physics, mathematics, and nonlinear optics

This volume includes some of the lectures given at two workshops, "Solitons in Physics and Mathematics" and "Solitons in Nonlinear Optics and Plasma Physics" held during the 1988-89 IMA year on Nonlinear Waves. Since their discovery by Kruskal and Zabusky in the early 1960's, solitons have had a profound impact on many fields, ranging from engineering and physics to algebraic geometry. The present contributions represent only a fraction of these areas, but give the reader a good overview of several current research directions, including optics, fluid dynamics, inverse scattering, cellular automata, Bäcklund equations, symmetries and Hamiltonian systems.