List of nonlinear partial differential equations

See also Nonlinear partial differential equation, List of partial differential equation topics and List of nonlinear ordinary differential equations.

A–F[edit]

NameDimEquationApplications
Bateman-Burgers equation1+1Fluid mechanics
Benjamin–Bona–Mahony1+1Fluid mechanics
Benjamin–Ono1+1internal waves in deep water
Boomeron1+1Solitons
Boltzmann equation1+6Statistical mechanics
Born–Infeld1+1Electrodynamics
Boussinesq1+1Fluid mechanics
Boussinesq type equation1+1Fluid mechanics
Buckmaster1+1Thin viscous fluid sheet flow
Cahn–Hilliard equationAnyPhase separation
Calabi flowAnyCalabi–Yau manifolds
Camassa–Holm1+1Peakons
Carleman1+1
Cauchy momentumanyMomentum transport
Chafee–Infante equation
Clairaut equationanyDifferential geometry
Clarke's equation1+1Combustion
Complex Monge–AmpèreAny lower order termsCalabi conjecture
Constant astigmatism1+1Differential geometry
Davey–Stewartson1+2Finite depth waves
Degasperis–Procesi1+1Peakons
Dispersive long wave1+1,
Drinfeld–Sokolov–Wilson1+1
Dym equation1+1Solitons
Eckhaus equation1+1Integrable systems
Eikonal equationanyoptics
Einstein field equationsAnyGeneral relativity
Ernst equation2
Estevez–Mansfield–Clarkson equation
Euler equations1+3non-viscous fluids
Fisher's equation1+1Gene propagation
FitzHugh–Nagumo model1+1Biological neuron model
Föppl–von Kármán equationsSolid Mechanics
Fujita–Storm equation

G–K[edit]

NameDimEquationApplications
G equation1+3turbulent combustion
Generic scalar transport 1+3transport
Ginzburg–Landau1+3Superconductivity
Gross–Pitaevskii1 + nBose–Einstein condensate
Gyrokinetics equation1 + 5Microturbulence in plasma
Guzmán1 + nHamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation for risk aversion
Hartree equationAny
Hasegawa–Mima1+3Turbulence in plasma
Heisenberg ferromagnet1+1Magnetism
Hicks1+1Fluid dynamics
Hunter–Saxton1+1Liquid crystals
Ishimori equation1+2Integrable systems
Kadomtsev –Petviashvili1+2Shallow water waves
Kardar–Parisi–Zhang equation1+3Stochastics
von Karman2
Kaup1+1
Kaup–Kupershmidt1+1Integrable systems
Klein–Gordon–Maxwellany
Klein–Gordon (nonlinear)anyRelativistic quantum mechanics
Khokhlov–Zabolotskaya1+2
Korteweg–de Vries (KdV)1+1Shallow waves, Integrable systems
KdV (super)1+1
There are more minor variations listed in the article on KdV equations.
Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation1 + nCombustion

L–Q[edit]

NameDimEquationApplications
Landau–Lifshitz model1+nMagnetic field in solids
Lin–Tsien equation1+2
Liouville equationany
Liouville–Bratu–Gelfand equationanycombustion, astrophysics
Logarithmic Schrödinger equationanySuperfluids, Quantum gravity
Minimal surface3minimal surfaces
Monge–Ampèreany lower order terms
Navier–Stokes
(and its derivation)
1+3

+ mass conservation:
+ an equation of state to relate p and ρ, e.g. for an incompressible flow:

Fluid flow, gas flow
Nonlinear Schrödinger (cubic)1+1optics, water waves
Nonlinear Schrödinger (derivative)1+1optics, water waves
Omega equation1+3 atmospheric physics
Plateau2minimal surfaces
Pohlmeyer–Lund–Regge2
Porous medium1+ndiffusion
Prandtl1+2, boundary layer

R–Z, α–ω[edit]

NameDimEquationApplications
Rayleigh1+1
Ricci flowAnyPoincaré conjecture
Richards equation1+3Variably saturated flow in porous media
Rosenau–Hyman1+1compacton solutions
Sawada–Kotera1+1
Sack–Schamel equation1+1plasmas
Schamel equation1+1plasmas, solitons, optics
SchlesingerAnyisomonodromic deformations
Seiberg–Witten1+3Seiberg–Witten invariants, QFT
Shallow water1+2shallow water waves
Sine–Gordon1+1Solitons, QFT
Sinh–Gordon1+1Solitons, QFT
Sinh–Poisson1+nFluid Mechanics
Swift–Hohenberganypattern forming
Thomas2
Thirring1+1, Dirac field, QFT
Toda latticeany
Veselov–Novikov1+2, , shallow water waves
Vorticity equationFluid Mechanics
Wadati–Konno–Ichikawa–Schimizu1+1
WDVV equationsAny Topological field theory, QFT
WZW model1+1

QFT
Whitham equation1+1water waves
Williams spray equationCombustion
YamabenDifferential geometry
Yang–Mills (source-free)AnyGauge theory, QFT
Yang–Mills (self-dual/anti-self-dual)4Instantons, Donaldson theory, QFT
Yukawa1+nMeson-nucleon interactions, QFT
Zakharov system1+3Langmuir waves
Zakharov–Schulman1+3Acoustic waves
Zeldovich–Frank-Kamenetskii equation1+3Combustion
Zoomeron1+1Solitons
φ4 equation1+1QFT
σ-model1+1Harmonic maps, integrable systems, QFT

References[edit]