Integrability and Nonlinear Phenomena

Back in 1967, Clifford Gardner, John Greene, Martin Kruskal and Robert Miura published a seminal paper in Physical Review Letters which was to become a cornerstone in the theory of integrable systems. From this discovery the modern theory of integrability bloomed, leading scientists to a deep understanding of many nonlinear phenomena which is by no means reachable by perturbation methods or other previous tools from linear theories. Nonlinear phenomena appear everywhere in nature, their description and understanding is therefore of great interest both from the theoretical and applicative point of view. If a nonlinear phenomenon can be represented by an integrable system then we have at our disposal a variety of tools to achieve a better mathematical description of the phenomenon. This special issue is largely dedicated to investigations of nonlinear phenomena which are related to the concept of integrability, either involving integrable systems themselves or because they use techniques from the theory of integrability.