Initial-boundary value problems associated with the Ablowitz-Ladik system

Abstract

We employ the Ablowitz-Ladik system as an illustrative example in order to demonstrate how to analyze initial-boundary value problems for integrable nonlinear differential-difference equations via the unified transform (Fokas method). In particular, we express the solutions of the integrable discrete nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger and integrable discrete modified Korteweg-de Vries equations in terms of the solutions of appropriate matrix Riemann-Hilbert problems. We also discuss in detail, for both the above discrete integrable equations, the associated global relations, linearizable boundary conditions, and Dirichlet to Neumann maps.