We discuss the application of a variant of the method of simplest equation for obtaining exact traveling wave solutions of a class of nonlinear partial differential equations containing polynomial nonlinearities. As simplest equation we use different
ial equation for a special function that contains as particular cases trigonometric and hyperbolic functions as well as the elliptic function of Weierstrass and Jacobi. We show that for this case the studied class of nonlinear partial differential equations can be reduced to a system of two equations containing polynomials of the unknown functions. This system may be further reduced to a system of nonlinear algebraic equations for the parameters of the solved equation and parameters of the solution. Any nontrivial solution of the last system leads to a traveling wave solution of the solved nonlinear partial differential equation. The methodology is illustrated by obtaining solitary wave solutions for the generalized Korteweg-deVries equation and by obtaining solutions of the higher order Korteweg-deVries equation.
We present a brief overview of integrability of nonlinear ordinary and partial differential equations with a focus on the Painleve property: an ODE of second order has the Painleve property if the only movable singularities connected to this equation
are single poles. The importance of this property can be seen from the Ablowitz-Ramani-Segur conhecture that states that a nonlinear PDE is solvable by inverse scattering transformation only if each nonlinear ODE obtained by exact reduction of this PDE has the Painleve property. The Painleve property motivated motivated much research on obtaining exact solutions on nonlinear PDEs and leaded in particular to the method of simplest equation. A version of this method called modified method of simplest equation is discussed below.
