The unified transform method (UTM) or Fokas method for analyzing initial-boundary value (IBV) problems provides an important generalization of the inverse scattering transform (IST) method for analyzing initial value problems. In comparison with the IST, a major difficulty of the implementation of the UTM, in general, is the involvement of unknown boundary values. In this paper we analyze the IBV problem for the massive Thirring model in the quarter plane, assuming that the initial and boundary data belong to the Schwartz class. We show that for this integrable model, the UTM is as effective as the IST method: Riemann-Hilbert problems we formulated for such a problem have explicit (x, t)-dependence and depend only on the given initial and boundary values; they do not involve additional unknown boundary values.

The linear Schrödinger equation with piecewise constant potential in one spatial dimension is a well-studied textbook problem. It is one of only a few solvable models in quantum mechanics and shares many qualitative features with physically important models. In examples such as ‘particle in a box’ and tunnelling, attention is restricted to the time-independent Schrödinger equation. This paper combines the unified transform method and recent insights for interface problems to present fully explicit solutions for the time-dependent problem.

We use the two-dimensional heat equation as an illustrative example to show that the unified transform is capable of constructing analytical solutions for linear evolution partial differential equations (PDEs) in two spatial dimensions involving non-separable boundary conditions. Such non-separable boundary value problems apparently cannot be solved by the usual transforms. We note that the unified transform always yields integral expressions which, in contrast to the expressions obtained by the usual transforms, have the advantage that are uniformly convergent at the boundary. Thus, even for the cases of separable boundary value problems where the usual transforms can be implemented, the unified transform provides alternative solution expressions which have advantages for both numerical and asymptotic considerations. The former advantage is illustrated by providing the numerical evaluation of a typical boundary value problem, by extending the approach of Flyer and Fokas (2008Proc. R. Soc.464, 1823–1849). This work is the two-dimensional continuation of the heat equation with oblique Robin boundary conditions which was analysed in Mantzavinos and Fokas (2013Eur. J. Appl. Math.24(6), 857–886.