Novel methods for finding general forms of new multi-soliton solutions to (1+1)-dimensional KdV equation and (2+1)-dimensional Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) equation

In this paper, two novel methods used to solve (1+1) and (2+1)-dimensional completely integrable equations are proposed. The methods are applied to handle the KdV and Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) equations with variable coefficients, and the general forms of new multi-soliton solutions are formally obtained, respectively. In addition, the new multi-soliton solution is suitable to two different type KP equations. Comparing with the Hirota’s method, the results show that new methods are straightforward handling the KdV and KP equations without conjecturing the transformation and good in dealing the equations with variable coefficients.