Inversion of the linearized Korteweg-deVries equation at the multi-soliton solutions

Uniform estimates for the decay structure of the $n$-soliton solution of the Korteweg-deVries equation are obtained. The KdV equation, linearized at the $n$-soliton solution is investigated in a class $\WW$ consisting of sums of travelling waves plus an exponentially decaying residual term. An analog of the kernel of the time-independent equation is proposed, leading to solvability conditions on the inhomogeneous term. Estimates on the inversion of the linearized KdV equation at the $n$-soliton are obtained.