General soliton and (semi‐)rational solutions to the nonlocal Mel'nikov equation on the periodic background

In this paper, the Hirota's bilinear method and Kadomtsev‐Petviashvili hierarchy reduction method are applied to construct soliton, line breather and (semi‐)rational solutions to the nonlocal Mel'nikov equation with nonzero boundary conditions. These solutions are expressed as N×N Gram‐type determinants. When N is even, soliton, line breather and (semi‐)rational solutions on the constant background are derived while these solutions are located on the periodic background for odd N. Regularity of these solutions and their connections with the local Mel'nikov equation are analyzed for proper choices of parameters that appear in the solutions. The dynamics of the solutions are discussed in detail. All possible configurations of soliton and lump solutions are found for N=2,3. Several interesting dynamical behaviors of semi‐rational solutions are observed. It is shown that certain lumps may exhibit fusion and fission phenomena during their interactions with solitons while some lump may change its direction of movement after it collides with solitons.