A steepest descent method for oscillatory Riemann-Hilbert problems

In this article we present a new and general approach to analyzing the asymptotics of oscillatory Riemann-Hilbert problems. Such problems arise, in particular, when evaluating the long-time behavior of nonlinear wave equations solvable by the inverse scattering method. We will restrict ourselves here exclusively to the modified Korteweg-de Vries (MKdV) equation