Trace formulas revisited and a new representation of KdV solutions with short-range initial data

Abstract We put forward a new approach to Deift-Trubowitz type trace formulas for the 1D Schrodinger operator with potentials that are summable with the first moment (short-range potentials). We prove that these formulas are preserved under the KdV flow whereas the class of short-range potentials is not. Finally, we show that our formulas are well-suited to study the dispersive smoothing effect.