A hierarchy of non-isospectral multi-component AKNS equations and its integrable couplings

A hierarchy of non-isospectral multi-component AKNS equations is derived from an arbitrary order matrix spectral problem. As a reduction, non-isospectral multi-component Schrödinger equations are obtained. Moreover, new non-isospectral integrable couplings of the resulting AKNS soliton hierarchy are constructed by enlarging the associated matrix spectral problem.