We study, systematically, the properties of the supersymmetric AKNS (sAKNS)
hierarchy. In particular, we discuss the Lax representation in terms of a
bosonic Lax operator and some special features of the equations and construct
the bosonic local charges as well as the fermionic nonlocal charges associated
with the system starting from the Lax operator. We obtain the Hamiltonian
structures of the system and check the Jacobi identity through the method of
prolongation. We also show that this hierarchy of equations can equivalently be
described in terms of a fermionic Lax operator. We obtain the zero curvature
formulation as well as the conserved charges of the system starting from this
fermionic Lax operator which suggests a connection between the two. Finally,
starting from the fermionic description of the system, we construct the soliton
solutions for this system of equations through Darboux-Backlund transformations
and describe some open problems.Comment: LaTeX, 16 pg