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The role of invariants in obtaining exact solutions of differential equations
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ahmed, Mogahid Mamoon Abkar; Kara, A.H.
We show here that variational and gauge symmetries have additional appli- cations to the integrability of differential equations. We present a general method to construct first integrals for some classes. In particular, we present a broad class of diffusion type equations, viz., the Fisher Kolmorov and Fitzhugh Nagumo equations, which satisfy the Painlev´e properties of their respective travelling wave forms and solitons. It is then shown how a study of invari- ance properties and conservation laws is used to ‘twice’ reduce the equations to solutions. We further constructing the first integrals of a large class of the well-known second-order Painlev´e equations. In some cases, variational and gauge symmetries have additional applications following a known Lagrangian in which case the first integral is obtained by Noether’s theorem. Generally, it is more convenient to adopt the ‘multiplier’ approach to find the first integrals. The main chapters of this thesis have either been published or submitted for publication in accredited journals. The contents of Chapters 2, 3 and 5 has been published ([54], [55]). All computations were done either by hand or Maple