Symmetries and conservation laws of difference and iterative equations

Abstract

We construct, using rst principles, a number of non-trivial conservation laws of some partial di erence equations, viz, the discrete Liouville equation and the discrete Sine-Gordon equation. Symmetries and the more recent ideas and notions of characteristics (multipliers) for di erence equations are also discussed. We then determine the symmetry generators of some ordinary di erence equations and proceed to nd the rst integral and reduce the order of the di erence equations. We show that, in some cases, the symmetry generator and rst integral are associated via the `invariance condition'. That is, the rst integral may be invariant under the symmetry of the original di erence equation. We proceed to carry out double reduction of the di erence equation in these cases. We then consider discrete versions of the Painlev e equations. We assume that the characteristics depend on n and un only and we obtain a number of symmetries. These symmetries are used to construct exact solutions in some cases. Finally, we discuss symmetries of linear iterative equations and their transformation properties. We characterize coe cients of linear iterative equations for order less than or equal to ten, although our approach of characterization is valid for any order. Furthermore, a list of coe cients of linear iterative equations of order up to 10, in normal reduced form is given.