An efficient way to determine Liouvillian first integrals of rational second order ordinary differential equations

Abstract

The Lie and Darboux methods to obtain Liouvillian first integrals of rational second order ordinary differential equations (rational 2ODEs) are very powerful. Nevertheless, there are cases where these procedures may encounter difficulties. Namely, when the Darboux polynomials present in the integrating factor of the 2ODE have a very high degree and/or when the 2ODE does not admit point symmetries. In [3,4] we developed a method (S-function method) that is successful in treating certain classes of rational second order ordinary differential equations that are particularly ‘resistant’ to canonical Lie methods and to Darbouxian approaches. However, although determining the S-function is in general much more efficient than determining Darboux polynomials or nonlocal symmetries, for very complicated rational 2ODEs, even finding the S-function itself can be quite hard. In this work we present a simple way of (in almost all cases) computing the S-function with a very efficient procedure. New version program summaryProgram Title: InSyDE – Invariants and Symmetries of (rational second order ordinary) Differential Equations.CPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/4ytft6zgk7.2Licensing provisions: CC by NC 3.0Programming language: Maple 17Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Commun. 234 (2019) 302–314Does the new version supersede the previous version?: Yes.Nature of problem: Determining Liouvillian first integrals of rational second order ordinary differential equations.Solution method: The method is explained in the body of the paper.Reasons for new version: The InSyDE package depends, in order to work, on determining the S-function. The problem is that, for very complicated 2ODEs, this can be very costly (computationally) or even unrealizable (within time and memory limits). We have developed a computationally cheaper way of determining the S-function that, in addition to being very efficient, is also surprisingly broad.Summary of revisions: We have, based on important new theoretical results presented on Appendix A: Supplementary Material, modified and improved the command Sfunction.