Symmetry analysis of initial-value problems

Abstract

Symmetry analysis is a powerful tool that enables the user to construct exact solutions of a given differential equation in a fairly systematic way. For this reason, the Lie point symmetry groups of most well-known differential equations have been catalogued. It is widely believed that the set of symmetries of an initial-value problem (or boundary-value problem) is a subset of the set of symmetries of the differential equation. The current paper demonstrates that this is untrue; indeed, an initial-value problem may have no symmetries in common with the underlying differential equation. The paper also introduces a constructive method for obtaining symmetries of a particular class of initial-value problems.