Symmetry breaking of systems of linear second-order ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients

Abstract

We show that the structure of the Lie symmetry algebra of a system of n linear second-order ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients depends on at most n-1 parameters. The tools used are Jordan canonical forms and appropriate scaling transformations. We put our approach to test by presenting a simple proof of the fact that the dimension of the symmetry Lie algebra of a system of two linear second-order ordinary differential with constant coefficients is either 7, 8 or 15. Also, we establish for the first time that the dimension of the symmetry Lie algebra of a system of three linear second-order ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients is 10, 12, 13 or 24.