Type-II hidden symmetries through weak symmetries for nonlinear partial differential equations

Abstract

The Type-II hidden symmetries are extra symmetries in addition to the inherited symmetries of the differential equations when the number of independent and dependent variables is reduced by a Lie point symmetry. In [B. Abraham-Shrauner, K.S. Govinder, Provenance of Type II hidden symmetries from nonlinear partial differential equations, J. Nonlinear Math. Phys. 13 (2006) 612–622] Abraham-Shrauner and Govinder have analyzed the provenance of this kind of symmetries and they developed two methods for determining the source of these hidden symmetries. The Lie point symmetries of a model equation and the two-dimensional Burgers' equation and their descendants were used to identify the hidden symmetries. In this paper we analyze the connection between one of their methods and the weak symmetries of the partial differential equation in order to determine the source of these hidden symmetries. We have considered the same models presented in [B. Abraham-Shrauner, K.S. Govinder, Provenance of Type II hidden symmetries from nonlinear partial differential equations, J. Nonlinear Math. Phys. 13 (2006) 612–622], as well as the WDVV equations of associativity in two-dimensional topological field theory which reduces, in the case of three fields, to a single third order equation of Monge–Ampère type. We have also studied a second order linear partial differential equation in which the number of independent variables cannot be reduced by using Lie symmetries, however when is reduced by using nonclassical symmetries the reduced partial differential equation gains Lie symmetries.