The superposition principle for the Lie type first-order PDEs (Q5938857)

A classical theorem by Lie characterises all first-order ordinary differential equations for which any solution can be expressed as a function of a finite number of fundamental solutions and parameters. The goal of the article is to extend this theory to maximally overdetermined systems of first-order partial differential equations. The basic observation is that such systems define, like ordinary differential equations, a connection on the underlying fibred manifold. In the first part of the article, the authors formulate superposition principles in the language of covariant derivatives on principal fibre bundles. Then the application to partial differential equations is shown using local coordinates; a concrete example based on SU(2) is given. Finally, the authors discuss the relation of superposition principles to Bäcklund transformations with the Korteweg-de Vries equation as concrete example.