A constructive implementation of the Cartan-Kähler theory of exterior differential systems (Q1186724)

An efficient algorithm for the construction of a regular chain of involutive integral elements for a general exterior differential system is presented, based upon the existence theorems of the Cartan-Kähler theory. It may be used to analyze partial differential equations by formulating them as exterior differential systems. Some aspects of the implementation in the language of REDUCE are described and a simple example is presented in which the algorithm recovers the well known d'Alembertian solution of the two-dimensional wave equation.