Conservation laws and symmetries of time-dependent generalized KdV equations (Q1690351)

This paper is devoted to the study of conservation laws and symmetries of a class of generalized Korteweg-de Vries equations of the form \[ u_t + f(t,u) u_x + u_{xxx}=0,\tag{1} \] where \(f\) is an arbitrary function such that \(f \big |_{u=0} =0, f_u \neq 0\). This class includes other common types of Korteweg-de Vries equations as special cases. It is noted in the paper that all equations (1) have a Hamiltonian structure on any fixed domain \(\Omega \in \mathbb R\). The determination of conservation laws is based on the so-called multiplier method. Indeed, there is, up to local equivalence, a one-to-one correspondence between non-trivial conservation laws of (1) and the multipliers \(Q\) of the differential equations, which are certain functions in terms of which every conservation laws can be expressed. Multipliers of low-order of the form \(Q(t, x, u, u_x, u_{xx})\) are sought and classified using the Maple package ``rifsimp'', and each is given together with the particular value of the function \(f\) in (1) for which it is admitted. However, the classification of the conservation laws is not performed in the paper. In particular, the non-equivalence of any pair of multipliers found is not discussed. Conservation laws associated with each multiplier are constructed through the explicit determination of conserved densities and spatial fluxes. Moreover, thanks to the Hamiltonian structure of (1), each multiplier corresponds also to a symmetry of the equation. This property coupled with the list of multipliers found is thus used to perform a symmetry classification of Hamiltonian symmetries of the equation. A very interesting description of the physical meanings of the conservation laws and the symmetries found is also provided.