Homogeneous Bäcklund transformations of hyperbolic Monge-Ampère systems. (Q1811403)

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Homogeneous Bäcklund transformations of hyperbolic Monge-Ampère systems.
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    Homogeneous Bäcklund transformations of hyperbolic Monge-Ampère systems. (English)
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    2002
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    This paper is devoted to the study of Bäcklund transformations between Monge-Ampère equations. The author explains the classical definition of a Bäcklund transformation, but the approach chosen in this work is based in Cartan's theory of exterior differential systems. In this framework, a Monge-Ampère equation is equivalent to a so-called Monge-Ampère system, that is to say, an exterior differential system \(I\) on a five-dimensional smooth manifold \(M\) generated by a contact \(1\)-form \(\theta\), the \(2\)-form \(\Theta=d\theta\) and another \(2\)-form \(\Psi\). The system \(I\) is hyperbolic when the quadratic equation \[ (\lambda \Theta+\mu \Psi)\wedge(\lambda \Theta+\mu \Psi)\equiv 0\bmod \theta \] has distinct, real roots. Given two hyperbolic Monge-Ampère systems \(I_1=\{\theta_1,\Theta_1,\Psi_1\}\) and \(I_2=\{\theta_2,\Theta_2,\Psi_2\}\) on the manifolds \(M_1\) and \(M_2\), respectively, a Bäcklund transformation between \((M_1,I_1)\) and \((M_2,I_2)\) is a six-dimensional submanifold \(B\) of \(M_1\times M_2\) such that: (1) The natural projections \(\pi_i:B\to M_i\;(i=1,2)\) are submersions. (2) The pullback to \(B\) of the forms generating \(I_1\) and \(I_2\) verify the condition \[ \{\Psi_1,\Psi_2\}\equiv\{\Theta_1,\Theta_2\}\bmod \{\theta_1,\theta_2\} \] This definition agrees with the classical notion of Bäcklund transformation, as explained in the paper. The author poses the problem of giving a local classification of all Bäcklund transformations between hyperbolic Monge-Ampère systems; in practice it is rarely possible to carry out the study in full generality, hence the attention is focused on the transformations \(B\) such that the group of symmetries of the structure \((B,I_1,I_2)\) acts transitively in \(B\) (called homogeneous Bäcklund transformations). The main result in the paper is a complete local classification of this kind of transformations, which the author divides into fifteen categories, modulo contact equivalence. The basic tool used is Cartan's method of equivalence, which allows computing local invariants of exterior differential systems and deciding when two systems are equivalent under some natural class of diffeomorphisms. A detailed description of each category in the main theorem is given [see \textit{R. Bryant}, \textit{P. Griffiths} and \textit{L. Hsu}, Sel. Math., New Ser. 1, No. 1, 21--112 (1995; Zbl 0853.58102)].
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    Bäcklund transformation
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    hyperbolic Monge-Ampère systems
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    Cartan's theory of exterior differential systems
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