Riccati scheme for integrating nonlinear systems of differential equations (Q1920587)

This paper is about the carrying over the well-known ``linearization'' procedure of scalar Riccati equations (whose solution is thereby reduced to solving a second order linear differential equation) to certain classes of quadratic equations in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) resp. \(\mathbb{C}^n\). The algebraic condition imposed on the quadratic part is that it can be written in the form \(X\circ X\), with \(\circ\) a linear map (thus defining the structure of a nonassociative algebra on \(\mathbb{C}^n\)), with the additional condition that there is another bilinear operation \(\cdot\) on \(\mathbb{C}^n\) such that the identity \((X\circ X)\cdot Y=X\cdot (X\cdot Y)\) holds. The main result is that under these conditions a generalization of the linearization procedure works for Riccati equations with vanishing linear term. Furthermore, the author investigates vector spaces endowed with two multiplications satisfying the identity above (which he calls ``pseudo-left alternative algebras''), and constructs a number of examples. The case of matrix Riccati equations (which fall into the class introduced by the author) has been dealt with earlier in a slightly different manner; cf. \textit{W. T. Reid} [Riccati differential equations. New York-London [Academic Press (1972; Zbl 0254.34003)]. The case of alternative algebras (which occurs when the bilinear operations mentioned above coincide) was treated (in a similar manner) in, \textit{P. D. Gerber}, Left alternative algebras and quadratic differential equations, IBM T. J. Watson research center, New York 1973. (It seems that this report has never been published in a journal).