First integrals and solutions for a class of third-order nonlinear autonomous differential equations (Q1983195)

This paper is concerned with the third-order nonlinear autonomous differential equation \[ x^{\prime\prime\prime}(t) = x^{\prime}(t)x^{\prime\prime}(t)+\bigl(x^{\prime}(t)\bigr)^{3}. \] The aim of this paper is to study the integral characteristics (first integrals, exact solutions, symmetries) of the given differential equation. For the objective of the research, the authors used the method of first integrals for ordinary differential equations, the functional transformations method and Lie group theory. The following scientific results were obtained in the article: \begin{itemize} \item[1)] the authors extend the method of first integrals proposed by \textit{Z. Feng} in [J. Phys. A 35:2 (2002), 343--349] for second-order differential equations to third-order differential equations; \item[2)] using this method, the authors obtain that the third-order autonomous differential system \[ x^{\prime} =y, \quad y^{\prime} = z. \quad z^{\prime} = yz +y^3, \] corresponding to the differential equation (1), has (Theorem 1) two independent first integrals \[ H_1^{}(x,y,z) = (y^2+2z)e^{{}-2x}, \quad H_2^{}(x,y,z) = (y^2-z)e^{x}; \] \item[3)] the third-order differential equation (1) has the solutions (Theorem 2) \[ x(t) = 2\ln (t+C_1^{})+C_{2}^{} \quad \text{and} \quad x(t) = {}-\ln(t+C_3^{})+C_{4}^{}, \] where \(C_{1}^{},\ldots, C_{4}^{}\) are arbitrary constants; \item[4)] the third-order differential equation (1) has (Theorem 3) the Lie symmetry group with the generator \(X=(C_1^{}t+C_2^{})\;\!\partial_{t}^{}+C_3^{}\;\!\partial_{x}^{},\) where \(C_{1}^{},C_2^{}, C_{3}^{}\) are arbitrary constants; \item[5)] the equation (1) has (Theorem 4) the invariant solution \(x(t)=\frac{C_3^{}}{C_1^{}}\,\ln(C_1^{}t+C_2^{})+C_3^{}C_4^{},\) where \(C_{1}^{},\ldots, C_{4}^{}\) are arbitrary constants. \end{itemize} The results of the research are useful for investigating the traveling wave solutions and exact solutions of third-order partial differential equations.