Type-changing PDE and singularities of Monge characteristic systems (Q2210429)

The authors study second order type-changing partial differential equations on \(\mathbb R^2\), with particular focus on the parabolic points. At each point in its domain, a second order partial differential equation is either elliptic, parabolic or hyperbolic and `type-changing' refers to the fact that the equation attains at least two of these types. In a previous paper [Osaka J. Math. 49, No. 1, 101--124 (2012; Zbl 1246.35137)], the authors identified three types of parabolic points, characterized by the fact that an associated differential system is either `involute', of `finite type' or of `torsion type'. In the present paper, the authors introduce the notion of Monge characteristic system as a subset of the 2-jet space over the set of parabolic points and prove that a parabolic point \(p\) is involute if the rank of the Monge characteristic system above \(p\) is 2 and either of finite type or of torsion type if the rank of the Monge characteristic system above \(p\) is 1. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1437.53042].