Instability of invariant boundary conditions of a generalized Lane-Emden equation of the second-kind (Q2483231)

The authors consider invariant boundary conditions admitted by Lane-Emden equation of the second-kind \[ y''+\tfrac{k}{x}\,y'+\delta e^y=0.\tag{1} \] \(k\) and \(\delta\) are constants, \(k\) is known as a shape factor and \(\delta\) the Frank-Kamenetzkii parameter in the theory of thermal explosions. The generators of Lie point symmetries admitted by (1) are used to obtain invariant boundary conditions and then to reduce the order of the Lane-Emden equation. The stability of the invariant boundary condition \(y'=0\) at \(x=0\) changes from stable for shape factor \(k>1\) to unstable for \(k\leq 1\). It is verified by using the program ``bvp4c'' in MATLAB to solve (1) subject to \(y'(0)=0\), \(y(1)=0\) for different values of \(k\). The authors were able to overcome the instability when solving an initial value problem by using central difference approximation to the derivatives.