Ermakov's superintegrable toy and nonlocal symmetries (Q2495132)

A representation of the complete symmetry group of an Ermakov system of two second-order ODEs is obtained. The Ermakov system studied has a sufficient number of Lie point symmetries to be integrable and yet not the required amount to be completely specifiable. It is shown that the complete symmetry group cannot be achieved by means of Lie point symmetries alone. It is necessary to consider nonlocal symmetries for this purpose. The method used is the reduction of order. This is an interesting paper on a well-studied system and illustrates the difficulties that may arise. The complete symmetry group is looked at in an interesting fashion. The references are exhaustive.