Ordinary differential equations and their exponentials (Q2501212)

Synthetic differential geometry such as seen in [\textit{A. Kock}, Synthetic differential geometry, Cambridge University Press (1981; Zbl 0466.51008)] and [\textit{R. Lavendhomme}, Basic concepts of synthetic differential geometry, Kluwer Academic Publishers (1996; Zbl 0866.58001)] gives a rigorous support to the heuristically touted fact that vector fields or ordinary differential equations may be regarded as infinitesimal actions or infinitesimal flows. The authors exploit this fact to define the exponential of two ordinary differential equations as the exponential of the corresponding actions. The resulting action is seen to be the same as a partial differential equation whose solution may be obtained by conjugation from the solutions of the differential equations that make up the exponential. It is also shown that the method of conjugation, under some conditions, is an application of the method of change of variables, which is widely used in solving differential equations.