Reduction of systems of nonlinear partial differential equations to simplified involutive forms (Q4340596)

Let \(S\) be an analytic (or real analytic) system of PDEs of order \(q\) defined in a connected open subset of the jet space \(J^q (F^n,F^m)\) with \(F\) equal to \(\mathbb{C}\) or \(\mathbb{R}\). The system can be reduced by linear elimination into a form where each leading linear term (largest with respect to a given ranking which is preserved under differentiation) appears only once and no nontrivial derivative of any leading term appears in \(S\). Roughly speaking, \(S\) is in reduced involutive form if it satisfies the constant rank condition. An algorithm which uses a finite number of differentiations and algebraic operations to simplify a given analytic system of nonlinear PDEs into reduced involutive form is presented. For example, the reduced involutive form includes all the integrability conditions of the system. A computer implemented version (using Gröbner basis techniques to construct the radical of a polynomial ideal generated by equations of such a system) of the algorithm is given for polynomially nonlinear systems of PDEs. Several possible applications are described together with carefully chosen examples.