Darboux integrability for 3D Lotka-Volterra systems (Q4496313)

This paper gives sufficient conditions for the integrability (existence of two independent first integrals) for three-dimensional Lotka-Volterra systems of the form \[ dx/dt=x(\lambda+Cy+z),\quad dy/dt=y(\mu+x+Az),\quad dz/dt=z(\nu+Bx+y), \] where all the variables and parameters are real. The method utilized is an improvement of the so-called Darboux theory of integrability, which relates the existence of enough number of invariant algebraic hypersurfaces for a differential equation in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) or \(\mathbb{C}^n\) with the existence of a first integral. This improvement is stated in the paper for \(n=3.\) A proof for \(n=2,\) but not difficult to be adapted for any \(n,\) appears in the article by \textit{C. Christopher} and \textit{J. Llibre} [Algebraic aspects of integrability for polynomial systems, Qual. Theory Dyn. Syst. 1, No.~1, 71-95 (1999; not yet available for Zbl)]. One of the most useful extensions of the Darboux theory is the consideration of the so-called \textit{exponential factors} together with the invariant algebraic surfaces. We recall here its definition: given \(g\) and \(h\) two relatively prime polynomials in \(R[x,y,z],\) the function \(\exp(g/h)\) is called an exponential factor for \(X=P(x,y,z)\partial/\partial x+ Q(x,y,z)\partial/\partial y+R(x,y,z)\partial/\partial z\) if there exists some \(K\in\mathbb{R}[x,y,z]\) such that \( X(\exp( g /h))=K\exp (g /h).\) In the paper, the authors search all the invariant algebraic surfaces of degree at most two and all the exponential factors, with \(g\) and \(h\) also of degree at most two, for the Lotka-Volterra system. By using these functions and the extended Darboux theory they are able to find most of the known integrability cases for the Lotka-Volterra system considered (these cases were previously found by other authors and with different methods) and also some new case of integrability.