Non-classical reductions of initial-value problems for a class of nonlinear evolution equations (Q4520640)

The paper deals with the reduction of the partial differential equation (PDE) \[ u_t= uu_{xx}+ F(u,u_x)\tag{1} \] for the real-valued function \(u\) of two variables \(t\), \(x\), to a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Firstly, the connection between various methods for reducing a given evolution type PDE to systems of ODEs and those methods which rely on its symmetries, is discussed. The main result is as follows: If the equation (1) is conditionally invariant with respect to the Lie-Bäcklund operator, then under some additional conditions, the function \(F\) is necessary quadratic in \(u\), \(u_x\), i.e. \(F(u,u_x)= a_0 u^2_x+ a_1uu_x+ a_2u^2+ b_0u_x+ b_1u+ b_2\). Further, the authors show that there exist six inequivalent clases of PDEs (1) that are invariant with respect to Lie-Bäcklund operators. These equations can be reduced to systems of three, four or five ODEs, the number of ODEs is determined by the order of corresponding Lie-Bäcklund operator.