A new mathematical construction of the general nonlinear ODEs of motion in rigid body dynamics (Euler's equations) (Q546020)

The authors find a general solution of Euler equations describing the motion of a free rigid body about its center of mass under the action of arbitrary time-dependent external torques. To this aim, the authors show that the equations of motion of an asymmetric rigid body can be reduced to three Abel differential equations of second kind in normal form. Note that a similar reduction procedure was also discussed by \textit{S. V. Ershkov} [``New exact solution of Euler's equations (rigid body dynamics) in the case of rotation over the fixed point'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1101.1670}]. Then, based on a recently developed method for obtaining an exact analytical solution of the Abel equation [\textit{D. E. Panayotounakos}, Appl. Math. Lett. 18, No. 2, 155--162 (2005; Zbl 1078.34505)], the authors write out an exact solution to the classical Euler equations in the most general case. This solution is expressed as a combination of elementary functions, the cosine integral and an auxiliary function, determined implicitly by a rather cumbersome equation.