Pseudopotentials and symmetries of evolution equations (Q5966245)

Symmetries of differential equations are important in the development of soliton theory. In this connection Lie-Bäcklund transformations have been studied by a number of authors and it is known that soliton equations have infinitely many Lie-Bäcklund transformations. It has become evident that it is useful to introduce a nonlocal symmetry of differential equations which is a generalization of the Lie-Bäcklund transformation. The author considers this symmetry for evolution equations from a new standpoint. Corresponding to the evolution equation (1) \(u_ t=F(x,t,u,u_ 1,u_ 2,...,u_ n)\), \(u_ i:=\partial^ iu/\partial x^ i\) let R denote the infinite dimensional manifold with (independent) coordinates \((x,t,u,u_ 1,u_ 2,...)\). The triplet \(S:=\{A,\partial,\partial_ t\}\), where \(A=C^{\infty}(R)\) and \(\partial,(\partial_ t)\) denotes respectively the total derivative with respect to x(t), is a geometric object corresponding to (1). The Lie-Bäcklund transformation corresponding to (1) is a function \(\phi\in A\) satisfying \(\partial_ t\phi =D_{\phi}F:=\sum^{\infty}_{i=0}\partial^ i\phi \partial /\partial u_ i\). The author generalises this by introducing variables \(w_ 1,...,w_ m\), setting \(A_ 1=C^{\infty}(R\times \{w_ 1,w_ 2,...,w_ m)\})\) and proving that there exists an extended differential algebra \(A_ 2\) of \(A_ 1\) such that \(D_{\phi}\) can be extended to a derivation \(A_ 1\to A_ 2\) commuting with \(\partial\) and \(\partial_ t\). Using this result repeatedly provides an extended differential algebra \(S_{\infty}=\{A_{\infty}:\partial,\partial_ t\}\) of S such that \(D\phi\) can be extended to a derivation of \(A_{\infty}\) commuting with \(\partial\) and \(\partial_ t:\) this is the required nonlocal symmetry. The author also considers Bäcklund transformations and shows that their ``infinitesimal version'' when taken in connection with the KdV equation is a symmetry in the above sense. Finally, the author constructs \(S_{\infty}\) in the case of the KdV equation.