Rational first integrals of separable differential equations (Q6985429)

Let \(\mathbb{K}\) be a field of characteristic zero and let \(\mathbb{K}(x)\) be a differential field, equipped with a derivation \(\delta_x=d/dx\). Finding a rational first integral of an ordinary differential equation of the form \(dy/dx=p(x,y)\), where \(p(x,y)\in\mathbb{K}(x,y)\), is a central problem in the algebraic theory of ODEs that goes back to Darboux. Its computation is related to the existence of enough Darboux polynomials, which are difficult to calculate.\N\NThe paper under review focus on a particular kind of ODE, namely a separable one, in which \(p(x,y)=f(x)g(y)\) with \(f(x)\) and \(g(y)\) being nonvanishing rational functions. Its main result is an explicit characterization of the existence of rational first integrals of separable ODEs in terms of the Hermite reductions of \(f(x)\) and \(g(y)\). The authors further show that a rational first integral of a separable ODE can only have one of a few different forms in terms of such Hermite reductions.\N\NSuch concrete results allow the authors to develop an algorithm to decide whether there exists a rational first integral of a separable ODE and compute it (if it exists). It is shown to be of complexity \(\mathcal{O}(\ell M(\ell) \log(\ell))\), where \(\ell\) is the maximum of the degrees of the numerators and denominators of \(f(x)\) and \(g(y)\) and \(M(n)\) is the cost of multiplying to polynomials of degree less than \(n\).