On the obstruction to linearizability of second-order ordinary differential equations (Q702078)

The second order differential equation \[ y^{\prime \prime }=u^{0}(x,y)+u^{1}(x,y)y^{\prime } +u^{2}(x,y)(y^{\prime })^{2}+u^{3}(x,y)(y^{\prime })^{3}\eqno{(1)} \] is a general form taken in coordinates by a linear equation of the same order. \textit{E. Cartan} [Bull. Soc. Math. Fr. 52, 205--241 (1924; JFM 50.0500.02)] gave the vanishing curvature of a suitable projective connection as an obstruction for the differential equation (1) to have a linear form in coordinates. A modern approach is proposed in the paper, using the bundle \(\pi :E=\mathbb R^{2}\times \mathbb R^{4}\rightarrow \mathbb R^{2}\) and a decomposition \(J^{2}\pi = \text{Orb}_{1}\cup \text{Orb}_{2}\), defined by the lifted action of pseudogroup of all point transformation to \(J^{1}\pi \), obtained by the author and \textit{V. N. Gusyatnikova} [Mat. Zametki 49, No. 1, 146--148 (1991; Zbl 0722.34033)]; the obstruction is given by a horizontal differential \(2\)-form on \(J^{2}\pi \) that vanishes on \(\text{Orb}_{2}\). The construction is similar to that of prolongations of \(G\)-structures.