Group classification of a family of second-order differential equations (Q847068)

The author considers ODEs of the form \[ y''= A(x) y' + F(y), \] with \(A\) and \(F\) arbitrary smooth functions. After studying the group of point transformations which preserves the form of this equation, a symmetry classification of equations of this form is obtained. Apart from the degenerate case where \(A\) is a constant, there exist a generic class with no symmetry, and classes of equations with nontrivial symmetries; these can be reduced to canonical forms given, with \(\mu\) a nonzero constant and \(f\) a linear function of \(y\), by \(F_1(y) = f, \;F_2(y) = \mu e^y + f, \;F_3 (y) = \mu y \ln (y) + f, \;F_4 (y) = \mu \ln (y) + f , \;F_5(y) = y^n + f \;(n \not= 0,1).\)