Reducible ordinary differential equations (Q868675)

The authors consider and develop the notion of algebraic reducibility of differential equations. This concept is of interest for large classes of equations appearing in applications, and contains well-known types like symmetric differential equations. The authors obtain a useful connection between reducibility of equations and certain realizations of Abelian Lie algebras of vector fields. Considering the stronger concept of complete reducibility, the correspondence of systems and Abelian Lie algebras is established. This enables to find criteria to decide whether a system can be reduced or not. A second part of the paper is devoted to a kind of ``inverse'' problem, in the sense that given a prescribed map, all equations reducible by it are analyzed and obtained. The authors focus on polynomial vector fields, and obtain a complete characterization. This leads naturally to study polynomial systems that can be reduced by polynomials, and criteria that can be computed effectively are obtained. Important examples like Volterra-Lotka systems are studied from this perspective. In all, a quite interesting paper that suggests alternative ways to analyze reducibility of equations or how to model them starting from fixed maps.