An Alternative Algorithm for the Symmetry Classification of Ordinary Differential Equations

This is the first paper on symmetry classification for ordinary differential equations (ODEs) based on Wu’s method. We carry out symmetry classification of two ODEs, named the generalizations of the Kummer-Schwarz equations which involving arbitrary function. First, Lie algorithm is used to give the determining equations of symmetry for the given equations, which involving arbitrary functions. Next, differential form Wu’s method is used to decompose determining equations into a union of a series of zero sets of differential characteristic sets, which are easy to be solved relatively. Each branch of the decomposition yields a class of symmetries and associated parameters. The algorithm makes the classification become direct and systematic. Yuri Dimitrov Bozhkov, and Pammela Ramos da Conceição have used the Lie algorithm to give the symmetry classifications of the equations talked in this paper in 2020. From this paper, we can find that the differential form Wu’s method for symmetry classification of ODEs with arbitrary function (parameter) is effective, and is an alternative method.