Geometry of a pair of second-order ODEs and Euclidean spaces

Given a space it is easy to obtain the system of geodesic equations on it. In this paper the inverse problem of reconstructing the space from the geodesic equations is addressed. A procedure is developed for obtaining the metric tensor from the Christoffel symbols. The procedure is extended for determining if a second order quadratically semi-linear system can be expressed as a system of geodesic equations, provided it has terms only quadratic in the first derivative apart fr...

We answer to the question whether a system of the 3rd order ODEs describes geodesics of a conformal structure. We construct a functor from a category of conformal geometries to a category of Cartan geometries associated to the 3rd order ODEs systems. Explicit formulas which define the family of all equations on conformal geodesics are given in the last section of the article.

We show that every 2nd order ODE defines a 4-parameter family of projective connections on its 2-dimensional solution space. In a special case of ODEs, for which a certain point transformation invariant vanishes, we find that this family of connections always has a preferred representative. This preferred representative turns out to be identical to the projective connection described in Cartan's classic paper "Sur les Varietes a Connection Projective".

Some properties of the 4-dim Riemannian spaces with metrics $$ ds^2=2(za_3-ta_4)dx^2+4(za_2-ta_3)dxdy+2(za_1-ta_2)dy^2+2dxdz+2dydt $$ associated with the second order nonlinear differential equations $$ y''+a_{1}(x,y){y'}^3+3a_{2}(x,y){y'}^2+3a_{3}(x,y)y'+a_{4}(x,y)=0 $$ with arbitrary coefficients $a_{i}(x,y)$ and 3-dim Einstein-Weyl spaces connected with dual equations $$ b''=g(a,b,b') $$ where the function $g(a,b,b')$ satisfied the partial differential equation $$ g_{aacc}...

We use the solution space of a pair of ODEs of at least second order to construct a smooth surface in Euclidean space. We describe when this surface is a proper embedding which is geodesically complete with finite total Gauss curvature. If the associated roots of the ODEs are real and distinct, we give a universal upper bound for the total Gauss curvature of the surface which depends only on the orders of the ODEs and we show that the total Gauss curvature of the surface vani...

The concept of a C-class of differential equations goes back to E. Cartan with the upshot that generic equations in a C-class can be solved without integration. While Cartan's definition was in terms of differential invariants being first integrals, all results exhibiting C-classes that we are aware of are based on the fact that a canonical Cartan geometry associated to the equations in the class descends to the space of solutions. For sufficiently low orders, these geometrie...

We discuss the local and global problems for the equivalence of geometric structures of an arbitrary order and, in later sections, attention is given to what really matters, namely the equivalence with respect to transformations belonging to a given pseudo-group of transformations. We first give attention to general prolongation spaces and thereafter insert the structures in their most appropriate ambient namely, as specific solutions of partial differential equations where t...

We deal with the problem of determining the existence and uniqueness of Lagrangians for systems of $n$ second order ordinary differential equations. A number of recent theorems are presented, using exterior differential systems theory (EDS). In particular, we indicate how to generalise Jesse Douglas's famous solution for $n=2$. We then examine a new class of solutions in arbitrary dimension $n$ and give some non-trivial examples in dimension 3

The goal of the present paper is to propose an enhanced ordinary differential equations solver by exploitation of the powerful equivalence method of \'Elie Cartan. This solver returns a target equation equivalent to the equation to be solved and the transformation realizing the equivalence. The target ODE is a member of a dictionary of ODE, that are regarded as well-known, or at least well-studied. The dictionary considered in this article are ODE in a book of Kamke. The majo...

Given an autonomous second-order ordinary differential equation (ODE), we define a Riemannian metric on an open subset of the first-order jet bundle. A relationship is established between the solutions of the ODE and the geodesic curves with respect to the defined metric. We introduce the notion of energy foliation for autonomous ODEs, and highlight its connection to the classical energy concept. Additionally, we explore the geometry of the leaves of the foliation. Finally, t...