Paper detail

Symmetries of trivial systems of ODEs of mixed order

We compute symmetry algebras of a system of two equations y^(k)=z^(l)=0, where 2<=k<l. It appears that there are many ways to convert such system of ODEs to an exterior differential system. They lead to different series of finite-dimensional symmetry algebras. For example, for (k,l)=(2,3) we get two non-isomorphic symmetry algebras of the same dimension. We explore how these symmetry algebras are related to both Sternberg prolongation of G-structures and Tanaka prolongation of graded nilpotent Lie algebras. Surprisingly, the case (k,l)=(2,3) provides an example of a linear subalgebra g in gl(5,R) such that the Sternberg prolongations of g and g^t are both of the same dimension, but are non-isomorphic. We also discuss the non-linear case and the link with flag structures on smooth manifolds.