Differential invariants for systems of linear hyperbolic equations

Abstract

In this paper we consider a general class of systems of two linear hyperbolic equations. Motivated by the existence of the Laplace invariants for the single linear hyperbolic equation, we adopt the problem of finding differential invariants for the system. We derive the equivalence group of transformations for this class of systems. The infinitesimal method, which makes use of the equivalence group, is employed for determining the desired differential invariants. We show that there exist four differential invariants and five semi-invariants of first order. Applications of systems that can be transformed by local mappings to simple forms are provided. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.