§1.13 Differential Equations
Contents
- §1.13(i) Existence of Solutions
- §1.13(ii) Equations with a Parameter
- §1.13(iii) Inhomogeneous Equations
- §1.13(iv) Change of Variables
- §1.13(v) Products of Solutions
- §1.13(vi) Singularities
- §1.13(vii) Closed-Form Solutions
§1.13(i) Existence of Solutions
A domain in the complex plane is simply-connected
if it has no “holes”; more precisely, if its complement in the extended plane
is connected.
The equation
where
, a simply-connected domain, and
,
are analytic in
, has an infinite number of analytic solutions in
. A solution becomes
unique, for example, when
and
are prescribed at a point
in
.
¶ Fundamental Pair
Two solutions
and
are called a fundamental pair
if any other solution
is expressible as
where
and
are constants. A fundamental pair can be obtained, for
example, by taking any
and requiring that
¶ Wronskian
The Wronskian of
and
is defined by
Then
where
is independent of
. If
, then the Wronskian is constant.
The following three statements are equivalent:
and
comprise a
fundamental pair in
;
does not vanish in
;
and
are linearly independent,
that is, the only constants
and
such that
are
.
§1.13(ii) Equations with a Parameter
Assume that in the equation
and
belong to domains
and
respectively, the coefficients
and
are continuous functions of both variables, and for each
fixed
(fixed
) the two functions are analytic in
(in
). Suppose
also that at (a fixed)
,
and
are analytic
functions of
. Then at each
,
,
and
are analytic functions of
.
§1.13(iii) Inhomogeneous Equations
The inhomogeneous (or nonhomogeneous) equation
with
,
, and
analytic in
has infinitely many analytic
solutions in
. If
is any one solution, and
,
are a
fundamental pair of solutions of the corresponding homogeneous equation
(1.13.1), then every solution of (1.13.8) can be
expressed as
where
and
are constants.
§1.13(iv) Change of Variables
¶ Transformation of the Point at Infinity
¶ Elimination of First Derivative by Change of Dependent Variable
¶ Elimination of First Derivative by Change of Independent Variable
¶ Liouville Transformation
Let
satisfy (1.13.14),
be any
thrice-differentiable function of
, and
Then
Here dots denote differentiations with respect to
, and
is the Schwarzian derivative:
¶ Cayley’s Identity
For arbitrary
and
,
§1.13(v) Products of Solutions
The product of any two solutions of (1.13.1) satisfies
If
and
are respectively solutions of
then
is a solution of
For extensions of these results to linear homogeneous differential equations of arbitrary order see Spigler (1984).
§1.13(vi) Singularities
§1.13(vii) Closed-Form Solutions
For an extensive collection of solutions of differential equations of the first, second, and higher orders see Kamke (1977).

