Symmetry actions and brackets for adjoint-symmetries. II: Physical examples

Abstract

Abstract Symmetries and adjoint-symmetries are two fundamental (coordinate-free) structures of PDE systems. Recent work has developed several new algebraic aspects of adjoint-symmetries: three fundamental actions of symmetries on adjoint-symmetries; a Lie bracket on the set of adjoint-symmetries given by the range of a symmetry action; a generalised Noether (pre-symplectic) operator constructed from any non-variational adjoint-symmetry. These results are illustrated here by considering five examples of physically interesting nonlinear PDE systems – nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations, Navier-Stokes equations for compressible viscous fluid flow, surface-gravity water wave equations, coupled solitary wave equations and a nonlinear acoustic equation.