Copyright © 2012 J. C. Ndogmo. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The comparison of two common types of equivalence groups of differential equations is discussed, and it is shown that one type can be identified with a subgroup of the other type, and a case where the two groups are isomorphic is exhibited. A result on the determination of the finite transformations of the infinitesimal generator of the larger group, which is useful for the determination of the invariant functions of the differential equation, is also given. In addition, the Levidecomposition of the Lie algebra associated with the larger group is found; the Levi factor of which is shown to be equal, up to a constant factor, to the Lie algebra associated with the smaller group.