Unsteady Magnetohydrodynamics PDE of Monge–Ampère Type: Symmetries, Closed-Form Solutions, and Reductions

Abstract

The paper studies an unsteady equation with quadratic nonlinearity in second derivatives, that occurs in electron magnetohydrodynamics. In mathematics, such PDEs are referred to as parabolic Monge–Ampère equations. An overview of the Monge–Ampère type equations is given, in which their unusual qualitative features are noted. For the first time, the Lie group analysis of the considered highly nonlinear PDE with three independent variables is carried out. An eleven-parameter transformation is found that preserves the form of the equation. Some one-dimensional reductions allowing to obtain self-similar and other invariant solutions that satisfy ordinary differential equations are described. A large number of new additive, multiplicative, generalized, and functional separable solutions are obtained. Special attention is paid to the construction of exact closed-form solutions, including solutions in elementary functions (in total, more than 30 solutions in elementary functions were obtained). Two-dimensional symmetry and non-symmetry reductions leading to simpler partial differential equations with two independent variables are considered (including stationary Monge–Ampère type equations, linear and nonlinear heat type equations, and nonlinear filtration equations). The obtained results and exact solutions can be used to evaluate the accuracy and analyze the adequacy of numerical methods for solving initial boundary value problems described by highly nonlinear partial differential equations.