chisigma said:
The procedure You used to find an integrating factor is very interesting and I want to realize if I have understood correctly. A differential expression like $\displaystyle A(x,y)\ dx + B(x,y)\ dy$ is 'exact' if $\displaystyle A_{y} (x,y) = B_{x} (x,y)$. In the OP is $\displaystyle A(x,y)= y$ and $B(x,y)= - 4\ (x + y^{6})$ so that the differential expression isn't exact. The idea is to make it exact by multiplying A and B by an unknown function $\displaystyle \mu(x,y)$ so that is exact the expression...
$\displaystyle A(x,y)\ \mu(x,y)\ dx + B (x,y)\ \mu (x,y)\ dy\ (1)$
... and that conducts to the PDE...
$\displaystyle A_{y} \ \mu + A\ \mu_{y} = B_{x}\ \mu + B\ \mu_{x} \implies \mu + y\ \mu_{y} = - 4\ \mu - 4\ (x+y^{6})\ \mu_{x}\ (2)$
The (2) seems not very comfortable, but if we suppose that $\mu$ is function of the y alone [i.e. $\displaystyle \mu_{x}=0$...] the (2) becomes the ODE...
$\displaystyle y\ \mu^{\ '} = -5\ \mu\ (3)$
... one solution of which is $\displaystyle \mu(y) = \frac{1}{y^{5}}$ that the integrating factor we searched...
It that 'all right'?...
Kind regards
$\chi$ $\sigma$
Hello
chisigma,
It looks like you have the gist of it quite well. :D
I will paraphrase from my old ODE textbook (
Fundamentals of Differential Equations, 3rd Edition, by Nagle/Saff), the following information regarding integrating factors of inexact equations...
If the equation:
(1) $$M(x,y)dx+N(x,y)dy=0$$
is not exact, but the equation:
(2) $$\mu(x,y)M(x,y)dx+\mu(x,y)N(x,y)dy=0$$
which results from multiplying equation (1) by the function $\mu(x,y)$, is exact, then $\mu(x,y)$ is called an integrating factor of the equation (1).
How do we find an integrating factor? If $\mu(x,y)$ is an integrating factor of (1) with continuous first partial derivatives, then testing (2) for exactness, we must have:
$$\frac{\partial}{\partial y}\left(\mu(x,y)M(x,y) \right)=\frac{\partial}{\partial x}\left(\mu(x,y)N(x,y) \right)$$
By use of the product rule, this reduces to the equation:
(3) $$M\frac{\partial \mu}{\partial y}-N\frac{\partial \mu}{\partial x}=\left(\frac{\partial N}{\partial x}-\frac{\partial M}{\partial y} \right)\mu$$
But solving the partial differential equation (3) for $\mu$ is usually more difficult than solving the original equation (1). There are, however, two important exceptions.
Let's assume equation (1) has an integrating factor that depends only on $x$, that is, $\mu=\mu(x)$. In this case, equation (3) reduces to the separable equation:
(4) $$\frac{d\mu}{dx}=\left(\frac{\frac{\partial M}{\partial y}-\frac{\partial N}{\partial x}}{N} \right)\mu$$
where $$\frac{\frac{\partial M}{\partial y}-\frac{\partial N}{\partial x}}{N}$$ is just a function of $x$.
In a similar fashion, if equation (1) has an integrating factor that depends only on $y$, then equation (3) reduces to the separable equation:
(5) $$\frac{d\mu}{dx}=\left(\frac{\frac{\partial N}{\partial x}-\frac{\partial M}{\partial y}}{M} \right)\mu$$
where $$\frac{\frac{\partial N}{\partial x}-\frac{\partial M}{\partial y}}{M}$$ is just a function of $y$.
We can solve these separable equations (4) and (5) to obtain for (1) the integrating factors:
If $$\frac{\frac{\partial M}{\partial y}-\frac{\partial N}{\partial x}}{N}$$ is continuous and depends only on $x$, then:
(6) $$\mu(x)=\exp\left(\int\left(\frac{\frac{\partial M}{\partial y}-\frac{\partial N}{\partial x}}{N} \right)\,dx \right)$$
is an integrating factor for (1).
If $$\frac{\frac{\partial N}{\partial x}-\frac{\partial M}{\partial y}}{M}$$ is continuous and depends only on $y$, then:
(7) $$\mu(y)=\exp\left(\int\left(\frac{\frac{\partial N}{\partial x}-\frac{\partial M}{\partial y}}{M} \right)\,dy \right)$$
is an integrating factor for (1).
There are many differential equations that are not covered by this method, but for which an integrating factor nevertheless exists. The major difficulty, however, is in finding an explicit formula for these integrating factors, which in general will depend on both $x$ and $y$.