ON ASYMTOTIC APPROXIMATIONS OF FIRST INTEGRALS FOR DIFFERENTIAL AND DIFFERENCE EQUATIONS

In this paper the concept of integrating factors for differential equations and the concept of invariance factors for difference equations to obtain first integrals or invariants will be presented. It will be shown that all integrating factors have to satisfya system of partial differential equations, and that all invariance factors have to satisfy a functional equation. In the period 1997-2001 a perturbation method based on integrating vectors was developed to approximate first integrals for systems of ordinary differential equations. This perturbation method will be reviewed shortly. Also in the paper the first results in the development of a perturbation method for difference equations based on invariance factors will be presented. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22342/jims.13.1.70.1-1