Differential Invariant Algebras Peter J. Olver† School of Mathematics University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455
[email protected] http://www.math.umn.edu/∼olver Abstract. The equivariant method of moving frames provides a systematic, algorith- mic procedure for determining and analyzing the structure of algebras of differential in- variants for both finite-dimensional Lie groups and infinite-dimensional Lie pseudo-groups. This paper surveys recent developments, including a few surprises and several open ques- tions. 1. Introduction. Differential invariants are the fundamental building blocks for constructing invariant differential equations and invariant variational problems, as well as determining their ex- plicit solutions and conservation laws. The equivalence, symmetry and rigidity properties of submanifolds are all governed by their differential invariants. Additional applications abound in differential geometry and relativity, classical invariant theory, computer vision, integrable systems, geometric flows, calculus of variations, geometric numerical integration, and a host of other fields of both pure and applied mathematics. † Supported in part by NSF Grant DMS 11–08894. November 16, 2018 1 Therefore, the underlying structure of the algebras‡ of differential invariants for a broad range of transformation groups becomes a topic of great importance. Until recently, though, beyond the relatively easy case of curves, i.e., functions of a single independent variable, and a few explicit calculations for individual higher dimensional examples,