Nonlocal symmetries of systems of evolution equations

Abstract

We prove that any potential symmetry of a system of evolution equations reduces to a Lie symmetry through a nonlocal transformation of variables. Based on this fact is our method of group classification of potential symmetries of systems of evolution equations having non-trivial Lie symmetry. Next, we modify the above method to generate more general nonlocal symmetries, which yields a purely algebraic approach to classifying nonlocal symmetries of evolution type systems. Several examples are considered.