Superposition rules and second-order differential equations

Abstract

The main purpose of this work is to introduce and analyse some generalizations of diverse superposition rules for first-order differential equations to the setting of second-order differential equations. As a result, we find a way to apply the theories of Lie and quasi-Lie systems to analyse second-order differential equations. In order to illustrate our results, several second-order differential equations appearing in the physics and mathematical literature are analysed and some superposition rules for these equations are derived by means of our methods.