Deformations of dispersionless KdV hierarchies

Abstract

The obstructions to the existence of a hierarchy of hydrodynamic conservation laws are studied for a multicomponent dispersionless KdV system. It is shown that if an underlying algebra is Jordan, then the lowest obstruction vanishes and that all higher obstructions automatically vanish. Deformations of these multicomponent dispersionless KdV-type equations are also studied. No new obstructions appear, and hence the existence of a fully deformed hierarchy depends on the existence of a single purely hydrodynamic conservation law.