Generalized symmetry relations for connection matrices in the phase-integral method

TL;DR

This paper develops generalized symmetry relations for connection matrices in the phase-integral method, introduces the concepts of effective Stokes constants and diagrams, and extends these ideas to higher-order systems, with applications to physical problems.

Contribution

It introduces a unified framework for symmetry relations in the phase-integral method, including effective Stokes constants and diagrams, and generalizes these to higher-order differential systems.

Findings

Derived exact symmetry relations for connection matrices.

Introduced effective Stokes constants and diagrams as analytical tools.

Extended symmetry relations to arbitrary order linear systems.

Abstract

We consider the phase-integral method applied to an arbitrary ordinary linear differential equation of the second-order and study how its symmetries affect the connection matrices associated with its general solution. We reduce the obtained exact general relation for the matrices to its limiting case introducing a concept of the effective Stokes constant. We also propose a concept of an effective Stokes diagram which can be a useful tool for analyzing difficult equations. We show that effective Stokes domains which can be overlapped by a symmetry transformation are associated with the same effective Stokes constant and can be described by the same analytical function. Basing on the derived symmetry relations, we propose a way to write functional equations for the effective Stokes constants. Finally, we provide a generalization of the derived symmetry relations for an arbitrary order linear system of the ordinary linear differential equations. This work also contains an example of usage of the presented ideas in a case of a real physical problem. To access the HTML version of the paper & discuss it with the author, visit https://enabla.com/pub/1108.