Existence of closed form solution of an ODE

ordinary differential equations

I am looking for a solution of an ODE
$$y''+4yy'+y^3=0.$$
I tried several standard strategies but could not come out with any result. Numerical calculation gives somewhat converging solution (depends on the initial value) $y\rightarrow 0$ as $x\rightarrow \infty$, but this is the best I can tell. Now I started to suspect if there is no closed form expression for the solutions of this ODE. Is there any way to show/disprove if there is a closed form solution to this ODE?

Best Answer

Taking $y’=y^2p(y)$ and $y=e^{\xi}$ we arrive at \begin{equation} pp’_{\xi}+2p^2+4p+1=0, \end{equation} which is separable. After integration and rearranging you’ll get that \begin{align} 1=cy\left(2p+\sqrt 2+2\right)^{(1+\sqrt 2)/4}\left(-2p+\sqrt 2-2\right)^{1-\sqrt 2}. \end{align} Now I’ll take $y=1/u$, giving the equation \begin{align} u=c\left(-2u’_x+\sqrt 2+2\right)^{(1+\sqrt 2)/4}\left(2u’_x+\sqrt 2-2\right)^{1-\sqrt 2}. \end{align} For equations of the form \begin{align} u=F(u’) \end{align} the solution is given via the method of integration by differentiation in “Handbook of Exact Solutions for Ordinary Differential Equations” 2ed. by Polyanin and Zaitsev implicitly as \begin{align} u=F(s), \quad x=\int\frac{F(s)’}{s} \mathrm ds+c, \end{align}

which is not difficult to show.

Your equation has the implicit solution

\begin{align} y&=\frac{1}{c}\left(-2s+\sqrt 2+2\right)^{(-1-\sqrt 2)/4}\left(2s+\sqrt 2-2\right)^{-1+\sqrt 2},\\ x&=\int \frac{c}{s}\frac{\mathrm d}{\mathrm ds} \left[\left(-2s+\sqrt 2+2\right)^{(1+\sqrt 2)/4}\left(2s+\sqrt 2-2\right)^{1-\sqrt 2}\right]\mathrm ds+c_2. \end{align} If I’m inputting the integral correctly in Wolframalpha it has a fairly long solution involving Hypergeometric functions, which I will leave for you to get. An implicit solution is more than one can usually ask for!

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