ReLie: A Reduce Program for Lie Group Analysis of Differential Equations

Lie symmetry analysis provides a general theoretical framework for investigating ordinary and partial differential equations. The theory is completely algorithmic even if it usually involves lengthy computations. For this reason, along the years many computer algebra packages have been developed to automate the computation. In this paper, we describe the program ReLie, written in the Computer Algebra System Reduce, since 2008 an open source program for all platforms. ReLie is able to perform almost automatically the needed computations for Lie symmetry analysis of differential equations. Its source code is freely available too. The use of the program is illustrated by means of some examples; nevertheless, it is to be underlined that it proves effective also for more complex computations where one has to deal with very large expressions.