Surfaces associated with first-order ODEs

Abstract: A link between first-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and 2-dimensional Riemannian manifolds is explored. Given a first-order ODE, an associated Riemannian metric on the variable space is defined, and some properties of the resulting surface are studied, including a connection between Jacobi fields and Lie point symmetries. In particular, it is proven that if the associated surface is flat, then the ODE can be integrated by quadratures. Next, deformations of the associated surfaces are considered. A relation between some Jacobi fields on the deformed surface and integrability of the ODE is established, showing that there is a class of vector fields, beyond Lie point symmetries, which are useful for solving first-order ODEs. As a result, it is concluded that the deformation into a constant curvature surface leads to the integrability of the given ODE.