For several classes of second order dispersionless PDEs, we show that the symbols of their formal linearizations define conformal structures which must be EinsteinWeyl in 3D (or self-dual in 4D) if and only if the PDE is integrable by the method of hydrodynamic reductions. This demonstrates that the integrability of these dispersionless PDEs can be seen from the geometry of their formal linearizations.MSC: 35L70, 35Q75, 53C25, 53C80, 53Z05.

The infinitesimal symmetry algebra of any Cartan geometry has maximum dimension realized by the flat model, but often this dimension drops significantly when considering non-flat geometries, so a gap phenomenon arises. For general (regular, normal) parabolic geometries of type (G,P), we use Tanaka theory to derive a universal upper bound on the submaximal symmetry dimension. We use Kostant's version of the Bott-Borel-Weil theorem to show that this bound is in fact sharp in almost all complex and split-real cases by exhibiting (abstract) models. We explicitly compute all submaximal symmetry dimensions when G is any complex or split-real simple Lie group.Comment: 44 pages. In order to better emphasize our main results, we reorganized our manuscript and reduced excessive background material and some running examples. (Readers wishing more background can view the relevant sections in version 3.

The equations governing anti-self-dual and Einstein-Weyl conformal geometries can be regarded as "master dispersionless systems" in four and three dimensions, respectively. Their integrability by twistor methods has been established by Penrose and Hitchin. In this note, we present, in specially adapted coordinate systems, explicit forms of the corresponding equations and their Lax pairs. In particular, we demonstrate that any Lorentzian Einstein-Weyl structure is locally given by a solution to the Manakov-Santini system, and we find a system of two coupled third-order scalar partial differential equations for a general anti-self-dual conformal structure in neutral signature. C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx

We prove a global algebraic version of the Lie-Tresse theorem which states that the algebra of differential invariants of an algebraic pseudogroup action on a differential equation is generated by a finite number of rational-polynomial differential invariants and invariant derivations.

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