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how could i solve the PDE (without boundary or other initial conditions)

$ 1= y\partial _{y}f(x,y) -x \partial _{x}f(x,y) $

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    What do you mean by "solve"? Find all functions that solve it? Without conditions, the solution is not unique.2012-04-10

2 Answers 2

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One solution would be:

$f(x,y) = xy - log(x)$

But so would:

$f(x,y) = n\cdot xy - log(x)$

In general, you need a boundary condition to solve a first order PDE.

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    ... the level curves $\{xy = c\}$ (which are the integral curves of $x\partial_x - y\partial_y$) have two connected components, and the function is allowed to be different on the components. The two components can be distinguished by the sign of the $x$ variable there.2012-04-10
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$1=y\partial_yf(x,y)-x\partial_xf(x,y)$

$x\partial_xf(x,y)-y\partial_yf(x,y)=-1$

Follow the method in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_characteristics#Example:

$\dfrac{dx}{dt}=x$ , letting $x(0)=1$ , we have $x=e^t$

$\dfrac{dy}{dt}=-y$ , letting $y(0)=y_0$ , we have $y=y_0e^{-t}=\dfrac{y_0}{x}$

$\dfrac{df}{dt}=-1$ , letting $z(0)=F(y_0)$ , we have $f(x,y)=F(y_0)-t=F(xy)-\ln x$