Symmetries of Integro-Differential Equations: A Survey of Methods Illustrated by the Benny Equations

Classical Lie group theory provides a universal tool for calculatingsymmetry groups for systems of differential equations. However Lie'smethod is not as much effective in the case of integral orintegro-differential equations as well as in the case of infinitesystems of differential equations.This paper is aimed to survey the modern approaches to symmetriesof integro-differential equations. As an illustration, an infinitesymmetry Lie algebra is calculated for a system of integro-differentialequations, namely the well-known Benny equations. The crucial idea is tolook for symmetry generators in the form of canonical Lie–Bäcklundoperators.