Integrable Equations Arising from Motions of Plane Curves. II

Integrable equations satisfied by the curvature of plane curves or curves on the real line under inextensible motions in some Klein geometries are identified. These include the Euclidean, similarity, and projective geometries on the real line, and restricted conformal, conformal, and projective geometries in the plane. Together with Chou and Qu [Physica D 162 (2002), 9–33], we determine inextensible motions and their associated integrable equations in all Klein geometries in the plane. The relations between several pairs of these geometries provide a natural geometric explanation of the existence of transformations of Miura and Cole-Hopf type.