Noether, partial Noether operators and first integrals for a linear system

We obtain Noether and partial Noether operators corresponding to a Lagrangian and a partial Lagrangian for a system of two linear second-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with variable coefficients. The canonical form for a system of two second-order ordinary differential equations is invoked and a special case of this system is studied for both Noether and partial Noether operators. Then the first integrals with respect to Noether and partial Noether operators are obtained for the linear system under consideration. We show that the first integrals for both the Noether and partial Noether operators are the same. This can give rise to further studies on systems from a partial Lagrangian viewpoint as systems in general do not admit Lagrangians. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.