On a class of 3D second-order integrable Lagrangians and their dispersive deformations

Abstract

We investigate integrability of Euler-Lagrange equations associated with 3D second-order Lagrangians of the form \begin{equation*} \int f(u_{xy},u_{xt},u_{yt})\ \text{d}x\text{d}y\text{d}t. \end{equation*} It is demonstrated that there are exactly four different types of such Lagrangian densities $f$: the first one is given by the formula $f=\sqrt{u_{xy}u_{xt}u_{yt}}$, the second and the third are more complicated (although still representable in elementary functions), whereas the most generic fourth one is expressible in terms of the Lobachevsky function, revealing unexpected links to spherical/hyperbolic trigonometry and Schl\"afly-type formulas. Dispersionless Lax pairs and integrable dispersive deformations of the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equations are also constructed.Remarkably, dispersive deformation of the first Lagrangian density coincides with the Lagrangian of the classical Darboux system arising in the theory of triply-orthogonal coordinate systems in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Dispersive deformations of the three other cases provide Lagrangian formulation of semi-discrete and fully discrete versions of the Darboux system, with one, two and three discrete variables, respectively.