We describe the fields of rational constants of generic four-variable Lotka-Volterra derivations. Thus, we determine all rational first integrals of the corresponding systems of differential equations. Such systems play a role in population biology, laser physics and plasma physics. They are also an important part of derivation theory, since they are factorizable derivations. Moreover, we determine the fields of rational constants of a class of monomial derivations.

We give an overview of recent results concerning kernels of triangular derivations of polynomial rings. In particular, we examine the question of finite generation in dimensions 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Let $k$ be a field of characteristic zero and $B$ a $k$-domain. Let $R$ be a retract of $B$ being the kernel of a locally nilpotent derivation of $B$. We show that if $B=R\oplus I$ for some principal ideal $I$ (in particular, if $B$ is a UFD), then $B=R^{\left[1\right]}$, i.e., $B$ is a polynomial algebra over $R$ in one variable. It is natural to ask that, if a retract $R$ of a $k$-UFD $B$ is the kernel of two commuting locally nilpotent derivations of $B$, then does it follow that $B\cong R^{\left[2\right]}$? We give a negative answer to this question. The interest in retracts comes...

Lotka-Volterra systems appear in population biology, plasma physics, laser physics and derivation theory, among many others. We determine the rings of constants of four-variable Lotka-Volterra derivations with four parameters C 1, C 2, C 3, C 4 ∈ k, where k is a field of characteristic zero. Thus, we give a full description of polynomial first integrals of the respective systems of differential equations.

We show that the rings of constants of generic four-variable Lotka-Volterra derivations are finitely generated polynomial rings. We explicitly determine these rings, and we give a description of all polynomial first integrals of their corresponding systems of differential equations. Besides, we characterize cofactors of Darboux polynomials of arbitrary four-variable Lotka-Volterra systems. These cofactors are linear forms with coefficients in the set of nonnegative integers. Lotka-Volterra systems...