Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2008
Consider the partial differential equation f(x, y(x), dy(x)) = 0, where f is a smooth real function on ℝn × ℝ × (ℝn)*. Near each singularity of the characteristic foliation, a Liouville field is associated to the equation; we classify hyperbolic germs of Liouville fields up to symplectic transformations, hence we deduce normal forms for partial differential equations up to transformations which preserve the standard contact form of ℝ2n+1. For n = 1, a theorem of Davydov enables us to deduce normal forms for such equations up to transformations of the x, y plane.