Consider a problem in two independent and two dependent variables u(x, t), v(x, t), and the generic form of infinitesimals for this type of problem
By default CharacteristicQ returns, fast, an operator in its most abstract form, with a test-type for the value of and not expanded; essentially, nothing is actually computed until you need it
This resulting characteristic is a function that can then be applied to an integer as large as the number of dependent variables of the problem, in this case two
You can instead request to CharacteristicQ for the sum in the mapping to be expanded before returning, or to avoid the check of type of the value of
Instead of passing the symmetry as a list of infinitesimals you can also pass the corresponding infinitesimal generator operator. You construct this operator with InfinitesimalGenerator
This is the same output as (4.4)
To request the output in function instead of jet notation use
Compare for instance this output with the output of