@misc{10498/33275, year = {2021}, url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10498/33275}, abstract = {Dynamical PDEs that have a spatial divergence form possess conservation laws that involve an arbitrary function of time. In one spatial dimension, such conservation laws are shown to describe the presence of an x-independent source/sink; in two and more spatial dimensions, they are shown to produce a topological charge. Two applications are demonstrated. First, a topological charge gives rise to an associated spatial potential system, allowing non-local conservation laws and symmetries to be found for a given dynamical PDE. This type of potential system has a different form and different gauge freedom compared to potential systems that arise from ordinary conservation laws. Second, when a topological charge arises from a conservation law whose conserved density is non-trivial off of solutions to the dynamical PDE, then this relation yields a constraint on initial/boundary data for which the dynamical PDE will be well posed. Several examples of nonlinear PDEs from applied mathematics and integrable system theory are used to illustrate these results.}, publisher = {The Royal Society Publishing}, keywords = {mathematical physics}, keywords = {differential equations}, title = {Topological charges and conservation laws involving an arbitrary function of time for dynamical PDEs}, doi = {10.1098/rspa.2020.0442}, author = {Anco, Stephen C. and Recio Rodríguez, Elena}, }