Fuchs indices and the first integrals of nonlinear differential equations

New method of finding the first integrals of nonlinear differential equations in polynomial form is presented. Basic idea of our approach is to use the scaling of solution of nonlinear differential equation and to find the dimensions of arbitrary constants in the Laurent expansion of the general solution. These dimensions allows us to obtain the scalings of members for the first integrals of nonlinear differential equations. Taking the polynomials with unknown coefficients into account we present the algorithm of finding the first integrals of nonlinear differential equations in the polynomial form. Our method is applied to look for the first integrals of eight nonlinear ordinary differential equations of the fourth order. The general solution of one of the fourth order ordinary differential equations is given, (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.