On generating (2 + 1)-dimensional hierarchies of evolution equations

•A new (2 + 1)-dimensional equation hierarchy was obtained.•A new identity was derived from the variational theory.•The identity was used to generate the Hamiltonian structure of the (2 + 1)-dimensional hierarchy.•The identity obtained in the paper can be used to deduce Hamiltonian structures of other higher dimensional hierarchies.

Two isospectral problems are constructed with the help of a 6-dimensional Lie algebra. By using the Tu scheme, a (1 + 1)-dimensional expanding integrable couplings of the KdV hierarchy is obtained and the corresponding Hamiltonian structure is established. In addition, the 2-order matrix operators proposed by Tuguizhang are extended to the case where some 4-order matrices are given. Based on the extension, a new hierarchy of 2 + 1 dimensions is obtained by the Hamiltonian operator of the above (1 + 1)-dimensional case and the TAH scheme. The new hierarchy of 2 + 1 dimensions can be reduced to a coupled (2 + 1)-dimensional nonlinear equation and furthermore it can be reduced to the (2 + 1)-dimensional KdV equation which has important physics applications. The Hamiltonian structure for the (2 + 1)-dimensional hierarchy is derived with the aid of an extended trace identity. To the best of our knowledge, generating the (2 + 1)-dimensional equation hierarchies by virtue of the TAH scheme has not been studied in detail except to previous little work by Tu et al.