On planar polynomial vector fields with elementary first integrals

Abstract We show that under rather general conditions a polynomial differential system having an elementary first integral already must admit a Darboux first integral, and we explicitly characterize the vector fields in this class. We also investigate some exceptional cases, i.e. equations admitting an elementary first integral but not a Darboux first integral. In particular we provide a rather detailed discussion of exceptional elementary first integrals built from algebraic functions of prime degree.