We derive the prolongation formula of the one-parameter Lie point transformations to the Hilfer fractional derivative and show that the existing prolongation formula for the Riemann Liouville and Caputo fractional derivatives are special cases of the proposed formula, corresponding to the type parameter \(\gamma =0\) and \(\gamma =1\) , respectively. The applicability of the proposed formula is demonstrated by deriving the Lie point symmetries of the time-fractional heat equation, the fractional Burgers equation, and the fractional KdV equation in Hilfer’s sense. We use the obtained Lie point symmetries to find the similarity variables and transformations. Using the similarity transformations, we show that each is converted into a nonlinear fractional ordinary differential equation with a new independent variable. The fractional derivative in the reduced equation can be either the Hilfer-type modification of the Erdélyi Kober fractional derivative or the Hilfer fractional derivative itself. We demonstrate that the exact solution of the time-fractional differential equation in the Hilfer sense can be reduced to the exact solutions of the corresponding time-fractional differential equations in the Riemann–Liouville and Caputo senses by setting the type parameter to \(\gamma =0\) and \(\gamma =1\) , respectively.
