Abstract
•A (2+1)-dimensional Sharma-Tasso-Olver equation is constructed.•A tri-linear form is obtained by the Painleve analysis.•A family of rational solutions is derived.
We extend the (1+1)-dimensioanl Sharma-Tasso-Olver (STO) equation to a (2+1)-dimensional one by adding one additional term uyy. A tri-linear form of the (2+1)-dimensional STO equation is obtained by the Painlevé analysis. A family of rational solutions for the (2+1)-dimensional STO equation is constructed by using the resulting tri-linear form. Associated 3-dimensional plot and density plot with particular choices of the involved parameters are given to show the charateristics of the rational solutions.