Integrable Hamiltonian Hierarchies

This book presents a detailed derivation of the spectral properties of the Recursion Operators allowing one to derive all the fundamental properties of the soliton equations and to study their hierarchies.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, Chicago, USA, July 22-26, 2000

Some of the most active practitioners in the field of integrable systems have been asked to describe what they think of as the problems and results which seem to be most interesting and important now and are likely to influence future directions. The papers in this collection, representing their authors' responses, offer a broad panorama of the subject as it enters the 1990's.

The theory of soliton equations and integrable systems has developed rapidly during the last 30 years with numerous applications in mechanics and physics. For a long time, books in this field have not been written but the flood of papers was overwhelming: many hundreds, maybe thousands of them. All this output followed one single work by Gardner, Green, Kruskal, and Mizura on the Korteweg-de Vries equation (KdV), which had seemed to be merely an unassuming equation of mathematical physics describing waves in shallow water. Besides its obvious practical use, this theory is attractive also because it satisfies the aesthetic need in a beautiful formula which is so inherent to mathematics. The second edition is up-to-date and differs from the first one considerably. One third of the book (five chapters) is completely new and the rest is refreshed and edited. Contents: Integrable Systems Generated by Linear Differential n th Order Operators; Hamiltonian Structures; Hamiltonian Structure of the GD Hierarchies; Modified KdV and GD. The KupershmidtOCoWilson Theorem; The KP Hierarchy; Baker Function, a-Function; Additional Symmetries, String Equation; Grassmannian. Algebraic-Geometrical Krichever Solutions; Matrix First-Order Operator, AKNS-D Hierarchy; Generalization of the AKNS-D Hierarchy: Single-Pole and Multi-Pole Matrix Hierarchies; Isomonodromic Deformations and the Most General Matrix Hierarchy; Tau Functions of Matrix Hierarchies; KP, Modified KP, Constrained KP, Discrete KP, and q -KP; Another Chain of KP Hierarchies and Integrals Over Matrix Varieties; Transformational Properties of a Differential Operator under Diffeomorphisms and Classical W -Algebras; Further Restrictions of the KP, Stationary Equations; Stationary Equations of the Matrix Hierarchy; Field Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Formalism; Further Examples and Applications. Readership: Applied mathematicians and mathematical physicists."

Integrable Hamiltonian systems have been of growing interest over the past 30 years and represent one of the most intriguing and mysterious classes of dynamical systems. This book explores the topology of integrable systems and the general theory underlying their qualitative properties, singularites, and topological invariants. The authors,

This book considers the larger class of systems which are not (at least a priori) Hamiltonian but possess tensor invariants, in particular, an invariant measure. Several integrability theorems related to the existence of tensor invariants are formulated, and the authors illustrate the geometrical background of some classical and new hierarchies of integrable systems and give their explicit solution in terms of theta-functions. Most of the results discussed have not been published before, making this book immensely useful both to specialists in analytical dynamics who are interested in integrable problems and those in algebraic geometry who are looking for applications.

The aim of this CIME Session was to review the state of the art in the recent development of the theory of integrable systems and their relations with quantum groups. The purpose was to gather geometers and mathematical physicists to allow a broader and more complete view of these attractive and rapidly developing fields. The papers contained in this volume have at the same time the character of survey articles and of research papers, since they contain both a survey of current problems and a number of original contributions to the subject.