Topological Methods In The Theory Of Integrable Systems

This volume comprises selected papers on the subject of the topology of integrable systems theory which studies their qualitative properties, singularities and topological invariants. The aim of this volume is to develop the classification theory for integrable systems with two degrees of freedom which would allow for distinguishing such systems up to two natural equivalence relations. The first one is the equivalence of the associated foliations into Liouville tori. The second is the usual orbital equivalence. Also, general methods of classification theory are applied to the classical integrable problems in rigid body dynamics. In addition, integrable geodesic flows on two-dimensional surfaces are analysed from the viewpoint of the topology of integrable systems.

In recent years, researchers have found new topological invariants of integrable Hamiltonian systems of differential equations and have constructed a theory for their topological classification. Each paper in this important collection describes one of the "building blocks" of the theory, and several of the works are devoted to applications to specific physical equation. In particular, this collection covers the new topological obstructions to integrability, a new Morse-type theory of Bott integrals, and classification of bifurcations of the Liouville tori in integral systems. The papers collected here grew out of the research seminar "Contemporary Geometrical Methods" at Moscow University, under the guidance of A T Fomenko, V V Trofimov, and A V Bolsinov. Bringing together contributions by some of the experts in this area, this collection is the first publication to treat this theory in a comprehensive way.

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,

Ideas and techniques from the theory of integrable systems are playing an increasingly important role in geometry. Thanks to the development of tools from Lie theory, algebraic geometry, symplectic geometry, and topology, classical problems are investigated more systematically. New problems are also arising in mathematical physics. A major international conference was held at the University of Tokyo in July 2000. It brought together scientists in all of the areas influenced by integrable systems. This book is the second of three collections of expository and research articles. This volume focuses on topology and physics. The role of zero curvature equations outside of the traditional context of differential geometry has been recognized relatively recently, but it has been an extraordinarily productive one, and most of the articles in this volume make some reference to it. Symplectic geometry, Floer homology, twistor theory, quantum cohomology, and the structure of special equations of mathematical physics, such as the Toda field equations--all of these areas have gained from the integrable systems point of view and contributed to it. Many of the articles in this volume are written by prominent researchers and will serve as introductions to the topics. It is intended for graduate students and researchers interested in integrable systems and their relations to differential geometry, topology, algebraic geometry, and physics. The first volume from this conference also available from the AMS is Differential Geometry and Integrable Systems, Volume 308 CONM/308 in the Contemporary Mathematics series. The forthcoming third volume will be published by the Mathematical Society of Japan and will be available outside of Japan from the AMS in the Advanced Studies in Pure Mathematics series.

The topological theory of integrable Hamiltonian systems was created by Anatoly Fomenko and developed by his followers. In this article, It is briefly described on a level of strictness sufficient for self-dependent applications. Some new results, illustrating the theses of the theory and the loop molecule method by Alexey Bolsinov, are presented.

Based on lectures given at an advanced course on integrable systems at the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica in Barcelona, these lecture notes address three major aspects of integrable systems: obstructions to integrability from differential Galois theory; the description of singularities of integrable systems on the basis of their relation to bi-Hamiltonian systems; and the generalization of integrable systems to the non-Hamiltonian settings. All three sections were written by top experts in their respective fields. Native to actual problem-solving challenges in mechanics, the topic of integrable systems is currently at the crossroads of several disciplines in pure and applied mathematics, and also has important interactions with physics. The study of integrable systems also actively employs methods from differential geometry. Moreover, it is extremely important in symplectic geometry and Hamiltonian dynamics, and has strong correlations with mathematical physics, Lie theory and algebraic geometry (including mirror symmetry). As such, the book will appeal to experts with a wide range of backgrounds.

The articles in this volume are based on lectures from a program on integrable systems and differential geometry held at Taiwan's National Center for Theoretical Sciences. As is well-known, for many soliton equations, the solutions have interpretations as differential geometric objects, and thereby techniques of soliton equations have been successfully applied to the study of geometric problems. The article by Burstall gives a beautiful exposition on isothermic surfaces and theirrelations to integrable systems, and the two articles by Guest give an introduction to quantum cohomology, carry out explicit computations of the quantum cohomology of flag manifolds and Hirzebruch surfaces, and give a survey of Givental's quantum differential equations. The article by Heintze, Liu,and Olmos is on the theory of isoparametric submanifolds in an arbitrary Riemannian manifold, which is related to the n-wave equation when the ambient manifold is Euclidean. Mukai-Hidano and Ohnita present a survey on the moduli space of Yang-Mills-Higgs equations on Riemann surfaces. The article by Terng and Uhlenbeck explains the gauge equivalence of the matrix non-linear Schrödinger equation, the Schrödinger flow on Grassmanian, and the Heisenberg Feromagnetic model. The bookprovides an introduction to integrable systems and their relation to differential geometry. It is suitable for advanced graduate students and research mathematicians. Information for our distributors: Titles in this series are copublished with International Press, Cambridge, MA.