4-dimensional Chern-Simons theory and integrable field theories

These lecture notes concern the semi-holomorphic 4d Chern-Simons theory and its applications to classical integrable field theories in 2d and in particular integrable sigma-models. After introducing the main properties of the Chern-Simons theory in 3d, we will define its 4d analogue and explain how it is naturally related to the Lax formalism of integrable 2d theories. Moreover, we will explain how varying the boundary conditions imposed on this 4d theory allows to recover various occurences of integrable sigma-models through this construction, in particular illustrating this on two simple examples: the Principal Chiral Model and its Yang-Baxter deformation. These notes were written for the lectures delivered at the school “Integrability, Dualities and Deformations”, that ran from 23 to 27 August 2021 in Santiago de Compostela and virtually.

Special decompositions and linear superpositions of nonlinear systems: BKP and dispersionless BKP equations

The existence of decomposition solutions of the well-known nonlinear BKP hierarchy is analyzed. It is shown that these decompositions provide simple and interesting relationships between classical integrable systems and the BKP hierarchy. Further, some special decomposition solutions display a rare property: they can be linearly superposed. With the emphasis on the case of the fifth BKP equation, the structure characteristic having linear superposition solutions is analyzed. Finally, we obtain similar superposed solutions in the dispersionless BKP hierarchy.

4D Chern–Simons theory and affine Gaudin models

We relate two formalisms recently proposed for describing classical integrable field theories. The first (Costello and Yamazaki in Gauge Theory and Integrability, III, 2019) is based on the action of four-dimensional Chern–Simons theory introduced and studied by Costello, Witten and Yamazaki. The second (Costello and Yamazaki, in Gauge Theory and Integrability, III, 2017) makes use of classical generalised Gaudin models associated with untwisted affine Kac–Moody algebras.

Integrable Systems of Double Ramification Type

In this paper we study various aspects of the double ramification (DR) hierarchy, introduced by the 1st author, and its quantization. We extend the notion of tau-symmetry to quantum integrable hierarchies and prove that the quantum DR hierarchy enjoys this property. We determine explicitly the genus $1$ quantum correction and, as an application, compute completely the quantization of the $3$- and $4$-KdV hierarchies (the DR hierarchies for Witten’s $3$- and $4$-spin theories). We then focus on the recursion relation satisfied by the DR Hamiltonian densities and, abstracting from its geometric origin, we use it to characterize and construct a new family of quantum and classical integrable systems that we call of DR type, as they satisfy all of the main properties of the DR hierarchy. In the 2nd part, we obtain new insight towards the Miura equivalence conjecture between the DR and Dubrovin-Zhang (DZ) hierarchies, via a geometric interpretation of the correlators forming the DR tau-function. We then show that the candidate Miura transformation between the DR and DZ hierarchies (which we uniquely identified in our previous paper) indeed turns the DZ Poisson structure into the standard form. Eventually, we focus on integrable hierarchies associated with rank-$1$ cohomological field theories and their deformations, and we prove the DR/DZ equivalence conjecture up to genus $5$ in this context.

Spin versions of the complex trigonometric Ruijsenaars–Schneider model from cyclic quivers

We study multiplicative quiver varieties associated to specific extensions of cyclic quivers with $m\geq 2$ vertices. Their global Poisson structure is characterized by quasi-Hamiltonian algebras related to these quivers, which were studied by Van den Bergh for an arbitrary quiver. We show that the spaces are generically isomorphic to the case $m=1$ corresponding to an extended Jordan quiver. This provides a set of local coordinates, which we use to interpret integrable systems as spin variants of the trigonometric Ruijsenaars–Schneider (RS) system. This generalizes to new spin cases recent works on classical integrable systems in the RS family.

Generalized hydrodynamics of classical integrable field theory: the sinh-Gordon model

Using generalized hydrodynamics (GHD), we develop the Euler hydrodynamics of classical integrable field theory. Classical field GHD is based on a known formalism for Gibbs ensembles of classical fields, that resembles the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz of quantum models, which we extend to generalized Gibbs ensembles (GGEs). In general, GHD must take into account both solitonic and radiative modes of classical fields. We observe that the quasi-particle formulation of GHD remains valid for radiative modes, even though these do not display particle-like properties in their precise dynamics. We point out that because of a UV catastrophe similar to that of black body radiation, radiative modes suffer from divergences that restrict the set of finite-average observables; this set is larger for GGEs with higher conserved charges. We concentrate on the sinh-Gordon model, which only has radiative modes, and study transport in the domain-wall initial problem as well as Euler-scale correlations in GGEs. We confirm a variety of exact GHD predictions, including those coming from hydrodynamic projection theory, by comparing with Metropolis numerical evaluations.