Coloured Alexander polynomials and KP hierarchy (Q1738454)

The authors study the relation between the scaling 1-hook property of the coloured Alexander polynomial $\mathcal {A}_R^{\mathcal{K}}\left( q \right)$ and the KP hierarchy. The Alexander polynomial arises as a special case of the HOMFLY polynomial $\mathcal {H}_R^{\mathcal{K}}\left(q,a \right)$ of the knot $\mathcal{K}$ coloured with representation $R$ [\textit{E. Witten}, Commun. Math. Phys. 121, No. 3, 351--399 (1989; Zbl 0667.57005); \textit{ D. Bar-Natan}, J. Knot Theory Ramifications 4, No. 4, 503--547 (1995; Zbl 0861.57009)]: \[{\mathcal {H}}_R^{\mathcal {K}}\left( {q,a} \right) = \frac{1} {Z}\int {DA{e^{ - \frac{i} {\hbar }{S_{CS}}\left[ A \right]}}{W_R}\left( {K,A} \right)}, \] where the Wilson loop is \[{W_R}\left( {K,A} \right) = {\text{t}}{{\text{r}}_R}P \exp \left( {\oint {A_\mu ^a\left( {\text{x}} \right){T^a}d{{\text{x}}^\mu }} } \right),\] and the Chern-Simons action is \[{S_{CS}}\left[ A \right] = \frac{\kappa } {{4\pi }}\int\limits_M {\text{Tr} \left( {A \wedge dA + \frac{2} {3}A \wedge A \wedge A} \right)}, \] with $q = {e^\hbar },a = N\hbar $ and $\hbar = \frac{{2\pi i}} {{\kappa + N}}.$ The limiting case $\hbar \to 0,N \to \infty $ such that $N\hbar$ remains fixed, i.e., $q=1$, of the HOMFLY polynomials gives the special polynomials ${\mathcal {H}}_R^{\mathcal {K}}\left( {q,a} \right) = \sigma _R^{\mathcal {K}}\left( a \right)$, whose $R$ dependence makes them expressible in the form $\sigma _R^{\mathcal {K}}\left( a \right) = {\left( {\sigma _{\left[ 1 \right]}^{\mathcal {K}}\left( a \right)} \right)^{\left| R \right|}}$ for the Young diagram $R = \left\{ {{R_i}} \right\},{R_1} \geqslant {R_2} \geqslant \ldots \geqslant {R_{l\left( R \right)}},\left| R \right|: = \sum\nolimits_i {{R_i}} $. This provides the construction of a KP $\tau$-function (see for example [\textit{P. Dunin-Barkowski} et al., J. High Energy Phys. 2013, No. 3, Paper No. 021, 85 p. (2013; Zbl 1342.57004)]). \par The dual limit as $a \to 1$ of the HOMFLY polynomials, i.e., ${\mathcal {H}}_R^{\mathcal {K}}\left( {q,1} \right)$, for the fundamental representation $R$ gives the Alexander polynomial, the coloured version of which exhibits a dual property with respect to $R$, viz., ${\mathcal {A}}_R^{\mathcal {K}}\left( q \right) = {\mathcal {A}}_{\left[ 1 \right]}^{\mathcal {K}}\left( {{q^{\left| R \right|}}} \right)$, which holds only for the representations corresponding to 1-hook Young diagrams ${R = \left[ {r,{1^L}} \right]}.$ \par In this paper the authors study this property perturbatively and claim that while the special polynomials provide solutions to the KP hierarchy, the Alexander polynomials induce the equations of the KP hierarchy. \par The main result of the paper is stated in Section 5, where, by considering the generating function of the KP hierarchy, replacing the Hirota operators with the Casimir eigenvalues and symmetrizing the identity, the authors find that Hirota KP bilinear equations are satisfied if and only if \({\mathcal {A}}_R^{\mathcal {K}}\left( q \right) = {\mathcal {A}}_{\left[ 1 \right]}^{\mathcal {K}}\left( {{q^{\left| R \right|}}} \right)\). The authors give only the first half of the proof of this result. \par The paper explores interesting connections between the KP hierarchy and the coloured Alexander polynomials.