Fredholm determinants and the \(\tau\) function for the Kadomtsev- Petviashvili hierarchy (Q909117)

Summary: The ``dressing method'' of Zakharov and Shabat is applied to the theory of the \(\tau\) function, vertex operators, and the bilinear identity obtained by Sato and his co-workers. The vertex operator identity relating the \(\tau\) function to the Baker-Akhiezer function is obtained from their representations in terms of the Fredholm determinants and minors of the scattering operator appearing in the Gel'fand-Levitan- Marchenko equation. The bilinear identity is extended to wave functions analytic in a left half plane and is proved as a consequence of the inversion theorem and the convolution theorem for the Laplace transform.