Twistor reductions of the KdV hierarchy (Q1004305)

Symmetry reduction is an important tool to the study of integrable systems. Many integrable systems can be obtained from reductions of other integrable systems and inherit the integrability from their mother systems. When symmetry reduction is applied to the KdV hierarchy, it gives rise to hierarchy of the Painlevé I and Painlevé II equations. A twistor description of these similarity reductions was constructed in the book by \textit{L. J. Mason} and \textit{N. M. J. Woodhouse} [Integrability, self-duality and twistor theory. London Mathematical Society Monographs. New Series. 15. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1996; Zbl 0856.58002)]. This twistor description was constructed in terms of invariant vector bundles in the twistor space. In the present article, the construction of Mason and Woodhouse is generalized to the case of the KdV hierarchy. As a result, twistor spaces of the Painlevé I and Painlevé II hierarchy are obtained as twistor reductions of the KdV hierarchy, that is invariant bundles in the twistor space of the KdV hierarchy.