Geometrical aspects of Schlesinger's equation (Q1377249)

This very interesting paper interprets the classical differential equation of Schlesinger in terms of a projective structure on a complex surface and relates its solutions to the symplectic geometry of the moduli space of representations of the fundamental group of a quadruply-punctured sphere \(S\) in \(SL (2, \mathbb{C})\). A projective structure on a manifold \(M\) can be defined as a projective equivalence class of affine connections. Two affine connections are said to be projectively equivalent if they possess the same unparametrized geodesics. Thus a projective structure gives a well-defined 1-dimensional foliation of the projectivized tangent bundle \(PTM\). For a geodesically convex neighborhood \(U\subset M\), the leaf space \(U^*\) is a manifold of dimension \(2\dim(M) - 2\) and possesses an interesting geometry of its own. In dimension two, É.\ Cartan proved that the geodesics of a projective structure are defined by a differential equation of the form \[ \frac{d^2 y}{dx^2} = F\left(\frac{dy}{dx}\right) \] where \(F(u)\) is a cubic polynomial in \(u\) whose coefficients are functions of local coordinates \((x,y)\). The present paper considers the case when \(M\) is a complex surface and the projective structure is holomorphic, that is, the affine connections are holomorphic affine connections on \(M\). In that case, the points of \(U\) determine lines in \(U^*\) of self-intersection number 1, generalizing the duality between points and lines in the projective plane. The geometry of \(U^*\) with this family of lines determines the projective structure on \(U\). A significant feature of this correspondence is that although \(U\) has only a local rigid geometry (a projective structure), the geometry of its dual \(U^*\) is locally trivial (\(U^*\) is just a complex manifold) but its global structure (the collection of lines) reflects the geometry of \(U\). This paper discusses an important example of this construction. Start with a connection on the trivial rank two trivial bundle over \(\mathbb C \times V\) where \(V\subset\mathbb C^3\) is an open subset. The connection is defined by a meromorphic matrix-valued 1-form \[ A = \sum_{k=1}^3 A_k \frac{dz-dx_k}{z-x_k} \] where \(z\in\mathbb C\) and \((x_1,x_2,x_3)\in V\) and \(A_k:V\longrightarrow {\mathfrak{gl}}(2,\mathbb C)\) is holomorphic. For fixed \((x_1,x_2,x_3)\in V\), the 1-form \(A\) has simple poles at \(x_1,x_2,x_3\) with residues \(A_1(x)\), \(A_2(x)\), \(A_3(x)\) and \(\infty\) with residue \(A_4(x)\). By the vanishing of the sum of the residues of a meromorphic 1-form on a closed Riemann surface, \[ A_1 + A_2 + A_3 + A_4 = 0. \] Then Schlesinger's equation is the condition that the associated connection is flat: \(dA + \frac 12 [A,A] = 0\). Although this construction works in general, for any rank \(m\) and number of points \(n\), one obtains a two-dimensional moduli space for \(m=2\) and \(n=3\). To obtain a surface \(M\) with an affine connection (with a resulting projective structure), normalize the parameter \(x\in V\) to \((x_1,x_2,x_3) = (0,1,t)\) by applying an affine transformation of \(\mathbb C\). Then \(A\) may be regarded as a connection on a holomorphic rank two vector bundle over \(S = \text{P}^1 -\{0,1,t,\infty\}.\) Schlesinger's equation reduces to the system \[ \begin{aligned} \frac{d A_1}{dt} & = \frac{[A_3,A_1]}{t}, \\ \frac{d A_2}{dt} & = \frac{[A_3,A_2]}{t-1}, \\ \frac{d A_3}{dt} & = \frac{[A_1,A_3]}{t} + \frac{[A_2,A_3]}{t-1}, \\ \frac{d A_4}{dt} & = 0.\end{aligned} \] By writing each of these equations in Lax form, one sees that each \(A_k(t)\) (for \(k=1,2,3,4\)) lies in a single conjugacy class \({\mathcal O}_k\in{\mathfrak {sl}}(2, \mathbb{C})\). The moduli space \(M\) is thus determined by four adjoint orbits \[ {\mathcal O}_1,{\mathcal O}_2,{\mathcal O}_3,{\mathcal O}_4\in SL(2,\mathbb{C}), \] and the two-dimensional moduli space \(M\) is the quotient of \[ \{ (A_1,A_2,A_3,A_4)\in {\mathcal O}_1\times{\mathcal O}_2\times{\mathcal O}_3\times{\mathcal O}_4 \mid A_1 + A_2 + A_3 + A_4 = 0 \} \] (which has dimension five) by \(SL (2,\mathbb{C})\). Schlesinger's equation then determines flows (varying with \(t\)) on \(M\) (assuming no \(A_k\) is zero). The functions \[ x= \text{tr}(A_1A_3), \qquad y= \text{tr} (A_2A_3) \] define local coordinates on \(M\). By differentiating the above system, one obtains a system of equations on \(M\) equivalent to the geodesic equations for an affine connection on \(M\). Thus (Proposition 1), Schlesinger's equation defines a projective structure on \(M\). This equation is equivalent to Painlevé's sixth equation and cannot be solved explicitly. However, \(U^*\) possesses a Poisson geometry which can be used to study the geometry resulting from Schlesinger's equation. The Wronskian of two solutions of the linearization of Cartan's equation for \(y(x)\) (tangent vectors to \(U^*\)) is seen to be constant, from which one obtains an exterior 2-form on \(U^*\). This exterior 2-form is singular along a divisor \(D\subset U^*\) with three components. The paper explicitly determines this 2-form for the system arising from Schlesinger's equation. For a solution \(z(t)\) of Schlesinger's equation, the monodromy matrices \(A_k(z_t)\) remain in a fixed conjugacy class, and hence solutions define isomonodromic representations of the fundamental group of a quadruply-punctured sphere. (A family of representations of \(\pi_1(S)\) is said to be isomonodromic if for each boundary component \(b_k\subset\partial S\) the representations of \(\pi_1(b_k)\) remain in a single conjugacy class.) Furthermore, the braid group \(H(3)\) (which appears as a mapping class group of \(S\)) acts on the space \(\mathcal M\) of representations whose restriction to each boundary component remains in a fixed conjugacy class \(C_k\) in \(SL(2, \mathbb{C})\). In this way, the complement \(U^*\backslash D\) identifies with a quotient of an open subset of \(\mathcal M\) by \(H(3)\). For fixed conjugacy classes \(C_k\in SL(2, \mathbb{C}\)), the space of equivalence classes of representations of \(\pi_1(S)\) taking \(\pi_1(b_k)\) to \(C_k\) has a natural symplectic structure. This structure induces a symplectic structure on \(\mathcal M\), which is shown to be equivalent to the Poisson structure on \(U^*\) arising from the Wronskian constructed previously. The paper concludes with some speculative remarks concerning degeneration. The projective structure on \(M\) gives, indirectly, an extension of the space of flat connections to a Poisson manifold \(U^*\) containing rational curves and the author proposes a more direct construction using flat connections.