An area-preserving action of the modular group on cubic surfaces and the Painlevé VI equation (Q1416946)

The author finds an action of the modular group on the monodromy surface associated to Painlevé sixth equation P\(_{V\!I}\) and describes a geometrical background behind his construction. The author starts with a detailed description of Jimbo's parametrization of the monodromy data \(M_j\), \(j=1,2,3\), associated to P\(_{V\!I}\), via the parameters \(x_i=\text{ Tr}(M_kM_j)\), \(a_i=\text{ Tr} M_i\), \(a_4=\text{ Tr}(M_3M_2M_1)\). The parameters \(a_i\), \(i=1,\dots,4\), correspond to local monodromy data around punctures \(t_i\), \(i=1,\dots,4\), \(t_4=\infty\), and thus to constant parameters in P\(_{\text{V\!I}}\). The parameters \(x_i\) satisfy a cubic equation and parameterize the set of initial conditions to P\(_{\text{V\!I}}\). Using the de Rham cohomology language the author describes a tangent space to the space of the monodromy data. Then, computing infinitesimal variations of the monodromy data, he finds explicitly a natural symplectic structure \(\omega_a\) on the above cubic surface. The braid group, i.e., the group of permutations of the punctures \(t_i\), whose action on the monodromy data has been found by Dubrovin and Mazzocco, is an image of the full modular group under a surjective homomorphism. The author shows that the action of the braid group preserves the symplectic structure \(\omega_a\).