The Atiyah-Hitchin bracket and the open Toda lattice. (Q1811987)

This paper's manifesto is that the complete integrability of the space of tridiagonal matrices belongs not only in the area of Hamiltonian mechanics and symplectic geometry, but also in classical complex analysis in one variable. In his innovative and beautiful approach to the integration of the finite nonperiodic Toda lattices, the author focuses on the ``Weyl function'', obtained from the resolvent \(R(\lambda )=(L-\lambda I)^{-1}\) of a tridiagonal matrix \(L\). \(L\) is the tridiagonal (Jacobi) matrix whose Lax-pair deformation \(\dot{L}=[P,L]\) is equivalent to the Toda-lattice system, with Hamiltonian \[ H=\sum_{k=0}^{N-1}{p_k^2\over 2}+\sum_{k=0}^{N-2}{\mathbf e}^{q_k-q_{k+1}}. \] The Weyl functions are put in the context of what the author calls \(R\)-functions, following \textit{I. S. Kac} and \textit{M. G. Krein} [Am. Math. Soc., Translat., II. Ser. 103, 1--18 (1974; Zbl 0291.34016)]. In fact a more classical name for the same concept is that of Herglotz functions (cf. Appendix I in: \textit{F. Gesztesy} and \textit{H. Holden} [Soliton equations and their algebro-geometric solutions. I: \((1+1)\)-dimensional continuous models, Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics, 79, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2003; Zbl 1061.37056)]. The definition is that of analytic functions of the upper-half plane, that obey the Schwarz reflection principle: \(w(\bar{z})=\overline{w(z)}\). Diagonal Green's functions of Schrödinger operators are Herglotz functions. On the space of polynomial Weyl functions, the author defines an Atiyah-Hitchin Poisson structure, \[ \{ w(\lambda ),w(\mu )\} ={(w(\lambda )-w(\mu ))^2\over \lambda -\mu}, \] invariant under linear fractional transformations of \(\lambda\). The author identifies two sets of action-angle variables for the Toda system in (the Dirac reduction of) canonical Poisson coordinates suggested by the action of \(\text{ SL}(2,\mathbb C)\) and notices that the system is self-dual in the sense of \textit{V. Fock, A. Gorsky, N. Nekrasov} and \textit{V. Rubtsov} [Duality in integrable systems and gauge theories, J. High Energy Phys. 4, No. 7, Paper No.07(2000)028 (2000; Zbl 0965.81025)]. An interpretation for the action-angle variables in terms of the Abel map of a (singular) spectral curve is reported; the original is found in: \textit{I. Krichever} and \textit{K. L. Vaninsky} [The periodic and open Toda lattice, in: E. D'Hoker (ed.), et al., Mirror symmetry IV, Proceedings of the conference on strings, duality and geometry, CRM, Montréal, Canada, 2000, Providence, RI: AMS; Cambridge, MA: International Press, AMS/IP Stud. Adv. Math. 33, 139--158 (2002; Zbl 1119.37333)].