Reduction of abelian functions and algebraically integrable systems. I (Q1889945)

This paper is the first part of an extremely well-elaborated and comprehensive survey on the interplay between the theory of abelian functions in complex algebraic geometry, on the one hand, and the structure of certain integrable Hamiltonian systems in mathematical physics on the other. Being a translation from the traditional, high-level Russian encyclopedic series ``Itogi Nauki i Tekhniki, Seriya Sovremennaya Matematika i Ee Prilozheniya, Tematicheskie Obzory'', and originally published there (in Russian) in Vol. 71 (2000), the aim of this survey is to present the reduction theory for abelian functions in a systematic way along with a large number of important examples of its striking applications to some contemporary problems in mathematical and theoretical physics, with a special emphasis on algebraically integrable nonlinear differential equations and Hamiltonian systems. The interrelation between abelian functions and dynamical systems in classical mechanics has a long history which can be traced back to the nineteenth century, mainly due to the works of Jacobi, Neumann, Kovalevskaya, Poincaré, and others. After a longer period of stagnation, the discovery of integrable models in quantum mechanics (H. Bethe) and the appearance of soliton theory caused a revival of the interest in this fascinating connection, and since the 1970s a vast and rapid development in this direction, with many spectacular discoveries and results, is taking place. The application of abelian functions to particular problems in mathematical physics often leads to the crucial question of whether there are manageable conditions under which the abelian functions can be reduced to simpler ones, possibly even to familiar elliptic functions. This is related to the classical reduction theory for abelian functions (after Jacobi, Weierstrass, Poincaré, and others) together with the specific demand for effective constructions of reduction formulas for certain abelian functions in concrete, physically relevant cases. Exactly these contemporary aspects of the classical reduction theory, together with various recent applications to non-classical dynamical systems, constitute the central theme of the comprehensive survey under review. The present first part contains the first three chapters of the entire report. It is basically devoted to the purely mathematical aspects of the reduction theory for abelian functions, both in their classical and more recent fashion. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the subject, and Chapter 2 presents the basic notions of the theory of abelian functions. This chapter is still of preparatory nature inasmuch as it compiles all the material that is necessary for the subsequent discussion of abelian functions of a complex algebraic curve. This includes abelian functions associated with an arbitrary complex torus, theta functions, sigma functions, differentials on hyperelliptic curves, the classical theta formulae (Rosenhain, Thomae), hyperelliptic Kleinian functions in their modern setting, addition theorems, and first applications to the solution of special integrable systems by Kleinian functions (Korteweg-de Vries and sine-Gordon equations). Chapter 3 turns then to the general theory of reduction of abelian functions to such ones of lower genera. This is what is known as the so-called (classical), Weierstrass-Poincaré theory, and the authors follow the historical path in developing the theory. After a detailed discussion of Jacobi's first reduction procedure presented in 1832, Poincaré's theorem on complete reducibility and its forerunner, the Weierstrass reducibility theorem (1849), are presented in likewise detailed manner. This is followed by a description of the more recent general scheme of reduction of abelian functions (via coverings of curves) and the important addition formula of \textit{S. Koizumi} [Am. J. Math. 98, 865--889 (1976; Zbl 0347.14023)]. All the concepts, methods and results presented in this merely classical first part of the survey are then used in Part II [J. Math. Sci., New York 108, No. 3, 295-374 (2002; Zbl 1059.14041)], where special reduction methods for abelian functions and their applications to integrable dynamical systems are the main subjects of discussion.