Magnetic impurities, integrable vortices and the Toda equation (Q2046841)

The authors generalize known exotic vortex equations including an impurity field and discussing when they remain integrable. More specifically, the five integrable vortex equations recently studied by \textit{N. S. Manton} [J. Phys. A, Math. Theor. 50, No. 12, Article ID 125403, 16 p. (2017; Zbl 1362.81070)] are generalized to include magnetic impurities of Tong-Wong type. Under certain conditions, these generalizations remain integrable. The authors set up a gauge theory with a product gauge group, two complex scalar fields and a general charge matrix. The second species of vortices, when frozen, is interpreted as the magnetic impurity for all five vortex equations. They give a geometric compatibility condition, which enables them to remove the constant term in all the equations. This is similar to the reduction from the Taubes equation to the Liouville equation. The authors find a family of charge matrices that turn the five vortex equations into either the Toda equation or the Toda equation with opposite sign. They find exact analytic solutions in all cases and the solution with the opposite sign appears to be new. This paper is organized as follows. Section 1 is an introduction to the subject. In Section 2, the authors review the five exotic vortex equations. In Section 3, they generalize the exotic vortex equations to include magnetic impurities. In Section 4, the authors set up the gauge theory with product gauge groups for exotic vortices with a generic charge matrix and find the geometric compatibility condition. They find the solution for the charge matrix that reduces the coupled vortex equations to integrable Toda equations. They re-derive the magnetic impurity as a frozen second species of vortex. Then they consider some examples of nonintegrable vortex equations and give an example of a numerical solution. Finally, the authors conclude the paper with a discussion in Section 5.