The space of monodromy data for the Jimbo-Sakai family of \(q\)-difference equations (Q2664030)

This paper is a first step towards a formulation of a Riemann-Hilbert correspondence for the q-analogs of the classical differential Painlevé equations. For the q-Painlevé equations, the \textit{left-hand side} of the Riemann-Hilbert correspondence was worked out in [\textit{H. Sakai}, Commun. Math. Phys. 220, No. 1, 165--229 (2001; Zbl 1010.34083)]. But on the \textit{right-hand side} the q-analogs of the character varieties are not known. In the present paper the focus is on the Jimbo-Sakai q-Painlevé VI equation for fixed generic values of the ``local parameters'' as first described in [\textit{M. Jimbo} and \textit{H. Sakai}, Lett. Math. Phys. 38, No. 2, 145--154 (1996; Zbl 0859.39006)]. The authors consider a family of \(q\)-difference systems \(\sigma_q X = AX\) where \(A\) belongs to a subspace (defined by conditions on the local data) of the space \[\{A = A_0+xA_1+ x^2A_2 \in\operatorname{Mat}_2 (\mathbb C[x]), \, A_0, A_2\in\operatorname{GL}_2(\mathbb C), \, A_1 \in \operatorname{Mat}_2(\mathbb C)\}.\] The authors define a space \(\mathcal F\) of monodromy data modulo equivalence as the right-hand side alluded to above; it is called the space of monodromy data or the q-character variety. A first geometric description of \(\mathcal F\) as an algebraic surface is given. Now the authors associate to the \(q\)-difference system a matrix \(M\) which is a variant of Birkhoff connection matrix. The crucial new technique of this paper is developed under the name of ``Mano decomposition'', since it is inspired by [\textit{T. Mano}, Nonlinearity 23, No. 7, 1585--1608 (2010; Zbl 1202.39006)]. The Mano decomposition can be understood as providing a splitting of the global monodromy around the four intermediate singularities into local monodromies around two pairs of singularities. The Mano decompositions are used to describe parameterizations of \(\mathcal F\) that are q-analogs of the classical parametrizations of the Fricke cubic surface (the character variety of PVI) associated to a pant decomposition; see [\textit{N. Iorgov} et al., Commun. Math. Phys. 336, No. 2, 671--694 (2015; Zbl 1311.30029)].