The symplectic and twistor geometry of the general isomonodromic deformation problem (Q5946010)

This paper deals with a twistor treatment of the isomonodromic deformation problem for systems of linear ordinary differential equations of the form \((\ast)\) \(dy+\alpha y=0\) where \(\alpha\) is a meromorphic \(1\)-form on a compact Riemann surface \(X\) with values in the Lie algebra \(\mathfrak g\) of a complex Lie group \(G\). The main ideas come (as is noticed by the author) from the Hitchin's correspondence [J. Differ. Geom. 42, 30--112 (1995; Zbl 0861.53049)] between the twistor space of self-dual \(4\)-manifolds with \(\text{SU}(2)\) symmetry and isomonodromic families of ordinary differential equations. The author shows that to any system \((\ast)\) corresponds a complex manifold \({\mathcal Z}\) (\(\dim {\mathcal Z}=\dim \mathfrak g\)), its twistor space, with the properties that \(X\) is holomorphically embedded in \({\mathcal Z}\) and the Lie algebra \(\mathfrak g\) generates holomorphic vector fields on \({\mathcal Z}\); conversely, any complex manifold with these properties determines a system of the form \((\ast)\) on \(X\). The twistor space of a system \((\ast)\) is not unique and the author introduces a class of twistor spaces called ``full''. He shows that such a twistor space exists for a generic system \((\ast)\) with \(G=\text{SL}(n,{\mathbb C})\) and is unique in a neighbourhood of \(X\). The full twistor spaces play an essential role in the twistor theory of the systems \((\ast)\) since, if a certain obstruction vanishes, every isomonodromic deformation of a generic system \((\ast)\) can be obtained by deforming \(X\) in a full twistor spaces \({\mathcal Z}\). The author also gives a description of the deformations of a system \((\ast)\) on \({\mathbb C}{\mathbb P}^1\) in terms of Hamiltonian flows on a symplectic manifold constructed from affine orbits in the dual algebra of the loop algebra \(L{\mathfrak g}\). The paper ends with an appendix presenting the basic facts of the theory of isomonodromic deformations for systems of type \((\ast)\).