The dependence on the monodromy data of the isomonodromic tau function (Q625466)

In the eighties, Jimbo, Miwa and Ueno derived a set of algebraic nonlinear equations describing deformations of a rational connection on \(\mathbb{P}^1\) which preserve the generalized monodromy data. A closed differential \(\omega_{JMU}\) exists on the space of deformation parameters, namely, on the space of ``isodromic times'' which is denoted collectively by \(\vec{t}\). In the simplest case of Fuchsian singularities, \[ \Psi '(z)=A(z)\Psi (z), \;\;\Psi (\infty )=1, \;\;A(z)=\sum_{j=1}^{K}\frac{A_j}{z-a_j}, \;\;\sum A_j=0, \] the isodromic deformation equations \[ \delta A_k=-\sum\limits_{j\neq k}[A_k,A_j]\frac{\delta(a_k-a_j)}{a_k-a_j}, \;\;\delta\equiv \sum da_j\partial_{a_j}, \] are studied by Schlesinger (1912), and the Jimbo-Miwa-Ueno differential reads \[ \omega_{JMU}=(1/2)\sum_{j,k,j\neq k}Tr(A_jA_k)\frac{\delta(a_j-a_k)}{a_j-a_k}. \] The integral of the closed differential is the ``isomonodromic tau function'', \[ \tau_{JMU}(\vec{t},\vec{m})=e^{\int\omega_{JMU}}, \] and the Painlevé property translates to the fact that \(\tau_{JMU}\) is a holomorphic function of the isomonodromic times that has only zeroes away from an explicit set of times where it has a branching behavior. The author discusses some interesting questions. For instance, what is the essential dependence of \(\tau_{JMU}\) on the monodromy data? Moreover, can we define an extended closed differential \(\Omega \) on the total phase space of the problem that coincides with \(\omega_{JMU}\) on the isomonodromic submanifold, namely \[ \omega_{ext}=\sum_{j}f_j(\vec{t},\vec{m})dt_j+\sum_{\nu }G_{\nu }(\vec{t},\vec{m})dm_{\nu }, \] \[ \partial_{m_{\nu }}f_k=\partial_{t_k}G_{\nu }. \] A sensible problem discussed by the author is the following: The ``natural'' extended closed differential \(\omega_{ext}\) to be formulated so that its tau function \(\tau_{ext }(\vec{t},\vec{m})=e^{\int\omega_{ext}}\) vanishes only on the Malgrange divisor in the phase of isomonodromic times \(\vec{t}\) and monodromic data \(\vec{m}\).