What is a classical r-matrix? (Q791220)

Classical r-matrices were introduced as a useful tool to deal with the Poisson bracket relations for classical integrable systems. They are a natural counterpart to R. Baxter's quantum matrices. Their study was initiated by the Leningrad group (L. S. Faddeev, E. Sklyanin et al.); important contributions are due to \textit{A. A. Belavin} and \textit{V. G. Drinfel'd} [ibid. 16, No.3, 1-29 (1982; Zbl 0504.22016)]. The work under review relates classical r-matrices to the Riemann problem method, the main observation being that the two approaches are essentially equivalent. Namely, each r-matrix satisfying the (modified) classical Yang-Baxter identity defines a well-posed factorization problem. Conversely, Poisson bracket relations are implicit in factorization problems associated with integrable Lax equations and they always may be cast in r-matrix form. Other topics covered by the paper are quadratic Poisson brackets associated with integrable systems on a lattice, a dimension extension procedure and classification problem.