Manin involutions for elliptic pencils and discrete integrable systems (Q830514)

This paper discusses a connection between integrable systems and algebraic geometry. More precisely, the authors address this connection for a basic class of integrable systems, namely for discrete integrable systems generated by birational maps of \(\mathbb{CP}^2\) with a rational integral of motion and an invariant measure with a rational density (whereas the emphasis is put on the integral of motion). For such systems the orbits are confined to invariant curves (level sets of the integral), and on each invariant curve the map induces an automorphism. In this paper, the authors are interested in the construction of integrable maps preserving a pencil of elliptic curves, based only on the pencil itself. The basic idea is to compose two (noncommuting) birational involutions preserving the pencil. This construction is almost obvious for QRT maps (see [\textit{J. J. Duistermaat}, Discrete integrable systems. QRT maps and elliptic surfaces. Berlin: Springer (2010; Zbl 1219.14001); \textit{G. R. W. Quispel} et al., Physica D 34, No. 1--2, 183--192 (1989; Zbl 0679.58024); \textit{T. Tsuda}, J. Phys. A, Math. Gen. 37, No. 7, 2721--2730 (2004; Zbl 1060.14051)]), where one can always use the horizontal and the vertical switches as suitable involutions (the horizontal switch assigns to any point of a biquadratic curve the second intersection point of the curve with the horizontal line through the original point; the definition of the vertical switch is analogous). The authors contribute to the algebraic-geometric study of discrete integrable systems generated by planar birational maps. They use Manin involutions for elliptic pencils to construct integrable dynamical systems. The contribution of this paper is two-fold: First, it is about finding a geometric description of Manin involutions for elliptic pencil consisting of curves of higher degree, birationally equivalent to cubic pencils (Halphen pencils of index 1). Secondly, the contribution consists in characterizing special geometry of base points ensuring that certain compositions of Manin involutions are integrable maps of low degree (quadratic Cremona maps). In particular, they identify some integrable Kahan discretizations as compositions of Manin involutions for elliptic pencils of higher degree. This paper is organized as follows: Section 1 is an introduction to the subject. Section 2 is devoted to elliptic pencils and cubic pencils, and Section 3 to Manin involutions. Section 4 deals with an example concerning a quartic pencil with two double base points. Section 5 deals with another example about a sextic pencil with three double base points and two triple base points. Section 6 is to devoted to quadratic Manin maps for special cubic pencils, Section 7 to quadratic Manin maps for special pencils of the type (\(4\); \(8^12^2\)), and Section 8 to quadratic Manin maps for special pencils of the type (\(6\); \(6^13^22^3\)). Finally, the authors summarize and discuss in Section 9 the results obtained in this paper.