Kac-Moody monopoles and periodic instantons (Q913297)

The basic observation of this paper is that the self-duality equations for a periodic instanton with structure group G can be re-interpreted as the Bogomolny equations for a monopole with structure group the loop group LG of G (or rather its semi-direct product with the circle group \(S^ 1\) acting by rigid rotations). A solution to either set of equations is called a caloron, following Nahm. The first interpretation shows that a caloron is equivalent to a holomorphic bundle \(\hat T\) over the twistor space of \(S^ 1\times R^ 3\); the second that it is equivalent to a holomorphic bundle of infinite rank over the minitwistor space \(TP_ 1\). The geometric relation between the two points of view is that \(\hat T\) is a \(C^{\times}\)-bundle over \(TP_ 1\), and the two holomorphic bundles are related by pushing down the fibres. It is also shown that the spectral data of a caloron is a collection of curves indexed by the extended Dynkin diagram of G, i.e. by the Dynkin diagram of LG.