On the spatial asymptotics of solutions of the Toda lattice (Q977939)

The author of this interesting paper studies the spatial asymptotics of decaying solutions of the Toda hierarchy. The Toda lattice mathematical model in Flaschka's variables has the form, \[ da(n,t)/dt=a(n,t)[b(n+1,t)-b(n,t)], \;\;\;\;db(n,t)/dt=2[a^2(n,t)-a^2(n-1,t)], \;\;n\in\mathbb Z. \] The main result is that the asymptotic behaviour can be preserved by the time evolution. This implies for example that \(a(n,t)\) and \(b(n,t)\) have the form \[ a(n,t)=1/2 + \alpha /n^{\delta }+ O(1/n^{\delta +\varepsilon }), \] \[ b(n,t)= \beta /n^{\delta }+ O(1/n^{\delta +\varepsilon }), \;\;\;\;n\to \infty , \] provided this holds for the initial condition \(t=0\). Here \(\alpha ,\beta \in\mathbb R\), \(t\in\mathbb R\), \(\delta \geq 0\), \(0<\varepsilon \leq 1\). It is shown that even the leading term is preserved by the time evolution. It turns out that this result is valid not only for the entire Toda hierarchy but also for the Kac-van Moerbeke hierarchy.