We investigate the relation between pluri-Lagrangian hierarchies of $2$-dimensional partial differential equations and their variational symmetries. The aim is to generalize to the case of partial differential equations the recent findings in [Petrera, Suris. J. Nonlinear Math. Phys. 24:sup1, 121--145 (2017)] for ordinary differential equations. We consider hierarchies of $2$-dimensional Lagrangian PDEs (many of which have a natural $(1+1)$-dimensional space-time interpretation) and show that if the flow of each PDE is a variational symmetry of all others, then there exists a pluri-Lagrangian 2-form for the hierarchy. The corresponding multi-time Euler-Lagrange equations coincide with the original system supplied with commuting evolutionary flows induced by the variational symmetries.
We develop the concept of pluri-Lagrangian structures for integrable hierarchies. This is a continuous counterpart of the pluri-Lagrangian (or Lagrangian multiform) theory of integrable lattice systems. We derive the multi-time Euler Lagrange equations in their full generality for hierarchies of two-dimensional systems, and construct a pluri-Lagrangian formulation of the potential Korteweg-de Vries hierarchy.
A pluri-Lagrangian (or Lagrangian multiform) structure is an attribute of integrability that has mainly been studied in the context of multidimensionally consistent lattice equations. It unifies multidimensional consistency with the variational character of the equations. An analogous continuous structure exists for integrable hierarchies of differential equations. We present a continuum limit procedure for pluri-Lagrangian systems. In this procedure the lattice parameters are interpreted as Miwa variables, describing a particular embedding in continuous multi-time of the mesh on which the dis…
This paper develops the technique of constructing Lax representations for PDEs via non-central extensions generated by non-triivial exotic 2-cocycles of their contact symmetry algebras. We show that the method is applicable to the Lax representations with non-removable spectral parameters. Also we demonstrate that natural extensions of the symmetry algebras produce the integrable hierarchies associated to their PDEs.
A pluri-Lagrangian structure is an attribute of integrability for lattice equations and for hierarchies of differential equations. It combines the notion of multi-dimensional consistency (in the discrete case) or commutativity of the flows (in the continuous case) with a variational principle. Recently we developed a continuum limit procedure for pluri-Lagrangian systems, which we now apply to most of the ABS list and some members of the lattice Gelfand-Dickey hierarchy. We obtain pluri-Lagrangian structures for many hierarchies of integrable PDEs for which such structures where previously unk…
We here present two different hierarchies of PDEs in 1+1 dimensions whose first and second member are the shallow water wave Camassa-Holm and Qiao equations, correspondingly. These two hierarchies can be transformed by reciprocal methods into the Calogero-Bogoyanlevski-Schiff equation (CBS) and its modified version (mCBS), respectively. Considering that there exists a Miura transformation between the CBS and mCBS, we shall obtain a relation between the initial hierarchies by means of a composition of a Miura and reciprocal transforms.
For an arbitrary semisimple Frobenius manifold we construct Hodge integrable hierarchy of Hamiltonian partial differential equations. In the particular case of quantum cohomology the tau-function of a solution to the hierarchy generates the intersection numbers of the Gromov--Witten classes and their descendents along with the characteristic classes of Hodge bundles on the moduli spaces of stable maps. For the one-dimensional Frobenius manifold the Hodge hierarchy is a deformation of the Korteweg--de Vries hierarchy depending on an infinite number of parameters. Conjecturally this hierarchy is…
We discuss, in the framework of Dubrovin-Zhang's perturbative approach to integrable evolutionary PDEs in 1+1 dimensions, the role of a special class of Poisson pencils, called exact Poisson pencils. In particular we show that, in the semisimple case, exactness of the pencil is equivalent to the constancy of the so-called "central invariants" of the theory that were introduced by Dubrovin, Liu and Zhang.
Cohomological and Poisson structures associated with the special tautological subbundles $TB_{W_{1,2,\dots,n}}$ for the Birkhoff strata of Sato Grassmannian are considered. It is shown that the tangent bundles of $TB_{W_{1,2,\dots,n}}$ are isomorphic to the linear spaces of $2-$coboundaries with vanishing Harrison's cohomology modules. Special class of 2-coboundaries is provided by the systems of integrable quasilinear PDEs. For the big cell it is the dKP hierarchy. It is demonstrated also that the families of ideals for algebraic varieties in $TB_{W_{1,2,\dots,n}}$ can be viewed as the Poisso…
A tau function of the 2D Toda hierarchy can be obtained from a generating function of the two-partition cubic Hodge integrals. The associated Lax operators turn out to satisfy an algebraic relation. This algebraic relation can be used to identify a reduced system of the 2D Toda hierarchy that emerges when the parameter $τ$ of the cubic Hodge integrals takes a special value. Integrable hierarchies of the Volterra type are shown to be such reduced systems. They can be derived for positive rational values of $τ$. In particular, the discrete series $τ= 1,2,\ldots$ correspond to the Volterra lattic…
We consider the generalized matrix non-linear Schrodinger (NLS) hierarchy. By employing the universal Darboux-dressing scheme we derive solutions for the hierarchy of integrable PDEs via solutions of the matrix Gelfand-Levitan-Marchenko equation, and we also identify recursion relations that yield the Lax pairs for the whole matrix NLS-type hierarchy. These results are obtained considering either matrix-integral or general $n^{th}$ order matrix-differential operators as Darboux-dressing transformations. In this framework special links with the Airy and Burgers equations are also discussed. The…
Paraconformal or $GL(2)$ geometry on an $n$-dimensional manifold $M$ is defined by a field of rational normal curves of degree $n-1$ in the projectivised cotangent bundle $\mathbb{P} T^*M$. Such geometry is known to arise on solution spaces of ODEs with vanishing Wünschmann (Doubrov-Wilczynski) invariants. In this paper we discuss yet another natural source of $GL(2)$ structures, namely dispersionless integrable hierarchies of PDEs (for instance the dKP hierarchy). In the latter context, $GL(2)$ structures coincide with the characteristic variety (principal symbol) of the hierarchy. Dispersion…
In the recent paper by one of the authors (MBS) and A. A. Malykh on the classification of second-order PDEs with four independent variables that possess partner symmetries (J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. Vol. 42 (2009) 395202 (20pp)), mixed heavenly equation and Husain equation appear as closely related canonical equations admitting partner symmetries. Here for the mixed heavenly equation and Husain equation, formulated in a two-component form, we present recursion operators, Lax pairs of Olver-Ibragimov-Shabat type and discover their Lagrangians, symplectic and bi-Hamiltonian structure. We obtain a…
We present a variational theory of integrable differential-difference equations (semi-discrete integrable systems). This is a natural extension of the ideas known by the names "Lagrangian multiforms" and "Pluri-Lagrangian systems", which have previously been established in both the fully discrete and fully continuous cases. The main feature of these ideas is to capture a hierarchy of commuting equations in a single variational principle. Our main example to illustrate the new semi-discrete theory of Lagrangian multiforms is the Toda lattice. This ODE describes the evolution in continuous time …
