Twistor correspondences for the soliton hierarchies

In this article we propose a new overview on the theory of integrable systems based on symmetry reduction of the anti-self-dual Yang—Mills equations and its twistor correspondence. First, the non-linear Schrödinger (NS) equations and the Korteweg de Vries (KdV) equations are shown to be symmetry reductions of the anti-self-dual Yang—Mills (ASDYM) equation with real forms of SL (2, ) as gauge groups.

We obtain a twistor correspondence between solutions of the NS and KdV equations and certain holomorphic vector bundles with a symmetry on the total space of the complex line bundle of Chern class two on the Riemann sphere. Remarkably, when the Chern class is increased, the correspondence extends to the NS and KdV hierarchies. If the symmetry condition is dropped we obtain a twistor correspondence for a hierarchy for the Bogomolny equations, which yields the KdV and NS hierarchies when the symmetry is imposed.

The inverse scattering transform is shown to be a coordinate realization of the twistor correspondence. Both the pure solitons and the solitonless cases are treated. The k-soliton solutions arise from the kth “Ward ansatze” in an analogous fashion to the monopole solutions.     

Non-Abelian Tensor Multiplet Equations from Twistor Space

We establish a Penrose–Ward transform yielding a bijection between holomorphic principal 2-bundles over a twistor space and non-Abelian self-dual tensor fields on six-dimensional flat space-time. Extending the twistor space to supertwistor space, we derive sets of manifestly ${\mathcal{N} = (1, 0)}$ and ${\mathcal{N} = (2, 0)}$ supersymmetric non-Abelian constraint equations containing the tensor multiplet. We also demonstrate how this construction leads to constraint equations for non-Abelian supersymmetric self-dual strings.     

On the density of the Ward ansätze in the space of anti-self-dual Yang Mills solutions

A general patching matrixP for the twistor construction of antiself-dual Yang-Mills fields is approximated by a terminating Laurent series. The approximate patching matrixP(^m) is triangularized (so that it becomes one of the Ward ansätze) and the associated Riemann-Hilbert problem is solved, thereby generating an anti-self-dual solution of the Yang-Mills equations. The approximate patching matrices and the associated (exact) anti-self-dual Yang-Mills solutions are then shown to converge onP and its corresponding solution so that the Ward ansätze forms a dense subset in the solution space in the Weierstrass sense.     

Hyper-Kähler Hierarchies and Their Twistor Theory

A twistor construction of the hierarchy associated with the hyper-K?hler equations on a metric (the anti-self-dual Einstein vacuum equations, ASDVE, in four dimensions) is given. The recursion operator R is constructed and used to build an infinite-dimensional symmetry algebra and in particular higher flows for the hyper-K?hler equations. It is shown that R acts on the twistor data by multiplication with a rational function. The structures are illustrated by the example of the Sparling–Tod (Eguchi–Hansen) solution. An extended space-time ? is constructed whose extra dimensions correspond to higher flows of the hierarchy. It is shown that ? is a moduli space of rational curves with normal bundle ?(n)⊕?(n) in twistor space and is canonically equipped with a Lax distribution for ASDVE hierarchies. The space ? is shown to be foliated by four dimensional hyper-K?hler slices. The Lagrangian, Hamiltonian and bi-Hamiltonian formulations of the ASDVE in the form of the heavenly equations are given. The symplectic form on the moduli space of solutions to heavenly equations is derived, and is shown to be compatible with the recursion operator. Received: 27 January 2000 / Accepted: 20 March 2000     

Gauge theories,instantons and algebraic geometry

We review the definition of instanton (= pseudoparticle) solutions and their importance in the context of nonabelian gauge (= Yang-Mills) theories, as well as the recent progress, due to Atiyah and Ward, in their construction, using the Penrose twistor transform and methods of algebraic geometry. In particular, we present a proof of the theorem of Atiyah and Ward on the correspondence between SU(2) instanton solutions over the 4-sphere and certain algebraic 2-dimensional complex vector bundles over complex projective 3-space.     

Minkowski space Yang-Mills fields from Euclidean self-dual fields

It is examined, if it is possible, to obtain solutions of the SU(2) Yang-Mills field equations in Minkowski space from Euclidean self-dual Yang-Mills fields by method proposed by Bernreuther. It is shown that the conditions, which are imposed on the Euclidean self-dual fields by this method, make every Euclidean self-dual field and the corresponding Minkowski space field obtained from it, equivalent to a pure gauge field, F _ab 0.     

N=2 super Yang-Mills theory in projective superspace

We constructN=2 Yang-Mills theory in projective superspace by exploiting the analogy to Ward's twistor construction of self-dual Yang-Mills fields.Work supported in part by NSF grant No. PHY 85-07627     

Instantons and algebraic geometry

Minimum action solutions for SU(2) Yang-Mills fields in Euclidean 4-space correspond, via the Penrose twistor transform, to algebraic bundles on the complex projective 3-space. These bundles in turn correspond to algebraic curves. The implication of these results for the Yang-Mills fields is described. In particular all solutions are rational and can be constructed from a series of AnsätzeA _l forl1.     

Ann monopole solution with 4n — 1 degrees of freedom

An exact static monopole solution, possessingn units of magnetic charge and (4n-1) degrees of freedom, is constructed, generalising the recent work of Ward on two monopole solutions. The equations solved are those of anSU(2) gauge theory with adjoint representation Higgs field in the (BPS) limit of vanishing Higgs potential. The number of degrees of freedom is maximal for self-dual solutions. The construction is described in a deductive way, within the framework of the Atiyah-Ward formalism for self-dual gauge fields.     

Einstein Supergravity and New Twistor String Theories

A family of new twistor string theories is constructed and shown to be free from world-sheet anomalies. The spectra in space-time are calculated and shown to give Einstein supergravities with second order field equations instead of the higher derivative conformal supergravities that arose from earlier twistor strings. The theories include one with the spectrum of N = 8 supergravity, another with the spectrum of N = 4 supergravity coupled to N = 4 super-Yang-Mills, and a family with N ≥ 0 supersymmetries with the spectra of self-dual supergravity coupled to self-dual super-Yang-Mills. The non-supersymmetric string with N = 0 gives self-dual gravity coupled to self-dual Yang-Mills and a scalar. A three-graviton amplitude is calculated for the N = 8 and N = 4 theories and shown to give a result consistent with the cubic interaction of Einstein supergravity.     

Uniqueness of the solutions of sigma models in non-Riemannian background

It is proved that the boundary value problems of some sigma-models in a non-Riemannian background have unique solutions. Sigma models on Riemannian backgrounds, sigma models with a Wess-Zumino-Witten term, the Ward model, and the self-dual Yang-Mills equations are among these models.     

On the configuration of classical Yang-Mills fields with topological charge <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis> = 4

The solutions of the nonlinear matrix equation in the Atiyah-Hitchin-Drifeld-Manin (AHDM) construction that determine the Yang-Mills self-dual fields with topological charge k = 4 for symplectic gauge groups are discussed. In the case of Sp(n), n > 2, it is possible to use a procedure that was proposed earlier for generating solutions with k = 3. It is shown that for SU(2) = Sp(1) the AHDM matrix can be generated by using cubic equation solutions with coefficients that depend on 8k — 3 parameters.     

Stability of twistor lifts for surfaces in four-dimensional manifolds as harmonic sections

We prove that the twistor lifts of certain twistor holomorphic surfaces in four-dimensional manifolds are weakly stable harmonic sections. As a corollary, if ambient spaces are self-dual Einstein manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature, then the twistor lifts of twistor holomorphic surfaces are weakly stable. Moreover, for certain surfaces in four-dimensional hyperkähler manifolds, we show that the surfaces are twistor holomorphic if their twistor lifts are weakly stable harmonic sections. In particular, we characterize twistor holomorphic surfaces in four-dimensional Euclidean space by weak stability of the twistor lifts.     

A connection between the Einstein and Yang-Mills equations

It is our purpose here to show an unusual relationship between the Einstein equations and the Yang-Mills equations. We give a correspondence between solutions of the self-dual Einstein vacuum equations and the self-dual Yang-Mills equations with a special choice of gauge group. The extension of the argument to the full Yang-Mills equations yields Einstein's unifield equations. We try to incorporate the full Einstein vacuum equations, but the approach is incomplete. We first consider Yang-Mills theory for an arbitrary Lie-algebra with the condition that the connection 1-form and curvature are constant on Minkowski space. This leads to a set of algebraic equations on the connection components. We then specialize the Lie-algebra to be the (infinite dimensional) Lie-algebra of a group of diffeomorphisms of some manifold. The algebraic equations then become differential equations for four vector fields on the manifold on which the diffeomorphisms act. In the self-dual case, if we choose the connection components from the Lie-algebra of the volume preserving 4-dimensional diffeomorphism group, the resulting equations are the same as those obtained by Ashtekar, Jacobsen and Smolin, in their remarkable simplification of the self-dual Einstein vacuum equations. (An alternative derivation of the same equations begins with the self-dual Yang-Mills connection now depending only on the time, then choosing the Lie algebra as that of the volume preserving 3-dimensional diffeomorphisms.) When the reduced full Yang-Mills equations are used in the same context, we get Einstein's equations for his unified theory based on absolute parallelism. To incorporate the full Einsteinvacuum equations we use as the Lie group the semi-direct product of the diffeomorphism group of a 4-dimensional manifold with the group of frame rotations of anSO(1, 3) bundle over the 4-manifold. This last approach, however, yields equations more general than the vacuum equations.Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral fellow and Fulbright ScholarSupported in part by NSF grant no. PHY 80023     

Permutability property for self-dual Yang-Mills fields

A permutability property for Bäcklund transformations of the self-dual SU(2) Yang-Mills fields is shown to exist. We give a superposition-type formula, whose iteration permits the simple algebraic construction of solutions of the self-dual Yang-Mills equations.This Letter has been authored under contract DE-AC02-76H00016 with the U.S. Department of Energy.     

The linear system for self-dual gauge fields in a spacetime of signature 0

The overdetermined linear system for the self-dual Yang—Mills (SDYM) equations is examined in a flat four-dimensional space whose metric has signature 0. There are three different domains for the system, and correspondingly three (essentially) different solutions to the linear system for a given gauge field. If the gauge potential is real analytic, two of the solutions patch together to give a holomorphic function in an annular region of projective twistor space. Conversely, an arbitrary holomorphic GL(n, )-valued function in such a domain can be uniquely factored (on the real lines) to give a solution to SDYM with gauge group U(n). The set of all real analytic u(n)-valued gauge fields can thus be parametrized by the points of a certain double coset space.