Polynomiality of monotone Hurwitz numbers in higher genera

Hurwitz numbers count branched covers of the Riemann sphere with specified ramification, or equivalently, transitive permutation factorizations in the symmetric group with specified cycle types. Monotone Hurwitz numbers count a restricted subset of these branched covers, related to the expansion of complete symmetric functions in the Jucys–Murphy elements, and have arisen in recent work on the asymptotic expansion of the Harish-Chandra–Itzykson–Zuber integral. In previous work we gave an explicit formula for monotone Hurwitz numbers in genus zero. In this paper we consider monotone Hurwitz numbers in higher genera, and prove a number of results that are reminiscent of those for classical Hurwitz numbers. These include an explicit formula for monotone Hurwitz numbers in genus one, and an explicit form for the generating function in arbitrary positive genus. From the form of the generating function we are able to prove that monotone Hurwitz numbers exhibit a polynomiality that is reminiscent of that for the classical Hurwitz numbers, i.e.  , up to a specified combinatorial factor, the monotone Hurwitz number in genus g$g$ with ramification specified by a given partition is a polynomial indexed by g$g$ in the parts of the partition.     

A Simple Recurrence for Covers of the Sphere With Branch Points of Arbitrary Ramification

The problem of counting ramified covers of a Riemann surface up to homeomorphism was proposed by Hurwitz in the late 1800’s. This problem translates combinatorially into factoring a permutation of specified cycle type, with certain conditions on the cycle types of the factors, such as minimality and transitivity. Goulden and Jackson have given a proof for the number of minimal, transitive factorizations of a permutation into transpositions. This proof involves a partial differential equation for the generating series, called the Join-Cut equation. Recently, Bousquet-Mélou and Schaeffer have found the number of minimal, transitive factorizations of a permutation into arbitrary unspecified factors. This was proved by a purely combinatorial argument, based on a direct bijection between factorizations and certain objects called m-Eulerian trees. In this paper, we give a simple partial differential equation for Bousquet-Mélou and Schaeffer’s generating series, and for Goulden and Jackson’s generating series, as well as a new proof of the result by Bousquet-Mélou and Schaeffer. We apply algebraic methods based on Lagrange’s theorem, and combinatorial methods based on a new use of Bousquet-Mélou and Schaeffer’s m-Eulerian trees. Supported by a Discovery Grant from NSERC. Research supported by a Postgraduate Scholarship from NSERC. Received October 8, 2005     

Wronskian and Grammian solutions to a (3 + 1)-dimensional generalized KP equation

Wronskian and Grammian formulations are established for a (3 + 1)-dimensional generalized KP equation, based on the Plücker relation and the Jacobi identity for determinants. Generating functions for matrix entries satisfy a linear system of partial differential equations involving a free parameter. Examples of Wronskian and Grammian solutions are computed and a few particular solutions are plotted.     

Symmetric functions,codes of partitions and the KP hierarchy

We consider an operator of Bernstein for symmetric functions and give an explicit formula for its action on an arbitrary Schur function. This formula is given in a remarkably simple form when written in terms of some notation based on the code of a partition. As an application, we give a new and very simple proof of a classical result for the KP hierarchy, which involves the Plücker relations for Schur function coefficients in a τ-function for the hierarchy. This proof is especially compact because we are able to restate the Plücker relations in a form that is symmetrical in terms of partition code notation.     

Branched covers of the sphere and the prime-degree conjecture

To a branched cover ${\widetilde{\Sigma} \to \Sigma}$ between closed, connected, and orientable surfaces, one associates a branch datum, which consists of Σ and ${\widetilde{\Sigma}}$ , the total degree d, and the partitions of d given by the collections of local degrees over the branching points. This datum must satisfy the Riemann–Hurwitz formula. A candidate surface cover is an abstract branch datum, a priori not coming from a branched cover, but satisfying the Riemann– Hurwitz formula. The old Hurwitz problem asks which candidate surface covers are realizable by branched covers. It is now known that all candidate covers are realizable when Σ has positive genus, but not all are when Σ is the 2-sphere. However, a long-standing conjecture asserts that candidate covers with prime degree are realizable. To a candidate surface cover, one can associate one ${\widetilde {X} \dashrightarrow X}$ between 2-orbifolds, and in Pascali and Petronio (Trans Am Math Soc 361:5885–5920, 2009), we have completely analyzed the candidate surface covers such that either X is bad, spherical, or Euclidean, or both X and ${\widetilde{X}}$ are rigid hyperbolic orbifolds, thus also providing strong supporting evidence for the prime-degree conjecture. In this paper, using a variety of different techniques, we continue this analysis, carrying it out completely for the case where X is hyperbolic and rigid and ${\widetilde{X}}$ has a 2-dimensional Teichmüller space. We find many more realizable and non-realizable candidate covers, providing more support for the prime-degree conjecture.     

Curves in Grassmannians

This paper considers curves in Grassmannians which are themselves immersed in projective space by the Plücker map. It is shown that for a generic vector bundle of high enough degree, the image curve lies in a proper linear subvariety of this projective space and satisfies good conditions on syzygies as a curve in this subspace. For very small degree and generic vector bundle, the curve is non-degenerate.

     

Wreath Hurwitz numbers, colored cut-and-join equations, and 2-Toda hierarchy

Let G be arbitrary finite group,define H G· (t;p +,p) to be the generating function of G-wreath double Hurwitz numbers.We prove that H G· (t;p +,p) satisfies a differential equation called the colored cutand-join equation.Furthermore,H G·(t;p +,p) is a product of several copies of tau functions of the 2-Toda hierarchy,in independent variables.These generalize the corresponding results for ordinary Hurwitz numbers.     

KP hierarchy for Hodge integrals

Starting from the ELSV formula, we derive a number of new equations on the generating functions for Hodge integrals over the moduli space of complex curves. This gives a new simple and uniform treatment of certain known results on Hodge integrals like Witten's conjecture, Virasoro constrains, Faber's λg-conjecture, etc. Among other results we show that a properly arranged generating function for Hodge integrals satisfies the equations of the KP hierarchy.     

Hurwitz numbers and products of random matrices

We study multimatrix models, which may be viewed as integrals of products of tau functions depending on the eigenvalues of products of random matrices. We consider tau functions of the two-component Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) hierarchy (semi-infinite relativistic Toda lattice) and of the B-type KP (BKP) hierarchy introduced by Kac and van de Leur. Such integrals are sometimes tau functions themselves. We consider models that generate Hurwitz numbers H^E,F, where E is the Euler characteristic of the base surface and F is the number of branch points. We show that in the case where the integrands contain the product of n > 2 matrices, the integral generates Hurwitz numbers with E ≤ 2 and F ≤ n+2. Both the numbers E and F depend both on n and on the order of the factors in the matrix product. The Euler characteristic E can be either an even or an odd number, i.e., it can match both orientable and nonorientable (Klein) base surfaces depending on the presence of the tau function of the BKP hierarchy in the integrand. We study two cases, the products of complex and the products of unitary matrices.     

Isometric embeddings of infinite-dimensional Grassmannians

We investigate geometric properties of the (Sato-Segal-Wilson) Grassmannian and its submanifolds, with special attention to the orbits of the KP flows. We use a coherentstates model, by which Spera and Wurzbacher gave equations for the image of a product of Grassmannians using the Powers-Størmer purification procedure. We extend to this product Sato’s idea of turning equations that define the projective embedding of a homogeneous space into a hierarchy of partial differential equations. We recover the BKP equations from the classical Segre embedding by specializing the equations to finite-dimensional submanifolds. We revisit the calculation of Calabi’s diastasis function given by Spera and Valli again in the context of C*-algebras, using the τ-function to give an expression of the diastasis on the infinitedimensional Grassmannian; this expression can be applied to the image of the Krichever map to give a proof of Weil’s reciprocity based on the fact that the distance of two points on the Grassmannian is symmetric. Another application is the fact that each (isometric) automorphism of the Grassmannian is induced by a projective transformation in the Plücker embedding.     

Lower Bounds for Simplicial Covers and Triangulations of Cubes

We show that the size of a minimal simplicial cover of a polytope P is a lower bound for the size of a minimal triangulation of P, including ones with extra vertices. We then use this fact to study minimal triangulations of cubes, and we improve lower bounds for covers and triangulations in dimensions 4 through at least 12 (and possibly more dimensions as well). Important ingredients are an analysis of the number of exterior faces that a simplex in the cube can have of a specified dimension and volume, and a characterization of corner simplices in terms of their exterior faces.     

Braided racks, Hurwitz actions and Nichols algebras with many cubic relations

We classify Nichols algebras of irreducible Yetter–Drinfeld modules over groups such that the underlying rack is braided and the homogeneous component of degree three of the Nichols algebra satisfies a given inequality. This assumption turns out to be equivalent to a factorization assumption on the Hilbert series. Besides the known Nichols algebras we obtain a new example. Our method is based on a combinatorial invariant of the Hurwitz orbits with respect to the action of the braid group on three strands.     

KP reductions and various soliton solutions to the Fokas–Lenells equation under nonzero boundary condition

In this paper, we clarify the connection of the Fokas–Lenells (FL) equation to the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP)–Toda hierarchy by using a set of bilinear equations as a bridge and confirm multidark soliton solution to the FL equation previously given by Matsuno (J. Phys. A 2012 45 (475202). We also show that the set of bilinear equations in the KP–Toda hierarchy can be generated from a single discrete KP equation via Miwa transformation. Based on this finding, we further deduce the multibreather and general rogue wave solutions to the FL equation. The dynamical behaviors and patterns for both the breather and rogue wave solutions are illustrated and analyzed.     

Chamber behavior of double Hurwitz numbers in genus 0

We study double Hurwitz numbers in genus zero counting the number of covers CP¹→CP¹ with two branching points with a given branching behavior. By the recent result due to Goulden, Jackson and Vakil, these numbers are piecewise polynomials in the multiplicities of the preimages of the branching points. We describe the partition of the parameter space into polynomiality domains, called chambers, and provide an expression for the difference of two such polynomials for two neighboring chambers. Besides, we provide an explicit formula for the polynomial in a certain chamber called totally negative, which enables us to calculate double Hurwitz numbers in any given chamber as the polynomial for the totally negative chamber plus the sum of the differences between the neighboring polynomials along a path connecting the totally negative chamber with the given one.     

Tau-function formulation for bright,dark soliton and breather solutions to the massive Thirring model

In the present paper, we are concerned with the link between the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili–Toda (KP–Toda) hierarchy and the massive Thirring (MT) model. First, we bilinearize the MT model under both the vanishing and nonvanishing boundary conditions. Starting from a set of bilinear equations of two-component KP–Toda hierarchy, we derive multibright solution to the MT model. Then, considering a set of bilinear equations of the single-component KP–Toda hierarchy, multidark soliton and multibreather solutions to the MT model are constructed by imposing constraints on the parameters in two types of tau function, respectively. The dynamics and properties of one- and two-soliton for bright, dark soliton and breather solutions are analyzed in details.     

Ghost symmetry of the discrete KP hierarchy

In this paper, with the help of the S function and ghost symmetry for the discrete KP hierarchy which is a semi-discrete version of the KP hierarchy, the ghost flow on its eigenfunction (adjoint eigenfunction) and the spectral representation of its Baker–Akhiezer function and adjoint Baker–Akhiezer function are derived. From these observations above, some important distinctions between the discrete KP hierarchy and KP hierarchy are shown. Also we give the ghost flow on the tau function and another kind of proof of the ASvM formula of the discrete KP hierarchy.     

On an algebraic version of the Knizhnik–Zamolodchikov equation

A difference equation analogue of the Knizhnik?CZamolodchikov equation is exhibited by developing a theory of the generating function H(z) of Hurwitz polyzeta functions to parallel that of the polylogarithms. By emulating the role of the KZ equation as a connection on a suitable bundle, a difference equation version of the notion of connection is developed for which H(z) is a flat section. Solving a family of difference equations satisfied by the Hurwitz polyzetas leads to the normalized multiple Bernoulli polynomials (NMBPs) as the counterpart to the Hurwitz polyzeta functions, at tuples of non-positive integers. A generating function for these polynomials satisfies a similar difference equation to that of H(z), but in contrast to the fact that said polynomials have rational coefficients, the algebraic independence of the usual Hurwitz zeta functions is proven, and the Hurwitz polyzeta functions are shown to satisfy no algebraic relations other than those arising from the shuffle relations. The values of the NMBPs at z=1 provide a regularization of the multiple zeta values at tuples of negative integers, which is shown to agree with the regularization given in Akiyama et al. (Acta Arith. 98:107?C116, 2001). Various elementary properties of these values are proven.     

Quasi-symmetric functions and the KP hierarchy

Quasi-symmetric functions arise in an approach to solve the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) hierarchy. This moreover features a new nonassociative product of quasi-symmetric functions that satisfies simple relations with the ordinary product and the outer coproduct. In particular, supplied with this new product and the outer coproduct, the algebra of quasi-symmetric functions becomes an infinitesimal bialgebra. Using these results we derive a sequence of identities in the algebra of quasi-symmetric functions that are in formal correspondence with the equations of the KP hierarchy.