Random Matrices, Graphical Enumeration and the Continuum Limit of Toda Lattices

In this paper we derive analytic characterizations for and explicit evaluations of the coefficients of the matrix integral genus expansion. The expansion itself arises from the large N asymptotic expansion of the logarithm of the partition function of N × N Hermitian random matrices. Its g ^th coefficient is a generating function for graphical enumeration on Riemann surfaces of genus g. The case that we particularly consider is for an underlying measure that differs from the Gaussian weight by a single monomial term of degree 2ν. Our results are based on a hierarchy of recursively solvable differential equations, derived through a novel continuum limit, whose solutions are the coefficients we want to characterize. These equations are interesting in their own right in that their form is related to partitions of 2g + 1 and joint probability distributions for conditioned random walks. K. D. T-R McLaughlin was supported in part by NSF grants DMS-0451495 and DMS-0200749, as well as a NATO Collaborative Linkage Grant “Orthogonal Polynomials: Theory, Applications, and Generalizations” Ref no. PST.CLG.979738. N. M. Ercolani and V. U. Pierce were supported in part by NSF grants DMS-0073087 and DMS-0412310.