Differential equations for the closed geometric crystal chains

Abstract

We present two types of systems of differential equations that can be derived from a set of discrete integrable systems which we call the closed geometric crystal chains. One is an extended Lotka–Volterra type system, and the other seems to be generally new but reduces to a previously known system in a special case. Both equations have Lax representations associated with what are known as the loop elementary symmetric functions, which were originally introduced to describe products of affine type A geometric crystals for symmetric tensor representations. Examples of the derivations of the continuous time Lax equations from a discrete time one are described in detail, where a novel method of taking a continuum limit by assuming asymptotic behaviors of the eigenvalues of the Lax matrix in Puiseux series expansions is used.