Webs, Lenard schemes, and the local geometry of bi-Hamiltonian Toda and Lax structures

Abstract.

We introduce a criterion that a given bi-Hamiltonian structure admits a local coordinate system where both brackets have constant coefficients. This criterion is applied to the bi-Hamiltonian open Toda lattice in a generic point, which is shown to be locally isomorphic to a Kronecker odd-dimensional pair of brackets with constant coefficients. This shows that the open Toda lattice cannot be locally represented as a product of two bi-Hamiltonian structures. Near, a generic point, the bi-Hamiltonian periodic Toda lattice is shown to be isomorphic to a product of two open Toda lattices (one of which is a (trivial) structure of dimension 1). While the above results might be obtained by more traditional methods, we use an approach based on general results on geometry of webs. This demonstrates the possibility of applying a geometric language to problems on bi-Hamiltonian integrable systems; such a possibility may be no less important than the particular results proved in this paper. Based on these geometric approaches, we conjecture that decompositions similar to the decomposition of the periodic Toda lattice exist in local geometry of the Volterra system, the complete Toda lattice, the multidimensional Euler top, and a regular bi-Hamiltonian Lie coalgebra. We also state general conjectures about the geometry of more general "homogeneous" finite-dimensional bi-Hamiltonian structures. The class of homogeneous structures is shown to coincide with the class of systems integrable by Lenard scheme. The bi-Hamiltonian structures which admit a non-degenerate Lax structure are shown to be locally isomorphic to the open Toda lattice.