Unitary And Hermitian Matrices In An External Field II: The Kontsevich Model And Continuum Virasoro Constraints

In the first part of the talk, I review the applications of loop equations to the matrix models and to 2-dimensional quantum gravity which is defined as their continuum limit. The results concerning multi-loop correlators for low genera and the Virasoro invariance are discussed. The second part is devoted to the Kontsevich matrix model which is equivalent to 2-dimensional topological gravity. I review the Schwinger--Dyson equations for the Kontsevich model as well as their ex...

The space of all solutions to the string equation of the symmetric unitary one-matrix model is determined. It is shown that the string equation is equivalent to simple conditions on points $V_1$ and $V_2$ in the big cell $\Gr$ of the Sato Grassmannian $Gr$. This is a consequence of a well-defined continuum limit in which the string equation has the simple form $\lb \cp ,\cq_- \rb =\hbox{\rm 1}$, with $\cp$ and $\cq_-$ $2\times 2$ matrices of differential operators. These cond...

A review of the appearence of integrable structures in the matrix model description of $2d$-gravity is presented. Most of ideas are demonstrated at the technically simple but ideologically important examples. Matrix models are considered as a sort of "effective" description of continuum $2d$ field theory formulation. The main physical role in such description is played by the Virasoro-$W$ constraints which can be interpreted as a certain unitarity or factorization constraints...

In the recent study of Virasoro action on characters, we discovered that it gets especially simple for peculiar linear combinations of the Virasoro operators: particular harmonics of $\hat w$-operators. In this letter, we demonstrate that even more is true: a {\it single} $w$-constraint is sufficient to uniquely specify the partition functions provided one assumes that it is a power series in time-variables. This substitutes the previous specifications in terms of {\it two} r...

The Ward identities in Kontsevich-like 1-matrix models are used to prove at the level of discrete matrix models the suggestion of Gava and Narain, which relates the degree of potential in asymmetric 2-matrix model to the form of $\cal W$-constraints imposed on its partition function.

We review the Symmetric Unitary One Matrix Models. In particular we discuss the string equation in the operator formalism, the mKdV flows and the Virasoro Constraints. We focus on the $\t$-function formalism for the flows and we describe its connection to the (big cell of the) Sato Grassmannian $\Gr$ via the Plucker embedding of $\Gr$ into a fermionic Fock space. Then the space of solutions to the string equation is an explicitly computable subspace of $\Gr\times\Gr$ which is...

In this letter,we present our conjecture on the connection between the Kontsevich--Witten and the Hurwitz tau-functions. The conjectural formula connects these two tau-functions by means of the $GL(\infty)$ group element. An important feature of this group element is its simplicity: this is a group element of the Virasoro subalgebra of $gl(\infty)$. If proved, this conjecture would allow to derive the Virasoro constraints for the Hurwitz tau-function, which remain unknown in ...

We demonstrate the equivalence of Virasoro constraints imposed on continuum limit of partition function of Hermitean 1-matrix model and the Ward identities of Kontsevich's model. Since the first model describes ordinary $d = 2$ quantum gravity, while the second one is supposed to coincide with Witten's topological gravity, the result provides a strong implication that the two models are indeed the same.

The KdV and modified KdV integrable hierarchies are shown to be different descriptions of the same 2D gravitational system -- open-closed string theory. Non-perturbative solutions of the multi-critical unitary matrix models map to non-singular solutions of the `renormalisation group' equation for the string susceptibility, $[\tilde{P},Q]=Q$. We also demonstrate that the large N solutions of unitary matrix integrals in external fields, studied by Gross and Newman, equal the no...

This is a review article in which we will introduce, in a unifying fashion and with more intermediate steps in some difficult calculations, two infinite-dimensional Lie algebras of quantum matrix models, one for the open string sector and one for the closed string sector. Physical observables of quantum matrix models in the large-N limit can be expressed as elements of these Lie algebras. We will see that both algebras arise as quotient algebras of a larger Lie algebra. We wi...