Integrable maps in 4D and modified Volterra lattices

Abstract

In recent work, we presented the construction of a family of difference equations associated with the Stieltjes continued fraction expansion of a certain function on a hyperelliptic curve of genus $g$. As well as proving that each such discrete system is an integrable map in the Liouville sense, we also showed it to be an algebraic completely integrable system. In the discrete setting, the latter means that the generic level set of the invariants is an affine part of an abelian variety, in this case the Jacobian of the hyperelliptic curve, and each iteration of the map corresponds to a translation by a fixed vector on the Jacobian. In addition, we demonstrated that, by combining the discrete integrable dynamics with the flow of one of the commuting Hamiltonian vector fields, these maps provide genus $g$ algebro-geometric solutions of the infinite Volterra lattice, which justified naming them Volterra maps, denoted ${\cal V}_g$. The original motivation behind our work was the fact that, in the particular case $g=2$, we could recover an example of an integrable symplectic map in four dimensions found by Gubbiotti, Joshi, Tran and Viallet, who classified birational maps in 4D admitting two invariants (first integrals) with a particular degree structure, by considering recurrences of fourth order with a certain symmetry. Hence, in this particular case, the map ${\cal V}_2$ yields genus two solutions of the Volterra lattice. The purpose of this note is to point out how two of the other 4D integrable maps obtained in the classification of Gubbiotti et al. correspond to genus two solutions of two different forms of the modified Volterra lattice, being related via a Miura-type transformation to the $g=2$ Volterra map ${\cal V}_2$. We dedicate this work to a dear friend and colleague, Decio Levi.