Fluctuations for the Toda lattice

Abstract

In this paper we consider the Toda lattice $(\mathbf{p}(t);\mathbf{q}(t))$ at thermal equilibrium, meaning that its variables $(p_j)$ and $(e^{q_j-q_{j+1}})$ are independent Gaussian and Gamma random variables, respectively. We show under diffusive scaling that the space-time fluctuations for the model's currents converge to an explicit Gaussian limit. As consequences, we deduce, (i) the scaling limit for the trajectory of a single particle $q_0$ is a Brownian motion; (ii) space-time two-point correlation functions for the model decay inversely with time, with explicit scaling distributions predicted by Doyon (SciPost Phys. 5 (2018), 054) and Spohn (J. Phys. A 53 (2020), 265004). Our starting point is the notion that the Toda lattice can be thought of as a dense collection of many ``quasi-particles'' that interact through scattering. The core of our work is to establish that the full joint scaling limit of the fluctuations for these quasi-particles is given by a Gaussian process, called a dressed L\'evy-Chentsov field.