Orbifold melting crystal models and reductions of Toda hierarchy

TL;DR

This paper introduces orbifold generalizations of melting crystal models, connects their partition functions to tau functions of the 2D Toda hierarchy, and identifies specific reductions related to orbifold geometries.

Contribution

It presents new orbifold melting crystal models and demonstrates their partition functions correspond to specific reductions of the 2D Toda hierarchy.

Findings

Partition functions expressed via charged free fermions.

Reduction of 2D Toda hierarchy to bi-graded and rational forms.

Connection to Gromov-Witten theory on orbifolds.

Abstract

Orbifold generalizations of the ordinary and modified melting crystal models are introduced. They are labelled by a pair $a,b$ of positive integers, and geometrically related to $\mathbf{Z}_a\times\mathbf{Z}_b$ orbifolds of local $\mathbf{CP}^1$ geometry of the $\mathcal{O}(0)\oplus\mathcal{O}(-2)$ and $\mathcal{O}(-1)\oplus\mathcal{O}(-1)$ types. The partition functions have a fermionic expression in terms of charged free fermions. With the aid of shift symmetries in a fermionic realization of the quantum torus algebra, one can convert these partition functions to tau functions of the 2D Toda hierarchy. The powers $L^a,\bar{L}^{-b}$ of the associated Lax operators turn out to take a special factorized form that defines a reduction of the 2D Toda hierarchy. The reduced integrable hierarchy for the orbifold version of the ordinary melting crystal model is the bi-graded Toda hierarchy of bi-degree $(a,b)$. That of the orbifold version of the modified melting crystal model is the rational reduction of bi-degree $(a,b)$. This result seems to be in accord with recent work of Brini et al. on a mirror description of the genus-zero Gromov-Witten theory on a $\mathbf{Z}_a\times\mathbf{Z}_b$ orbifold of the resolved conifold.