Introducing the reader to classical integrable systems and their applications, this book synthesizes the different approaches to the subject, providing a set of interconnected methods for solving problems in mathematical physics. The authors introduce and explain each method, and demonstrate how it can be applied to particular examples. Rather than presenting an exhaustive list of the various integrable systems, they focus on classical objects which have well-known quantum counterparts, or are the semi-classical limits of quantum objects. They thus enable readers to understand the literature on quantum integrable systems.

This book contains fifteen articles by eminent specialists in the theory of completely integrable systems, bringing together the diverse approaches to classical and quantum integrable systems and covering the principal current research developments. In the first part of the book, which contains seven papers, the emphasis is on the algebro-geometric methods and the tau-functions. Essential use of Riemann surfaces and their theta functions is made in order to construct classes of solutions of integrable systems. The five articles in the second part of the book are mainly based on Hamiltonian methods, illustrating their interplay with the methods of algebraic geometry, the study of Hamiltonian actions, and the role of the bihamiltonian formalism in the theory of soliton equations. The two papers in the third part deal with the theory of two-dimensional lattice models, in particular with the symmetries of the quantum Yang-Baxter equation. In the fourth and final part, the integrability of the hierarchies of Hamiltonian systems and topological field theory are shown to be strongly interrelated. In the overview that introduces the articles, Bennequin surveys the evolution of the subject from Abel to the most recent developments, and analyzes the important contributions of J.-L. Verdier to whose memory the book is dedicated. This book will be a valuable reference for mathematicians and mathematical physicists.

This book provides a thorough introduction to the theory of classical integrable systems, discussing the various approaches to the subject and explaining their interrelations. The book begins by introducing the central ideas of the theory of integrable systems, based on Lax representations, loop groups and Riemann surfaces. These ideas are then illustrated with detailed studies of model systems. The connection between isomonodromic deformation and integrability is discussed, and integrable field theories are covered in detail. The KP, KdV and Toda hierarchies are explained using the notion of Grassmannian, vertex operators and pseudo-differential operators. A chapter is devoted to the inverse scattering method and three complementary chapters cover the necessary mathematical tools from symplectic geometry, Riemann surfaces and Lie algebras. The book contains many worked examples and is suitable for use as a textbook on graduate courses. It also provides a comprehensive reference for researchers already working in the field.