Dyson's constant for the hypergeometric kernel

We study a Fredholm determinant of the hypergeometric kernel arising in the representation theory of the infinite-dimensional unitary group. It is shown that this determinant coincides with the Palmer-Beatty-Tracy tau function of a Dirac operator on the hyperbolic disk. Solution of the connection problem for Painleve VI equation allows to determine its asymptotic behavior up to a constant factor, for which a conjectural expression is given in terms of Barnes functions. We also present analogous asymptotic results for the Whittaker and Macdonald kernel.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures; v2: added references and derivation of Painleve VI from Tracy-Widom equation

Aharonov-Bohm effect on the Poincar\'e disk

We consider formal quantum hamiltonian of a charged particle on the Poincar\'e disk in the presence of an Aharonov-Bohm magnetic vortex and a uniform magnetic field. It is shown that this hamiltonian admits a four-parameter family of self-adjoint extensions. Its resolvent and the density of states are calculated for natural values of the extension parameters.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure, references adde

How instanton combinatorics solves Painlev\'e VI, V and III's

We elaborate on a recently conjectured relation of Painlev\'e transcendents and 2D CFT. General solutions of Painlev\'e VI, V and III are expressed in terms of $c=1$ conformal blocks and their irregular limits, AGT-related to instanton partition functions in $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric gauge theories with $N_f=0,1,2,3,4$. Resulting combinatorial series representations of Painlev\'e functions provide an efficient tool for their numerical computation at finite values of the argument. The series involve sums over bipartitions which in the simplest cases coincide with Gessel expansions of certain Toeplitz determinants. Considered applications include Fredholm determinants of classical integrable kernels, scaled gap probability in the bulk of the GUE, and all-order conformal perturbation theory expansions of correlation functions in the sine-Gordon field theory at the free-fermion point.Comment: 34 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor improvement

Conformal field theory of Painlev\'e VI

Generic Painlev\'e VI tau function \tau(t) can be interpreted as four-point correlator of primary fields of arbitrary dimensions in 2D CFT with c=1. Using AGT combinatorial representation of conformal blocks and determining the corresponding structure constants, we obtain full and completely explicit expansion of \tau(t) near the singular points. After a check of this expansion, we discuss examples of conformal blocks arising from Riccati, Picard, Chazy and algebraic solutions of Painlev\'e VI.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure; v3: added refs and minor clarifications, few typos corrected; to appear in JHE

Connection problem for the sine-Gordon/Painlev\'e III tau function and irregular conformal blocks

The short-distance expansion of the tau function of the radial sine-Gordon/Painlev\'e III equation is given by a convergent series which involves irregular $c=1$ conformal blocks and possesses certain periodicity properties with respect to monodromy data. The long-distance irregular expansion exhibits a similar periodicity with respect to a different pair of coordinates on the monodromy manifold. This observation is used to conjecture an exact expression for the connection constant providing relative normalization of the two series. Up to an elementary prefactor, it is given by the generating function of the canonical transformation between the two sets of coordinates.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Monodromy dependence and connection formulae for isomonodromic tau functions

We discuss an extension of the Jimbo-Miwa-Ueno differential 1-form to a form closed on the full space of extended monodromy data of systems of linear ordinary differential equations with rational coefficients. This extension is based on the results of M. Bertola generalizing a previous construction by B. Malgrange. We show how this 1-form can be used to solve a long-standing problem of evaluation of the connection formulae for the isomonodromic tau functions which would include an explicit computation of the relevant constant factors. We explain how this scheme works for Fuchsian systems and, in particular, calculate the connection constant for generic Painlev\'e VI tau function. The result proves the conjectural formula for this constant proposed in \cite{ILT13}. We also apply the method to non-Fuchsian systems and evaluate constant factors in the asymptotics of Painlev\'e II tau function.Comment: 54 pages, 6 figures; v4: rewritten Introduction and Subsection 3.3, added few refs to match published articl

Tau functions for the Dirac operator on the cylinder

The goal of the present paper is to calculate the determinant of the Dirac operator with a mass in the cylindrical geometry. The domain of this operator consists of functions that realize a unitary one-dimensional representation of the fundamental group of the cylinder with $n$ marked points. The determinant represents a version of the isomonodromic $\tau$-function, itroduced by M. Sato, T. Miwa and M. Jimbo. It is calculated by comparison of two sections of the $\mathrm{det}^*$-bundle over an infinite-dimensional grassmannian. The latter is composed of the spaces of boundary values of some local solutions to Dirac equation. The principal ingredients of the computation are the formulae for the Green function of the singular Dirac operator and for the so-called canonical basis of global solutions on the 1-punctured cylinder. We also derive a set of deformation equations satisfied by the expansion coefficients of the canonical basis in the general case and find a more explicit expression for the $\tau$-function in the simplest case $n=2$.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figure

Perturbative connection formulas for Heun equations

Connection formulas relating Frobenius solutions of linear ODEs at different Fuchsian singular points can be expressed in terms of the large order asymptotics of the corresponding power series. We demonstrate that for the usual, confluent and reduced confluent Heun equation, the series expansion of the relevant asymptotic amplitude in a suitable parameter can be systematically computed to arbitrary order. This allows to check a recent conjecture of Bonelli-Iossa-Panea Lichtig-Tanzini expressing the Heun connection matrix in terms of quasiclassical Virasoro conformal blocks.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure