Simple Lie algebras and topological ODEs

Abstract

For a simple Lie algebra $\mathfrak g$ we define a system of linear ODEs with polynomial coefficients, which we call the topological equation of $\mathfrak g$-type. The dimension of the space of solutions regular at infinity is equal to the rank of the Lie algebra. For the simplest example $\mathfrak g=sl_2(\mathbb C)$ the regular solution can be expressed via products of Airy functions and their derivatives; this matrix valued function was used in our previous work for computing logarithmic derivatives of the Witten - Kontsevich tau-function. For an arbitrary simple Lie algebra we construct a basis in the space of regular solutions to the topological equation called generalized Airy resolvents. We also outline applications of the generalized Airy resolvents to computing the Witten and Fan - Jarvis - Ruan invariants of the Deligne - Mumford moduli spaces of stable algebraic curves.