Sato Grassmannian and Degenerate Sigma Function

Abstract

The degeneration of the hyperelliptic sigma function is studied. We use the Sato Grassmannian for this purpose. A simple decomposition of a rational function gives a decomposition of Pl\"ucker coordinates of a frame of the Sato Grassmannian. It then gives a decomposition of the tau function corresponding to the degeneration of a hyperelliptic curve of genus $g$ in terms of the tau functions corresponding to a hyperelliptic curve of genus $g-1$. Since the tau functions are described by sigma functions, we get the corresponding formula for the degenerate hyperelliptic sigma function.