Integrability from an abelian subgroup of the diffeomorphism group

Abstract

It has been known for some time that for a large class of non-linear field theories in Minkowski space with two-dimensional target space the complex eikonal equation defines integrable submodels with infinitely many conservation laws. These conservation laws are related to the area-preserving diffeomorphisms on target space. Here we demonstrate that for all these theories there exists, in fact, a weaker integrability condition which again defines submodels with infinitely many conservation laws. These conservation laws will be related to an abelian subgroup of the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms. As this weaker integrability condition is much easier to fulfil, it should be useful in the study of those non-linear field theories.