W ALGEBRA, TWISTOR, AND NONLINEAR INTEGRABLE SYSTEMS(Algebraic Analysis and Number Theory)
Kanehisa Takasaki · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · 1992
W$ algebras arise in the study of various nonlinear integrable systems such as: self-dual gravity, the KP and Toda hierarchies, their quasi-classical (or dispersionless) limit, etc. Twistor theory provides a geometric background for these algebras.Present state of these topics is overviewed.A few ideas on possible deformations of self-dual gravity (including quantum deformations) are presented.