Math. Ann. (2001) Mathematische Annalen Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1007/s002080100153 Pfaff τ-functions M. Adler · T. Shiota · P. van Moerbeke Received: 20 September 1999 / Published online: ♣ – © Springer-Verlag 2001 Consider the two-dimensional Toda lattice, with certain skew-symmetric initial condition, which is preserved along the locus s =−t of the space of time variables. Restricting the solution to s =−t, we obtain another hierarchy called Pfaff lattice, which has its own tau function, being equal to the square root of the restriction of 2D-Toda tau function. We study its bilinear and Fay identities, W and Virasoro symmetries, relation to symmetric and symplectic matrix integrals and quasiperiodic solutions. 0. Introduction Consider the set of equations ∂m∞ n ∂m∞ n = Λ m∞ , =−m∞(Λ ) ,n= 1, 2,..., (0.1) ∂tn ∂sn on infinite matrices m∞ = m∞(t, s) = (µi,j (t, s))0≤i,j<∞ , M. Adler∗ Department of Mathematics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454–9110, USA (e-mail:
[email protected]) T. Shiota∗∗ Department of Mathematics, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606–8502, Japan (e-mail:
[email protected]) P. van Moerbeke∗∗∗ Department of Mathematics, Universit´e de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454–9110, USA (e-mail:
[email protected] and @math.brandeis.edu) ∗ The support of a National Science Foundation grant # DMS-98-4-50790 is gratefully ac- knowledged. ∗∗ The support of Japanese ministry of education’s grant-in-aid for scientific research, and the hospitality of the University of Louvain and Brandeis University are gratefully acknowledged.