Toda field theory

In the study of field theory and partial differential equations, a Toda field theory is the study of a function φ mapping 2 dimensional Minkowski space to a real r-dimensional Cartan algebra <math>\mathfrak{h}<math> of a Kac-Moody algebra satisfying the Euler-Lagrange equations derived from the following Lagrangian:

<math>\mathcal{L}=\frac{1}{2}\left[\left({\partial \phi \over \partial t},{\partial \phi \over \partial t}\right)-\left({\partial \phi \over \partial x}, {\partial \phi \over \partial x}\right)\right ]-{m^2 \over \beta^2}\sum_{i=1}^r n_i e^{\beta \alpha_i(\phi)}<math>

where x and t are spacetime coordinates, (,) is the Killing form over <math>\mathfrak{h}<math>, α_i is the i^th simple root in some root basis, n_i is the Coxeter number, m is the mass (or bare mass in the quantum field theory version) and β is the coupling constant.

If the Kac-Moody algebra is finite, it's called a Toda field theory. If it is affine, it is called an affine Toda field theory (after the component of φ which decouples is removed) and if it is hyperbolic, it is called a hyperbolic Toda field theory.

Toda field theories are integrable models and their solutions describes solitons.

The sinh-Gordon model is the affine Toda field theory with the generalized Cartan matrix

<math>\begin{pmatrix} 2&-2 \\ -2&2 \end{pmatrix}<math>

and a positive value for β after we project out a component of φ which decouples.

The sine-Gordon model is the model with the same Cartan matrix but an imaginary β.