Mutations of the cluster algebra of type $\boldsymbol{A^{(1)}_1}$ and the periodic discrete Toda lattice

Abstract: A direct connection between two sequences of points, one of which is generated by seed mutations in the cluster algebra of type $A^{(1)}_1$ and the other by time evolutions of the periodic discrete Toda lattice, is explicitly given. In this construction, each of them is realized as an orbit of a QRT map and specialization of the parameters in the maps and appropriate choices of the initial points relate them. The connection with the periodic discrete Toda lattice enables us a geometric interpretation of the seed mutations in the cluster algebra of type $A^{(1)}_1$ as addition of points on an elliptic curve arising as the spectral curve of the Toda lattice.