Matrix KP: tropical limit and Yang-Baxter maps

Abstract: We study soliton solutions of matrix Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equations in a tropical limit, in which their support at fixed time is a planar graph and polarizations are attached to its constituting lines. There is a subclass of "pure line soliton solutions" for which we find that, in this limit, the distribution of polarizations is fully determined by a Yang-Baxter map. For a vector KP equation, this map is given by an R-matrix, whereas it is a non-linear map in case of a more general matrix KP equation. We also consider the corresponding Korteweg-deVries (KdV) reduction. Furthermore, exploiting the fine structure of soliton interactions in the tropical limit, we obtain a new solution of the tetrahedron (or Zamolodchikov) equation. Moreover, a solution of the functional tetrahedron equation arises from the parameter-dependence of the vector KP R-matrix.