BKP tau-functions as square roots of KP tau-functions

Abstract: It is well-known that a BKP tau-function is the square root of a certain KP tau-function, provided one puts the even KP times equal to zero. In this paper we compute for all polynomial BKP tau-function its corresponding KP "square". We also give, in the polynomial case, a representation theoretical proof of a recent result by Alexandov, viz. that a KdV tau-function becomes a BKP tau-function when one divides all KdV times by 2.