ODE/IM Correspondence at the Free-Fermion Point. Laguerre Wronskians, Shifted Symmetric Functions, and Quantum KdV

Abstract: We consider the ODE/IM correspondence for the value $c=-2$ of the Virasoro central charge (free-fermion point) and the associated quantum KdV model $-$ the quantization of the second hamiltonian structure of the classical periodic KdV model. We prove that the ODE/IM correspondence is complete (in the sense of V. Bazhanov, S. Lukyanov, and A. Zamolodchikov), namely that any solution of the Bethe equations coincides with the spectrum of a rational extension of the (quantum) harmonic oscillator. To this end, on the ODE side we consider Crum$-$Darboux transformations of the harmonic oscillator and the associated Laguerre Wronskians, which are remarkable special functions parametrized by pairs of partitions which we study in depth. As a further result, on the IM side, we diagonalize explicitly the first three hamiltonian operators of quantum KdV (in the free field representation): the eigenstates are Schur functions and the eigenvalues are shifted symmetric functions on partitions. We give two applications of this result: i) we prove that the eigenvalues are given by the evaluation of the Newton symmetric polynomials at the poles of the associated monster potentials, as further conjectured by V. Bazhanov, S. Lukyanov, and A. Zamolodchikov; ii) we show that these hamiltonian operators also belong to the algebra of hamiltonian operators obtained by quantizing the first hamiltonian structure of the classical periodic dispersionless KdV model.