Towards integrability of a quartic analogue of the Kontsevich model
Abstract
We consider an analogue of Kontsevich's matrix Airy function where the cubic potential $\mathrm{Tr}(\Phi^3)$ is replaced by a quartic term $\mathrm{Tr}(\Phi^4)$. By methods from quantum field theory we show that also the quartic case is exactly solvable. All cumulants can be expressed as composition of elementary functions with the inverse of another elementary function. For infinite matrices the inversion gives rise to hyperlogarithms and zeta values as familiar from quantum field theory. For finite matrices the elementary functions are rational and should be viewed as branched covers of Riemann surfaces, in striking analogy with the topological recursion of the Kontsevich model. This rationality is strong support for the conjecture that the quartic analogue of the Kontsevich model is integrable.