Bi-Hamiltonian operators, integrable flows of curves using moving frames and geometric map equations

Moving frames of various kinds are used to derive bi-Hamiltonian operators and associated hierarchies of multi-component soliton equations from group-invariant flows of non-stretching curves in constant-curvature manifolds and Lie-group manifolds. The hierarchy in the constant-curvature case consists of a vector mKdV equation coming from a parallel frame, a vector potential mKdV equation coming from a covariantly constant frame, and higher order counterparts generated by an underlying vector mKdV recursion operator. In the Lie-group case, the hierarchy comprises a group-invariant analogue of the vector NLS equation coming from a left-invariant frame, along with higher order counterparts generated by a recursion operator that is like a square root of the mKdV one. The corresponding respective curve flows are found to be given by geometric nonlinear PDEs, specifically mKdV and group-invariant analogues of Schroedinger maps. In all cases the hierarchies also contain variants of vector sine-Gordon equations arising from the kernel of the respective recursion operators. The geometric PDEs that describe the corresponding curve flows are shown to be wave maps