Abelianization of tau functions

The symplectic and hyperkahler geometry of moduli spaces of flat connections over Riemann surfaces is in a sense quantized by the theory of isomonodromic tau functions. These functions in turn arise as partition functions in the conformal field theory of twisted free fermions. I will describe a new scheme for computing these tau functions via abelianization, and what it produces in one simple example, related to the Painleve I equation. This scheme is joint work with Qianyu Hao. The talk is intended to be self-contained (you don’t have to know in advance what a tau function or a conformal field theory is).