Recursion and Hamiltonian operators for integrable nonabelian difference equations

In this paper, we carry out the algebraic study of integrable differential-difference equations whose field variables take values in an associative (but not commutative) algebra. We adapt the Hamiltonian formalism to nonabelian difference Laurent polynomials and describe how to obtain a recursion operator from the Lax representation of an integrable nonabelian differential-difference system. As an application, we study a family of integrable equations: the nonabelian Narita–Itoh–Bogoyavlensky lattice, for which we construct their recursion operators and Hamiltonian operators and prove the locality of infinitely many commuting symmetries generated from their highly nonlocal recursion operators. Finally, we discuss the nonabelian version of several integrable difference systems, including the relativistic Toda chain and Ablowitz–Ladik lattice.