The small t asymptotics of a class of solutions to the 2D cylindrical Toda equations is computed. The solutions, q_k(t), have the representation q_k(t) = log det(I-lambda K_k) - log det(I-lambda K_{k-1}) where K_k are integral operators. This class includes the n-periodic cylindrical Toda equations. For n=2 our results reduce to the previously computed asymptotics of the 2D radial sinh-Gordon equation and for n=3 (and with an additional symmetry contraint) they reduce to earlier results for the radial Bullough-Dodd equation.

Using exact results from the theory of completely integrable systems of the Painleve/Toda type, we examine the consequences for the theory of polyelectrolytes in the (nonlinear) Poisson-Boltzmann approximation.

Building on previous work of the authors, we here derive the weak coupling asymptotics to order γ2 of the ground state energy of the deltafunction Fermi gas. We use a method that can be applied to a large class of finite convolution operators.