In our earlier papers we proposed a new approach to integrable hierarchies ofsoliton equations and their quantum deformations. We have applied this approachto the Toda field theories and the generalized KdV and modified KdV (mKdV)hierarchies. In this paper we apply our approach to theAblowitz-Kaup-Newell-Segur (AKNS) hierarchy and its generalizations. Inparticular, we show that the free field (Wakimoto) realization of an affinealgebra naturally appears in the context of the generalized AKNS hierarchies.This is analogous to the appearance of the free field (quantum Miura)realization of a W-algebra in the context of the generalized KdV equations. Asan application, we give here a new proof of the existence of the Wakimotorealization.
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