Contributor info: Prof. Jean Michel Maillet

Jean Michel Maillet, Giuliano Niccoli

SciPost Phys. 6, 071 (2019) · published 21 June 2019 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We apply our new approach of quantum Separation of Variables (SoV) to the complete characterization of the transfer matrix spectrum of quantum integrable lattice models associated to gl(n)-invariant R-matrices in the fundamental representations. We consider lattices with N sites and quasi-periodic boundary conditions associated to an arbitrary twist K having simple spectrum (but not necessarily diagonalizable). In our approach the SoV basis is constructed in an universal manner starting from the direct use of the conserved charges of the models, i.e., from the commuting family of transfer matrices. Using the integrable structure of the models, incarnated in the hierarchy of transfer matrices fusion relations, we prove that our SoV basis indeed separates the spectrum of the corresponding transfer matrices. Moreover, the combined use of the fusion rules, of the known analytic properties of the transfer matrices and of the SoV basis allows us to obtain the complete characterization of the transfer matrix spectrum and to prove its simplicity. Any transfer matrix eigenvalue is completely characterized as a solution of a so-called quantum spectral curve equation that we obtain as a difference functional equation of order n. Namely, any eigenvalue satisfies this equation and any solution of this equation having prescribed properties leads to an eigenvalue. We construct the associated eigenvector, unique up to normalization, by computing its decomposition on the SoV basis that is of a factorized form written in terms of the powers of the corresponding eigenvalues. If the twist matrix K is diagonalizable with simple spectrum then the transfer matrix is also diagonalizable with simple spectrum. In that case, we give a construction of the Baxter Q-operator satisfying a T-Q equation of order n, the quantum spectral curve equation, involving the hierarchy of the fused transfer matrices.

J. M. Maillet, G. Niccoli, B. Pezelier

SciPost Phys. 5, 026 (2018) · published 24 September 2018 | Toggle abstract · pdf

This article is a direct continuation of [1] where we begun the study of the transfer matrix spectral problem for the cyclic representations of the trigonometric 6-vertex reflection algebra associated to the Bazhanov-Stroganov Lax operator. There we addressed this problem for the case where one of the K-matrices describing the boundary conditions is triangular. In the present article we consider the most general integrable boundary conditions, namely the most general boundary K-matrices satisfying the reflection equation. The spectral analysis is developed by implementing the method of Separation of Variables (SoV). We first design a suitable gauge transformation that enable us to put into correspondence the spectral problem for the most general boundary conditions with another one having one boundary K-matrix in a triangular form. In these settings the SoV resolution can be obtained along an extension of the method described in [1]. The transfer matrix spectrum is then completely characterized in terms of the set of solutions to a discrete system of polynomial equations in a given class of functions and equivalently as the set of solutions to an analogue of Baxter's T-Q functional equation. We further describe scalar product properties of the separate states including eigenstates of the transfer matrix.

Jean Michel Maillet, Giuliano Niccoli, Baptiste Pezelier

SciPost Phys. 2, 009 (2017) · published 28 February 2017 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We study the transfer matrix spectral problem for the cyclic representations of the trigonometric 6-vertex reflection algebra associated to the Bazhanov-Stroganov Lax operator. The results apply as well to the spectral analysis of the lattice sine-Gordon model with integrable open boundary conditions. This spectral analysis is developed by implementing the method of separation of variables (SoV). The transfer matrix spectrum (both eigenvalues and eigenstates) is completely characterized in terms of the set of solutions to a discrete system of polynomial equations in a given class of functions. Moreover, we prove an equivalent characterization as the set of solutions to a Baxter's like T-Q functional equation and rewrite the transfer matrix eigenstates in an algebraic Bethe ansatz form. In order to explain our method in a simple case, the present paper is restricted to representations containing one constraint on the boundary parameters and on the parameters of the Bazhanov-Stroganov Lax operator. In a next article, some more technical tools (like Baxter's gauge transformations) will be introduced to extend our approach to general integrable boundary conditions.