Contributor info: Dr Jue Hou

Yi-Jun He, Jue Hou, Yi-Chao Liu, Zi-Xi Tan

SciPost Phys. Core 8, 057 (2025) · published 27 August 2025 | Toggle abstract · pdf

In integrable spin chains, the spectral problem can be solved by the method of Bethe Ansatz, which transforms the problem of diagonalization of the Hamiltonian into the problem of solving a set of algebraic equations named Bethe equations. In this work, we systematically investigate the spin-$s$ XXX chain with twisted and open boundary conditions using the rational $Q$-system, which is a powerful tool to solve Bethe equations. We establish basic frameworks of the rational $Q$-system and confirm its completeness numerically in both cases. For twisted boundaries, we investigate the polynomiality conditions of the rational $Q$-system and derive physical conditions for singular solutions of Bethe equations. For open boundaries, we uncover novel phenomena such as hidden symmetries and boundary induced strings under specific boundary parameters. Hidden symmetries lead to the appearance of extra degeneracies in the Hilbert space, while the boundary induced string is a novel type of exact string configuration, whose length depends on the boundary magnetic fields. These findings, supported by both analytical and numerical evidences, offer new insights into the interplay between symmetries and boundary conditions.

Jue Hou, Yunfeng Jiang, Yuan Miao

SciPost Phys. 16, 129 (2024) · published 22 May 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

The solution of Bethe Ansatz equations for XXZ spin chain with the parameter q being a root of unity is infamously subtle. In this work, we develop the rational Q-system for this case, which offers a systematic way to find all physical solutions of the Bethe Ansatz equations at root of unity. The construction contains two parts. In the first part, we impose additional constraints to the rational Q-system. These constraints eliminate the so-called Fabricius-McCoy (FM) string solutions, yielding all primitive solutions. In the second part, we give a simple procedure to construct the descendant tower of any given primitive state. The primitive solutions together with their descendant towers constitute the complete Hilbert space. We test our proposal by extensive numerical checks and apply it to compute the torus partition function of the 6-vertex model at root of unity.

Jue Hou, Yunfeng Jiang, Rui-Dong Zhu

SciPost Phys. 16, 113 (2024) · published 26 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

Bethe Ansatz equations for spin-s Heisenberg spin chain with s≥1 are significantly more difficult to analyze than the spin-$\tfrac{1}{2}$ case, due to the presence of repeated roots. As a result, it is challenging to derive extra conditions for the Bethe roots to be physical and study the related completeness problem. In this paper, we propose the rational Q-system for the XXX$_s$ spin chain. Solutions of the proposed Q-system give all and only physical solutions of the Bethe Ansatz equations required by completeness. This is checked numerically and proved rigorously. The rational Q-system is equivalent to the requirement that the solution and the corresponding dual solution of the TQ-relation are both polynomials, which we prove rigorously. Based on this analysis, we propose the extra conditions for solutions of the XXX$_s$ Bethe Ansatz equations to be physical.