The Bethe Wavefunction

by Michel Gaudin, Jean-Sébastien Caux (Translator)

Overview

Michel Gaudin's book La fonction d'onde de Bethe is a uniquely influential masterpiece on exactly solvable models of quantum mechanics and statistical physics. Available in English for the first time, this translation brings his classic work to a new generation of graduate students and researchers in physics. It presents a mixture of mathematics interspersed with powerful physical intuition, retaining the author's unmistakably honest tone. The book begins with the Heisenberg spin chain, starting from the coordinate Bethe Ansatz and culminating in a discussion of its thermodynamic properties. Δ-interacting bosons (the Lieb-Liniger model) are then explored, and extended to exactly solvable models associated to a reflection group. After discussing the continuum limit of spin chains, the book covers six- and eight-vertex models in extensive detail, from their lattice definition to their thermodynamics. Later chapters examine advanced topics such as multi-component Δ-interacting systems, Gaudin magnets and the Toda chain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107045859
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/06/2014
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	7.09(w) x 9.96(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Michel Gaudin is recognised as one of the foremost experts in this field, and has worked at Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA) and the Service de Physique Théorique, Saclay. His numerous scientific contributions to the theory of exactly solvable models are well-known, including his famous formula for the norm of Bethe wavefunctions.

Jean-Sébastien Caux is a professor of the theory of low-dimensional quantum condensed matter at the University of Amsterdam. He has made significant contributions to the calculation of experimentally observable dynamical properties of these systems.

Table of Contents

Foreword Michel Gaudin; Translator's note; Introduction; 1. The chain of spin-1/2 atoms; 2. Thermodynamic limit of the Heisenberg-Ising chain; 3. Thermodynamics of the spin-1/2 chain: limiting cases; 4. δ-interacting bosons; 5. Bethe wavefunctions associated to a reflective group; 6. Continuum limit of the spin chain; 7. The six-vertex model; 8. The eight-vertex model; 9. The eight-vertex model: eigenvectors and thermodynamics; 10. Identical particles with δ-interactions; 11. Identical particles with δ-interactions: general solution for two internal states; 12. Identical particles with δ-interactions: general solution for n components and limiting cases; 13. Various corollaries and extensions; 14. On the Toda chain; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"The book presents in detail many important computations. This allows the beginner in the field to learn many of the techniques that are relevant for new applications. … [This] is an outstanding book which every library should have. It will be extremely useful both for graduate and postgraduate students. The book can also serve as a source of inspiration for an advanced physics course on integrable models both in condensed matter theory and statistical physics. The translator has done a great job making this book accessible to the much wider audience it deserves."
Gunter M. Schütz, Contemporary Physics

From the Publisher