Narrow Results

Bethe ansatz goes back to 1931, when H. Bethe invented it to solve some one-dimensional models, such as XXX spin chain, proposed by W. Heisenberg in 1928. Although it is a very powerful method to compute eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the corresponding Hamiltonian, it can be applied only for very specific boundary conditions: periodic boundary ones, and so-called open-diagonal boundary ones. After reviewing this method, we will present a generalization of it that applies also to open-triangular boundary conditions. This short note presents only the basic ideas of the technique, and does not attend to give a general overview of the subject. Interested readers should refer to the original papers and references therein.

We present an "algebraic treatment" of the analytical Bethe ansatz for open spin chains with soliton nonpreserving (SNP) boundary conditions. For this purpose, we introduce abstract monodromy and transfer matrices which provide an algebraic framework for the analytical Bethe ansatz. It allows us to deal with a generic open SNP spin chain possessing on each site an arbitrary representation. As a result, we obtain the Bethe equations in their full generality. The classification of finite dimensional irreducible representations for the twisted Yangians are directly linked to the calculation of the transfer matrix eigenvalues.