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Concept
Quantum inverse scattering method
Summary
In quantum physics, the quantum inverse scattering method (QISM) or the algebraic Bethe ansatz is a method for solving integrable models in 1+1 dimensions, introduced by Leon Takhtajan and L. D. Faddeev in 1979.
It can be viewed as a quantized version of the classical inverse scattering method pioneered by Norman Zabusky and Martin Kruskal used to investigate the Korteweg–de Vries equation and later other integrable partial differential equations. In both, a Lax matrix features heavily and scattering data is used to construct solutions to the original system.
While the classical inverse scattering method is used to solve integrable partial differential equations which model continuous media (for example, the KdV equation models shallow water waves), the QISM is used to solve many-body quantum systems, sometimes known as spin chains, of which the Heisenberg spin chain is the best-studied and most famous example. These are typically discrete systems, with particles fixed at different points of a lattice, but limits of results obtained by the QISM can give predictions even for field theories defined on a continuum, such as the quantum sine-Gordon model.
The quantum inverse scattering method relates two different approaches:
the Bethe ansatz, a method of solving integrable quantum models in one space and one time dimension.
the inverse scattering transform, a method of solving classical integrable differential equations of the evolutionary type.
This method led to the formulation of quantum groups, in particular the Yangian. The center of the Yangian, given by the quantum determinant plays a prominent role in the method.
An important concept in the inverse scattering transform is the Lax representation. The quantum inverse scattering method starts by the quantization of the Lax representation and reproduces the results of the Bethe ansatz. In fact, it allows the Bethe ansatz to be written in a new form: the algebraic Bethe ansatz.
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