Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General
Thermodynamics of the quantum Toda lattice
M Hader, Franz G. Mertens
Abstract
A linear chain with exponential plus linear interactions (Toda lattice) can be mapped by the Bethe ansatz to a Fermi gas. The thermodynamics is treated by analogy to the delta-function Bose gas (Yang and Yang). Analytical solutions are given for the strongly anharmonic regime and low temperatures; the general case is treated numerically. For the case of weak anharmonicity the specific heats are compared with earlier approximate calculations. The anharmonic part of the specific heat is shown to be not very different from the corresponding classical result which can be interpreted as the specific heat of an ideal gas of solitons. For the quantum case the soliton-gas picture needs further investigation.