Physical Review Letters
Statistical Mechanics of the Sine-Gordon Equation
JUSSI TIMONEN, M. Stirland, D. J. Pilling, Yi Cheng, R. Bullough
Abstract
We give two fundamental methods for evaluation of classical free energies of all the integrable models admitting soliton solutions; the sine-Gordon equation is one example. Periodic boundary conditions impose integral equations for allowed phonon and soliton momenta. From these, generalized Bethe-Ansatz and functional-integration methods using action-angle variables follow. Results for free energies coincide, and coincide with those that we find by transfer-integral methods. Extension to the quantum case, and quantum Bethe Ansatz, on the lines to be reported elsewhere for the sinh-Gordon equation, is indicated.