Using Bethe's hypothesis, C N Yang exactly solved the one-dimensional (1D) delta-function interacting spin-1/2 Fermi gas with an arbitrary spin-imbalance in 1967. At that time, using a different method, M Gaudin solved the problem of interacting fermions in a spin-balanced case. Later, the 1D delta-function interacting fermion problem was named as the Yang-Gaudin model. It has been in general agreed that a key discovery of C N Yang's work was the cubic matrix equation for the solvability conditions. % This equation was later independently found by R J Baxter for commuting transfer matrices of 2D exactly solvable vertex models. % The equation has since been referred to Yang-Baxter equation, being the master equation to integrability. % The Yang-Baxter equation has been used to solve a wide range of 1D many-body problems in physics, such as 1D Hubbard model,
SU(N) Fermi gases, Kondo impurity problem and strongly correlated electronic systems etc. % In this paper, we will briefly discuss recent developments of the Yang-Gaudin model on several breakthroughs of many-body phenomena, ranging from the universal thermodynamics to the Luttigner liquid, the spin charge separation, the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO)-like pairing state and the quantum criticality. % These developments demonstrate that the Yang-Gaudin model has laid out a profound legacy of the Yang-Baxter equation.
In a seminal paper of 1967, Professor Chen Ning Yang found the full solution of the one-dimensional Fermi gas with a repulsive delta function interaction by using the Bethe ansatz and group theory. This work with a brilliant discovery of the Yang–Baxter equation has been inspiring new developments in mathematical physics, statistical physics, and many-body physics. Based on experimental developments in simulating many-body physics of one-dimensional systems of ultracold atoms, during a period from 2009 to 2011, Prof. Yang published seven papers on the exact properties of the ground state of bosonic and fermionic atoms with the repulsive delta function interaction and a confined potential to one dimension. Here I would like to share my experience in doing research work fortunately under the direct supervision of Prof. Yang in that period.