Thermodynamics of the Isotropic Heisenberg Quantum Spin Chain
Hans-Peter Eckle
Abstract
Abstract This chapter presents the extension of the Bethe ansatz to finite temperature, the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz, for the antiferromagnetic isotropic Heisenberg quantum spin chain, the XXX quantum spin chain. It discusses how the added complications of this model arise from the more complicated structure of excitations of the quantum spin chain, the complex string excitations, which have to be included in the Bethe ansatz thermodynamics. It derives the integral equations of the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz for the XXX quantum spin chain and mentions explicit formulas for the free energy of the quantum spin chain and some interesting physical quantities, especially making contact with predictions of conformal symmetry.