Introduction to quantum integrability

Abstract

These are lecture notes of an introduction to quantum integrability given at the Tenth Modave Summer School in Mathematical Physics, 2014, aimed at PhD candidates and junior researchers in theoretical physics. We introduce spin chains and discuss the coordinate Bethe ansatz (CBA) for a representative example: the Heisenberg XXZ model. The focus lies on the structure of the CBA and on its main results, deferring a detailed treatment of the CBA for the general $M$-particle sector of the XXZ model to an appendix. Subsequently the transfer-matrix method is discussed for the six-vertex model, uncovering a relation between that model and the XXZ spin chain. Equipped with this background the quantum inverse-scattering method (QISM) and algebraic Bethe ansatz (ABA) are treated. We emphasize the use of graphical notation for algebraic quantities as well as computations. Finally we turn to quantum integrability in the context of theoretical high-energy physics. We discuss factorized scattering in two-dimensional QFT, and conclude with a qualitative introduction to one current research topic relating quantum integrability to theoretical high-energy physics: the Bethe/gauge correspondence.