The Importance of being Odd

Yu. Stroganov

Published 2000-12-04, updated 2001-01-03Version 3

In this letter I consider mainly a finite XXZ spin chain with periodic boundary conditions and \bf{odd} \rm number of sites. This system is described by the Hamiltonian $H_{xxz}=-\sum_{j=1}^{N}\{\sigma_j^{x}\sigma_{j+1}^{x} +\sigma_j^{y}\sigma_{j+1}^{y} +\Delta \sigma_j^z\sigma_{j+1}^z\}$. As it turned out, its ground state energy is exactly proportional to the number of sites $E=-3N/2$ for a special value of the asymmetry parameter $\Delta=-1/2$. The trigonometric polynomial $q(u)$, zeroes of which being the parameters of the ground state Bethe eigenvector is explicitly constructed. This polynomial of degree $n=(N-1)/2$ satisfy the Baxter T-Q equation. Using the second independent solution of this equation corresponding to the same eigenvalue of the transfer matrix, it is possible to find a derivative of the ground state energy w.r.t. the asymmetry parameter. This derivative is closely connected with the correlation function $<\sigma_j^z\sigma_{j+1}^z> =-1/2+3/2N^2$. In its turn this correlation function is related to an average number of spin strings for the ground state of the system under consideration: $<N_{string}> = {3/8}(N-1/N)$. I would like to stress once more that all these simple formulas are \bf wrong \rm in the case of even number of sites. Exactly this case is usually considered.