Diagonalizing transfer matrices and matrix product operators: a medley of exact and computational methods

Transfer matrices and matrix product operators play an ubiquitous role in the field of many body physics. This paper gives an ideosyncratic overview of applications, exact results and computational aspects of diagonalizing transfer matrices and matrix product operators. The results in this paper are a mixture of classic results, presented from the point of view of tensor networks, and of new results. Topics discussed are exact solutions of transfer matrices in equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical physics, tensor network states, matrix product operator algebras, and numerical matrix product state methods for finding extremal eigenvectors of matrix product operators.Comment: Lecture notes from a course at Vienna Universit

Quantum mechanics of null polygonal Wilson loops

Scattering amplitudes in maximally supersymmetric gauge theory are dual to super-Wilson loops on null polygonal contours. The operator product expansion for the latter revealed that their dynamics is governed by the evolution of multiparticle GKP excitations. They were shown to emerge from the spectral problem of an underlying open spin chain. In this work we solve this model with the help of the Baxter Q-operator and Sklyanin's Separation of Variables methods. We provide an explicit construction for eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of GKP excitations. We demonstrate how the former define the so-called multiparticle hexagon transitions in super-Wison loops and prove their factorized form suggested earlier.Comment: 51 pages, 15 figure

Form-factors in the Baxter-Bazhanov-Stroganov model I: Norms and matrix elements

We continue our investigation of the Z_N-Baxter-Bazhanov-Stroganov model using the method of separation of variables [nlin/0603028]. In this paper we calculate the norms and matrix elements of a local Z_N-spin operator between eigenvectors of the auxiliary problem. For the norm the multiple sums over the intermediate states are performed explicitly. In the case N=2 we solve the Baxter equation and obtain form-factors of the spin operator of the periodic Ising model on a finite lattice.Comment: 24 page

Topological Defects on the Lattice I: The Ising model

In this paper and its sequel, we construct topologically invariant defects in two-dimensional classical lattice models and quantum spin chains. We show how defect lines commute with the transfer matrix/Hamiltonian when they obey the defect commutation relations, cousins of the Yang-Baxter equation. These relations and their solutions can be extended to allow defect lines to branch and fuse, again with properties depending only on topology. In this part I, we focus on the simplest example, the Ising model. We define lattice spin-flip and duality defects and their branching, and prove they are topological. One useful consequence is a simple implementation of Kramers-Wannier duality on the torus and higher genus surfaces by using the fusion of duality defects. We use these topological defects to do simple calculations that yield exact properties of the conformal field theory describing the continuum limit. For example, the shift in momentum quantization with duality-twisted boundary conditions yields the conformal spin 1/16 of the chiral spin field. Even more strikingly, we derive the modular transformation matrices explicitly and exactly.Comment: 45 pages, 9 figure

Fine structure of anomalous dimensions in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory

Anomalous dimensions of high-twist Wilson operators in generic gauge theories occupy a band of width growing logarithmically with their conformal spin. We perform a systematic study of its fine structure in the autonomous SL(2) subsector of the dilatation operator of planar N=4 super Yang-Mills theory which is believed to be integrable to all orders in 't Hooft coupling. We resort in our study on the framework of the Baxter equation to unravel the properties of the ground state trajectory and the excited trajectories in the spectrum. We use two complimentary approaches in our analysis based on the asymptotic solution of the Baxter equation and on the semiclassical expansion to work out the leading asymptotic expression for the trajectories in the upper and lower part of the band and to find how they are modified by the perturbative corrections.Comment: 34 pages; v2: minor corrections, reference adde

BFKL Spectrum of N=4 SYM: non-Zero Conformal Spin

We developed a general non-perturbative framework for the BFKL spectrum of planar N=4 SYM, based on the Quantum Spectral Curve (QSC). It allows one to study the spectrum in the whole generality, extending previously known methods to arbitrary values of conformal spin $n$. We show how to apply our approach to reproduce all known perturbative results for the Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) Pomeron eigenvalue and get new predictions. In particular, we re-derived the Faddeev-Korchemsky Baxter equation for the Lipatov spin chain with non-zero conformal spin reproducing the corresponding BFKL kernel eigenvalue. We also get new non-perturbative analytic results for the Pomeron eigenvalue in the vicinity of $|n|=1,\;\Delta=0$ point and we obtained an explicit formula for the BFKL intercept function for arbitrary conformal spin up to the 3-loop order in the small coupling expansion and partial result at the 4-loop order. In addition, we implemented the numerical algorithm of arXiv:1504.06640 as an auxiliary file to this arXiv submission. From the numerical result we managed to deduce an analytic formula for the strong coupling expansion of the intercept function for arbitrary conformal spin.Comment: 70 pages, 5 figures, 1 txt, 2 nb and 2 mx files; v2: references added, typos fixed and nb file with Mathematica stylesheet attached; v3: more typos fixed; v4: the text edited according to the report of the refere

Quantum spectral curve as a tool for a perturbative quantum field theory

An iterative procedure perturbatively solving the quantum spectral curve of planar N=4 SYM for any operator in the sl(2) sector is presented. A Mathematica notebook executing this procedure is enclosed. The obtained results include 10-loop computations of the conformal dimensions of more than ten different operators. We prove that the conformal dimensions are always expressed, at any loop order, in terms of multiple zeta-values with coefficients from an algebraic number field determined by the one-loop Baxter equation. We observe that all the perturbative results that were computed explicitly are given in terms of a smaller algebra: single-valued multiple zeta-values times the algebraic numbers.Comment: 36 pages plus tables; v2: minor changes, references added, ancillary files with mathematica notebooks adde