Adding integrable defects to the Boussinesq equation

The purpose of this paper is to extend the store of models able to support integrable defects by investigating the two-dimensional Boussinesq nonlinear wave equation. As has been previously noted in many examples, insisting that a defect contributes to energy and momentum to ensure their conservation, despite the presence of discontinuities and the explicit breaking of translation invariance, leads to sewing conditions relating the two fields and their derivatives on either side of the defect. The manner in which several types of soliton solutions to the Boussinesq equation are affected by the defect is explored and reveals new effects that have not been observed in other integrable systems, such as the possibility of a soliton reflecting from a defect or of a defect decaying into one or two solitons.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure

Integrable defects at junctions within a network

The purpose of this article is to explore the properties of integrable, purely transmitting, defects placed at the junctions of several one-dimensional domains within a network. The defect sewing conditions turn out to be quite restrictive—for example, requiring the number of domains meeting at a junction to be even—and there is a clear distinction between the behaviour of conformal and massive integrable models. The ideas are mainly developed within classical field theory and illustrated using a variety of field theory models defined on the branches of the network, including both linear and nonlinear examples

Type II defects revisited

Energy and momentum conservation in the context of a type II, purely transmitting, defect, within a single scalar relativistic two-dimensional field theory, places a severe constraint not only on the nature of the defect but also on the potentials for the scalar fields to either side of it. The constraint is of an unfamiliar type since it requires the Poisson Bracket of the defect contributions to energy and momentum with respect to the defect discontinuity and its conjugate to be balanced by the potential difference across the defect. It is shown that the only solutions to the constraint correspond to the known integrable field theories

Interplay between Zamolodchikov-Faddeev and Reflection-Transmission algebras

We show that a suitable coset algebra, constructed in terms of an extension of the Zamolodchikov-Faddeev algebra, is homomorphic to the Reflection-Transmission algebra, as it appears in the study of integrable systems with impurity.Comment: 8 pages; a misprint in eq. (2.14) and (2.15) has been correcte

The quantum non-linear Schrodinger model with point-like defect

We establish a family of point-like impurities which preserve the quantum integrability of the non-linear Schrodinger model in 1+1 space-time dimensions. We briefly describe the construction of the exact second quantized solution of this model in terms of an appropriate reflection-transmission algebra. The basic physical properties of the solution, including the space-time symmetry of the bulk scattering matrix, are also discussed.Comment: Comments on the integrability and the impurity free limit adde

A multisymplectic approach to defects in integrable classical field theory

We introduce the concept of multisymplectic formalism, familiar in covariant field theory, for the study of integrable defects in 1+1 classical field theory. The main idea is the coexistence of two Poisson brackets, one for each spacetime coordinate. The Poisson bracket corresponding to the time coordinate is the usual one describing the time evolution of the system. Taking the nonlinear Schr\"odinger (NLS) equation as an example, we introduce the new bracket associated to the space coordinate. We show that, in the absence of any defect, the two brackets yield completely equivalent Hamiltonian descriptions of the model. However, in the presence of a defect described by a frozen B\"acklund transformation, the advantage of using the new bracket becomes evident. It allows us to reinterpret the defect conditions as canonical transformations. As a consequence, we are also able to implement the method of the classical r matrix and to prove Liouville integrability of the system with such a defect. The use of the new Poisson bracket completely bypasses all the known problems associated with the presence of a defect in the discussion of Liouville integrability. A by-product of the approach is the reinterpretation of the defect Lagrangian used in the Lagrangian description of integrable defects as the generating function of the canonical transformation representing the defect conditions

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in the non-linear Schrodinger hierarchy with defect

We introduce and solve the one-dimensional quantum non-linear Schrodinger (NLS) equation for an N-component field defined on the real line with a defect sitting at the origin. The quantum solution is constructed using the quantum inverse scattering method based on the concept of Reflection-Transmission (RT) algebras recently introduced. The symmetry of the model is generated by the reflection and transmission defect generators defining a defect subalgebra. We classify all the corresponding reflection and transmission matrices. This provides the possible boundary conditions obeyed by the canonical field and we compute these boundary conditions explicitly. Finally, we exhibit a phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking induced by the defect and identify the unbroken generators as well as the exact remaining symmetry.Comment: discussion on symmetry breaking has been improved and examples adde

Generalized q-Onsager Algebras and Dynamical K-matrices

A procedure to construct $K$-matrices from the generalized $q$-Onsager algebra \cO_{q}(\hat{g}) is proposed. This procedure extends the intertwiner techniques used to obtain scalar (c-number) solutions of the reflection equation to dynamical (non-c-number) solutions. It shows the relation between soliton non-preserving reflection equations or twisted reflection equations and the generalized $q$-Onsager algebras. These dynamical $K$-matrices are important to quantum integrable models with extra degrees of freedom located at the boundaries: for instance, in the quantum affine Toda field theories on the half-line they yield the boundary amplitudes. As examples, the cases of \cO_{q}(a^{(2)}_{2}) and \cO_{q}(a^{(1)}_{2}) are treated in details