Table of contents

Quantum field theory (QFT) is a rich and robust part of mathematical and theoretical physics, with a wide range of applications in statistical physics, condensed matter physics, particle physics and string theory. Many (if not most) of the applications in four space-time dimensions require some sort of systematic approximations. In contrast, quantum field theories in lower dimensions often display special properties which open the door, at least in principle, to their exact solution.

In many cases, the methods used to obtain exact solutions are peculiar to low-dimensional space-times, but the exact solutions thus obtained can teach us a great deal about more realistic QFTs in higher dimensions. Thus, lower-dimensional QFTs provide excellent models for exploring deep theoretical and computational issues, in addition to their direct applications to physical processes in reduced dimensions, which include polymers, boundary fluctuations, spin chains, and quantum Hall systems. Such models are also vital testing grounds for fundamental theoretical ideas such as integrability, phase transitions, collective and non-perturbative quantum behaviour, and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. We should also mention the effective dimensional reduction which occurs in the high temperature limit, or is induced by disorder.

Low-dimensional quantum field theory thus sits at a unique intersection point of contemporary mathematics and physics, allowing many of these issues to be addressed rigorously and analytically. Surprising inter-relations continue to arise, from the ubiquitous nature of the Bethe ansatz and Calogero models, to the link between integrable spin chains and the anomalous dimensions of operators in gauge theories. Aspects of the latter connection have been known at least since the 1990s; they have recently received tremendous attention in connection with N=4 supersymmetric Yang--Mills theory (in four space-time dimensions) and the AdS/CFT correspondence. One unifying idea is the Bethe ansatz, whose 75th anniversary we celebrate this year, and whose wide-ranging impact in diverse branches of modern mathematical physics is made abundantly clear in this special issue. In addition, new ideas and techniques of significance to both mathematics and physics have emerged: the recent and spectacular progress on geometrical aspects of phase transitions made possible through the ideas of stochastic (Schramm) Loewner evolution, or SLE, is a particularly noteworthy example.

All papers in this special issue are invited, refereed contributions from leading experts. Many are pedagogical reviews, capturing the current state of knowledge in a particular subject, putting the subject in context and outlining open challenges. Others are research papers, reflecting the rapid flux of new ideas and results in this rich and exciting field. Together, they represent a broad sample of the entire field. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the authors for their efforts in making this special issue possible, and Kazuhiro Hikami for his help in the early stages of this project. We hope it inspires many new developments!

Conformally invariant curves that appear at critical points in two-dimensional statistical mechanics systems and their fractal geometry have received a lot of attention in recent years. On the one hand, Schramm (2000 Israel J. Math.118 221 (Preprint math.PR/9904022)) has invented a new rigorous as well as practical calculational approach to critical curves, based on a beautiful unification of conformal maps and stochastic processes, and by now known as Schramm–Loewner evolution (SLE). On the other hand, Duplantier (2000 Phys. Rev. Lett.84 1363; Fractal Geometry and Applications: A Jubilee of Benot Mandelbrot: Part 2 (Proc. Symp. Pure Math. vol 72) (Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society) p 365 (Preprint math-ph/0303034)) has applied boundary quantum gravity methods to calculate exact multifractal exponents associated with critical curves. In the first part of this paper, I provide a pedagogical introduction to SLE. I present mathematical facts from the theory of conformal maps and stochastic processes related to SLE. Then I review basic properties of SLE and provide practical derivation of various interesting quantities related to critical curves, including fractal dimensions and crossing probabilities. The second part of the paper is devoted to a way of describing critical curves using boundary conformal field theory (CFT) in the so-called Coulomb gas formalism. This description provides an alternative (to quantum gravity) way of obtaining the multifractal spectrum of critical curves using only traditional methods of CFT based on free bosonic fields.

We give a brief introduction to the application of the Bethe ansatz to the study of planar super-Yang–Mills. The emphasis is on one-loop integrability in the SU(2) sector. We use the Bethe ansatz to find the anomalous dimensions for certain operators and compare these results with string theory predictions based on the AdS/CFT correspondence.

The asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) plays the role of a paradigm in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. We review exact results for the ASEP obtained by the Bethe ansatz and put emphasis on the algebraic properties of this model. The Bethe equations for the eigenvalues of the Markov matrix of the ASEP are derived from the algebraic Bethe ansatz. Using these equations we explain how to calculate the spectral gap of the model and how global spectral properties such as the existence of multiplets can be predicted. An extension of the Bethe ansatz leads to an analytic expression for the large deviation function of the current in the ASEP that satisfies the Gallavotti–Cohen relation. Finally, we describe some variants of the ASEP that are also solvable by the Bethe ansatz.

During the last few years, the phase diagram of the large N Gross–Neveu model in 1 + 1 dimensions at finite temperature and chemical potential has undergone a major revision. Here, we present a streamlined account of this development, collecting the most important results. Quasi-one-dimensional condensed matter systems like conducting polymers provide real physical systems which can be approximately described by the Gross–Neveu model and have played some role in establishing its phase structure. The kink–antikink phase found at low temperatures is closely related to inhomogeneous superconductors in the Larkin–Ovchinnikov–Fulde–Ferrell phase. With the complete phase diagram at hand, the Gross–Neveu model can now serve as a firm testing ground for new algorithms and theoretical ideas.

We give a brief review of the quantum Hall effect in higher dimensions and its relation to fuzzy spaces. For a quantum Hall system, the lowest Landau level dynamics is given by a one-dimensional matrix action whose large N limit produces an effective action describing the gauge interactions of a higher dimensional quantum Hall droplet. The bulk action is a Chern–Simons type term whose anomaly is exactly cancelled by the boundary action given in terms of a chiral, gauged Wess–Zumino–Witten theory suitably generalized to higher dimensions. We argue that the gauge fields in the Chern–Simons action can be understood as parametrizing the different ways in which the large N limit of the matrix theory is taken. The possible relevance of these ideas to fuzzy gravity is explained. Other applications are also briefly discussed.

Matrix models and related spin Calogero–Sutherland models are of major relevance in a variety of subjects, ranging from condensed matter physics to QCD and low-dimensional string theory. They are characterized by integrability and exact solvability. Their continuum, field theoretic representations are likewise of definite interest. In this paper we describe various continuum, field theoretic representations of these models based on bosonization and collective field theory techniques. We compare various known representations and describe some nontrivial applications.

We give a review of the mathematical and physical properties of the celebrated family of Calogero-like models and related spin chains.

A simple resonance factorized scattering theory is studied by the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz technique. While the limiting ultraviolet central charge is predicted to be c = 1, at the intermediate distances the model reveals the characteristic pattern of the trajectory which flows down wandering about several different fixed points. The field theory nature of the model considered is not completely clear, however.

Two implicit periodic structures in the solution of the sinh-Gordon thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA) equation are considered. The analytic structure of the solution as a function of complex θ is studied to some extent both analytically and numerically. The results hint at how the CFT integrable structures can be relevant in the sinh-Gordon and staircase models. More motivations are figured out for subsequent studies of the massless sinh-Gordon (i.e. Liouville) TBA equation.

We introduce and study an integrable boundary flow possessing an infinite number of conserving charges which can be thought of as quantum counterparts of the Ablowitz, Kaup, Newell and Segur Hamiltonians. We propose an exact expression for overlap amplitudes of the boundary state with all primary states in terms of solutions of certain ordinary linear differential equations. The boundary flow is terminated at a nontrivial infrared fixed point. We identify a form of whole boundary state corresponding to this fixed point.

We define and study certain integrable lattice models with non-compact quantum group symmetry (the modular double of ) including an integrable lattice regularization of the sinh-Gordon model and a non-compact version of the XXZ model. Their fundamental R-matrices are constructed in terms of the non-compact quantum dilogarithm. Our choice of the quantum group representations naturally ensures self-adjointness of the Hamiltonian and the higher integrals of motion. These models are studied with the help of the separation of variables method. We show that the spectral problem for the integrals of motion can be reformulated as the problem to determine a subset among the solutions to certain finite difference equations (Baxter equation and quantum Wronskian equation) which is characterized by suitable analytic and asymptotic properties. A key technical tool is the so-called -operator, for which we give an explicit construction. Our results allow us to establish some connections to related results and conjectures on the sinh-Gordon theory in continuous spacetime. Our approach also sheds some light on the relations between massive and massless models (in particular, the sinh-Gordon and Liouville theories) from the point of view of their integrable structures.

The O(n) spin model in two dimensions may equivalently be formulated as a loop model, and then mapped to a height model which is conjectured to flow under the renormalization group to a conformal field theory (CFT). At the critical point, the order n terms in the partition function and correlation functions describe single self-avoiding loops. We investigate the ensemble of these self-avoiding loops using twist operators, which count loops which wind non-trivially around them with a factor −1. These turn out to have level 2 null states and hence their correlators satisfy a set of partial differential equations. We show that partly connected parts of the four-point function count the expected number of loops which separate one pair of points from the other pair, and find an explicit expression for this. We argue that the differential equation satisfied by these expectation values should have an interpretation in terms of a stochastic(Schramm)–Loewner evolution (SLE_κ) process with κ = 6. The two-point function in a simply connected domain satisfies a closely related set of equations. We solve these and hence calculate the expected number of single loops which separate both points from the boundary.

We discuss the central charge in supersymmetric sigma models in two dimensions. The target space is a symmetric Kähler manifold; CP(N − 1) is an example. The U(1) isometries allow one to introduce twisted masses in the model. At the classical level the central charge contains Noether charges of the U(1) isometries and a topological charge which is an integral of a total derivative of the Killing potentials. At the quantum level, the topological part of the central charge acquires anomalous terms. A bifermion term was found previously, using supersymmetry which relates it to the superconformal anomaly. We present a direct calculation of this term using a number of regularizations. We derive, for the first time, the bosonic part in the central charge anomaly. We construct the supermultiplet of all anomalies and present its superfield description. We also discuss a related issue of BPS solitons in the CP(1) model and present an explicit form for the curve of marginal stability.

The N-particle free fermion state for quantum particles in the plane subject to a perpendicular magnetic field, and with doubly periodic boundary conditions, is written in a product form. The absolute value of this is used to formulate an exactly solvable one-component plasma model and further motivates the formulation of an exactly solvable two-species Coulomb gas. The large N expansion of the free energy of both these models exhibits the same O(1) term. On the basis of a relationship to the Gaussian free field, this term is predicted to be universal for conductive Coulomb systems in doubly periodic boundary conditions.

We use the uniform light-cone gauge to derive an exact gauge-fixed Lagrangian and light-cone Hamiltonian for the Green–Schwarz superstring in AdS₅ × S⁵. We then quantize the theory perturbatively in the near plane wave limit, and compute the leading 1/J correction to a generic string state from the rank-1 subsectors. These investigations enable us to propose a new set of light-cone Bethe equations for the quantum string. The equations have a simple form and yield the correct spinning string and flat space limits. Finally, we clarify the notion of closed sectors in string theory by proving the existence of perturbative effective string Hamiltonians which are direct analogues of (all-loop) dilatation operators in the dual gauge theory.

It was recently observed that the one-dimensional half-filled Hubbard model reproduces the known part of the perturbative spectrum of planar super Yang–Mills in the SU(2) sector. Assuming that this identification is valid beyond perturbation theory, we investigate the behaviour of this spectrum as the 't Hooft parameter λ becomes large. We show that the full dimension Δ of the Konishi superpartner is the solution of a sixth-order polynomial while Δ for a bare dimension 5 operator is the solution of a cubic. In both cases, the equations can be solved easily as a series expansion for both small and large λ and the equations can be inverted to express λ as an explicit function of Δ. We then consider more general operators and show how Δ depends on λ in the strong coupling limit. We are also able to distinguish those states in the Hubbard model which correspond to the gauge-invariant operators for all values of λ. Finally, we compare our results with known results for strings on AdS₅ × S⁵, where we find agreement for a range of R-charges.

Studies of super Yang–Mills operators with large R-charge have shown that, in the planar limit, the problem of computing their dimensions can be viewed as a certain spin chain. These spin chains have fundamental 'magnon' excitations which obey a dispersion relation that is periodic in the momentum of the magnons. This result for the dispersion relation was also shown to hold at arbitrary 't Hooft coupling. Here we identify these magnons on the string theory side and we show how to reconcile a periodic dispersion relation with the continuum worldsheet description. The crucial idea is that the momentum is interpreted in the string theory side as a certain geometrical angle. We use these results to compute the energy of a spinning string. We also show that the symmetries that determine the dispersion relation and that constrain the S-matrix are the same in the gauge theory and the string theory. We compute the overall S-matrix at large 't Hooft coupling using the string description and we find that it agrees with an earlier conjecture. We also find an infinite number of two magnon bound states at strong coupling, while at weak coupling this number is finite.

We study the spectrum of asymptotic states in the spin-chain description of planar SUSY Yang–Mills. In addition to elementary magnons, the asymptotic spectrum includes an infinite tower of multi-magnon bound states with an exact dispersion relation where the positive integer Q is the number of constituent magnons. These states account precisely for the known poles in the exact S-matrix. Like the elementary magnon, they transform in small representations of supersymmetry and are present for all values of the 't Hooft coupling. At strong coupling we identify the dual states in semiclassical string theory.

Motivated by the desire to relate Bethe ansatz equations for anomalous dimensions found on the gauge-theory side of the AdS/CFT correspondence to superstring theory on AdS₅ × S⁵ we explore a connection between the asymptotic S-matrix that enters the Bethe ansatz and an effective two-dimensional quantum field theory. The latter generalizes the standard 'non-relativistic' Landau–Lifshitz (LL) model describing low-energy modes of ferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chain and should be related to a limit of superstring effective action. We find the exact form of the quartic interaction terms in the generalized LL-type action whose quantum S-matrix matches the low-energy limit of the asymptotic S-matrix of the spin chain of Beisert, Dippel and Staudacher (BDS). This generalizes to all orders in the 't Hooft coupling λ an earlier computation of Klose and Zarembo of the S-matrix of the standard LL model. We also consider a generalization to the case when the spin-chain S-matrix contains an extra 'string' phase and determine the exact form of the LL 4-vertex corresponding to the low-energy limit of the ansatz of Arutyunov, Frolov and Staudacher (AFS). We explain the relation between the resulting 'non-relativistic' non-local action and the second-derivative string sigma model. We comment on modifications introduced by strong-coupling corrections to the AFS phase. We mostly discuss the SU(2) sector but also present generalizations to the SL(2) and SU(1|1) sectors, confirming universality of the dressing phase contribution by matching the low-energy limit of the AFS-type spin-chain S-matrix with tree-level string-theory S-matrix.