Quantum Groups In Two Dimensional Physics

This book is an introduction to integrability and conformal field theory in two dimensions using quantum groups. The book begins with a brief introduction to S-matrices, spin chains and vertex models as a prelude to the study of Yang-Baxter algebras and the Bethe ansatz. The authors then introduce the basic ideas of integrable systems, giving particular emphasis to vertex and face models. They give special attention to the underlying mathematical tools, including braid groups, knot invariants, and towers of algebras. The authors then go on to give a detailed introduction to quantum groups before addressing integrable models, two-dimensional conformal field theories, and superconformal field theories. The book contains many diagrams and exercises to illustrate key points in the text and will be appropriate for researchers and graduate students in theoretical physics and mathematics.

Quantum groups have been studied intensively in mathematics and have found many valuable applications in theoretical and mathematical physics since their discovery in the mid-1980s. Roughly speaking, there are two prototype examples of quantum groups, denoted by Uq and Aq. The former is a deformation of the universal enveloping algebra of a Kac–Moody Lie algebra, whereas the latter is a deformation of the coordinate ring of a Lie group. Although they are dual to each other in principle, most of the applications so far are based on Uq, and the main targets are solvable lattice models in 2-dimensions or quantum field theories in 1+1 dimensions. This book aims to present a unique approach to 3-dimensional integrability based on Aq. It starts from the tetrahedron equation, a 3-dimensional analogue of the Yang–Baxter equation, and its solution due to work by Kapranov–Voevodsky (1994). Then, it guides readers to its variety of generalizations, relations to quantum groups, and applications. They include a connection to the Poincaré–Birkhoff–Witt basis of a unipotent part of Uq, reductions to the solutions of the Yang–Baxter equation, reflection equation, G2 reflection equation, matrix product constructions of quantum R matrices and reflection K matrices, stationary measures of multi-species simple-exclusion processes, etc. These contents of the book are quite distinct from conventional approaches and will stimulate and enrich the theories of quantum groups and integrable systems.

This volume contains the lectures given by the three speakers, M Jimbo, P P Kulish and E K Sklyanin, who are outstanding experts in their field. It is essential reading to those working in the fields of Quantum Groups, and Integrable Systems.

This book focuses on quantum groups, i.e., continuous deformations of Lie groups, and their applications in physics. These algebraic structures have been studied in the last decade by a growing number of mathematicians and physicists, and are found to underlie many physical systems of interest. They do provide, in fact, a sort of common algebraic ground for seemingly very different physical problems. As it has happened for supersymmetry, the q-group symmetries are bound to play a vital role in physics, even in fundamental theories like gauge theory or gravity. In fact q-symmetry can be considered itself as a generalization of supersymmetry, evident in the q-commutator formulation. The hope that field theories on q-groups are naturally reguralized begins to appear founded, and opens new perspectives for quantum gravity. The topics covered in this book include: conformal field theories and quantum groups, gauge theories of quantum groups, anyons, differential calculus on quantum groups and non-commutative geometry, poisson algebras, 2-dimensional statistical models, (2+1) quantum gravity, quantum groups and lattice physics, inhomogeneous q-groups, q-Poincaregroup and deformed gravity and gauging of W-algebras.

With applications in quantum field theory, general relativity and elementary particle physics, this three-volume work studies the invariance of differential operators under Lie algebras, quantum groups and superalgebras. This second volume covers quantum groups in their two main manifestations: quantum algebras and matrix quantum groups. The exposition covers both the general aspects of these and a great variety of concrete explicitly presented examples. The invariant q-difference operators are introduced mainly using representations of quantum algebras on their dual matrix quantum groups as carrier spaces. This is the first book that covers the title matter applied to quantum groups. Contents Quantum Groups and Quantum Algebras Highest-Weight Modules over Quantum Algebras Positive-Energy Representations of Noncompact Quantum Algebras Duality for Quantum Groups Invariant q-Difference Operators Invariant q-Difference Operators Related to GLq(n) q-Maxwell Equations Hierarchies

Integrable quantum field theories and integrable lattice models have been studied for several decades, but during the last few years new ideas have emerged that have considerably changed the topic. The first group of papers published here is concerned with integrable structures of quantum lattice models related to quantum group symmetries. The second group deals with the description of integrable structures in two-dimensional quantum field theories, especially boundary problems, thermodynamic Bethe ansatz and form factor problems. Finally, a major group of papers is concerned with the purely mathematical framework that underlies the physically-motivated research on quantum integrable models, including elliptic deformations of groups, representation theory of non-compact quantum groups, and quantization of moduli spaces.