On exactly solvable Yang-Baxter models and enhanced symmetries

Abstract

We study Yang-Baxter deformations of the flat space string that result in exactly solvable models, finding the Nappi-Witten model and its higher dimensional generalizations. We then consider the spectra of these models obtained by canonical quantization in light-cone gauge, and match them with an integrability-based Bethe ansatz approach. By considering a generalized light-cone gauge we can describe the model by a nontrivially Drinfel'd twisted S matrix, explicitly verifying the twisted structure expected for such deformations. Next, the reformulation of the Nappi-Witten model as a Yang-Baxter deformation shows that Yang-Baxter models can have more symmetries than suggested by the $r$ matrix defining the deformation. We discuss these enhanced symmetries in more detail for some trivial and nontrivial examples. Finally, we observe that there are nonunimodular but Weyl-invariant Yang-Baxter models of a type not previously considered.