Time-dependent integrable quantum field theories with dynamical boundaries

Abstract

We present a method for constructing time-dependent integrable chiral quantum field theories on a finite spatial interval from the scattering and reflection data of an autonomous integrable model. Each particle carries a spectral label that is constant along its free trajectory. Requiring a right--left scattering event at a fixed time to be independent of its position forces the map from characteristic coordinates to spectral labels to be affine, with the same slope for both chiralities. As a result, all bulk scattering events at a given time sample one common spectral argument, and the two boundary reflections sample the corresponding endpoint arguments. The bulk and boundary drives are not independent time-dependent deformations: their time dependence is fixed by the same affine spectral coordinate. Successive reflections at the two endpoints translate the spectral label by a finite amount. Following a particle through a complete round trip then produces a difference transport whose consistency gives the boundary quantum Knizhnik--Zamolodchikov equations. The Yang--Baxter and reflection equations ensure local compatibility, while BqKZ flatness ensures compatibility of complete round trips. We then reconstruct the local Hamiltonian by inverting the one- and two-particle matching problems. The bulk matrix fixes the contact interaction, while the reflection matrix fixes the corresponding boundary coupling. The same autonomous factorized data determine the boundary qKZ transport problem and the local driven Hamiltonian. Once the boundary qKZ system is solved, its characteristic pullback gives the corresponding time-dependent many-body wavefunction. We illustrate the construction with rational $SU(N)$ models and an $O(3)$-invariant model with dynamical boundary impurities, obtaining driven Kondo interactions whose couplings are fixed by the same affine spectral coordinate.