Excited-state thermodynamics

Abstract

In the last several years, the Casimir energy for a variety of 1+1-dimensional integrable models has been determined from the exact S-matrix. It is shown here how to modify the boundary conditions to project out the lowest-energy state, which enables one to find excited-state energies. This is done by calculating thermodynamic expectation values of operators which generate discrete symmetries. This is demonstrated with a number of perturbed conformal field theories, including the Ising model, the three-state Potts model, ${\bf Z}_n$ parafermions, Toda minimal S-matrices, and massless Goldstinos.