We obtain a new solution of the star-triangle relation with positive Boltzmann weights which contains as special cases all continuous and discrete spin solutions of this relation, that were previously known. This new master solution defines an exactly solvable 2D lattice model of statistical mechanics, which involves continuous spin variables, living on a circle, and contains two temperature-like parameters. If one of the these parameters approaches a root of unity (corresponds to zero temperature), the spin variables freezes into discrete positions, equidistantly spaced on the circle. An absolute orientation of these positions on the circle slowly changes between lattice sites by overall rotations. Allowed configurations of these rotations are described by classical discrete integrable equations, closely related to the famous Q 4 -equations by Adler Bobenko and Suris. Fluctuations between degenerate ground states in the vicinity of zero temperature are described by a rather general integrable lattice model with discrete spin variables. In some simple special cases the latter reduces to the Kashiwara-Miwa and chiral Potts models.

In this paper we give an overview of exactly solved edge-interaction models, where the spins are placed on sites of a planar lattice and interact through edges connecting the sites. We only consider the case of a single spin degree of freedom at each site of the lattice. The Yang-Baxter equation for such models takes a particular simple form called the star-triangle relation. Interestigly all known solutions of this relation can be obtained as particular cases of a single "master solution", which is expressed through the elliptic gamma function and have continuous spins taking values on the circle. We show that in the low-temperature (or quasi-classical) limit these lattice models reproduce classical discrete integrable systems on planar graphs previously obtained and classified by Adler, Bobenko and Suris through the consistency-around-a-cube approach. We also discuss inversion relations, the physicical meaning of Baxter's rapidity-independent parameter in the startriangle relations and the invariance of the action of the classical systems under the star-triangle (or cube-flip) transformation of the lattice, which is a direct consequence of Baxter's Z-invariance in the associated lattice models.

We study geometric consistency relations between angles of 3-dimensional (3D) circular quadrilateral lattices -lattices whose faces are planar quadrilaterals inscribable into a circle. We show that these relations generate canonical transformations of a remarkable "ultra-local" Poisson bracket algebra defined on discrete 2D surfaces consisting of circular quadrilaterals. Quantization of this structure allowed us to obtain new solutions of the tetrahedron equation (the 3D analog of the Yang-Baxter equation) as well as reproduce all those that were previously known. These solutions generate an infinite number of non-trivial solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation and also define integrable 3D models of statistical mechanics and quantum field theory. The latter can be thought of as describing quantum fluctuations of lattice geometry.

No abstract

For every quantized Lie algebra there exists a map from the tensor square of the algebra to itself, which by construction satisfies the set-theoretic Yang-Baxter equation. This map allows one to define an integrable discrete quantum evolution system on quadrilateral lattices, where local degrees of freedom (dynamical variables) take values in a tensor power of the quantized Lie algebra. The corresponding equations of motion admit the zero curvature representation. The commuting Integrals of Motion are defined in the standard way via the Quantum Inverse Problem Method, utilizing Baxter's famous commuting transfer matrix approach. All elements of the above construction have a meaningful quasi-classical limit. As a result one obtains an integrable discrete Hamiltonian evolution system, where the local equation of motion are determined by a classical Yang-Baxter map and the action functional is determined by the quasi-classical asymptotics of the universal R-matrix of the underlying quantum algebra. In this paper we present detailed considerations of the above scheme on the example of the algebra U q pslp2qq leading to discrete Liouville equations, however the approach is rather general and can be applied to any quantized Lie algebra.