Functional relations in the eight - vertex model

Abstract

We observe that the exactly solved eight-vertex solid-on-solid model contains an hitherto unnoticed arbitrary field parameter, similar to the horizontal field in the six-vertex model. The parameter is required to describe a continuous spectrum of the unrestricted solid-on-solid model, which has an infinite-dimensional space of states even for a finite lattice. The introduction of the continuous field parameter allows us to completely review the theory of functional relations in the eight-vertex/SOS-model from a uniform analytic point of view.