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# Free field constructions for the elliptic algebra 𝒜_{𝑞,𝑝}((𝑠𝑙)̂₂) and Baxter’s eight-vertex model11footnote 1 Based on talks given at “MATHPHYS ODYSSEY 2001–Integrable Models and Beyond” at Okayama and Kyoto, February 2001, EuroConference “Applications of the Macdonald Polynomials” at Newton institute, April 2001, ICMS Workshop “Classical and Quantum Integrable Systems and their Symmetries” at Heriot-Watt University, December 2001, and “Integrable Structures of Exactly Solvable Two-Dimensional Models of Quantum Field Theory” at Chernogolovka, September 2002.

## 1 Introduction

Baxter’s eight-vertex model is one of the most fundamental objects in two dimensional integrable models or in one dimensional integrable quantum spin chain systems. Basic quantities such as the free energy, critical exponents, and excited states were studied almost thirty years ago. (See  and Refs. in ). A beautiful formula for the spontaneous polarization $`P_0`$ was obtained by Baxter and Kelland . It reads

$`P_0={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1+p^n}{1p^n}}{\displaystyle \frac{1q^{2n}}{1+q^{2n}}}\right)^2,`$ (1)
where $`p`$ denotes the elliptic nome and $`q`$ corresponds to the crossing parameter for Baxter’s elliptic $`R`$ matrix.

An algebraic approach based on Baxter’s corner transfer matrix method and the elliptic quantum group for $`\widehat{sl}_2`$ was proposed by Kyoto school ,. They constructed the so-called vertex operator formalism for the correlation functions for the eight-vertex model based on the elliptic algebra $`𝒜_{q,p}(\widehat{sl}_2)`$. It was shown that this elliptic quantum algebra $`𝒜_{q,p}(\widehat{sl}_2)`$ can be obtained as a quasi-Hopf twist of the quantum affine algebra $`U_q(\widehat{sl}_2)`$ by a certain twistor element . Lashkevich and Pugai  succeeded in finding a bosonic realization of the correlation functions in terms of the vertex operators for the Andrews-Baxter-Forrester (ABF) model . This is due to their nice representation of a particular kind of the grading operator for the eight-vertex model in terms of the screening current for the ABF model, which enabled them to relate these two models. Recently, Quano improved their method and obtained simpler expression for the correlation function .

Lashkevich and Pugai’s method is based on the space of states for the ABF model, and it is not easy, at this moment, to have a complete construction of the grading operator for the eight-vertex model. Because of this, we still do not have a complete understanding of the analytic properties of the vertex operators. When we study fusion of the vertex operators, we need to deal with the analyticity in detail. To this end, it is desired to have a direct construction of the vertex operators together with the grading operator.

As was pointed out in , the operator for the elementary particle should satisfy a deformed-Virasoro-like commutation relation. Note, however, this algebra differs from the usual deformed Virasoro algebra, and to the author’s knowledge, nothing has been obtained about this, except for the double Ising case $`p=q^4`$. The free field constructions at $`p=q^3`$ and $`q^6`$ presented in this article, give us another examples.

In Section 2, basic properties for the vertex operators which we need in this paper are summarized. In Section 3, integral formulae for matrix elements, trace, and correlation functions are given. In Section 4, free field constructions at $`p=q^3,q^4,q^6`$ are argued. Most of the statements given in this article have not been proved yet. Validity of these are examined by studying matrix elements, trace formulae, or $`q`$-expansions.

## 2 Vertex operators for Baxter’s eight-vertex model

### 2.1 elliptic $`R`$ matrix

Let us fix our notations for Baxter’s elliptic $`R`$ matrix and recall basic properties for the vertex operators for $`𝒜_{q,p}(\widehat{sl}_2)`$ . The eight-vertex model is defined by the elliptic solution to the Yang-Baxter equation

$`R_{12}(\zeta _1/\zeta _2)R_{13}(\zeta _1/\zeta _3)R_{23}(\zeta _2/\zeta _3)=R_{23}(\zeta _2/\zeta _3)R_{13}(\zeta _1/\zeta _3)R_{12}(\zeta _1/\zeta _2),`$ (2)
obtained by Baxter . It takes the form as

$`R(\zeta )=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}a(\zeta )& & & d(\zeta )\\ & b(\zeta )& c(\zeta )& \\ & c(\zeta )& b(\zeta )& \\ d(\zeta )& & & a(\zeta )\end{array}\right),`$ (7)
where $`a,b,c`$ and $`d`$ are given by elliptic (theta) functions up to a normalization factor. For our later purpose, namely for the vertex operator approach, the $`R`$ matrix should be normalized in such a way that the partition function per site becomes unity. Let us write down $`a,b,c`$ and $`d`$ with this normalization. We have the parity relations $`a(\zeta )=a(\zeta ),b(\zeta )=b(\zeta ),c(\zeta )=c(\zeta ),d(\zeta )=d(\zeta )`$, and

$`a(\zeta )+d(\zeta )=\zeta ^1{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha (\zeta ^1)}{\alpha (\zeta )}},`$ (8)
$`b(\zeta )+c(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{\beta (\zeta ^1)}{\beta (\zeta )}},`$ (9)
$`\alpha (\zeta )={\displaystyle \underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\alpha _l\zeta ^l={\displaystyle \frac{(p^{1/2}q\zeta ;p)_{\mathrm{}}}{(p^{1/2}q^1\zeta ;p)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\xi (\zeta ^2;p,q)}},`$ (10)
$`\beta (\zeta )={\displaystyle \underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\beta _l\zeta ^l={\displaystyle \frac{(q\zeta ;p)_{\mathrm{}}}{(pq^1\zeta ;p)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\xi (\zeta ^2;p,q)}},`$ (11)
$`\xi (z;p,q)={\displaystyle \frac{(q^2z;p,q^4)_{\mathrm{}}(pq^2z;p,q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^4z;p,q^4)_{\mathrm{}}(pz;p,q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}}.`$ (12)
Here, we used the standard notation

$`(z;p_1,p_2,\mathrm{})_{\mathrm{}}={\displaystyle \underset{i_1,i_2,\mathrm{}=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}(1p_1^{i_1}p_2^{i_2}\mathrm{}z).`$ (13)
### 2.2 type I vertex operator

The type I vertex operators (VO’s) are defined as intertwiners between $`𝒜_{q,p}(\widehat{sl}_2)`$-modules

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_i}^{\mathrm{\Lambda }_{1i},V}(\zeta ):V(\mathrm{\Lambda }_i)V(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{1i})V_\zeta ,`$ (14)
where $`V(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0),V(\mathrm{\Lambda }_1)`$ are the elliptic counterpart of the level one irreducible highest weight modules of $`U_q(\widehat{sl}_2)`$, and $`V_\zeta =𝐂[\zeta ,\zeta ^1](𝐂v_+𝐂v_{})`$ is the spin $`1/2`$ evaluation module. The components of the vertex operators are defined as $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_i}^{\mathrm{\Lambda }_{1i},V}(\zeta )=\mathrm{\Phi }_+^{(i)}(\zeta )v_++\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^{(i)}(\zeta )v_{}`$. We adopt the normalization $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^{(0)}(\zeta )|\mathrm{\Lambda }_0=|\mathrm{\Lambda }_1+\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_+^{(1)}(\zeta )|\mathrm{\Lambda }_1=|\mathrm{\Lambda }_0+\mathrm{}.`$ These components have the parity relation $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\pm ^{(i)}(\zeta )=()^i\mathrm{\Phi }_\pm ^{(i)}(\zeta ).`$

It was shown that the vertex operators enjoy the commutation relation

$`{\displaystyle \underset{ϵ_1^{},ϵ_2^{}=\pm }{}}R_{ϵ_1ϵ_2}^{ϵ_1^{}ϵ_2^{}}(\zeta _1/\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Phi }_{ϵ_1^{}}^{(1i)}(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }_{ϵ_2^{}}^{(i)}(\zeta _2)=\mathrm{\Phi }_{ϵ_2}^{(1i)}(\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Phi }_{ϵ_1}^{(i)}(\zeta _1).`$ (15)
We note, however, that the argument in  works under the assumption that the elliptic nome $`p`$ is infinitesimally small. So some direct constructions of $`𝒜_{q,p}(\widehat{sl}_2)`$ (or $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_i}^{\mathrm{\Lambda }_{1i},V}(\zeta )`$) for finite $`p`$ are desired.

When we try to bosonize the vertex operators, we eventually notice that it is convenient to introduce another basis of $`V_\zeta `$

$`v_0={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(v_++v_{}),v_1={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(v_++v_{}).`$ (16)
New components of the vertex operators are defined accordingly by

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_i}^{\mathrm{\Lambda }_{1i},V}(\zeta )=\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(\zeta )v_0+\mathrm{\Phi }_1^{(i)}(\zeta )v_1,`$ (17)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(\zeta )=\mathrm{\Phi }_+^{(i)}(\zeta )+\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^{(i)}(\zeta ),`$ (18)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }_1^{(i)}(\zeta )=\mathrm{\Phi }_+^{(i)}(\zeta )+\mathrm{\Phi }_{}^{(i)}(\zeta )=()^i\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(\zeta ).`$ (19)
Since $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(\zeta )`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_1^{(i)}(\zeta )`$ are related as above, it is enough to consider $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(\zeta )`$ only. Our task is to find free field realizations of $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(\zeta )`$. In what follows, we shall use the shorthand notation

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(\zeta )\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta ).`$ (20)
Then, for example, the original components are written as

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_\pm ^{(i)}(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )()^i\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )\right).`$ (21)
For calculating matrix elements of the vertex operators, we need to deal with the Fourier components

$`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )={\displaystyle \underset{n𝐙}{}}\mathrm{\Phi }_n\zeta ^n,`$ (22)
and commutation relations among them. The correct relations can be obtained after the Riemann-Hilbert splitting of $`R\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Phi }`$ relation. These are

$`\zeta _1^1\alpha (\zeta _2/\zeta _1)\left(\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _2)\right)`$ $`=`$ $`(12),`$ (23)
$`\beta (\zeta _2/\zeta _1)\left(\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _2)+\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _2)\right)`$ $`=`$ $`(12).`$ (24)
If we write them in modes, we have

$`{\displaystyle \underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\alpha _l\mathrm{\Phi }_{nl}\mathrm{\Phi }_{m+l}={\displaystyle \underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\alpha _l\mathrm{\Phi }_{ml1}\mathrm{\Phi }_{n+l+1}(n+m:\mathrm{odd}),`$ (25)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\beta _l\mathrm{\Phi }_{nl}\mathrm{\Phi }_{m+l}={\displaystyle \underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\beta _l\mathrm{\Phi }_{ml}\mathrm{\Phi }_{n+l}(n+m:\mathrm{even}).`$ (26)
Using the commutation relations and the ‘highest weight conditions’

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_0|\mathrm{\Lambda }_i=|\mathrm{\Lambda }_i,\mathrm{\Lambda }_i|\mathrm{\Phi }_0=\mathrm{\Lambda }_i|,\mathrm{\Lambda }_i|\mathrm{\Lambda }_i=1,`$ (27)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }_n|\mathrm{\Lambda }_i=0,\mathrm{\Lambda }_i|\mathrm{\Phi }_n=0(n>0),`$
we are able to calculate any matrix elements, in principle. For example, we have

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_i|\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _2)|\mathrm{\Lambda }_i=\beta (\zeta _2/\zeta _1)^1,`$ (28)
$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{1i}|\mathrm{\Phi }_1\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _2)|\mathrm{\Lambda }_i=\beta _1\zeta _1\alpha (\zeta _2/\zeta _1)^1,`$ (29)
and so on.

If we define dual of the components by

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\xi (1;p,q)\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(q^1\zeta ),`$ (30)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }_1^{(i)}(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\xi (1;p,q)\mathrm{\Phi }_1^{(i)}(q^1\zeta ),`$ (31)
we have the inversion relation

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(1i)}(\zeta )\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(\zeta )+\mathrm{\Phi }_1^{(1i)}(\zeta )\mathrm{\Phi }_1^{(i)}(\zeta )=\mathrm{id}.`$ (32)
### 2.3 type II vertex operator

The type II vertex operators satisfy

$`\mathrm{\Psi }_{ϵ_1}^{(1i)}(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Psi }_{ϵ_2}^{(i)}(\zeta _2)={\displaystyle \underset{ϵ_1^{},ϵ_2^{}=\pm }{}}\mathrm{\Psi }_{ϵ_2^{}}^{(1i)}(\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Psi }_{ϵ_1^{}}^{(i)}(\zeta _1)R_{}^{}{}_{ϵ_1ϵ_2}{}^{ϵ_1^{}ϵ_2^{}}(\zeta _1/\zeta _2),`$ (33)
where the matrix $`R^{}(\zeta )`$ is given by shifting the elliptic nome in the $`R`$ matrix as

$`R^{}(\zeta )=R(\zeta )|_{p^{1/2}p^{1/2}}.`$ (34)
where $`p^{1/2}=p^{1/2}q^1`$. Note that at the series of points

$`p^{1/2}=\pm q^{1+1/l}(l=1,2,3,\mathrm{}),`$ (35)
the $`R^{}`$ becomes (anti-)diagonal matrix. Correspondingly, the structure of the algebra for the type II VO becomes simpler. For $`p=q^4`$, $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )`$ reduces to a free fermion. For $`p=q^3`$, $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )`$ is no more a free field, nevertheless it can be described by the deformed Virasoro algebra with a special choice of the parameters. (See Section 4.)

Introducing the sum of the components

$`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )=\mathrm{\Psi }_+^{(i)}(\zeta )+\mathrm{\Psi }_{}^{(i)}(\zeta ),`$ (36)
as we did for the type I VO, we have the exchange relation for $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )`$ as follows:

$`\zeta _1^1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1\zeta _2^2/\zeta _1^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\alpha ^{}(\zeta _2/\zeta _1)}}\left(\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _2)\right)`$
$`=(12),`$ (37)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{(1+q^1\zeta _2/\zeta _1)(1+q\zeta _2/\zeta _1)}{1\zeta _2^2/\zeta _1^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta ^{}(\zeta _2/\zeta _1)}}\left(\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _2)+\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _2)\right)`$
$`=(12),`$ (38)
where $`\alpha ^{}(\zeta )=\alpha (\zeta )|_{p^{1/2}p^{1/2}}`$ and $`\beta ^{}(\zeta )=\beta (\zeta )|_{p^{1/2}p^{1/2}}`$.

The relations between the type I and type II VO is the scalar exchange relation

$`\zeta _1{\displaystyle \frac{(q\zeta _2^2/\zeta _1^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^3\zeta _2^2/\zeta _1^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}}\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _2)=\zeta _2{\displaystyle \frac{(q\zeta _1^2/\zeta _2^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^3\zeta _1^2/\zeta _2^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}}\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1).`$ (39)
At $`p=q^3,q^4`$, $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )`$ can be realized by the deformed Virasoro current $`T(\zeta )`$. When we investigate free field formulae for $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )`$, the scalar exchange relation (39) helps us.

### 2.4 elementary scalar particle for the eight-vertex model

In the paper , it was conjectured that the operator

$`t(\zeta )`$ $`=`$ $`C_{II}\mathrm{Res}_{\zeta _1=p^{1/2}q^1\zeta _2}\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta _2){\displaystyle \frac{d\zeta _1}{\zeta _1}}`$
$`=`$ $`C_I\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _2)|_{\zeta _1=p^{1/2}q\zeta _2},`$
$`t(\zeta )`$ $`=`$ $`t(\zeta ),`$ (41)
satisfies a similar commutation relation to the deformed Virasoro algebra, namely

$`f\left({\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _2^2}{\zeta _1^2}}\right)t(\zeta _1)t(\zeta _2)=f\left({\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _1^2}{\zeta _2^2}}\right)t(\zeta _2)t(\zeta _1)+`$ (42)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{(1p)(1p^1)}{1q^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(\delta \left({\displaystyle \frac{q\zeta _2}{\zeta _1}}\right)\delta \left({\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _2}{q\zeta _1}}\right)\delta \left({\displaystyle \frac{q\zeta _2}{\zeta _1}}\right)+\delta \left({\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _2}{q\zeta _1}}\right)\right),`$
where

$`f(z)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{1z}}{\displaystyle \frac{(pz;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(pq^2z;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(p^1z;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(p^1q^2z;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}},`$ (43)
and $`\delta (\zeta )=_{n𝐙}\zeta ^n`$. This operator $`t(\zeta )`$ represent the Fadeev-Zamolodchikov algebra for the elementary scalar particles for the eight-vertex model.

Contrary to the case of the ordinary deformed Virasoro algebra, to obtain an explicit realization of this algebra seems a not easy task. In , $`t(\zeta )`$ for the double Ising case ($`p=q^4`$) was presented in terms of a free fermion. Up to now, however, no other example of free field construction has been obtained, to the author’s knowledge. We can check that the free field constructions for $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )`$ (or $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )`$) at $`p=q^3,q^4,q^6`$ given in Section 4 provide us with other examples of explicit formulae for $`t(\zeta )`$.

## 3 Results

Integral formulae for matrix elements, trace over the irreducible highest weight modules, and correlation functions for the inhomogeneous eight-vertex model are given in this section. These are obtained from the use of free field constructions given in the next section.

### 3.1 matrix elements

By using the free field constructions of the type I vertex operator $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )=\mathrm{\Phi }_0^{(i)}(\zeta )`$ (see Eq. (20)) for $`p^{1/2}=q^{3/2},q^2,q^3`$, we have a integral formula for the matrix elements. Introduce functions as

$`h(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{(p^{1/2}q^1\zeta ;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(q\zeta ;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}}\xi (\zeta ^2;p,q),`$ (44)
$`g(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{(p^{1/4}q^{1/2}\zeta ;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(p^{1/4}q^{1/2}\zeta ;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}}.`$ (45)
For $`n=2,4,6,\mathrm{}`$, we have

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_i|\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _2)\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _n)|\mathrm{\Lambda }_i`$
$`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{(p^{1/2}q^1;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(p^{1/2}q^1;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(p^{1/2};p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(p^{1/2};p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}}\right)^n{\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}h(\zeta _j/\zeta _i)`$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \mathrm{}\frac{d\xi _1}{2\pi i\xi _1}\mathrm{}\frac{d\xi _n}{2\pi i\xi _n}\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{p^{1/2}}(p^{1/4}q^{1/2}\zeta _i/\xi _i)}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{p^{1/2}}(p^{1/4}q^{1/2}\zeta _i/\xi _i)}}`$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}}\left[{\displaystyle \underset{i<k}{}}g(\zeta _k/\xi _i){\displaystyle \underset{jk}{}}g(\xi _j/\zeta _k)\right]F(\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;p^{1/2},q),`$
where the integration contour for $`\xi _i`$ is given by the condition $`|\xi _i/\zeta _i|=1`$, namely, that encloses poles at $`\xi _i=p^{1/4+m/2}q^{1/2}\zeta _i`$ ($`m=0,1,2\mathrm{}`$), and the function $`F(\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;p^{1/2},q)`$ is defined by

$`F(\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;q^{3/2},q)={\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}(1\xi _j/\xi _i){\displaystyle \frac{(q\xi _j/\xi _i;q^{3/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^{1/2}\xi _j/\xi _i;q^{3/2})_{\mathrm{}}}},`$ (47)
$`F(\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;q^2,q)={\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{i<j}{\mathrm{step}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}}}{}}(1\xi _j/\xi _i){\displaystyle \frac{(q\xi _j/\xi _i;q^2)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q\xi _j/\xi _i;q^2)_{\mathrm{}}}},`$ (48)
$`F(\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;q^3,q)=\mathrm{Pfaffian}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1\xi _j^2/\xi _i^2}{(1+q^1\xi _j/\xi _i)(1+q\xi _j/\xi _i)}}\right)_{1i,jn}`$
$`\times {\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{(q\xi _j/\xi _i;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^2\xi _j/\xi _i;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}}},`$ (49)
where we used the notation $`_{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{i<j}{\mathrm{step}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}}}f_{ij}=f_{13}f_{15}\mathrm{}f_{24}f_{26}\mathrm{}`$.

It is amusing to see that the matrix elements can be written down in a similar manner for different $`p^{1/2}`$. At present, we have different constructions for $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )`$ for each $`p=q^3`$, $`p=q^4`$ and $`p=q^6`$, and there is no a priori reason to have similar integral formulae. To investigate the reason for this phenomenon might help our further study on the vertex operators for general $`p^{1/2}`$.

To give an heuristic argument for how one can obtain the formula (3.1) is in order. This formula was first obtained at $`p=q^3`$ and $`p=q^4`$, where we have constructions for $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )`$ based on the representation theory of the deformed Virasoro algebra. As it will be explained in the next section, the bosonic constructions for $`p=q^3`$ and $`p=q^4`$ looks quite different. One realizes, however, that the resulting integral formulae for the matrix elements share the same structures for the part given by the functions $`h(\zeta )`$ and $`g(\zeta )`$. Moreover, for the two point case ($`n=2`$), the function $`F(\xi _1,\xi _2;p^{1/2},q)`$ can be extrapolated for general $`p^{1/2}`$ (see Eq. (3.2)). Then we realize a nice simplification of $`F(\xi _1,\xi _2;p^{1/2},q)`$ as $`p^{1/2}=q^3`$ (see Eq.(55)). This gives us be a hint for a free field construction for $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ at $`p^{1/2}=q^3`$. Thus we arrive at (3.1).

### 3.2 two point matrix elements for general $`p^{1/2}`$

For the two point matrix element

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_i|\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _2)|\mathrm{\Lambda }_i={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta (\zeta _2/\zeta _1)}},`$ (50)
the integration kernel $`F(\xi _1,\xi _2;p^{1/2},q)`$ for general $`p^{1/2}`$ can be investigated and written down in a simple form:

$`F(\xi _1,\xi _2;p^{1/2},q)`$
$`=`$ $`(1\xi _2/\xi _1){}_{2}{}^{}\varphi _{1}^{}({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p^{1/2}q^1,pq^2}{q}};p^{1/2},p^{1/2}q^2\xi _2/\xi _1)`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}c_n(\xi _2/\xi _1)^n.`$
Here $`_2\varphi _1(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a,b}{c};q,z)`$ denotes the basic hypergeometric series defined by

$`_2\varphi _1({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a,b}{c}};q,z)={\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(a;q)_n(b;q)_n}{(c;q)_n(q;q)_n}}z^n,`$ (52)
where $`(a;q)_n=(1a)(1aq)\mathrm{}(1aq^{n1})`$.

The coefficients $`c_n`$ can be written as

$`c_n`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(q^1;p^{1/2})_n(p^{1/2}q^{1/2};p^{1/2})_n(p^{1/2}q^{1/2};p^{1/2})_n(p^{1/2}q^2;p^{1/2})_n}{(q;p^{1/2})_n(q^{1/2};p^{1/2})_n(q^{1/2};p^{1/2})_n(p^{1/2};p^{1/2})_n}}(p^{1/2}q^2)^n.`$
After integrating (3.1) for $`n=2`$ with (3.2), we have the identity

$`{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{}_{2}{}^{}\varphi _{1}^{}({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{q,qp^{k/2}}{p^{(k+1)/2}}};p^{1/2},p^{1/2}q^1\zeta ){}_{2}{}^{}\varphi _{1}^{}({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{q,p^{k/2}}{p^{(k+1)/2}q^1}};p^{1/2},p^{1/2}q^1\zeta )\times `$
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{(q;p^{1/2})_k(1;p^{1/2})_k}{(p^{1/2};p^{1/2})_k(p^{1/2}q^1;p^{1/2})_k}}p^{k/2}q^kc_k`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(pq^1\zeta ;p)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q\zeta ;p)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(q\zeta ;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(p^{1/2}q^1\zeta ;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}}.`$
This means (50).

At $`p^{1/2}=q^3`$, the function $`F(\xi _1,\xi _2;p^{1/2},q)`$ shows special degeneration, namely we have

$`F(\xi _1,\xi _2;q^3,q)=(1\xi _2^2/\xi _1^2){\displaystyle \frac{(q^4\xi _2/\xi _1;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^1\xi _2/\xi _1;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}}}.`$ (55)
This helps us when we study free field realization of $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )`$ at $`p^{1/2}=q^3`$.

### 3.3 trace over irreducible representations

Since we have free field formulae for $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )`$ at $`p=q^3,q^4,q^6`$, to calculate trace over irreducible highest weight modules is a straightforward task.

Let $`x`$ be a parameter satisfying $`|x|<1`$. Introduce

$`\stackrel{~}{h}(\zeta )={\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}h(x^k\zeta ){\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}h(x^k\zeta ^1),`$ (56)
$`\stackrel{~}{g}(\zeta )={\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}g(x^k\zeta ){\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}g(x^k\zeta ^1),`$ (57)
and for $`n=2,4,6,\mathrm{}`$, we define

$`\stackrel{~}{F}(\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;q^{3/2},q,x)={\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}(\xi _j/\xi _i;x)_{\mathrm{}}(x\xi _i/\xi _j;x)_{\mathrm{}}\times `$ (58)
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{(q\xi _j/\xi _i;q^{3/2},x)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^{1/2}\xi _j/\xi _i;q^{3/2},x)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(qx\xi _i/\xi _j;q^{3/2},x)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^{1/2}x\xi _i/\xi _j;q^{3/2},x)_{\mathrm{}}}},`$
$`\stackrel{~}{F}(\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;q^2,q,x)={\displaystyle \underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{i<j}{\mathrm{step}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}}}{}}(\xi _j/\xi _i;x)_{\mathrm{}}(x\xi _i/\xi _j;x)_{\mathrm{}}\times `$ (59)
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{(q\xi _j/\xi _i;q^2,x)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q\xi _j/\xi _i;q^2,x)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(qx\xi _i/\xi _j;q^2,x)_{\mathrm{}}}{(qx\xi _i/\xi _j;q^2,x)_{\mathrm{}}}},`$
$`\stackrel{~}{F}(\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;q^3,q,x)`$ (60)
$`=\mathrm{Pfaffian}\left({\displaystyle \frac{(x;x)_{\mathrm{}}^2}{2(x;x)_{\mathrm{}}^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_x(q\xi _j/\xi _i)}{\mathrm{\Theta }_x(q\xi _j/\xi _i)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_x(q^1\xi _j/\xi _i)}{\mathrm{\Theta }_x(q^1\xi _j/\xi _i)}}\right)\right)_{1i,jn}`$
$`\times {\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{(q\xi _j/\xi _i;q^3,x)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^2\xi _j/\xi _i;q^3,x)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(qx\xi _i/\xi _j;q^3,x)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^2x\xi _i/\xi _j;q^3,x)_{\mathrm{}}}},`$
$`E(\zeta _1,\mathrm{},\zeta _n,\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;q^{3/2},q,x)={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{x^6}\left(x^4\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{\zeta _i^2}{\xi _i^2}\right)}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{x^6}(x^4)}},`$ (61)
$`E(\zeta _1,\mathrm{},\zeta _n,\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;q^2,q,x)`$ (62)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{x^4}\left(x^2\underset{i=1}{\overset{n/2}{}}\frac{\zeta _{2i1}\zeta _{2i}}{\xi _{2i1}^2}\right)\mathrm{\Theta }_{x^4}\left(x^3\underset{i=1}{\overset{n/2}{}}\frac{\zeta _{2i1}\zeta _{2i}}{\xi _{2i}^2}\right)}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{x^4}(x^2)\mathrm{\Theta }_{x^4}(x^3)}},`$
$`E(\zeta _1,\mathrm{},\zeta _n,\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;q^3,q,x)={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{x^3}\left(x^2\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{\zeta _i}{\xi _i}\right)}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{x^3}(x^2)}}.`$ (63)
Set further

$`C_\varphi ={\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}h(x^k),`$ (64)
$`C_S=\{\begin{array}{cc}(x;x)_{\mathrm{}}\frac{(qx;q^{3/2},x)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^{1/2}x;q^{3/2},x)_{\mathrm{}}}\hfill & (p^{1/2}=q^{3/2}),\hfill \\ (x;x)_{\mathrm{}}\frac{(qx;q^2,x)_{\mathrm{}}}{(qx;q^2,x)_{\mathrm{}}}\hfill & (p^{1/2}=q^2),\hfill \\ \frac{(qx;q^3,x)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^2x;q^3,x)_{\mathrm{}}}\hfill & (p^{1/2}=q^3),\hfill \end{array}.`$ (68)
We have the integral representation for the trace which works for $`p^{1/2}=q^{3/2},q^2,q^3`$:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{tr}_{V(\mathrm{\Lambda }_i)}(x^D)}}\mathrm{tr}_{V(\mathrm{\Lambda }_i)}\left(x^D\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _2)\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta _n)\right)`$
$`=`$ $`\left(C_\varphi C_S{\displaystyle \frac{(p^{1/2}q^1;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(p^{1/2}q^1;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(p^{1/2};p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(p^{1/2};p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}}\right)^n{\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}\stackrel{~}{h}(\zeta _j/\zeta _i)\times `$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle }\mathrm{}{\displaystyle }{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi _1}{2\pi i\xi _1}}\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi _n}{2\pi i\xi _n}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{p^{1/2}}(p^{1/4}q^{1/2}\zeta _i/\xi _i)}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{p^{1/2}}(p^{1/4}q^{1/2}\zeta _i/\xi _i)}}\times `$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}}\left[{\displaystyle \underset{i<k}{}}\stackrel{~}{g}(\zeta _k/\xi _i){\displaystyle \underset{jk}{}}\stackrel{~}{g}(\xi _j/\zeta _k)\right]\stackrel{~}{F}(\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;p^{1/2},q,x)\times `$
$`\times `$ $`E(\zeta _1,\mathrm{},\zeta _n,\xi _1,\mathrm{},\xi _n;p^{1/2},q,x),`$
where $`n=2,4,6,\mathrm{}`$, $`D`$ is the corner Hamiltonian, and integration contour for $`\xi _i`$ encloses poles at $`\xi _i=x^lp^{1/4+m/2}q^{1/2}\zeta _i`$ ($`l=1,2,\mathrm{},m=0,1,2\mathrm{}`$).

### 3.4 correlation functions for the eight-vertex model

In view of our free field formula, we need to represent local operators for the basis $`v_0,v_1`$. For example, $`\sigma _z`$ (which satisfies $`\sigma _zv_\pm =\pm v_\pm `$) is represented as

$`\sigma _z=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right).`$ (72)
By $`E_{\eta ^{}\eta }`$ ($`\eta ,\eta ^{}=0,1`$) we denote the matrix unit with respect to the basis $`v_0,v_1`$. Using (19), (20), (30), (31), and setting $`x=q^2`$ in (3.3), we have the following integral representation of the correlation function

$`E_{\eta _n^{}\eta _n}\mathrm{}E_{\eta _1^{}\eta _1}_i`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{tr}_{V(\mathrm{\Lambda }_i)}(q^{2D})}}\mathrm{tr}_{V(\mathrm{\Lambda }_i)}(q^{2D}\mathrm{\Phi }_{\eta _1^{}}^{(i+1)}(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }_{\eta _2^{}}^{(i+2)}(\zeta _2)\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Phi }_{\eta _n^{}}^{(i+n)}(\zeta _n)\times `$
$`\times \mathrm{\Phi }_{\eta _n}^{(i+n1)}(\zeta _n)\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Phi }_{\eta _2}^{(i+1)}(\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Phi }_{\eta _1}^{(i)}(\zeta _1))`$
$`=`$ $`(1)^{_{k=1}^n(k1+i)(\eta _k^{}+\eta _k)}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^n}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{(q^2;q^2)_{\mathrm{}}}{(p;p)_{\mathrm{}}}}\right)^n\times `$
$`\times `$ $`\left(C_S{\displaystyle \frac{(q;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(q;q^2)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(p^{1/2}q^1;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(p^{1/2}q^1;p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(p^{1/2};p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(p^{1/2};p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}}\right)^{2n}\times `$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{(()^{\eta _k^{}+\eta _k}p^{1/2};p^{1/2})_{\mathrm{}}}{(()^{\eta _k^{}+\eta _k}q^2;q^2)_{\mathrm{}}}}\right)^2\times `$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}\stackrel{~}{h}\left(()^{\eta _i^{}+\eta _j^{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _j}{\zeta _i}}\right)\stackrel{~}{h}(q()^{\eta _i^{}+\eta _j}{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _j}{\zeta _i}})\stackrel{~}{h}(q()^{\eta _i+\eta _j^{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _i}{\zeta _j}})\stackrel{~}{h}\left(()^{\eta _i+\eta _j}{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _i}{\zeta _j}}\right)\times `$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle }\mathrm{}{\displaystyle }{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi _1^{}}{2\pi i\xi _1^{}}}\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi _n^{}}{2\pi i\xi _n^{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi _1}{2\pi i\xi _1}}\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi _n}{2\pi i\xi _n}}\times `$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{p^{1/2}}(p^{1/4}q^{1/2}()^{\eta _i^{}}\zeta _i/\xi _i^{})}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{p^{1/2}}(p^{1/4}q^{1/2}()^{\eta _i^{}}\zeta _i/\xi _i^{})}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{p^{1/2}}(p^{1/4}q^{1/2}()^{\eta _i}\zeta _i/\xi _i)}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{p^{1/2}}(p^{1/4}q^{1/2}()^{\eta _i}\zeta _i/\xi _i)}}\times `$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}}\left[{\displaystyle \underset{i<k}{}}\stackrel{~}{g}(()^{\eta _k^{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _k}{\xi _i^{}}}){\displaystyle \underset{jk}{}}\stackrel{~}{g}(()^{\eta _k^{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\xi _j^{}}{\zeta _k}})\right]\times `$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}}\left[{\displaystyle \underset{i>k}{}}\stackrel{~}{g}\left(()^{\eta _k}{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _k}{\xi _i}}\right){\displaystyle \underset{jk}{}}\stackrel{~}{g}\left(()^{\eta _k}{\displaystyle \frac{\xi _j}{\zeta _k}}\right)\right]\times `$
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{n}{}}}\left[\stackrel{~}{g}\left(q()^{\eta _k}{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _k}{\xi _i^{}}}\right)\stackrel{~}{g}(q()^{\eta _k^{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\xi _j}{\zeta _k}})\right]\times `$
$`\times `$ $`\stackrel{~}{F}(q^1\xi _1^{},\mathrm{},q^1\xi _n^{},\xi _n,\mathrm{},\xi _1;p^{1/2},q,q^2)\times `$
$`\times `$ $`E(q^1()^{\eta _1^{}}\zeta _1,\mathrm{},q^1()^{\eta _n^{}}\zeta _n,()^{\eta _n}\zeta _n,\mathrm{},()^{\eta _1}\zeta _1,`$
$`q^1\xi _1^{},\mathrm{},q^1\xi _n^{}\xi _n,\mathrm{},\xi _1;p^{1/2},q,q^2),`$
where $`p^{1/2}=q^{3/2},q^2,q^3`$, $`1<|\zeta _i|<|q^1|`$ and the integration contours are given by the conditions $`|\zeta _i/\xi _i|=1,|\zeta _i/\xi _i^{}|=1`$.

Notice that for the case $`p^{1/2}=q^3`$ the factor in the Pfaffian (see (60)) reduces to the delta function as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{(x;x)_{\mathrm{}}^2}{2(x;x)_{\mathrm{}}^2}}({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_x(q\xi _j/\xi _i)}{\mathrm{\Theta }_x(q\xi _j/\xi _i)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_x(q^1\xi _j/\xi _i)}{\mathrm{\Theta }_x(q^1\xi _j/\xi _i)}})|_{x=q^2}=\delta (q^1{\displaystyle \frac{\xi _j}{\xi _i}}).`$ (74)
Because of this, half of the integrals, i.e. $`n`$ integrals can be performed.

For the simplest case $`n=1`$, we can check (by $`q`$-expansion) that Eq. (3.4) correctly gives

$`(E_{00}+E_{11})_i=1,`$ (75)
$`(E_{01}E_{10})_i=()^iP_0,`$ (76)
where $`P_0`$ denotes the Baxter-Kelland formula for the spontaneous polarization (1).

## 4 Free field realizations for the vertex operators

We list the free field formulae for the vertex operators $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )`$ for the eight-vertex model. For $`p^{1/2}=\pm q^{3/2}`$ and $`p^{1/2}=q^2`$ we need to recall the representation theory of the deformed Virasoro algebra . For $`p^{1/2}=q^3`$, a free bosonic and a free fermionic field are introduced to realize the VO.

### 4.1 CFT limit

Let us start from a simple case. If we set $`p^{1/2}=q^r`$ and take the limit $`q1`$ ($`r`$ is fixed), the functions $`\alpha (\zeta )`$ and $`\beta (\zeta )`$ reduce to

$`\alpha (\zeta ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+\zeta }}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1\zeta }{1+\zeta }}\right)^{\frac{r1}{2r}},\beta (\zeta )\left({\displaystyle \frac{1\zeta }{1+\zeta }}\right)^{\frac{r1}{2r}}.`$ (77)
In this limit, we have a simple bosonic realization of $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )`$. Let $`a_n`$ be bosons with odd modes satisfying

$`[a_n,a_m]=n\delta _{n+m,0}(n,m:\mathrm{odd}).`$ (78)
Using this ‘two-reduced boson’, we have

$`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )=:\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \underset{n:\mathrm{odd}}{}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{r1}{r}}}{\displaystyle \frac{a_n}{n}}\zeta ^n\right):,`$ (79)
$`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )=:\mathrm{exp}({\displaystyle \underset{n:\mathrm{odd}}{}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{r}{r1}}}{\displaystyle \frac{a_n}{n}}\zeta ^n):.`$ (80)
One can check that the generators

$`L_n={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}:{\displaystyle \underset{l:\mathrm{odd}}{}}a_{2nl}a_l:+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{16}}\delta _{n,0}(n𝐙),`$ (81)
satisfy $`c=1`$ Virasoro algebra, and that $`\zeta ^{(r1)/2r}\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )`$, $`\zeta ^{r/2(r1)}\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )`$ are primary fields to this $`c=1`$ Virasoro algebra.

At this CFT limit, however, things are oversimplified and this bosonic formula does not help us very much when we investigate the situation $`|q|<1`$. As a matter of fact, it is necessary to work on much bigger Fock space and reduce the space of states by introducing BRST-type cohomology.

### 4.2 deformed Virasoro algebra as a quantum analogue of Lepowsky-Wilson’s $`Z`$-algebra

It was discussed in  that the deformed Virasoro algebra can be regarded as a smooth deformation of Lepowsky-Wilson’s $`Z`$-algebra. For level $`k`$, the Virasoro central charge for the $`Z`$-algebra is $`c=2(k1)/(k+2)`$. We have $`c=1/2`$ for $`k=2`$ and $`c=1`$ for $`k=4`$, for example. This indicates a possibility that lattice models with $`c=1/2`$ or $`c=1`$ might be described by the deformed Virasoro algebra. Below, we shall discuss that the representation theories for $`k=2`$ or $`k=4`$ do provide us with the physical space of the Ising or a special case of the eight-vertex model (at $`p=q^3`$).

Introduce the bosons for the deformed Virasoro algebra as

$`[\lambda _n,\lambda _m]={\displaystyle \frac{1}{n}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1q^n)(1()^nq^{\frac{k+2}{2}n})}{1+()^nq^{\frac{k}{2}n}}}\delta _{n+m,0},`$ (82)
$`[\lambda _0,Q]=k+2.`$ (83)
The deformed Virasoro current $`T(\zeta )`$ is bosonized as

$`T(\zeta )=\mathrm{\Lambda }_+(()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{k}{4}}\zeta )+\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}(()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{k}{4}}\zeta ),`$ (84)
$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pm (\zeta )=:\mathrm{exp}(\pm {\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}\lambda _n\zeta ^n):()^{\pm \frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{2}\lambda _0}.`$ (85)
Two screening currents are defined by

$`S_+(\zeta )`$ $`=`$ $`:\mathrm{exp}({\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1+()^nq^{\frac{k}{2}n}}{1q^n}}()^{\frac{n}{2}}q^{\frac{k+2}{4}n}\lambda _n\zeta ^n):e^Q\zeta ^{\lambda _0}\zeta ^{\frac{k+2}{2}},`$ (86)
$`S_{}(\zeta )`$ $`=`$ $`:\mathrm{exp}(+{\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1+()^nq^{\frac{k}{2}n}}{1()^nq^{\frac{k+2}{2}n}}}q^{\frac{n}{2}}\lambda _n\zeta ^n):e^{\frac{2}{k+2}Q}\zeta ^{\frac{2}{k+2}\lambda _0}\zeta ^{\frac{2}{k+2}}.`$ (87)
Let us consider the Fock spaces

$`_r=𝐂[\lambda _1,\lambda _2,\mathrm{}]e^{\frac{r}{k+2}Q}|0(r+{\displaystyle \frac{k}{2}}𝐙).`$ (88)
Then, the screening charge

$`Q={\displaystyle \frac{d\xi }{2\pi i\xi }S_+(\xi )}:_r_{r+k+2}`$
is well defined and we have the properties

$`[T(\zeta ),Q]_+=0,`$ (89)
$`QQ=0.`$ (90)
Thus we obtain the cochain complex

$`\mathrm{}\stackrel{Q}{}_{rk2}\stackrel{Q}{}_r\stackrel{Q}{}_{r+k+2}\stackrel{Q}{}\mathrm{}.`$ (91)
The zero-the cohomology $`H_r^0`$ remains nontrivial and all the other cohomologies vanish.

Let us study the character of the cohomology $`\mathrm{ch}_{H_r^0}=\mathrm{tr}_{H_r^0}(x^\rho )`$. Here the grading operator is defined by

$`\rho ={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{n^2(1+()^nq^{\frac{k}{2}n})}{(1q^n)(1()^nq^{\frac{k+2}{2}n})}}\lambda _n\lambda _n{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda _0^21}{2(k+2)}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}.`$ (92)
After taking the alternating sum, we have

$`\mathrm{ch}_{H_r^0}=\mathrm{tr}_{H_r^0}(x^\rho )=x^{\frac{r^21}{2(k+2)}+\frac{1}{8}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{x^{k+2}}(x^{r+\frac{k+2}{2}})}{(x;x)_{\mathrm{}}}}.`$ (93)
The following examples are important for our task:

$`(k=1,c=0)`$ $`\mathrm{ch}_{H_{\pm 1/2}^0}=1,`$ (94)
$`(k=2,c={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})`$ $`\mathrm{ch}_{H_{\pm 1}^0}=x^{1/8}(x^2;x^2)_{\mathrm{}}(\text{Ramond}),`$ (96)
$`\mathrm{ch}_{H_0^0}=(x;x^2)_{\mathrm{}}(\text{Neveu-Schwarz}),`$
$`(k=4,c=1)`$ $`\mathrm{ch}_{H_{\pm 1}^0}=x^{1/8}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(x;x^2)_{\mathrm{}}}}(\text{eight-vertex}).`$ (97)
### 4.3 bosonic construction at $`p=q^3`$ from $`k=4`$ DVA

When $`p=q^{2+2/l}`$ $`(l=1,2,3,\mathrm{})`$, $`R^{}(\zeta )`$ becomes (anti) diagonal matrix. Then, the commutation relation for $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )`$ becomes simple. Among these, the case $`p=q^3`$ ($`l=2`$) is the simplest one, from the bosonization point of view. The case $`p=q^4`$ ($`l=1`$) will be treated in the next subsection. At this moment, all the other cases ($`0p<q^2,pq^3,q^4`$) remain unclear.

Let us consider the deformed Virasoro algebra with $`k=4`$. We should change notation as $`qq^{1/2}`$. After this change, our $`q^{1/2}`$ for the deformed Virasoro algebra coincides with the $`q^{1/2}`$ for the eight-vertex model.

The type II vertex operator is realized on the space $`H_1^0`$ as

$`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )=(()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{4}}+()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{4}})^1T(\zeta ).`$ (98)
Using this and the relation (39), we get the formula for $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )`$. The type I vertex operator acting on the space $`H_1^0`$ is realized as

$`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{(q^{\frac{1}{2}};q^{\frac{3}{2}})_{\mathrm{}}(q^{\frac{3}{2}};q^{\frac{3}{2}})_{\mathrm{}}}{(+q^{\frac{1}{2}};q^{\frac{3}{2}})_{\mathrm{}}(+q^{\frac{3}{2}};q^{\frac{3}{2}})_{\mathrm{}}}}\times `$
$`\times {\displaystyle }{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi }{2\pi i\xi }}\varphi (\zeta )S_{}(\xi ){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{q^{\frac{3}{2}}}(()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{4}}\zeta /\xi )}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{q^{\frac{3}{2}}}(()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{4}}\zeta /\xi )}},`$ (99)
where

$`\varphi (\zeta )=:\mathrm{exp}({\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1+()^nq^n}{1()^nq^{\frac{3}{2}n}}}q^{\frac{n}{4}}\lambda _n\zeta ^n):e^{\frac{1}{3}Q}\zeta ^{\frac{1}{3}\lambda _0}\zeta ^{\frac{1}{3}}.`$ (100)
Thus we arrived at the realization at $`p^{1/2}=q^{3/2}`$. The corner Hamiltonian $`D`$ is given by

$`D=\rho {\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}.`$ (101)
We can check that the operator $`t(\zeta )`$ satisfying (42) is obtained both from fusing type II VO’s and type I VO’s as (2.4). We omit the detail.

We note that if we further introduce the sign change $`q^{1/2}q^{1/2}`$, we get a formula which works for $`p^{1/2}=q^{3/2}`$.

### 4.4 bosonic construction at $`p=q^4`$ from $`k=2`$ DVA

Let us first introduce the vertex operators for the Ising model. We closely follow the description given in . The particles can be described by the Neveu-Schwarz fermions $`\psi _n^{\mathrm{NS}}`$ $`(n:\text{odd integers})`$ and the Ramond fermions $`\psi _n^\mathrm{R}`$ $`(n:\text{even integers})`$ satisfying anti commutation relations

$`[\psi _n^{\mathrm{NS}},\psi _m^{\mathrm{NS}}]_+=(q^n+q^n)\delta _{n+m,0},`$ (102)
$`[\psi _n^\mathrm{R},\psi _m^\mathrm{R}]_+=(q^n+q^n)\delta _{n+m,0},`$ (103)
and write $`\psi ^{\mathrm{NS}}(\zeta )=_{n:\mathrm{odd}}\psi _n^{\mathrm{NS}}\zeta ^n`$ and $`\psi ^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )=_{n:\mathrm{even}}\psi _n^\mathrm{R}\zeta ^n`$. Denote the fermionic vacuums as $`|\mathrm{vac}_{\mathrm{NS}},|\mathrm{vac}_\mathrm{R}`$. We The type I operators $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}\pm }^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}\pm }^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )`$ should satisfy

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}\pm }^\mathrm{R}(\zeta _1)\psi ^{\mathrm{NS}}(\zeta _2)=\zeta {\displaystyle \frac{(q^3\zeta ^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q\zeta ^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(q\zeta ^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^3\zeta ^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}}\psi ^\mathrm{R}(\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}\pm }^\mathrm{R}(\zeta _1),`$ (104)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}\pm }(\zeta _1)\psi ^\mathrm{R}(\zeta _2)=\zeta ^2{\displaystyle \frac{(q^3\zeta ^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q\zeta ^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(q\zeta ^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^3\zeta ^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}}\psi ^{\mathrm{NS}}(\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}\pm }(\zeta _1),`$ (105)
where $`\zeta =\zeta _2/\zeta _1`$.

Normalize the vertex operators by the conditions $`{}_{\mathrm{R}}{}^{}\mathrm{vac}|\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}+}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )|\mathrm{vac}_{\mathrm{NS}}^{}=1`$ and $`{}_{\mathrm{NS}}{}^{}\mathrm{vac}|\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}+}(\zeta )|\mathrm{vac}_{\mathrm{R}}^{}=1`$. We have the parity relations $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}\pm }^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )=\pm \mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}\pm }^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )`$, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}\pm }(\zeta )=\pm \mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}\pm }(\zeta )`$.

The type I vertex operators satisfy the commutation relation

$`w_{\sigma \sigma ^{}}(\zeta _2/\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}\sigma }(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}\sigma ^{}}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta _2)=\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}\sigma }(\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}\sigma ^{}}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta _1),`$ (106)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma ^{}}{}}\overline{w}_{\sigma \sigma ^{}}(\zeta _2/\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}\sigma ^{}}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta _1)\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}\sigma ^{}}(\zeta _2)=\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}\sigma }^\mathrm{R}(\zeta _2)\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}\sigma }(\zeta _1),`$ (107)
where the (normalized) Boltzmann weights for the Ising model are

$`w_\pm (\zeta )=\zeta ^{\frac{11}{2}}(q^2\zeta ^{\pm 2};q^8)_{\mathrm{}}(q^6\zeta ^2;q^8)_{\mathrm{}}\times `$ (108)
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{(q^4\zeta ^2;q^4,q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^2\zeta ^2;q^4,q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(q^6\zeta ^2;q^4,q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^4\zeta ^2;q^4,q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}},`$
$`\overline{w}_\pm (\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{(q^2;q^4)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^4;q^8)_{\mathrm{}}^2}}w_\pm (q/\zeta ).`$ (109)
Setting $`k=2`$ for the deformed algebra, we have a realization of the Ising model. First, fermions are realized by $`T(\zeta )`$ as

$`(()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{2}}+()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{2}})^1T(\zeta )=\{\begin{array}{cc}\psi ^{\mathrm{NS}}(\zeta )\hfill & (\text{on }H_0^0)\hfill \\ \psi ^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )\hfill & (\text{on }H_1^0)\hfill \end{array}.`$ (112)
Then the type I VO’s can be obtained from the relation (39). If we combine the type I operators as

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )=\zeta ^{1/8}\left(\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}+}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )+\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )\right),`$ (113)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}}(\zeta )=\zeta ^{1/8}\left(\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}+}(\zeta )+\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}}(\zeta )\right),`$ (114)
we can write down the bosonic expression in a simple manner as

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )=\varphi (\zeta ),`$ (115)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}}(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{(q;q^2)_{\mathrm{}}(q^2;q^2)_{\mathrm{}}}{(+q;q^2)_{\mathrm{}}(+q^2;q^2)_{\mathrm{}}}}\times `$ (116)
$`\times {\displaystyle }{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi }{2\pi i\xi }}\varphi (\zeta )S_{}(\xi ){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{q^2}(()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{2}}\zeta /\xi )}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{q^2}(()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{2}}\zeta /\xi )}},`$
where

$`\varphi (\zeta )=:\mathrm{exp}({\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1()^nq^{2n}}}()^{\frac{n}{2}}q^n\lambda _n\zeta ^n):e^{\frac{1}{4}Q}\zeta ^{\frac{1}{4}\lambda _0}\zeta ^{\frac{1}{8}}.`$ (117)
These are the following intertwiners

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta ):H_0^0H_1^0,`$ (118)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}}(\zeta ):H_1^0H_0^0.`$ (119)
Let us consider the eight-vertex model at $`p^{1/2}=q^2`$. At this point, the eight-vertex model decouples into two independent Ising models. Therefore, the vertex operators can be written in terms of the Ising VO’s. Note that we have two ways to identify the irreducible highest weight modules $`V(\mathrm{\Lambda }_i)`$ for the eight-vertex model

$`V(\mathrm{\Lambda }_i)`$ $``$ $`H_0^0H_1^0\mathrm{or},`$
$``$ $`H_1^0H_0^0.`$
First, the type II VO is realized as

$`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta )=(()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{2}}+()^{\frac{1}{2}}q^{\frac{1}{2}})^1\left(T(\zeta )\mathrm{id}+\mathrm{id}T(\zeta )\right),`$ (121)
$`\mathrm{\Psi }(\zeta ):H_i^0H_{1i}^0H_i^0H_{1i}^0(i=0,1).`$ (122)
Next, for the type I VO, we have

$`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )=\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta )\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}}(\zeta ):H_0^0H_1^0H_1^0H_0^0,`$ (123)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )=\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{NS}}(\zeta )\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{NS}}^\mathrm{R}(\zeta ):H_1^0H_0^0H_0^0H_1^0.`$ (124)
The corner Hamiltonian $`D`$ is given by

$`D=\rho \mathrm{id}\mathrm{id}\rho {\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}.`$ (125)
In , a fermionic realization of the operator $`t(\zeta )`$ was presented. While we have here a bosonized version from fusing type II VO’s or type I VO’s as (2.4). It can be examined that $`t(\zeta )`$ satisfies (42).

### 4.5 free field construction at $`p=q^6`$

Another example of free field realization for the eight-vertex model can be investigated by studying a degeneration of the integration kernel $`F(\xi _1,\xi _2;p^{1/2},q)`$ given by (3.2). Setting $`p^{1/2}=q^3`$, we have

$`h(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{(q\zeta ;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^2\zeta ;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}}},`$ (126)
$`g(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{(q^2\zeta ;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q\zeta ;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}}}=h(\zeta )^1,`$ (127)
$`F(\xi _1,\xi _2;q^3,q)={\displaystyle \frac{1\xi ^2}{(1+q^1\xi )(1+q\xi )}}h(\xi ),`$ (128)
where $`\xi =\xi _2/\xi _1`$. Once we realize that the factor $`(1\xi ^2)/(1+q^1\xi )/(1+q\xi )`$ in nothing but a two point function for a $`q`$-free fermion, we can easily guess the whole structure.

Introduce free bosons and fermions satisfying

$`[a_n,a_m]={\displaystyle \frac{1}{n}}{\displaystyle \frac{1q^n}{1q^{3n}}}()^nq^n\delta _{n+m,0},`$ (129)
$`[a_0,Q]=1,`$ (130)
$`[\psi _n,\psi _m]_+=()^n(q^n+q^n)\delta _{n+m,0}.`$ (131)
Define $`\varphi (\zeta )`$ and screening currents $`S_\pm (\zeta )`$ by

$`\varphi (\zeta )=:\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}a_n\zeta ^n\right):e^Q\zeta ^{\frac{1}{3}a_0}\zeta ^{\frac{1}{6}},`$ (132)
$`S_{}(\zeta )=\psi (\zeta ):\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}()^na_n\zeta ^n\right):e^Q\zeta ^{\frac{1}{3}a_0}\zeta ^{\frac{1}{6}},`$ (133)
$`S_+(\zeta )=\psi (\zeta ):\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1q^{3n}}{1q^n}}q^na_n\zeta ^n\right):e^{3Q}\zeta ^{a_0}\zeta ^{\frac{3}{2}},`$ (134)
where $`\psi (\zeta )=_n\psi _n\zeta ^n`$. We define the Fock spaces as

$`_r=𝐂[a_1,a_2,\mathrm{},\psi _1,\psi _2,\mathrm{}]e^{(\frac{1}{2}+3r)Q}|0.`$ (135)
The screening charge

$`Q={\displaystyle \frac{d\xi }{2\pi i\xi }S_+(\xi )}:_r_{r+1},`$ (136)
is well defined, and we can check the nill potency condition $`QQ=0`$. Thus the cochain complex

$`\mathrm{}\stackrel{Q}{}_1\stackrel{Q}{}_0\stackrel{Q}{}_1\stackrel{Q}{}\mathrm{},`$ (137)
and whose cohomology are obtained. The corner Hamiltonian is chosen to be

$`D={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{n^2(1q^{3n})}{1q^n}}()^nq^na_na_n`$ (138)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{n}{q^n+q^n}}()^n\psi _n\psi _n+{\displaystyle \frac{4a_0^21}{24}}.`$
Thus we arrive at the bosonic realization of the type I vertex operator for the eight-vertex model at $`p^{1/2}=q^3`$:

$`\mathrm{\Phi }(\zeta )={\displaystyle \frac{(+q^2;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}(+q^3;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}}{(q^2;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}(q^3;q^3)_{\mathrm{}}}}\times `$ (139)
$`\times {\displaystyle }{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi }{2\pi i\xi }}\varphi (\zeta )S_{}(\xi ){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{q^3}(q\zeta /\xi )}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{q^3}(q\zeta /\xi )}}.`$
Notice that we have not yet constructed the type II VO at $`p=q^6`$. It can be checked that the operator $`t(\zeta )`$ satisfying (42) is obtained by fusing type I VO’s as (2.4).

## 5 Discussion

Every free field construction for $`p=q^3,q^4,q^6`$ presented in this paper has a different structure. The number of fields which we need for the construction differ from each other, and we need to have suitable BRST cohomologies for each. When we try to generalize our formula, we eventually have to understand the reason why we have the basic hypergeometric series in (3.2) which correspond to the contraction between screening currents. At this moment, it is not clear how such screening operator could be constructed, and no other examples has been obtained.

To compare our formula (3.4) with Lashkevich and Pugai’s one does not seem a straightforward task. For local operators acting on $`n`$ adjacent sites, Lashkevich and Pugai’s formula has $`n`$-fold integral, while our formula needs $`2n`$-fold integral. Their formula contains a parameter called $`u_0`$ which comes from the intertwining vector, and they had to prove that the correlation function does not depend on $`u_0`$. We do not have such an extra parameter since we do not use the vertex-face correspondence. Their formula contains the summations arising from the intertwining vectors. Our formula does not have these. Recently, Quano found a method to take these summations. His formula for $`p=q^4,q^6`$, however, contains more integrals than we have. We have to have a better understanding of the correlation functions to go further and study physical quantities for the eight-vertex model.

Acknowledgement. The author wish to thank O. Foda, Y. Hara, M. Jimbo, N. Kitanine, J.M. Maillet, B. McCoy, T. Miwa, S. Odake, Y. Pugai, Y.-H. Quano, and Y. Yamada for discussions.


text:
# Damped orbital excitations in the titanates

## I Introduction

The Mott insulator lanthanum titanate (LaTiO3) is one of the most puzzling materials in the family of transition metals (TM) of the perovskite structure (see, e.g., Ref. ). Each of the Ti ions in this material has a single valent electron in one of the three-fold degenerate $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals, causing the ground state to be enormously degenerate. Whereas in the majority of the TM perovskites the conventional Jahn-Teller distortion lifts the orbital degeneracy, such distortions are believed to be small in the lanthanum titanate,  and will be assumed to be zero for the purposes of the present paper. Here we pose the following question: is there an alternative mechanism to the Jahn-Teller one, which is capable of removing the orbital degeneracy?

This question has already come up in materials with doubly-degenerate $`e_{2g}`$ valent electrons. In these materials, there exists an orbitally ordered phase, with coherent excitations (‘orbitons’).  These excitations were recently observed in LaMnO3.  The notion of an orbital disordered, liquid, state was developed in Ref.  for the hole doped LaMnO3 with a high hole concentration, where the antiferromagnetic (AF) insulating state gives way to a ferromagnetic metallic phase. Theoretically, the orbitons in doped materials are constructed similarly to spinons, which appear within the framework of the $`tJ`$ model for the hole-doped cuprates.  Another scenario of quantum liquid formation was proposed for the insulating KCuF3.  According to Ref. , the orbital fluctuations (random changes of the bond directions) may be the source for the “quantum melting” of the magnetic order, because of the strong interaction between orbital and spin degrees of freedom. Melting, in this scenario, means the disappearance of a long-range AF order in favor of a spin liquid state.

The lifting of the degeneracy of the $`t_{2g}`$ orbital triplet in LaTiO3 is a more difficult problem. In this case, according to the analysis of Kugel and Khomskii (KK),  the spin and the orbital degrees of freedom are not separated. Hence, the spin excitations are necessarily intimately involved in the formation of the orbital excitations and vice versa. A possible scenario of orbital liquid formation in LaTiO3 has been proposed in Ref. . These authors have conjectured the appearance of a resonance between the spin and the orbital excitations. To describe this resonance, they have used mean-field decoupling, generalizing the approach proposed in Ref.  for the spin liquid state in the two-dimensional $`tJ`$ model. This decoupling leads inevitably to the conclusion that the resonance states should give a contribution linear in the temperature to the low-energy specific heat. Such a Sommerfeld-like contribution signals the lifting of the orbital degeneracy by forming a quantum liquid. Unfortunately, a direct experimental check of this prediction in LaTiO3 has yielded negative results.

In the present paper, the main idea of Khaliullin and Maekawa  is rehabilitated by means of a more refined approach, which goes beyond the mean-field decoupling. We use the methods recently tested in the theory of Kondo lattices, where the spin liquid state is described as short-range correlations of the RVB type, which arise due to a non-local exchange through the Kondo screening clouds between the magnetic ions.  We show that the two-magnon excitations play a similar role in the formation of the orbital liquid correlations.

Our analysis is based on the KK Hamiltonian  (see below). In its simplest symmetric form, this Hamiltonian does not support long-range magnetic order at any non-zero temperature, due to some hidden symmetries. However, the Hamiltonian of the real LaTiO3 contains many additional (possibly small) terms, which restore long range AF spin order below some Néel temperature $`T_N`$, as indeed observed experimentally. In the following, we therefore assume the existence of this ordered magnetic state, and concentrate on its effects on the low temperature dynamics of the orbital degrees of freedom. Once the magnetic order is stabilized, we expect these dynamics at temperatures $`TT_N`$ to be described by the KK Hamiltonian, as discussed below. Indeed, we find heavily damped orbital excitations, which form a continuum whose energy scale is the same as that of the spin excitations, such that both orbital and spin excitations merge into a common continuum. As a result, a direct experimental observation of the orbital dynamics alone, at low temperatures, is hardly possible.

The paper is organized as follows. In the next section we review the derivation of the KK Hamiltonian, and set the basis for our perturbation expansion. The latter is carried out in Sec. III, where the orbital spectrum is obtained and discussed. Section IV includes our conclusions.

## II The Kugel-Khomskii Hamiltonian

Following the KK approach,  we consider a simplified version of the titanate, concentrating only on the sublattice of Ti ions. Each Ti ion possesses a single electron in one of the three-fold degenerate $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals of the $`d`$-shell. Including only a single Coulomb-Hubbard on-site repulsion on the Ti ion, with energy $`U`$, the simple initial Hamiltonian reads

$``$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{U}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{mm^{}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma \sigma ^{}}{}}n_{im\sigma }n_{im^{}\sigma ^{}}(1\delta _{mm^{}}\delta _{\sigma \sigma ^{}})`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{ij}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{mm^{}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}t_{ij}^{mm^{}}d_{im\sigma }^{}d_{jm^{}\sigma },n_{im\sigma }d_{im\sigma }^{}d_{im\sigma },`$ (2)
where $`ij`$ denotes nearest-neighbor pairs. Here, $`d_{im\sigma }^{}`$ creates an electron of spin $`\sigma `$ at site $`i`$, in one of the $`t_{2g}`$ levels, denoted $`m`$, and $`n_{im\sigma }`$ is the number operator in the $`m`$ orbital on site $`i`$ with spin index $`\sigma `$. Kugel and Khomskii  treated this Hamiltonian in second-order perturbation theory, assuming that the overlap integrals $`t_{ij}^{mm^{}}`$ are much smaller than $`U`$, in order to obtain an effective Hamiltonian describing the spin interactions among the Ti ions. Operating within strictly cubic symmetry, KK assumed that

$`t_{ij}^{mm^{}}=\delta _{mm^{}}t_{ij}^m,`$ (3)
where $`t_{ij}^mt`$ and differs from zero only when

$`ij\text{is along the }z\text{ axis and}m`$ $`=`$ $`d_{yz}\mathrm{or}d_{zx},`$ (4)
$`ij\text{is along the }y\text{ axis and}m`$ $`=`$ $`d_{xy}\mathrm{or}d_{yz},`$ (5)
$`ij\text{is along the }x\text{ axis and}m`$ $`=`$ $`d_{zx}\mathrm{or}d_{xy}.`$ (6)
The resulting exchange Hamiltonian, for a bond along the $`z`$-direction, reads

$`_{\mathrm{KK}}^z`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{J}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}(a_i^{}a_i+b_i^{}b_i)`$ (7)
$`+`$ $`J{\displaystyle \underset{ij_z}{}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}+𝐒_i𝐒_j\right)Y_{ij}^z,`$ (8)
where $`𝐒_i`$ is the spin operator on site $`i`$, and

$`J=2t^2/U`$ (9)
sets the energy scale of the spin excitations. The orbital degrees of freedom are now described by the operators $`a_i^{}`$ ($`b_i^{}`$, $`c_i^{}`$), which create a spinless fermion (termed ‘orbiton’) in the $`yz`$ ($`zx`$, $`xy`$) orbital on site $`i`$. The intermingling of the orbiton degrees of freedom with those of the spin is contained in the second term of Eq. (8), in which KK introduced the orbiton operator product $`Y^z`$, given by

$`Y_{ij}^z=a_i^{}a_ia_j^{}a_j+b_i^{}b_ib_j^{}b_j+a_i^{}b_ib_j^{}a_j+b_i^{}a_ia_j^{}b_j.`$ (10)
The expressions for $`_{\mathrm{KK}}^x`$ (for bonds along the $`x`$-direction) and for $`_{\mathrm{KK}}^y`$ (for bonds along the $`y`$-direction) are derived from Eq. (8) by cyclic permutations of the operators $`a`$, $`b`$, and $`c`$. The full exchange Hamiltonian is the sum of the three,

$`_{\mathrm{KK}}=_{\mathrm{KK}}^x+_{\mathrm{KK}}^y+_{\mathrm{KK}}^z.`$ (11)
Then, the first term in Eq. (8), when added together with the corresponding terms in $`_{\mathrm{KK}}^y`$ and $`_{\mathrm{KK}}^x`$ yields twice the total number of electrons in the system,

$`N={\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\left(a_i^{}a_i+b_i^{}b_i+c_i^{}c_i\right),`$ (12)
which is just a constant.

Contrary to the situation in the manganites, the spin and charge degrees of freedom in the titanate are not separated. Moreover, the orbiton-spin interaction has a peculiar structure of two fermions interacting with one magnon (see below). To explore the outcome of this complicated situation, we proceed as follows. Firstly, we work well below TN. Then the spin operators may be treated by the linearized Holstein-Primakoff transformation: assuming a two sublattice bipartite antiferromagnetic order, with moments along the magnetic $`z`$-direction, we write

$`X_{ij}`$ $`=`$ $`𝐒_i𝐒_j+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}`$ (13)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(B_i^{}B_i+B_j^{}B_j+B_iB_j+B_i^{}B_j^{}\right).`$ (14)
Here, $`B_i^{}`$ is a boson operator which creates a magnon excitation (related to $`S_{ix}+iS_{iy}`$). Secondly, the KK exchange Hamiltonian, together with Eq. (14), will be treated as a perturbation, acting on the zeroth order Hamiltonian. The latter consists of the free orbiton Hamiltonian, and the free spin Hamiltonian. For the first, we impose a constraint ensuring that each site is occupied by a single charge carrier. This constraint is applied globally. For the latter, we introduce an infinitesimally small staggered magnetic field in the magnetic $`z`$-direction, $`h_i=(1)^ih`$. Hence,

$`_0`$ $`=`$ $`_O+_S,`$ (15)
with

$`_O`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda {\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\left(a_i^{}a_i+b_i^{}b_i+c_i^{}c_i\right),`$ (16)
$`_S`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}h_i\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}B_i^{}B_i\right).`$ (17)
Note that the chemical potential $`\lambda `$ includes the constant term of the original KK Hamiltonian (11) \[cf. Eq. (12)\]. In the next section we use these definitions in order to construct a thermodynamic perturbation theory in terms of the Matsubara Green functions.

## III Perturbation expansion for the orbiton spectrum

The orbiton spectrum is determined by the self-energy of the orbiton Green function. Here we calculate the orbiton Green function, which is diagonal in the orbiton operators, that is,

$`G_{ij}^{\mu \mu }(\tau )=T_\tau a_{i\mu }(\tau )a_{j\mu }^{}(0),`$ (18)
where $`i`$ and $`j`$ denote lattice sites, $`T_\tau `$ is the time-ordering operator, and $`a_\mu =a,b,`$ or $`c`$. This Green function satisfies the Dyson equation

$`G_{ij}^{\mu \mu }=g_0\left(\delta _{ij}+{\displaystyle \underset{\nu }{}}{\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}M_{il}^{\mu \nu }G_{lj}^{\nu \nu }\right),`$ (19)
where $`g_0`$ is the ‘bare’ orbiton Green function,

$`g_0(ϵ_m)=(iϵ_m+\lambda )^1,`$ (20)
with $`ϵ_m`$ being the Matsubara frequency. As we show below, the self-consistent calculation of the orbiton self-energy, $`M_{il}^{\mu \nu }`$, requires knowledge of the magnon Green function, which may be represented by the matrix

$`\widehat{D}_{ij}(\tau )=\left[\begin{array}{cc}T_\tau B_i(\tau )B_j^{}(0)& T_\tau B_i(\tau )B_j(0)\\ T_\tau B_i(\tau )^{}B_j^{}(0)& T_\tau B_i^{}(\tau )B_j(0)\end{array}\right].`$ (23)
Unlike the standard case of a linear fermion-boson interaction, the KK Hamiltonian (11) contains six-tail interaction vertices, of four types (see Fig. 1). These are denoted $`V_1`$, $`V_2`$, $`V_3`$, and $`V_4`$ and are given by

$`V_1`$ $`=`$ $`JB_i^{}B_ia_{i\mu }^{}a_\mathrm{}\mu a_\mathrm{}\nu ^{}a_{i\nu },`$ (24)
$`V_3`$ $`=`$ $`JB_i^{}B_{\mathrm{}}^{}a_{i\mu }^{}a_\mathrm{}\mu a_\mathrm{}\nu ^{}a_{i\nu },`$ (25)
$`V_2`$ has the same form as $`V_1`$ with $`i`$ replaced by $`\mathrm{}`$, and $`V_4=V_3^{}`$. Hence the KK Hamiltonian involves a fermion-magnon interaction, which is quadratic in the magnon operators and quartic in the fermion operators. This feature is the basis for our results in the following.

### A Lowest-order mean-field approximation

To first order, the perturbation expansion corresponds to the mean-field approximation for the self-energy of both the orbitons and the magnons. Then, these self-energies can be obtained by decoupling the product of magnon operators and orbiton operators appearing, e.g, in Eq. (8). This procedure is carried out as follows. Ignoring a constant, one first writes

$`^z{\displaystyle \underset{ij_z}{}}X_{ij}Y_{ij}^z{\displaystyle \underset{ij_z}{}}\left[YX_{ij}+XY_{ij}^z\right],`$ (26)
where the orbiton operators $`Y`$ and the magnon operators $`X`$ are given in Eqs. (10) and (14), respectively. The notation $``$ stands for the thermodynamic average of the relevant operators. A similar decoupling is written down for $`^x`$ and $`^y`$. When these three approximate Hamiltonians are summed together, the resulting Hamiltonian separates into two terms, $`_1`$ and $`_2`$, the first pertaining to the magnons, and the second to the orbitons.

Let us first consider $`_1`$ and the magnon dynamics it implies. The orbiton operator product contained in $`Y`$ is further decoupled, by introducing the thermal averages, which will be determined self-consistently (see below),

$`n_\mu `$ $`=`$ $`a_{i\mu }^{}a_{i\mu },\mathrm{with}nn_a=n_b=n_c1/3,`$ (27)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }_\mu `$ $`=`$ $`a_{i\mu }^{}a_{j\mu },\mathrm{with}\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }_a=\mathrm{\Delta }_b=\mathrm{\Delta }_c,ij.`$ (28)
In other words, we assume an equal average occupation of all three orbitals (i.e., no orbital long range order), and consider only the possible “ordering” of the off-diagonal orbital parameter, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, which represents the delocalization of the orbital degrees of freedom. Then $`_1`$ takes the form

$`_1={\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{J}}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{ij}{}}\left(B_i^{}B_i+B_j^{}B_j+B_iB_j+B_i^{}B_j^{}\right),`$ (29)
with the coupling constant

$$\stackrel{~}{J}=2J(n^22\mathrm{\Delta }^2).$$
(30)
Thus, $`_1`$ reduces to the usual spin-wave antiferromagnetic Hamiltonian, with a renormalized exchange coefficient. As usual, this Hamiltonian is diagonalized in Fourier space, utilizing the Holstein-Primakoff rotation:

$`B_𝐪=C_𝐪\beta _𝐪+S_𝐪\beta _𝐪^{},`$ (31)
where

$`C_𝐪\mathrm{cosh}W_𝐪,S_𝐪\mathrm{sinh}W_𝐪,`$ (32)
such that

$`\mathrm{tanh}2W_𝐪={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}(\mathrm{cos}q_x+\mathrm{cos}q_y+\mathrm{cos}q_z)\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐪.`$ (33)
Hence, the magnon Green function takes the form

$`𝒟_𝐪(\omega _n)=(i\omega _n\omega _𝐪)^1,`$ (34)
with the magnon frequency

$`\omega _𝐪=3\stackrel{~}{J}\sqrt{1\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐪^2}.`$ (35)
Within the mean field approximation of Eq. (26), the energy scale of the orbiton Hamiltonian $`_2`$ is set by $`X`$, which can be now obtained using the magnon dispersion (35),

$$X=\frac{3}{2N}\underset{𝐪}{}\left[1+(2N_𝐪+1)\sqrt{1\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐪^2}\right],$$
(36)
with the magnon occupation numbers $`N_𝐪=\left(\mathrm{exp}(\beta \omega _𝐪)1\right)^1`$. Since the operator $`Y_{ij}^z`$ still involves products of four operators, one needs to apply further contractions. It is then convenient to calculate the orbiton self-energy using the diagrams shown in Fig. 2. From these diagrams one finds the first order self-energy

$`M_{1,\mu }(𝐤)=4JX[n\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐤^\mu \mathrm{\Delta }],`$ (37)
with the form factors

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐤^a=\mathrm{cos}k_y+\mathrm{cos}k_z,`$ (38)
and analogous expressions for $`\mathrm{\Phi }^b`$ ($`y,zz,x`$) and $`\mathrm{\Phi }^c`$ ($`y,zx,y`$). It therefore follows that the orbiton Green function, in this approximation, becomes

$`G_𝐤^{\mu \mu }(ϵ)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{ϵE_𝐤^\mu }},`$ (39)
where

$`E_𝐤^\mu =4JX[n\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐤^\mu \mathrm{\Delta }]\lambda ,\mu =a,b,c.`$ (40)
It is thus seen that a finite value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ implies a finite dispersion of the orbiton modes, with an orbiton band width $`16JX\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Moreover, this band-width is temperature-dependent, due to the temperature dependence of the magnon occupations, contained in $`X`$, Eq. (36), and due to the temperature dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ itself. For a given wave-vector $`𝐤`$, the three energies $`\{E_𝐤^\mu \}`$ are generally different, so that the degeneracy of the $`t_{2g}`$ band is removed. Indeed, were we to terminate the calculation at this level, keeping only first-order contributions, then the orbiton averages, Eqs. (28), would have to be found self-consistently using the Green function (39). It is very illuminating to examine those self-consistency requirements. Equation (39) yields

$`f_𝐤^\mu a_{\mu 𝐤}^{}a_{\mu 𝐤}=f(E_𝐤^\mu ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta E_𝐤^\mu }+1}},\mu =a,b,c.`$ (41)
Then the self-consistency equations read

$`1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu }{}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}f_𝐤^\mu ,\mathrm{\Delta }(T)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{6N}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu }{}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐤^\mu f_𝐤^\mu ,`$ (42)
where the first equation fixes the chemical potential $`\lambda (T)`$, so that the three-fold-degenerate orbiton band is 1/3 filled, and the second determines $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

Evidently, Eqs. (42) are satisfied by setting $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$, (since then the Fermi function is independent of k, and $`_𝐤\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐤^\mu `$ vanishes). Let us now examine at which temperature $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ begins to deviate from zero. To this end we expand Eqs. (42) in powers of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. The first self-consistency equation yields (at $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$)

$`4JX(T)n\lambda (T)={\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}JX(T)\lambda (T)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta }}\mathrm{ln}2,`$ (43)
while the second allows a non-zero $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ only for temperatures lower than the solution of

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta }}={\displaystyle \frac{4}{9}}JX(T).`$ (44)
Using here the explicit expression for $`X`$, Eq. (36), and the results Eqs. (30) and (35) for the magnon frequency, we find

$`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2\beta J}}=1+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2\beta J}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐪}{}}\beta \omega _𝐪\mathrm{coth}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta \omega _𝐪}{2}}.`$ (45)
This is an implicit equation for the temperature at which $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ begins to deviate from zero. Examination of this result reveals that this occurs at $`k_BT`$ of order $`J`$. A similar order of magnitude is found from the spin-wave approximation for the Néel temperature (above which the staggered magnetization $`(\frac{1}{2}B_i^{}B_i)`$ vanishes). Both of these estimated temperatures are probably above the real Néel temperature, which is determined by small symmetry breaking terms which are not contained in the simple KK model. Hence, in the whole range below the real $`T_N`$ we expect to have a finite $`\mathrm{\Delta }(T)`$, and we do not expect any phase transition at which $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ vanishes while the spins are still ordered. Even if this statement is not valid for all $`T<T_N`$, we still expect it to hold for sufficiently low temperatures. In the next section we examine the dynamical corrections to the orbiton spectrum, brought about by the second-order corrections, and examine whether and how the above conclusion is modified.

### B Beyond the mean-field approximation

The next order contribution to the orbiton self-energy, $`M_{2,\mu }(𝐤,ϵ)`$, requires expansion to second order in the KK Hamiltonian, i.e. to second order in the diagrams listed in Fig. 1. Instead of going through the details of all the diagrams which contribute to $`M_{2,\mu }`$, we give here the details of only two diagrams, which describe orbiton propagation assisted by two-magnon processes (Fig. 3). The first of these two diagrams is generated by the vertices $`V_1`$ and $`V_2`$ in Fig. 1, whereas the second is generated by the vertices $`V_3`$ and $`V_4`$. Both diagrams contain a single propagating fermion line. Each of the other two fermion tails (of each vertex) is rolled into a bubble, to give the factor $`n^2`$. Other diagrams involve three internal fermion lines, but do not change the qualitative features discussed below.

A lengthy calculation of the contribution of the two diagrams displayed in Fig. 3 yields (after performing the analytical continuation for the Matsubara frequencies)

$`M_{2,\mu }^{(1)}(𝐤,ϵ)=\left({\displaystyle \frac{nJ}{N}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{𝐩𝐪}}{}}(\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐩^\mu )^2`$ (47)
$`\times [C_{𝐪,𝐩+𝐪}^+{\displaystyle \frac{N_𝐪(1+N_{𝐩+𝐪})+f_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu (N_{𝐩+𝐪}N_𝐪)}{ϵE_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu +\omega _𝐪\omega _{𝐩+𝐪}}}`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}C_{𝐪,𝐩+𝐪}^{}({\displaystyle \frac{N_𝐪N_{𝐩+𝐪}+f_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu (1+N_{𝐩+𝐪}+N_𝐪)}{ϵE_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu +\omega _𝐪+\omega _{𝐩+𝐪}}}`$ (48)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(1+N_𝐪)(1+N_{𝐩+𝐪})f_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu (1+N_{𝐩+𝐪}+N_𝐪)}{ϵE_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu \omega _𝐪\omega _{𝐩+𝐪}}})],`$ (49)
for the first diagram, and

$`M_{2,\mu }^{(2)}(𝐤,ϵ)=\left({\displaystyle \frac{nJ}{N}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{𝐩𝐪}}{}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐪^\mu +\mathrm{\Phi }_{𝐩+𝐪}^\mu }{2}}\right)^2`$ (52)
$`\times [C_{𝐪,𝐩+𝐪}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{N_𝐪(1+N_{𝐩+𝐪})+f_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu (N_{𝐩+𝐪}N_𝐪)}{ϵE_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu +\omega _𝐪\omega _{𝐩+𝐪}}}`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}C_{𝐪,𝐩+𝐪}^+({\displaystyle \frac{N_𝐪N_{𝐩+𝐪}+f_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu (1+N_{𝐩+𝐪}+N_𝐪)}{ϵE_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu +\omega _𝐪+\omega _{𝐩+𝐪}}}`$ (53)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(1+N_𝐪)(1+N_{𝐩+𝐪})f_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu (1+N_{𝐩+𝐪}+N_𝐪)}{ϵE_{𝐤𝐩}^\mu \omega _𝐪\omega _{𝐩+𝐪}}})],`$ (54)
for the second diagram. Here we have introduced the magnon coherence factors,

$`C_{𝐪,𝐩+𝐪}^+`$ $`=`$ $`\left(C_𝐪C_{𝐩+𝐪}+S_𝐪S_{𝐩+𝐪}\right)^2,`$ (56)
$`C_{𝐪,𝐩+𝐪}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(S_𝐪C_{𝐩+𝐪}+C_𝐪S_{𝐩+𝐪}\right)^2,`$ (57)
which, upon using Eq. (32), take the simpler form

$`C_{𝐪,𝐩+𝐪}^\pm `$ $`=`$ $`\{\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{cosh}^2(W_𝐪+W_{𝐩+𝐪})\\ \mathrm{sinh}^2(W_𝐪+W_{𝐩+𝐪})\end{array}.`$ (60)
With the second-order corrections to the orbiton self-energy, the orbiton Green function becomes

$`G_𝐤^{\mu \mu }(ϵ)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{ϵE_𝐤^\mu M_{2,\mu }(𝐤,ϵ)}},`$ (61)
where $`M_{2,\mu }(𝐤,ϵ)=M_{2,\mu }^{(1)}(𝐤,ϵ)+M_{2,\mu }^{(2)}(𝐤,ϵ)+\mathrm{}`$. We now concentrate on the contributions of Eqs. (LABEL:2a) and (LABEL:2b) to this Green function. Clearly, these contributions yield a finite, temperature-dependent imaginary part to the orbiton dispersion, namely, the orbiton modes acquire a temperature-dependent damping, as expected. The new dispersion law is obtained from the poles of the Green function (61),

$`zE_𝐤^\mu =M_{2,\mu }(𝐤,z),`$ (62)
where $`z`$ is a complex variable. Examining Eqs. (LABEL:2a) and (LABEL:2b) one may draw the following conclusions. (i) The real part of the second-order self-energy, $`R(𝐤,ϵ)=\mathrm{Re}M_{2,\mu }(𝐤,ϵ)`$, as function of $`ϵ`$, contains three components which come from the two-magnon processes. The lowest one arises from the two-magnon emission processes and is dominant in the interval $`2\omega _Dϵ0`$, where $`\omega _D`$ is the maximal magnon frequency \[see Eq. (35)\]. The second results from the processes in which one magnon is emitted and one is absorbed, which occur in the interval $`\omega _Dϵ\omega _D`$. The third component comes from the two-magnon absorption processes and prevails at positive frequencies, $`0ϵ2\omega _D`$. It follows that $`R(𝐤,ϵ)`$ has a significant magnitude in the entire range $`2\omega _D<ϵ<2\omega _D`$, and falls down rapidly outside this interval. The magnitude of different contributions to $`R(𝐤,ϵ)`$ is regulated by the magnon occupation numbers. In particular, the mixed emission-absorption processes are frozen out at $`T0`$. One may conclude that the superposition of the three types of the two-magnon processes results in a complicated behavior of $`R(𝐤,ϵ)`$. This quantity may have several zeros and peaks within the above energy interval; the heights of these peaks can be estimated as $`\kappa J`$, with a numerical coefficient $`\kappa <1`$. (ii) The imaginary part of the orbiton self-energy, which comes from the second order terms, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(𝐤,ϵ)=\mathrm{Im}M_{2,\mu }(𝐤,ϵ)`$, behaves similarly to the real part; expressions (LABEL:2a) and (LABEL:2b) do not show that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is essentially smaller than $`R`$ in the whole energy interval. (iii) As a result, the orbitons become ill-defined, heavily damped, quasi-particles. Their off-diagonal orbiton parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and the related orbiton band-width, should be again determined self-consistently, using the refined orbiton Green function Eq. (61),

$`\mathrm{\Delta }(T)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{6N}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu }{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{dϵ}{2\pi }}\mathrm{\Phi }_𝐤^\mu \mathrm{Im}G_𝐤^{\mu \mu }(ϵ)f(ϵ),`$ (63)
in place of the second of Eqs. (42).

Without going into the details of the solutions of the complicated self-consistent equation for $`\mathrm{\Delta }(T)`$, Eq. (63), it is clear that going beyond the simple mean-field calculation changes drastically the nature of the orbiton excitations. Whereas in the first order we have obtained a coherent orbiton spectrum with a well-defined wave vector (appearing due to the magnetic order), this picture changes drastically with the second-order corrections. The interaction with the spin wave excitations extends the effective width of the orbiton band and makes it asymmetric relative to its center of gravity. Moreover, the orbiton excitations lose their coherence by acquiring a considerable life-time (given by the imaginary part of the self-energy). Those excitations are thus transformed into a structureless “liquid-like” continuum. Clearly, more complicated processes involving higher-orders of the orbiton-magnon interaction, are not expected to modify this picture.

## IV Concluding remarks

We have proposed in this paper a mechanism capable of lifting the degeneracy of the $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals in the titanate. In our scenario, the orbital degeneracy is removed due to the interplay between the (ordered) spin and the (disordered) orbital degrees of freedom. We have obtained three dispersive orbiton bands, with a temperature-dependent band-width and a structureless spectrum, that exist together with the coherent spin fluctuations at low temperatures. We have found that the second-order perturbation corrections transform the coherent orbiton spectrum, $`E_𝐤^\mu `$, \[see Eq. (40)\] obtained within the simplest mean-field theory, into an incoherent continuum of heavily damped excitations, which may be termed an ‘orbital liquid’. This, in turn, may explain the experimental observation,  that the low-temperature heat capacity arises from the spin wave excitations alone.

The incoherent continuum state of the orbital excitations is dominated at low temperatures by the two-magnon emission peak in the orbiton self-energy. The effect of this peak is to shift the weight of the orbiton spectrum into negative energies, thus making the orbiton liquid state thermodynamically preferable as compared to the fully-degenerate orbiton state that prevails when $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$, or in the absence of the coupling with the spin degrees of freedom. In particular, our process of degeneracy lifting may possibly overcome the Jahn-Teller mechanism.  In the latter, the energy gain is restricted by the energy of the Jahn-Teller coupling strength, which is definitely smaller than the exchange coupling, which determines the energy gain in our case.

Finally we mention that, within the framework of the KK Hamiltonian in cubic symmetry, the orbiton-magnon interaction cannot lead to a magnetic anisotropy, that is, it cannot generate a gap in the spin-wave spectrum. To obtain such anisotropies, one should extend the KK Hamiltonian to include the hybridization of the oxygen and titanium orbitals, the possible orthorhombic tilting of the oxygen octahedra, as well as spin-orbit interactions. Apparently, one will also have to treat the Coulomb interaction in a more refined way, taking into account Coulomb-exchange effects.

###### Acknowledgements.

We acknowledge partial support by the German-Israeli Foundation (GIF), and the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF). Valuable discussions with D. Khomskii are highly appreciated.