Quantum Heisenberg models and their probabilistic representations

These notes give a mathematical introduction to two seemingly unrelated topics: (i) quantum spin systems and their cycle and loop representations, due to T\'oth and Aizenman-Nachtergaele; (ii) coagulation-fragmentation stochastic processes. These topics are nonetheless related, as we argue that the lengths of cycles and loops satisfy an effective coagulation-fragmentation process. This suggests that their joint distribution is Poisson-Dirichlet. These ideas are far from being proved, but they are backed by several rigorous results, notably of Dyson-Lieb-Simon and Schramm.