Yang-Gaudin model: A paradigm of many-body physics

Using Bethe's hypothesis, C N Yang exactly solved the one-dimensional (1D) delta-function interacting spin-1/2 Fermi gas with an arbitrary spin-imbalance in 1967. At that time, using a different method, M Gaudin solved the problem of interacting fermions in a spin-balanced case. Later, the 1D delta-function interacting fermion problem was named as the Yang-Gaudin model. It has been in general agreed that a key discovery of C N Yang's work was the cubic matrix equation for the solvability conditions. % This equation was later independently found by R J Baxter for commuting transfer matrices of 2D exactly solvable vertex models. % The equation has since been referred to Yang-Baxter equation, being the master equation to integrability. % The Yang-Baxter equation has been used to solve a wide range of 1D many-body problems in physics, such as 1D Hubbard model, $SU(N)$ Fermi gases, Kondo impurity problem and strongly correlated electronic systems etc. % In this paper, we will briefly discuss recent developments of the Yang-Gaudin model on several breakthroughs of many-body phenomena, ranging from the universal thermodynamics to the Luttigner liquid, the spin charge separation, the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO)-like pairing state and the quantum criticality. % These developments demonstrate that the Yang-Gaudin model has laid out a profound legacy of the Yang-Baxter equation.