A thermal form factor series for dynamical correlation functions of integrable lattice models

We suggest a method for calculating dynamical correlation functions at finite temperature in integrable lattice models of Yang-Baxter type. The method is based on an expansion of the correlation functions as a series over matrix elements of a time-dependent quantum transfer matrix rather than the Hamiltonian. In the infinite Trotter-number limit the matrix elements become time independent and turn into the thermal form factors studied previously in the context of static correlation functions. We make this explicit with the example of the XXZ model. We show how the form factors can be summed utilizing certain auxiliary functions solving finite sets of nonlinear integral equations. The case of the XX model is worked out in more detail. We obtain a novel form-factor series representation of the dynamical transverse two-point function that is well suited for numerical and asymptotic analysis and allows us to go beyond the classical results obtained in the 90s.