Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 108, Nos. 1/2, July 2002. p. 1-48.
We discuss some of the difficulties that have been mentioned in the literature in connection with the Bethe ansatz for the six-vertex model and XXZ chain, and for the eight-vertex model. In particular we discuss the ‘‘beyond the equator,’’ infinite momenta and exact complete string problems. We show how they can be overcome and conclude that the coordinate Bethe ansatz does indeed give a complete set of states, as expected.