Baxter Relations for Open Quantum Spin Chains

The algebraic route to the construction of TQ operator relations (which allow solutions of particular integrable Hamiltonians through the transfer matrix method) is already well understood for systems with periodic boundary conditions. The aim of this project is to extend this formalism to find analogous derivations of TQ relations for the open boundary case. We start with the U_q(sl_2) algebra of the XXZ spin chain, and hope to generalise this case to arbitrary q-deformed algebras.