TBA equations for the mass gap in the O(2r) non-linear σ-models

We propose TBA integral equations for 1-particle states in the O(n) non-linear sigma-model for even n. The equations are conjectured on the basis of the analytic properties of the large volume asymptotics of the problem, which is explicitly constructed starting from Luscher's asymptotic formula. For small volumes the mass gap values computed numerically from the TBA equations agree very well with results of three-loop perturbation theory calculations, providing support for the validity of the proposed TBA system. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.