Exact surface energy and elementary excitations of the XXX spin-1/2 chain with arbitrary non-diagonal boundary fields

We study the physical properties of the XXX spin-1/2 chain with arbitrary non-diagonal boundary fields. By using a combination of numerical analysis and analytical method, we obtain the surface energy and elementary excitations of the model. It shows that the contributions of the two boundary fields to the surface energy are additive. We also find that there exists a kind of excitations related to the boundary string.