Journal ArticleWe study statistical characterization of the many-body states in exactly solvable models with internal degrees of freedom. The models under consideration include the isotropic and anisotropic Heisenberg spin chains, the Hubbard chain, and a model in higher dimensions which exhibits the Mott metal-insulator transition. It is shown that the ground states of these systems are all described by that of a generalized ideal gas of particles (called exclusons) which have mutual-exclusion statistics, either between different rapidities or between different species. For the Bethe ansatz solvable models, the low-temperature properties are well described by the excluson description if the degeneracies due to string solutions with comple...