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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The celebrated AdS/CFT conjecture  opened, two years ago, an important path to study strongly coupled gauge theories from an unexpected supergravity framework. With this new technology, the string theorists have been able to describe a variety of properties of gauge theories unreachable from the field theory point of view (see ). All this work was supported by the conformal invariance of the $`𝒩=4`$ SYM on the D$`3`$-brane and represented in supergravity by the conformal nature of the $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ of the corresponding background. This symmetry is a strong constraint on the systems that has allowed a good description of it.

The question we will approach in this paper is in the direction of the extension of the Maldacena’s conjecture to non-conformal branes. Some work on the subject has been done . In particular we will focus on the compatibility of a string symmetry, T-duality, with the holographic conjecture. There have been some approaches to the problem  and it seems that, at least, part of the phase space of branes on tori has been constructed .

Our first interest in this paper is the clarification of such results. We will argue that T-duality does not affect the holographic description of D-brane dynamics, and we could map from one brane system to the other, any physical property of the system. We will specially focus on the renormalization of classical parameters, and discuss how it must be understood.

We will explore the corrections of the dynamics due to the presence of compact dimensions. This analysis will allow us to present of a detailed description of different parts of the phase space. In particular we describe an intermediate phase between two T-dual systems that is exclusively produced by finite size effects.

Finally we will explore the dynamics of Wilson loops in this kind of backgrounds. The analysis of this system will be done with the same philosophy of the previous sections. We will study two different quark-antiquark configurations and see how T-duality and finite size effects change their properties.

## 2 The background solution.

We are interested in obtaining the complete background solution for wrapped D-branes and their T-duals, that is, unwrapped D-branes moving in a transverse space that is compactified in at least one direction.

We shall compute one (the latter) and deduce the other with the help of the Buscher rules for T-duality. For definiteness, let us concentrate in the case of D2-branes with a transverse space like $`R^6\times S^1`$. It is easier if we adopt the multi-centered image, which consists in considering the circle as the whole $`R`$ space with an identification $`xx+2\pi R`$. This means that the compactified metric is equivalent to the one induced by an infinite number of parallel and equally-spaced D2-branes. Of course, the solutions cannot be linearly added because Supergravity is not at all a linear theory. However, happily enough, we can write everything in terms of a function, usually called harmonic function, that does behave linearly . All physical fields, in particular, the metric and the dilaton, are non-linear functionals of it.

The general $`p`$-brane solution is

$$ds^2=f^{1/2}(dt^2+dx_i^2)+f^{1/2}dy_j^2$$
(1)
with

$$e^\varphi =g_sf^{\frac{3p}{4}}$$
(2)
where $`i`$ is the index of the directions parallel to the brane, $`f`$ is the harmonic function that depends on the transverse coordinates and on the radius of the compact direction. This function $`f`$ obeys a Laplace equation whose solution, for a group of $`N`$ superposed D2-branes is

$$f(r)=1+\frac{g_sNl_s^5d_2}{r^5}$$
(3)
where $`d_2=\frac{(2\pi )^5\mathrm{\Gamma }(7/2)}{10\pi ^{7/2}}`$. The multi-centered solution is

$$f(r)=1+\underset{n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{g_sNl_s^5d_2}{\left[r_{}^2+\left(r_{}+2\pi nR\right)^2\right]^{5/2}}$$
(4)
The subscripts separate the coordinate that parameterizes the circle from the other transverse ones. Now we take the decoupling limit to see if we get something similar to an AdS space. We must define $`u_{}:=r_{}l_s^2`$, $`u_{}:=r_{}l_s^2`$, and also $`:=Rl_s^2`$. We take $`l_s`$ and all other lengths to zero but keeping the $`u`$ and $``$ variables finite. The first two follow the usual infrared limit that is necessary to decouple the open strings attached to the branes from the closed strings. In the supergravity, this separates the fields moving in the Minkowskian geometry very far from the horizon from the fields very near it. The meaning of the definition of $``$ is not the same; $`r`$ and $`u`$ are variables and the limit is a restriction of the values, on the other hand, the radius is a constant and what we are doing is to choose the value of $`R`$ in such a way that $``$ is finite (and much smaller than $`l_s^1`$). We will later explain the reason for this choice.

The only relevant magnitudes in the new geometry will be the ones defined above. We obtain

$$f(u_{},u_{},)=\frac{g_sNd_2}{l_s^5}\underset{n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left[u_{}^2+\left(u_{}+2\pi n\right)^2\right]^{5/2}$$
(5)
It is useful to use spherical coordinates in the six-dimensional transverse space and angular ones for the compact circle. This way $``$ can explicitly appear in the metric. That way the solution becomes

$$ds^2=f^{1/2}(dt^2+dx_i^2)+f^{1/2}^2d\theta ^2+f^{1/2}du_{}^2+u_{}^2f^{1/2}d\mathrm{\Omega }_5^2$$
(6)
$`\theta =u_{}/`$ is dimensionless and has periodicity $`2\pi `$. The three longitudinal coordinates and $`u_{}`$ form a kind of AdS space over which a sphere and a circle, both with variable radii, are fibered. The T-dual metric is obtained with the substitution

$$f^{1/2}^2d\theta ^2f^{1/2}^2\alpha ^2d\psi ^2$$
(7)
The way we have dealt with the solution does not seem to be symmetric with respect to the duality. We have constructed the solution deforming the uncompactified solution of the D2-branes, but in the limit $`0`$ we should recover the D3-brane case. There should, then, exist an expression that deforms the D3-brane solution adding the contribution of the closed strings wound around the compact Dirichlet direction, instead of the contribution of the mirror images, as we have done. It can be obtained by a Poisson resummation of the function $`f`$.

$`f(u_{},\theta ,)={\displaystyle \frac{g_sNd_2}{l_s^5}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\left[u_{}^2+^2\left(\theta +2\pi n\right)^2\right]^{5/2}=`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{g_sNd_3}{l_s^5}}u_{}^4+{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{g_sNd_3}{l_s^5^3}}u_{}^2\mathrm{cos}\left(n\theta \right)K_2\left(\left|{\displaystyle \frac{nu_{}}{}}\right|\right)`$ (8)
where $`d_3=4\pi `$. The first term of the sum is the solution for the D3-brane with coupling $`g_s^{}=g_s/(l_s)`$. Notice that the natural transition point is $`u_{}`$. By ‘transition point’ we mean the value of the variables where the zero mode (first term) of one of the series begins to be a bad approximation as more and more terms need to be added to get a certain accuracy, and the zero mode of the other series begins to be a good approximation.

The physical meaning of this resummation is something similar to the Gregory-Laflamme  localization transition of black holes. Here we do not have a horizon, and therefore, neither have we a definite size. However, at a certain transverse distance (in $`u_{}`$) of the center, the D2-brane solution has a width in the longitudinal direction ($`u_{}`$) that can define a typical size, precisely of order $``$. When the distance to the center is larger than that, the metric is basically constant with respect to $`u_{}`$. In the picture where the circle is emulated by a one-dimensional lattice, the observer beyond the point $`u_{}=`$ sees a nearly continuous distribution of branes in the compact direction. Any computation obtained as a sum of contributions of each individual D2-brane has to be resummed.

We expect to relate this soft transition to T-duality so it is somewhat surprising that $`\alpha ^{}`$ does not appear in the condition. The explanation is as follows. There are two different reasons to prefer a theory instead of its T-dual. In the case of the closed strings, there are two series of energy levels in the spectrum, windings and momenta. If the winding modes are much lighter than the momenta, it is necessary to resum the perturbative series and therefore, it is more useful to use the T-dual theory. When $`R=\sqrt{\alpha ^{}}`$, both modes have the same energy and that is why that is the limit of usefulness of each theory. On the other hand, when only open strings are involved, windings and momentum cannot coexist. Only when there is another length (or energy) scale like the separation of branes is there a reason to prefer one of the two theories. If the gaps in the discrete spectrum are much smaller than the separation of the branes many of them will contribute to a typical process and it is better to use the theory where they are momenta and can be easily integrated. Otherwise, one should use the other one. The range where the transition happens is around $`R=Y`$, if $`Y`$ is the separation between the branes.

This second possibility is the one we have found in this section.

## 3 The gauge theories.

Let us now see which is the field theory that is described by this geometry. It is the one that appears when we take the same limit in the open string model of the same group of D-branes. The modes of the string that do not decouple are the massless ones, whose dynamics is governed by the SYM2+1; and the strings that wind a finite number of times around the compact direction before both ends attach on the D2-brane. Again, we should use the multi-centered image, which is the clearest. The field theory is a $`U(N\times \mathrm{})`$ SYM in $`2+1`$ dimensions. $`N`$ is the number of parallel and superposed D2-branes, it must be large in order for the conjecture to work well. The infinity that multiplies that $`N`$ can be substituted by any number large enough to describe all the windings of the system. The scalar with index in the compact direction takes the following expectation value

$$X^i=blockdiag\{\mathrm{},Id_{N\times N},0_{N\times N},Id_{N\times N},\mathrm{}\}$$
(9)
that breaks the gauge symmetry to the subgroup $`U(N)^{\mathrm{}}`$.

There is a T-dual description of this system that interchanges windings and momenta, which are, in this case Higgs’ masses and Kaluza-Klein momenta. It is the SYM3+1 compactified in a circle of radius $`\stackrel{~}{R}`$ (that equals $`\alpha ^{}/R=^1`$). The isomorphism identifies the fields of the $`N\times N`$ boxes which are, say, $`M`$ places away from the diagonal with the $`N\times N`$ fields that complete the adjoint representation of the SYM3+1 with KK momentum $`M/\stackrel{~}{R}`$ (=$`M`$). There are two ways to write the action of this theory: as a three-dimensional theory with a compact direction or as a two-dimensional theory with an infinite number of fields of relatively integer masses. When the radius $`\stackrel{~}{R}`$ is small, or better, when the typical energy of the experiment is smaller than the first KK level, the two-dimensional representation is more suitable while in the opposite case, one should use the three-dimensional action.

Both actions reproduce the same physics and, therefore, give the same results. Renormalized parameters are functions of $`f`$, for example

$$g_{YM}=e^{\varphi /2}=g_s^{1/2}f^{1/8}$$
(10)
The interpretation of the sum we have written in formula (8) is that it is the way the masses originated by the compactification add different corrections to the renormalization of the two uncompactified theories and interpolate between them in a continuous manner. There is, however, one subtlety. The interpolation is soft between the two behaviours of the function $`f`$, but in the solution of both the dilaton (the gauge coupling) and the metric there is a discrete jump: in the first case, there is a different power of $`f`$ and in the second there is an inversion of one of the components. The meaning of this is that the two different actions that describe the field theory do it in terms of two kinds of fields. The two- and three-dimensional fields have different dimensions and therefore do not scale equally 222As usual  computing two-point functions of reduced fields on the transverse sphere one finds that the weights of three-dimensional fields correspond to masses on the $`3`$-brane background. For two-dimensional fields we should reduce fields of type IIA supergravity on $`S^1\times S^5`$, and their masses should account for their weight. In this case both the supergravity and gauge theory fields hold in representations of $`SU(4)\times U(1)`$ R-symmetry group. .In particular, the gauge coupling of the three-dimensional theory is dimensionless and, classically, it is independent of the scale; on the other hand, in the theory with two dimensions, the coupling is a length to the $`1/2`$ power and the dimensionless coupling ($`g_{YM}\sqrt{U}`$) depends on the scale. In principle, both descriptions are not only equivalent, but, in fact, are exactly the same. In both cases loops take the form of sums in a discrete number which we can call momentum or winding, but it is the same thing. So the picture is that the effective coupling when, for example, the energy is very low, is that of the D2-brane theory. If we are interested in higher energies, we reach a region in phase space where there is an increasing number of addends in the function $`f`$ that contribute significantly, and when they are neatly higher than $``$, the series can be resummed to obtain a new good zero mode. In terms of fields, this resummation can be seen as the redefinition of two-dimensional fields in terms of three-dimensional ones:

$$A^i(x_3,x_j)=\underset{n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}X_n(x_j)e^{inx_3/\stackrel{~}{R}}$$
(11)
This change of variables is not trivial at all when one considers the renormalized theories because $`R`$, as any other parameter appearing in the Lagrangian acquires a dependence on the scale $`u`$, that we should introduce in the Fourier expansion. This is a consequence of the renormalization of the masses of the KK modes. The redefinition affects the coupling constant as it does in any dimensional reduction:

$$(g_{YM})^2=\frac{\left(g_{YM}^{}\right)^2}{R_{\text{ren}}(u)}$$
(12)
This means that the behaviour under renormalization of both theories can be very different. In our case, using the correspondence, one finds

$$u_{}^{5/8}\stackrel{u}{}g_{YM}\stackrel{u}{}u_{}^{1/2}$$
(13)
while $`g_{YM}^{}`$ is independent of the scale. This is due to the fact that the dependence on the scale of $`g_{YM}`$ and that of $`R_{\text{ren}}(u)`$ exactly cancel. In fact, the behaviour $`g_{YM}u_{}^{1/2}`$ is conformal because the dimensionless coupling in two dimensions $`g_{YM}\sqrt{u_{}}`$ is, indeed, independent of the scale.

It is interesting to notice that in this case the map that relates both sides of the correspondence is a little more complex. Indeed, the renormalized magnitudes depend on three parameters ($`u_{}`$, $`\theta `$ and $``$) instead of one. From the original correspondence for the D2-brane case we know that $`u_{}`$ is the $`\mu `$ parameter, the typical energy of the experiment which we are testing the system with. The reason why $``$ appears in the D2-brane side is that the renormalization that the supergravity gives uses a mass-dependent scheme. The massive fields give contributions to the renormalized quantities in such a way that when energies ($`\mu `$) are smaller than their mass, they naturally decouple due to the fact that the terms of the series related to them tend to zero in that limit. In our case, those terms are Lorentzian-like. In a mass-independent scheme, the terms are added by hand when necessary. The translation would be

$$\left[u_{}^2+^2\left(\theta +2\pi n\right)^2\right]^{5/2}u_{}^5\left(u_{}\left|\theta +2\pi n\right|\right)$$
(14)
where $``$ is a Heaviside step function. Although the function tends to a constant, not to zero, when the variable is small, it is possible to neglect it because it is much smaller than the divergent zero mode term. The variable $`\theta `$ gives a contribution to the mass because from the point of view of the field theory, it is the expectation value of the scalar field that is used as a test; this breaks the gauge symmetry and changes the mass of some fields.

In the picture with the D3-branes, there are not any masses but discrete momenta. We know that in mass-independent schemes, compactification does not affect the renormalization and no dependence on the radius appears. The reason is that mass-independent renormalization adds the minimum counterterms to the Feynman diagrams to cancel the ultraviolet divergences. Obviously, compactifying does not affect at all the ultraviolet behaviour because it is a purely infrared phenomenon. However, if one wants to observe how the infrared effects act over the effective coupling, one should use a radius-dependent scheme and that is exactly what the supergravity result is. Indeed, the first term is the one given by the minimum counterterms and the rest are exponentially suppressed when the energy is larger than the inverse radius. In this case $`\theta `$ is related to the Wilson line. The precise identification is

$$A^i=\frac{}{2\pi }\theta $$
(15)
The reason why it appears as a renormalization parameter is that the interaction, and therefore the coupling constant is affected by its presence. Its effects are periodic, that is why they appear as a Fourier expansion, and depend on the proportion between $`u_{}`$ and $``$. If the radius is very small, then the exponential asymptotic behaviour of the Bessel functions makes the contribution of the Wilson line negligible, but if the radius is large, then the function $`f`$ develops a clear maximum in $`\theta =0`$ and also does the coupling. This is due to the fact that the Wilson line breaks the gauge symmetry and gives masses to the intermediate (off-diagonal) bosons. In the infrared, when $`u_{}`$ is much smaller than $``$, these masses can forbid any interaction and that is why the effective coupling can tend to zero and is maximum when the Wilson line is not present at all ($`\theta =0`$).

## 4 Effects of renormalization on the phase space.

As we have written just above, not only the coupling changes with the ‘distance’ $`u`$, also the radii of both the five-sphere and the circle change and it is interesting to analyze its meaning. Results related to this section are in .

Let us start with the circle 333We are very grateful to María Suárez for her help on the topics covered in this section.. In the supergravity, $``$ is a parameter related to the value of the radius measured by a faraway observer situated where the metric is Minkowskian. The limit we have taken has completely disconnected that observer from the system we want to study and the physical radius is a function given by

$$R_{\text{phys}}(u_{},\theta ,)=\alpha ^{}f^{1/4}(u_{},\theta ,)$$
(16)
for the D2-brane case and the inverse for the D3-brane one.

The interpretation of this is direct. In any field theory all parameters, including radii can be renormalized. The expression above tells us how the physical, renormalized radius depends on the scale. This can also be seen as the renormalization of the masses of the Kaluza-Klein modes.

Let us now discuss the low energy spectrum of the two (IIA and IIB) T-dual string background solutions that we have. We are interested in particular in the energies of winding modes and discrete momenta. Classically, if we choose $`=R/l_s^2`$ to be an order one magnitude, then the energy of the IIA windings is also order one ($`2\pi m`$), while that of the momenta is large ($`^1l_s^2`$) and decouples. If we now look at the physical radius, because of the fact that the function $`f`$ runs from $`0`$ to infinity, this is not true in all points of space. In fact, there is a point where $`R_{\text{phys}}(u_{},\theta ,)=l_s`$ where momenta begin to be the lightest modes and must be taken into account while windings decouple.

This is the usual phenomenon that sets the limit of utility of two T-dual closed string theories, as we have written before. In this case, this soft transition always happens when $`u`$, that is, in the far ultraviolet of the Yang-Mills theories. Explicitly

$$R_{\text{phys}}(u,\theta ,)=l_s\text{if}u_{}d_3^{1/4}(g_sN)^{1/4}l_s^{1/4}^{3/4}$$
(17)
That limiting value for $`u`$ is much larger than $``$ because $`(g_sN)/l_s`$ tends to infinity in order for the conjecture to work. For this reason, this transition, always occurs when $`f`$ can be well approximated by

$$f(u_{},\theta ,)=\frac{d_3g_sN}{l_s^5u_{}^4}$$
(18)
that is the harmonic function of a D3-brane in an open space. When $`u_{}`$ is beyond both transition points, in the ultraviolet, the D3-brane solution is exact and there is not any finite size effect. When it is smaller ($`u`$), it is the D2-brane solution the one that describes well the problem. When

$$<u<(g_sN)^{1/4}l_s^{1/4}^{3/4}$$
(19)
there is an intermediate case. One can use the supergravity solution of the D3-brane, but size of the circle is such that the momenta are light enough to be considered continuous but windings (which are string corrections) are even lighter and have to be added. On the other hand, one could use T-duality and find the solution in terms of D2-branes; then windings are heavier than momenta, as they should, but still, the harmonic function must be resummed. In the picture where the circle is seen as $`R/Z`$, the solution is that of a continuous set of D2-branes that fill one of the perpendicular directions.

The question now is how can we interpret this transition from the point of view of the Yang-Mills theories. The guides are group theory and the identification of $`R_{\text{phys}}(u)`$ as the renormalized value of $``$. The supergravity fields that have discrete momentum in the IIB theory (or winding in the IIA one) clearly correspond to the Kaluza-Klein modes of the SYM3+1 (or the massive off-diagonal modes in the $`U(N\times \mathrm{})`$ SYM2+1). The relation is the charge under the $`U(1)`$ symmetry of the circle.

Compactifying a Yang-Mills theory in a circle has several consequences: the momenta get discrete and the component of the gauge field polarized in that direction acquires a periodicity $`A^iA^i+\frac{1}{R}`$, besides that field can have a vacuum expectation value (Wilson line). The periodicity affects the momentum of the field (the electric field in that direction) making it discrete with gap $`2\pi R`$. The electric field has energy proportional to $`\stackrel{}{E}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}`$. The renormalization of $``$ makes this energy spectrum identical to that of the windings around the compact direction (in the IIB 3-brane supergravity). We can be more precise. Let us design an experiment with an observer in the IIA supergravity theory moving in the direction of the circle, that is one D2-brane, separated from the rest, falling towards the central bundle of $`N`$ D2-branes. From the point of view of the $`U(N+1)`$ SYM2+1, the movement is described by a time-dependent vacuum expectation value of the scalar that breaks the $`U(N+1)`$ into $`U(N)\times U(1)`$. This represents the change of the coordinate of the D2-brane as it moves. With the usual identification, that velocity is related in the $`U(N+1)`$ SYM3+1 to the value of a background electric field. As we have taken our observer to be a D2-brane, its movement is Galilean and that is why the dispersion relation energy-electric field is quadratic.

With this we learn a bit about the meaning of the closed string T-duality for the correspondence. If in usual string theory it could be seen as a competence between momenta and windings, here it can also be seen as a competence between two different spectra. In perturbative gauge theories there are two kinds of excitations: the perturbative fields and the solitons that represent changes in the vacuum. In our case the vacuum is parameterized by the expectation values of the scalars. Usually, unable to do exact computations, one uses the Born-Oppenheimer approximation and consider the solitons as ‘slow modes’ and the perturbative fields as ‘fast modes’. Their dynamics have so different frequencies or time scales that completely decouple and one can solve them independently. In our case, the D-branes are so heavy that their movements and those of the open strings are independent. In our case we have found that when a Yang-Mills theory (at least of the kind we are studying) is compactified, depending on the value of the energy in terms of the radius and the other parameters ($`g_s`$ and $`N`$) both types of modes (polarized in the compact direction) can interchange the role of being the lightest. When the energy is high, the slow modes are very heavy while the fast ones are light, but below the transition point written in (17), the situation is the opposite.

To describe the intermediate phase we can either use the $`U(N)`$ SYM3+1 with one compact direction, light KK modes but even lighter electric fields or (better we would say) the $`U(N\times \mathrm{})`$ SYM2+1 with the gauge symmetry slightly broken by some light off-diagonal modes.

Once we have dealt with the radius, let us see now what happens to the couplings. They are

$$g_{IIB}(u_{},u_{},)=g_s^{IIB}\text{and}g_{IIA}(u_{},u_{},)=f^{1/4}g_s^{IIA}=f^{1/4}g_s^{IIB}l_s$$
(20)
As the IIB string theory is S-selfdual, we can choose $`g_s^{IIB}`$ to be smaller than one. However, we cannot prevent that $`g_{IIA}`$ become larger than one in some region in the target space, when

$$u<\left(g_s^{IIA}\right)^{5/4}N^{1/4}^{1/4}l_s^{5/4}.$$
(21)
There, it is necessary to consider corrections from M theory.

Another limit is imposed by the variable radius of the sphere. When it is too small, the curvature can exceed the string scale and then it is also necessary to add corrections. This is not different from the usual uncompactified cases so we shall not discuss it more.

In the picture (1), we show the effect of the Wilson line ($`\theta `$ parameter) on the phase space. The line that separates the two phases, the one describable in terms of D3-branes and the other in terms of the continuous set of D2-branes, is not a straight line. The Wilson line extends or reduces each phase depending on its value. More to the left, we could draw a second wavy line, parallel to this one, that signalled the appearance of an M2-brane phase when the coupling constant is larger than one. The phase with D2-branes in an open space ($`u_{}<`$) can exist or not. It does exist if the M2-brane phase appears precisely when $`u_{}<`$. The line of phases is, therefore: wrapped D3-brane, continuous set of D2-branes, D2-brane in open space (not always) and M2-brane. The straight line drawn in the figure is the result obtained with the D3-brane neglecting all finite volume effects.

## 5 Wilson loops

In this section we will analyze Wilson loops in theories with a compactified dimension. As in the rest of our work we will deal with the D$`2`$ and D$`3`$-brane systems. We will focus our attention on those features coming from the presence of a compactified dimension.

Let us remind how we can introduce static quarks in gauge theories living on the brane. We begin with $`N+1`$ branes and we break the $`U(N+1)`$ gauge theory by taking one brane to infinity. The open strings connecting the separated brane to the others have infinite mass and transform in the fundamental (antifundamental) of the gauge group. These are the external quarks. From the worldvolume point of view these sources produce solitonic deformations on the worldvolume because the $`N`$-branes are pulled by the infinitely long open strings attached to the other.

The shape of this deformation could be represented, on the supergravity side, by the world-sheet of a string ending on the boundary of the background manifold. Using this prescription we can stablish a concrete correspondence between the quark-antiquark potential and the classical action of the string as

$$<W(C)>_{Gauge}=A(L)e^{TE(L)}=<e^S>_{Sugra}$$
(22)
where $`C`$ is the Wilson contour and $`L`$ is the distance from one source to the other. The string action is computed as

$$S=\frac{1}{2\pi \alpha ^{}}𝑑x𝑑t\sqrt{detG_{mn}_aX^m_bX^n}$$
(23)
where $`G_{mn}`$ is the euclidean background metric in the loop directions. In order to compute the classical action we should find the string configuration that minimizes the world-sheet area.

We are interested in finite size effects due to the compact dimension. We will investigate how to compute the Wilson loop in the D$`2`$-brane case and compare it with the result obtained in the D$`3`$-brane theory. There are several situations to be considered and we will describe the T-duality map for each case. These situations are related to different loop geometries.

Suppose a quark-antiquark pair in the D$`2`$-brane theory separated in a world-volume direction. Remember that in this case the boundary theory has a $`SO(6)\times U(1)`$ R-symmetry that corresponds to rotational symmetry on the supergravity side. This allows us to take quarks on different points on the $`S^5\times S^1`$ transverse manifold and introduce an angular difference between the open strings connecting the separated branes and the $`N`$ central ones.

We will begin with the simplest configuration that corresponds to taking the angular difference to zero. Using the metrics in (6) we can see that the classical world-sheet action is given by

$$S=\frac{T}{2\pi \alpha ^{}}𝑑x\sqrt{G_{tt}G_{xx}+G_{tt}G_{uu}(_xu)^2}$$
(24)
where we have integrated the temporal variable assuming a static configuration for the Loop.

We can compute the worldsheet area in (24) using a general result as, for example, in . These general formulas allow us to stablish that if the Nambu-Goto action is written as

$$S=\frac{T}{2\pi \alpha ^{}}𝑑x\sqrt{A(u)(_xu)^2+\frac{B(u)}{\lambda ^4}}$$
(25)
then the physical magnitudes that we are interested in could be written

$`L=2\lambda ^2\sqrt{B(u_0)}{\displaystyle _{u_0}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑u\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{A(u)}{B(u)(B(u)B(u_0))}}}`$
$`E={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\alpha ^{}\pi }}{\displaystyle _{u_0}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑u\left[\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{A(u)B(u)}{B(u)B(u_0)}}}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\alpha ^{}\pi }}{\displaystyle _{u_{min}}^{u_0}}𝑑u\sqrt{A(u)}`$ (26)
where $`u_0`$ is the point given by $`u(x=0)=u_0`$, and $`u_{min}`$ is a geometrical minimal value of $`u`$ given, for example by the presence of a singularity on the background manifold.

We can now compute the Wilson loop in the D$`2`$-brane theory. Using the action in (24)and expressing it in terms of the functions in (26) we can write

$`A(u_{})=G_{uu}G_{tt}=\alpha ^2`$
$`B(u_{},u_{},)=\lambda ^4G_{xx}G_{tt}=\alpha ^2H(u_{},u_{},)^1`$ (27)
where $`\lambda ^4=d_2g_{YM}N`$ and $`H(u_{},u_{},)`$ is the sum over multicenter solutions in the first line of (8). Finally one obtains

$`L=2\lambda ^2{\displaystyle _{u_0}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑u{\displaystyle \frac{H(u,u_{},)}{\sqrt{H(u_0,u_{},)H(u,u_{},)}}}`$
$`E_{qq}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle _{u_0}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑u\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{H(u_0,u_{},)}{H(u_0,u_{},)H(u,u_{},)}}}.`$ (28)
The final scope of our computation should be the resolution of $`E`$ in terms of $`L`$. It does not seem possible to obtain this result analytically but it is possible to do it numerically. We can compute both integrals in terms of the variable $`u_0`$ and then extract a numerical representation of $`E=E(L)`$. We will recover the analytic result of the Wilson loop in the limit $`\mathrm{}`$, which corresponds to the D$`2`$-brane on a decompactified background.

The complete T-dual map for this quark-antiquark computation is obtained by computing the Wilson Loop from the D$`3`$-brane point of view. The method is exactly the same. In this case we will use the Poisson resummed expression for the harmonic function which is given in the second line of (8). We can write it as

$$B(u_{})=\lambda ^4f^1=\alpha ^2u_{}^4g(\stackrel{~}{R},u_{},u_{})^1$$
(29)
now $`\lambda ^4=d_3Ng_s^{}`$. Using this parameterization of the metric and the usual procedure we can express, as we did for the D$`2`$-brane, the energy of the Wilson loop and the separation between quarks in terms of $`u_0=u_{}(x=0)`$

$`L(u_0,,u_{})=2\lambda ^2u_0^2{\displaystyle _{u_0}^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{du}{u^4}}{\displaystyle \frac{g(u)}{\sqrt{g(u_0)g(u)\left(\frac{u_0}{u}\right)^4}}}`$
$`E_{qq}(u_0,,u_{})={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle _{u_0}^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{du}{\sqrt{g(u_0)g(u)\left(\frac{u_0}{u}\right)^4}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle _{u_0}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑u`$ (30)
where the last integral eliminates the usual divergence coming from the quark masses. We can recover the standard D$`3`$-brane result simply taking the radius parameter $`\stackrel{~}{R}`$ to infinity then reducing the complete series in $`g(\stackrel{~}{R},u_{},u_{})`$ to its zero mode.

The first evidence that comes out directly from the results in (28) and (30) is that both solutions are exactly the same, but expressed in T-dual variables. This fact simply reflects that, for this simple configuration of the Wilson loop, T-duality does not affect any parameter defining the system. More concretely, what we have seen is that the effective metric, used to compute the string worldsheet area, remains unchanged under Busher’s transformation rules. Consequently, they give the same result for the quark-antiquark potentials in D$`2`$ and D$`3`$ brane theories.

In the figure (2) we have plotted our result. We have normalized the variables in the integrals, working with dimensionless parameters. The election has been such that the results can be written in terms of $`=E_{qq}\stackrel{~}{R}`$ as a function of $`=L\stackrel{~}{R}^1`$.

Assuming the usual functional form

$$^{a()}$$
(31)
we can use the variable $`a()`$ to see how the quark-antiquark potential goes from the unwrapped D$`3`$-brane behavior, $`a()=1`$, to the expected for the D$`2`$-brane in a decompactified background, where $`a()=2/3`$ . The complete result is shown in (2). We see that when the distance between quarks is large enough compared with the compactification radius, $`LR`$, the system feels a small compact dimension so the propagator of gauge fields going from one quark to the other does not include any KK mode. In this case we approach the T-dual system, that is the D$`2`$-brane. When the radius is large, or the quarks are very close to each other, $`RL`$, the KK modes are very light and all of them must be taken into account. Then the system approaches the unwrapped D$`3`$-brane one.

Let us now explore the other loop geometry we are interested in. Apart from the spatial separation between quarks, one can consider that they have a different ‘flavour’, that is, that, taken as vectors in the R-symmetry space $`S^1\times S^5`$, the quarks point at different directions. This affects the Wilson loop and, therefore, the potential. We will concentrate on phase differences in the circle, which is the new parameter here. The angular difference on the sphere  does not play any role in the T-duality map. The way to calculate in this case is the same as before, but adding some new terms. Again, we have to compute the area of the world-sheet, which is given by the Nambu-Goto action. It is such that

$`X^i(x,\tau )=xL`$
$`\theta (1,\tau )\theta (0,\tau )=\theta `$ (32)
$`T=\tau `$ (33)
and the configuration is static so nothing depends on $`\tau `$. The form of the world-sheet in the target space is the same as before, except that the spatial sides of the rectangle are not exactly in the $`i^{\text{th}}`$ direction but in a general direction in the $`(X^i,\theta )`$ plane. The action is given by

$$S=\frac{1}{2\pi \alpha ^{}}𝑑x\sqrt{G_{xx}G_{\tau \tau }+G_{uu}G_{\tau \tau }(_xu)^2+G_{\tau \tau }G_{\theta \theta }(_x\theta )^2}$$
(34)
We would like to compare this expression to its T-dual. In order to do that, we have, firstly, to look for a configuration that is the T-dual of this one. It is important to notice that the dual magnitude to an angle in one circle is not another angle in the dual circle because that would mean that movements, and therefore momenta in both circles would be related by the duality, which is not true. A string stretched between two points placed a distance apart in the circle of the D2-brane solution has an energy related to its fractional winding number; so we expect that the T-dual configuration has some fractional momentum in the IIB supergravity. From the gauge theory point of view, the R-symmetry separation of quarks on the D$`2`$-brane should be represented by a pair of quarks, living on the T-dual D$`3`$-brane, moving with different momenta in the compact direction.

The main difference of the string worldsheet that describes the Wilson loop in supergravity, is that the compact scalar must have momentum so instead of the static configuration we should have

$`X^i(x,\tau )=xL`$
$`\psi (x,T_{\text{max}})\psi (x,0)=\psi `$ (35)
$`T=\tau `$ (36)
Now the action is

$$S=\frac{1}{2\pi \alpha ^{}}𝑑x𝑑\tau \sqrt{G_{xx}G_{\tau \tau }+G_{uu}G_{\tau \tau }(_xu)^2+G_{\tau \tau }G_{\psi \psi }(_\tau \psi )^2+G_{uu}G_{xx}(_xu)^2(_\tau \psi )^2}$$
(37)
Both actions are quite different. One integrates fields in one dimension and the other in two, besides, the second has a term which is quartic in the velocities. Here we will show that both actions describe the dynamics of T-dual systems. The procedure we will use assumes that, similar to what happens in the string sigma model , these two actions are related by a canonical transformation.

The Hamiltonians of the systems are simply computed to give

$$H_{D2}=\sqrt{G_{xx}G_{\tau \tau }+\frac{G_{xx}}{G_{\theta \theta }}P_\theta ^2+\frac{G_{xx}}{G_{uu}}P_u^2}$$
(38)
and

$$H_{D3}=\sqrt{G_{xx}G_{\tau \tau }G_{xx}G_{\psi \psi }(_\psi \psi )^2+\frac{G_{xx}}{G_{uu}}P_u^2}$$
(39)
Now we simply see that the canonical transformation should be

$$P_\theta =i_\tau \psi $$
(40)
with no change in the coordinates and momenta. There is a small difference between the transformation in (40) and those in . Here we simply adopted the rule in  to the Euclidean case. Imposing the equality of the Hamiltonians $`H_{D2}`$ and $`H_{D3}`$ we recover the Buscher’s transformation rule for the metric

$$G_{\psi \psi }=\frac{1}{G_{\theta \theta }}$$
(41)
that finally shows that the worldsheet configurations we described below are T-dual.

## 6 Conclusions

In this work we have studied the dynamics of D-branes sitting on backgrounds with toroidally compactified dimensions. Concretely we focused our analysis on the D$`3`$ and D$`2`$-branes with one compactified dimension. All our results are straightforwardly extensible to more general situations. We worked in the framework of the Maldacena duality, trying to clarify how T-duality enters into the holographic conjecture.

Our principal interest has been the analysis of finite size effects on the dynamics of the systems. We studied their influence on the dynamics of the brane and then, by T-duality, we showed how the possible corrections appear in the dual system.

The analysis started by a detailed study of the background geometry of a D$`2`$-brane with a compactified transverse direction. In order to describe the effect of the compact circle we used the multicentered solution of IIA supergravity. We clearly explained how the near horizon limit has to be taken. The background is described by a series of harmonic functions, the eq.(8), expressing the presence of an infinite tower of winding modes. We found a transition point, $`u_{}`$, where the accuracy of any truncation of the series is ever worse. Physically this means that at this point finite size effects become very important. It is then preferable to use a Poisson resummation formula for the series. It does not mean that we are making a T-duality transformation. In fact the system now behaves as a continuous distribution of branes along the compact direction, still staying in type IIA string theory.

We are, in some sense, forced to make use T-duality and go to the three-brane system when the physical radius, $`R_{\text{phys}}`$, is smaller than the string scale. We showed that this point is always reached at values of $`u_{}`$ larger than $``$, so the system has passed through the continuous distribution-phase described above. On the other hand we see that at these energies in the T-dual system finite size effects are irrelevant.

In sections 3 and 4 we present what can be learned about the gauge theory from supergravity. We know that the coordinate dependence of the expectation value of background fields corresponds to the renormalization group flow of the corresponding quantities in the gauge theory. We saw that in our cases the renormalization results coming from supergravity appear in mass-dependent renormalization scheme. It is due to the fact that, in order to obtain information from finite size effects, we should include all the infrared degrees of freedom of the theory. Finally we showed that the angular separation of a test D$`2`$-brane from the $`N`$-branes source is mapped on the D$`3`$-brane system as a Wilson Line. In this case the test object sees a constant gauge field on the source.

The AdS/SYM allows the description of the strong ’t Hooft coupling of the gauge theories when the string coupling is small. In the case of non-conformal brane configurations this establishes some limits on the phase space describable in terms of supergravity. In our work we dealt with two non-conformal systems. In the case of the D$`2`$-brane the renormalization is shown by the running of the string coupling and of the size of the physical radius of the compact dimension. The latter reflects the change of the masses of winding modes. The D$`3`$-brane case is more subtle. In order to see the running of the coupling one cannot use the ten-dimensional string coupling but one must use the coupling of the T-dual D$`2`$-brane. The explanation of this requirement could be seen from pure gauge theory arguments. When we compactify the one of the three-brane coordinates and express our fields in terms of KK modes in two dimensions we really deal with the D$`2`$-brane which coupling constant is the T-dual of the initial one. Another way to see the non-conformal nature of the wrapped three-brane, using fields in three dimensions, is looking at the energy dependence of their masses.

Finally we studied the dynamics of Wilson loops in the systems. We presented two possible configurations of the loop. They correspond to two different geometries of the string worldsheet that describe the quark-antiquark interaction from supergravity.

The simplest one described a pair of quarks at a distance $`L`$ in the compact direction and with the same position in the angular directions. This configuration corresponds to a static string worldsheet. We studied the evolution of the properties of the system in terms of the supergravity parameters. We saw how the system goes from a pure D$`2`$-brane loop to the three-brane one. Our computation allowed us to study how the presence of a compact direction could affect the system.

The other quark-antiquark configuration we considered, includes an angular distance, on the circle, between infinite strings describing static quarks of the two-brane. In this case we showed that T-duality converts this static system into a time-dependent one on the three-brane. Concretely it corresponds to quarks moving on the compact worldvolume direction with different momenta. We constructed this configuration from physical arguments and finally showed that it is exactly the same as the initial one but expressed in canonical transformed variables.

## 7 Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to M. Suárez, M.A.R. Osorio, J. F. Barbón, P. Silva A. Nieto and V. Di Clemente for enlightening conversations. The work of M.L.M. is supported by a M.E.C. grant under the FP97 project.


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# Strong, Ultra-narrow Peaks of Longitudinal and Hall Resistances in the Regime of Breakdown of the Quantum Hall Effect

## Abstract

With unusually slow and high-resolution sweeps of magnetic field, strong, ultra-narrow (width down to $`100\mu \mathrm{T}`$) resistance peaks are observed in the regime of breakdown of the quantum Hall effect. The peaks are dependent on the directions and even the history of magnetic field sweeps, indicating the involvement of a very slow physical process. Such a process and the sharp peaks are, however, not predicted by existing theories. We also find a clear connection between the resistance peaks and nuclear spin polarization.

The integer quantum Hall effect (QHE) is a most remarkable phenomenon of two dimensional electron system (2DES), in which the Hall resistance is quantized to $`h/ie^2`$ while the longitudinal resistance nearly vanishes ($`h`$ is Planck’s constant, $`e`$ the electron charge, and $`i`$ an integer). To employ the QHE for the resistance standard, it is desirable to apply a high current through a Hall bar. However, it was early discovered that the QHE breaks down if the current reaches a critical value, $`I_c`$. Extensive investigations were thereafter performed to study the origin of the breakdown. So far, most studies have focused on factors that influence the critical current around, in particular, even filling factors. A number of models have been proposed, such as inter-Landau-level scattering and the superheating process. However, the exact mechanism responsible for the breakdown is still under debate.

Here, we report on the measurement of the differential longitudinal and Hall resistances $`R_{xx}`$ and $`R_{xy}`$ (the derivative of voltage with respect to the total applied current) at high injected currents close to $`I_c`$. With unusually slow, high-resolution sweeps of magnetic field $`B`$, ultra-narrow $`R_{xx}`$ peaks (width down to $`100\mu \mathrm{T}`$) are observed. The peak values exceed the resistances of the surrounding magnetic fields by a factor 36. While no substantial change in $`R_{xy}`$ is noticed around the odd filling factor $`\nu =3`$, strong, sharp peaks are also shown on the $`R_{xy}`$ curves for $`\nu =2`$ and 4. We find the peaks to be sensitively dependent on the directions and even the history of the $`B`$ sweeps. This indicates that a physical process with a very large time constant is involved, which is orders of magnitude longer than that may be predicted by the existing models for the QHE breakdown. While many disordered electronic systems have recently been found to exhibit very slow relaxations, to our knowledge, the unusually slow physical process to be reported here has never been observed in the integer QHE regime. Interestingly, some of the aspects of our experimental observations are similar to the discovered anomalous resistance peaks in the fractional QHE regime, while some other aspects are apparently different. We will also show that the sharp resistance peaks are influenced by the nuclear spin flips. Furthermore, we present a model, which qualitatively explains the different aspects of our observations.

We use two GaAs/AlGaAs modulation-doped heterostructures (wafer I and wafer II) with carrier densities of $`n_s=3.7`$ and $`3.5\times 10^{15}\mathrm{m}^2`$ and mobilities of $`\mu =59`$ and $`130\mathrm{m}^2/\mathrm{Vs}`$ at 0.3 K, respectively. A modulation-doped $`\mathrm{In}_{0.75}\mathrm{Ga}_{0.25}`$As/InP structure ($`n_s=2.8\times 10^{15}\mathrm{m}^2`$, $`\mu =22\mathrm{m}^2/\mathrm{Vs}`$) is also studied. For all these wafers, $`I_c`$ is found to scale linearly with the device width. The experiments are performed in a 3He refrigerator at 0.3 K. Hall devices with different widths (from 43 to $`200\mu \mathrm{m}`$) and different geometries are investigated using a standard lock-in technique with a frequency of 17 Hz. Together with a 5 nA ac current, large dc currents, $`I_{dc}`$, are sent through the sample to drive the 2DES close to the regime of breakdown of the QHE. Qualitatively similar behavior is observed in all the samples fabricated from different material systems. We report here on measurements performed on a Hall bar made from wafer I.

The inset of Fig. 1(a) shows the curves of differential resistances $`R_{xx}`$ and $`R_{xy}`$ as a function of $`B`$ around $`\nu =3`$ and at a dc current close to, but below, the critical current $`I_c=11\mu \mathrm{A}`$. The Hall bar has a width of $`43\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and five pairs of voltage probes, as is schematically shown in the inset of Fig. 1(b). The $`B`$ sweep is at a “normal” speed of 0.14 T/min and the curves are “as expected”, i.e. $`R_{xx}`$ nearly vanishes and $`R_{xy}=h/3e^2`$ within a $`B`$ range (i.e. the dissipationless regime) that is narrower than that at $`I_{dc}=0`$. However, by reducing the sweep speed and increasing the magnetic field resolution, the two $`R_{xx}`$ peaks at the left and right edges of the dissipationless regime become successively higher and narrower. Furthermore, the curves of the upward and downward sweeps become increasingly different. Figure 1(a) shows the differential resistances around the left edge of the dissipationless regime at a sweep speed of $`0.13\mathrm{mT}/\mathrm{min}`$ and a sweep step of 0.000015 T, which is the resolution of our magnet system. The arrows on the curves indicate the sweep directions. While the downward sweeps show only very small changes in $`R_{xy}`$, strong peaks are observed on the $`R_{xx}`$ curve. The narrower peak has a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of only $`100\mu \mathrm{T}`$. The resistance value at the peak is almost four times as high as the value at the Hall plateau and about 36 times higher than the $`R_{xx}`$ value on the lower $`B`$ side. For lower magnetic fields, $`R_{xx}`$ is found to remain virtually constant. When sweeping upwards from 5.03 T, however, $`R_{xx}`$ remains at this constant value (no peak structures) until it suddenly drops to zero at about 5.048 T. The behavior is thus totally different from the hysteresis effect of the breakdown of the QHE where only a shift in the magnetic field position is observed.

We have simultaneously measured $`R_{xx}`$ using different segments of the Hall bar. Figure 1(b) shows the results of a downward sweep within 2 mT, using probes 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 4 and 5. We obtain almost identically strong, narrow resistance peaks from different parts of the Hall bar. For instance, it can be seen in Fig. 1(b) that the peak on the higher field side has a fine structure, which can be seen on all the three traces. This rules out the possibility that our observations are due to local breakdown induced by inhomogeneities of the sample. Further studies of the fine structure, however, require a magnet system with a better resolution. The behavior of $`R_{xx}`$ and $`R_{xy}`$ at the higher $`B`$ edge of the dissipationless regime is very similar to that shown in Fig. 1. There, an upward sweep results in sharp $`R_{xx}`$ peaks while a downward sweep shows only a sudden drop to zero.

If $`I_{dc}`$ is decreased, the height of the $`R_{xx}`$ peaks is reduced, while the width increases. Furthermore, there is less difference in the $`R_{xx}`$ curves between upward and downward sweeps. Figure 2 shows the $`R_{xx}`$ traces obtained from different segments of the Hall bar at a lower current, $`I_{dc}=9.5\mu `$A. The $`B`$ range corresponds to the right edge of the dissipationless regime around $`\nu =3`$. Five successive sweeps \[Figs. (a)–(e)\] are made back and forth between $`5.160`$T and $`5.175`$T with a speed of 0.3 mT/min. The curves are plotted only in the range between 5.1625 T and 5.1690 T for clarity. The change in the peak position of about 3 mT with sweep direction is most likely due to hysteresis of the magnet system. Although each sweep takes about one hour, the peak structure changes gradually, indicating the involvement of a very slow physical process. We have noticed the following points. First, curves obtained in the same sweep direction, such as Figs. (a), (c), and (e) or Figs. (b) and (d), are similar. Second, the greater the number of sweeps made, the less the difference in the $`R_{xx}`$ curves between upward and downward sweeps. This can already be seen from the increased similarity between Figs. (d) and (e), and is more clear in later sweeps (not shown here). Third, an increasing number of peaks and fine structures are obtained when more sweeps are made. This rules out any trivial heating effects, as heating is expected to smear out fine structures.

Although strong peaks are observed on the $`R_{xx}`$ curves, the Hall resistance around $`\nu =3`$ shows only small changes as can be seen in Fig. 1(a). The behavior of $`R_{xy}`$ around the even filling factors $`\nu =2`$ and 4 is, however, totally different. This suggests that the phenomenon is connected with the spin of the 2DES. Figure 3 shows three $`R_{xx}`$ traces taken from different segments of the Hall bar and one $`R_{xy}`$ curve around $`\nu =2`$. The dc current is $`24\mu `$A, which is about $`I_c/2`$ at this filling factor. The $`B`$ range is centered at the right edge of the dissipationless regime. In contrast to the results for odd filling factors \[see Fig. 1(a)\], an equally strong, narrow peak (FWHM below 3 mT) forms on the $`R_{xy}`$ trace as on the $`R_{xx}`$ traces. The peak value is more than five times higher than the Hall plateau $`h/2e^2`$.

It can be observed that $`R_{xx}`$ becomes negative on the higher $`B`$ side of the peaks in Fig. 3. A dc measurement of the longitudinal resistance is shown in the inset. Obviously, dc resistances can be quite different from differential resistances in the nonlinear regime. This is the reason why no anomalous behavior is observed in the dc measurement at $`8.1354`$T where sharp peaks form on the differential resistance curves. In fact, we do not see any unusual behavior of the dc resistance at other $`B`$ values.

The general features reported here are observed at all filling factors at sufficiently high magnetic fields and in all the Hall bars and wafers studied. Thus, the above phenomena seem to be general in 2DES. The fine structures are, however, very difficult to fully reproduce in different samples. This is, at least in part, due to the fact that the fine structures are extremely sensitive to the exact $`I_{dc}`$ used, sweep speed, starting point of sweeps, history, etc.

While many disordered electronic systems are characterized by very slow relaxations, to our knowledge, the above unusually slow physical process has never been observed in the integer QHE regime. It is orders of magnitude slower than the time scale of the instabilities in the regime of the QHE breakdown . The existing models for the breakdown of the QHE, such as inter-Landau-level scattering and electron superheating, do not predict any physical process with a time constant larger than microseconds. Interestingly, we have noticed that certain aspects of our observations, such as the long time constant, strong $`R_{xx}`$ peaks, and current dependence, are similar to the recently discovered anomalous resistance peaks in the fractional QHE regime at $`\nu =\frac{2}{3}`$ and $`\frac{3}{5}`$. However, some other aspects are different, such as the existence of fine structures, strong $`R_{xy}`$ peaks, the much sharper peaks (more than three orders of magnitude narrower), etc. Very recently, the peaks observed in Ref.  were found to be influenced by the nuclear spin polarization. We have also performed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments on $`{}_{}{}^{75}\mathrm{As}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{69}\mathrm{Ga}`$, and $`{}_{}{}^{71}\mathrm{Ga}`$. A typical result for $`{}_{}{}^{75}\mathrm{As}`$ is shown by the lower inset in Fig. 1(b). The splitting of the line is, however, threefold that is different from the fourfold splitting observed in Ref. . Furthermore, we observe resonance peaks rather than dips as in Ref. . While the above NMR response is strong in the GaAs/AlGaAs samples, so far, no clear observation has been obtained in our InGaAs/InP samples. One reason might be the comparatively low mobility of those samples.

In the following, we present a model, which qualitatively explains the different aspects of our observations. In the $`B`$ range of a dissipationless regime, the bulk of the Hall bar is actually insulating. In the single-particle picture, if $`B`$ is sufficiently high, each Landau level is split into two well-separated, spin-polarized levels with a degeneracy proportional to $`B`$. Therefore, a change in $`B`$ will induce a redistribution of the electrons in the bulk of the Hall bar (denoted “bulk electrons”) among the Landau levels, i.e. some electrons need to have their energies changed and their spins flipped in order to achieve equilibrium. However, as the bulk electrons have no effective interaction with the electrons at the edge nor with electron reservoirs (the ohmic contacts) in the dissipationless regime, the scatterings required to flip the spins and change the energies are virtually absent. The redistribution among the single-particle Landau levels is thus not possible. This means that the bulk electrons can be far from the “normal equilibrium” (the equilibrated distribution among the single-particle Landau levels) inside the dissipationless regime if $`B`$ is changed. To the best of our knowledge, no study has been carried out on how these electrons redistribute in the energy and spin space in such a “nonequilibrium” situation. As it is not possible for the bulk electrons to redistribute among the single-particle Landau levels, effects such as electron-electron interactions must take place. We speculate that the real distribution maintains some order, which means that the electrons might rearrange to form “mini-gaps” and “mini-bands” in the energy and spin distribution.

When the 2DES starts to enter the dissipation regime where the bulk-edge interactions are still considerably weak, we expect the electrons in the mini-bands to be affected. Each time a mini-band starts to participate in the scattering process, a differential resistance peak is observed. In this picture, the multiple resistance peaks and fine structure reflect the mini-band structure of the nonequilibrium distribution of the bulk electrons. One may speculate that similar nonequilibrium distribution also forms in the fractional QHE regime, which might as well give rise to resistance peaks. If a strong current is applied to the Hall bar, the large Hall electric field will substantially enhance the interaction between the electrons at the edge and those in the bulk, and therefore give rise to much stronger and sharper resistance peaks, in agreement with our experimental observations. Note that the ranges of $`B`$ in which the resistance peaks and fine structures are observed are only slightly  away from the dissipationless regime. Therefore, the scattering between electrons in the bulk and electrons at the edge is expected to be rather weak. In addition, since the bulk area of a Hall bar is fairly large, the time constant of the equilibration can be very long, which explains the slow physical process indicated especially in Fig. 2. The details of the distribution of nonequilibrium electrons, and thereby the mini-bands, depend on the initial $`B`$ position, the sweep direction, and the sweep speed. This thus explains the observed strong dependence of the resistance peaks and fine structures on the experimental history.

The observed NMR resistance peaks shown in the inset of Fig. 1(b) also supports our model. Via the hyperfine interaction an electron spin can flip with a simultaneous flop of a nuclear spin, which can be induced by, for example, applying NMR rf signals. Because in our model the lack of electron spin-flip scatterings is the reason for the nonequilibrium distribution of bulk electrons, the additional electron spin-flip scattering induced by the NMR signals will reduce the degree of nonequilibrium distribution. This leads to an increased scattering probability from edge to bulk, which is detected as an increase of the resistance, as shown in the lower inset of Fig. 1(b). The threefold splitting is most likely caused by the electric quadrupole interaction, which is possible in our sample where large electric field gradients are expected. This connection to nuclear spins is in line with earlier observations of the importance of nuclear spin polarization in experiments on 2DES. The dynamical nuclear polarization has been observed as Overhauser shifts in electrically detected spin resonance experiments  and in e.g. the time dependency of current-voltage characteristics in transport experiments in which spin polarized electrons were injected . Also, our results are, although performed in a different physical regime, similar to the recent findings in Ref. 20. This may imply that a similar scattering mechanism might be involved in the two different regimes.

To conclude, unexpected strong, ultra-narrow resistance peaks and fine structures have been observed in the regime of breakdown of the QHE. The studies reveal the involvement of a very slow physical process, which is not predicted by existing models. We also show a clear connection between the sharp peaks and the nuclear spin polarization. Furthermore, we have presented a model that emphasizes the important role of the nonequilibrium distribution of bulk electrons and qualitatively explains the observed phenomena.

We acknowledge useful discussions with H. Q. Xu and technical support by A. Svensson and H. Persson. This work was supported by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council.


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# Acknowledgement

## Acknowledgement

I am very much indebt to Prof.I.Shapiro and Prof.R.Ramos for helpful discussions on the subject of this paper. Financial support from CNPq. and FAPESP is gratefully acknowledged.


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# Problems encountered in the Hipparcos variable stars analysis

## 1. Introduction

The variable star analysis of the Hipparcos photometric data was an iterative process in interaction with the FAST and NDAC data reduction consortia. We started with data extracts from FAST, then from NDAC and finally worked on the whole merged data set, that is on the 118 204 time series.

The result of variable star analysis is a beautiful by-product of the mission and it was clear that it had to be published at the same time as the astrometric results (ESA 1997). The time available for the photometric analysis was then short in order to match the deadlines. The teams were put under strong pressure. The approach was then to produce a robust analysis restricting the analysis to statistically well-confirmed variables, leaving suspected variables and ambiguous cases for further analysis.

Because several instrumental problems were identified and solved, the variable star study definitely improved the overall quality of the Hipparcos photometry available now on the CD-ROMs.

## 2. Hipparcos main-mission photometry

Although the telescope diameter is small (29 cm), Hipparcos achieved a high photometric precision in the wide $`Hp`$ band (335 to 895 nm), thanks to the chosen time allocation strategy and to the frequent on-orbit photometric calibrations, making use of a large set of standard stars. The time allocated for a star observation was adapted to its magnitude in order to homogenize the astrometric precision. The photometric reduction was made in time slices of 10 hours, called reduced great circles (RGC). During that time interval, the satellite scanned a closed strip in the sky, measuring about 2600 stars, among them 600 standard stars.

The FAST and NDAC consortia independently reduced the photometry. They had to map the time evolution of the spatial and chromatic response of the detection chains for both fields of view (FOV), the preceding and the following. In Fig. 1, a zero-point problem between FOV magnitude scales is shown, before and after its correction.

The light of the star was modulated by a grid for astrometric purposes. The transmitted signal was modeled by a Fourier series of 5 parameters. From this model two estimates of the intensity were done: one, measuring the integrated signal, the “DC mode”, was robust to the duplicity but more dependent on the background, and the second, measuring the amplitude of the modulation, the “AC mode”, was sensitive to the duplicity but not to the background (cf. van Leeuwen et al. 1997). These two estimates and their accuracies are given in the Epoch Photometry Annex (CD-ROM 2) and in the Epoch Photometry Annex Extension (CD-ROM 3).

## 3. Noise and magnitude

The precision of the magnitude is a function of the magnitude itself. In addition, for a star of constant magnitude, the errors may be variable. The data are then heteroscedastic. The correlation between the error and the magnitude, may generate some problems. For instance, the weighted mean cannot be used to estimate the central value of the magnitude distribution, if the amplitude is large as for the Miras. The global loss of precision as the satellite ages (Eyer & Grenon 2000) also needs to be considered. The usual period search algorithms are also sensitive to the inhomogeneity of the data.

### 3.1. Quoted transit errors

During a single transit, a star was measured 9 times on average, the transit error $`\sigma _{Hp}`$ was derived in a first approximation from the spread of these measurements. However, the estimation did not include offsets which might have affected a whole transit, e.g., due to a mispointing or to a superposition of a star from the other FOV. In our first analysis, an empirical law was determined to correct the transit error underestimation, otherwise the number of candidate variable stars did not appear credible.

During the phase of data merging, ad-hoc corrections were computed (Evans 1995). The errors were studied with different methods, comparing first the “average” error estimated from the $`\sigma _{Hp}`$ with the dispersion of the measurements on $`Hp`$. Another study by Eyer & Genton (1999) was made on the quoted errors using variograms; it showed a good general agreement with the Evans results, with some mild underestimations for faint magnitudes and some mild overestimations for the bright magnitudes in Evans’ approach.

### 3.2. Time sampling

The time sampling was determined by the satellite rotation speed and by the scanning law which were optimized to reach the most uniform astrometric precision over the whole celestial sphere. The total number of transits per star is a function mainly of the ecliptic latitude. The time intervals between successive transits are 20-108-20-etc…minutes. The transits form groups which are separated by about one month, but the number of consecutive measurements as well as the time separation between groups of transits can vary strongly from one star to another.

### 3.3. Chromatic aging

The irradiation by cosmic particles reduced the optical transmission with time. This aging was chromatic; it was worse than expected because the satellite had to cross the two van Allen Belts twice per orbit. Furthermore, the satellite was operational during a maximum of solar activity. For instance, the magnitude loss over 3.3 years was 0.8 mag for the bluest stars and only 0.15 mag for the reddest.

The aging of the image dissector tubes were not uniform and distinct for both FOVs, therefore the aging corrections had to be calibrated as functions of the star location on the grid for each FOV.

#### Magnitude trends:

An odd effect of the chromatic aging was the production of magnitude trends in the $`Hp`$ time series. As the transmission loss was colour dependent, the magnitude correction had to be a function of the star colour. A colour index, monotonically growing with the effective wavelength of $`Hp`$ band, had to be evaluated from heterogeneous sources. The precision of the equivalent $`VI`$ was highly variable. For stars with “bad” $`VI`$ colour, the magnitude correction was erroneous and produced a trend. A colour bluer than true generates a spurious increase of the luminosity with the time. An example of a trend is given in Fig. 2.

#### Selection of trends:

Stars like Be stars may also show quasi-linear trends over the mission duration. The identification of spurious trends was iterative. LPVs, showing Gaussian residuals when modeled with a trend on top of their semi-periodic light-curve, were sorted first. But there was much more diversity in the data showing trends, true or spurious. So we used an Abbe test (Eyer & Grenon 2000) for a global detection. Stars with an Abbe test close to 1, or with a large trend or with very long periods, were flagged. Stars with possible envelopes were not retained. After visual inspection of the time series by Grenon, the number of stars selected by these different procedures was 2412.

#### Correction of the star colour:

The amplitude of the magnitude drift was used to correct the star colour. Indeed, if a time series shows a trend $`\alpha `$ which may be imputed to an incorrect initial colour, there is a possibility to recover the true star colour by the relation:

$$(VI)_{new}=(VI)_{old}14290\alpha $$

where $`\alpha `$ is expressed in magnitude per day.

Every selected case was investigated to decide whether the trend could be a consequence of an incorrect colour; 965 $`VI`$ indices were corrected this way with certainty and the origin of the errors on the colours was traced back.

## 4. Outlying values

When studying variable stars, outlying values and anomalous data distributions are of great interest. Namely, it is important to distinguish outliers of instrumental origin from those due to stellar physical phenomena. Some stars show luminosity changes on very short time scales. For Algol eclipsing binaries, the duration of the eclipse is short with respect to their period. With non-continuous time sampling, eclipses may appear as low luminosity points. UV Ceti stars show strong bursts in the U band on very short time scales. However, because of the width of the $`Hp`$ band, the photospheric flux in the redder part of the band largely dominates that of the burst, with the result that no burst was detected with certainty in the M dwarfs.

In Fig. 3 we present two cases of outlying values of instrumental origin.

### 4.1. Instrumental outliers: Mispointing effect

The pointing precision of the satellite was normally better than 1 arcsec. However after Earth or Moon eclipses and especially near the end of the mission when most gyroscopes were faulty, the problems of mispointing were more acute. The radius of the photocathode was 15 arcsec, with a lower sensitivity towards the edge. An inaccurate pointing was inducing a loss of counted photons, leading to dimmer points in the time series.

The problems with extended objects were even worse, depending on their sizes. A similar situation happened with visual double systems when the separation was around 10 arcsec. In this case the target was either the primary or the photocenter of the system. From time to time the companion was on the edge or out of the FOV, diminishing the amount of collected light. Even when the two components were measured alternatively, the not-measured star might have sometimes entered in the FOV producing a luminosity excess mimicking a burst.

### 4.2. Instrumental outliers: Light pollution

A neighbour star could contaminate the observed star, although most of the identified cases were rejected during the Input Catalogue compilation. The perturbing star was possibly a real neighbour or, more often, a star belonging to the other FOV. Several configurations are possible:

* A star from the other FOV was added to the measured star. That is called a superposition effect. Stars in the Galactic plane were more often perturbed because of the higher star density.
* The perturbing star was very bright and caused scattered light in the detection chain. This veiling glare could be felt even if the disturbing star was further than 15 arcsec.
* When the separation was greater that 15 arcsec, the two effects of pollution and mispointing could produce high values of fluxes of the dim component.

Fig. 4 shows the correlation between the asymmetry of the time series for double systems and the angular separation $`\rho `$. The asymmetry is positive for dimmer outlying values, and negative for pollution by the primary (bright outlying values).

### 4.3. Selection of outliers

The problems caused by the outliers were very acute at the beginning of the analysis; we had then to take drastic measures before searching for periods and amplitudes. We removed:

* all measurements with a non-null flag.
* the end of the mission, if the dispersion of the data was smaller than 0.3 before the day 8883. (the data for large amplitude variables were kept up to the end of the mission).
* high luminosity values if there was a magnitude jump in consecutive transits.
* bad-quality measurements with transit errors higher than $`ϵ(DC)=0.000510^{0.167Hp_{DC}}+0.0014.`$
* temporarily one or two outliers to check their impact on the result of an analysis based on truncated time series.

This removal represents a reduction by 6% of the number of measurements with non-zero flag.

Suspect transits from the analysis of outliers were transmitted to the reduction consortia, who flagged them according to the origin of the disturbance.

## 5. Alias and spurious periods

The spectral window produces spurious periods when it is convoluted with the true spectrum. As a result, spurious periods around 0.09 d were frequently found for long periods or irregular variables as well as for stars showing magnitude trends. Periods of about 5 d for SR variables turned out to be nearly all spurious. With the Hipparcos time sampling the spectral window changes from one star to another and the alias effect had to be studied on a per star basis.

A 58 day periodicity was found in many time series when applying the period search algorithm. This period corresponds to the time interval between consecutive measurements of double systems under the same angle with respect to the modulating grid (the modulated signal is higher when the components are parallel to the grid).

## 6. Advice about the use of the data

We want to stress that caution should be taken in handling the epoch photometry, especially when the signal to noise ratio or when the number of retained measurements are small. The effects of multiperiodicity are generally very tricky. The spectral window should be investigated in detail and periods near sampling frequencies should be taken with care, in particular in the range 5 to 20 d where the Hipparcos photometry has the weakest detection capability.

The selection of photometric data can be made according to their flags, the estimates of the transit errors and the background intensities. In case of doubt about outlying data, a look to the magnitude difference $`ACDC`$ will reveal problems related to duplicity and image superpositions since the amplitude of the modulated signal is reduced in the case of misaligned sources with respect to the grid orientation. The contents of the opposite FOV can be investigated thanks to their published positions. It is suggested to correct rather than to eliminate data since a loss of information might twist statistics. For an example of a successful selection procedure applied to the data of HIP 115510, see Lampens et al. (1999).

## 7. Conclusion

Performing accuracy photometry in space is not free from problems. The same is true for the data analysis. Once the origin of the encountered problems is identified, it is possible to cope with them and determine precisely the domains of validity of the algorithms for search of periods and amplitudes. Globally the ratio quantity-quality generated by this mission for the study of variability has no equivalent up to now.

## References

ESA 1997, The Hipparcos and Tycho catalogues, ESA SP-1200

Evans, D.W. 1995, Hipparcos Photometry Merging Report, RGO/NDAC 95.01

Eyer, L., and Genton, M.G. 1999, A&AS 136, 421

Eyer, L. and Grenon, M., 2000, in preparation

Lampens, P., van Camp, M., Sinachopoulos, D. 1999 A&A, accepted

van Leeuwen, F., Evans, D.W., Grenon, M., Grossmann, V., Mignard, F., Perryman, M.A.C. 1997, A&A323, L61