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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The study of domain walls in gauged supergravity theories has attracted much attention over the past year. (For a review on an earlier work, see .) In particular, since these solutions are asymptotic to anti-de Sitter (AdS) space-times, they are of importance in the study of the renormalisation group flows  of strongly coupled gauge theories in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. Typically these configurations are singular in the interior, and asymptotically approach the boundary of the AdS space-times.

On the other hand static AdS domain walls (in $`D=5`$), which are asymptotic to AdS Cauchy horizons on either side of a non-singular wall, localise gravity on the wall  (in $`D=4`$), and thus have important phenomenological implications. It is therefore of great importance to find embeddings of gravity-trapping domain walls within a fundamental theory such as a compactified string or M-theory, a proposal initiated by H. Verlinde . Of particular interest are field theoretic embeddings of such configurations in supergravity theories that arise as effective theories of string and M-theory compactifications. For example, scalar fields in the (abelian) vector supermultiplets of $`N=2`$ gauged supergravity theories provide natural candidates for realising AdS domain walls. However, as it turns out these walls are in general singular in the interior, and on either side of the wall they are asymptotic to the boundary of AdS, as found for the one-scalar case in  (and proven in  for the multi-scalar case). The result is, essentially, a consequence of the fact that the gauged supergravity potential for scalars in vector supermultiplets has at most one non-singular supersymmetric extremum per non-singular domain, and this extremum is a maximum. (For a special choice of parameters for the gauged supergravity scalar potential, one side of the domain wall may asymptotically approach a non-AdS (“dilatonic”) space-time .)

Recently, we investigated  domain-wall space-times supported by scalar fields belonging to massive supermultiplets. In particular, the breathing mode $`\varphi `$ which parameterises the volume of the sphere, and which is a singlet under the isometry group of the sphere, provides a consistent truncation to a single massive scalar mode. Its potential has a supersymmetric AdS minimum (and not a maximum as in the case of massless vector supermultiplets) at $`\varphi =0`$. This allows for hybrid domain-wall solutions where on one side of the wall in the transverse direction $`\rho <0`$ (in a co-moving coordinate), the space-time is asymptotic (as $`\rho \mathrm{}`$) to the AdS horizon. The other side of the wall (the $`\rho >0`$ region) allows for two possibilities:

* Branch I is a singular domain-wall solution with $`\rho 0^+`$ corresponding to a naked singularity at which $`\varphi \mathrm{}`$ (zero volume of the sphere) .
* Branch II is a non-singular domain wall with, $`\rho <0`$ corresponding to the dilatonic wall domain , and with $`\rho \mathrm{}`$ reaching the sphere decompactification ($`\varphi \mathrm{}`$). The higher-dimensional interpretation of this solution is a spherically compactified $`p`$-brane (in the $`D=5`$ case, a D3-brane of Type IIB string theory compactified on the five-sphere $`S^5`$) in the domain that extends from the horizon to the asymptotically flat space-time. Unfortunately, this type of domain wall cannot trap gravity .

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the singular domain-wall solutions of Branch I. Owing to the naked singularity, such a solution is clearly undesirable from the classical point of view. However, quantum mechanics may be more tolerant of singularities, and we shall investigate the fluctuation spectrum in this singular background. Interestingly, the attractive gravitational potential is insufficiently singular at the naked singularity, thus rendering the spectrum bounded from below. In particular, the boundary condition on wave functions at the singularity allows for a continuous spectrum with positive energy, and the massless bound state is formally excluded. We also point out that a regularisation of the naked singularity, for example by modifying the metric at distances of the order of the inverse string scale, renders the gravitational potential finite and allows for precisely one (massless) bound-state of the lower-dimensional graviton. These issues are addressed in section 2.

In section 3 we contrast the spectrum in the background of such a singular breathing-mode domain-wall to those in domain-wall backgrounds supported by massless scalars of sphere reductions. These latter domain walls, which have been previously studied in the literature , also involve examples of singular solutions in the interior. However, on the AdS side they are asymptotic to the AdS boundary. In spite of the naked singularity, the fluctuation spectrum is well behaved. The spectrum of the fluctuating modes sheds light on the spectrum of strongly-coupled gauge theories via the AdS/CFT correspondence.

We also elucidate the nature of the higher-dimensional embedding of this configuration in Section 4; it describes a $`p`$-brane configuration in the domain “inside the horizon.” We show that the the singularity structure of the massive scalar domain wall solution is exactly the same as the massless scalar domain wall associated with distributed $`p`$-branes with negative tension ingredients. This suggests that the inside of the horizon of non-dilatonic $`p`$-branes such as D3-branes or M-branes should be included in the discussion and the resolution of these singularities may be analogous to the one proposed in  for the singularity associated with negative tension.

## 2 Singular domain wall of the breathing mode

The scalar arising as the breathing mode in a Kaluza-Klein sphere reduction is massive, and in general yields a potential that allows a supersymmetric minimum with negative cosmological constant. The effective Lagrangian for the breathing-mode scalar and gravity is of the form:

$$_D=eR\frac{1}{2}e(\varphi )^2eV,$$
(1)
where the potential is given by

$$V=\frac{1}{2}g^2\left(\frac{1}{a_1^2}e^{a_1\varphi }\frac{1}{a_1a_2}e^{a_2\varphi }\right).$$
(2)
The (positive) constants $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ are given by

$$a_1^2=\frac{4}{k}+\frac{2(D1)}{D2},a_1a_2=\frac{2(D1)}{D2},$$
(3)
where $`k`$ is a certain positive integer. For $`D=4`$, 7 and 5, this integer takes the value $`k=1`$. These cases correspond to the $`S^7`$ and $`S^4`$ reductions of $`D=11`$ supergravity, and the $`S^5`$ reduction of type IIB supergravity, respectively. For $`D=3`$ the integer $`k`$ can be equal to 1, 2 or 3. The case $`k=1`$ has a four-dimensional origin as an $`S^1`$ Scherk-Schwarz reduction of the Freedman-Schwarz model. The cases with $`k=2`$ and $`k=3`$ corresponding to $`S^3`$ and $`S^2`$ reduction of six-dimensional and five-dimensional supergravity theories.

The potential has one isolated AdS minimum $`\mathrm{\Lambda }V_{\mathrm{min}}`$ at $`\varphi =0`$, tends to zero for $`\varphi \mathrm{}`$ (sphere decompactification) and tends to infinity for $`\varphi +\mathrm{}`$ (zero volume of the sphere). The domain-wall solutions were obtained in . In , the analytic solution in terms of a co-moving coordinate frame (simply related to the conformally flat metric) was derived, and the nature of the solutions was analysed in detail. They occur in two distinct branches, associated with two disconnected space-time regions. Here, we shall just describe the (asymptotic) behaviour of the solutions. (The analytical details can be found in .)

Using the co-moving coordinate $`\rho `$, the metric is of the form

$$ds^2=e^{2A}dx^\mu dx_\mu +d\rho ^2.$$
(4)
In the first branch, the coordinate $`\rho `$ runs from $`\mathrm{}`$ to 0, with

$`e^{2A}e^{2c\rho },`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`\rho \mathrm{},`$
$`e^{2A}\rho ^\gamma ,\gamma =\frac{2a_2}{(D2)a_1},`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`\rho 0.`$ (5)
In the second branch, the coordinate $`\rho `$ runs from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`+\mathrm{}`$, with

$`e^{2A}e^{2c\rho },`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`\rho \mathrm{},`$
$`e^{2A}\rho ^\gamma ,\gamma =\frac{2a_1}{(D2)a_2},`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`\rho +\mathrm{}.`$ (6)
Thus we see that in both solutions, as $`\rho \mathrm{}`$, the metric becomes AdS, with the constant $`c`$ is given by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=(D1)(D2)c^2`$. ( Note that the Ricci tensor approaches $`R_{\mu \nu }=(D1)c^2g_{\mu \nu }`$.) Clearly, the asymptotically AdS region $`\rho \mathrm{}`$ corresponds to the AdS Cauchy horizon. In the second branch, the solution is free of singularities, whilst in the first branch there is a naked singularity at $`\rho =0`$. We shall concentrate on this first branch, and study the singular domain wall.

Close to the singularity point at $`\rho =0`$, the values of the $`\gamma `$ coefficient appearing in (5) for the various cases are summarised in Table 1.

|  | $`D=3`$ | $`D=4`$ | $`D=5`$ | $`D=7`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`k=1`$ | $`\frac{1}{2}`$ | $`\frac{2}{7}`$ | $`\frac{1}{5}`$ | $`\frac{1}{8}`$ |
| $`k=2`$ | $`\frac{2}{3}`$ |  |  |  |
| $`k=3`$ | $`\frac{3}{4}`$ |  |  |  |

Table 1: The values of the coefficient $`\gamma `$ in (5) for the singular domain-wall solutions with the massive breathing mode, in various dimensions $`D`$.

### 2.1 Spectrum of fluctuating modes

It is of interest to examine the quantum fluctuations around the backgrounds of the Branch-I solutions. In particular, the spectrum may suffer from pathologies due to the singular nature of the metric.

The fluctuations of the $`D`$-dimensional graviton (in an appropriate gauge) are described by a minimally-coupled scalar field in this gravitational background . The spectrum of these fluctuating modes in turn elucidates the nature of the modes in $`(D1)`$ dimensions, and in particular the possibility of trapping a $`(D1)`$-dimensional massless graviton at such a domain wall. (For a detailed derivation of the equation for the fluctuating modes in arbitrary dimensions, see ). The minimally-coupled scalar field $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ obeys the wave equation

$$_\mu (\sqrt{g}g^{\mu \nu }_\nu \mathrm{\Phi })=0.$$
(7)
We make the Ansatz $`\mathrm{\Phi }=e^{ipx}\chi (z)`$, where $`m^2=pp`$ determines the mass of the fluctuating mode. It is helpful to cast the wave equation into the Schrödinger form, which can be done by first writing the metric in a manifestly conformally-flat frame, as

$$ds^2=e^{2A(z)}(dx^\mu dx_\mu +dz^2),$$
(8)
by means of an appropriate coordinate transformation. For the Branch-I solutions that we are interested in, the coordinate $`z`$ runs from $`\mathrm{}`$ to 0, and $`A(z)`$ has the following asymptotic behaviour:

$`e^{2A}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{c^2z^2}},`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`z\mathrm{},`$
$`e^{2A}z^{\stackrel{~}{\gamma }},\stackrel{~}{\gamma }={\displaystyle \frac{2\gamma }{2\gamma }},`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`z0.`$ (9)
Making the field redefinition $`\chi =e^{(D2)A/2}\psi `$, the wave equation assumes the form

$$(^2V)\psi =m^2\psi ,$$
(10)
with the Schrödinger potential given by

$$V=\frac{D2}{2}A^{\prime \prime }+\frac{(D2)^2}{4}(A^{})^2.$$
(11)
The asymptotic behaviour of the potential is given by

$`V{\displaystyle \frac{D(D2)}{4z^2}},`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`z\mathrm{},`$
$`V{\displaystyle \frac{c}{z^2}},`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`z0.`$ (12)
Thus we see that the potential near the singularity approaches a negative infinity, and there the value of the negative constant $`c`$ is important. It is given by

$$c=\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{(k+2)^2}>\frac{1}{4},$$
(13)
which is independent of the dimension $`D`$. The full form of the Schrödinger potential $`V`$ is sketched in Figure 1.

Since we have $`c>\frac{1}{4}`$, the spectrum is bounded from below. Namely, the boundary condition at $`\rho =0^{}`$ is $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0`$, thus disallowing solutions with $`\mathrm{\Phi }0`$ at $`\rho =0^{}`$. As a consequence, the spectrum is continuous, with only positive energies occurring. Furthermore, the $`m^2=0`$ state has to be excluded, since it corresponds to the solution $`\varphi =`$ constant, which does not vanish at $`\rho =0`$. The “bump” resulting from the AdS space-time causes the wave functions of the continuous spectrum to be be suppressed in the interior region of the potential (close to the singularity). Thus although the background has a naked singularity, the spectrum for minimally-coupled scalar fields is well behaved. It does not, however, seem to be able to trap the massless $`(D1)`$-dimensional graviton.

The Schrödinger potential for the branch-II solution is quite different. It runs smoothly from $`z=\mathrm{}`$ to $`z=+\mathrm{}`$, vanishing at both ends, with a single maximum at a certain finite value of $`z`$.

### 2.2 Regularising the metric near the naked singularity

It is on one hand encouraging that in spite of the naked singularity the spectrum is well behaved, but on the other hand it is disappointing that the massless mode is not bound (and is eliminated by the boundary condition at the singularity). However, this might just be an artefact of working only at the level of the effective supergravity theory. Thus it might be that string-induced corrections could “regulate” the metric near the naked singularity.

We shall show in the next section that the singularity structures of these massive-scalar domain-wall solutions are identical to those of the massless-scalar domain walls. The latter can be viewed in the higher dimension as continuous distributions of D3-branes or M-branes that include some negative-tension contributions. A resolution of singularities associated with negative-tension states was proposed in . It is not inconceivable that a similar resolution can be applied to our cases, since the singularity structure is the same. As a consequence, the negative infinity of the Schrödinger potential could be cut off at distances $`zM_{string}^1`$ and thus in fact allow a zero-mass bound state after all. In the absence of a direct way of learning about these effects from string theory, here we present a model where we modify (i.e. regulate) the metric near the singularity in terms of a plausible, albeit somewhat ad-hoc, correction of order $`M_{string}^1`$. This does at least provide an indication of the sort of modifications that can be expected once stringy corrections are taken into account.

Accordingly, near the singularity as $`z0^{}`$, and beyond $`z>0`$, we shall modify the metric $`A(z)`$ so that it takes the form

$`e^{2A}=(|z|+M^1)^{\stackrel{~}{\gamma }},`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`z\{M^1,0^{}\},`$ (14)
$`e^{2A}=e^{M^{}z}M^{\stackrel{~}{\gamma }},`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`z>0,`$ (15)
where $`M^{}`$ and $`M`$ are of the order of $`M_{string}`$. The positive coefficients $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$ for the various examples are given by (9). Clearly, taking $`\{M,M^{}\}\mathrm{}`$ corresponds to the classical solution of the previous subsection. (The metric is continuous at $`z=0`$, but its higher derivatives are not.)

Calculating the Schrödinger potential, we find that it now takes the following modified form:

$`V={\displaystyle \frac{c}{(|z|+M^1)^2}},`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`z\{M^1,0^{}\},`$ (16)
$`V=\frac{1}{8}D(D2)M^2,`$ $`\mathrm{for}`$ $`z>0.`$ (17)
Thus the negative infinity has been cut off with a step function, at distances $`zM^1`$. (See the sketch of the modified potential in Figure 2).

After the regularisation of the metric, the potential has been rendered regular everywhere, and the Schrödinger equation can be written as a supersymmetric quantum mechanical system, which allows precisely one massless state (see for example ): $`\psi =e^{(D2)A(z)/2}`$. From the asymptotic behavior of the metric one sees that in the “regulated” domain $`z0^{}`$ the wave function falls off exponentially fast, with a decay constant of order $`M^1`$. On the other hand the fast fall off in the AdS regime $`z\mathrm{}`$ renders the zero-mode renormalisable, and thus we have a massless bound state trapped on the wall.

## 3 Singular domain walls with “massless” scalars

Recently a large class of AdS domain-wall solutions, associated with diagonal symmetric potentials of lower-dimensional gauged supergravities, were obtained . These solutions generally interpolate between a boundary AdS and a naked singularity, and thus it is of interest to revisit the properties of the fluctuation spectra here, and to contrast them with those of the domain walls supported by the massive breathing mode. The metrics for the solutions supported by the massless scalars are given by :

$`ds_D^2`$ $`=`$ $`(gr)^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{4}{D3}}}({\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}H_i)^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{2}{N}}}dx^\mu dx_\mu +({\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}H_i)^{\frac{2}{N}}{\displaystyle \frac{dr^2}{g^2r^2}},`$
$`H_i`$ $`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}_i^2}{r^2}},N={\displaystyle \frac{4(D2)}{D3}},`$ (18)
where $`D=4,5`$ and 7, and for these dimensions we have $`N=8`$, 6 and 5 respectively. The coordinate $`r`$ runs from zero to infinity. At $`r=\mathrm{}`$ we have $`H_i=1`$, and the metric describes AdS space-time in horospherical coordinates. Note that the AdS space-time is a maximum of the scalar potential.

As $`r`$ approaches zero, the metric behaviour depends on the number of non-vanishing constants $`\mathrm{}_i`$. If $`n<N`$ of them are non-vanishing, the metric approaches

$`ds_D^2`$ $``$ $`\rho ^\gamma dx^\mu dx_\mu +d\rho ^2,`$
$`\gamma `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2(Nn)}{n(D3)}},\rho =r^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{2n}{N}}}.`$ (19)
The values of the constant $`\gamma `$ for the various AdS domain walls are summarised in Table 2.

|  | $`D=4`$ | $`D=5`$ | $`D=7`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`n=1`$ | 14 | 5 | 2 |
| $`n=2`$ | 6 | 2 | $`\frac{3}{4}`$ |
| $`n=3`$ | $`\frac{10}{3}`$ | 1 | $`\frac{1}{3}`$ |
| $`n=4`$ | 2 | $`\frac{1}{2}`$ | $`\frac{1}{8}`$ |
| $`n=5`$ | $`\frac{6}{5}`$ | $`\frac{1}{5}`$ |  |
| $`n=6`$ | $`\frac{2}{3}`$ |  |  |
| $`n=7`$ | $`\frac{2}{7}`$ |  |  |

Table 2: The values of $`\gamma `$ coefficients for the various domain walls supported by scalars of massless supermultiplets.

For all the cases, the metric has a power-law curvature singularity $`1/\rho ^2`$ at $`\rho =0`$. For $`\gamma 2`$, the singularity is marginal, in the sense that $`\rho =0`$ is also an horizon, whilst for $`\gamma <2`$ the singularity at $`\rho =0`$ is naked.111There is an event horizon at $`\rho =0`$ if geodesics originating at some finite and non-zero value of $`\rho `$ take an infinite coordinate time to reach $`\rho =0`$. Thus there is an horizon when $`\gamma 2`$. These solutions, when oxidised back to $`D=11`$ or $`D=10`$, become ellipsoidal distributions of M-branes or D3-branes. One can in general argue that the naked singularities of these lower-dimensional solutions are therefore artefacts of the dimensional reduction. However, in the case of the solutions with $`n=N1`$, the distributions involve negative-tension distributions  of the M-branes or D3-branes, which clearly also have naked singularities in the higher dimension. It is interesting to note that for the cases associated negative tension distributions, the values of $`\gamma `$ for $`D=4`$, 5 and 7 are precisely the same as the ones for the massive-scalar breathing mode potentials given in Table 1.

It is therefore worthwhile to investigate whether quantum fluctuations around these backgrounds suffer from pathologies associated with the naked singularities. The minimally-coupled scalar $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ in these asymptotically AdS geometries is of special interest (in the dual gauge theory it corresponds to the operator that couples to the kinetic energy of the gauge field strength $`F^2`$). The spectrum for the wave equations of these background was studied in detail in various publications, and no pathologies in the spectrum were encountered in any of these cases . It is straightforward to show that the wave equation near the singularity $`\rho =0`$ is then of the form

$`\left(_z^2{\displaystyle \frac{C_n}{(zz_{})^2}}\right)\psi =m^2\psi ,`$
$`C_n=\frac{1}{4}+{\displaystyle \frac{(Nn2)^2}{(Nn4)^2}}.`$ (20)
We see that the coefficients always satisfy the bound $`C_n\frac{1}{4}`$, which is essential in order for the energies of all the states to be bounded below.

It is of interest to investigate the relation between the structure of the spectrum and the nature of the curvature singularity of the background. It has been shown that the spectrum is discrete in the cases $`Nn=1`$, 2 or 3. For all of these values, the background suffers from a naked singularity. In fact, we can show that the spectrum is not only discrete, but also positive definite. This is because the coordinate $`r`$ runs from $`r=0`$ to $`r=\mathrm{}`$, and hence the wave function $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ has to satisfy the boundary conditions $`\mathrm{\Phi }(0)=0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\mathrm{})`$ finite. It is straightforward to see that solutions with non-positive $`m^2`$ do not satisfy this condition. In particular, the massless solution, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Phi }=1`$, is excluded by the boundary conditions, since it does not vanish at $`r=0`$. Indeed, the case of $`D=5`$ and $`n=4`$ can be solved exactly, and the spectrum can be seen to comprise only positive values of $`m^2`$.

For $`Nn4`$, the singularity is marginally clothed by an event horizon, and the spectrum is continuous, (with a mass gap when $`Nn=4`$). As we discussed earlier, the coordinate $`\rho `$ terminates at $`\rho =0`$ in all the cases, owing to the singularity, and it follows that the zero-mass solution has to be excluded from the spectrum since $`\mathrm{\Phi }(0)`$ must vanish.

The absence of the $`m^2=0`$ states is consistent from the AdS/CFT viewpoint, since one does not expect gravity to be localised on the boundary of the AdS. Even in the case of a metric that is regulated at $`\rho 0`$, the zero mass state mode is excluded; this mode is of the form $`\psi =e^{(D2)A/2}`$ (as obtained from the supersymmetric quantum mechanical analysis). However, this mode violates the boundary condition that $`\psi =0`$ at the boundary of AdS.

## 4 Higher dimensional interpretation

The higher-dimensional interpretations of the domain-wall solutions supported by the massive breathing modes were given in . They correspond to isotropic non-dilatonic branes in the higher dimensions, e.g., M-branes, D3-branes and self-dual strings, etc. It is straightforward to see that the Branch-II solution corresponds to the region of the $`p`$-brane that interpolates between Minkowski space-time and the AdS throat. The Branch-I solution, on the other hand, corresponds to the region between the singularity (at zero volume of the sphere) and the horizon, as we shall demonstrate below.

It was shown in  that the D3-brane and M5-brane admit maximal analytic extensions that do not have any singularities. It is of interest therefore to examine the oxidation of the massive-scalar domain wall to ten or eleven dimensions in more detail, which we do by retracing the step of Kaluza-Klein reduction on the sphere. After doing this, the metric becomes

$`ds_{\widehat{D}}^2`$ $`=`$ $`(\epsilon H)^{2/(\widehat{D}d1)}dx^\mu dx_\mu +H^2d\rho ^2+\rho ^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_d^2,`$
$`H`$ $`=`$ $`1{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{\rho ^{d1}}},`$ (21)
in terms of an appropriately-defined Schwarzschild-type coordinate $`\rho `$, where the constant $`\epsilon `$ is $`1`$ for the Branch-I solution, and $`+1`$ for the Branch-II solution. ($`\widehat{D}`$ is the oxidation endpoint dimension.) Branch-I solution therefore provides a novel extention of $`p`$-brane solution into the interior of the horizon.

As was discussed in , when $`\epsilon =+1`$ the exterior region of a metric such as (21) (i.e. the region $`\rho >Q^{1/(d1)}`$ outside the horizon) can be smoothly extrapolated through the horizon at $`\rho =Q^{1/(d1)}`$ and out into another asymptotic region, thereby avoiding the curvature singularity at $`\rho =0`$ altogether, provided that $`\widehat{D}d1`$ is even. This can be seen by defining a new radial coordinate $`w`$,

$$w=H^{\frac{1}{\widehat{D}d1}},$$
(22)
in terms of which the metric (21) becomes

$$ds_{\widehat{D}}^2=w^2dx^\mu dx_\mu +\kappa ^2\left(1w^{\widehat{D}d1}\right)^{\frac{2d}{d1}}\frac{dw^2}{w^2}+Q^{\frac{2}{d1}}\left(1w^{\widehat{D}d1}\right)^{\frac{2}{d1}}d\mathrm{\Omega }_d^2,$$
(23)
where $`\kappa ^2=(\widehat{D}d1)^2Q^{\frac{2}{d1}}/(d1)^2`$. Since $`\rho `$ is an analytic function of $`w`$ on the horizon at $`w=0`$, one can analytically extend the metric to negative values of $`w`$, and so it is regular on the horizon. Furthermore, when $`\widehat{D}d1`$ is even, the metric is invariant under $`ww`$, and so the extension to negative $`w`$ is isometric to the original region with positive $`w`$ . Thus for the $`D=7`$ Branch-II domain wall oxidised on $`S^4`$ to the M5-brane in $`\widehat{D}=11`$ (for which we have $`\widehat{D}d1=1141=6`$), and the $`D=5`$ Branch-II domain wall oxidised on $`S^5`$ to the D3-brane in $`\widehat{D}=10`$ (for which $`\widehat{D}d1=1051=4`$), the metrics are completely non-singular. On the other hand the $`D=4`$ Branch-II domain wall oxidises on $`S^7`$ to give an M2-brane in $`\widehat{D}=11`$, for which the singularity cannot be evaded by the $`ww`$ reflection, since $`\widehat{D}d1=1171=3`$.

In all cases the Branch-I solutions oxidise to the interior regions of the M-branes or D3-brane, and so the singularities remain in the higher dimension. The fact that the Branch-I solutions map into the interior regions of the higher-dimensional $`p`$-branes demonstrates that these interior regions do have a rôle to play, even in those cases where they are excised in the maximal analytic extension. From the lower-dimensional point of view, these naked singularities are no worse than the ones occurring in the domain-wall solutions associated with the Coulomb branches of the corresponding superconformal field theories on the AdS boundaries, as observed in section 3.

The cases $`\gamma =\frac{2}{7}`$, $`\frac{1}{5}`$ and $`\frac{1}{8}`$ can occur both from the massless-scalar potential and from the massive-scalar potential. For each dimension, these massless-scalar and massive-scalar solutions have in common that their higher-dimensional origins both involve naked singularities. In the massless-scalar case, the singularity is due to the negative tension of the distributed branes; in the massive-scalar case, the singularity is the one that is inside the horizon of the non-dilatonic $`p`$-brane. However in spite of the singularities, the minimally-coupled scalar field spectra are all well-behaved. This leads to an interesting question as to whether the interior region should be included in the discussion, even in the cases such as the M5-brane and D3-brane where it is normally excluded by making the maximal analytic extension. A resolution of the singularity arising from a negative tension was proposed in . A similar resolution may be applicable for the massive-scalar domain-wall solution too, since the singularity structure is the same.

## Acknowledgements

We should like to thank Klaus Behrndt, Michael Cohen, Gary Gibbons, Lisa Randall and Finn Larsen for useful conversations. M.C. would like to thank Caltech Theory Group for hospitality where part of this work was done.


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# A Search for Lightly Ionizing Particles with the MACRO Detector

## I Introduction

Ever since Robert Millikan’s historic experiment determined that the charge on matter comes in discrete units , experimenters have spent much time and effort first determining the precise value of that charge, and later trying to observe instances in nature where anything other than an integer multiple version of that charge exists.

The first hint that such objects might be present in nature were the results obtained from the deep inelastic scattering experiments at SLAC during the late 1960’s . These experiments first demonstrated that nucleons do in fact have sub-structure. By exploring the structure functions in these scattering experiments, it was discovered that protons and neutrons were constructed of smaller point-like partons, and that there were three charge-bearing partons in each of the proton and the neutron .

This observed parton structure fit well into the quark model previously proposed by Gell-Man and Zweig . Although in this model the quarks which make up the baryons and mesons have fractional charge, they are always combined in a way that results in an integrally charged baryon or meson.

Despite decades of searching no one has yet observed a quark free of its ever-present neighbors. Also, the search for electrons or other leptonic type particles with fractional charge has been in vain. These include larger and more sophisticated versions of Millikan’s oil drop experiment, searches in bulk matter, experiments at accelerators, and searches in the cosmic radiation . A clear observation of fractional charge would be extremely important since, depending on the type of particle seen, it might mean that confinement breaks down under some circumstances or that entirely new classes of particles exist.

In Grand Unified Theories it is relatively easy to accommodate fractional charge in color singlets by extending the unification group from SU(5) to a larger group. For example, an extension to SU(7) allows for charges of $`\frac{1}{3}`$  ,another which allows $`\frac{1}{3}`$ e charge leptons has gauge group SU(5) $`\times `$ SU(5)’ . Other Grand Unified Theory groups have been considered which allow for fractional charge, including SU(8) , SO(14) , and SO(18) . Further, some theories of spontaneously broken QCD have also predicted free quarks , although these quarks would probably be contained in super-heavy quark-nucleus complexes with large non-integral charge.

This paper presents the results of a search for penetrating, weakly interacting particles with fractional charge in the cosmic radiation with the MACRO detector. A more detailed description of this analysis can be found in . Since a particle of charge Q has a rate of energy loss by atomic excitation and ionization proportional to $`Q^2`$, particles of a given velocity with fractional charge deposit less energy in a detector than particles with unit charge. So, for example, a particle traveling at relativistic speed with charge of $`\frac{1}{3}`$ e will have an energy deposition only $`\frac{1}{9}`$ that of the muon. For this reason we call such particles lightly ionizing particles(LIPs). A quark of the standard model also interacts via the strong force and would not be able to penetrate large amounts of material; thus this search is only sensitive to penetrating lightly ionizing particles.

## II Experimental Setup

The MACRO detector is a large($``$ 10000 $`m^2`$ sr) underground scintillator and streamer tube detector and has been described in detail elsewhere . Due to MACRO’s large size, fine granularity, high efficiency scintillator, and high resolution tracking system, it is uniquely suited to look for LIPs. In order to take advantage of this situation a special LIP trigger system has been built.

Using the lowest level energy-based scintillator trigger available in MACRO, it allows a search for particles which interact electro-magnetically but deposit much smaller amounts of energy in the scintillator counters than minimum ionizing muons. The inputs are the individual counter low energy triggers produced in the PHRASE (one of the gravitational collapse triggers), which have a trigger threshold of about 1.2 MeV. Since a typical muon energy loss is about 40 MeV, this trigger threshold allows a search for particles losing less than 1/25 of this.

Streamer tubes are more efficient at triggering on LIPs than the scintillator system. The key to the good sensitivity of the streamer tubes, even to extremely small amounts of ionization, is that even a single ion-electron pair produces a full streamer with reasonable probability.

The measured single ion-pair efficiency for the MACRO tubes, gas mixture, and operating voltage is over 30%, which is consistent with earlier work . Since selected tracks are required to cross at least 10 streamer tube planes and a LIP trigger only requires that any 6 of them fire, the streamer tube triggering probability is over 99% for the range of charges considered in this search.

The LIP trigger uses field programmable gate array circuits to form coincidences between counters in the three horizontal planes of MACRO scintillator. The resulting accidental coincidence rate of approximately 10 Hz would overload the data acquisition and storage system and so it is reduced by requiring a coincidence with at least 6 streamer tube planes in the bottom part of the detector.

Since a well-reconstructed streamer tube track is required in the final off-line analysis, the streamer tube trigger requirement does not reduce the efficiency of the search, although it reduces accidental coincidences to an acceptable level. The LIP trigger stops the 200 MHz waveform digitizer(WFD) system and causes the data acquisition system to readout the waveforms of all the counters involved in the trigger.

The use of this trigger allows a physics search for LIPs which is unique in many ways. Some of the main features which distinguish it are as follows:

1. Sensitivity down to $`\frac{1}{5}`$ equivalent fractional charge. Previous experiments have only checked for particles with charge $`>\frac{1}{3}`$ .
2. Good acceptance from $`\beta `$ = 0.25 - 1.0 . Particles which have a velocity lower than 0.25c are not guaranteed to pass through the detector quickly enough to insure that the LIP trigger will detect a coincidence in the faces of the scintillator system. The lowest flux limits for LIPs now come from the very large water Cherenkov detector in Japan (Kamiokande). However, because of the nature of the Cherenkov process, water detectors are only sensitive to particles with $`\beta >0.8`$.
3. Size of detector. The MACRO detector presents $``$ 800 $`m^2`$ of fiducial area to downward-going particles. The Cherenkov search at Kamiokande presents a nominal detection area of 130 $`m^2`$. The best results from scintillator-based experiments come from even smaller detectors. The search by Kawagoe et al.  relied on a detector of only 6.25 $`m^2`$.
4. The possibility of searching within large multiple muon bundles for fractional charge. Because of the size and granularity of the MACRO experiment, it is possible to isolate tracks located in muon bundles containing on the order of 20 muons, and to check their energy deposition to see whether they are consistent with LIPs. For both smaller experiments and non-granulated experiments (such as single large volume water experiments like Kamiokande), multiple muon events are rejected from the data sample. If fractionally charged particles were being produced in high energy collisions in the upper atmosphere, previous experiments may have missed the signature due to the particles being buried in the high-multiplicity shower.
5. Use of high resolution waveform digitizers for energy and timing reconstructions. At a trigger threshold of $``$ 1.2 MeV each scintillator counter fires at approximately 2 kHz. The traditional ADC/TDC system is susceptible to errors associated with false starts at this rate (see for example ). A small pulse triggering the ADC/TDC system just prior to a large pulse can result in partial integration of the large pulse, producing a fake low ionization event.
6. Use of a high precision limited streamer tube tracking system. Previous underground experiments  did not have independent tracking systems. Since muons that clip the corners of scintillating volumes can be an important source of background, the use of a tracking system is essential for the performance of a low background search. In addition, without a tracking system it is hard to recognize the cases where the actual tracks pass between volumes and accompanying soft gamma rays enter into the scintillating volumes. This can be a source of background . The use of a tracking system is also one of the reasons that MACRO can look for fractional charge in high multiplicity muon bundles.

## III Data Analysis

The data for this search comes from two periods. The first ran from July 24th to October 12th of 1995, and the second from December 17th 1995 to November 16th 1996. These were both periods of uninterrupted waveform and LIP operation with the entire MACRO detector. The live-time varied for sub-sections of the detector and the longest live-time was 250 days.

### A Low Energy Reconstruction

Triggering at very low thresholds is challenging. While previous searches have restricted themselves to $`\frac{1}{3}e`$, this search reaches $`\frac{1}{5}e`$. For particles with average path lengths through MACRO scintillator counters the energy deposited is about

$$40\text{MeV}\times \left(\frac{1}{5}\right)^21.6\text{MeV}.$$
(1)
Therefore, in order to be able to reconstruct LIPs which pass through MACRO, it is necessary to reconstruct energies between 1.5 and 40 MeV.

The triggering threshold of the LIP trigger was measured by using muons which passed through small amounts of scintillator in the MACRO detector, and thus deposited small amounts of energy. The measured triggering efficiency is shown in figure 1; it is 100% above $``$ 2 MeV, 50% above 1.2 MeV.

Each scintillator counter used in the analysis was calibrated using naturally occurring low-energy $`\gamma `$-rays. The most important of these $`\gamma `$-rays for the calibration is the 2.6 MeV line from the radioactive decay-chain:

$`{}_{81}{}^{208}\text{Tl}`$ (2)
$``$ $`{}_{82}{}^{208}\text{Pb}_{}^{}`$ $`+\beta ^{}+\overline{\nu _e}`$ (3)
$``$ $`{}_{82}{}^{208}\text{Pb}+\gamma (2.6\text{MeV}).`$ (4)
After every event which causes a readout of the WFDs, one millisecond worth of WFD data is collected for every counter involved in the event. For fast particles such as muons only the first few microseconds of the WFD data is relevant. The rest of the data is recorded in order to search for slowly moving particles such as magnetic monopoles. The one millisecond of data contains small pulses caused by naturally occurring radioactivity. By looking at these radioactivity pulses we can reconstruct the low energy spectrum. Figure 2 shows this spectrum for one of the MACRO scintillator counters.

The solid line is a fit to a falling radioactivity spectrum plus two gaussians, one associated with the 2.6 MeV $`{}_{81}{}^{208}\text{Tl}`$ line, and the other, with the 1.4 MeV $`{}_{}{}^{40}\text{K}`$ line. A full GEANT Monte Carlo was performed to determine where the absolute energies of the lines in this spectrum should be, and the information from the fit is used to make a calibration constant to convert between observed PMT signal measured in the waveforms and deposited energy.

Since one to five MeV is the important signal region for the LIP search, reconstructing the low energy spectrum in this region is proof that we can also reconstruct LIPs in this region. For this reason, we require a counter to have a good calibration in order to use it for the LIP analysis. Aside from a very few non-functional scintillator counters, in practice, what this means is that only the counters placed in three horizontal planes were used, and the counters in vertical planes were not.

### B Time Reconstruction

It is important to determine an event’s longitudinal position in a counter from its WFD data. Calibration events as described in section III A have no associated streamer tube track, and so this is the only source of the information necessary to correct for the light attenuation of the scintillator. For particles passing through the detector, we require consistency between the longitudinal position of the event independently determined by the streamer tubes and the PMT signals. This reduces the background due to accidental coincidences between a small radioactivity pulse somewhere in the counter followed by a muon passing through a crack in the detector. The width of the position resolution determines how tightly this cut can be made.

The longitudinal position in a counter of an event can be calculated using the WFD information with the expression:

$$pos=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t\times v}{2},$$
(5)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the difference in time between the pulses on the two sides of the counter (as measured by the waveforms), and $`v`$ is the effective speed of light in the counter. Figure 3 shows the difference between the positions of muons passing through a scintillator counter calculated by the streamer tube tracking system and that calculated by the WFD system for all of the scintillator counters used in the analysis.

These timing results were obtained by first performing a software simulation of a constant fraction trigger  to obtain an initial estimate of the longitudinal position. This circuit triggers at the point on the leading edge of a pulse which is a fixed fraction of the maximum height of the pulse. In order to estimate at what time the pulse crosses the fixed fraction of the maximum peak voltage (20% was used for this analysis) a simple linear fit was used between the two samples closest to the point of crossing.

A neural network was then used to further refine the estimate of the longitudinal position. The neural network was trained with a sample of events using the position obtained from the streamer tubes. We chose to use a neural network since we did not find an alternative which provided the same or better precision and was less computationally intensive. A more detailed description of the network used can be found in .

## IV Search Results

After calibration, the data set was examined for LIPs in both single and multiple track events. In order to be considered in the analysis, an event had to satisfy three requirements: the LIP trigger must have fired; at least one track must have been reconstructed in the streamer tube system; and finally, at least one of the reconstructed tracks must have passed through counters in the top, center, and bottom of the detector. There were approximately 1.3 million events which satisfied these requirements. The data set was broken into two exclusive pieces, a single track and a multiple track set, with approximately 90% of the events being in the single track sample.

Each of the selected events was then examined to determine its rate of energy loss in the scintillator. For each of the counters that a selected particle passed through, the reconstructed energy was scaled to a common path length of 19 cm, the distance a vertical muon passing through a scintillator counter traveled. To reduce the chance that anomalies would affect the result, the maximum energy in any of the counters was used as a measure of the particle’s energy loss. Figure 4 is a histogram of this distribution for all of the tracks(in both the single and multiple track sample) that passed the selection criteria.

The trigger becomes more than 60%efficient at about 1.2 MeV and quickly rises to 100% efficiency. Then, at about 20 MeV, the efficiency of this search quickly drops to zero because a cut must be made to reject muons. Before any cuts, there are events in the region where LIPs would be expected to appear ($`<`$ 20 MeV). These result from two classes of reconstruction errors. First, there are cases where tracks passed close to the edge of a scintillator counter or very close to a phototube and the energy was incorrectly reconstructed. We therefore also exclude tracks which at their center in the scintillator volume are located in the final 10 cm of a scintillator counter. By requiring that all tanks hit by the track have this fiducial requirement, the number of events in the single track sample is reduced by $``$ 4%.

Secondly, there are events in which the position reconstructed by timing in the scintillator counter is inconsistent with that obtained by the streamer tube tracking system, possibly due to random noise in the streamer tubes confusing the tracking algorithm. We require that the position of particle passage as reconstructed in the streamer tubes agrees with the position as reconstructed by the neural network timing procedure to within $`\pm `$ 45 cm, which is about 3 $`\sigma `$ for energy depositions smaller than 5 MeV. This cut removes 1.8% of the data.

Figure 5 is the distribution of the maximum counter energy on a track for all of the single muon tracks considered in the analysis after the fiducial and position agreement cut. The expected signal region for LIPs is below 20 MeV.

Figure 6 is the same distribution for the multiple track sample. There are four events in the multiple tracks sample with maximum deposited energies between 20 and 23 MeV. The minimum entry in the distribution for the single track sample is 23 MeV. These four events were examined by hand. All four were reconstructed as double muons by the tracking algorithm. In three cases, the tracking algorithm failed and assigned a track where one really did not exist. This nonexistent track intersected counters that were actually hit, but the calculated path lengths with the fake track were incorrect. The fourth event had a maximum energy loss of 23 MeV. This event shows no anomalies and is consistent with the lowest energy seen in the single track sample.

## V Conclusions

In the approximately one year of running that this search covers, no candidates for LIPs were observed. This search was sensitive to particles with charges greater than $`\frac{1}{5}`$$`e`$ and $`\beta `$ between approximately 0.25 and 1.0. Unlike previous experiments, this search attempted to find LIPs in both single track events and buried among the tracks of multiple muon showers.

For the single track sample, the assumption of an isotropic flux yields a 90% C.L. upper flux limit of $`\mathrm{\Phi }9.2\times 10^{15}cm^2sec^1sr^1`$.

Once again, it should be emphasized that the energy loss considered for particles in this search is due solely to atomic excitation and ionization. If LIPs are present in the cosmic rays and they interact strongly as well as electro-magnetically they will not be able to travel through enough rock to reach the MACRO detector before they interact strongly. Only if strongly interacting LIPs were produced in the rock very near the detector would this search be sensitive to them.

The two best experiments to compare this result with are the LSD experiment  and the Kamiokande experiment . While LSD had the best scintillator-based limit in the world prior to this experiment, Kamiokande has the lowest limit. Both of these experiments only claim sensitivity to $`\frac{1}{3}`$ $`e`$ and $`\frac{2}{3}e`$ charged particles.

Table I summarizes the limits of this search in comparison to other searches. For the entries marked “Not Quoted”, the experiments do not report a limit for that charge although the experiment should have been sensitive to that energy deposition. At least in the case of LSD there were two candidates in the $`\frac{1}{2}e`$ region which were ignored because they were not considering $`\frac{1}{2}e`$ charged particles. In the Kamiokande experiment only $`\frac{1}{3}e`$ and $`\frac{2}{3}e`$ were searched for.

Unlike the other two searches this search is sensitive to a continuous range of charges from $`\frac{1}{5}e`$ to close to the charge of an electron. This limit is shown in figure 7. This search had no candidates and required hand scanning of only 3 in 1.2 million events.

In order to compare flux limits for LIPs from different experiments one must keep several factors in mind. First of all, this is a limit on the flux of local LIPs at the site of the detector. Different mechanisms for LIP production result in different properties for their flux. One possibility is that the LIP particles are produced very close to the detector by some unknown neutral particle or mechanism. In this case, one could indeed expect a location independent, isotropic flux.

However, for the more general case of LIP production far away from the detector, one expects different fluxes of LIP particles in different underground locations. At each detector site there will be a unique and non-trivial angular distribution, because of different rock thickness above the detectors. This will be true if the LIP particles are produced near the detector in high energy muon showers, in cosmic ray showers in the atmosphere, or if they are impinging on the Earth from outer space.

Note that only particles above some minimum energy can reach an underground detector from the atmosphere, because of the ionization loss in the Earth. For the case of MACRO, which has a minimum depth of 3300 meters of water equivalent, the initial energy of a $`\frac{1}{5}`$$`e`$ charged particle before it enters the earth must be $`20`$ GeV. In comparison, the Kamiokande experiment has an overburden of 2700 meters of water equivalent, and the LSD experiment is covered with 5000 meters of water equivalent so the energy thresholds should be correspondingly lower and higher respectively.

In a general discussion such as this one we can only make some qualitative remarks. If the LIP particles are produced in the atmosphere they should not arrive from directions below the horizon. A $`\frac{1}{5}`$$`e`$ charged particle would travel 25 times as far as a muon by virtue of its reduced energy loss, but that distance is still very small compared to the diameter of the earth.

To compare the results of the different experiments one should therefore, in principle, consider a particular physical model of production of the particles, a detailed description of the material above the detectors, and the detector acceptances (including their angular dependences).

###### Acknowledgements.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the director and of the staff of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and the invaluable assistance of the technical staff of the Institutions participating in the experiment. We thank the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. National Science Foundation for their generous support of the MACRO experiment. We thank INFN, ICTP (Trieste) and NATO for providing fellowships and grants (FAI) for non Italian citizens.


text:
# From Dixmier algebras to Star Products

## 1. Introduction

This note is a companion piece to \[B1\], and a bridge between the approaches to quantization of nilpotent orbit covers in \[B1\] and its sequel \[B2\]. See the introduction to \[B1\] for background, references and motivations.

The purpose of this note is to set out some basic relations between the representation theoretic notion of Dixmier algebras and the Poisson geometric notion of star products.

## 2. Perfect Dixmier algebras

Let $`𝒪`$ be a complex nilpotent orbit in some complex semisimple Lie algebra $`𝔤`$. We assume $`𝒪`$ spans $`𝔤`$. Let $`G^{sc}`$ be a simply-connected complex Lie group with Lie algebra $`𝔤`$.

Let $`\kappa :𝒪`$ be a covering where $``$ is connected. Then the following geometric structure lifts from $`𝒪`$ to $``$: the adjoint action of $`G^{sc}`$, the KKS symplectic form, the Hamiltonian functions $`\varphi ^x`$, $`x𝔤`$ defined by $`\varphi ^x(y)=(x,y)_𝔤`$, and the square of the Euler dilation action of $`^{}`$. In fact, $`G`$ acts on $``$ where $`G`$ is the quotient of $`G^{sc}`$ by the (finite central) subgroup which fixes $``$.

Consider the algebra

$$=R()$$
(2.1)
of regular functions on $``$. Then the Euler grading $`=_{j\frac{1}{2}}^j`$ makes $``$ into a graded Poisson algebra in the sense of \[B1, Definition 2.2.1\] with $`\varphi ^x^1`$, for $`x𝔤`$, and $`\{\varphi ^x,\varphi ^y\}=\varphi ^{[x,y]}`$. Also $``$ is a superalgebra with even and odd parts $`^{even}=_j^j`$ and $`^{odd}=_{j+\frac{1}{2}}^j`$. Let $`\alpha `$ be the algebra automorphism of $``$ such that $`\alpha (f)=i^{2j}f`$ if $`f^j`$. Notice $`\alpha ^4=1`$.

Suppose $`m`$ covers $`e𝒪`$. Then $``$ is a Galois cover of $`𝒪`$ if and only if $`G^m`$ is normal in $`G^e`$. In this event, $`𝒮=G^e/G^m`$ is the Galois group , $`𝒮`$ acts on $``$ by symplectic automorphisms, and our grading of $``$ is $`𝒮`$-invariant. The universal cover of $`𝒪`$ is always Galois.

Now we strengthen the usual definition of Dixmier algebra (Vogan, McGovern) by adding three new axioms in (V), (VI) and (VII). We allowed redundancies in our axioms in order to make them as explicit as possible.

###### Definition 2.1.

Assume the cover $``$ of $`𝒪`$ is Galois with Galois group $`𝒮`$. A *perfect Dixmier algebra* for $``$ is a noncommutative algebra $`𝒟`$ together with the following data:

1. An increasing algebra filtration $`𝒟=_{j\frac{1}{2}}𝒟_j`$ such that $`[𝒟_j,𝒟_k]𝒟_{j+k1}`$ for all $`j,k\frac{1}{2}`$.
2. A representation of $`𝒮`$ on $`𝒟`$ by filtered algebra automorphisms.
3. A Lie algebra embedding $`\psi :𝔤𝒟_1^𝒮`$ such that the representation of $`𝔤`$ on $`𝒟`$ given by the derivations $`a\psi ^xaa\psi ^x`$ is locally finite and exponentiates to a representation of $`G`$ on $`𝒟`$ by algebra automorphisms.
4. An $`𝒮`$-equivariant graded Poisson algebra isomorphism $`\gamma :gr𝒟`$ such that $`\gamma (𝐩_1(\psi ^x))=\varphi ^x`$ where $`𝐩_1:𝒟_1gr_1𝒟`$ is the natural projection.
5. An $`𝒮`$-invariant filtered algebra anti-automorphism $`\beta `$ of $`𝒟`$ such that (a) $`\beta (\psi ^x)=\psi ^x`$, (b) $`\beta `$ induces $`\gamma ^1\alpha \gamma `$ on $`gr𝒟`$ and (c) $`\beta ^4=1`$.

We impose two further axioms. To state these, we notice two useful consequences of (I)-(V). First there is a unique $`G`$-linear map $`T:𝒟`$ such that $`T(1)=1`$. Second, $`𝒟`$ has become a superalgebra with $`(G\times 𝒮)`$-invariant filtered algebra $`_2`$-grading $`𝒟=𝒟^{even}𝒟^{odd}`$ where the summands are the $`\pm 1`$-eigenspaces of $`\beta ^2`$. An element $`a𝒟`$ is *superhomogeneous* if $`a𝒟^{even}`$, in which case $`|a|=0`$, or $`a𝒟^{odd}`$, in which case $`|a|=1`$. Now we require that

1. $`T`$ is a supertrace.
2. The $`G`$-invariant supersymmetric bilinear pairing $`𝒫(a,b)=T(ab)`$ is non-degenerate on $`𝒟_j`$ for each $`j\frac{1}{2}`$.

In (VI), $`T`$ is a supertrace means that if $`a`$ and $`b`$ are superhomogeneous then

$$T(ab)=(1)^{|a||b|}T(ba)$$
(2.2)
when $`a`$ and $`b`$ have same parity, while $`T(ab)=0`$ when $`a`$ and $`b`$ have different parity. Axioms (IV) and (V) guarantee that $`T`$ vanishes on $`𝒟^{odd}`$ and so axiom (VI) amounts to (2.2).

To make sense of (VII), we notice if $`L𝒟`$ is any $`\beta ^2`$-stable subspace then we have a notion of the $`𝒫`$-orthogonal subspace $`L^{}`$ (since the right and left orthogonal subspaces coincide). We then say $`𝒫`$ is *non-degenerate* on $`L`$ if $`L^{}L=0`$. The pairing $`𝒫`$ is *supersymmetric* in the sense that $`𝒟^{even}`$ and $`𝒟^{odd}`$ are $`𝒫`$-orthogonal, $`𝒫`$ is symmetric on $`𝒟^{even}`$ and $`𝒫`$ is anti-symmetric on $`𝒟^{odd}`$. Notice that (VII) is much stronger than saying $`𝒫`$ is non-degenerate on $`𝒟`$.

We often speak of $`𝒟`$ as the perfect Dixmier algebra, with the additional data being understood. See \[B1, §7-8\] for examples.

Here are some consequences of the axioms. First $``$ is $``$-graded if and only if $`𝒟=𝒟^{even}`$. Indeed, $``$ is $``$-graded $``$ $`\alpha ^2=1`$ $``$ $`\beta ^2=1`$, where the last equivalence follows by axiom (V)(b). An instance where $``$ is $``$-graded is when $`=𝒪`$. Second, $`𝒟^𝒮`$ is a perfect Dixmier algebra for $`𝒪`$. This follows as $`^𝒮=R(𝒪)`$ and all the Dixmier algebra data for $``$ is $`𝒮`$-equivariant.

Third, axiom (IV) provides a “symbol calculus” for $`𝒟`$ with values in $``$. If $`a𝒟_j`$ then the *$`\gamma `$-symbol of a of order $`j`$* is the image of $`a`$ under the map

$$𝒟_j𝒟_j/𝒟_{j\frac{1}{2}}^j$$

Fourth, let us extend $`\psi :𝔤𝒟_1^𝒮`$ to an algebra homomorphism

$$\psi :𝒰(𝔤)𝒟^𝒮$$
(2.3)
and let $`J`$ be the kernel of (2.3). Then $`J𝒵(𝔤)`$ is a maximal ideal of $`𝒵(𝔤)`$ where $`𝒵(𝔤)`$ is the center of $`𝒰(𝔤)`$. This follows since by axioms (III) and (IV) the vector spaces $`𝔇`$, $`gr𝔇`$ and $`R(\stackrel{~}{𝒪})`$ are all $`𝔤`$-isomorphic and so in particular $`𝔇^G=`$.

Now (V)(a) says the following square is commutative:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}𝒰(𝔤)& \stackrel{\psi }{-⟶}& 𝒟\\ \tau & & \beta \\ 𝒰(𝔤)& \stackrel{\psi }{-⟶}& 𝒟\end{array}$$
(2.4)
where $`\tau `$ is the principal anti-automorphism of $`𝒰(𝔤)`$. Consequently $`J`$ is a $`\tau `$-stable $`2`$-sided ideal in $`𝒰(𝔤)`$. Furthermore $`J`$ is a completely prime primitive ideal in $`𝒰(𝔤)`$. ($`𝒰(𝔤)/J`$ is a subalgebra of $`𝒟`$ and so has no zero-divisors. This means $`J`$ is completely prime. But also $`J𝒰(𝔤)`$ and $`J`$ contains a maximal ideal of the center of $`𝒰(𝔤)`$ and so, by a result of Dixmier, $`J`$ is primitive.)

## 3. Simplicity of $`𝒟`$

###### Lemma 3.1.

Suppose axioms (I)-(VI) are satisfied. Let $`𝒞`$ be some $`\beta ^2`$-stable subalgebra of $`𝒟`$. Then the following two conditions are equivalent:

* $`𝒞`$ is a simple ring
* $`𝒫`$ is non-degenerate on $`𝒞`$

###### Proof.

(i)$``$(ii): $`𝒞`$ is simple implies $`𝒞^{}𝒞=0`$ since $`𝒞^{}𝒞`$ is a $`2`$-sided ideal in $`𝒞`$ which does not contain $`1`$.
(ii)$``$(i): Let $``$ be a non-zero two-sided ideal in $`𝒟^{}`$. Pick $`a`$ with $`a0`$. Then (ii) implies there exists $`b𝒞`$ such that $`T(ab)=1`$. It follows that $`ab=c+1`$ where $`c`$ lies in $`KerT𝒞`$. So $``$ contains $`c+1`$. But then $``$ contains the $`G`$-subrepresentation generated by $`c+1`$. Since $`KerT`$ contains no non-zero $`G`$-invariants it follows (by completely reducibility of $`𝒞`$ as a $`G`$-representation), that $``$ contains both $`c`$ and $`1`$. Thus $`𝒞`$ is simple. ∎

###### Proposition 3.2.

Suppose we are in the situation of Definition 2.1 and axioms (I)-(VI) are satisfied. Then $`𝒟`$ is a simple ring if and only if $`𝒟^𝒮`$ is a simple ring.

###### Proof.

Suppose $`𝒟`$ is simple. Then $`𝒫`$ is non-degenerate on $`𝒟`$ (by Lemma 3.1) and hence (since $`𝒫`$ is $`𝒮`$-invariant) $`𝒫`$ is non-degenerate on $`𝒟^𝒮`$. Then (by Lemma 3.1 again) $`𝒟^𝒮`$ is simple.

Conversely, assume $`𝒟^𝒮`$ is simple. Let $``$ be a non-zero $`2`$-sided ideal in $`𝒟`$. To show $`𝒟`$ is simple, it suffices to show that $`^𝒮=𝒟^𝒮`$ is non-zero. Let $`a`$. Consider $`b=(n!)^1_{\sigma S_n}(s_{\sigma _1}a)\mathrm{}(s_{\sigma _n}a)`$ where $`s_1,\mathrm{},s_n`$ is some listing of the elements of the Galois group $`𝒮`$. Clearly $`b^𝒮`$. But also we can see using axiom (IV) that $`b0`$. Indeed, let $`j`$ be the filtration order of $`a`$ in $`𝒟`$ and let $`\varphi ^j`$ be the $`\gamma `$-symbol of order $`j`$ of $`a`$. Then $`b`$ lies in $`𝒟_{jn}`$ and the $`\gamma `$-symbol of order $`jn`$ of $`b`$ is $`(s_{\sigma _1}\varphi )\mathrm{}(s_{\sigma _n}\varphi )`$. This product is non-zero and so $`b`$ must be non-zero. ∎

###### Corollary 3.3.

If $`𝒟`$ is a perfect Dixmier algebra then $`𝒟`$ and $`𝒟^𝒮`$ are both simple rings.

###### Corollary 3.4.

If $`𝒟`$ is a perfect Dixmier algebra and (2.3) is surjective, then the kernel $`J`$ is a maximal ideal in $`𝒰(𝔤)`$.

###### Remark 3.5.

Ideally the axioms for a perfect Dixmier algebra should automatically imply that the image of (2.3) is simple, i.e., that $`J`$ is maximal. Our axioms (I)-(VII) may not do this, but in any event our enriched axiom set (see Remark 4.4) accomplishes this.

## 4. The noncommutative $``$ product

By axiom (VII) in Definition 2.1, we have a unique $`𝒫`$-orthogonal decomposition

$$𝒟=\underset{j\frac{1}{2}}{}𝒟^j$$
(4.1)
such that $`𝒟_k=_{j=0}^k𝒟^j`$. Each space $`𝒟^j`$ is $`(G\times 𝒮)`$-stable. It is easy to see that

$$𝒫(a,b)=𝒫(\beta (b),\beta (a))$$

for all $`a,b𝒟`$. Consequently $`𝒟^j`$ is $`\beta `$-stable and using axiom (V)(b) we find that $`\beta `$ acts on $`𝒟^j`$ by multiplication by $`i^{2j}`$. Then $`𝒟^{even}=_j𝒟^j`$, $`𝒟^{odd}=_{j+\frac{1}{2}}𝒟^j`$ and $`T`$ is the orthogonal projection of $`𝒟`$ onto $`𝒟^0=`$. Clearly there is a unique linear map

$$𝐪:𝒟$$
(4.2)
such that $`𝐪`$ lifts $`\gamma ^1:gr𝒟`$ and $`𝐪(^j)=𝒟^j`$ for all $`j\frac{1}{2}`$. Then $`𝐪`$ is a $`(G\times 𝒮)`$-linear vector space isomorphism, and we have $`\psi ^x=𝐪^1\varphi ^x`$ and $`\beta =𝐪\alpha 𝐪^1`$. Now we define, for all $`\varphi ,\psi `$,

$$\varphi \psi =𝐪^1((𝐪\varphi )(𝐪\psi ))$$
(4.3)
###### Proposition 4.1.

Assume we have a perfect Dixmier algebra $`𝒟`$ for $``$ with $`𝒟^j`$ and $`𝐪`$ defined as above. Then $``$ is a $`(G\times 𝒮)`$-invariant associative product on $``$ and so $`(,+,)`$ is an associative noncommutative algebra. Then

$$^j^k^{j+k}^{j+k1}\mathrm{}^{|jk|}$$
(4.4)
where $`j,k\frac{1}{2}`$. Suppose $`\varphi ^j`$ and $`\psi ^k`$ so that $`\varphi \psi =_pC_p(\varphi ,\psi )`$ where $`C_p(\varphi ,\psi )`$ lies in $`^{j+kp}`$. Then

$`\varphi \psi `$ $``$ $`\varphi \psi +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\{\varphi ,\psi \}mod^{j+k2}`$ (4.5)
$`C_p(\varphi ,\psi )`$ $`=`$ $`(1)^pC_p(\psi ,\varphi )`$ (4.6)
###### Proof.

The second sentence is clear. Now (4.4) is equivalent to

$$𝒟^j𝒟^k𝒟^{j+k}𝒟^{j+k1}\mathrm{}𝒟^{|jk|}$$
(4.7)
We have $`𝒟^j𝒟^k_i𝒟^{j+ki}`$ since $`𝒟`$ is a superalgebra. Because of axiom (VII), showing (4.7) reduces to showing that $`𝒟^j𝒟^k`$ is orthogonal to $`𝒟^s`$ if $`s<|jk|`$. So suppose $`𝒟^j𝒟^k`$ is not orthogonal to $`𝒟^s`$. Then there exist $`a𝒟^j`$, $`b𝒟^k`$ and $`c𝒟^s`$ such that $`T(abc)=1`$. Then $`bc`$ has a component in $`𝒟^j`$ and so $`k+sj`$. But also $`T(bca)=\pm 1`$ (since $`T`$ is a supertrace) and so similarly $`s+jk`$. Hence $`s|jk|`$. Now for $`\varphi ^j`$ and $`\psi ^k`$ we can write

$$\varphi \psi =\underset{p=0}{\overset{2\mathrm{min}(j,k)}{}}C_p(\varphi ,\psi )$$
(4.8)
where $`C_p(\varphi ,\psi )^{j+kp}`$.

Now axiom (IV) implies that $`C_0(\varphi ,\psi )=\varphi \psi `$ and $`C_1(\varphi ,\psi )C_1(\psi ,\varphi )=\{\varphi ,\psi \}`$. But also axiom (V) implies that the map $`\alpha :`$ (which is an algebra automorphism with respect to the ordinary product) is an algebra anti-automorphism with respect to $``$. Thus

$$\alpha (\varphi \psi )=(\alpha \psi )(\alpha \varphi )=i^{2j+2k}\psi \varphi $$

Then $`i^{2p}C_p(\varphi ,\psi )=C_p(\psi ,\varphi )`$. This proves (4.6). Then in particular $`C_1(\varphi ,\psi )=C_1(\psi ,\varphi )`$. So $`C_1(\varphi ,\psi )=\frac{1}{2}\{\varphi ,\psi \}`$ and we get (4.5). ∎

We can think of $`𝐪:𝒟`$ a “quantization map” as in \[B1, §8.1-8.2\]. In particular we have

###### Corollary 4.2.

If $`\varphi ^1`$, for instance if $`\varphi =\varphi ^x`$ where $`x𝔤`$, then for all $`\psi `$ we have $`\{\varphi ,\psi \}=\varphi \psi \psi \varphi `$.

###### Proof.

Identical to the proof of \[B1, Corollary 8.2.3\]. ∎

Proposition 4.1 implies in particular that $``$, equipped with its $``$ product, *becomes the perfect Dixmier algebra*! The data on $`𝒟`$ required by the axioms corresponds under $`𝐪`$ to data that exist from the beginning on $``$:

(I) the grading on $``$ gives rise to the filtration by subspaces $`^j`$,

(II) the $`\psi ^x`$ correspond to the momentum functions $`\varphi ^x`$ of the Hamiltonian $`𝔤`$-symmetry,

(III) the Galois group $`𝒮`$ already acts on $``$,

(IV) $`\gamma `$ corresponds to the identity map,

(V) $`\beta `$ corresponds to $`\alpha `$.

Notice that the even and odd parts of $`𝒟`$ correspond to the even and odd parts of $``$. Also $`T`$ corresponds to the projection

$$𝒯:^0=$$
(4.9)
defined by the Euler grading. So $`𝒯(\varphi )`$ is just the *constant term* of $`\varphi `$. The nondegenerate bilinear pairing $`𝒬`$ on $``$ corresponding to $`𝒫`$ is given by $`𝒬(\varphi ,\psi )=𝒯(\varphi \psi )`$. This pairing is *graded* supersymmetric in the sense that $`𝒬`$ pairs $`^j`$ with $`^k`$ trivially if $`jk`$.

In this approach, the “new” axioms (VI) and (VII) have played a crucial role. Also we have gained a lot more structure on the Dixmier algebra. In particular the $``$ product “breaks off” after degree $`|jk|`$ in (4.4); this is a Clebsh-Gordan type phenomenon.

Thus the problem of finding a Dixmier algebra for $``$ can be reformulated as the problem of constructing a suitable product $``$ on $``$. To formalize this we make

###### Definition 4.3.

Assume $``$ is a Galois cover of $`𝒪`$ with Galois group $`𝒮`$. A *perfect Dixmier product* on $``$ is a $`(G\times 𝒮)`$-invariant associative noncommutative product $``$ satisfying (4.4), (4.5) and (4.6) such that the bilinear pairing $`𝒬(\varphi ,\psi )=𝒯(\varphi \psi )`$ on $``$ is graded supersymmetric and non-degenerate.

A perfect Dixmier product makes $``$ into a filtered superalgebra which then, together with the Hamiltonian functions $`\varphi ^x`$, $`x𝔤`$, and $`\alpha `$, is a perfect Dixmier algebra for $``$ in the sense of Definition 2.1. Conversely, we have shown that a perfect Dixmier algebra for $``$ yields a perfect Dixmier product on $``$.

###### Remark 4.4.

We can enrich our axiom set to get the notions for $``$ of a *positive Dixmier algebra* and a *positive Dixmier product*. The extra axioms require lifting the complex conjugation automorphism $`\sigma `$ of $`𝒪`$ (induced by the Cartan involution of $`𝔤`$) to an antiholomorphic automorphism $`\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$ of $``$ (of order $`2`$ or $`4`$) such that (i) $`\stackrel{~}{\sigma }`$ induces a $``$-antilinear $``$-algebra automorphism of $``$ and (ii) the Hermitian pairing $`(\varphi |\psi )=𝒯(\varphi \psi ^{\stackrel{~}{\sigma }})`$ is positive-definite. ($`𝒯`$ being a supertrace is equivalent to this pairing being Hermitian.) We develop this in \[B2\] in the context of star products.

## 5. Graded star products

Let $`𝒜=_{j\frac{1}{2}}𝒜^j`$ be a graded Poisson algebra as in \[B1, Definition 2.2.1\]. Assume $`𝒜^0=`$. Then a *graded star product* (with parity) on $`𝒜`$ is a product $``$ on $`𝒜[t]`$ which makes $`𝒜[t]`$ into an associative algebra over $`[t]`$ such that, for $`\varphi ,\psi 𝒜`$, the series $`\varphi \psi =_{p=0}^{\mathrm{}}C_p(\varphi ,\psi )t^p`$ satisfies:

(i) $`C_0(\varphi ,\psi )=\varphi \psi `$

(ii) $`C_1(\varphi ,\psi )=\frac{1}{2}\{\varphi ,\psi \}t`$

(iii) $`C_p(\varphi ,\psi )=(1)^pC_p(\psi ,\varphi )`$

(iv) $`C_p(\varphi ,\psi )𝒜^{j+kp}`$ when $`\varphi 𝒜^j`$ and $`\psi 𝒜^k`$

We do *not* require that $``$ is bidifferential, i.e. that the operators $`C_p(,)`$ are bidifferential.

A graded star product $``$ on $`𝒜`$ is specializes at $`t=1`$ to give a noncommutative product $``$ on $`𝒜`$. Clearly $``$ uniquely determines $``$. Let $`T:𝒜𝒜^0=`$ be the projection defined by the grading. Then we have a bilinear pairing $`𝒬:𝒜\times 𝒜`$ defined by

$$𝒬(\varphi ,\psi )=T(\varphi \psi )$$
(5.1)
Notice that $`𝒬(\varphi ,\psi )=C_{2k}(\varphi ,\psi )`$ if $`\varphi ,\psi 𝒜^k`$ and so the parity axiom (iii) implies that $`𝒬`$ is symmetric if $`k`$ or anti-symmetric if $`k+\frac{1}{2}`$.

###### Definition 5.1.

We say $``$ is *orthogonally graded* if $`𝒜^j`$ and $`𝒜^k`$ are $`𝒬`$-orthogonal when $`jk`$. We say $``$ is *perfectly graded* if also $`𝒬`$ is non-degenerate on $`𝒜^j`$ for each $`j`$.

Comparing with the proof of Proposition 4.1, we find

###### Lemma 5.2.

If $``$ is orthogonally graded then $`T`$ is a supertrace on $`𝒜`$ with respect to $``$. If $``$ is perfectly graded then

$$𝒜^j𝒜^k𝒜^{j+k}t𝒜^{j+k1}\mathrm{}t^{2\mathrm{min}(j,k)}𝒜^{|jk|}$$
(5.2)
Suppose we have Hamiltonian symmetry $`\varphi :𝔤𝒜^1`$, $`x\varphi ^x`$, as in \[B1, Definition 3.1.1\] Put $`[\varphi ,\psi ]_{}=\varphi \psi \psi \varphi `$. We say $``$ is *$`𝔤`$-covariant* if $`[\varphi ^x,\varphi ^y]_{}=t\varphi ^{[x,y]}`$ for all $`x,y𝔤`$. We say $``$ is *exactly $`𝔤`$-invariant* (or *strongly $`𝔤`$-invariant*) if we have the stronger property:

$$[\varphi ^x,\psi ]_{}=t\{\varphi ^x,\psi \}$$
(5.3)
for all $`x𝔤`$ and $`\psi 𝒜`$. Exact $`𝔤`$-invariance implies ordinary $`G`$-invariance, i.e., $`(g\psi _1)(g\psi _2)=g(\psi _1\psi _2)`$ where $`G`$ acts on $`𝒜[t]`$ by $`g(\psi t^p)=(g\psi )t^p`$.

###### Lemma 5.3.

If $``$ is an orthogonally graded star product on $`𝒜`$ then $``$ is exactly $`𝒜^1`$-invariant.

###### Proof.

If $`\varphi 𝒜^1`$ and $`\psi 𝒜`$ then $`\varphi \psi =\varphi \psi +\frac{1}{2}\{\varphi ,\psi \}t+t^2C_2(\varphi ,\psi )`$. Then $`[\varphi ^x,\psi ]_{}=t\{\varphi ^x,\psi \}`$ because of the parity axiom (iii). ∎

###### Lemma 5.4.

Suppose $``$ is a perfect Dixmier product on $``$. Then $``$ is the specialization at $`t=1`$ of a unique graded star product $``$ on $``$. Moreover $``$ is perfectly graded and $`𝒮`$-invariant.

Conversely, suppose $``$ is a perfectly graded, $`𝒮`$-invariant star product on $``$. Then the specialization at $`t=1`$ of $``$ is a perfect Dixmier product on $``$.

###### Proof.

Given $``$, we define a product $``$ on $`[t]`$ as follows: $``$ is $`[t]`$-bilinear and if $`\varphi ^j`$ and $`\psi ^k`$ with $`\varphi \psi =_{i=|jk|}^{j+k}\pi _i`$ where $`\pi _i^i`$ then $`\varphi \psi =_{i=|jk|}^{j+k}\pi _it^{j+ki}`$. This is the only possible way to extend $``$ to a graded star product. The properties of $``$ imply that $``$ is in fact a perfectly graded, $`𝒮`$-invariant star product. The converse is clear. ∎

### 5.1. The operators $`𝚲^𝒙`$

Here is an important consequence of perfectness.

###### Proposition 5.5.

Suppose we have a perfect Dixmier product $``$ on $``$. For $`x𝔤`$ and any $`\psi `$ we have

$$\varphi ^x\psi =\varphi ^x\psi +\frac{1}{2}\{\varphi ^x,\psi \}+\mathrm{\Lambda }^x(\psi )$$
(5.4)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^x:`$ are linear operators. These satisfy

* $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^x`$ is the $`𝒬`$-adjoint of ordinary multiplication by $`\varphi ^x`$.
* If $`x0`$ and $`j`$ is positive, then $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^x`$ is non-zero somewhere on $`^j`$.
* $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^x`$ is graded of degree $`1`$, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^x(^j)^{j1}`$.
* The operators $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^x`$ commute, i.e., $`[\mathrm{\Lambda }^x,\mathrm{\Lambda }^y]=0`$ for all $`x,y𝔤`$.
* The operators $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^x`$ transform in the adjoint representation of $`𝔤`$, i.e., $`[\mathrm{\Phi }^x,\mathrm{\Lambda }^y]=\mathrm{\Lambda }^{[x,y]}`$ where $`\mathrm{\Phi }^x=\{\varphi ^x,\}`$.
* The operators $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^x`$ commute with the $`𝒮`$-action on $``$.

###### Proof.

Same as the proof of \[B1, Corollary 8.4.1\]. ∎

If we identify $``$ with $`𝒟`$ via $`𝐪`$, then we get the representation

$$\mathrm{\Pi }:𝔤𝔤End_𝒮,\mathrm{\Pi }^{(x,y)}(\psi )=\varphi ^x\psi \psi \varphi ^y$$
(5.5)
Then Proposition 5.5 gives

###### Corollary 5.6.

For $`x𝔤`$ we have $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{(x,x)}=\eta ^x`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }^{(x,x)}=2\varphi ^x+2\mathrm{\Lambda }^x`$.