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# Anomalous NMR Spin-Lattice Relaxation in SrB6 and Ca1-xLaxB6

## Abstract

We report the results of 11B nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements of SrB6 and Ca0.995La0.005B6 below room temperature. Although the electrical resistivities of these two materials differ substantially, their 11B-NMR responses exhibit some strikingly common features. Both materials exhibit ferromagnetic order, but their 11B-NMR spectra reveal very small hyperfine fields at the Boron sites. The spin lattice relaxation $`T_1^1`$ varies considerably with external field but changes with temperature only below a few K. We discuss these unusual results by considering various different scenarios for the electronic structure of these materials.

Hexaboride compounds XB6 (X= elements of the alkaline-earth and lanthanide series) have previously been studied , but they continue to reveal new and unexpected physical properties . This is particularly true for the case of divalent hexaborides such as EuB6 , CaB6  and SrB6  whose physical properties seem to depend on subtle details of the electronic band structure, and are very sensitive to the presence of microscopic imperfections . Recent research efforts involving these systems resulted in an unexpected discovery of ferromagnetic ordering of tiny magnetic moments in La-doped CaB6  with Curie temperatures of the order of 600 K. Subsequently, ferromagnetic order was also encountered in the nominally binary compounds SrB6 and CaB6, as well as La-doped BaB6 .

In this letter we present and discuss NMR data obtained on ferromagnetic SrB6 and Ca0.995La0.005B6. The compounds XB6 all crystallize by adopting the CaB6 type structure with the space group Pm3m. The Boron ions, directly probed by our NMR experiments, form a rigid network of interconnected Boron octahedra. The point symmetry of the B-sites is 4mm and allows for nonzero axially-symmetric electric-field gradients. Somewhat unexpectedly, the 11B-NMR response is largely insensitive to the magnitude of the electrical resistivities of these materials. At 1 K, the value of the electrical resistivity $`\rho `$ of the two samples differs by a factor of 30, but there is no appreciable difference in the spin-lattice relaxation rate $`T_1^1`$ at this temperature. The $`T_1^1(T)`$ data reflect neither a metallic nor a semiconducting behavior. Furthermore the data do not provide straightforward evidence for the ferromagnetism that is indicated by $`M(H)`$ measurements on the same samples. However, the spin-lattice relaxation rate is orders of magnitude larger than what may be expected from a relaxation via itinerant electrons alone. We interpret this as evidence for the presence of weakly localized electronic states, with unusual dynamics. These states coexist with extended states responsible for the electrical transport and may be related to the unusual ferromagnetism observed in these materials.

For our NMR experiments we used standard spin-echo techniques. The samples consisted of collections of small single crystals, grown by the Al-flux method. The materials have extensively been characterized by measurements of thermal and transport properties.

In Fig. 1 we display examples of the recorded 11B NMR spectra for SrB6, Ca0.995La0.005B6 and LaB6, measured at a fixed applied field of 5.195 T and at temperatures of 3.17, 3.12 and 1.53 K respectively. The shape of the 11B-NMR spectra is characteristic for nuclear spins $`I=3/2`$ in powder samples with randomly oriented grains. From the extension of the wings of the spectra we infer quadrupolar frequencies, $`\nu _Q=e^2qQ/2h`$, of 600, 550 and 530 kHz for Ca0.995La0.005B6, SrB6 and LaB6 respectively. The corresponding electric field-gradients at the B sites are 1.40, 1.28 and $`1.2310^{21}`$V/m2, respectively, in excellent agreement (better than 5 %) with theoretical values predicted for SrB6 and CaB6 .

The prominent signal near the center of the spectra represents the +1/2 to -1/2 11B-nuclear Zeeman transition, and its position indicates that the NMR lineshift is very small, of the order of 80 ppm or less. Below room temperature we found no substantial temperature-induced changes in the position of the NMR line for any of these materials. The width of the central line, FWHM = 23 kHz, is of the order of those of good metallic samples. No appreciable differences are found in the position and width of the central transition for LaB6 with 1 conduction electron per unit cell and SrB6 as well as Ca0.995La0.005B6, with conduction electron concentrations $`n_c510^3`$ electrons per unit cell and exhibiting ferromagnetic ordering below 600 K. In ferromagnetic powders the NMR linewidth is largely determined by demagnetization factors, yielding a variation of the local fields of the order of the magnetization. In our case this implies a magnetic moment of 10-1 Bohr magnetons per unit cell, an upper limit consistent with our data. The actual ordered moment may be much smaller.

In Fig. 2a we display the temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation rate $`T_1^1`$ of SrB6 for various applied magnetic fields. The $`T_1^1`$’s were obtained from one-parameter fits to the nuclear magnetization recovery $`m(t)`$ of the central transition after it was completely destroyed by the application of a short or a long sequence of $`rf`$-pulses. The $`m(T)`$ data at the wings of the signal also follow the expected theoretical function (different from the one for the central line) for the case of magnetic relaxation and yield the same $`T_1`$ values. Two different regimes above and below a field-dependent crossover temperature $`T_0`$ may be identified. At low temperatures, $`T<T_0`$, $`T_1^11/(H^2T^\alpha )`$ with $`\alpha `$ of the order of -2 (see Figs. 2a and 2b), and at high temperatures $`T_1^1`$ is approximately $`T`$-independent and proportional to $`1/H`$ for $`H>1`$ T. The strong field dependence of $`T_1^1(T)`$ also suggests that the relaxation is of magnetic origin, and therefore invokes electronic degrees of freedom. Note that $`T_1^1(T)`$ cannot be reconciled with the expectations for a conventional ferromagnet. For $`TT_C`$, $`i.e.`$, below 50 K and ferromagnetic order among well localized moments, $`T_1^1(T)`$ is expected to vary as a power-law in $`T`$ or exponentially-in-$`1/T`$. In case of ferromagnetic order among small and itinerant magnetic moments, $`T_1^1(T)T`$. Neither case agrees with our data, therefore, we have to consider other sources of spin-lattice relaxation.

We first consider a relaxation via spurious paramagnetic impurities, hereafter referred to as impurity relaxation. In the case of impurity relaxation, $`T_1^1`$ usually scales linearly with the impurity concentration $`n_{imp}`$ for a large range of values, as observed, $`e.g.`$, for Ga impurities in LaAl2 where $`T_1^1n_{imp}`$ for $`n_{imp}`$ between 0.001 and 0.1. Since $`T_1^1(T)`$ for SrB6 and Ca0.995La0.005B6 coincide (see Fig. 3), the assumption of a substantial impurity relaxation would imply that both materials would suffer from, within a few percent, the same concentration of the same type of paramagnetic impurities, a rather unlikely situation. Further evidence against this scenario is provided by the results of S. Kunii who, using ESR techniques, searched for but did not find hints for magnetic impurities, such as Fe and Eu, in a ferromagnetic sample of Ca0.995La0.005B6. We conclude that $`T_1^1`$ in SrB6 and Ca0.995La0.005B6 is not dominated by unintended paramagnetic impurities.

Next we consider the relaxation due to conduction electrons. It has been found that for LaB6, above 30 K, $`(T_1T)^1710^4`$ K-1s-1 . This small value is consistent with the observed NMR lineshift and indicates a very weak coupling between the conduction electrons and the B nuclei in LaB6. From a simple scaling of $`(T_1T)^1`$ by considering the differences in $`n_c`$, a three orders of magnitude weaker spin-lattice relaxation is expected for SrB6 and La-doped CaB6. However, as shown in Fig. 2, $`(T_1T)^1`$ of SrB6 below 30 K is larger than or equal to the values of LaB6 extrapolated from the results of the high-temperature measurements at 4.7 T . Thus the direct relaxation rate $`T_1^1`$ due to conduction electrons is too small to be of relevance for the alkaline-earth hexaborides. Naturally, this poses the problem of identifying a source, other than the low-energy excitations of conduction electrons to account for the spin-lattice relaxation data. Below we consider three different scenarios that have recently been discussed in connection with the electronic structure of these materials.

First we consider the case of a band overlap at the $`X`$ point of the Brillouin zone for divalent hexaborides. For this case, as pointed out by Zhitomirsky and Rice , a Bose condensation of electron-hole pairs, excitons, is likely to occur, leading to ferromagnetic order among tiny moments below a high Curie temperature $`T_C`$ upon doping. Little is known about the dynamic susceptibility of the excitonic condensate. On very general grounds, however, and drawing parallels with the case of superconductivity, at very low temperatures ($`TT_C`$) one may expect a very small, and rapidly decreasing relaxation rate upon decreasing temperature, which is not observed here for $`T_0TT_C`$.

Next we consider the case of a very small gap at the $`X`$ point of the Brillouin zone, $`i.e.`$, a gap of the order of the excitonic binding energy. The excitonic condensate mentioned in the previous scenario would not form, but for this case a novel spin-lattice relaxation mechanism has recently been suggested. Under certain conditions the formation of “multiexciton molecules” containing several electron-hole pairs in SrB6 and CaB6 near impurities seems energetically favorable. The exciton molecules are expected to carry an uncompensated spin 1/2 and their thermally-induced spin flips are very effective in producing nuclear relaxation. The technical details of this interesting picture, in particular the temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation, still have to be worked out.

Since a temperature independent $`T_1^1`$ is likely to be caused by localized magnetic moments, we finally consider yet another case. With a gap at the $`X`$ point of the Brillouin zone that exceeds the excitonic binding-energy, the conditions for the two previous cases are not fulfilled. Instead we consider a relaxation due to localized electronic states, as they occur in doped semiconductors close to the metal-insulator transition. Here the NMR relaxation is caused by thermally-induced spin-flips of weakly bound holes around vacancies on the alkaline-earth sites, and electrons below a certain mobility edge. We refer to both of them as weakly localized electronic states. Since the physical picture is relatively simple, we first check the consistency of such a scenario.

Weakly localized electronic states contribute very little to the electronic transport at low temperatures but, contrary to the extended electronic states may, as discussed below, cause a temperature independent relaxation. Mobile electrons and holes formed by conduction band states of Ca and Sr and by $`p`$-orbitals of B, respectively  are, via the magnetic dipolar interaction, only weakly coupled to the B-nuclei. For a weakly localized state with a wave-function effective radius $`r`$, however, the dipolar field at the B sites within the orbital is proportional to $`r^3`$. Its hyperfine coupling to the B-nuclei increases rapidly as $`r`$ decreases. In doped semiconductors near the IMT, weakly localized and extended states coexist , and we assume the same to occur for SrB6 and Ca0.995La0.005B6. The extended electronic states induced by defects and doping contribute to the electronic transport and are only weakly coupled to the localized electrons. If localized states cause the experimental observations, they should have approximately the same concentration for various divalent hexaborides, near the critical concentration for delocalization. Judging from the $`\rho (T)`$ data these states are of the order of 10 to 20 meV below the delocalization threshold . Consider, for example, a single hole bound to a vacancy with an effective charge $`2e`$, at a Sr site in SrB6. The effective mass of the holes  $`|m^{}|=0.24`$ $`m_e`$, with $`m_e`$ as the free electron mass, and the dielectric constant $`ϵ6`$ , yield for the $`H`$type state an effective radius $`r_0`$ $`9`$ lattice constants. Delocalization ($`i.e.`$, the IMT) is expected for a concentration $`N_ir_0^3210^{19}`$ cm-3. The binding energy of a single $`H`$-type state $`E_b0.18`$ eV is about one order of magnitude too large to match the $`\rho (T)`$ data, but the energy needed for delocalization rapidly decreases from $`E_b`$ as the IMT is approached from the insulating side. Of course the relatively large value of $`N_i`$ should have measurable effects on the thermal and transport properties. This seems to be the case for SrB6, and Ca0.995La0.005B6, where anomalies in the temperature dependence of the specific heat have been found at low temperatures. For SrB6, $`e.g.`$, the entropy associated with the excess specific heat below 7K saturates at 0.05$`\%`$ of $`R\mathrm{ln}2`$ at 7 K. For spin-1/2 particles this implies a concentration of $`0.710^{19}`$ cm-3, a value close to $`N_i10^{19}`$ estimated above.

Following these arguments the $`T_1^1`$ data for $`T>T_0`$ may qualitatively be understood. The NMR relaxation rate caused by localized electronic states interacting with the nuclei via dipolar coupling is given by

$$\frac{1}{T_1}\frac{2}{5}\frac{\gamma _S^2\gamma _I^2\mathrm{}^2S(S+1)}{r_0^6}f(\omega )=Cf(\omega ),$$
(1)
where $`\gamma _S`$ and $`\gamma _I`$ are the gyromagnetic ratios for electrons and 11B nuclei, respectively, $`S`$ is the electron spin and $`f(\omega )`$ is the spectral function describing the thermal fluctuations of the localized-electron system. The Larmor frequency $`\omega `$ is proportional to the applied magnetic field. Most of the spectral weight of $`f(\omega )`$ is assumed to be contained in a finite range of frequencies, from 0 up to $`1/\tau `$, where $`\tau `$ is the (electron) spin correlation time. Since it is not possible to calculate $`\tau `$ from first principles, except for very simple situations, one usually assumes the high-temperature approximation $`f(\omega )=\tau /(1+\omega ^2\tau ^2)`$.

To keep the arguments simple we neglect here complications due to spin diffusion. Following the ideas of Gan and Lee, the interaction between localized electrons near the IMT results in the formation of pairs with a broad distribution of singlet-triplet splittings $`J`$. When $`J2\mu _eH2\mu _nH`$ the random singlet-triplet transitions produce nuclear relaxation very effectively. The localized electron system is then characterized by a broad distribution $`P`$ of correlation times $`\tau `$. The model is completed with

$$f(\omega )=_{\tau _{min}}^{\tau _{max}}P(\tau )\frac{\tau }{1+\omega ^2\tau ^2},\omega \tau _{min}1\omega \tau _{max}.$$
(2)
Since in our case $`P(\tau )1/\tau `$, $`f(\omega )(1/\omega )\mathrm{arctan}(\omega \tau _{max})1/\omega `$, which in Eq. 1 yields a temperature independent relaxation with $`T_1^11/H`$. This behavior, as observed in our data above the crossover temperature $`T_0`$ and $`H>1`$ T, has previously been reported for doped semiconductors not far from the IMT.

The different behavior of $`T_1^1(T,H)`$ below $`T_0`$ may be interpreted as evidence for changes in $`f(\omega )`$ at low temperatures. In particular our data for $`TT_0`$ hints for a rapid increase of the minimum correlation time $`\tau _{min}(T)T^2`$ to values much larger than $`\omega ^1`$ and a drastic reduction of the range of active $`\tau `$’s. This yields $`f(\omega )1/(\omega ^2\tau _{min})`$ and $`T_1^11/(H^2T^2)`$.

In summary, we have shown that the 11B-NMR spin-lattice relaxation for SrB6 and Ca0.995La0.005B6 is anomalous. In case of a large band gap at the $`X`$ point of the Brillouin zone our $`T_1^1`$ data can be explained by postulating the coexistence of localized and extended electronic states with a very weak interaction between them. With this scenario we still face the problem concerning the origin of the weak but stable ferromagnetism in these materials. If the band gap is small, $`T_1^1(T)`$ might be caused by spin-flips of “excitonic molecules” pinned to impurity or defect sites. Finally, we see no simple way to explain our $`T_1^1(T)`$ data if there is a band overlap.

This work was financially supported by the Schweizerische Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung. We greatly acknowledge helpful discussions with R. Monnier, L. Degiorgi and M. Zhitomirsky.


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# Detection of a Corrugated Velocity Pattern in the Spiral Galaxy NGC 5427. 1footnote 11footnote 1Based on observations made with the William Herschel Telescope operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

## 1 Introduction

It has been known for decades that the gaseous disk of our Galaxy displays coherent vertical distortions (Kerr 1957; Gum, Kerr & Westerhout 1960). In particular, for locations inside the solar circle, a wavy structure has been observed in the vertical distribution of several interstellar tracers, including the atomic and ionized components (Lockman 1977; Sanders, Solomon & Scoville 1984; Spicker & Feitzinger 1986; Malhotra 1995), and young stellar objects ( e. g. Dixon 1967; Alfaro et al. 1992a,b; Berdnikov & Efremov 1993). These undulations, distributed above and below the mean Galactic plane and in both the azimuthal and radial directions, have been termed as “corrugations”, and they seem to be common features appearing in disk galaxies. They have also been detected in both the gaseous and stellar disks of other spiral galaxies such as M31 (Arp 1964), NGC 4244, and NGC 5023 (Florido et al. 1991).

Their origin could be ascribed to either well localized features, such as spiral arms and collisions with high-velocity clouds (HVC), or large scale perturbations, such as gravitational interactions. For instance, some authors have explored the possibility of undulations along spiral arms, induced by magneto-gravitational instabilities ( e. g. Nelson 1985; Gómez de Castro & Pudritz 1992; Kim et al. 1997; Franco et al. 2000). In this case, the arms are corrugated by the undular mode (Parker 1966) of the instability, and the structuring occurs $`only`$ in the azimuthal direction (a possible association to the radial patterns could be made if one assumes that these are the projection of the azimuthal corrugations on the radial direction). Another localized origin could be ascribed to collisions of HVC with the disk of a galaxy: HVC impacts could cause the midplane disk to oscillate in a mode of wavy patterns as well (Franco et al. 1988; Santillán et al. 1999). In the large scale scenario, the undulations represent the natural response of the disk, which behaves like a loose drumhead, to the perturbations induced either by some companion galaxies or other galactic subsystems (Weinberg 1991; Edelsohn & Elmegreen 1997).

One obvious inference is that these corrugations should be associated with equally undulated coherent motions, and models addressing the vertical displacements also show wave-like $`z`$-velocity fields with amplitudes of the order of tens of km s-1 ( e. g. Nelson 1976, 1985; Franco et al. 1989, 2000; Edelsohn & Elmegreen 1997; Kim et al. 1997; Santillán et al. 2000). Despite this expectation, however, the data about actual velocity features associated with spatial corrugations are scarce. The observational evidence for small-scale distortions in the vertical velocity fields of disk galaxies comes from the so-called rolling motions in our Galaxy (observed in the $`bV`$ plots of the HI galactic distribution; Yuan & Wallace 1973; Feitzinger & Spicker 1985), the velocity field of the ionized gas in M 51 (Goad, De Veny & Goad 1979), rotation curves of some spirals (Pismis 1965; Rubin, Ford & Thonnard 1980), and optical and radio isovelocity maps of some field galaxies (Bosma 1978; Pismis 1986). In particular, the study of the velocity field of the ionized gas in M 51 performed by Goad, De Veny & Goad (1979) suggests that part of the observed nonrotational velocities could be due to motions perpendicular to the plane of the disk. Pismis (1965, 1986), on the other hand, has pointed out the relevance of analyzing the location of the velocity undulations in the rotation curve with respect to the spiral structure of the host galaxy. Clearly, all this kinematic information may be important in our understanding of corrugations.

In this paper we report the detection of a corrugated velocity field in the ionized gas of the nearly face-on spiral NGC 5427. The central velocity of the H$`\alpha `$ emission line shows velocity shifts with similar behavior when the gas passes through the spiral arms. This behavior can be understood as due to a hydraulic jump, or bore, generated by the interaction of the spiral density wave with the gas of a thick gaseous disk, as discussed by Martos & Cox (1998, hereafter MC) and Martos et al. (1999). The detection of this velocity pattern in NGC 5427 does not answer the current questions about the morphogenesis of corrugations, but represents a powerful tool to explore further the theoretical and observational aspects of the problem. The paper has been organized in three sections, the first one being this introduction; section 2 is devoted to the description of the observations and reduction procedure and, finally, in section 3, we discuss the results and outline the main conclusions.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

NGC 5427 is a nearly face-on spiral, interacting with the spiral NGC 5426. The two galaxies in this binary system have the same morphological classification, SA(s)c, in the RC2 (de Vaucouleurs, de Vaucouleurs & Corwin 1976), and they are cataloged as object 276 in the atlas of Arp (1966), and object 21 in the catalogue of Vorontsov-Velyaminov (1959). The system has been studied photometric and spectroscopically by Blackman (1982). The inclination of NGC 5427 with respect to the plane of the sky is about 30, and the position angle for the line of nodes is about 70 (Blackman 1982; Grosbol 1985). The star formation properties of NGC 5427 are studied by González-Delgado & Pérez (1992, 1997) and González-Delgado et al. (1997), who have analyzed the H$`\alpha `$ emission and the luminosity and size distribution functions. The nucleus of NGC 5427 is classified as a Seyfert type 2, and Colina et al. (1997) have studied the relative importance of the circumnuclear star formation and nuclear activity.

The observations were done with the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, during a director’s service night, 18 March 1990. We used the red arm of the ISIS spectrograph with an EEV CCD chip and the grating R600. A spectral range of 900 Å was covered with a dispersion of 0.74 Å pixel-1, centered at 6560 Å. The sampling along the spatial direction is 0.33 arcsec pixel-1, equivalent to 56 pc/pixel 222According to the NED IPAC Database, we adopt a recession velocity of 2618 km s-1 for NGC 5427., thus for $`\mathrm{H}_0=75\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$, the scale is 170 pc arcsec-1. An exposure of 2000 s was secured through a 4 arcmin long, 1 arcsec wide slit at a position angle of 45 across the nucleus (Fig. 1).

The data were reduced using the FIGARO data processing software. Bias and flat-fielding were performed in the usual way. A two dimensional wavelength calibration was done using the program ARC2D (Wilkins & Axon 1991) by fitting a third order polynomial to the position of the lines in the calibration lamp frames; the rms deviation from the fits was less than 0.1 Å. The FWHM of the sky lines \[O I\] $`\lambda \lambda `$6300,6363 measured in the wavelength calibrated frame of NGC 5427 is 1.51$`\pm `$0.06 Å and 1.57$`\pm `$0.08 Å, thus the spectral resolution is better than 1.6 Å. The spectrum was flux calibrated using a flux standard observed through a very wide slit, and the sky background subtracted.

We used the program LONGSLIT (Wilkins & Axon 1991) to interactively perform a gaussian fit to the emission lines along the slit. The program output includes the position and intensity of the emission lines, together with the respective fitting errors. The rms error in velocity due to the wavelength calibration is 1.3 km s-1, smaller than errors in the gaussian fit. In the subsequent manipulation of the data, we propagate the errors accordingly. The final errors are shown in figures 2a,b where the main contribution comes from the gaussian fit uncertainties.

## 3 Results and interpretation

Figure 2a shows the deprojected radial velocity of NGC 5427, Vdeproj, together with the full intensity curves for the emission line H$`\alpha `$ along the slit. The velocity curve has been corrected for the galaxy systemic motion, the projection with respect to the plane of the sky (30) and the P.A. of the line of nodes (70). Our data is more extended towards the north-east, away from the interaction zone with NGC 5426. The southern half of NGC 5427 is significantly affected by the presence of NGC 5426 but, in contrast, the northern half of the galaxy does not show any significant structural perturbation and seems to be relatively undisturbed. Thus, the north-south velocity asymmetries are likely due to the perturbation induced by NGC 5426. The asymmetry in the star forming properties is also interesting, and it has been discussed by Blackman (1982) and González-Delgado & Pérez (1992). The figure shows a remarkably well defined wave-like structure in the central velocity, superimposed to a gentle rise towards the north-east. Figure 2b shows the variations in the deprojected velocity $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{deproj}`$ (see below), when the slit passes through the 3 spiral features located at galactocentric distances from 5 to 10 kpc in the north-east. The amplitude of the variations $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Vdeproj is in the range $`\pm 20\mathrm{to}\pm 30\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for the three main features. In this figure, the velocity has been de-trended by fitting a linear component to the gentle rise, and is presented upside-down with respect to Fig. 2a: so that blueshifted material is seen higher in the velocity axis.

The cross-correlation of the velocity and intensity curves for these three features shows that the peak velocities are displaced from the peak intensities by the same distance in all three cases. This is shown in Figure 3 (full line), together with the auto-correlations for the velocity (dotted) and intensity (dashed) curves: a negative lag indicates a shift toward smaller galactocentric distances. The FWHM of the auto-correlation functions is 560 pc for the intensity, and 910 pc for the velocity. The velocity versus intensity cross-correlation function is slightly asymmetrical, with a peak at 300 pc and a full width at zero intensity centroid at 500 pc. Thus the displacement between the peak velocities and the arm peak intensities amounts to about a half of the arm width.

An inspection of the WPFC2 image from the HST archive, taken through the F606W filter (Figure 4) shows the location of the dust lanes along the spiral arms. In the central regions (inside $`r25`$ arcsec), the dust lanes are located in the concave (interior) side of the spiral arms. For the regions external to 25 arcsec, however, the position of the dust lanes depends on the interaction with NGC 5426. For the NE region, which is relatively unperturbed and the residual velocity curve is better defined, the dust lanes are clearly located in the convex (exterior) side of the arms. In contrast, the heavily perturbed SW region displays a different pattern and, even as far as 50 arcsecs away the center, the dust lanes appear in the concave (interior) side of the arm. These north-south asymmetries, as stated above, are due to the velocity perturbations induced by NGC 5426 and the co-rotation radius cannot be defined in a unique form in this galaxy. For the purposes of the present study, however, we restrict the analysis to the relatively unperturbed NE region and use the location of the dust lanes to infer the direction of gas flow through the arms.

The wavy structure of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Vdeproj represents the projection of the residual galactic velocity on the line of sight, once corrected from systemic and rotational velocities. The system velocity has been estimated at the position of the maximum emission at the core. $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Vdeproj can be written in terms of the inclination angle, $`i`$, and the angle between the position vector and the line of nodes, $`\varphi `$, as

$$\mathrm{\Delta }V_{deproj}=\mathrm{\Delta }V_{}cos(i)+\mathrm{\Delta }V_{}sin(i),$$
$`(1)`$
and assuming that the parallel component is only due to rotation

$$\mathrm{\Delta }V_{deproj}=\mathrm{\Delta }V_{}cos(i)+r\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }sin(i)cos(\varphi ),$$
$`(2)`$
where $`r`$ is the galactocentric radius, V is the vertical velocity component, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the angular rotation speed in the local galactic frame. According to this expression there are three main factors (or any combination of them) that could be producing the undulation of the residual velocity: (i) The galactic disk is not planar and $`i`$ changes with galactocentric radius. (ii) The galaxy has a corrugated vertical velocity component. (iii) The rotation curve of the gas is accelerated and decelerated in a cyclic way. The inclination of NGC 5427 ($``$30) is small enough to place vertical motions nearly on the line of sight and yet large enough to exhibit the rotational motions. From the second term in eqn. (2), and even when a good fraction of the velocity corrugation is likely vertical, one cannot discard the presence of velocity components parallel to the disk.

Figure 2b shows that the approaching (negative values) peaks in $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{deproj}`$ occur in the convex border of the arms, whereas the receding maxima (positive values) are located behind the H$`\alpha `$ emission maxima, in the concave side. An approaching velocity means that the gas is either flowing up to higher galactic latitudes, or the rotation velocity is decelerating. On the other hand, the receding velocities indicate that the gas is either falling down onto the galactic plane, or is accelerating. Given that the FHWM of the velocity auto-correlation function is almost twice the FWHM of the H$`\alpha `$ intensity auto-correlation, it seems as if the gas flow is decelerating and jumping above the arm and depositing material in the concave side. This behavior is similar to the response of a gas flow into a spiral density wave in a thick and magnetized gaseous disk, as recently discussed by MC. They found that the gas entering a spiral arm rises suddenly on the upstream side of the arm, then accelerates and bends downward, finally landing on a large downfall region downstream of the arm. Figure 5 illustrates this dynamical behavior for case 28 of MC, in which the radial extent of the arm is 1 kpc. The center of the horizontal axis, $`x=0`$, corresponds to the minimum of the potential well; $`z`$ is the vertical distance above the midplane, and the magnetic field is oriented perpendicular to the $`xz`$ plane, along the long axis of the arm. The upstream ascent and downstream downfall of the gas above the arm are so predicted by the model in this numerical MHD simulation.

This scenario fits quite well the phenomenology that we find in NGC 5427. The observed deprojected velocity amplitudes are of the same order as the ones found by MC. Figure 5 shows that one should expect that the approaching velocity maxima would appear in the upstream side of the arms; for NGC 5427 these maxima are located in the convex borders. Thus, if the observed velocity pattern is induced by a spiral density wave the gas is entering the arm through the convex side, what can only occur outward of the co-rotation radius in a trailing arm. This is supported by the geometrical arguments described above. Thus, the main features observed in the radial corrugated velocity pattern seem to be explained by the perturbations originated in the velocity field pattern of gas encountering a spiral arm. Such a velocity field occurs on both sides of the galactic midplane, generating doubled emission lines. The relative strengths of these two components depend on the relative position of the gas centroid with respect to the center of the spiral potential minimum, but the extinction through the disk and the low emissivity of gas in the interarm regions can make it difficult to detect, or separate, the emission generated on the far side of the disk. The optical thickness of spiral galaxies is highly variable across the disk; it is optically thin in most parts of the interarm regions and much more opaque along the arms, particularly in the dust patches (e. g. Disney, Davies & Phillipps 1989; Marziani et al. 1999). Our spectroscopic data passing through the three spiral features of the NE region could reach visual extinctions between 1-4 magnitudes (Marziani et al. 1999). At present we cannot provide specific extintion values along the arms, but it is possible that the H$`\alpha `$ emission generated at the back side is below our detection limit. The opacity in the interarm regions is certainly much lower, but the emissivity of the ionized gas is also much smaller and the signal to noise ratio is accordingly lower. Nonetheless, there is a hint that we may be detecting some of the far side emission because the FWHM of the emission lines increases in the high velocity features. Figure 6 shows that the emission with $`|\mathrm{\Delta }V|>10`$ km s-1 has larger dispersion values, but the low signal to noise ratio prevents us to discern between foreground and background velocity peaks (we thank the referee for pointing out this possibility). More work with higher quality data is needed to conclusively resolve this issue.

Even though the galactic bore model seems to provide a very appealing explanation to the observed velocity corrugations in NGC 5427, other mechanisms could also be inducing or enhancing the corrugations of the velocity field. The fact that this galaxy is a member of an interacting pair, whose companion has a mass similar or larger than NGC 5427, makes it likely that the perturbations originated by the tidal interaction will largely affect the velocity field, producing corrugated patterns (Edelsohn & Elmegreen 1997). In addition, the azimuthal corrugations in the arms originated by magneto-gravitational instabilities (Franco et al. 2000) must also be present and superimposed with the other deviations of the velocity field. We notice, however, that the velocity field resulting from the Parker instability will be esentially that of a downfall (towards the midplane) along the bent magnetic field lines, and not the rising and falling motions expected from the galactic bore picture.

Summarizing, here we report the detection of a corrugated velocity pattern in the disk of NGC 5427. A detailed analysis of this velocity structure shows a remarkable good qualitative agreement between the observed features and those derived from the galactic bore model described by MC and Martos et al. (1999). Given that the only requirements for this mechanism to work are the existence of a spiral density wave and a magnetic field (with a strength similar to those observed in our Galaxy; see MC and discussion therein), the generation of radial velocity corrugations must be a common occurrence in spiral galaxies. The search for vertical velocity corrugations in a sample of face-on galaxies is now a must follow up program. The difference with the previous situation is that now we know how and what to search for.

Acknowledgments: We thank Don Cox for helpful discussions, and Arcadio Poveda for pointing out the early works of Paris Pismis on undulations of the rotation curves of spirals. We are indebted to an anonymous referee for a very useful and detailed report that have helped us to improve the contents of the paper. We are grateful to Dave L. King who made the spectroscopic observations in service mode. This research has made use of the Starlink Software Collection of the UK PPARC, and of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The HST image of NGC 5427 was retrieved from the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility HST archive. EJA acknowledges financial support granted by CONACYT-México and CSIC-Spain under the agreement of both institutions; his work is partially supported by the Spanish DGICYT through grants PB97-1438-C02-02 and by the Research and Education Council of the Autonomous Government of Andalucía (Spain). EP and RMGD are supported by Spanish DGICYT grant PB98-0521. JF thanks the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía for its warm hospitality, and acknowledges partial support by DGAPA-UNAM grant IN130698 and by a R&D CRAY Research grant.


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# Baryon wave functions in QCD and integrable models

## 1 Introduction

The notion of baryon distribution amplitudes refers to the valence component of the Bethe-Salpeter wave function at small transverse separations and is central for the theory of hard exclusive reactions involving baryons . As usual for a field theory, extraction of the asymptotic behavior (here: zero transverse separation) introduces divergences that can be studied by the renormalization-group (RG) method. The distribution amplitude $`\varphi `$ thus becomes a function of the three quark momentum fractions $`x_i`$ and the scale that serves as a UV cutoff in the allowed transverse momenta. Solving the corresponding RG equations one is led to the expansion

$`\varphi (x_i,Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`120x_1x_2x_3{\displaystyle \underset{N,q}{}}\varphi _{N,q}(Q_0^2)P_{N,q}(x_i)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(Q^2)}{\alpha _s(Q_0^2)}}\right)^{\gamma _{N,q}/b}`$ (1)
where the summation goes over all multiplicatively renormalizable operators built of three quarks and $`N`$ derivatives. The polynomials $`P_{N,q}(x_i)`$ and anomalous dimensions $`\gamma _{N,q}`$ are obtained by the diagonalization of the mixing matrix for the three-quark operators

$`B_{k_1,k_2,k_3}`$ $`=`$ $`(D_+^{k_1}q)(D_+^{k_2}q)(D_+^{k_3}q);k_1+k_2+k_3=N`$
and $`\varphi _{N,q}(Q_0^2)`$ are the corresponding (nonperturbative) matrix elements.

As well known, conformal symmetry allows one to resolve the mixing with operators containing total derivatives  and requires that the ’eigenfunctions’ $`P_{N,q}`$ corresponding to different values of $`N`$ are mutually orthogonal with the weight function $`120x_1x_2x_3`$ that plays the role of the asymptotic wave function. In difference to mesons, the conformal symmetry is not sufficient, however, to solve the RG equations: for each $`N`$ there exist $`N+1`$ independent operators with the same conformal spin which mix with each other. This mixing produces a nontrivial spectrum of anomalous dimensions, see Fig. 1, about which little was known until recently.

In what follows, I describe a new approach to the scale dependence of baryon distribution amplitude developed in . The main result is that one is able to identify the second summation index $`q`$ in (1) with an eigenvalue of a certain conserved charge. The physical interpretation is that one is able to find a new ‘hidden’ quantum number that distinguishes between partonic components in the proton with different scale dependence.

## 2 Hamiltonian formulation of the evolution equations

In the usual formulation of the evolution equations the conformal invariance is not explicit. It can be made manifest, however, if the evolution kernels are rewritten in terms of the generators of the SL(2) collinear subgroup of conformal transformations. The scale dependence is different for helicity $`\lambda =3/2`$ and $`\lambda =1/2`$ operators and the corresponding evolution kernels can be written in the following compact form :

$`H_{3/2}`$ $`=`$ $`2\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N_c}}\right){\displaystyle \underset{i<k}{}}\left[\psi (J_{ik})\psi (2)\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}C_F,`$ (2)
$`H_{1/2}`$ $`=`$ $`H_{3/2}2\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N_c}}\right)\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{J_{12}(J_{12}1)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{J_{23}(J_{23}1)}}\right].`$ (3)
Here $`\psi (x)`$ is the logarithmic derivative of the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-function and $`J_{ik},i,k=1,2,3`$ are defined in terms of the two-particle Casimir operators of the $`SL(2,R)`$ group

$`J_{ik}(J_{ik}1)`$ $`=`$ $`L_{ik}^2(\stackrel{}{L}_i+\stackrel{}{L}_k)^2,`$ (4)
with $`\stackrel{}{L}_i`$ being the group generators acting on the i-th quark. In the momentum fraction representation (1) the generators take the form

$`L_{k,0}P(x_i)`$ $`=`$ $`(x_k_k+1)P(x_i),`$
$`L_{k,+}P(x_i)`$ $`=`$ $`x_kP(x_i),`$
$`L_{k,}P(x_i)`$ $`=`$ $`(x_k_k^2+2_k)P(x_i).`$ (5)
Solution of the evolution equations corresponds in this language to solution of the Schrödinger equation

$`HP_{N,q}(x_i)`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma _{N,q}P_{N,q}(X_i)`$ (6)
with $`\gamma _{N,q}`$ being the anomalous dimensions. The $`SL(2,R)`$ invariance of the evolution equations implies that the generators of conformal transformations commute with the ‘Hamiltonians’

$`[H,L^2]`$ $`=`$ $`[H,L_\alpha ]=0,`$ (7)
where $`L^2=(\stackrel{}{L}_1+\stackrel{}{L}_2+\stackrel{}{L}_3)^2`$ and $`L_\alpha =L_{1,\alpha }+L_{3,\alpha }+L_{3,\alpha }`$, so that the polynomials $`P_{N,q}(x_i)`$ corresponding to multiplicatively renormalizable operators can be chosen simultaneously to be eigenfunctions of $`L^2`$ and $`L_0`$:

$`L^2P_{N,q}`$ $`=`$ $`(N+3)(N+2)P_{N,q},`$
$`L_0P_{N,q}`$ $`=`$ $`(N+3)P_{N,q},`$
$`L_{}P_{N,q}`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (8)
The third condition in (8) ensures that the operators do not contain overall total derivatives.

Main finding of  is that the Hamiltonian $`H_{3/2}`$ possesses an additional integral of motion (conserved charge):

$`Q={\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}[L_{12}^2,L_{23}^2]=i(_1_2)(_2_3)(_3_1)x_1x_2x_3,[H_{3/2},Q]=0.`$ (9)
The evolution equation for baryon distribution functions with maximum helicity is, therefore, completely integrable. The premium is that instead of solving a Schrödinger equation with a complicated nonlocal Hamiltonian, it is sufficient to solve a much simpler equation

$`QP_{N,q}(x_i)=qP_{N,q}(x_i).`$ (10)
Once the eigenfunctions are found, the eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian (anomalous dimensions) are obtained as algebraic functions of $`N,q`$.

It is necessary to add that the Hamiltonian in (2) is known as the Hamiltonian describing the so-called $`XXX_{s=1}`$ Heisenberg spin magnet. The same Hamiltonian was also encountered in the theory of interacting reggeons in QCD .

## 3 Summary of results: Helicity $`\lambda =3/2`$ distributions

The equation in (10) cannot be solved exactly, but a wealth of analytic results can be obtained by means of the $`1/N`$ expansion .

The general structure of the spectrum is illustrated in Fig. 2. It is easy to see that if $`q`$ is an eigenvalue of $`Q`$, then $`q`$ is also an eigenvalue, whereas the Hamiltonian only depends on the absolute value $`|q|`$. It follows that all anomalous dimensions are double degenerate except for the lowest ones for each even $`N`$, corresponding to the solution with $`q=0`$. The corresponding eigenfunctions have a very simple form

$`x_1x_2x_3P_{N,q=0}(x_i)`$ $`=`$ $`x_1(1x_1)C_{N+1}^{3/2}(12x_1)+x_2(1x_2)C_{N+1}^{3/2}(12x_2)`$ (11)
$`+x_3(1x_3)C_{N+1}^{3/2}(12x_3)`$
and the anomalous dimension is equal to

$`\gamma _{N,q=0}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(1+1/N_c\right)\left[4\psi (N+3)+4\gamma _E6\right]+3/2C_F.`$ (12)
Furthermore, the eigenvalues of $`Q`$ lie on trajectories (see Fig. 2) corresponding to the semi-classically quantized soliton waves . The corresponding trajectories for the anomalous dimensions have a rather peculiar form. Each of them can be considered as a separate partonic component in the nucleon wave function, in the same spirit as the leading-twist parton distribution functions in deep-inelastic scattering arises from the analytic continuation of the anomalous dimensions, giving rise to the Altarelli-Parisi splitting function. The asymptotic expansions for the charge $`q`$ and the anomalous dimensions at large $`N`$ are available to the order $`1/N^8`$  and give very accurate results. The algebraic structure of the spectrum is very complicated. As an example, I present the expression for the anomalous dimension $`\gamma _{N,q}=(1+1/N_c)E_{N,q}+3/2C_F`$ as a function of the charge $`q`$:

$`E_{N,q}`$ $`=`$ $`2\mathrm{ln}26+6\gamma _E+2\text{Re}{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{3}{}}}\psi (1+i\eta ^3\delta _k)+O(\eta ^6),`$ (13)
where $`\eta =\sqrt{(N+3)(N+2)}`$ and $`\delta _k`$, $`k=1,2,3`$ are the three roots of the cubic equation

$`2\delta _k^3\delta _kq/\eta ^3.`$ (14)
Accuracy of (13) is excellent, as illustrated in Fig. 3.

## 4 Helicity $`\lambda =1/2`$ distributions

The additional term in $`H_{1/2}`$ spoils integrability but can be considered as a small correction for the most part of the spectrum . Its effect on the two lowest levels is drastic, however. To illustrate this, consider the flow of energy levels for the Hamiltonian $`H(ϵ)=_{i<k}\left[\psi (J_{ik})\psi (2)\right]ϵ\left[1/L_{12}^2+1/L_{23}^2\right]`$ (cf. (2), (3)) as a function of an auxiliary parameter $`ϵ`$, see Fig. 4.

It is seen that the two lowest levels decouple from the rest of the spectrum and are separated from it by a finite mass gap. As shown in , this phenomenon can be interpreted as binding of the two quarks with opposite helicity and forming a scalar “diquark”. The effective Hamiltonian for the low-lying levels can be constructed and turns out to be a generalization of the famous Kroning-Penney problem for a particle in a $`\delta `$-function type periodic potential. The value of the mass gap between the lowest and the next-to-lowest anomalous dimensions at $`N\mathrm{}`$ can be calculated combining the small-$`ϵ`$ and the large-$`ϵ`$ expansions and is equal to

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma =0.32(1+1/N_c)`$ (15)
in agreement with the direct numerical calculations.

## 5 Further developments

The approach developed in  turns out to be general and is applicable to the analysis of all three-parton systems in QCD, albeit with some modifications. The extension to three three-gluon operators is straightforward but tedious, since elementary fields have a higher conformal spin . Probably more interesting from both phenomenological and mathematical point of view are the applications to quark-antiquark-gluon systems. The corresponding evolution equations are integrable in the limit of large number of colors  and reduce to a different type of integrable models - the so-called open chains. A rather detailed analysis of integrable quark-antiquark-gluon operators has been given in  and, most recently, a concrete phenomenological application of this method to the structure function $`g_2(x,Q^2)`$ was considered in work .

To summarize, a powerful mathematical framework has been developed for the description of the evolution of baryon distribution amplitudes. The mathematical structure of evolution equations is very elegant and reveals certain qualitative features of the distribution amplitudes. A lot of analytical results is obtained, in different limits. The formalism is general and was applied already to the other existing three-parton distributions. In a more general context, the integrability of evolution equations reveals an additional symmetry of QCD and its close relation to exactly solvable statistical models. Remarkably enough, the same symmetry has been observed in the studies of the Regge asymptotics of three-gluon distributions. All these features are not seen at the level of QCD Lagrangian and their origin has to be understood better.

## Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to S. Derkachov, G. Korchemsky and A. Manashov for a very rewarding collaboration on the subject of this report. Special thanks are due to H.C. Pauli for the invitation to this conference.


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# References

RUNHETC-2000-44

On realising N=1 Super Yang-Mills in $`M`$ theory.
B.S. Acharya111bacharya@physics.rutgers.edu
Department of Physics,
Rutgers University,
126 Freylinghuysen Road,
NJ 08854-0849.

Abstract

Pure $`𝒩`$ =1 super Yang-Mills theory can be realised as a certain low energy limit of $`M`$ theory near certain singularities in $`G_2`$-holonomy spaces. For $`SU(n)`$ and $`SO(2n)`$ gauge groups these $`M`$ theory backgrounds can be regarded as strong coupling limits of wrapped D6-brane configurations in Type IIA theory on certain non-compact Calabi-Yau spaces such as the deformed conifold. Various aspects of such realisations are studied including the generation of the superpotential, domain walls, QCD strings and the relation to recent work of Vafa. In the spirit of this recent work we propose a ‘gravity dual’ of $`M`$ theory near these singularities.

1. Introduction.

Pure super Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions is an interesting gauge theory where we believe we can say something about the physics at strong coupling. The model shares some of the features of ordinary QCD, but is easier to understand because of the added feature of supersymmetry.

This super Yang-Mills theory can be realised in various limits of string theory and $`M`$ theory vacua. These are typically limits of the world-volume theories on intersecting or wrapped branes or limits of theories localised near singularities 222 For a review of the approach via branes with many more references see . As we will see, some of these studies are closely related.

In  we studied some aspects of $`M`$ theory physics near certain singularities in $`G_2`$ holonomy spaces. Our motivation for this was to begin to answer the question: what is the physics of $`M`$ theory compactified on a $`G_2`$-holonomy space? The motivation for the question was that its answer might eventually shed some new light on the physics of four dimensional theories with $`𝒩`$=1 supersymmetry.

The singularities in question took the form of families of ADE singularities in $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}`$ parametrised by a supersymmetric 3-cycle $`M`$. In other words, the total space of the singular 7-manifold $`J`$ took the form of a singular fiber bundle with fibers $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}/\mathbb{\Gamma }`$ and base $`M`$. The zero-section of this bundle, which is a copy of $`M`$, is an associative 3-cycle in the singular $`G_2`$-holonomy space ie a supersymmetric 3-cycle. When the volume of $`M`$ is large the 7-manifold looks approximately like flat $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}/\mathbb{\Gamma }\times \mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟛}`$ and $`M`$ theory on $`J\times \mathrm{}^{\mathbb{𝟛},\mathbb{𝟙}}`$ looks approximately like $`M`$ theory on $`X`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}/\mathbb{\Gamma }\times \mathrm{}^{\mathbb{𝟞},\mathbb{𝟙}}`$. When $`\mathbb{\Gamma }`$ is a finite ADE subgroup of $`SU(2)`$ acting on $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟚}`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}`$, the low energy physics of $`M`$ theory on $`X`$ is described by super Yang-Mills theory on $`0\times \mathrm{}^{\mathbb{𝟞},\mathbb{𝟙}}`$, the singular subset of $`X`$. We argued that the theory on $`J`$ should be regarded as a twisted compactification of seven dimensional super Yang-Mills formulated on $`M\times \mathrm{}^{\mathbb{𝟛},\mathbb{𝟙}}`$. The massless spectrum of the effective four dimensional theory was determined to be $`𝒩`$ = $`1`$ super Yang-Mills with $`b_1(M)`$ adjoint chiral multiplets. In particular when $`b_1(M)`$ is zero the low energy physics of $`M`$ theory near singularities of this type corresponds to pure super Yang-Mills. To be more precise, the super Yang-Mills description is valid when the volume of $`M`$ is large compared to the Planck scale and one considers energy scales below the mass of the lowest Kaluza-Klein excitation. We argued that a non-trivial superpotential in this model is generated by fractional $`M`$2-brane instantons which wrap $`M`$. This potential agrees with the field theoretic result.

For gauge group $`SU(n)`$ ie $`\mathbb{\Gamma }`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ a natural proposal is that this $`M`$ theory background is the strong string coupling limit of Type IIA string theory on $`T^{}(M)`$ with $`n`$ D6-branes wrapped around the zero section .

The original motivation for this work was to elaborate on the discussion in  by giving a stronger argument for the generation of the superpotential and also to address issues such as domain walls and QCD strings. We will partly achieve this by presenting much simpler explicit examples of the singular $`M`$ theory background spacetime in which $`M`$ is a three sphere $`S^3`$. In this case $`J`$ is a $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$-orbifold of the standard spin bundle $`S(S^3)`$ of $`S^3`$. $`S(S^3)`$ is topologically trivial ie $`S(S^3)`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}\times S^3`$, but admits a non-trivial bundle metric with $`G_2`$-holonomy . The quotient by $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ which defines $`J`$ is topologically equivalent to $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}/\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}\times S^3`$ where the $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ acts on each fiber as an ADE subgroup of $`SU(2)`$ acting on $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟚}`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}`$. The singularities of $`J`$ are precisely as described above: a family of $`A_{n1}`$ singularities fibered over $`S^3`$. Most importantly, $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ preserves the $`G_2`$-structure on $`S(S^3)`$ so that $`J`$ has $`G_2`$-holonomy. This construction can be generalised to any ADE subgroup of $`SU(2)`$. In the $`SU(n)`$ case however which will be our primary focus in this paper, $`M`$ theory on $`J`$ is naturally proposed as the strong coupling limit of Type IIA string theory on $`T^{}(S^3)`$ with $`n`$ D6-branes wrapping the $`S^3`$. This latter string theory background was recently studied in . As we will see, combining the results of  with those presented here gives a strong indication that the proposal is correct.

One of the central themes of  was to propose a closed string, gravity dual of the open string theory describing the D6-branes. Given that we have proposed a strong coupling limit of the latter and have gathered evidence in its favour, it is natural to ponder the existence of an $`M`$ theory description of the gravity dual proposed in . We will make a proposal of just such a dual here. This $`M`$ theory background has some distinguishing features. For instance there are $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$-charge strings which we suggest should be identified with the super QCD-strings in the correspondence with Yang-Mills theory. The model also contains domain walls.

This paper is organised as follows. In the next section we aim to clarify aspects of the superpotential in these models by compactifying the $`M`$ theory background on a circle and considering Type IIA theory on $`J`$. Here we will make contact with some field theory results  which will be reinterpreted here in terms of fractional branes. In particular, we will see that the description of fractional branes as wrapped branes  is already anticipated in quantum Yang-Mills theory. Next we make some comments concerning BPS-saturated domain walls in these models and tentatively identify domain walls of the expected tension. Finally, in the light of , we propose a ‘gravity dual’ of $`M`$ theory on $`J`$.

Whilst this work was in progress we learned of the forthcoming work of Atiyah, Maldacena and Vafa  in which the same models are studied. We wish to thank J. Maldacena for informing us of this work. We would also like to mention the recent paper  which discusses smooth supergravity solutions describing branes on special holonomy manifolds (including those described in ) and is relevant for a discussion of gravity duals of the corresponding world-volume theories.

2. Type IIA theory on J.

Consisder Type IIA string theory compactified to three dimensions on a seven manifold $`X`$ with holonomy $`G_2`$. If $`X`$ is smooth we can determine the massless spectrum of the effective supergravity theory in three dimensions as follows. Compactification on $`X`$ preserves four of the 32 supersymmetries in ten dimensions, so the supergravity theory has three dimensional $`𝒩`$ = 2 local supersymmetry. The relevant bosonic fields of the ten dimensional supergravity theory are the metric, $`B`$-field, dilaton plus the Ramond-Ramond one- and three-forms. These we will denote by $`g,B,\varphi ,A_1,A_3`$ respectively. Upon Kaluza-Klein reduction the metric gives rise to a three-metric and $`b_3(X)`$ massless scalars. The latter parametrise the moduli space of $`G_2`$-holonomy metrics on $`X`$. $`B`$ gives rise to $`b_2(X)`$ periodic scalars $`\phi _i`$. $`\varphi `$ gives a three dimensional dilaton. $`A_1`$ reduces to a massless vector, while $`A_3`$ gives $`b_2(X)`$ vectors and $`b_3(X)`$ massless scalars. In three dimensions a vector is dual to a periodic scalar, so at a point in moduli space where the vectors are free we can dualise them. The dual of the vector field originating from $`A_1`$ is the period of the RR 7-form on $`X`$, whereas the duals of the vector fields coming from $`A_3`$ are given by the periods of the RR 5-form $`A_5`$ over a basis of 5-cycles which span the fifth homology group of $`X`$. Denote these by scalars by $`\sigma _i`$. All in all, in the dualised theory we have in addition to the supergravity multiplet, $`b_2(X)+b_3(X)`$ scalar multiplets. Notice that $`b_2(X)`$ of the scalar multiplets contain two real scalar fields, both of which are periodic.

Now we come to studying the Type IIA theory on $`J`$. Recall that $`J`$ is defined as an orbifold of the standard spin bundle of $`S^3`$. To determine the massless spectrum of IIA string theory on $`J`$ we can use standard orbifold techniques. However, the answer can be phrased in a simple way. $`J`$ is topologically $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}/\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}\times S^3`$. This manifold can be desingularised to give a smooth seven manifold $`M^\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ which is topologically $`X^\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}\times S^3`$, where $`X^\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ is homeomorphic to an $`ALE`$ space. The string theoretic cohomology groups of $`J`$ are isomorphic to the usual cohomology groups of $`M^\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$. The reason for this is simple: $`J`$ is a global orbifold of $`S(S^3)`$. The string theoretic cohomology groups count massless string states in the orbifold CFT. The massless string states in the twisted sectors are localised near the fixed points of the action of $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ on the spin bundle. Near the fixed points we can work on the tangent space of $`S(S^3)`$ near a fixed point and the action of $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ there is just its natural action on $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}\times \mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟛}`$.

Note that blowing up $`J`$ to give $`M^\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ cannot give a metric with $`G_2`$-holonomy which is continuosly connected to the singular $`G_2`$-holonomy metric on $`J`$, since this would require that the addition to homology in passing from $`J`$ to $`M^\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ receives contributions from four-cycles. This is necessary since these are dual to elements of $`H^3(M)`$ which generate metric deformations preserving the $`G_2`$-structure. This argument does not rule out the possibility that $`M^\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ admits ‘disconnected’ $`G_2`$-holonomy metrics, but is consistent with the fact that pure super Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions does not have a Coulomb branch.

The important points to note are that the twisted sectors contain massless states consisting of $`r`$ scalars and $`r`$ vectors where $`r`$ is the rank of the corresponding ADE group associated to $`\mathbb{\Gamma }`$. In the case of primary interest $`r`$ = $`n1`$. The $`r`$ scalars can intuitively thought of as the periods of the $`B`$ field through $`r`$ two cycles. In fact, for a generic point in the moduli space of the orbifold conformal field theory the spectrum contains massive particles charged under the $`r`$ twisted vectors. These can be interpreted as wrapped D2-branes whose quantum numbers are precisely those of $`W`$-bosons associated with the breaking of an ADE gauge group to $`U(1)^r`$. This confirms our interpretation of the origin of this model from $`M`$ theory: the values of the $`r`$ $`B`$-field scalars can be interpreted as the expectation values of Wilson lines around the eleventh dimension associated with this symmetry breaking. At weak string coupling and large $`S^3`$ volume these states are very massive and the extreme low energy effective dynamics of the twisted sector states is described by $`𝒩`$=2 $`U(1)^r`$ super Yang-Mills in three dimensions. Clearly however, the underlying conformal field theory is not valid when the $`W`$-bosons become massless. The appropriate description is then the pure super Yang-Mills theory on $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟛}\times S^1`$ which corresponds to a sector of $`M`$ theory on $`J\times S^1`$. In this section however, our strategy will be to work at a generic point in the CFT moduli space which corresponds to being far out along the Coulomb branch of the gauge theory. We will attempt to calculate the superpotential there and then continue the result to four dimensions. This exactly mimics the strategy of  in field theory and  in the context of $`F`$-theory. Note that we are implicitly ignoring gravity here. More precisely, we are assuming that in the absence of gravitational interactions with the twisted sector, the low energy physics of the twisted sectors of the CFT is described by the Coulomb branch of the gauge theory. This is natural since the twisted sector states are localised at the singularities of $`J\times \mathrm{}^{\mathbb{𝟚},\mathbb{𝟙}}`$ whereas the gravity propagates in bulk.

In this approximation, we can dualise the photons to obtain a theory of $`r`$ chiral multiplets, each of whose bosonic components ($`𝝋`$ and $`𝝈`$) is periodic. But remembering that this theory arose from a non-Abelian one we learn that the moduli space of classical vacua is

$$_{cl}=\frac{\mathrm{}^r}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_W^{\mathrm{}}W_g}$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_W^{\mathrm{}}`$ is the complexified weight lattice of the ADE group and $`W_g`$ is the Weyl group.

We can now ask about quantum effects. In particular is there a non-trivial superpotential for these chiral multiplets? In a theory with four supercharges BPS instantons with only two chiral fermion zero modes can generate a superpotential. Are there instantons in Type IIA theory on J ? BPS instantons come from branes wrapping supersymmetric cycles and Type IIA theory on a $`G_2`$-holonomy space can have instantons corresponding to D6-branes wrapping the space itself or D2-brane instantons which wrap supersymmetric 3-cycles. For smooth $`G_2`$-holonomy manifolds these were studied in . In the case at hand the D6-branes would generate a superpotential for the dual of the graviphoton multiplet which lives in the gravity multiplet but since we wish to ignore gravitational physics for the moment, we will ignore these. In any case, since $`J`$ is non-compact, these configurations have infinite action. The D2-branes on the other hand are much more interesting. They can wrap the supersymmetric $`S^3`$ over which the singularities of $`J`$ are fibered. We can describe the dynamics of a wrapped D2-brane as follows. At large volume, where the sphere becomes flatter and flatter the world-volume action is just the so called ‘quiver gauge theory’ described in . Here we should describe this theory not just on $`S^3`$ but on a supersymmetric $`S^3`$ embedded in a space with a non-trivial $`G_2`$-holonomy structure. The upshot is that the world-volume theory is in fact a cohomological field theory  so we can trust it for any volume as long as the ambient space has $`G_2`$-holonomy. Note that, since we are ignoring gravity, we are implicitly ignoring higher derivative corrections which could potentially also affect this claim. Another crucial point is that the $`S^3`$ which sits at the origin in $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}`$ in the covering space of $`J`$ is the supersymmetric cycle, and the spheres away from the origin are not supersymmetric, so that the BPS wrapped D2-brane is constrained to live on the singularities of $`J`$. In the quiver gauge theory, the origin is precisely the locus in moduli space at which the single D2-brane can fractionate (according to the quiver diagram) and this occurs by giving expectation values to the scalar fields which parametrise the Coulomb branch which corresponds to the position of our D2-brane in the dimensions normal to $`J`$.

What contribution to the superpotential do the fractional D2-branes make? To answer this we need to identify the configurations which possess only two fermionic zero modes. We will not give a precise string theory argument for this, but using the correspondence between this string theory and field theory will identify exactly which D-brane instantons we think are responsible for generating the superpotential. This may sound like a strong assumption, but as we hope will become clear, the fact that the fractional D2-branes are wrapped D4-branes is actually anticipated by the field theory! This makes this assumption, in our opinion, somewhat weaker and adds credence to the overall picture being presented here.

In the seminal work of , it was shown that the fractionally charged D2-branes are actually D4-branes which wrap the ‘vanishing’ 2-cycles at the origin in $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}/\mathbb{\Gamma }`$. More precisely, each individual fractional D2-brane, which originates from a single D2-brane possesses D4-brane charge, but the total configuration, since it began life as a single D2-brane has zero D4-brane charge. The possible contributions to the superpotential are constrained by supersymmetry and must be given by a holomorphic function of the $`r`$ chiral superfields and also of the holomorphic gauge coupling constant $`\tau `$ which corresponds to the complexified volume of the $`S^3`$ in eleven dimensional $`M`$ theory. We have identified above the bosonic components of the chiral superfields above. $`\tau `$ is given by

$$\tau =\phi +iC$$
(2)
where $`\phi `$ is the $`G_2`$-structure defining 3-form on $`J`$. The period of the $`M`$ theory 3-form through $`S^3`$ plays the role of the theta angle.

The world-volume action of a D4-brane contains the couplings

$$L=BA_3+A_5$$
(3)
Holomorphy dictates that there is also a term

$$B\phi $$
(4)
so that the combined terms are written as

$$B\tau +A_5$$
(5)
Since the fourbranes wrap the ‘vanishing cycles’ and the $`S^3`$ we see that the contribution of the D4-brane corresponding to the $`k`$-th fractional D2 takes the form

$$S=𝜷_𝒌\mathbf{.}𝒛$$
(6)
where we have defined

$$𝒛=\tau 𝝋+𝝈$$
(7)
and the $`𝜷_𝒌`$ are charge vectors. The $`r`$ complex fields $`𝒛`$ are the natural holomorphic functions upon which the superpotential will depend.

The wrapped D4-branes are the magnetic duals of the massive D2-branes which we identified above as massive $`W`$-bosons. As such they are magnetic monopoles for the original $`SU(n)`$ gauge symmetry. Their charges are therefore given by an element of the co-root lattice of the Lie algebra and thus each of the $`r`$ \+ 1 $`𝜷`$’s is a rank $`r`$ vector in this space. Choosing a basis for this space corresponds to choosing a basis for the massless states in the twisted sector Hilbert space which intuitively we can think of as a basis for the cohomology groups Poincare dual to the ‘vanishing’ 2-cycles. A natural basis is provided by the simple co-roots of the Lie algebra of $`SU(n)`$, which we denote by $`𝜶_𝒌^{\mathbf{}}`$ for $`k=1,\mathrm{},r`$. This choice is natural, since these, from the field theory point of view are the fundamental monopole charges.

At this point it is useful to mention that the $`r`$ wrapped D4-branes whose magnetic charges are given by the simple co-roots of the Lie algebra correspond in field theory to monopoles with charges $`𝜶_𝒌^{\mathbf{}}`$ and each of these is known to possess precisely the right number of zero modes to contribute to the superpotential. Since we have argued that in a limit of the Type IIA theory on $`J`$, the dynamics at low energies is governed by the field theory studied in  it is natural to expect that these wrapped fourbranes also contribute to the superpotential. Another striking feature of the field theory is that these monopoles also possess a fractional instanton number - the second Chern number of the gauge field on $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟛}\times S^1`$. These are precisely in correspondence with the fractional D2-brane charges. Thus, in this sense, the field theory anticipates that fractional branes are wrapped branes.

In the field theory on $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟛}\times S^1`$ it is also important to realise that there is precisely one additional BPS state which contributes to the superpotential. The key point is that this state, unlike the previously discussed monopoles have dependence on the periodic direction in spacetime. This state is associated with the affine node of the Dynkin diagram. Its monopole charge is given by

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_{k=1}^r𝜶_𝒌^{\mathbf{}}$$
(8)
and it also carries one unit of instanton number.

The action for this state is

$$S=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{k=1}^r𝜶_𝒌^{\mathbf{}}\mathbf{.}𝒛2\pi i\tau $$
(9)
Together, these $`r`$ \+ 1 BPS states can be regarded as fundamental in the sense that all the other finite action BPS configurations can be thought of as bound states of them.

Thus, in the correspondence with string theory it is also natural in the same sense as alluded to above that a state with these corresponding quantum numbers also contributes to the superpotential. It may be regarded as a bound state of anti-D4-branes with a charge one D2-brane. In the case of $`SU(n)`$ this is extremely natural, since the total D4/D2-brane charge of the $`r`$ +1 states is zero/one, and this is precisely the charge of the D2-brane configuration on $`S^3`$ whose world-volume action is the quiver gauge theory for the affine Dynkin diagram for $`SU(n)`$. In other words, the entire superpotential is generated by a single D2-brane which has fractionated.

In summary, we have seen that the correspondence between the Type IIA string theory on $`J`$ and the super Yang-Mills theory on $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟛}\times S^1`$ is quite striking. Within the context of this correspondence we considered a smooth point in the moduli space of the perturbative Type IIA CFT, where the spectrum matches that of the Yang-Mills theory along its Coulomb branch. On the string theory side we concluded that the possible instanton contributions to the superpotential are from wrapped D2-branes. Their world volume theory is essentially topological, from which we concluded that they can fractionate. As is well known, the fractional D2-branes are really wrapped fourbranes. In the correspondence with field theory, the wrapped fourbranes are magnetic monopoles, whereas the D2-branes are instantons. Thus if, these branes generate a superpotential they correspond, in field theory to monopole-instantons. This is exactly how the field theory potential is known to be generated. We thus expect that the same occurs in the string theory on $`J`$.

Finally, the superpotential generated by these states is of affine-Toda type and is known to possess $`n`$ minima corresponding to the vacua of the $`SU(n)`$ super Yang-Mills theory on $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}`$. The value of the superpotential in each of these vacua is of the form $`e^{\frac{2\pi i\tau }{n}}`$. As such it formally looks as though it was generated by fractional instantons, and in this context fractional $`M`$2-brane instantons. This result holds in the four dimensional $`M`$ theory limit because of holomorphy and thus elaborates upon the result of .

3. On Domain Walls in $`M`$ theory on $`J`$.

We now turn our attention to domain walls. Since the model has a finite number of vacua one might expect that there are domain walls which separate them. This is believed to be the case for the super Yang-Mills theory because that theory has a spontaneously broken discrete symmetry. This is the quantum remnant of the classical $`U(1)`$ $`R`$-symmetry. $`M`$ theory on $`J`$ (or any other $`G_2`$-holonomy manifold) does not obviously have a $`U(1)`$ symmetry. The classical supergravity theory does have a $`\mathrm{}_\mathbb{𝟚}`$ $`R`$-symmetry which acts as $`\pm `$$`\mathbb{𝟙}`$ on the supercharges and preserves the $`G_2`$-structure. This order two symmetry is naturally identified with the $`\mathrm{}_\mathbb{𝟚}`$ symmetry of the super Yang-Mills vacua. Following this line of reasoning does not give us any obvious reason to expect to see domain walls connecting the various vacua. However, the model does appear to possess domain walls with some of the right properties, as we will see.

As discussed in , in $`M`$ theory compactification on a $`G_2`$-holonomy manifold the BPS domain walls are basically of two types. Firstly there are $`M`$5-branes which wrap supersymmetric three cycles. Secondly there are $`M`$2-branes which sit at a point on the seven manifold. Actually, the general story is more complicated since $`M`$2-branes and $`M`$5-branes can form bound states and one must not rule out the possibility of bound state walls in the compactified theory. This is in line with the fact that the central charge in the $`𝒩`$ = 1 supersymmetry algebra in four dimensions which represents the charge of domain walls is complex.

In $`M`$ theory on $`J`$ the $`S^3`$ is a supersymmetric cycle, so an $`M`$5-brane wrapped on it looks like a domain wall. Because it is BPS saturated its tension is given by the volume

$$T=Vol(S^3)=\frac{1}{g_{YM}^2}$$
(10)
which is identified as the gauge coupling in the correspondence with Yang-Mills. One important aspect of the super Yang-Mills theory is that the t’Hooft large $`n`$ limit is a good approximation to its physics. This means that

$$Tn$$
(11)
and this is the expected behaviour of the domain walls in this model . The M$`2`$-brane domain walls do not have a tension which depends on the coupling. However, the M$`2`$-M$`5`$-bound state wall has a tension whose square is given by the sum of the squares of its two constituents. In the large $`n`$ limit the tension of this bound state is also of order $`n`$, so we cannot distinguish the pure $`M`$5-brane from the bound state by this reasoning. So, even though $`M`$ theory on $`J`$ does not appear to undergo discrete symmetry breaking, BPS domain walls appear to exist with at least some of the expected properties of their super Yang-Mills counterparts.

In the IIA theory on $`J`$ the wrapped $`M`$5-brane domain walls go over to D$`4`$-branes wrapping the supersymmetric $`S^3`$. This is natural, since the various vacua of the three dimensional theory are related by shifts of the $`𝝈`$. These latter fields are just the twisted RR scalars which can be thought of as periods of the RR 5-form potential through the vanishing 5-cycles. Since these fields couple naturally to the D4-branes we see that the fourbrane charges shift by one unit from vacuum to vacuum. This lends further support to the claim that the domain walls in $`M`$ theory on $`J`$ are $`M`$5-branes - possibly bound to $`M`$2-branes.

4. ‘Gravity’ Dual of $`M`$ theory on $`J`$.

As we mentioned in the introduction, $`M`$ theory on $`J`$ is naturally proposed as the strong string coupling limit of Type IIA theory on $`T^{}(S^3)`$ with $`n`$ D6-branes wrapped around the $`S^3`$.

The IIA background consisting of $`n`$ D6-branes wrapped around the $`S^3`$ in the deformation of the conifold singularity $`T^{}(S^3)`$ was studied by Vafa in . In this work it was shown how open topological string amplitudes can be used to calculate certain higher derivative terms in the effective world-volume action on $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}`$. Moreover a gravity dual of this model was proposed. This was defined as Type IIA theory on the resolution of the conifold singularity together with RR fluxes. This smooth non-compact Calabi-Yau background can loosely be regarded as an $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}`$-bundle over $`S^2`$. As regards the fluxes it is crucial that there are $`n`$ units of RR 2-form flux through the $`S^2`$ corresponding to the D6-brane charge. An important part of  was that the closed string topological amplitudes are not modified in the presence of RR flux. The two sets of topological amplitudes agreed if the complexified Kahler class of the $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟙}`$ $`=`$ $`S^2`$ on the gravity side was identified with the gaugino bilinear superfield on the open string side. In the low energy limit of the D6-brane theory it was shown how the effective superpotential for the super Yang-Mills theory emerged from these topological amplitudes and on the closed string side these corresponded to world-sheet instantons wrapping the $`S^2`$. In fact, on the open string side these have the form of fractional D2-brane instantons wrapping the $`S^3`$. This is in agreement with what we found in the $`M`$ theory limit, since these become fractional $`M`$2-branes. Thus the result of  is consistent with the results of this paper and strongly support the claim that $`M`$ theory on $`J`$ is the strong coupling limit of the wrapped D6-brane system. In fact, the amplitudes discussed in  are well defined for all values of the string coupling constant, including the strong coupling limit. Thus they are also describing the physics of $`M`$ theory on $`J`$.

The previous statement is true regardless of the existence of a gravity dual of the wrapped D6-brane system on $`T^{}(S^3)`$. However, it would be interesting to extend the ‘duality’ between the wrapped D6-brane system and $`M`$ theory on $`J`$ to the gravity dual of the wrapped D6-brane system and another $`M`$ theory background. One way of phrasing this desire is to ask if there is an $`M`$ theory description of the IIA theory on the resolved conifold with RR fluxes? We can proceed to answer this question as follows.

Consider the resolved conifold with only the $`n`$ units of RR 2-form flux turned on over the $`S^2`$. Because this flux is non-trivial it implies that the $`M`$ theory circle is fibred over the $`S^2`$ giving a circle bundle of first Chern number $`n`$. Thus a natural proposal for the $`M`$ theory background is an $`\mathrm{}^\mathbb{𝟜}`$\- bundle over $`S^3/\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ \- because the latter space indeed is the total space of a degree $`n`$ bundle over $`S^2`$. Moreover, at infinity this space looks just like infinity in $`J`$. We can now propose a dual of the IIA theory on the resolved conifold with only RR 2-form flux: $`M`$ theory on $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$ $``$ $`S(S^3/\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟})`$ ie the standard spin bundle of the Lens space. This space has a natural $`G_2`$-holonomy metric  and in fact $`M`$ theory on $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$ has the same symmetries as $`M`$ theory on $`J`$.

A crucial point of  appeared to be the requirement of RR 4-form and 6-form fluxes in the background. These correspond to background values of the four-form field strength $`G`$ in $`M`$ theory on $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$. The author is not aware of how to turn on $`G`$ in a $`G_2`$-holonomy background without breaking supersymmetry. The arguments in favour of this have always been in the context of compactifying to Minkowski space 333In  this is a supergravity calculation. In  this is based upon a natural proposal for the superpotential of the compactified theory .. However, it is plausible that this can be done if the four dimensional spacetime normal to the seven manifold is anti de Sitter. This would be in accordance with the fact that the value of the superpotential in the super Yang-Mills vacuum is non-zero and therefore when embedded into a theory containing gravity contributes to a negative cosmological constant in the vacuum. Our lack of understanding of this point also reflects the fact that we essentially ignored gravity when studying $`M`$ theory on $`J`$.

However, we have certainly identified what we consider to be a good candidate for the $`M`$ theory background dual to IIA theory on the resolved conifold with background RR 2-form fluxes.

The proposed model (and - if it exists - the model with $`G`$-flux) seem to have some quite striking features which would be required of a dual description of $`M`$ theory on $`J`$. For instance the theory contains $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$-charged strings which arise from wrapping the $`M`$2-brane around non-trivial 1-cycles which the generate of the fundamental group of the Lens space. These are naturally identified with the super QCD strings.

The corresponding Type IIA model in three dimensions has BPS domain walls corresponding to D4-branes wrapping the Lens space. Since the fundamental group of the Lens space is $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ there are $`n`$ classical vacua of the D4-brane world-volume theory corresponding to the $`n`$ inequivalent irreducible representations of $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$. These are $`n`$ distinct domain walls and their spectrum - because they are BPS states - is apparently the same in the quantum string theory .

In the $`M`$ theory limit these correspond to $`M`$5-branes wrapping the Lens space. These apparently have non-trivial flat $`B`$-field connections on their world volumes. If we now consider ‘reducing’ $`M`$ theory on $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$ to give the IIA theory on the resolved conifold with $`n`$ units of RR 2-form flux (as opposed to considering IIA theory on $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$) then these $`M`$5-brane domain walls go over to D$`4`$-brane domain walls which wrap the $`S^2`$. These D$`4`$-branes were identified in  with the domain walls corresponding to those expected in the super Yang-Mills theory.

One puzzling point however is that one only expects to see $`n`$ \- $`1`$ distinct domain walls in the super Yang-Mills theory, whereas here we appear to find $`n`$. The remainder of this paragraph is devoted to some speculative remarks about this issue. In the Type IIA theory on $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$, $`n`$ \- 1 of these walls is certainly distinguished, since they carry non-zero $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ quantum numbers. The trivially charged domain wall on the other hand can be thought of as a wrapped D4-brane on $`S(S^3)`$ which is $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ invariant. In the Type IIA theory on $`S(S^3)`$ this domain wall can be regarded as separating flat three dimensional Minkowski space from three dimensional anti de Sitter space or perhaps two anti de Sitter regions. $`M`$ theory on $`S(S^3)`$ is the gravity dual of $`M`$ theory on $`S(S^3)`$! Thus, the additional wall in the theory on $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$ corresponding to the affine node appears to map in the theory on $`J`$ to a domain wall separating two regions of empty space in $`M`$ theory on $`J`$, and it is unnatural to identify these with vacua of super Yang-Mills. Perhaps there is a more rigorous argument which identifies the $`n`$ \- 1 domain walls.

Most of the results of this paper can be generalised to theories with $`SO(2n)`$ and $`E_n`$ symmetries by replacing $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{𝕟}`$ with the $`D`$ and $`E`$ type subgroups of $`SU(2)`$.

Acknowledgements.

The author would like to thank M. Douglas, R. Gopakumar, G. Moore, A. Rajaraman for recent discussions; J. Gauntlett, T. Hollowood and D. Tong for discussions over the past year and a half and J. Maldacena for informing us about  prior to publication.


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# Untitled Document

A natural phenomenon that may pose a severe aircraft hazard?

Thomas Gold

Professor Emeritus, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853; Email: tg21@cornell.edu

There have been many serious aircraft accidents in recent years that have not had a satisfactory explanation despite exhaustive researches, and that have certain features in common. Those features include apparently a situation of extreme urgency and danger, so that there was no time for the flight crew to communicate details to the flight controllers; in some cases there were circumstances that seemed quite unexpected and perplexing to the flight crew, suggesting an urgent need to override the usual automated control systems and manually put the plane into a steep dive. In several cases this was followed by actions to avoid excessive speed that would threaten the structural integrity of the aircraft. Several accidents have another feature in common: they occurred along the edge of the North-Eastern American continental shelf. These include, among others, TW 800 on July 17, 1996, Swissair 111 on September 2, 1998, Egypt Air 990 on October 1999, and also the crash of J. F. Kennedy Jr. The case of the EgyptAir crash has recently come under public debate again as some new information has become known, and the explanation tentatively offered by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), suggesting a suicide attempt by a co-pilot, has come under strong attack by Egyptian authorities, and does not fit with the new information.

In view of the statistically quite improbable occurrence of these accidents, it seems prudent now to widen the search to causes that have so far not been included among possible aircraft hazards, and that have possibly a relationship to geographical features. Among such, the massive emission of gases from the seafloor (or land surface) seems to us most worthy of attention.

Massive sudden eruptions of gases have occurred in many locations, bursting up through the ground both from ocean floors and from dry land. They often occur repetitively in the same area, and on land create what is known as ”mud volcanoes”. The amounts of expelled material accumulated in some mud volcanoes in the last million years are as large as 10 or 20 billion tons, and the estimates of the amounts of gas responsible are several times larger than that. The erupting gases are usually dominated by methane. Since methane is lighter than air, it races upwards at high speed. Many cases are known where the gas spontaneously ignited, and flames to a height of 6,000 ft have been photographed from Baku, in the active mud volcano area on the West shore of the Caspian Sea. Much higher brief flashes have been reported, up to 30,000 ft but these were too brief to be photographed. Massive flammable gas eruptions at or near times of earthquakes (before, during or after) are reported in historical and in recent times from many parts of the world.

Similar eruptions are indicated on the sea floors, where large areas are densely covered with ”pockmarks”, quite characteristic circular features in the ocean mud, with diameters of between 10 and 200 meters. These features were first detected in the North Sea by Dr. Martin Hovland, of Statoil, (the Norwegian oil company), overlying known gas and oil fields. Similar fields have since been detected in many parts of the world by sonar, again often showing a relation to underlying hydrocarbon fields, and also there showing features of repetition of outbursts, with methane again the major component. Both in mud volcanoes and in pockmark fields the emitted quantities of gas in any single event may well amount to some millions of tons.

Another set of observations has now to be added: it is the occurrence of ”mystery clouds” in the air. Satellite photography over a ten year period revealed more than two hundred clouds that rose up at a high speed from a small area of land or sea, forming an expanding funnel. Temperature observations showed a much lower temperature in the funnel cloud than in the outside air at the same height, and this implied that the rising gas must be one that is intrinsically much lighter than air. Only methane and hydrogen are candidates, and both are combustible. The largest such cloud on record was seen and reported by several airline pilots flying between Tokyo and Alaska, North-East of Japan, on April 9, 1984. They described it as a mushroom cloud that reached up to 50,000 ft, attaining a diameter of more than 200 miles.

Evidence of massive gas emissions have recently been reported by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, who conducted a sonar survey of the mid-Atlantic US continental shelf edge. Along a major fault line they found many and very large pockmarks, similar to those described by Dr. Hovland, indicating that sudden almost explosive gas eruptions had taken place there. Also recent reports from the Province of Quebec, of frequent and large displays of lights in the sky, clearly related to the swarm of earthquakes between November 1988 and end of January 1989 in the region of Sanguenay and Quebec City, leave little doubt that massive gas eruptions occurred there, with some flames reaching high into the sky. Altogether 46 such sightings were recorded in that period, some but not all coincident with earthquake shocks. Earthquake-related lights have been well known and reported since antiquity, and indeed one very large event involving gas flames was reported in 1663, not far from the Sanguenay region, close to the St.Lawrence River.

I had investigated in 1982 a ”near disaster” of a British Airways 747 plane flying at 37,000 ft over a volcanic region of Java. All four engines stopped shortly after it had entered a visible but tenuous volcanic cloud. After gliding down to 15,000 ft without power, and there apparently leaving the cloud, all engines could be started again immediately. The same sequence of events was experienced two weeks later by an Air Singapore 747 plane over a nearby region, and many years later by a KLM flight over the Aleutian Islands. A gas lighter than air, and hence combustible, must have been responsible in all three cases, to have carried small volcanic dust grains to these altitudes, and its combustion may have been responsible for the engine failures that were so sharply limited to the flight within the cloud, probably due to the fuel-rich and oxygen poor mixtures of the gas adding to the airplane fuel. Gas eruptions of volcanoes are known of either kind: eruptions of a ground-hugging heavy gas identified as carbon dioxide, but also eruptions of a light and flammable gas, probably methane, whose density is a little more than half that of air.

With three large planes having come so close to disaster, but yet able to give a precise account of the events, one has to take the threat of gas emission seriously. The belief that such emissions can come only from volcanoes has been voiced, but is clearly wrong in view of the facts already mentioned. What threats would massive gas emissions pose for aircraft?

One effect I have already described: the possibility of inducing failure of all engines. But several other aircraft hazards have also to be considered. One is due to the great upward speed the light gases would have, greatly in excess of the vertical speeds in ordinary atmospheric turbulence, and structural damage to the plane or serious injuries to persons may result from the ensuing violent vertical movement. The ignition and explosion of a large mass of gas external to the plane may be initiated by the engine exhausts and may be violently destructive, yet the recovered airplane skin would not show the shrapnel holes that would be the usual signs of explosions.

Other consequences of gas emissions are the dangerous and misleading indications that the flight instruments would provide. Air speed indicators and air pressure altimeters would give quite false and fluctuating readings. The autopilots, programmed for air, may have totally erroneous responses in the light gas, as indeed may the pilots themselves, who would be perplexed by a situation they had never encountered or contemplated before.

A further hazard is that clouds of low density gas may not support a plane, even at a flying speed that would be amply high enough in air. This would cause a stall of the aircraft, or be preceded by automatic stall-warning that requires the pilot to turn the nose down into a dive, and then confront the danger of excessive speed.

Then there are the various fire hazards resulting from combustible air-gas mixtures, especially in some confined spaces in the airplane where flames could be supported, even if the same gas-air mixture would readily be extinguished in the external high speed airflow. That danger may be highest in cable ducts where damage could destroy the airplane control system.

The North-Eastern coastline or edge of the continental shelf of the US and Canada, is the northward continuation of the line whose investigation I have already mentioned. This extension also has a history of earthquakes and gas emission from sand beaches and water surfaces beyond the shoreline. Such emissions had not ceased around the times of the aircraft disasters. A large number of reports were phoned in to police and emergency services in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on October 27, about three days before the Egypt Air crash, stating that at 9:30 p.m. a large fireball had been seen streaking across the night sky. The details reported did not correspond to a meteorite, but included reports of flames and events much slower than those caused by meteors. A peak in the number of reports recorded prior to an event must be taken seriously, if the number greatly exceeds the number on other days, as was the case here. There were similar reports also before and after the TW 800 crash. There was also a report from Swiss Air 111 of a strange smell about three minutes before the declaration of emergency. This is particularly suggestive of gas effects, as a similar report was made in one of the near accidents over Java, where gas certainly was involved.

We may then wish to investigate whether some features of aircraft disasters along this region, the four disasters mentioned and several others that have also occurred along this corridor, could have an explanation in terms of the list of hazards I have mentioned, or others that have not yet been considered, that could be attributed to gas eruptions.

Mr. Jack Reed retired from the Sandia National Laboratory, an expert in sound propagation, has noted that the ”loud” boom heard by many eye witnesses at the time of the TW 800 crash on a 25 mile stretch of Long Island, nearest point to the plane 15 miles away, was far too loud to have been caused by the proposed explosion of the empty central fuel tank. In his view a one ton bomb of TNT would have been the least required to make such a sound at that distance. Nor would such an explosion have caused the various external luminous phenomena that have been reported by many. Also it is doubtful that an explosion of such a small amount of fuel vapor could have had the power to tear off the entire front section of the fuselage. The absence of shrapnel holes in the recovered skin of TW 800 was taken to exclude a bomb explosion inside or outside the plane. However, a massive external gas explosion would produce no shrapnel.

The facts newly announced about the EgyptAir disaster make clear that a deliberate dive had seemed imperative to the pilot then at the controls, and that a dangerous overspeed situation had then arisen. After a brief recovery to level flight, again a dive seemed imperative, and the overspeed may then have destroyed the plane.

There are many steps that can be taken to find whether the sequence of disasters along this heavily traveled corridor may be due to gas emissions. As an immediate step I urge the continuation of the sonar search for pockmarks on the ocean floor along this coastline in the regions of the four disasters mentioned and others that occurred near this geographical line, since this will have a good chance of showing whether these accidents were indeed over locations at which strong gas outbursts had occurred. A routing change may then be indicated as the first step to avoid further disasters.