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# Electron-phonon coupling induced pseudogap and the superconducting transition in Ba0.67K0.33BiO3

## Abstract

We study the single particle density of states (DOS) across the superconducting transition (Tc = 31 K) in single-crystal Ba0.67K0.33BiO3 using ultrahigh resolution angle-integrated photoemission spectroscopy. The superconducting gap opens with a pile-up in the DOS, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(5.3 K) = 5.2 meV and 2$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(0)/kBTc = 3.9. In addition, we observe a pseudogap below and above Tc, occurring as a suppression in intensity over an energy scale up to the breathing mode phonon($``$ 70 meV). The results indicate electron-phonon coupling induces a pseudogap in Ba0.67K0.33BiO3 .
PACS numbers: 74.25.Jb, 74.25.Kc, 79.60.Bm

From a variety of experiments and theory, it is clear that the high temperature cuprate superconductors belong to a special class of materials. Some of the important aspects of the cuprates are quasi two-dimensionality, short-range antiferromagnetic correlations, an anisotropic pseudogap in the normal phase, and d$`_{x^2y^2}`$ symmetry of the superconducting gap. In contrast, the perovskite series Ba1-xKxBiO3 (BKBO) is three-dimensional, contains no transition metal ions, has no magnetic order but still exhibits the highest Tc known for an oxide other than the cuprates. The superconductivity in the BKBO series was preceded by the analogous BaBi1-xPbxO3 (BPBO) series which shares the same parent BaBiO3 (BBO). The role of electron-phonon coupling in the properties of the BKBO and BPBO series originates in the charge density wave (CDW) state of BBO.

The parent BBO is expected to be a metal from band theory with a half-filled Bi 6s band, but the near perfect nesting possible in BBO causes a three-dimensional CDW gap to open up in the DOS. The CDW in BBO is coupled to the breathing mode phonon which is due to the contraction and expansion of oxygen octahedra surrounding neighbouring Bi ions. Subtitution with K in the Ba-site results in a semiconductor-metal transition at a critical xc $``$ 0.3. While the CDW state is weakened by substitution, resulting in a systematic lowering of the CDW energy upon doping, the breathing mode phonon is observed even in the metallic phase. Optical conductivity studies suggest remnant local CDW order in the superconducting compositions with x = 0.33 and 0.4. EXAFS measurements also show that there are two types of Bi ions, with short- and long-bond nearest neighbour Bi-O distances. On increasing x, the short and long Bi-O distances become equivalent around x = 0.4. This picture is derived from the formally Bi3+ and Bi5+ ions constituting the charge disproportionation in BBO, though X-ray and resonant photoemission spectroscopy studies have not shown clear evidence for the same in BBO and the doped compounds. The results are understood as due to very small charge transfer between the unequal Bi sites. The crystal structure also evolves with doping and at room temperature, for x = 0.0 - 0.1 it is monoclinic, from x = 0.1 to 0.3 it is orthorhombic and above x = 0.3 up to 0.5( = the solubility limit), it is cubic.

In this work we study the electronic structure of Ba1-xKxBiO3 with x = 0.2, 0.33 and 0.46. For x = 0.2, the system is semiconducting ; for x = 0.33 we are across the critical concentration xc $``$ 0.3 and into the metallic phase with a Tc of 31 K; x= 0.46 is overdoped with a Tc of $``$24 K. We have done a detailed study with the purpose of investigating the role of charge order (in the absence of magnetic order) on the electronic structure and superconducting transition in Ba0.67K0.33BiO3. Our results show that the superconducting gap opens due to a pile up in the DOS with spectacular redistribution of spectral weight at low energy scales. Ba0.67K0.33BiO3 belongs to the moderately strong electron-phonon coupling regime with 2$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(0)/kBTc = 3.9. Significantly, we observe a pseudogap in the superconducting state, corresponding to a suppression of intensity occurring over an energy scale up to the breathing mode phonon energy ( $``$ 70 meV ). This pseudogap is observed even above Tc but with a normal metallic Fermi edge. The pseudogap is filled up on increasing temperature in the normal phase. The results indicate electron phonon coupling induces a pseudogap in the metallic phase of Ba0.67K0.33BiO3 .

Single crystals of Ba1-xKxBiO3, with x = 0.2, 0.33 and 0.46 were prepared by an electrochemical method and characterized as reported earlier. Magnetization measurements on the superconducting sample used in the photoemission measurements confirmed Tc = 31 K for x = 0.33 (see inset of Fig 1). Ultrahigh resolution angle-integrated photoemission spectra were measured using monochromatised He I$`\alpha `$ radiation from a GAMMADATA discharge lamp and a Scienta SES 2002 analyzer. The sample was cooled using a flowing liquid helium cryostat and the sample temperature was determined using a calibrated silicon diode sensor to an accuracy of $`\pm `$0.5 K. Clean surfaces were obtained by scraping the sample surfaces using a diamond file. We also attempted cleaving but we always obtained uneven surfaces which showed no angle-dependence of spectra. We confirmed all the data on the scraped surfaces to be identical with the fractured surfaces. The total energy resolution is 4.2 meV as determined from the Fermi edge of a freshly evaporated gold film measured at 5.3 K. The position of the Fermi level(EF) is accurate to better than $`\pm `$0.05 meV. Temperature dependent changes have been reproducibly obtained on thermal cycling.

Figure 1 shows the near EF spectra of Ba0.67K0.33BiO3 obtained using He I$`\alpha `$ radiation at 5.3 K (superconducting phase) and 32 K (normal phase). The spectrum at 32 K (just above Tc = 31 K) is like that of a normal metal with a Fermi edge. This is confirmed by simulating the spectrum using a linear DOS multiplied by the Fermi-Dirac distribution and convoluted by a Gaussian of FWHM = 4.2 meV corresponding to the experimental resolution (see Fig. 1). In contrast, the spectrum at 5.3 K shows a sharp peak at 7.0 meV binding energy with a leading edge determined by the experimental resolution. The spectrum indicates a clear gap in the single particle DOS due to the superconducting transition. Using the Dynes f function for the superconducting DOS, we have similarly simulated the spectrum at 5.3 K(Fig. 1) to obtain the gap value. We obtain a good fit for a gap value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(5.3 K) = 5.2 meV, and a $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ value of 0.01 meV indicating negligible thermal smearing. While the fit deviates at binding energies beyond the peak, the good fit obtained for the leading edge and peak indicate that Ba0.67K0.33BiO3 has an isotropic s-wave gap. The value of the gap gives a 2$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(0)/kBTc = 3.9, in agreement with tunneling and optical spectroscopy experiments. The estimated electron-phonon coupling parameter $`\lambda `$ $``$ 1.2$`\pm `$0.2 for x = 0.33 from tunneling and $`\lambda `$ $``$ 1 from theory. We have also calculated the photoemission spectrum at T = 5.3 K using Eliashberg equations in the strong coupling framework and we obtain a good maTch for a $`\lambda `$ $``$ 1.2$`\pm `$0.2 and $`\mu ^{}`$ = 0.11, confirming the tunneling result. A 2$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(0)/kBTc = 3.9 implies that Ba0.67K0.33BiO3 belongs to the moderately strong-coupling regime similar to niobium metal, which exhibits a 2$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(0)/kBTc = 3.8.

The spectral weight redistribution shown in Fig. 1 is due to a systematic pile up in the DOS as shown in Fig. 2a. We have also simulated the superconducting spectra so as to obtain a measure of the temperature dependence of the gap. As an example, we show the spectrum along with the simulation for T = 26 K, in the inset to Fig. 2b. Very interestingly, we see that the spectrum shows a small but clear peak above EF which is also well simulated and is due to the peak in the superconducting DOS above EF. As the temperature increases, DOS just above the gap are populated, resulting in the peak above EF. At the lowest temperature, we do not see this peak above EF due to the relatively large gap compared to the Fermi Dirac function(see Fig.1). The peak above EF grows in intensity and moves closer to EF with temperature and finally disappears above Tc. A similar peak above EF has been observed recently for V3Si below Tc. The gaps obtained from such fits to the spectra are plotted as a function of reduced temperature T/Tc in Fig. 2b. The plot matches well with the expected dependence for the gap as a function of T/Tc from BCS theory(shown as a line), which is similar to the strong coupling result.

In order to study the changes in the electronic structure associated with the semiconductor-metal transition we have measured the valence band spectra for Ba1-xKxBiO3 (x = 0.2 and 0.33) with He I$`\alpha `$ radiation as shown in the inset to Fig. 3. The x = 0.2 spectrum was measured at 300 K as the sample charged up at low temperatures, while the x = 0.33 spectrum is measured at 5.3 K. The spectra are normalized at the most intense peak at 3.0 eV and, except for a small broadening of the peak at 3.0 eV, show little change in the gross features. Comparing with band structure calculations it is known that the most intense peak centred at 3.0 eV is due to non-bonding O 2p states, with the bonding Bi 6s-O 2p states at higher binding energy and the anti-bonding states occurring close to EF. The spectra are similar to that reported earlier using He II radiation but for the change in relative intensities due to a change in cross-sections consistent with the photon energy used for the measurements. We concentrate on the Bi 6s-O 2p anti-bonding states, and as seen in Fig. 3, the spectrum for x = 0.2 does not show any intensity at EF due to the semiconducting nature of the sample. In comparison, the x = 0.33 spectrum shows remarkable changes associated with the increase in K substitution. As discussed above, the high-resolution low energy scale spectrum at 5.3 K shows a superconducting gap below Tc and a normal metallic Fermi edge above Tc . But most interestingly, at intermediate energy scales, we see a pseudogap at 5.3 K in the electronic structure occurring as a suppression in intensity upto 70 meV binding energy(Fig. 3). This energy corresponds to the highest phonon energy and has also been associated with the breathing mode phonon energy ( 570 cm-1 $``$ 70 meV ) as identified by Raman scattering.

We have investigated the temperature dependence of the pseudogap between 5.3 K and 300 K as shown in Fig. 4. While we observe a change in slope at about 70 meV in the 5.3 K and 32 K spectrum, the pseudogap is really not clear at high temperatures from a first look at the data. In order to get a clear picture of the changes as a function of temperature, we have normalized the spectra for the area under the curve and divided by a corresponding Fermi-Dirac function convoluted with the experimental resolution. We see (inset A to Fig. 4b) that the pseudogap surviving in the normal phase DOS over an energy of 70 meV gets filled up on increasing temperature to 300 K, without any changes in higher binding energies upto at least 300 meV. Since the spectral weight ought to be conserved, the absence of any spectral feature to compensate for the changes suggests spectral weight conservation over wider energy scales. The DOS are asymmetric with respect to EF as we limit the analysis to an energy of 3it kBT above EF as determined by the Fermi Dirac function. We have also measured the pseudogap and the superconducting transition in the overdoped BKBO with x = 0.46. The pseudogap is weaker in energy and is closed by T = 150 K as seen from the analysis shown in inset B to Fig.4. This suggests that the high energy phonons enhance the Tc and the 2$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(0)/kBTc to 3.9 in the optimal doping samples while for overdoping 2$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(0)/kBTc $``$ 3.5. We note that the pseudogap is a true pseudogap and not extrinsic as the pseudogap is more pronounced at low temperatures when the solid is more conducting, in contrast to the proposal by Joynt for poorly conducting solids. In comparison, a normal phase pseudogap is also observed in the underdoped cuprates but at low energy scales and develops into an anisotropic superconducting gap below Tc, although a higher energy scale pseudogap has also been discussed.

An effective attractive interaction between electrons (negative U Hubbard model) due to strong electron-phonon coupling, or due to an electronic origin has been discussed in the context of the BPBO and BKBO series. Real-space on-site pairing in the insulating CDW state going over to a metallic phase with k-space pairing was proposed for the BPBO series. The existence of a pseudogap existing over an energy scale of the CDW gap energy has also been calculated for the BPBO series. eMissing f spectral weight identified in optical spectroscopy\[15 and references therein\] has been similarly discussed in the framework of a bipolaronic model. However, for the high-Tc cuprates, the existence of pairing and a spin-gap in the normal phase of the 2D negative-U Hubbard model has been shown to be consistent with experiments. Further, it also exhibits a pseudogap in the single-particle DOS. The pseudogap we observe could also have a similar origin in pairing due to the fact that magnetic susceptibility also shows a gradual increase with temperature in the normal phase. However, in a model for the high-Tc cuprates, it has been shown that preformed pairs can form at a temperature T above Tc with phase coherence setting in at Tc. The existence of two temperature scales is in contrast to BCS behavior and may not be consistent with the BCS-like behavior of the superconducting gap seen here. Alternatively, it could be due to remnant local CDW order surviving in the metallic phase as observed in optical measurements and is consistent with the observation that the long and short Bi-O bonds become indistinguishable around x = 0.4 in EXAFS measurements. Given the proximity of the CDW state to superconductivity, it is possible that the BKBO series manifests electron-phonon coupling induced electron pairing above Tc as an intermediary metallic phase in Ba0.67K0.33BiO3. The seemingly competing behavior of CDW order (or real-space pairing) and superconductivity (or k-space pairing) could then be derived from this intermediate phase by changes in electron-phonon coupling, carrier density and temperature.

In conclusion, the superconducting gap in Ba0.67K0.33BiO3 opens below Tc with a pile-up resulting in a sharp peak in the DOS at low energy scales. From 2$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(0)/kBTc = 3.9, Ba0.67K0.33BiO3 belongs to the moderately strong electron-phonon coupling regime. A pseudogap is observed below and above Tc, occurring as a suppression in intensity up to the highest phonon energy($``$ 70 meV), also associated with the breathing mode phonon. The pseudogap fills up on increasing temperature in the normal phase. The results indicate electron-phonon coupling induces a pseudogap in Ba0.67K0.33BiO3 .

Acknowledgements : We thank Professors M. Imada and M. Takigawa for very valuable discussions. This work was supported by grants from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.


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# References

The study of string propagation in background fields has been an active area of research for a long time . One such consistent set of background includes a general target space metric, antisymmetric tensor field and a linear dilaton. String theories with linear dilaton background  are interesting from the point of view of $`D`$-branes , as well as conformal field theory (CFT) using their free field realizations. They also play a role in understanding the cosmological implications of string theory and their applications to quantum gravity, through the constructions of noncritical string theories , where the role of 2-dimensional gravity becomes important. Thus such theories are important to study, in order to have a better understanding of gravity in general, and also in constructing interesting physical systems with nontrivial quantum gravity effects. Recently, D-branes in linear dilaton background have been studied, where the corresponding Dirichlet boundary state has been constructed . The aim of this paper is to further study the linear dilaton background in the context of D-branes. In particular, our aim is to analyze the non-commutative structure  arising in such background when a constant antisymmetric tensor field is turned on along these D-branes.

We now consider open strings in $`d`$ dimensional space-time in the presence of a constant Neveu-Schwarz antisymmetric tensor field $`B`$ and a dilaton $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. The world sheet action is given by ,

$`S`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi \alpha ^{}}}{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Sigma }}d^2z\left[\sqrt{\gamma }\gamma ^{ab}_aX^\mu _bX^\nu g_{\mu \nu }+ϵ^{ab}_aX^\mu _bX^\nu B_{\mu \nu }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\alpha ^{}\sqrt{\gamma }R^{(2)}\mathrm{\Phi }(X)\right]`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi \alpha ^{}}}{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Sigma }}𝑑\tau \left[\alpha ^{}k\mathrm{\Phi }(X)\right].`$
Here we have taken the background gauge fields to be zero. $`R^{(2)}`$ is the two-dimensional curvature scalar and $`k`$ is the extrinsic curvature of the boundary. We take the world sheet metric to be Minkowskian and $`ϵ^{01}=1`$. The $`d`$ dimensional index $`\mu `$ runs from $`0,\mathrm{},d1`$. This world sheet action in conformal gauge reduces to,

$$S_0=\frac{1}{4\pi \alpha ^{}}d^2z\left[g_{\mu \nu }_aX^\mu ^aX^\nu +ϵ^{ab}B_{\mu \nu }_aX^\mu _bX^\nu +\alpha ^{}_a\rho _\mu \mathrm{\Phi }^aX^\mu \right].$$
(2)
where, $`\rho `$ is the conformal mode of the metric. We assume that the dilaton $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is of the form $`\mathrm{\Phi }=Q_\mu X^\mu `$, i.e., a linear function of the coordinates where $`Q`$ is the background charge. One also takes $`Q^2Q_\mu Q^\mu =\frac{(26d)}{24\alpha ^{}}`$, in order to cancel the conformal anomaly in the quantized theory. We will further restrict ourselves to the gauge $`\rho =0`$. One can then directly apply the procedure of  to quantize the theory. Equations of motion, boundary conditions, as well as the canonical momenta remain unchanged with respect to the case when $`Q_\mu =0`$ and $`d=26`$. However, since the energy-momentum tensor acquires an extra term due to the coupling of the dilaton to the worldsheet curvature scalar, the Virasoro generators are also modified accordingly with terms depending on the background charge $`Q`$.

The variation of the action gives the boundary conditions at $`\sigma =0,\pi `$ as

$$_\sigma X^\mu +F_\nu ^\mu _\tau X^\nu |_{\sigma =0,\pi }=0,$$
(3)
and from the equations of motion, the general solutions for the string coordinates $`X^\mu `$ are obtained as,

$$X^\mu =x_0^\mu +(p_0^\mu \tau p_0^\nu F_\nu ^\mu \sigma )+\underset{n0}{}\frac{e^{in\tau }}{n}(ia_n^\mu \mathrm{cos}n\sigma a_n^\nu F_\nu ^\mu \mathrm{sin}n\sigma ).$$
(4)
In flat Minkowski space ($`g_{\mu \nu }=\eta _{\mu \nu }`$), one has $`F_\mu ^\nu B_\mu ^\nu `$. Also, the mode expansion for the canonical momenta can be written in a form:

$$2\pi \alpha ^{}P^\mu (\tau ,\sigma )=G_\nu ^\mu (a_0^\nu +\underset{n0}{}a_n^\nu e^{in\tau }\mathrm{cos}n\sigma ),$$
(5)
with $`G`$ being the open string metric given by,

$$G=gBg^1B.$$
(6)
The noncommutative properties and the canonical commutation relations in this theory are identical to the ones in  and are described by the following relations :

$`[x_0^\mu ,x_0^\nu ]`$ $`=`$ $`i\pi \alpha ^{}\left[(G^1)^{\mu \rho }F_\rho ^\nu (G^1)^{\nu \rho }F_\rho ^\mu \right],`$
$`[x_0^\mu ,p_0^\nu ]`$ $`=`$ $`2i\alpha ^{}(G^1)^{\mu \nu },`$
$`[a_m^\mu ,a_n^\nu ]`$ $`=`$ $`2\alpha ^{}m(G^1)^{\mu \nu }\delta _{m+n,0}`$
$`[a_m^\mu ,x_0^\nu ]`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$
$`[a_m^\mu ,p_0^\nu ]`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (7)
To write down the Virasoro generators, one starts with the expression for the components of the worldsheet energy-momentum tensor. It is useful to express quantities in complex coordinates $`z`$ and $`\overline{z}`$, where the world sheet of the open string theory corresponds to the upper half plane, Im $`z>0`$. The energy momentum tensor can then be written as,

$`T_{zz}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\alpha ^{}}}g_{\mu \nu }X^\mu X^\nu +Q_\mu ^2X^\mu ,`$
$`T_{\overline{z}\overline{z}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\alpha ^{}}}g_{\mu \nu }\overline{}X^\mu \overline{}X^\nu +Q_\mu \overline{}^2X^\mu .`$ (8)
Using the mode expansions for the coordinates as in equation (4), one can expand $`T_{zz}`$, $`T_{\overline{z}\overline{z}}`$ as:

$`T_{zz}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\alpha ^{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}G_{\mu \nu }a_{mn}^\mu a_n^\nu +i(m+1)Q^\mu (g+B)_{\mu \nu }a_m^\nu \right)z^{m2},`$
$`T_{\overline{z}\overline{z}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\alpha ^{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}G_{\mu \nu }a_{mn}^\mu a_n^\nu +i(m+1)Q^\mu (gB)_{\mu \nu }a_m^\nu \right)\overline{z}^{m2}.`$ (9)
One can also express them in an alternative form of the mode expansion, where the $`Q`$-dependent terms appear with coefficient $`m`$ rather than $`(m+1)`$. They can, however, be obtained from the above expressions by a shift proportional to $`Q^\mu `$ on $`\alpha _0^\mu `$.

Moreover, in open string theories, the conformal invariance condition on the boundary implies, a matching condition, $`T_{zz}=T_{\overline{z}\overline{z}}|_{z=\overline{z}}`$ (Im $`z=0`$), which is derived from the requirement that there is no net flow of energy and momentum from the boundary. In our case, this constraint is satisfied by imposing the condition

$$Q^\mu B_{\mu \nu }=0.$$
(10)
Also, using relations (7), it can be verified that $`T_{zz}`$ as well as $`T_{\overline{z}\overline{z}}`$ satisfy conformal algebra with central charge $`C=d+24\alpha ^{}Q^2`$.

There are several solutions for the above condition between the background charges $`Q_\mu `$’s and the antisymmetric tensor components $`B_{\mu \nu }`$’s. First, if the directions along which $`Q_\mu `$’s are turned on, are orthogonal to the ones which have constant antisymmetric tensor couplings, conditions (10) are trivially satisfied. More interesting solutions arise when the electric and magnetic components of the $`B`$ field are related as in the case of light-like noncommutativity . The above condition on the background charge then implies that $`Q_\mu `$ is also a light-like vector. Theories with light-like noncommutativity are known to be unitary  and have a nice decoupling limit. In particular, the light-like noncommutativity condition reads $`B_{0i}=B_{1i}0`$. Noncommutativity with parallel electric and magnetic field components has also been studied in ref. . Let us just consider the case where $`B_{12}`$ as well as $`B_{02}`$ components are nonzero. Then the light-like noncommutativity condition, eqn. (10), implies that the two corresponding background charges satisfy the condition $`Q_0=Q_1`$. The dilaton is then proportional to both the time as well as space coordinates, $`i.e.`$ $`\mathrm{\Phi }=Q_0(X^0+X^1)`$. Similar type of dilaton backgrounds have been considered before in . They also appear in asymptotic limits of space-time backgrounds in various gauged WZW models. In our case, they belong to the class of space-time backgrounds with null isometries, and are known to be classical solutions of string theories to all orders in $`\alpha ^{}`$.

It remains to be seen whether the condition (10) is also a necessary one to define a consistent quantum theory. In other words, it may be interesting to understand whether the matching condition at the boundary given above can be treated as a constraint in the quantization process. In that case, equation (10) will be replaced by an appropriate physical state conditions.

We also note that the mode expansions for $`T_{zz}`$ and $`T_{\overline{z}\overline{z}}`$, given above, are related by $`BB`$ transformation. Such asymmetry in the form of fields and operators occurs in open string theory, even in the constant dilaton case. For example, in the case of NSR superstring in constant $`B`$ background, the mode expansions of left and right-handed Neveu-Schwarz and Ramond fermion fields are obtained as ,

$`\psi ^i(z)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{r}{}}\left[g^1(g2\pi \alpha ^{}B)\right]_j^ib_r^jz^{r\frac{1}{2}},`$
$`\overline{\psi ^i}(\overline{z})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{r}{}}\left[g^1(g+2\pi \alpha ^{}B)\right]_j^ib_r^j\overline{z}^{r\frac{1}{2}},`$ (11)
where $`r`$ is an integer (half-integer) in R-sector (NS-sector). Operators $`X^\mu `$, $`\overline{}X^\mu `$ also have similar mode expansions and correspond to the worldsheet conserved currents for the translations in the left and the right-moving sector. The worldsheet fields $`\psi `$, $`\overline{\psi }`$ etc. appear in vertex operators for vector fields in superstring theory  as a linear combination $`(\psi ^\mu +\overline{\psi }^\mu )e^{ik.X}`$ of the left and right-moving components. For the case of Virasoro generators, however, there is an extra condition on the form of $`B`$’s and $`Q_\mu `$’s originating from the matching condition on the boundary. One can then use the doubling trick where $`T_{zz}`$ becomes holomorphic in the whole complex plane and there is then one set of Virasoro generators, given by the coefficients of the mode expansions in equation (9).

We now discuss the existence of consistent open string theory in constant $`B`$ and linear dilaton backround by using certain space-time equations of motion. In particular, the equation of motion for the tachyon in the open string sector can be written in these backgrounds as ,

$$(gBg^1B)_{\mu \nu }^1^\mu ^\nu \mathrm{\Theta }^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }_\mu \mathrm{\Theta }+\frac{1}{\alpha ^{}}\mathrm{\Theta }=0.$$
(12)
This is the tachyon $`\beta `$-function equation obtained by considering string theories in nontrivial backgrounds. However, one notices that for constant $`g`$, $`B`$ and a linear dilaton $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, this equation can be reinterpreted in terms of a modification to the energy spectrum. For example, assuming a form like $`\mathrm{\Theta }=e^{ikx}`$ for the open string tachyon wave function, one obtains a condition from equation (12) such as,

$$G^{\mu \nu }k_\mu k_\nu +ik_\mu Q^\mu \frac{1}{\alpha ^{}}=0,$$
(13)
with $`G=gBg^1B`$ being the open string metric. The left hand side in equation (13) can be identified with the conformal weight that appears using the Virasoro generators we obtained above and confirms the validity of our construction.

To continue with the analogy, we notice that the equation of motion for the gauge field ‘fluctuations’ in the background of constant $`g`$ and $`B`$, and linear dilaton can be written (by dropping interaction terms) in the form,

$$(gBg^1B)_{\lambda \nu }^1^\nu f_\mu ^\lambda +^\nu \mathrm{\Phi }f_{\nu \mu }=0,$$
(14)
provided the condition (10) once again holds. Now, assuming the wave function for the gauge field fluctuation to be of the form: $`a_\mu =ϵ_\mu e^{ikX}`$, we obtain the mass-shell condition as,

$$\stackrel{~}{h}=G^{\mu \nu }k_\mu k_\nu +ik^\mu Q_\mu =0$$
(15)
and the physical state condition reads as,

$$(k_\mu G^{\mu \nu }+Q^\nu )ϵ_\nu =0.$$
(16)
Using the expressions of the conformal generators mentioned above, we then reproduce the expressions for the conformal weight ($`\stackrel{~}{h}`$) in (15), as well as the physical state condition (16). We find it interesting to observe that the condition (10) appears from the point of view of CFT, as well as in the study of the space-time equations of motion. We also mention that, although the above set of equations, (12)-(16), for string modes is derived from the string effective action in commutative quantization scheme, one can argue that by restricting to the linearized fluctuations and ignoring interaction terms, one gets identical conditions in noncommutative framework as well.

We now discuss $`N=2`$ (worldsheet) supersymmetric extension of our results in the critical string theory case. This analysis is of importance for studying the supersymmetric version of D-branes with linear dilaton background as well as in their constructions using $`N=2`$ minimal models . To present such an extension of the above analysis, we now give the representation of $`N=2`$ superconformal field theories using free bosonic and fermionic fields having mode expansions of the type (4), (11), and superconformal generators are the generalizations of the ones appearing in (8, 9). We write down explicit expressions for the superconformal generators and show that they satisfy the $`N=2`$ operator algebra. To be specific, in this part of the paper, we first restrict ourselves to the case when $`g`$, $`B`$ etc.are $`2\times 2`$ matrices. We then start with the 2-point function for bosons $`\varphi ^i`$ and fermions $`\psi ^i`$, $`(i=1,2)`$ that can be obtained by turning on constant $`B`$. By restricting ourselves to the boundary, these 2-point functions are:

$`\varphi ^i(\tau _1)\varphi ^j(\tau _2)`$ $`=`$ $`G^{ij}ln(\tau _1\tau _2)^2+\theta ^{ij}ϵ(\tau _1\tau _2),`$
$`\psi ^i(\tau _1)\psi ^j(\tau _2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G^{ij}}{(\tau _1\tau _2)}}.`$ (17)
with $`G=gBg^1B`$, $`g`$ now being a two dimensional identity matrix and $`B_{ij}=bϵ_{ij}`$. $`\theta _{ij}`$ are the noncommutativity parameters: $`\theta _{ij}=\theta ϵ_{ij}`$, with $`\theta =\frac{b}{1+b^2}`$. Now following , we work in a complex notation, where,

$`A=\varphi ^1+i\varphi ^2,\overline{A}=\varphi ^1i\varphi ^2,`$ (18)
$`\psi =\psi ^1i\psi ^2,\overline{\psi }=\psi ^1+i\psi ^2.`$ (19)
The boundary two point functions are then given by,

$`A(\tau _1)\overline{A}(\tau _2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{1+b^2}}ln(\tau _1\tau _2)^2+\theta ϵ(\tau _1\tau _2),`$
$`\overline{A}(\tau _1)A(\tau _2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{1+b^2}}ln(\tau _1\tau _2)^2\theta ϵ(\tau _1\tau _2),`$ (20)
and

$$\psi (\tau _1)\overline{\psi }(\tau _2)=\frac{1}{(1+b^2)(\tau _1\tau _2)}=\overline{\psi }(\tau _1)\psi (\tau _2).$$
(21)
We now write down the expression for the superconformal generators, by extending the expressions for the conformal generators written earlier in equation (8), (9) to the full $`N=2`$ superconformal symmetry. We give these expressions in terms of conformal fields, rather than their oscillator modes. They can, however, be mapped into each other. The full set of generators in $`N=2`$ theories consist of the $`U(1)`$ generators $`J`$, two superconformal generators $`G,\overline{G}`$ and the conformal generator $`T`$. Their conformal weights are $`1,\frac{3}{2}`$ and $`2`$ respectively. In our case, they have a form:

$`J`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[(1+b^2)\overline{\psi }\psi +(1+ib)\overline{\beta }_\tau A(1ib)\beta _\tau \overline{A}],`$
$`G`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{\sqrt{2}}}(1+b^2)\psi _\tau A2\sqrt{2}i\beta (1ib)_\tau \psi ,`$
$`\overline{G}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{\sqrt{2}}}(1+b^2)\overline{\psi }_\tau \overline{A}+2\sqrt{2}i\overline{\beta }(1+ib)_\tau \overline{\psi },`$
$`T`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(1+b^2)_\tau A_\tau \overline{A}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(1+b^2)_\tau \overline{\psi }\psi +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(1+b^2)\overline{\psi }_\tau \psi +`$ (22)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{\beta }}{2}}(1+ib)_\tau ^2A+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta }{2}}(1ib)_\tau ^2\overline{A}.`$
Here $`\beta `$ and $`\overline{\beta }`$ are complex parameters. By writing down $`A`$, $`\overline{A}`$ etc. using oscillator mode expansions, such as the ones in (4), and restricting to the boundary at $`z=\overline{z}`$, one obtains the mode expansions of the above generators which are the generalizations of the ones appearing in equation (8, 9) to the supersymmetric case. To verify that operators in equation (22) satisfy $`N=2`$ algebra, one uses the two point functions in equations (20), (21). The parameter $`\theta `$, appearing in these expressions does not play a role in verifying the $`N=2`$ superconformal algebra which involves a time ordering of the operators on the boundary. Moreover, since Wick contraction in this context always involves at least one $`\tau `$ derivative, this term drops out from the computation.

We also mention that the generators in equation (22) have been obtained from the reduction of the holomorphic part of the superconformal generators to the boundary. As mentioned before, if one starts with the antiholomorphic generators, one gets expressions which are related to the ones in (22) by a transformation: $`BB`$.

In fact this construction of $`N=2`$ generators can be extended to several copies of bosonic fields $`A^I,\overline{A}^{\overline{I}}`$ and fermionic fields $`\psi ^{\overline{I}},\overline{\psi }^I`$ the indices on $`\psi `$ and $`\overline{\psi }`$ correspond to their definitions in equation (19). The non-vanishing components of the (closed string) metric and antisymmetric tensors are: $`g_{I\overline{J}}`$ and $`B_{I\overline{J}}`$. $`N=2`$ generators can be written for these cases by generalizing the expressions in equation (22) to include indices $`I,\overline{I}`$ over the fermions and bosons. At the same time the expression $`(1+b^2)`$ and $`(1\pm ib)`$ appearing in equation (22) are replaced by : $`G_{I\overline{J}}`$ and $`(g_{I\overline{J}}\pm iB_{I\overline{J}})`$ respectively, with $`G_{I\overline{J}}`$, now being the ‘open’ string metric. The matching of the $`N=2`$ generators on the boundary once again gives a condition involving $`B`$, and background charges $`\beta ,\overline{\beta }`$, representing the linear dilaton in the present case: $`\beta ^IB_{I\overline{J}}=0`$, $`\overline{\beta }^{\overline{I}}B_{\overline{I}J}=0`$.

We have therefore given the constructions of noncommutative open string theories in linear dilaton and constant antisymmetric tensor backgrounds. We also note that the classical action (2) discussed above, appears in general in the context of noncritical string theories, where 2-d gravity couples to the matter. In view of our analysis, it will be interesting to investigate non-commutativity in these cases as well. We end with a comment that the relationship with light-like noncommutativity, as found above, deserves further study. In particular, one would also like to understand the decoupled field theory limit  in the above case and the corresponding dual supergravity descriptions, as has been discussed in other theories with light-like noncommutativity . It may also be interesting to understand our results in the context of little string theories  where the dual theory is a theory without gravity in lower dimension.

Acknowledgement:  We thank M. M. Sheikh-Jabbari, A. Misra, S. Mukherji and K. Ray for many useful discussions. S. M. would like to thank the Abdus Salam I.C.T.P. for an Associateship under which this work was done.


text:
# Parity Violating Photoproduction of 𝜋^± on the Δ Resonance

\[

## Abstract

We analyze the real photon asymmetry $`A_\gamma ^\pm `$ for the parity violating (PV) $`\pi ^\pm `$ production on the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance via the reactions $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }+p\mathrm{\Delta }^+\pi ^++n`$ and $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }+d\mathrm{\Delta }^0+p\pi ^{}+p+p`$. This asymmetry is nonvanishing due to a PV $`\gamma N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ coupling constant, $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$. We argue that an experimental determination of this coupling would be of interest for hadron dynamics, possibly shedding light on the S-wave/P-wave puzzle in the hyperon nonleptonic decays and the violation of Hara’s theorem in weak radiative hyperon decays.

PACS Indices: 11.30.Rd, 13.88.+e, 13.60.Le

\]

Despite years of scrutiny, the strangeness-changing ($`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$) hadronic weak interaction (HWI) continues to confront hadron structure physicists with a number of largely unsolved puzzles: e.g., the origin of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }I=1/2`$ rule, the S-wave/P-wave problem in hyperon nonleptonic weak decays, and the surprisingly large violation of SU(3) symmetry in hyperon weak radiative decays. These puzzles involve the breakdown of symmetries associated with light quark and gluon strong interactions when applied to hadronic weak observables. Indeed, hadronic weak matrix elements involve a complex interplay of strong and weak interactions, and the degree to which QCD-based symmetries are relevant in this context remains an open question for the field.

Our understanding of the strangeness-conserving ($`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$) HWI remains no less opaque, and similar questions about the applicability of strong interaction symmetries arise in this case. Recently, there has been resurgence of interest in studying the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ HWI via measurements of parity-violating (PV), strangeness-conserivng observables . The use of parity violation allows one to filter out the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ HWI from much larger, strangeness-conserving strong and electromagnetic effects. While these PV experiments focus on nucleonic systems, there have yet to be any studies of strangeness-conserving weak transitions between the nucleon ($`N`$) and other $`qqq`$ states. In this note, we propose such a probe of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ HWI involving the nucleon and its lightest spin-$`\frac{3}{2}`$ partner, the $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1230)`$ resonance: $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$, the PV $`\pi ^\pm `$ photoproduction asymmetry at the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance using polarized photons.

In the limit where the number of quark and gluon colors ($`N_c`$) becomes large, the $`N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ form a degenerate multiplet under spin-flavor SU(4) symmetry, making this system an interesting window on the hadronic dynamics of light $`qqq`$ hadrons. Measurements of the parity-conserving (PC) electromagnetic (EM) $`N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ transition amplitudes (Fig. 1a) have challenged hadron structure theorists, as the experimental results differ substantially from both lattice QCD and QCD-inspired model predictions . A determination of the axial vector neutral current $`N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ amplitude via PV pion electroproduction planned at Jefferson Laboratory  could, in principle, shed additional light on the present shortcomings of hadron structure theory in this context. In a separate communication, we show that a parallel measurement of $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$ could sharpen the theoretical interpretation of the PV electroproduction asymmetry, $`A_e`$ . Here, we concentrate on the hadron structure implications of $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$ – whose measurement also appears to be feasible at Jefferson Lab – and show how it could provide new insight into the physics of the poorly understood HWI in both the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ sectors.

The relationship between $`A_\gamma `$ and its $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ partners follows from the QCD-based symmetry properties – chiral, flavor SU(N), large $`N_c`$ – of the relevant transition matrix elements. Chiral perturbation theory ($`\chi `$PT) provides a natural and systematic framework for applying these symmetries to hadronic observables. At leading order in the chiral expansion, $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$ is dominated by the PV $`\mathrm{\Delta }N\gamma `$ electric dipole (E1) amplitude, which is the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$, SU(4) analog of the SU(3)-forbidden E1 amplitude responsible for PV $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ hyperon weak radiative decays. In the limit of exact SU(3) symmetry, the asymmetry paraemters $`\alpha ^{BB^{}}`$ associated with the latter must vanish, a result known as Hara’s theorem. The non-zero splitting between the strange and light quark masses breaks the SU(3) symmetry, leading one to expect $`\alpha ^{BB^{}}m_s/m_N0.15`$, where $`m_s`$ is the strange quark mass. Experimentally, however, one finds  $`\alpha ^{\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p}=0.76\pm 0.08,\alpha ^{\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0}=0.63\pm 0.09`$, roughly four to five times the naive expectation.

In an analogous manner, the PV $`\mathrm{\Delta }N\gamma `$ E1 transition – and thus the resonant asymmetry $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$ – must vanish in the limit of exact SU(4) symmetry. It is natural to ask, then, whether the dynamics underlying the surprisingly large SU(3)-violation in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ sector also produce enhanced SU(4)-breaking in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ weak radiative transition. Using a specific mechanism for both the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ transitions, we show that one might reasonably expect enhancements to be generated in both sectors by similar dynamics. More generally, a measurement of $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$ could help determine whether anomalously large symmetry breaking is a general feature of low-energy hadronic weak interactions or simply a peculiarity of $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ hyperon decays.

Our result for the $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$ leading to these conclusions has the simple form:

$$A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }\frac{2d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm }{C_3^V}\frac{M_N}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi }+\mathrm{}$$
(1)
where $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$ is the PV asymmetry on the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi =4\pi F_\pi 1`$ GeV is the scale of chiral symmetry breaking, $`C_3^V2`$ is the dominant $`N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ vector transition form factor (Fig. 1a) as defined in Ref. , $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$ is a low-energy constant (LEC) characterizing the PV $`\gamma N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ coupling in Fig. 1b, and the ellipses denote non-resonant, higher order chiral, and $`1/M_N`$ corrections. Several features of $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$ merit comment:

(i) The photoproduction asymmetry coincides with the $`q^20`$ limit of $`A_e`$. The nonvanishing $`A_e(q^2=0)`$ results from $`\gamma `$-exchange between the electron and hadronic target, with the $`\gamma `$-hadron coupling given in Fig. (1b) corresponding to matrix elements of the transverse electric multipole operator $`\widehat{T}_{J=1\lambda }^E`$. The constraints of current conservation, as expressed in Siegert’s theorem , allow one to rewrite matrix elements of this operator in terms of the corresponding charge density matrix elements:

$`f|\widehat{T}_{J=1\lambda }^E|i={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{3}}\omega f|{\displaystyle d^3xxY_{1\lambda }(\mathrm{\Omega })\widehat{\rho }(x)}|i+𝒪(q^2),`$ (2)
where the $`\omega `$ is the energy difference between the initial and final states and vanishes in the $`N_c\mathrm{}`$ limit wherein the $`N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ become degenerate. The leading term is $`q^2`$-independent and proportional to $`\omega `$ times the electric dipole matrix element. Up to numerical factors, this matrix element is simply $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm /\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi `$. The remaining terms of $`𝒪(q^2)`$ and higher contain matrix elements of the anapole operator , which do not contribute to $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$ but generate contributions to $`A_e`$ that vanish at the photon point.

(ii) In the context of $`\chi `$PT, one expects the “natural” scale for SU(4) breaking effects associated with $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$ to be $`\text{few}\times 10^8`$ (see below). However, the magnitude of observed $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ PV asymmetries suggest that $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$ could be significantly enhanced over this scale, yielding a potentially relatively large real photon asymmetry $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm }`$ $`\text{few}\times 10^6`$, which would be accessible using polarized photons at Jefferson Lab.

In performing a consistent derivation of the photoproduction asymmetry, one must consider all contributions to the PV amplitudes through a given chiral order. However, while one may readily identify the formal chiral order of various contributions to $`A_\gamma ^\pm `$, the physical significance of chiral counting is complicated by the dominance of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ intermediate state at resonant kinematics. In particular, we do not include various non-resonant background contributions, even though some may be formally of lower chiral order than those involving the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ intermediate state (see, e.g. the studies of PV threshold $`\pi `$ production in Refs. ). The reason is that for resonant kinematics, the contribution of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is enhanced relative to the non-resonant (NR) background contributions by $`\sigma ^\mathrm{\Delta }/\sigma ^{NR}\left(2M_\mathrm{\Delta }/\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{\Delta }\right)^42\times 10^4`$. This enhancement factor more than compensates for the relative chiral orders of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and NR contributions. Indeed, from a blind application of chiral power counting to $`A_\gamma ^\pm `$, one might erroneously truncate the chiral expansion at $`𝒪(p)`$, retaining only the NR background contributions to the resonant asymmetry. Hence, we use chiral power counting as a means of organizing various resonant contributions instead of using it to delineate the relative importance of resonant and NR amplitudes.

To that end, we employ heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory (HB$`\chi `$PT)  and adopt the $`p`$-counting scheme, where $`p`$ denotes a small external momentum or mass or the photon field. The leading PV $`\mathrm{\Delta }N\gamma `$ transition operator is then $`𝒪(p^2)`$ :

$$_{PV}^{\mathrm{\Delta }N\gamma }=i\frac{e}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi }[d_\mathrm{\Delta }^+\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}_{}^{+}{}_{\mu }{}^{}\gamma _\lambda p+d_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}_{}^{0}{}_{\mu }{}^{}\gamma _\lambda n]F^{\mu \lambda }+\text{h.c.}$$
(3)
and we truncate our expansions of $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$ at this order. The $`𝒪(p^3)`$ corrections – including loop effects – are generally small and can be found in . ***Another possible resonant subleading correction comes from PV $`\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ D-Wave interaction. However, a careful analysis shows it does not contribute to the total real photon asymmetry .

Separate determinations of $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^+`$ and $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ could be achieved using proton and deuterium targets, respectively. In the latter case, the resonant $`\pi ^{}`$ production process $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }+d\pi ^{}+p+p`$ is dominated by the subprocess $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }+n\mathrm{\Delta }^0\pi ^{}+p`$ since two body meson exchange currents are always higher order due to the presence of an additional loop . The asymmetry derivation is the same for $`\pi ^\pm `$ so we take $`\pi ^+`$ resonant production as a specific example. Defining the kinematic variables as

$$\stackrel{}{\gamma }\left(q\right)+p\left(p\right)\mathrm{\Delta }^+\left(p_\mathrm{\Delta }\right)n\left(p^{}\right)+\pi ^+\left(k\right),$$
(4)
we have in the laboratory frame $`s=\left(k+p\right)^2,q=p_\mathrm{\Delta }p,p_\mathrm{\Delta }=p^{}+p_\pi `$ where $`𝐩=0`$ and $`p_\mathrm{\Delta }^2=m_\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$. The PV asymmetry is defined as $`A_\gamma =(N_+N_{})/(N_++N_{})`$, where $`N_+`$ ($`N_{}`$) is the number of detected $`\pi ^+`$ produced via the reaction (4) for a beam of left (right) handed circularly polarized photons.

To compute $`A_{\gamma }^{}{}_{}{}^{+}`$, we require the PC and PV response functions, generated by photon helicity ($`h`$) amplitudes $`M_{PC}^h`$ (Fig. 1a) and $`M_{PV}^h`$ (Fig. 1b), respectively: $`W_{PC}=|M_{PC}^+|^2+|M_{PC}^{}|^2`$ and $`W_{PV}=2\text{Re}\left(M_{PC}^+M_{PV}^+M_{PC}^{}M_{PV}^{}\right)`$. A straightforward calculation leads to

$`W_{PC}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{32\pi \alpha }{9}}S_\mathrm{\Delta }^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{g_{\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }}C_3^V}{F_\pi }}\right)^2|𝐪|^2|𝐤|^2({\displaystyle \frac{5}{3}}\mathrm{cos}^2\theta )`$ (5)
$`W_{PV}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{64\pi \alpha }{9}}m_NS_\mathrm{\Delta }^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{g_{\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }}}{F_\pi }}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{d_\mathrm{\Delta }^+}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi }}C_3^V`$ (7)
$`\times |𝐪|^2|𝐤|^2({\displaystyle \frac{5}{3}}\mathrm{cos}^2\theta )`$
where $`S_\mathrm{\Delta }=\left(sm_\mathrm{\Delta }^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{\Delta }^2/4\right)^1`$ and $`g_{\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ is the $`\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ strong coupling constant. The asymmetry is given by the ratio $`W_{PV}/W_{PC}`$, yielding the result in Eq. (1). It is interesting to note that the leading asymmetry in HB$`\chi `$PT is isotropic.

In order to assess the potential size of this contribution to the asymmetry, we need to estimate the size of $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm .`$ Because LEC’s such as $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$ are governed in part by short-distance ($`r>1/\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi `$) strong interactions, they are difficult to compute from first principles in QCD. A standard alternative is to employ “naive dimensional analysis” (NDA) , according to which effective weak interaction operators should scale as

$$\left(\frac{\overline{\psi }\psi }{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi F_\pi ^2}\right)^k\left(\frac{\pi }{F_\pi }\right)^{\mathrm{}}\left(\frac{D_\mu }{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi }\right)^m\times (\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi F_\pi )^2\times g_\pi ,$$
(8)
where $`g_\pi G_FF_\pi ^2/2\sqrt{2}5\times 10^8`$ is the scale of weak charged current hadronic processes. The SU(4)-violating E1 operator of Eq. (3) corresponds to $`k=1`$, $`\mathrm{}=0`$ and $`m=2`$ and should scale as $`g_\pi /\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi `$, so that $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm g_\pi `$. A more detailed consideration of hadron dynamics, however, suggests that $`|d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm |`$ may be considerably larger.

In the purely mesonic sector of $`\chi `$PT, one knows that low energy constants are well reproduced by assuming resonance saturation for the short distance physics. In the baryon sector, a particularly intriguing application of resonance saturation involves the electric dipole transitions responsible for the anomalously large asymmetries $`\alpha ^{BB^{}}`$ discussed above. The theoretical challenge has been to account for these enhanced values of $`\alpha ^{BB^{}}`$ in a manner consistent with the corresponding nonleptonic pion decay rates.

While a number of approaches have been attempted, the inclusion of $`\frac{1}{2}^{}`$ resonances as in Fig. 2a appears to go furtherst in enhancing the theoretical predictions for the asymmetries while simultaneously resolving the S-wave/P-wave problem in the pion decay channel . Here, the pseudoscalar, nonleptonic weak interaction $`_W^{PV}`$ mixes states of the same spin and opposite parity into the initial and final baryon states, and if $`\frac{1}{2}^{}`$ resonance saturation is indeed the correct explanation for the enhanced $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ PV radiative asymmetries, then one might naturally expect a similar mechanism to play an important role in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ PV electric dipole transition examined in this paper. The relevant diagrams appear in Figs. 2b and 2c, where the intermediate states have $`J^\pi =\frac{1}{2}^{}`$ and $`\frac{3}{2}^{}`$, respectively, and where the $`\gamma `$ vertex brings about the change in spin. In using this picture, we note that:

(i) At present, one has detailed information on the $`\frac{1}{2}^{}\frac{1}{2}^+`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ amplitudes from fits to the S-wave $`B\pi `$ decay channel. In contrast, no experimental information exists on the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ $`\frac{3}{2}^{}\frac{3}{2}^+`$ or $`\frac{1}{2}^{}\frac{1}{2}^+`$ amplitudes. Since we seek only to provide an estimate for $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$ and not to perform a detailed treatment of the underlying quark dynamics, we use the results of Ref.  for the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ $`\frac{1}{2}^{}\frac{1}{2}^+`$ amplitudes for guidance in setting the scale of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ weak matrix elements, but recognize that there can be considerable uncertainty in these numbers

(ii) In computing the amplitudes associated with Figs. 2 b,c we require the electromagnetic (EM) $`R(\frac{1}{2}^{})\mathrm{\Delta }(1232)`$ and $`R(\frac{3}{2}^{})N(939)`$ transition amplitudes. The EM decays of the $`\frac{1}{2}^{}`$ resonances to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1232)`$ have not been observed, while the partial widths for $`R(\frac{3}{2}^{})p\gamma `$ have been seen at the expected rates. For purposes of estimating $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$, then, we consider only the contributions from Fig. 2c involving the $`\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ resonances.

The lowest order weak and EM Lagrangians needed in computing the amplitudes of Fig. 2c are

$`_{EM}^{RN}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{eC_R}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi }}\overline{R}_\mu \gamma _\nu pF^{\mu \nu }+\text{h.c.}`$ (9)
$`_{PV}^{R\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ $`=`$ $`iW_R\overline{R}^\mu \mathrm{\Delta }_\mu +\text{h.c.}`$ (10)
where we have omitted labels associated with charge and isospin for simplicity and where $`R^\mu `$ denotes the spin-$`3/2`$ field. The constants $`C_R`$ and $`W_R`$ are a priori unknown. Using Eqs. (9, 10), we obtain

$$d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm =\frac{C_RW_R}{M_RM_\mathrm{\Delta }}.$$
(11)
The experimental EM decay widths given in  imply that $`|C_{1520}|0.98\pm 0.05,|C_{1700}|0.70\pm 0.13`$ with the overall sign of each uncertain. For the weak amplitudes $`W_R`$, we note that the analysis of Ref.  obtained $`|W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=1)|2\times 10^7`$ GeV $`5g_\pi \mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi `$. Writing our estimates for $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$ in terms of this quantity we obtain

$`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm 17g_\pi {\displaystyle \frac{W_{1520}}{W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=1)}}+8g_\pi {\displaystyle \frac{W_{1700}}{W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=1)}}`$ (12)
with an uncertainty as to the relative and overall phase. To the extent that $`|W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=0)||W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=1)|`$, we would expect then $`|d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm |(1025)g_\pi `$. By comparison, for the $`N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ transition anapole moment we obtain $`a_\mathrm{\Delta }^{CT}(VMD)15g_\pi `$  using the “best values” of Ref. .

Based on NDA, one might have expected $`|W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=0)|\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi g_\pi `$ and, thus, $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }g_\pi `$. However, the results of Ref.  give $`|W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=1)|5g_\pi \mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi `$, while the energy denominators in Eq. (11) give additional enhancement factors of two-to-three. Since the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ amplitudes are generally further enhanced by $`V_{ud}/V_{us}`$ as well as neutral current contributions, our estimate of $`d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$ could potentially be four to five times larger than given in Eq. (12) with $`|W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=0)||W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=1)|`$. Hence, we quote a “reasonable range” $`|d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm |=(1100)g_\pi `$ based on this possible factor of four enhancement. Our “best value” $`|d_\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm (\text{best})|=25g_\pi `$ is found by taking $`|W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=0)||W_R(\mathrm{\Delta }S=1)|`$. Substitution into Eq. (1) yields $`A_\gamma ^\pm 1.3\times 10^6`$ as a reasonable estimate for the size of the effect.

To estimate the statistical precision with which one might measure an asymmetry of this magnitude, we use the standard figure of merit, along with experimental conditions roughly appropriate for a deuterium target and the G0 detector at Jefferson Lab: luminosity = 0.25 Mhz/nb; $`d\sigma /d\mathrm{\Omega }_\pi dp_\pi 4`$nb/(MeV$`/c`$-sr); $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }_\pi \mathrm{\Delta }p_\pi `$ 0.5 (MeV$`/c`$-sr); and photon polarization $`P_\gamma 0.5`$. With one month of running, one could achieve a 15% (statistical) determination of $`A_\gamma `$, which would be more than adequate to address the physics issues considered here.

This work was supported in part under U.S. Department of Energy contracts #DE-AC05-84ER40150 and #DE-FGO2-00ER41146, the National Science Foundation under award PHY98-01875, and a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award. CMM acknowledges a fellowship from FAPESP (Brazil), grant 99/00080-5. We thank K. Gustafsson, T. Ito, J. Martin and R. McKeown for helpful discussions.


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# Why Matrix theory works for oddly shaped membranes

## I Matrix theory and Poisson brackets

The idea of approximating various aspects of stringy dynamics, especially the dynamics of membranes, by Matrix theories – quantum field theories in low (0+1 and 1+1) dimensions whose fields are matrix-valued – has been around for some time. In the early 1980’s, Goldstone  and Hoppe  independently examined the action for a relativistic membrane and showed that, for membranes of spherical geometry, the Nambu-Goto action can be approximated to arbitrary precision by the dimensional reduction of super-Yang-Mills theory to 0+1 dimensions, where the gauge group is $`SU(N)`$. As $`N\mathrm{}`$, this gauge group converged to the group of area-preserving diffeomorphism of the sphere, which is a symmetry of the original action. This action was the first and simplest example of a matrix model, and sparked the study of matrix membranes. Some of the important developments in this field since then are the extension of this result to the supersymmetric case,  the Matrix theory of toroidal membranes,  and the understanding, at least in theory, of how to do Matrix theory for other topologies of membrane.  A recent comprehensive review has been given by Taylor.

The matrix approximation was immediately realized to be valuable both as a way for understanding the membranes which appeared in supergravity (and later, of course, in string theory) and as a method of regularizing field theories which is compatible with supersymmetry. Today Matrix theory (in its more sophisticated forms, relating membranes to systems of D0-branes) is one of our few nonperturbative handles on M-theory. But as we shall see below, there is a key step in the matrix membrane argument having to do with the nature of Poisson brackets on membranes which has been implicitly asserted but not yet proven. In this paper we will prove this conjecture, namely that the Poisson brackets on any Riemann surface form the algebra $`U(\mathrm{})`$, and thus put the matrix membrane on a more solid footing. Phrased another way, we will show that the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of any Riemann surface is $`SU(\mathrm{})`$; these two groups differ by a $`U(1)`$ factor generated by the constant functions, which generate the trivial diffeomorphism.***Infinitesimal area-preserving diffeomorphisms are given by $`x^ix^i+\{x^i,\lambda \}`$, where the braces are Poisson brackets and $`\lambda `$ is an arbitrary function. This follows naturally from the Liouville theorem or from demanding that the Jacobian of an arbitrary transformation be 1. Constant functions $`\lambda `$ have vanishing Poisson brackets with all functions and so do not generate a diffeomorphism. Phrased another way still, the group of Hamiltonian flows of a classical system with compact phase space is always $`U(\mathrm{})`$.Whenever one refers to $`U(\mathrm{})`$, one must deal with the subtle issue of to which $`U(\mathrm{})`$ one is referring; for example, one could define it as $`_nU(n)`$, or as the set of limits of sequences of unitary operators of increasing dimension, which is the set of compact unitary operators on a Hilbert space. These groups have the same Lie algebra but very different topologies. The group to which we shall refer as $`U(\mathrm{})`$ in this paper is the latter group, which can also be described as the group generated by infinite-dimensional clock and shift matrices. Hoppe and Schaller have given a useful discussion of how this group is indeed the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms on the torus, as well as of the analogous groups for the noncommutative torus.  Harvey has recently summarized the difference between the various definitions of $`U(\mathrm{})`$ and discussed these differences in the context of string theory.

Let us begin by demonstrating the subtlety in the usual derivation of the matrix membrane. The action for a supersymmetric membrane in type IIA string theory in the light-cone frame is

$$S=d^3\xi \frac{1}{2}\dot{X}^2+\overline{\theta }\gamma _{}\dot{\theta }\frac{1}{4}\{X^i,X^j\}^2+\overline{\theta }\gamma _{}\gamma _i\{X^i,\theta \}$$
(1)
where the brackets represent Poisson brackets with respect to the membrane world-volume coordinates. The shape of the membrane (say, a sphere) is encoded by a vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the $`X^i`$. The observation which led to matrix membrane theory was the demonstration  that the Lie algebra of infinitesimal area-preserving diffeomorphisms on the sphere was none other than $`SU(\mathrm{})`$, and therefore it could be approximated at arbitrary order by the matrices of $`SU(N)`$. To do this, one replaces the functions $`X^i(\xi )`$ and $`\theta (\xi )`$ with $`SU(N)`$–valued functions of time, the Poisson brackets with commutators, and the integral over the space coordinates with a trace in the matrix space. If one does this, one finds the action

$$S=𝑑t\mathrm{Tr}\left[\frac{1}{2}\dot{X}^2+\overline{\theta }\gamma _i\dot{\theta }\frac{1}{4}[X^i,X^j]^2+\overline{\theta }\gamma _{}\gamma _i[X^i,\theta ]\right].$$
(2)
This action is immediately recognizable as the action for super-Yang-Mills theory of the gauge group $`SU(N)`$ dimensionally reduced to 0+1 dimensions in temporal gauge $`X^0=0`$. The field strength in this gauge is

$`F^{0i}`$ $`=`$ $`\dot{X}^i`$ (3)
$`F^{ij}`$ $`=`$ $`i[X^i,X^j]`$ (4)
and the action is

$$S=𝑑t\mathrm{Tr}\left[\frac{1}{4}F^2+\overline{\theta }\gamma _{}\gamma \theta \right],$$
(5)
This action is also the low-energy action for a system of $`N`$ D0-branes, where the eigenvalues of the VEV of the $`X^i`$ give the positions of the branes, and the off-diagonal elements represent amplitudes for strings to be stretched between a given pair of branes.

The problem with this argument is that it relies on the Poisson algebra of the membrane being $`U(\mathrm{})`$, independent of the fields. However, the spherical geometry is encoded only by the values of the $`X^i`$; the most general set of fluctuations should include higher-genus surfaces. If the Poisson algebra were to depend on the topology of the space (and there is no a priori reason to believe that this should not be the case) then in the action (2) the gauge group would be a function of the gauge fields, and so this would not be a Yang-Mills action. One cannot arbitrarily restrict the fluctuations to those which preserve the Poisson algebra, since any such truncation would clearly violate unitarity; all membrane geometries might appear as intermediate states of the theory.

It is therefore crucial to understand the dependence of the Poisson algebra of a manifold on its geometry. Our key result is that the Poisson algebra of any Riemann surface (a connected, compact and orientable surface) is $`U(\mathrm{})`$. This statement has been long conjectured but no complete proof has appeared in the literature.It has already been shown that every membrane geometry has a matrix approximation, but the independence of this approximation on the geometry in the large-$`N`$ limit remains an open question.  Using this theorem we can close the gap in the preceding argument, since now all finite-energy fluctuations about a compact background geometry should preserve compactness and thus leave the Poisson algebra fixed.

Before proving this result, let us consider the meaning of configurations which violate its three conditions. For disconnected manifolds, we will recover the usual block-diagonal behavior associated with disconnected membranes. The Poisson algebra is $`U(\mathrm{})^n`$, with a factor for each connected component. This $`U(\mathrm{})^n`$ is contained in $`U(\mathrm{})`$, with the off-diagonal terms becoming light when two membranes are close to each other.

For noncompact manifolds, we will see that the algebra has continuously infinite dimension (this follows from the fact that one needs a continuous rather than countable basis to specify functions on a noncompact surface) and therefore no matrix approximation exists. The simplest example of this is the matrix plane, where the Poisson bracket $`\{x,y\}=1`$ clearly has no finite-dimensional approximations. Physically this is because a finite number of D0-branes cannot approximate an infinite surface area. In general, when one attempts to do this one can recover matrix approximations which are good for certain blocks of the matrix (those corresponding to the deep interior of the membrane) but the matrices acquire large elements at their edges. However, it appears to be possible to approximate these spaces using Matrix theories of spaces with boundary; this involves the introduction of boundary fields and is substantially more complicated.

Nonorientable membranes such as Klein bottles cannot appear in M-theory or in type IIA theory since those membranes carry a local charge which is essentially an orientation on the world-volume. (That is, each small patch of membrane has a definite sense, and so small patches cannot be consistently glued into unorientable membrane configurations) They can appear in theories where the membranes are unstable, such as type IIB theory or bosonic membrane theory. In these theories, we need to be able to consistently treat such membranes since there is no a priori obstruction to their being in the spectrum. However, it is not clear whether these states can be adequately described by the usual matrix construction. The problem is that the Poisson brackets do not form a Lie algebra when the membrane is nonorientable. (This is because the criterion for them to form an algebra is that the symplectic form be a closed, nondegenerate 2-form. On a 2-manifold every 2-form is closed, but the existence of a nondegenerate 2-form is precisely the criterion for orientability) This means that the action cannot be written in the form (1) and so the meaning of the matrix approximation is unclear. It is possible that this approximation simply misses all nonorientable states; in that case there may be problems at loop level since these states should emerge as intermediate states. We therefore restrict our considerations to theories such as type IIA theory or M-theory where these states do not appear.

## II Why the Poisson algebra is always $`U(\mathrm{})`$

We would now like to prove our main statement:

Theorem. The Poisson algebra of any compact, connected and orientable 2-manifold is $`U(\mathrm{})`$.

We will prove this in two parts. Our strategy will be to define a special class of Lie algebras, the pseudocompact algebras, and show that the only simple pseudocompact algebra is $`SU(\mathrm{})`$. We will then show that the Poisson algebra is $`U(1)`$ times a simple pseudocompact algebra. The first part of this proof is unavoidably slightly technical, but it is actually not as complicated as it may seem. We will show that one can use Dynkin diagrams to classify pseudocompact algebras in the same way that they classify compact algebras. The argument for this is very similar to the ordinary classification of finite-dimensional algebras. The only differences are (1) that a certain technical step in the proof that the simple roots are enough to reconstruct the algebra does not work in general for infinite-dimensional algebras, and we must show that it does indeed work for the pseudocompact case; (2) that all our Dynkin diagrams have infinitely many circles, and so the actual list of allowable diagrams is slightly different; and (3) that at the end, we will find four allowable Dynkin diagrams (corresponding to the four infinite classical algebras) which nontrivially correspond to the same algebra. Apart from these few points, one can read this proof with a group theory book in hand and watch an almost exactly identical development take place. The notation below has been chosen to be compatible with that found in Georgi  since that source is likely to be familiar to physicists. Some more technical aspects of the proof are closely related to the more generalized arguments found in Knapp.

We begin with a definition: A pseudocompact Lie algebra is a Lie algebra whose Cartan-Killing metric§§§The Cartan-Killing metric $`\eta ^{ab}=\mathrm{Tr}T^aT^b`$ is the natural metric on the group manifold, and its positive-definiteness is equivalent to compactness for finite-dimensional algebras. is positive definite and whose root lattice is bounded. (i.e., there is some real number greater than the magnitude of any root) For finite-dimensional algebras, the root lattice is always bounded so pseudocompactness is the same as compactness. A simple example of an algebra which satisfies the first but not the second condition, to which we will refer below, is the Virasoro algebra. From here on out we will be concerned only with countably infinite-dimensional (“countable”) pseudocompact Lie algebras. We wish to prove

Proposition 1: The unique (up to isomorphism) simple, countable pseudocompact Lie algebra is $`SU(\mathrm{})`$.

and

Proposition 2: The Poisson algebra of any compact, connected and orientable 2-manifold (i.e. a Riemann surface) is $`U(1)`$ times a simple, countable pseudocompact Lie algebra.

First we will show that Dynkin diagrams are meaningful for pseudocompact algebras. Dynkin diagrams are a way of graphically representing the simple roots of the algebras, so what we must show is that the simple roots can be defined and that they contain all of the information necessary to construct the algebra. We also need to find a few properties of the simple roots which will define the conditions for a given lattice to be a valid simple root lattice, e.g. linear independence.

We begin with the weights and roots. Any Lie algebra has an adjoint representation. For a countable algebra this is represented on a separable Hilbert space, and for generators $`T_a`$

$$T_a|T_b=|T_cT_c\left|T_a\right|T_b=if_{ab}^c|T_c=|[T_a,T_b].$$
(6)
So let $`H`$ be a maximal commuting subalgebra (the Cartan subalgebra) of the algebra. Since the Cartan elements $`H_m`$ are self-adjoint and compact (this compactness following from the finite norm of the roots), the Hilbert-Schmidt theorem guarantees that their eigenvectors form a basis which simultaneously diagonalizes all of the $`H_m`$’s. The eigenvalues are labelled by $`\alpha `$, (which by definition are the root vectors) and the eigenkets $`|E_\alpha `$ (being a basis for the adjoint representation) correspond to eigenoperators $`E_\alpha `$ of the Cartan subalgebra

$$[H_m,E_\alpha ]=\alpha _mE_\alpha .$$
(7)
It is straightforward that $`E_\alpha ^{}=E_\alpha `$, and thus roots must occur in pairs. So to each root $`\alpha `$ there corresponds an $`SU(2)`$ subalgebra $`E_+^{(\alpha )}=|\alpha |^1E_\alpha ,E_{}^{(\alpha )}=|\alpha |^1E_\alpha ,E_3^{(\alpha )}=|\alpha |^2\alpha H`$. Since the roots all have finite norm these are well-defined quantities.

Now let $`|\mu `$ be any state in a representation of the algebra. Its $`E_3^{(\alpha )}`$ eigenvalue is $`\frac{\alpha \mu }{\alpha ^2}`$, so $`\frac{2\alpha \mu }{\alpha ^2}`$ must be an integer if the $`SU(2)`$ representation to which it belongs is finite. More strongly, we can say that if it belongs to a finite-dimensional representation of $`SU(2)`$, then

$$\frac{2\alpha \mu }{\alpha ^2}=qp$$
(8)
where $`p`$ is the number of times $`E_+^{(\alpha )}`$ can act on $`\mu `$ without getting zero, and $`q`$ is the number of times $`E_{}^{(\alpha )}`$ can do the same. This equation follows from the fact that $`\alpha \mu /\alpha ^2`$ is the eigenvalue of $`E_3^{(\alpha )}`$ and the usual properties of $`SU(2)`$ representations.

One particular case of interest is the adjoint representation of the algebra. If one starts with any state $`|E_\beta `$ and acts on it repeatedly with $`E_\pm ^{(\alpha )}`$, one gets a complete representation of the $`SU(2)`$ associated with $`\alpha `$. This representation would consist of states with roots $`\beta +n\alpha `$ for integer $`n`$, and since the root lattice is bounded there cannot be more than finitely many such roots. This means that for any $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$, $`2\alpha \beta /\alpha ^2=qp`$ for integers $`q`$ and $`p`$.

The next step is to define simple roots. We pick a sign convention for the roots such that every nonzero root is either positive or negative, and the negative of a positive root is a negative root. Then a simple root is defined to be a positive root which is not the sum of any other positive roots. We claim that the simple roots contain enough information to reconstruct the roots, and therefore the algebra.

First, every positive root can be written as an integer linear combination of the simple roots. To see this, consider some positive root $`\gamma `$. If $`\gamma `$ is simple, the statement is trivial; otherwise $`\gamma =\gamma _1+\gamma _2`$ where $`\gamma _1`$ and $`\gamma _2`$ are positive. We repeat this argument indefinitely, stopping whenever a root is simple. This must terminate after no more than countably many steps, since every root has finite norm and the coefficients in the sum are all nonnegative integers.

Next, the simple roots are linearly independent. This is because the most general linear combination of simple roots can be written as a sum of terms with positive and negative coefficients;

$$\gamma =\underset{\alpha }{}\mu _\alpha \alpha \underset{\alpha }{}\nu _\alpha \alpha $$
(9)
where the $`\mu _\alpha `$ and the $`\nu _\alpha `$ are all nonnegative integers, and for any given $`\alpha `$ no more than one of $`\mu _\alpha `$ and $`\nu _\alpha `$ is nonzero. Then

$$|\gamma |^2=|\mu |^2+|\nu |^22\underset{\alpha \beta }{}\mu _\alpha \nu _\beta \alpha \beta $$
(10)
However, $`\alpha \beta `$ must be nonpositive. This can be shown as follows. First, for any two distinct simple roots $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$, $`\alpha \beta `$ is not a root, since if it were then either $`\alpha \beta >0`$, in which case $`\alpha =(\alpha \beta )+\beta `$, or $`\beta \alpha >0`$, in which case $`\beta =(\beta \alpha )+\alpha `$, violating the simplicity of $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ in either case. This means that $`E_\alpha |E_\beta |E_{\beta \alpha }=0`$, so $`2\alpha \beta /\alpha ^2=p0`$. (Since the relevant $`q`$ is by definition zero) This means that the third term in (10) is nonnegative, so $`|\gamma |^20`$. By positivity of the metric, this means that it vanishes only for $`\gamma =0`$, so no (finite or infinite) linear combination of the simple roots can vanish.

This therefore means that the simple roots form a basis for the set of all roots. Since there are countably many roots and the root lattice is bounded, the root lattice has countably infinite dimension, and so the number of simple roots is countably infinite as well.

Now at last we can construct the roots from the simple roots. Any positive root can be written as

$$\varphi =k_\alpha \alpha $$
(11)
for positive integer coefficients $`k_\alpha `$. We define the level of the root to be the sum of these coefficients, and find the roots by induction on the level. The set of level-1 roots is just the set of simple roots. Then given the set of level-$`(\mathrm{}1)`$ roots, the level-$`\mathrm{}`$ roots are given by

$$|E_\varphi _{\mathrm{}}=E_\alpha |E_{\varphi _\mathrm{}1}$$
(12)
for every $`\alpha `$ and $`\varphi _{\mathrm{}}`$ for which the right-hand side is not zero. That can be determined using

$$\frac{2\alpha \varphi _\mathrm{}1}{\alpha ^2}=qp$$
(13)
where $`p`$ is the number of times $`|E_{\varphi _\mathrm{}1}`$ can be acted on by $`E_\alpha `$ without reaching zero. $`\varphi _\mathrm{}1+\alpha `$ is a root iff $`p>0`$. But $`q`$ is known since we know how $`|E_{\varphi _\mathrm{}1}`$ was built out of the simple roots, so $`p`$ can be evaluated from (13) and (12) generates the set of level-$`\mathrm{}`$ roots.

This can only fail if some $`|E_\varphi _{\mathrm{}}`$ cannot be written in the form (12). The fact that this is impossible can be seen as follows. Knapp corollary 2.37 states that whenever no multiple other than $`1`$, $`0`$ or $`1`$ of any root is a root (which is always true for finite-dimensional algebras; cf. Knapp proposition 2.21) the operator $`E_\alpha E_\alpha `$ is nondegenerate for all $`\alpha `$. Pseudocompact algebras must satisfy this condition, since for any root $`\alpha `$ the set $`\{\alpha H,E_{n\alpha }\}`$ for all integers $`n`$ for which $`n\alpha `$ is a root is a subalgebra of our algebra, and by boundedness of the root lattice it is finite-dimensional. Then the usual argument that in a finite-dimensional algebra no multiple of a root greater than 1 is a root applies, and so $`n\alpha `$ cannot be a root for $`|n|>1`$.

This tells us that $`|E_\varphi _{\mathrm{}}`$ is annihilated by every $`E_\alpha `$, since if it were not then $`E_\alpha |E_\varphi _{\mathrm{}}`$ would be a level-$`(\mathrm{}1)`$ root and acting on it with $`E_\alpha `$ would give $`|E_\varphi _{\mathrm{}}`$ in the form (12).For algebras which are not pseudocompact, this argument does not hold. For example, the Virasoro algebra $`[L_m,L_n]=i(m+n)L_{m+n}`$ has one element, $`L_0`$, in its Cartan subalgebra, and root vectors $`E_n=L_n`$. Its root lattice is unbounded, and so for example $`E_1E_1`$ is degenerate; $`L_1L_1|L_2=|[L_1,[L_1,L_2]]=0`$. As a result the usual root-building algorithm fails to find the positive root $`L_2`$ and so this algebra cannot be reconstructed from its simple roots alone. This is why boundedness of the root lattice is so important. (It would not be zero since $`E_\alpha E_\alpha `$ is nondegenerate) Therefore for each simple root $`\alpha `$, $`E_\alpha |E_\varphi _{\mathrm{}}=0`$ and so from our usual formula $`2\alpha \varphi _{\mathrm{}}/\alpha ^2=p0`$. This means that $`\varphi _{\mathrm{}}^2=k_\alpha \alpha \varphi _{\mathrm{}}0`$ and (by positive definiteness) $`\varphi _{\mathrm{}}=0`$, a contradiction. Thus every positive root can be written in the form (12) and so is reached by this inductive process.

Therefore the simple roots carry all of the information needed to reconstruct the algebra, and thus there is a one-to-one correspondence between simple root lattices and countable pseudocompact Lie algebras. The simple roots must be linearly independent, the angles between them must satisfy $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\alpha \beta }=\sqrt{pp^{}}/2=0,1/2,1/\sqrt{2},`$ or $`\sqrt{3}/2`$, and their length ratios must satisfy $`|\alpha |^2/|\beta |^2=p/p^{}`$. We can therefore introduce Dynkin diagrams to represent the simple root lattices, drawing a circle for each simple root and joining the circles $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ by $`4\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _{\alpha \beta }`$ lines. The set of countable pseudocompact Lie algebras is isomorphic to the set of Dynkin diagrams with countably many circles.

We can now repeat the ordinary classification of Dynkin diagrams. Simple algebras correspond to connected diagrams since if the simple roots decompose into two orthogonal subsets (and thus two networks with $`\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _{\alpha \alpha ^{}}=0`$ between elements of the two subsets) the corresponding ladder operators commute and thus the algebra factors.

Linear independence implies the following five standard lemmas: (The proofs are given in Georgi chapter 20 or Knapp chapter 2)

Lemma 0. Every subdiagram of a Dynkin diagram is itself a consistent Dynkin diagram.

Lemma 1. The only Dynkin diagrams with three root vectors are those given in figure 1.

Lemma 2. If a diagram contains two vectors connected by a single line, the diagram obtained by shrinking the line away and merging the two vectors into a single circle represents another consistent diagram.

Lemma 3. In figure 2, if the first configuration is a consistent diagram, then the second is as well.

Lemma 4. No diagram contains any of the subdiagrams in figure 3.

These do not rule out some nontrivial infinite diagrams, since lemma 2 only allows us to contract finite chains of singly-connected roots. (There may be subtleties for infinite chains) We therefore need to prove the additional lemma

Lemma 5. The diagrams shown in figure 4 are not consistent.

We give an explicit proof for $`X_{BB}`$; the remaining cases are essentially identical. If we had a rank-$`(n+2)`$ version of this algebra, with the infinite chain replaced by a chain of length $`n`$, then from the diagram we can read

$$\alpha _0^2=\alpha _{n+1}^2=1;\alpha _i^2=2$$
(14)
where $`i=1\mathrm{}n`$, and

$$\alpha _i\alpha _{i\pm 1}=\alpha _0\alpha _1=\alpha _n\alpha _{n+1}=1$$
(15)
with all other products vanishing. Therefore the linear combination $`\alpha `$ is orthogonal to every root, since

$`({\displaystyle \alpha })\alpha _1`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha _1^2+\alpha _1\alpha _2=0`$ (16)
$`({\displaystyle \alpha })\alpha _2`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha _2^2+\alpha _1\alpha _2+\alpha _3\alpha _2=0`$ (17)
etc. Since the simple roots are a basis, this means that $`\alpha =0`$ and thus these roots fail to be linearly independent. Since this can be done for any $`n`$, this combination is an obvious ansatz for the infinite case $`X_{BB}`$. There is no subtlety in the limit $`n\mathrm{}`$ because the criterion for linear independence of the simple roots does not rely on the finiteness of the linear combination. A similar calculation follows for each of the remaining algebras.

Therefore the only consistent pseudocompact Lie algebras are the four infinite classical algebras. (Figure 5) We will now show that these four algebras are actually identical. (The following can also be seen explicitly by writing the various algebras in a basis of clock and shift matrices; a complete discussion has been given by Fairlie et al. ) We need for this a standard lemma about algebras:

Lemma. Let $`U_n`$ and $`V_n`$ be two sequences of algebras which have inductive limits $`U`$ and $`V`$, respectively. If for each $`n`$, $`U_nV_{n+1}`$ and $`V_nU_n`$, then $`UV`$.A simple proof of this using commutative diagrams is given in lemma L.1.5 of Wegge-Olsen.

The simplest application of this lemma is to show that $`B_{\mathrm{}}=D_{\mathrm{}}`$. These two algebras are the inductive limits of the sequences $`B_n=SO(2n+1)`$ and $`D_n=SO(2n)`$, respectively. Clearly $`SO(2n)SO(2n+1)`$ and $`SO(2n+1)SO(2n+2)`$, and therefore the two limits must be equal. This is just the statement that $`lim_n\mathrm{}SO(n)`$ is the same whether one progresses by even or odd $`n`$.

Similarly, we can show that $`B_{\mathrm{}}=A_{\mathrm{}}`$. For every $`n`$, $`SO(n)SU(n)`$ since every orthogonal matrix is unitary. (This is because every real number is also a complex number) It is also well-known (and clear from Dynkin diagrams) that for each $`n`$, $`SU(n)SO(2n)`$. Thus using the sequences $`U_n=SU(2^n)`$ and $`V_n=SO(2^n)`$, the claim is proved.

Finally, we can show that $`A_{\mathrm{}}=C_{\mathrm{}}`$. For every $`n`$, $`SU(n)Sp(2n)`$, since every complex number is also a quaternion. Similarly $`Sp(2n)SU(2n)`$ since the generators of each $`Sp`$ group are Hermitian and therefore are also generators of the $`SU`$ group of the same dimension. Therefore all four of the classical infinite algebras are isomorphic, and so we have proven the first proposition.

Now we turn to the second proposition. Since our manifold is orientable, it automatically has a Poisson structure defined by setting its symplectic form equal to its volume form. The dimension of the Poisson algebra is countably infinite by Fourier’s theorem; namely, the set of functions on a compact manifold has a countable basis.\**\**\** The contrapositive of this theorem gives us an immediate and important result, alluded to above, that if the membrane were unbounded (e.g. as the plane) then its Poisson algebra would have uncountably infinite dimension. The remainder of the proof below will still apply, telling us that the Poisson algebra is still $`U(1)`$ times a simple pseudocompact algebra, but we do not have any useful results on the classification of these much larger algebras. But these algebras clearly cannot be approximated by matrix algebras, since a sequence of finite-dimensional objects cannot converge to one of uncountable dimension. The elements of the Poisson algebra must be smooth functions, since functions of finite differentiability class would not be closed under the Poisson bracket.

We can see that the algebra has a $`U(1)`$ factor since the set of constant functions is 1-dimensional and has vanishing Poisson bracket with all functions. That the algebra is otherwise simple can be seen as follows. There is a one-to-one correspondence between invariant subalgebras of the Poisson algebra $`P`$ and projections on the algebra, that is to say mappings $`\varphi :PP`$ which preserve the Lie bracket and satisfy $`\varphi ^2=\varphi `$. Explicitly, for any invariant subalgebra $`H`$, the mapping $`\varphi _H(p)=p`$ if $`pH`$ and 0 if $`pH`$ is a projection; conversely, for any projection $`\varphi `$ and $`a,bP`$ such that $`\varphi (a)=a`$ and $`\varphi (b)=0`$, (the only eigenvalues of a projection are zero and one, so every element of $`P`$ satisfies one or the other condition) then $`\varphi ([a,b])=[\varphi (a),\varphi (b)]=0`$, and $`(1\varphi )([a,b])=[(1\varphi )(a),(1\varphi )(b)]=0`$, so $`[a,b]=0`$ and thus the algebra factors into $`P=\varphi (P)(1\varphi )(P)`$. Projections on the Poisson algebra are clearly also projections on the algebra of smooth functions under multiplication, and vice versa. (After all, both are algebras of functions; only their product rule is different) A projection in the algebra of smooth functions is a function which is everywhere either zero or one, and so is piecewise constant, and so the number of invariant subalgebras of $`P`$ is equal to the number of piecewise constant smooth functions on the manifold, that is to say the number of components. For a connected manifold, which is the case of interest to us, the only piecewise constant function is the constant function, corresponding to the invariant $`U(1)`$ subalgebra noted above.

Finally, we must prove that the algebra is pseudocompact, i.e. that its Cartan-Killing metric is positive definite and that its root lattice is bounded. This is straightforward since it is easy to show that the Poisson algebra must be a subgroup of $`U(\mathrm{})`$, and any subalgebra of a pseudocompact algebra must be pseudocompact as well. To see this, we note that for any real-valued function, the generator associated to it is

$$T_f=i\{f,\}=i\mathrm{\Omega }^{ij}_if_j$$
(18)
which is Hermitian. Since all the generators are Hermitian and the algebra is countable, the algebra must be a subalgebra of the algebra of all Hermitian, countable matrices, which is precisely $`U(\mathrm{})`$. This completes the proof of proposition 2, which together with proposition 1 proves our theorem.

It is interesting that the proof of proposition 2 did not require that the manifold be 2-dimensional at any point; in fact, it applies equally well to any compact symplectic manifold. These manifolds are not the phase spaces of ordinary systems, since momentum is generally not constrained, but they may be natural phase spaces for systems which exhibit UV/IR dualities of various sorts, including T-duality.

We have therefore shown that there is a systematic matrix approximation to the theory of compact relativistic orientable membranes, in the sense that there is an infinite sequence of classical Lagrangians which converges in the large-$`N`$ limit to the Lagrangian (1). We have also seen that membrane theories which do not satisfy these constraints – theories of infinite branes or theories which allow nonorientable branes – do not seem to have a meaningful matrix approximation, or at least not one by dimensionally reduced Yang-Mills theories. This latter conclusion may be interesting from the perspective of the bosonic M-theory recently proposed by Horowitz and Susskind.  Applied to traditional M-theory, this is further evidence for the hypothesis that the matrix model carries the full structure of the theory.

The author would like to thank Savas Dimopoulos, Simeon Hellerman, Matthew Kleban, Steve Shenker and Leonard Susskind for helpful comments. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number PHY-9870015.