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# Virtual Photon Structure at HERA

## 1 Introduction

HERA allows for studies of jet production in a wide range of photon virtualities, $`Q^2`$, and transverse energies of jets. In the deep inelastic scattering (DIS) regime, $`Q^2`$ typically above $`10`$ GeV2, the interaction between the incoming positron and proton is mediated by a structureless virtual photon. On the other hand, in the photoproduction regime, $`Q^20`$ GeV2, the photon may interact as an entity, i.e. the direct component, or as a source of partons, i.e. the resolved component, where one of these partons, carrying a fraction of the photon’s momentum, $`x_\gamma `$, enters the hard subprocess. Resolved photoproduction is commonly described via parton distribution functions which receive contributions from both perturbative and non-perturbative terms.

This paper studies jet production in a large range of photon virtualities, including the transition region from photoproduction to DIS, with the aim of understanding the evolution of the photon structure with increasing photon virtuality.

The study of jet production introduces a second energy scale, e.g. $`\overline{E}_T`$, the average transverse energy of the two highest $`E_T`$ jets in a given event, and allows the determination of $`x_\gamma `$ through :

$$x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}=\frac{_{\mathrm{jets}}E_T^{\mathrm{jet}}\mathrm{e}^{\eta ^{\mathrm{jet}}}}{2yE_e},$$

where $`E_T^{\mathrm{jet}}`$ is the transverse energy of the jet and $`\eta ^{\mathrm{jet}}`$ is the pseudorapidity, defined as a function of the polar angle $`\theta ^{\mathrm{jet}}`$: $`\eta ^{\mathrm{jet}}=\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{tan}{\displaystyle \frac{\theta ^{\mathrm{jet}}}{2}})`$.

At leading order (LO) perturbative QCD for $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}>0.75`$, the direct component dominates, while the $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}<0.75`$ region is sensitive mainly to the resolved component. However, events with low values of $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}`$ can also be produced when initial- and final-state parton showers give rise to hadronic activity outside the dijet system. In pQCD, $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}`$ is well defined at all orders. Hence, measurements based on it can be compared with theoretical predictions at any given order.

Triple differential cross sections with respect to $`Q^2`$, $`\overline{E}_T`$ and $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}`$ are compared to LO MC predictions based on different extrapolations of the real photon structure to higher virtualities.

## 2 Results and discussion

The dijet differential cross sections, $`d^3\sigma /(dx_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}dQ^2d\overline{E}_T^2)`$ corrected to the hadron level, have been measured using the $`\mathrm{k}_\mathrm{T}`$ jet algorithm in the $`\gamma ^{}p`$ frame. The measured cross section is for dijet events in the pase-space region defined by: $`0.2<y<0.55`$, and $`0.1<Q^2<0.55`$ GeV2, $`1.5<Q^2<10^4`$ GeV2.

The ratio of cross sections $`R=\sigma (x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}<0.75)/\sigma (x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}>0.75)`$ as a function of $`Q^2`$ is shown in Fig. 1 (left). The ratio falls with increasing $`Q^2`$. In the inset the ratio of the data with the HERWIG  prediction using the SaS1D parametrization  for the photon PDFs is presented. There is no dependence of this ratio with the photon virtuality. The ratio $`R`$ in three ranges of $`\overline{E}_T^2`$ is also shown in Fig. 1 (right). The ratio of the data falls with increasing $`Q^2`$ for each range of $`\overline{E}_T^2`$. These results can be interpreted as showing the suppression of the virtual photon structure with increasing photon virtuality. The HERWIG prediction using SaS1D also falls with increasing $`Q^2`$ but underestimates the measured ratio.

The measured triple differential dijet cross sections $`d^3\sigma /(dx_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}dQ^2d\overline{E}_T^2)`$ are shown as a function of $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}`$ in Fig. 2 in different regions of $`Q^2`$ and $`\overline{E}_T^2`$. In the left plot the LO HERWIG predictions using the SaS1D parametrization of the photon PDFs are shown as well as the LO-direct part only of the HERWIG predictions. The HERWIG predictions do not describe the absolute cross section of the data and are therefore normalized to the highest $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}`$ bin ($`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}>0.75`$) in order to compare the shape of the data with that of the MC predictions.

For each $`\overline{E}_T^2`$ bin, the cross section in the low $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}`$ region falls faster with increasing $`Q^2`$ than the cross section in the high $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}`$ region. For the bins with $`Q^2>\overline{E}_T^2`$ the data are well described by the HERWIG predictions including only the LO-direct component. In the bins with $`Q^2<\overline{E}_T^2`$ the LO-direct component is not enough to describe the data.

In the right plot of Fig. 2 a comparison of the cross sections with the LEPTO  MC is shown. For $`Q^2>\overline{E}_T^2`$, LEPTO describes the data. LEPTO is a DIS MC generator and this region is the one where LEPTO is expected to be valid.

## 3 Conclusions

Dijet triple differential cross sections, $`d^3\sigma /(dx_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}dQ^2d\overline{E}_T^2)`$, have been measured using the longitudinally invariant $`\mathrm{k}_\mathrm{T}`$ jet algorithm in the $`\gamma ^{}p`$ frame for $`10^1<Q^2<10^4`$ GeV2 and $`0.2<y<0.55`$. The cross sections are measured for jets with $`3<\eta ^{\mathrm{jet}}<0`$, $`E_{T,1}^{\mathrm{jet}}>7.5`$ GeV, and $`E_{T,2}^{\mathrm{jet}}>6.5`$ GeV in different bins of $`Q^2`$ and $`\overline{E}_T^2`$.

The $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}`$ dependence of the measured cross sections varies with increasing $`Q^2`$ and $`\overline{E}_T^2`$. In each region of $`\overline{E}_T^2`$, the low-$`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}`$ cross section decreases rapidly as $`Q^2`$ increases.

The predictions of HERWIG using the SaS1D photon PDFs describe the cross sections well for $`Q^2>\overline{E}_T^2`$. In this region, the LO direct component alone describes the data well. For $`Q^2<\overline{E}_T^2`$, a resolved component is needed.

The ratio $`R=\sigma (x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}<0.75)/\sigma (x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{OBS}}>0.75)`$ for dijet cross sections decreases as $`Q^2`$ increases in all the $`\overline{E}_T^2`$ regions. However, the measured ratio lies above the predictions of HERWIG using the SaS 1D photon PDFs. The data may be interpreted in terms of a resolved component that is suppressed as the photon virtuality increases.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Ordinary and radiative muon captures (OMC and RMC) on a proton, $`\mu ^{}pn\nu _\mu `$ and $`\mu ^{}pn\nu _\mu \gamma `$, are fundamental weak-interaction processes in nuclear physics and constitute primary sources of information on $`g_P`$, the induced pseudoscalar coupling constant of the weak nucleon current . The most accurate existing measurements of the OMC and RMC rates have been carried out using a liquid hydrogen target. The experimental OMC rate in liquid hydrogen obtained by Bardin et al.  is

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{liq}^{exp}=460\pm 20\text{[s}\text{-1}\text{]}(\mathrm{OMC}).`$ (1)
As for RMC, Jonkmans et al.  measured the absolute photon spectrum for $`E_\gamma 60`$ MeV and deduced therefrom the partial RMC branching ratio, $`R_\gamma `$, which is the number of RMC events (per stopped muon) producing a photon with $`E_\gamma 60`$ MeV. The measured value of $`R_\gamma `$ is

$`R_\gamma ^{exp}=(2.10\pm 0.22)\times 10^8(\mathrm{RMC}).`$ (2)
Surprisingly, the value of $`g_P`$ deduced in  from the RMC data is $``$1.5 times larger than the PCAC prediction, $`g_P^{PCAC}`$ . By contrast, the value of $`g_P`$ deduced in  from the OMC data is in good agreement with the PCAC prediction. Heavy-baryon chiral perturbation theory (HBChPT), a low-energy effective theory of QCD, allows us to go beyond the PCAC approach, but the results of detailed HBChPT calculations up to next-to-next-to-leading order  essentially agree with those obtained in the PCAC approach. Thus the theoretical framework for estimating $`g_P`$ appears to be robust. What then can be the origin of the apparent conflict between the $`g_P`$ values determined from OMC and RMC ? In this talk we wish to address a number of issues relevant to this question.

The OMC process is described by the standard electroweak theory. The lepton current, $`j_\alpha ^{lepton}`$, interact with the very heavy $`W`$ boson ($`m_W`$ 80 GeV) which propagates and interacts with the hadronic current, $`J_\beta ^{hadron}`$. Since the maximal momentum transfer between the two currents, $`q_{max}m_\mu m_W`$, we can for all practical purposes replace the $`W`$ boson propagator with a constant. Then the interaction between the lepton and hadron currents reduces to:

$$\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}j_\alpha ^{lepton}J_\alpha ^{hadron}.$$
(3)
where $`G_F`$ is the effective Fermi constant. Since the leptons are considered point particles, the lepton current is given by the incoming muon and outgoing neutrino spinors: $`j_\alpha ^{lepton}=\overline{u}_\nu \gamma _\alpha (1\gamma _5)u_\mu .`$ The hadronic current however is less well known due to the structure of the nucleons. We write $`J_\beta ^{hadron}=V_\beta A_\beta `$ , where the vector current, $`V_\beta `$, and the axial current, $`A_\beta `$, can be written as (based on symmetry considerations and neglecting second-class currents):

$$V_\beta =\overline{u}_n\left[g_V(q^2)\gamma _\beta +i\frac{g_M(q^2)}{2m_N}\sigma _{\beta \delta }q^\delta \right]u_p,$$
(4)
$$A_\beta =\overline{u}_n\left[g_A(q^2)\gamma _\beta \gamma _5+\frac{g_P(q^2)}{m_\mu }q_\beta \gamma _5\right]u_p,$$
(5)
where $`u_n`$ and $`u_p`$ are the outgoing neutron and incoming proton spinors; and $`q`$ is the momentum transferred to the nucleon. The four form factors, $`g_V(q^2)`$, $`g_M(q^2)`$, $`g_A(q^2)`$ and $`g_P(q^2)`$, in Eqs.(4) and (5) are, at low momentum transfers relevant to the OMC and RMC reactions, given by known parameters:

$`g_V(q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}}<r^2>q^2+\mathrm{};g_M(q^2)=\kappa _p\kappa _n+\mathrm{};`$ (6)
$`g_A(q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`g_A\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}}<r_A^2>q^2+\mathrm{}\right);`$ (7)
$`g_P(q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2m_\mu f_\pi g_{\pi NN}}{m_\pi ^2q^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}g_Am_\mu m_N<r_A^2>+\mathrm{}.`$ (8)
Here $`<r^2>`$ $`0.585`$ fm2 is the square of the isovector nucleon radius, $`<r_A^2>`$ $``$ 0.42 fm2 is the axial radius squared, and $`\kappa _p`$ and $`\kappa _n`$ are the proton and neutron anomalous magnetic moments, respectively. In the induced pseudoscalar form factor, $`g_P(q^2)`$, the form of the dominant “pion-pole” term is dictated by the PCAC hypothesis.

In OMC the momentum transfer is $`q^2`$=$`(m_\mu E_\nu )^2E_\nu ^2`$ =$`0.88m_\mu ^2`$ and, traditionally, the pseudoscalar coupling “constant”, $`g_P`$, is defined as $`g_Pg_P(q^2=0.88m_\mu ^2)`$, and thus the PCAC value is $`g_P^{PCAC}=6.77g_A(0)`$ . We remark that the contribution of the $`g_P(q^2)`$ term to OMC is suppressed due to the fact that $`q^2`$=$`0.88m_\mu ^2`$ is far from the pion pole. The rationale for using RMC to determine $`g_P`$ is that the three-body kinematics in the final state allows $`q^2`$ to approach the pion pole, enhancing thereby the contribution of the pseudoscalar term. With the photon energy denoted by $`E_\gamma `$, we have $`q^2`$ $`(2m_\mu E_\gamma m_\mu ^2)`$, which is positive for sufficiently large values of $`E_\gamma `$, and which can reach the maximal value $`m_\mu ^2`$. In , the RMC process is measured for $`E_\gamma `$ $`>`$ 60 MeV. Meanwhile, a great challenge in observing RMC is its very low branching ratio ($`10^3`$ compared to OMC), and it was quite a feat that the TRIUMF group succeeded in measuring $`R_\gamma `$. It should also be mentioned that the absolute photon spectrum (for $`E_\gamma `$ 60 MeV) measured in  gives information on the $`q^2`$ dependence of $`g_P(q^2)`$. The afore-mentioned surprising conclusion that, to fit the TRIUMF RMC data, one needs to adopt $`g_P1.5g_P^{PCAC}`$ has triggered re-examination of the foundation of the theoretical framework used for the analysis. In particular, it motivated detailed systematic calculations based on HBChPT for RMC as well as OMC .

## 2 Chiral perturbation theory and the atomic capture rates

Chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) is an effective field theory of QCD tailored for describing low-energy hadronic interactions. Since the physical degrees of freedom here are hadrons, not quarks or gluons, we “integrate out” the quark and gluon fields to obtain an effective lagrangian, $`_{eff}`$, pertinent to the hadronic degrees of freedom. $`_{eff}`$ should inherit all the symmetry properties of QCD (and the patterns of their breaking, if any), including chiral symmetry. For our purposes, it is sufficient to consider only two flavors ($`u`$ and $`d`$); correspondingly, $`_{eff}`$ contains only the nucleon and pion fields. If chiral symmetry is an exact symmetry of $`_{eff}`$, then the right- and left-handed nucleon fields decouple, and the left- and right-handed Noether currents are separately conserved: $`_\alpha j_{left}^\alpha `$ = 0 and $`_\alpha j_{right}^\alpha `$ = 0. The QCD vacuum state, however, does not respect chiral symmetry, i.e. chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken. Then, according to the Goldstone theorem, there appear massless pseudoscalar Goldstone fields, which can be identified with (massless) pions. In reality, $`_{QCD}`$ contains a tiny quark mass term ($`m_{quark}`$10 MeV) that violates chiral symmetry and that gives rise to a finite pion mass. A consequence of the non-zero mass is that the axial current is no longer conserved. Since $`m_{quark}\mathrm{\Lambda }_{chiral}`$ 1 GeV, this explicit chiral symmetry breaking can be treated as a small perturbation, and ChPT consists in expanding $`_{eff}`$ and transition amplitudes in terms of $`Q/\mathrm{\Lambda }_{chiral}`$ and $`m_{pion}/\mathrm{\Lambda }_{chiral}`$, where $`Q`$ is a typical scale of external momenta: $`Q|\stackrel{}{p}_{pion}||\stackrel{}{p}_{nucleon}|`$. A version of ChPT that is particularly useful for our present purposes is HBChPT, wherein the nucleon is treated as a heavy particle for which a Foldy-Wouthuysen-like non-relativistic expansion can be used. In HBChPT we have an expansion

$`_{eff}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _\beta }=_1+_2+\mathrm{}.`$ (9)
Here the “chiral index” $`\beta `$ is given by $`\beta =d+n/21`$, where $`n`$ is the number of nucleon fields involved in a given vertex and $`d`$ the number of derivatives or powers of $`m_\pi `$ involved. For example, the lowest chiral order lagrangian is given as

$`_1`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{N}\left[i{\displaystyle \frac{}{t}}+{\displaystyle \frac{g_A}{2f_\pi }}𝝉(\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{}𝝅)\right]N+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(_\beta 𝝅^\beta 𝝅\right){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m_\pi ^2𝝅^2+\mathrm{},`$ (10)
while the next order Lagrangian is given by

$`_2`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{N}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{}{}^2}{2m_N}}+\mathrm{}\right]N+\mathrm{}`$ (11)
It is to be noted that in HBChPT the Schroedinger operator $`\stackrel{}{}^2/(2m_N)`$ for the nucleon kinetic energy is treated as a “recoil” correction to $`_1`$. In muon capture (both OMC and RMC), $`Qm_\mu `$=105.7 MeV or $`Q/\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi 0.1`$ and hence the chiral expansion is expected to converge rapidly. The explicit calculations in HBChPT  corroborates this expectation.

For OMC, leading-order (LO) contributions in chiral counting come from two tree diagrams of order $`(Q/\mathrm{\Lambda }_{chiral})^0`$. Next-to-leading order (NLO) contributions are again given by two tree diagrams which however are of order $`(Q/\mathrm{\Lambda }_{chiral})^1`$. These NLO diagrams arising from $`_2`$ define the nucleon-weak current (or pion) vertices which include the nucleon recoil correction of order $`m_N^1`$. To next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO), $`(Q/\mathrm{\Lambda }_{chiral})^2`$, we have both tree and one-pion-loop diagrams. The tree diagrams here involve vertices coming from $`_3`$, which contains three low energy constants (LEC). Two of them can be determined from $`<r^2>`$ and $`<r_A^2>`$, while the third LEC can be constrained by the Goldberger-Treiman discrepancy. The one-pion-loop diagrams effectively introduce a form factor at the nucleon-pion vertex. It should be stressed that there are no free parameters in this ChPT calculation; all the LEC’s are given by $`g_A`$, $`\kappa _p\kappa _n`$, $`f_\pi 93`$ MeV, $`g_{\pi N}`$, $`<r^2>`$, $`<r_A^2>`$, and the Goldberger-Treiman discrepancy $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\pi `$ defined by $`m_Ng_A=f_\pi g_{\pi N}(1\mathrm{\Delta }_\pi )`$. Bernard et al.  have shown the very rapid convergence of these ChPT calculations for the spin-averaged OMC rate: $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=(247624+\mathrm{})\mathrm{s}^1`$, where the the first, second and third terms correspond to the LO, NLO and NNLO contributions, respectively. We can see that the NLO term is $``$25% of the LO term and that the NNLO term is $``$1.6% of the LO term. Meanwhile, the OMC rate from the $`\mu `$-$`p`$ singlet atomic state exhibits a more subtle convergence behavior, indicating that a systematic calculation based on well-defined chiral expansion is indeed needed to get accurate predictions:

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_s(\mathrm{s}^1)=957\frac{245\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}}{m_N}+\left[\frac{30.4\mathrm{GeV}^2}{m_N^2}43.17\right]+\mathrm{}687\mathrm{s}^1.$$
(12)
The second term in this expression is the nucleon recoil correction. Of the two terms in the square brackets representing the NNLO corrections, the first represents the $`m_N^2`$ correction term while the second term originates from the $`q^2`$-dependence in the hadronic form factors given by the ChPT terms of one-loop order. It is noteworthy that these two terms cancel each other to a significant degree, a feature that cannot be studied reliably without a systematic expansion scheme such as ChPT. We compare in Table 1 the OMC rates obtained in two independent ChPT calculations, BHM  and AMK . The variance in the results of BHM and AMK are ascribable to the slight differences in the approaches used.

The RMC atomic capture rates have been calculated with the same $`_{eff}`$. The use of $`_{eff}`$ ensures that the photon coupling in our RMC calculation automatically satisfies gauge invariance. The leading order (LO) diagram representing the emission of a photon by a muon gives a dominant contribution. In LO we also have Feynman diagrams of the following types: (i) a photon couples to an intermediate pion propagator; (ii) a photon couples to a pion-nucleon vertex; (iii) a photon couples to a $`W^{}`$-pion vertex. In the Coulomb gauge, there are five LO Feynman diagrams, ten NLO diagrams, and more than twenty NNLO diagrams including pion-loop diagrams .

It has been pointed out  that, with the use of the atomic RMC rates calculated model-independently with the use of HBChPT, it is extremely difficult to reproduce $`R_\gamma ^{exp}`$ obtained in the TRIUMF experiment. We describe below some salient features of this difficulty.

## 3 Muonic states in liquid hydrogen

To make a comparison between theory and experiment, one needs to relate the theoretically calculated atomic OMC and RMC rates to the capture rates measured in a liquid H2 target, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{liq}`$ and $`R_\gamma `$, respectively. It is also important to know the temporal behavior of each of the various $`\mu `$-capture components (capture from the atomic states and capture from $`p`$-$`\mu `$-$`p`$ molecular states). Fig. 2 schematically depicts various competing atomic and molecular processes in liquid $`H_2`$. A muon stopped in liquid hydrogen quickly forms a muonic atom ($`\mu `$-$`p`$) in the lowest Bohr state. The atomic hyperfine-triplet state (S=1) decays extremely rapidly to the singlet state (S=0), with a transition rate $`\lambda _{10}1.7\times 10^{10}`$ s-1. In the liquid hydrogen target a muonic atom and a hydrogen molecule collide with each other to form a $`p`$-$`\mu `$-$`p`$ molecule with the molecule predominantly in its ortho state. The transition rate from the atomic singlet state to the ortho $`p`$-$`\mu `$-$`p`$ molecular state, $`\lambda _{pp\mu }`$, has an averaged value $`\lambda _{pp\mu }2.5\times 10^6`$ s-1, which is comparable to the muon decay rate, $`\lambda _0=0.455\times 10^6`$ s-1. The ortho $`p`$-$`\mu `$-$`p`$ state further decays to the para $`p`$-$`\mu `$-$`p`$ molecular state with a rate $`\lambda _{op}`$ $`(47)\times 10^4`$ s-1.

We now discuss very briefly the time structure relevant to the OMC experiment . We denote by $`N_s(t)`$, $`N_{om}(t)`$ and $`N_{pm}(t)`$ the numbers of muons at time $`t`$ in the atomic singlet, ortho-molecular, and para-molecular states, respectively. They satisfy coupled differential equations (the kinetic equations), see Eq. (54a) in Ref. . For illustration purposes, let us consider a case in which there is one muon in the atomic singlet state at $`t=0`$; i.e., $`N_s(0)=1`$ and $`N_{om}(0)=N_{pm}(0)=0`$. $`N_s(t)`$, $`N_{om}(t)`$ and $`N_{pm}(t)`$ corresponding to this case are plotted in Fig. 2. It turns out to be crucially important to take proper account of the $`t`$-dependence of these populations in analyzing the OMC data in , since data taking in Ref.  starts at $`t0`$.

In the OMC experiment (see Fig. 4 in Ref. ), $`\mu ^{}`$ beams arrive at the target in a (on the average) 3 $`\mu `$s-long burst with repetition rate 3000 Hz. The data collection typically starts 1 $`\mu `$s after the end of the 3 $`\mu `$s-long beam burst, and the measurement lasts until 306 $`\mu `$s after the end of the beam burst. To proceed, we assume that the quoted average time intervals represent the actual values (ignoring fluctuations). Then, provided all the muons arrive at the same time, we can choose with no ambiguity that arrival time as the origin of time ($`t=0`$) and let $`t`$ = $`t_i`$, the starting time for data collection, refer to that origin. However, the finite duration (3 $`\mu `$s) of the beam burst causes uncertainty in the value of $`t`$ = $`t_i`$; $`t_i`$ can be anywhere between 1.0 $`\mu `$s and 4.0$`\mu `$s. We choose here to average over the muon burst duration time for deducing $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{liq}`$, see Ref.  for details.

For the RMC experiment , the muons essentially arrive one by one and data taking begins at $`t_i=365`$ ns. We therefore can neglect the beam burst duration time in calculating $`R_\gamma `$, see Ref. .

## 4 Discussion

The value of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{liq}`$ obtained with the use of the atomic OMC rates calculated in HBChPT up to NNLO is $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{liq}`$ $``$ 459 s-1. This value is in good agreement with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{liq}^{exp}`$. By contrast, it is not possible to reproduce $`R_\gamma ^{exp}`$ in Eq.(1) in the existing theoretical framework and with the use of the standard set of input parameters, see Ref.  for a more detailed discussion.

The important question is: Have we exhausted all possibile ways for reconciling the measured OMC and RMC rates? One thing worth studying as a speculative possibility  is the sensitivity of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{liq}`$ and $`R_\gamma `$ to a so-far neglected possible change in the value of the molecular mixing parameter $`\xi `$. As first discussed by Weinberg , $`\xi `$ parametrizes a possible mixing of the spin-3/2 and spin-1/2 states in the $`p`$-$`\mu `$-$`p`$ molecule, and this mixing changes the molecular capture rate to

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{om}^{}=\xi \mathrm{\Lambda }_{om}(1/2)+(1\xi )\mathrm{\Lambda }_{om}(3/2),`$ (13)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{om}(1/2)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_{om}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{om}(3/2)=2\gamma _O\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for both OMC and RMC; $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{om}=2\gamma _O(0.75\mathrm{\Lambda }_s+0.25\mathrm{\Lambda }_t)`$ and $`2\gamma _O=1.009`$ . Although the existing theoretical estimate suggests $`\xi 1`$ , we treat $`\xi `$, as we did in Ref. , as a parameter to fit the data. Our study  demonstrates that, even with this extra adjustable parameter, it is impossible to fit the OMC and the RMC data simultaneously. In Ref. we have also found that both the OMC and RMC capture rates are sensitive to the value of $`\lambda _{op}`$. Obviously, the results of a more precise measurement of $`\lambda _{op}`$ at TRIUMF  will be very important for both OMC and RMC. Note that since HBChPT constrains the value of $`g_P`$ with high accuracy, there is not much room for adjusting the value of $`g_P`$.

Our findings reported in  and briefly summarized in this talk are mostly the reconfirmation of the conclusions stated in one way or another in the literature, but we hope that the coherent treatment of OMC and RMC in liquid hydrogen as described in Ref. would be useful. Although we have presented examples of simulation of the experimental conditions, they are only meant to serve illustrative purposes. Definitive analyses can be done only by the people who carried out the relevant experiments. Finally, we remark that a precise measurement of the OMC rate in hydrogen gas is planned at PSI. This experiment will allow us to avoid the molecular complexity discussed above and directly test the HBChPT prediction .

Acknowledgments: We are grateful to Peter Kammel, Tim Gorringe and Harold Fearing for useful comments. This work is supported in part by NSF grant PHY-9900756.


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# UPR-T960, OUTP-99-03P Knots, Braids and BPS States in M-Theory

## 1 Introduction

In this paper, we will consider elliptically fibered Calabi–Yau threefolds, $`X`$, over base surfaces, $`B`$. The discriminant curve is composed of smooth regions as well as singular points. For specificity, in  the discriminant curves associated with some Calabi–Yau elliptic fibrations over the blown–up Hirzebruch base space $`B=\widehat{𝔽}_3`$ were computed. The fibers of an elliptic fibration are smooth except over the discriminant locus, where they degenerate in specific ways classified in part by Kodaira . There are also non-Kodaira fibers which may occur over singularities of the discriminant curve. In general, the Kodaira type of the fiber degeneration may be different over different smooth components of the discriminant locus. In , we discussed the Kodaira classification of degenerating elliptic fibers and explicitly computed the Kodaira type of fibers over the discriminant curves associated with the base $`B=\widehat{𝔽}_3`$. An example of such a discriminant curve, indicating the Kodaira type of fiber degeneration, is shown in Figure $`1`$.

It was shown in a series of papers  that, when Hořava–Witten theory  is compactified on an elliptically fibered Calabi–Yau threefold, the requirements that there be three generations of quarks and leptons on the “observable brane” and that the theory be anomaly free generically necessitates the existence of wrapped M five–branes in the five–dimensional “bulk space”. These five–branes have two space–like dimensions wrapped on a holomorphic curve in the Calabi–Yau threefold. In  and in this paper, we are be interested in the case when this holomorphic curve is a pure fiber, $`𝒞_2`$. The five–brane worldvolume manifold is then $`M_4\times 𝒞_2`$. The four dimensional theory arising from the wrapped five–brane has $`N=1`$ supersymmetry. However the amount of supersymmetry may be enhanced at low energies, depending on the five–brane location in the base. For $`𝒞_2`$ located at a generic point in the base, it can be shown that, at low energy, the $`M_4`$ worldvolume theory always contains a single $`U(1)`$ $`N=4`$ Abelian vector supermultiplet. However, if the fiber approaches any point on a smooth component of the discriminant curve, the $`M_4`$ worldvolume supersymmetry is enhanced to $`N=2`$. In addition to the $`N=2`$ decomposition of the $`N=4`$ supermultiplet, new light BPS hypermultiplets carrying $`U(1)`$ charges appear. The states may carry mutually non-local dyonic charges, which can not simultaneously be made purely electric by an $`SL(2,Z)`$ transformation. In that case, these theories are exotic and do not have a local Lagrangian description. When the five–brane wraps the degenerate fiber over the smooth component of the discriminant curve, the theory flows to an $`N=2`$ interacting fixed point in the infrared, of a type originally described (in a different context) in . In , we considered only the smooth regions of the discriminant locus and using the theory of string junction lattices  we presented strong constraints on the spectrum and the local and global charges of the additional light BPS hypermultiplets on $`M_4`$.

The discussion in  was restricted to smooth regions of the discriminant locus for two reasons. First, the supersymmetry at such points is $`N=2`$, and there are powerful constraints on the possible BPS multiplets . Furthermore, the degenerate fibers over a smooth component of the discriminant curve fall entirely under Kodaira’s classification, and there is no ambiguity in the computation of the BPS states. However, neither of these is always a property of singularities of the discriminant locus, as we will see below.

The supersymmetry on a five–brane wrapped near such points is not always enhanced beyond $`N=1`$ at low energies. In these cases, a theory of a five brane wrapping a degenerate fiber over the singular point is an $`N=1`$ fixed point theory of the type discovered in . In  these theories appeared in the context of three-brane probes of F-theory compactifications on elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds. In , singularities of the discriminant locus giving rise to such singularities were identified, and certain anomalous dimensions were obtained. Like its $`N=2`$ counterpart, the low energy theory on a five-brane wrapped near a singularity of the discriminant curve is expected to have matter with mutually non-local charges, however much less is known about the spectrum. In this paper we begin a study of the spectrum near singularities of the discriminant curve.

In  we deformed the Weierstrass model so that the new discriminant curve was a local, disjoint union of $`I_1`$ curves. We showed that this method can be successfully applied to points on the smooth parts of the discriminant curve. In this paper, we extend these results to elliptic fibrations in a neighborhood of a singular locus of the fibration.

One could attempt to deform the Weierstrass model around a singular point $`P_0`$ of the discriminant in such a way that the new discriminant curve is a locally smooth curve with $`I_1`$ fibers. Deformations of this type could, in principle, be applied to some singular discriminant loci, albeit in a manner that differs significantly from the smooth case. Even in these cases, however, technical difficulties arise. We are motivated, therefore, to present some other procedure to “regulate” the singular loci. In other cases it is simply not possible to deform the isolated singularity of the discriminant.

Our approach will be the following: first, we will choose certain deformations of the Weierstrass model, so that the discriminant locus will still have the same multiplicity at $`P_0`$, and the nearby singular fibers are of Kodaira type $`I_1`$. We then “regulate” the singular point $`P_0`$ of the discriminant by surrounding it with an infinitesimal real sphere, $`S^3`$. A similar approach appeared in , in the context of $`SU(3)`$ $`N=2`$ Yang-Mills theory. The intersection of the discriminant curve with this sphere produces either a knot or a link in $`S^3`$ which is characteristic of the type of the singularity at $`P_0`$. All the points on this knot or link are within a smooth component of the discriminant curve of Kodaira type $`I_1`$. Any knot or link can be represented, but not uniquely, by a braid and an associated element of the braid group.

Next, we choose a braid and we seek the equivalence classes of string junctions on $`S^3`$, that is, the classes of junctions related by deformations and by Hanany-Witten transitions. Now, using the braid group and Hanany–Witten transformations, one can show that all possible $`S^3`$ string junction configurations are equivalent to a string junction in a real surface $`𝒫`$ transverse to the braid. This is possible because the allowed deformations do not change the singularity type of the general surface through $`P_0`$.

Since intersection number can be defined for membranes in the elliptic fibration over this surface, it follows that one can define the associated string junction lattice exactly as in . However, there remains an ambiguity that must be resolved. This arises from the fact that the braids associated with a given knot or link are not unique. We resolve these ambiguities by showing, using the braid group and Hanany–Witten transformations, that the string junction lattices associated with any two braid representations arising in this way are equivalent. In fact, we will show that the choice of an elliptic surface in the neighborhood of the singularity is related to the choice of a braid representative. The “general elliptic” surface corresponds to the “minimal braid” (defined in A.2); when our method can be applied, the junction lattice of the threefold is that of the general elliptic surface through $`P_0`$.

Our method cannot always be successfully applied. In Section 6 we give one such example: the supersymmetry here is broken to $`N=1`$ at the point $`P_0`$. In Section 7 we discuss the relationship with supersymmetry breaking.

The outline of the paper is as follows: in Section 2 we state the procedure; in Section 3 we recall basics facts about elliptic fibrations, singular fibers and discriminants. In Section 4 we consider an example where the discriminant has a singularity at a point $`P_0`$ and the nearby singular fibers are of Kodaira type $`I_1`$. In this case we do not need to deform the Weierstrass equation; instead we explain in details how two different braids give the same equivalence class of string junction lattices. In the Appendix, we explicitly describe the knot associated with this discriminant singularity and the two different braids in consideration.

In Section 5, we work out three examples where the discriminant has to be deformed. These examples illustrate the various rules stated in Section 2. It is worth noting that we can also recover the results of the previous paper , albeit by a less direct procedure. To illustrate this, in the first example of 5 we apply our procedure in a neighborhood of a point in the smooth part of the discriminant with Kodaira type $`I_2`$.

Remark: The order of vanishing of the discriminant of the threefold at $`P_0`$ coincides with the multiplicity of the discriminant of the general elliptic surface through $`P_0`$. The latter is the number of end points in the surface string junction lattice, which equals the number of strands in the minimal braid (see A.1 and A.2). This made us suspect that the multiplicity of an isolated curve singularity would always coincide with the number of strands of the minimal braid (also called the “index” of the knot, or link). It turns out that this statement is indeed always true; its proof is a hard and beautiful result. The first proof was given in . A shorter, elegant proof is given by , using techniques from dynamical systems (see also  in the same volume, for an algebraic version). For an outline of the proof in the case of“ torus knots” (see the Appendix and, for example ).

## 2 Outline of our procedure

First, we will choose a deformation of the Weierstrass model around $`P_0`$, which fixes the order of vanishing of the discriminant at the origin, so that the other nearby singular fibers become of Kodaira type $`I_1`$. This imply that the general elliptic surface through the $`P_0`$ of the deformed model has the same type of singularity over $`P_0`$ as in the non-deformed model.

We then “regulate” the singular point $`P_0`$ of the discriminant by surrounding it with an infinitesimal real sphere, $`S^3`$. The intersection of the discriminant curve with this sphere produces either a knot or a link in $`S^3`$ which is characteristic of the type of the singularity at $`P_0`$ (see the Appendix). All the points on this knot or link are within a smooth component of the discriminant curve of Kodaira type $`I_1`$.

Next, we choose a braid representative of this knot (link) (see Appendix A) and we seek the equivalence classes of string junctions on $`S^3`$, that is, the classes of junctions related by deformations and by Hanany-Witten transformations. Note that there is nothing which forces junctions to live on this $`S^3`$. Actually they live in a four ball $`B^4`$ surrounding the singular point. However, we will assume that the equivalence classes of string junctions on $`B^4`$ are the same as the equivalence classes on $`B^4P_0`$, where $`P_0`$ is the singular point. The endpoints of the junctions can then be slid along the discriminant curve, so that they lie entirely on the $`S^3`$ boundary of $`B^4`$. Now, using the braid group and Hanany–Witten transformations, one can show that all possible $`S^3`$ string junction configurations are equivalent to a string junction in a real surface $`𝒫`$ transverse to the braid. This is possible because the allowed deformations do not change the singularity type of the general surface through $`P_0`$.

Since intersection numbers can be defined for membranes in the elliptic fibration over this surface, it follows that one can define the associated string junction lattice exactly as in . However, there remains an ambiguity that must be resolved. This arises from the fact that the braids associated with a given knot or link are not unique. We resolve these ambiguities by showing, using the braid group and Hanany–Witten transformations, that the string junction lattices associated with any two braid representations arising in this way are equivalent. Furthermore we show that the string junction lattice in the threefold is the string junction lattice of “the minimal braid” associated to the knot(link) (see A.2 for the definition). The braid is obtained by “cutting” the discriminant with a (complex) curve $`C_R`$, which depends on the radius $`R`$ of the $`S^3`$; in the limit as $`R0`$, $`C_R`$ becomes a general curve $`C`$ through $`P_0`$ (see A.3).

In our examples, the string junction lattice of the elliptic surface over $`C`$ coincides with the string junction lattice of the threefold. We speculate that this will not happen in more general cases, where the supersymmetry at $`P_0`$ is broken at $`N=1`$.

Note that with other deformations of the equation which do not satisfy our requirements, it is no longer clear how to understand a “cut” of this braid as a deformation of the original Kodaira type. This is because the requirement implies that the index (i.e. the minimal number of strands of an associated braid) of the knot (link) will stay the same before and after the “allowed deformations”. This can be explained as follow: On an elliptic surface, the string junction lattice is obtained by locally deforming the Weierstrass equation so as to split Kodaira fibers into fibers of $`I_1`$ type. The number of $`I_1`$ fibers into which a Kodaira fiber splits is determined by the order of vanishing of the discriminant. There are deformations which introduce more $`I_1`$ fibers entering from infinity, but none which increase the number locally. (In cases in which the Kodaira fiber corresponds to a conformal field theory, the deformations which introduce new $`I_1`$ fibers at infinity correspond to irrelevant deformations.) There is thus no smooth deformation which increases the number of states.

On an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau, the string junction lattice may again be defined by splitting the fibers in the neighborhood of a singularity of the discriminant curve into $`I_1`$ type. The dimension of the string junction lattice is then obtained from the braid index of the resulting knot or link. As for a K3, we shall assume that there is no smooth deformation which increases the number of states by raising the dimension of the string junction lattice, (although in this case there may be deformations which lower the dimension.)

## 3 Basic facts about elliptic fibrations

A simple representation of an elliptic curve is given in the projective space $`^2`$ by the Weierstrass equation

$$zy^2=4x^3g_2xz^2g_3z^3$$
(3.1)
where $`(x,y,z)`$ are the homogeneous coordinates of $`^2`$ and $`g_2`$, $`g_3`$ are constants. The origin of the elliptic curve is located at $`(x,y,z)=(0,1,0)`$. The torus described by (3.1) can become degenerate if one of its cycles shrinks to zero. Such singular behavior is characterized by the vanishing of the discriminant

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=g_2^327g_3^2$$
(3.2)
Equation (3.1) can also represent an elliptically fibered surface (or threefold), $`W`$, if the coefficients $`g_2`$ and $`g_3`$ in the Weierstrass equation are functions over a base curve (or surface) $`B`$ (see for example , for more details).

The resolved singular fibers of a Weierstrass model representing an elliptic curve are determined by the order of vanishing of $`g_2,g_3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$; these fibers were classified by Kodaira:

| Kodaira type | A-D-E | monodromy | N,L,K |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`I_n`$ | $`A_{n1}`$ | $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& n\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right)`$ | $`N=n,L=0,K=0`$ |
| $`II`$ |  | $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$ | $`N=2,L>0,K=1`$ |
| $`III`$ | $`A_1`$ | $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$ | $`N=3,L=1,K>1`$ |
| $`IV`$ | $`A_2`$ | $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 1\end{array}\right)`$ | $`N=4,L>1,K=2`$ |
| $`I_0^{}`$ | $`D_4`$ | $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right)`$ | $`N=6,L>1,K>2`$ |
| $`I_n^{}`$ | $`D_{n+4}`$ | $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& n\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right)`$ | $`N=6+n,L=2,K=3`$ |
| $`IV^{}`$ | $`E_6`$ | $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$ | $`N=8,L>2,K=4`$ |
| $`III^{}`$ | $`E_7`$ | $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$ | $`N=9,L=3,K>4`$ |
| $`II^{}`$ | $`E_8`$ | $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 1\end{array}\right)`$ | $`N=10,L>3,K=4`$ |

Table 1: The integers $`N`$, $`L`$ and $`K`$ characterize the behavior of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, $`g_2`$ and $`g_3`$ near the discriminant locus $`u=0`$; $`\mathrm{\Delta }=u^Na,g_2=u^Lb`$ , and $`g_3=u^Kc`$ .

## 4 Regularizing without deforming the equation: a general cusp singularity of the discriminant

Isolated cusp points are a generic feature of discriminant curves. For example, in the discriminant locus shown in Figure $`1`$, there are $`137`$ cusps in the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ component of the curve. Note that any deformation of the Weierstrass equation corresponds to a change of coordinates in the $`(s,t)`$ plane. Thus it is never possible to remove the singularity of the discriminant by any deformation.

Consider one such cusp and choose local coordinates $`s,t`$ which vanish at that point. Then, in the neighborhood of the cusp, the sections $`g_2`$ and $`g_3`$, which define the elliptic fibration, can be taken to be

$$g_2=s,g_3=t$$
(4.1)
It follows that the Weierstrass representation of the fiber and the discriminant are given by

$$y^2=4x^3sxt$$
(4.2)
and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=s^327t^2$$
(4.3)
respectively.

Note that the Weierstrass model $`y^2=x^3t`$ over the surface $`s=0`$ appears to be that of a type II Kodaira fiber at $`t=0`$, but the Weierstrass model $`y^2=x^3sx`$ over the surface $`t=0`$ appears to be that of a type $`III`$ Kodaira fiber at $`s=0`$. To discuss the monodromy around a point in the discriminant locus of an elliptically fibered threefold, we could restrict to the fibration over a curve that intersects the discriminant locus at the cusp. The surface over generic curves, however, are smooth everywhere: note that the path $`𝒫`$ defined by $`s=0`$, which has coordinate $`t`$, is generic. For specificity, we take the intersecting surface to be the elliptic fibration over $`𝒫`$, which we denote by $`𝒯`$. Restricted to this surface, the cusp appears as a point in the one–dimensional complex base $`𝒫`$. Furthermore, restricted to $`𝒯`$, the discriminant and the Weierstrass representation are given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=27t^2,y^2=4x^3t$$
(4.4)
Both of these quantities are recognized as corresponding to a Kodaira type $`II`$ degeneration of the fiber at the cusp. Since the problem has now been reduced to an elliptic surface over a one–dimensional base, we can apply standard Kodaira theory to analyze the monodromy.

The $`SL(2,)`$ monodromy transformation for a Kodaira type $`II`$ fiber is given by

$$_{II}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right).$$
(4.5)
This transformation acts on the elements of $`H_1(𝒞_2,)`$, where $`𝒞_2`$ is the elliptic fiber. Note that $`_{II}`$ has no real eigenvector and, therefore, no obvious associated vanishing cycle. The usual way to proceed is to use the fact that $`_{II}`$ can be decomposed as

$$_{II}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}2& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)=AB$$
(4.6)
where both matrices $`A,B`$ are monodromies of Kodaira type $`I_1`$.

However, we have to justify the choice of the “generic” elliptic surface through $`P_0`$. It is in fact easy to see that non-generic surfaces will give different string junctions.

In order to resolve this ambiguity, following , we will consider, not the cusp itself, but the intersection of the discriminant curve

$$s^327t^2=0$$
(4.7)
with a l sphere $`S^3`$ of infinitesimal radius $`R`$ centered at the cusp. We will see in A.3 that the intersection is the “trefoil” knot shown in Figure $`2`$. All points in the knot lie in the smooth part of the discriminant curve, over which the elliptic fiber is of Kodaira type $`I_1`$, as shown in Figures $`1`$ and $`2`$.

To proceed, it is useful to represent the trefoil knot as a braid. This representation is not unique, as we will see in the Appendix. Two relevant braid representatives of the trefoil knot are shown in Figure $`3`$; we derive them explicitly in A.3.

Note that any braid representative is a curve in $`𝐑^3`$. First, consider the two strand braid shown in Figure $`3(a)`$. This is obtained by cutting the knot with the line $`s=c_R`$, where $`c_R`$ is a constant depending on $`R`$ and $`c_R0`$, as $`R0`$ (see A.3). In this limit, this is one of the generic lines through the origin, intersecting the cusp with multiplicity $`2`$. Fix some arbitrary point $`P`$ in $`^3`$ (corresponding to the location of the wrapped M5-brane) which is not on the braid, and specify an $`^2`$ plane, $`𝒫`$, which contains $`P`$ and intersects the braid. This is shown in Figure $`4(a)`$. Note that the braid intersects $`𝒫`$ in two points. The elliptic fibration over $`𝒫`$, which we denote by $`𝒯_R`$, is our regularization of the surface $`𝒯`$. $`𝒯_R`$ has two separated discriminant points, each of Kodaira type $`I_1`$. In an appropriate basis, the monodromies around these two points in the plane $`𝒫`$ are $`A`$ and $`B`$ as defined in equation (2.6), as illustrated in figure $`4(a)`$. Note that in the planes over neighboring sections of the braid, the monodromies are different. The relation between monodromies in different sections of a braid is shown in Figure $`5`$. Next, extend a single string from $`P`$ to an arbitrary point on the braid which is not, in general, in $`𝒫`$. This point can always be moved back into the plane using a generalized Hanany–Witten mechanism. The result is a two–legged string junction that can be made to lie entirely in the $`𝒫`$ plane. This is shown in Figure $`4`$.

It is not hard to show that any string junction starting at $`P`$ can always be represented by a two–legged string junction in the plane $`𝒫`$. Note that the string junction lattice we obtain in this manner corresponds to a Kodaira type $`II`$ fiber degeneracy. Having put a junction in the plane, one can then slide endpoints of the junction lattice all the way around the braid and then do Hanany-Witten transitions to bring the junction back into the plane. This could, in principle, generate an additional equivalence relation, equating apparently different junctions in the plane $`𝒫`$. It is easy to see that, in this case, there is no such equivalence relation. This is because the total $`(p,q)`$ charge of a junction (or the boundary cycle of the membrane which results from lifting to M-theory) is not changed by this process. Since there are only two $`I_1`$ loci in the plane, the $`p`$ and $`q`$ charges completely determine the equivalence class of a junction in the plane (defined up to deformations and Hanany-Witten transitions within the plane). Thus, in this instance, the equivalence classes of junctions are the same as the equivalence classes of junctions restricted to the plane $`𝒫`$.

Before discussing these states, however, we would like to point out that one could have considered the surface over the line $`t=0`$. This line intersects the discriminant curve with multiplicity $`3`$. The path $`𝒫`$, with coordinate $`s`$, is here defined by $`t=0`$. To begin, denote the elliptic fibration over $`𝒫`$ by $`𝒯`$ and note that the cusp appears as a point in the one–dimensional complex base. Furthermore, the discriminant and Weierstrass representation are given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=s^3,y^2=4x^3sx$$
(4.8)
which is the Weierstrass representation of a type $`III`$ Kodaira fiber in an elliptic surface. Since the problem has now been reduced to an elliptic two-fold, we can apply standard Kodaira theory to analyze the monodromy.

The $`SL(2,)`$ monodromy transformation for a Kodaira type $`III`$ fiber is given by

$$_{III}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)=AAB$$
(4.9)
where matrices $`A,B`$, defined in (4.6), both correspond to monodromies of Kodaira type $`I_1`$. Since $`_{III}`$ has no real eigenvector, one can attempt to proceed by deforming the discriminant curve from a single point of Kodaira type $`III`$ to three separate points, each of Kodaira type $`I_1`$. This deformation corresponds to the Weierstrass model of equation

$$y^2=4x^3sx+t.$$

Here $`t`$ is the deformation parameter; the three $`I_1`$ fibers are found by considering the plane $`t=c_R`$, where $`c_R`$ is a constant (which depends on the radius $`R`$). These three singular fibers are exactly the ones obtained by a “vertical cut” (with the line $`t=c_R`$) in the 3-braided representation of the trefoil knot, as shown in Figure 3(b) (compare also with A.3).

Choose some point $`P`$ (corresponding to the location of the wrapped M 5-brane) which is not on the braid and specify a plane $`𝒫`$ which passes through $`P`$ and intersects the braid. This is depicted in Figure $`6`$. Note that the braid intersects $`𝒫`$ in three points. The elliptic fibration over $`𝒫`$, which we denote by $`𝒯_R`$, is our regularization of the surface $`𝒯`$. $`𝒯_R`$ has three separated discriminant points, each with Kodaira type $`I_1`$. The monodromies of each of these points can be computed and in an appropriate basis are the matrices $`A`$, $`A`$, and $`B`$ respectively in the plane $`𝒫`$ indicated in Figure 6.

By sliding string endpoints along the braid and using the Hanany–Witten mechanism, it can be shown that any string junction starting on $`P`$ and ending at arbitrary points on this braid can always be deformed to a three-legged string junction lying entirely within the plane $`𝒫`$.

Note that the string junction lattice we obtain from this three–strand braid representation appears to be one associated with a Kodaira type $`III`$ fiber degeneracy and, hence, in contradiction with the above result. However, despite appearances, the string junction lattice associated with the three–strand braid is equivalent to the two–strand braid string junction lattice. Generically, the reason for this is the following. Unlike the type $`III`$ string junction lattices at a smooth point in the discriminant curve , we can define a set of transformations where either one, two or all three legs of the junction can be translated along the braid until they return to the plane $`𝒫`$. As a rule, one will obtain a different string junction in the plane $`𝒫`$. However, by construction, this new junction must be equivalent to the original one. That is, not all Kodaira type $`III`$ string junctions near a cusp are independent. We now proceed to show that, in fact, only a Kodaira type $`II`$ subset of string junctions are independent.

The braid under consideration is divided into sections, each with three parallel lines. An element of the braid group acts between each section by intertwining the three lines. As one moves the junction from one section to the next, one can do a Hanany-Witten transition to keep it in a canonical form within a plane intersecting the braid section, in which the junction lies in the upper half-plane. In this way, the braid group acts on string junctions restricted to the plane. As one goes all the way around the braid, string junctions $`J`$ in the plane $`𝒫`$ are acted on by the (three-strand) braid group element of the knot $`𝒢`$, giving another string junction $`J^{}`$ which is equivalent to $`J`$

$$𝒢J=J^{}J$$
(4.10)
Such an equivalence would not exist if we were considering the junction lattice of a type $`III`$ fiber in an elliptic two-fold instead of a three-fold. The string junction lattice is thus the quotient of the string junction lattice restricted to the plane $`𝒫`$ by the action of the braid group. To see explicitly how the quotient acts, consider an oriented string, denoted by $`\stackrel{}{\alpha }`$, connecting the two discriminant points in the $`𝒫`$ plane in Figure $`6`$ with identical monodromy matrix $`A`$. Translating this string along the braid, we find that it returns to the plane $`𝒫`$ with its orientation reversed, as illustrated in Figure $`7`$. We have indicated in the figure the canonical form of the junction which arises as one moves around the braid. Within each section of the braid, the junction may be written as a vector $`\stackrel{}{\alpha }=n_1\stackrel{}{v}_1+n_2\stackrel{}{v}_2+n_3\stackrel{}{v}_3`$, where $`\stackrel{}{v}_i`$ is a single string with an endpoint on the i’th segment of the braid, labelled from top to bottom. As one moves around the braid, starting from the point indicated, $`\stackrel{}{\alpha }`$ is transformed as follows

$$\stackrel{}{\alpha }=\stackrel{}{v}_1\stackrel{}{v}_3\stackrel{}{v}_1+\stackrel{}{v}_3\stackrel{}{v}_2\stackrel{}{v}_3\stackrel{}{v}_1\stackrel{}{v}_2+\stackrel{}{v}_3\stackrel{}{v}_1\stackrel{}{v}_3\stackrel{}{v}_1=\stackrel{}{\alpha }$$
(4.11)
This sequence is illustrated in Figure $`7`$. It follows that $`\stackrel{}{\alpha }`$ is equivalent to zero. Therefore,as illustrated in Figure 8, given any junction we can, by Hanany-Witten transformations, write it as a two strand junction in the plane $`𝒫`$ with an endpoint on the strand with monodromy $`B`$ and an endpoint on one of the strands with monodromy $`A`$. There can be no further equivalence relation because the dimension of the lattice must be at least two to get all possible $`(p,q)`$ boundary cycles. Thus one has the same two dimensional string junction lattice that one obtains for a type $`II`$ Kodaira fiber.

Another way of stating the above result is the following. Given the Weierstrass model $`y^2=4x^3sxt`$, one can find the lattice of string junctions restricted to a curve of constant non-zero $`t`$. One then quotients by the monodromy which acts on this lattice as one moves this curve in a circle around $`t=0`$ <sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1Note that this monodromy in some ways resembles that which gives non-simply laced algebras in certain F-theory compactifications  by acting on the Dynkin diagram. However these monodromies are not equivalent. In instances in which there are non-simply laced algebras, the roots which are projected out by the Dynkin diagram monodromy have corresponding string junctions which are not projected out by the monodromy which acts on the junction lattice. However these junctions give rise to hypermultiplets rather than vector multiplets.. This gives the same result as restricting to curve of constant non-zero $`s`$, and quotienting by the (in this case trivial) monodromy which acts when one moves the curve in a circle around $`s=0`$.

In this Section, we have only proven the equivalence of the two and three-braid string junction lattices. However, using these techniques it is not hard to demonstrate this equivalence for all braid representations of the trefoil knot. It follows that the correct structure of the string junction lattice at a cusp, Kodaira type $`II`$, is most easily obtained from the two-braid representation. As discussed above, this corresponds to choosing the curve intersecting the cusp to be generic. In general, it turns out that the junction lattice in the neighborhood of a singularity of the discriminant curve is determined by the $`SL(2,Z)`$ monodromy around the singular point within a generic slice. In the present example, a generic slice containing the cusp is given locally by $`s+\lambda t=0`$ for finite $`\lambda `$. The restriction of the Weierstrass equation to this slice is $`y^2=4x^3+\lambda txt`$, with the discriminant $`\mathrm{\Delta }=t^2(\lambda ^3t27)`$. The monodromy around $`t=0`$ is that of a type $`II`$ Kodaira fiber. This completely resolves the discrepancy discussed above. That is, the junction lattice is that of a type $`II`$ Kodaira fiber on an elliptic surface. In fact, in this case, the fiber at the cusp happens to be a type $`II`$ Kodaira fiber. Later, we will encounter examples in which the fiber type does not match the junction lattice.

The string junction lattice is only part of what is required to determine the spectrum of light charged matter on a five–brane wrapped near a singularity. Extra constraints are required, which we will discuss later. In this particular example, however, we expect that the infrared limit of the five-brane worldvolume theory in the neighborhood of the cusp is the same as that in the neighborhood of a type $`II`$ Kodaira fiber over a smooth component of the discriminant curve. This is because, based on arguments in , the cusp singularity can not describe a conformal fixed point with a Weierstrass form invariant under scale transformations. Furthermore, the operators which deform a smooth type $`II`$ into a cusp are irrelevant, while those which deform a smooth type $`III`$ into a cusp are relevant. This is consistent with the result that the string junction lattice is that of a type $`II`$. We conclude that the light state spectrum at a cusp singularity is $`N=2`$ supersymmetric and identical to the spectrum for a Kodaira type $`II`$ fiber over points in the smooth part of the discriminant curve. This spectrum was computed in .

## 5 Deforming the equation: normal crossing intersections of the discriminant

In the previous section, we gave an example of a singularity where it was not necessary to deform the discriminant curve, since the Kodaira type fibers in a neighborhood of $`P_0`$ are of type $`I_1`$. Here we present three different examples where the Kodaira type fibers in a neighborhood of $`P_0`$ are no longer of type $`I_1`$. Therefore, in these examples, we first need to deform the discriminant curve, before regularizing the singularity with the sphere $`S^3`$. In the case of the normal crossing intersection, the links on $`S^3`$ are, in fact, simple linked circles and there is an obvious minimal braid (with no extra relations on the string junction lattice). Thus, while in the previous example we focused on the braids, in the following examples we will focus on the deformations.

Before we consider the examples of simple normal crossing singularities, we will revisit the case of a smooth part of the discriminant curve, as discussed in . Unlike , however, in this section we will use a deformation which leaves the multiplicity of the discriminant fixed at a point and regularize the singularity with the sphere $`S^3`$. All the examples in  could have been computed in this manner. We present this method here, since it gives a simple illustration of the features which will occur, in a more complicated form, for simple normal crossing singularities.

### 5.1 The smooth locus of the discriminant

We consider the smooth part of the discriminant of Kodaira type $`I_2`$, in Figure 1. Pick any point $`P_0`$ on the smooth part of $`\sigma `$, and choose the origin of the $`s,t`$ coordinates to be at that point. In the neighborhood of this point, the associated sections have the form

$$g_2=3a^2,g_3=a^3s^2,\mathrm{\Delta }=s^2f^2$$
(5.1)
where $`a`$ and $`f`$, to leading order in $`s`$, are non–zero functions of $`t`$ only. (See for example, Table $`1`$ in Section 3.

We choose a deformation of the Weierstrass representation which fixes the order of vanishing (here the order of vanishing is $`2`$) of the discriminant at the origin. After the deformation, the singular fibers outside the origin become of Kodaira type $`I_1`$. A suitable such deformation of the equation has the form

$$y^2=4x^33a^2x(a^3(s+ϵt)(sϵt))$$
(5.2)
with discriminant

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_ϵ=(s+ϵt)(sϵt)b,$$
(5.3)
where $`b`$ does not vanish near $`P_0`$. Note that this is also the “relevant” deformation used in  of the general elliptic surface through $`P_0`$, with $`ϵt`$ the deformation parameter.

The general elliptic surface of the deformed model through $`P_0`$ (obtained by setting, say $`t=0`$) also has Kodaira type fiber of type $`I_2`$. Similarly, the order of vanishing of the discriminant at $`P_0`$ is $`2`$, both in the deformed and non-deformed models. This satisfies the rules stated in Section 2. Then, as for the cusp singularity, we will regulate the crossing point by considering the intersection of the deformed discriminant curve with the sphere $`S^3`$ of infinitesimal radius $`R`$ centered $`P_0`$. We obtain the “link” shown in Figure 9 (see Appendix A and A.3). Since this link is composed of points all in the smooth part of the discriminant curve, the Kodaira type of fiber degeneration over any point in the link can be determined by canonical methods.

As before, we represent this link as a braid. Since this link is so simple, the proof that the string junction lattice is that of the minimal braid is straightforward. This minimal braid (see A.2) is shown in Figure $`10`$.

Note that the braid intersects $`𝒫`$ in two points. The elliptic fibration over $`𝒫`$, which we denote by $`𝒯_R`$, is our regularization of the surface $`𝒯`$. $`𝒯_R`$ has two separated discriminant points, with Kodaira type $`I_1`$. The monodromies of these points can be computed and are found to be of type $`A`$. Using the Hanany–Witten mechanism, it is not too hard to show that any string junction starting at $`P`$ can always be represented by a two–legged string junction in the plane $`𝒫`$. Note that the string junction we obtain in this manner corresponds to a two Kodaira type $`I_1`$ fiber degeneracy.

Because the braid is composed by two simply linked segments, there are no further relations on the string junction lattice in the plane $`𝒫`$, which is the lattice of a type $`I_2`$. Note that the vanishing of the discriminant at $`P_0`$ is equal to the number of strands of the braid. This is a general fact, see A.2 and the end of the Introduction. Without the restriction on the allowed deformations, we could have obtained a braid with fewer strands. It would no longer have been clear how to see a “cut” of this braid as a deformation of the Kodaira type $`I^2`$.

In general, if $`P_0`$ is a smooth point of the discriminant, then any allowed deformation is also a deformation of the general elliptic surface through $`P_0`$. The associated link is given by $`n`$ simple linked circles, where $`n`$ is the order of vanishing of the discriminant at $`P_0`$. The associated minimal braid has $`n`$ strands, because we have $`n`$ distinct links; any allowed deformation is also a deformation of the general elliptic surface through $`P_0`$. Hence, we find the string junction lattice of the general surface through $`P_0`$.

### 5.2 Simple Normal Crossing Intersection: Kodaira type $`I_1`$ and $`I_2`$

We now apply the techniques described in the previous subsection to simple normal crossing intersection of the discriminant curve. In the discriminant locus shown in Figure $`1`$, there are $`28`$ simple normal crossing intersections of the components $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`\sigma `$ of the curve. Consider one such intersection $`P_0`$ and choose local coordinates $`s,t`$ around $`P_0`$. Then, in the neighborhood of this point, the sections $`g_2`$ and $`g_3`$ can be taken to be

$$g_2=3a^2,g_3=a^3s^2t,$$
(5.4)
where $`a`$ is a suitable constant (see Section 3). The equations of the Weierstrass model and the discriminant are given by

$$y^2=4x^33a^2x(a^3s^2t)$$
(5.5)
and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_ϵ=s^2t[2a^3+s^2t]$$
(5.6)
respectively. We choose a deformation of the Weierstrass representation which fixes the order of vanishing of the discriminant at the origin, while the singular fibers outside the origin become Kodaira type $`I_1`$.

The equation of the deformed Weierstrass threefold and the discriminant are given by

$$y^2=4x^33a^2x(a^3(s+ϵt)(sϵt))t$$
(5.7)
and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=(s+ϵt)(sϵt)t[2a^3+(s+ϵt)(sϵt)t]$$
(5.8)
respectively. We see that any point with Kodaira type $`I_2`$, is split into two nearby discriminant points, each of Kodaira type $`I_1`$. Note that the general elliptic surface of the deformed model through $`P_0`$ (obtained, by setting, say, $`t=s`$) has the same type of singularities as the non-deformed one and that the multiplicity of the discriminant through $`P_0`$ is unchanged in the deformed and non-deformed models. This satisfies the rules stated in Section 2. Then, as in the previous example, we will regulate the crossing point by considering the intersection of the deformed discriminant curve with the sphere $`S^3`$ of infinitesimal radius $`R`$ centered $`P_0`$. We now obtain the “link” shown in Figure $`11`$. Again, this link is composed of points all in the smooth part of the discriminant curve and the Kodaira type of fiber degeneration over any point in the knot can be determined by canonical methods.

Next, we represent this link as a braid. Among the various braids representations we will consider only the simplest braid representation, which corresponds to choosing a generic base curve for the intersecting surface. This minimal braid (see A.2) is shown in Figure $`12`$.

Note that the braid intersects $`𝒫`$ in three points. The elliptic fibration over $`𝒫`$, which we denote by $`𝒯_R`$, is our regularization of the surface $`𝒯`$. $`𝒯_R`$ has three separated discriminant points, with Kodaira type $`I_1`$. The monodromies of these points can be computed and are found to be of type $`A`$. This is indicated pictorially in Figure $`12`$. Using the Hanany–Witten mechanism, it is not too hard to show that any string junction starting at $`P`$ can always be represented by a three–legged string junction in the plane $`𝒫`$. As in the previous example, because the braid does not induce any relations among the end points, the associated string junction lattice has monodromy structure $`AAA`$. This is the lattice of a type $`I_3`$ fiber. Therefore, the light state spectrum at the $`I_1I_2`$ simple normal crossing identifies to that of a type $`I_3`$ fiber over a smooth part of the discriminant. This spectrum was presented in .

### 5.3 Simple Normal Crossing Intersection: Kodaira type $`I_1`$ and $`I_0^{}`$

Here we consider another type of simple normal crossing intersection, which also occurs in case 1 of example 2 in . Two different components $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`𝒮`$ of the discriminant, of Kodaira type $`I_1`$ and $`I_0^{}`$ respectively, meet with a simple normal crossing intersection at a point $`P_0`$. We can choose local coordinates $`s,t`$ around $`P_0`$, with $`P_0`$ as the origin. Then, in the neighborhood of this point, the sections $`g_2`$ and $`g_3`$ can be taken to be

$$g_2=3(sa)^2,g_3=(ac)^3s^3t,$$
(5.9)
where $`a`$ is a suitable function (see Section 3). The equation of the deformed Weierstrass threefold and the discriminant are given by

$$y^2=4x^33(sa)^2x+(sa)^3+t(s^3)$$
(5.10)
$$t(s^6)(4a^3+t)=0.$$
(5.11)
As before, we choose a deformation of the Weierstrass representation which fixes the singularity of the discriminant at the origin, so that the singular fibers outside the origin become of type $`I_1`$ in the deformed model. The equation of the deformed Weierstrass threefold and the discriminant are given by

$$y^2=4x^33(sa)^2x+(sa)^3+t(s^3ϵ^3t^3)$$
(5.12)
$$t(sϵt)(sϵe^{\frac{2\pi i}{3}}t)(sϵe^{\frac{4\pi i}{3}}t)(ϵ^3t^4+s^3(4a^3+t))=0.$$
(5.13)
This Weierstrass model defines a threefold $`W_ϵ`$, which is smooth outside the point $`y=x=t=s=0`$ ($`a`$ is non-zero at the origin). The singular fibers are of type $`I_1`$, except at the point $`s=t=0`$. This deformation preserves the type of singularity of the generic elliptic surface through $`P`$. The corresponding braid can be shown to be a $`7`$-braid. It is more complicated to draw, so we limit ourselves to describe it in words, and display the (MAPLE generated) picture of the corresponding knot. The braid is composed of four simple linked circles (as in the previous example) and a 3-stranded minimal braid. It is easy to see that, by cutting with a general real plane $`𝒫`$, we obtain a monodromy structure of type $`A^5BC`$. Since there are no further relations among the different strands, this will also be the monodromy structure in the threefold. From Table 4 in , we find that the corresponding junction lattice is that of a type $`I_1^{}`$ singularity. Therefore, the light state spectrum at the $`I_1I_0^{}`$ simple normal crossing identifies to that of a type $`I_1^{}`$ fiber over a smooth part of the discriminant.

## 6  A puzzle: Non-transversal Intersections

We also studied many examples of non-transversal intersections. We found that in these cases no deformation leaves the $`I_1`$ locus fixed, and that we cannot determine which strands of the knot correspond to the deformation of the un-deformed points of the discriminant. Therefore, the two-dimensional analysis cannot be used in these examples. This might indicate that supersymmetry is broken at the point $`P_0`$, and that the string junction lattice of the threefold no longer coincides with that of the general elliptic surface through $`P_0`$, as in the $`N=2`$ case. As an example of this problem, let us consider a case where the supersymmetry is known to be broken to $`N=1`$.

In the discriminant locus shown in Figure $`1`$, there are $`5`$ non-transversal intersections of the components $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`𝒮`$ of the curve. Let us consider one such intersection point and choose local coordinates $`s,t`$ which vanish at that point. Then, in the neighborhood of this point, the sections $`g_2`$ and $`g_3`$ can be taken to be

$$g_2=st^3,g_3=t^5$$
(6.1)
It follows that the Weierstrass representation of the fiber and the discriminant are given by

$$y^2=4x^3st^3xt^5$$
(6.2)
and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=t^9(s^327t)$$
(6.3)
respectively. The Kodaira type over $`t=0`$ is of type $`III^{}`$. A possible allowed deformation is

$$y^2=4x^3st^3x(t^5+ϵs^5)$$
(6.4)
with discriminant

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=t^9s^327(t^{10}+ϵ^2s^{10}+2ϵt^5s^5)$$
(6.5)
Because deformation does not leave the (original) $`I_1`$ locus fixed, we cannot determine which strands of the knot correspond to the deformation of the $`III^{}`$ locus. We do not believe that any such deformation exists. This makes examples of this kind completely different from the $`N=2`$ cases discussed previously in this paper.

## 7 Supersymmetry at Low Energy.

The field theory on the worldvolume of a five-brane in the bulk has $`N=1`$ supersymmetry. However, the amount of supersymmetry may be greater in the infrared limit. For example, if the five-brane wraps an elliptic curve over a generic point in the base of the Calabi-Yau threefold away from the discriminant curve, the IR theory is an $`N=4`$ $`U(1)`$ gauge theory. This can be understood heuristically as a consequence of the correspondence between long distances on the five-brane and short distances in the transverse space-time. In the IR, the five-brane probes only the local transverse geometry of the Calabi-Yau base, which is $`𝐑^4`$ when the brane wraps a fiber over a generic point in the base. In the IR, the scalar fields associated with this $`𝐑^4`$, together with the axion and $`S_1/Z_2`$ moduli, belong to a multiplet under the $`N=4`$ $`SO(6)`$ R symmetry. The situation is different when the five-brane wraps a fiber over the discriminant curve. When this fiber lies over a smooth component of the discriminant curve, the IR theory has $`N=2`$ supersymmetry.

When the fiber lies over a singular point of the discriminant curve, infrared properties can be studied using the methods of . The authors of , studied the low energy theories of three-brane probes of Calabi-Yau geometries in F-theory, which are the same as the theories which arise in our context. If the IR theory is an interacting fixed point with $`N=1`$ supersymmetry, then the local form of the singularity is preserved by IR flow, meaning that the local Weierstrass equation,

$$y^2=x^3f(s,t)xg(s,t).$$
(7.1)
is invariant under scaling when appropriate dimensions are assigned to $`x,y,u`$ and $`v`$. The holomorphic three-form of the Calabi-Yau threefold,

$$\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{dsdxdt}{2y}$$
(7.2)
should have dimension $`[\mathrm{\Omega }]=2`$ (see ). Furthermore, for unitarity one requires $`[s]>1`$ and $`dim[t]>1`$.

As an example, consider the tangential crossing of $`III^{}`$ with $`I_1`$ described by

$$y^2=4x^3st^3xt^5,$$
(7.3)
with a five-brane wrapped over the point $`s=t=0`$. This example (discussed in ) is consistent with an $`N=1`$ CFT in the infrared limit. The scaling relations $`2[y]=3[x]=[s]+3[t]+[x]=5[t]`$ and $`[\mathrm{\Omega }]=[s]+[t]+[x][y]=2`$ gives the anomalous dimensions $`[s]=4/3`$ and $`[t]=4`$.

When the conditions for $`N=1`$ supersymmetry in the IR are not satisfied, one expects the theory to flow to an $`N=2`$ fixed point in the infrared limit. Heuristically, one can understand this process as a smoothing of the singularity, such that the local geometry seen by the five-brane looks like that over a smooth component of the discriminant curve. As an example, consider the cusp singularity $`y^2=4x^3sxt`$, with a five-brane wrapped over the point $`s=t=0`$. In the infrared limit, the theory flows to a CFT with no dimensional parameters. If this CFT has $`N=1`$ supersymmetry, the discriminant curve singularity should be fixed under the infrared flow, that is the Weierstrass equation above should have no dimensional parameters. The dimensions would have to satisfy the following relations: $`2[y]=3[x]=[s]+[x]=[t]`$, and also that $`[\mathrm{\Omega }]=[s]+[t]+[x][y]=2`$ . This would imply that $`[s]=8/9`$, which is not consistent with the unitarity bound $`[s]1`$ on scalar fields in a unitary superconformal theory. Thus the cusp can not describe a non-trivial $`N=1`$ fixed point. A natural guess is that the theory flows in the infrared to an $`N=2`$ conformal theory, described either by the Weierstrass model $`y^2=4x^3t`$ or by $`y^2=4x^3sx`$. The former possibility seems more likely for the following reasons. In the $`N=2`$ CFT described by $`y^2=4x^3t`$, the scaling dimension of $`[s]`$ is $`1`$, as $`s`$ is a free scalar field describing motion parallel to the discriminant curve. The scaling relation $`2[y]=3[x]=[t]`$, together with $`[\mathrm{\Omega }]=[s]+[t]+[x][y]=2`$ yields $`[t]=6/5`$. Then the (analytic) deformation which gives a cusp singularity is given by $`y^2=4x^3ϵsxt`$. This deformation is irrelevant since $`[ϵ]=1/5`$. However, for the $`N=2`$ CFT described by $`y^2=4x^3sx`$, the scaling dimensions satisfy $`[t]=1`$, $`2[y]=3[x]=[s]+[x]`$ and $`[\mathrm{\Omega }]=[s]+[t]+[x][y]=2`$. This means that the deformation which gives a cusp singularity, $`y^2=4x^3sxϵt`$, is relevant since $`[ϵ]=1`$. This suggests that in the infrared limit, the theory described by the cusp singularity flows to an $`N=2`$ CFT described by the Weierstrass model of a type $`II`$ Kodaira fiber over a smooth component of the discriminant curve.

As one further example, consider the simple normal crossing of $`I_2`$ with $`I_1`$ described by $`y^2=4x^33a^2x(a^3s^2t)`$, with a five-brane wrapped over $`s=t=0`$. There is no way to assign scaling dimensions, so that there are no dimensional parameters in the Weierstrass model. Hence $`[s]`$ and $`[t]`$ have dimension $`>1`$, and $`[\mathrm{\Omega }]=2`$. One would have to satisfy $`2[y]=3[x]=2[a]+[x]=3[a]=2[s]+[t]`$, but if the parameter $`a`$ has dimension zero, then $`2[s]+[t]=0`$ and $`[\mathrm{\Omega }]=[s]+[t]=2`$. Note that, in this example, the $`I_2`$ and $`I_1`$ fibers are mutually local (same vanishing cycle), so that there are no states with mutually non-local $`(p,q)`$ charges. Consequently one does not expect to find a non-trivial CFT in the infrared limit. The IR flow will never give a local form of the Weierstrass equation which is invariant under scaling. The low energy theory is a $`U(1)`$ gauge theory with electrically charged matter, and flows to a free theory in the infrared limit.

Acknowledgements We would like to thank B. Johnson, P. Melvin and L. Zulli for helpful conversations.

B. Ovrut is supported in part by the DOE under contract No. DE-ACO2-76-ER-03071. A. Grassi’s research was supported in part by NSF grants DMS-9706707 and DMS-0074980. Part of this work was completed while A.G. was a member at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ and supported by N.S.F. grant DMS-9729992. Z. Guralnik is supported in part by the DOE under contract No. DE-ACO2-76-ER-03071.

## Appendix: Curve Singularities, Knots and Braids

In this section, we derive examples of knots (or links) and braids associated to an isolated plane curve singularity. In  Milnor studied properties of isolated (complex) singularities of hypersurfaces in $`𝐂^n=𝐑^{2n}`$ by intersecting the hypersurface with a sphere $`S^{2n1}`$ of radius $`R`$ centered at the singularity. In the case of complex plane curves, the intersection is a real curve, called a knot, if it has one component, a link otherwise. These are also called algebraic knots (links). The idea is that the type of singularity of the curve is closely related to the topological property of the associated knot (or link). For example, as we will see below, the knot associated with a smooth point is a circle (unknot).

Take $`(s,t)`$ to be complex coordinates in the plane $`𝐂^2𝐑^4`$, so that the complex curve has an isolated singularity at the point $`(s,t)=(0,0)`$. To describe the intersection of the curve and $`S^3`$ it is easier to use polar coordinates:

$$\xi e^{i\theta }=t,\eta e^{i\varphi }=s;$$

the equation of the sphere of radius $`R`$ is then $`\xi ^2+\eta ^2=R^2`$. Recall that $`S^3`$ can also be thought of two solid tori glued along the boundary. In the example we consider, the intersection of the complex curve with $`S^3`$ will be a knot (or link) on the (boundary of) tori. These are called torus knots (or links).

### A.1: A smooth point is the unknot

Let us assume that $`s=0`$ is the local equation of the curve around the origin. It is easy to see that the intersection of the curve with the sphere $`\xi ^2+\eta ^2=R^2`$ is a circle $`S^1`$ of radius $`R`$. We can cut the circle in a point and obtain a line segment; we can recover the circle by identifying the endpoints of the segment. The segment is called an associated braid. Similarly, given a braid, we obtain a knot by closing the braid. For a precise definition of a braid see, for example,  and .

### A.2: On braids

We can associate many different braids to a knot; it is a hard result that every knot (link) can be represented by a closed braid ; (see again  and ). Many different braids can be associated to a knot (link)  (2.14). Among the different braid representations of the knot, the one with the fewest strands is called the minimal braid. The number of strands of the minimal braid is called the braid index. The braid index is an invariant of the knot . Our analysis of string junction lattices led us to conjecture that the braid index of these algebraic knot would always be equal to the order of vanishing of the complex curve at $`(s,t)=(0,0)`$. It turns out that this statement is indeed always true, but it is a hard and beautiful result. The first proof was given in . A shorter, elegant proof is given by , using technique from dynamical system (see also  in the same volume, for an algebraic version). In the above example, for the smooth point (i.e. the order of vanishing is one), we have a one strand braid.

### A.3: An isolated cusp singularity and the trefoil knot

As in Section 4, we take $`t^2+s^3=0`$ to be the local equation of the singularity. (Note that the order of vanishing is two, and we will find a two-strand minimal braid). We show that we obtain the trefoil knot, and we construct two braids, the minimal two-strand braid and a three-stranded braid. It is easy to see that the intersection of the discriminant and the sphere $`S_R^3`$ of radius $`R`$ centered at the origin is the parametric curve:

$$(t,s)=(\xi _0e^{i3\theta },\eta _0e^{i\frac{\pi }{3}}e^{i2\theta }),$$

where $`\xi _0`$ and $`\eta _0`$ are fixed positive constant which depend on $`R`$. From the parametric equation we see that this real curve lies on $`S^1\times S^1`$, the product of two circles of radius $`\xi _0`$ and $`\eta _0`$ respectively; the exponential $`(e^{i3\theta },e^{i2\theta })`$ give a slope of $`(3,2)`$ on the square obtained by “cutting open” the torus (see Figure 14).

This curve is connected, hence it is a knot; it is often denoted as the $`(3,2)`$ torus knot. In Figure 15 we can see that this knot is exactly the trefoil knot of Figure 2 in Section 4.

A general result shows that all the knots obtained by intersecting a complex curve with $`S^3`$ are torus knots or can be described from torus knots (the “iterated torus knots”).

In the next Figure 16 we show that by “folding” the square in Figure 14 horizontally (vertically), we obtain a two (three)-strand braid. These foldings correspond to cutting the torus (and the knot) along a horizontal (resp vertical) meridian.

It is easy to see that the first braid corresponds to a cut $`t=c_1`$ and the second to a cut $`s=c_2`$, where $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$ are constants depending on $`R`$, the radius of $`S^3`$. In the limit $`R0`$, the first $`s=c_1`$ cut intersects the cuspidal curve with multiplicity $`2`$ (a generic intersection), while the second cut $`s=c_2`$ has intersection multiplicity $`3`$.

### A.4: A transversal intersection (nodal singularity)

Here we consider a local equation $`(s+ϵt)(sϵt)=0`$, as in Section 5.1; instead of a knot, we will obtain a link. It is easy to see the intersection of the curve with $`S^3`$ lives again on $`S^1\times S^1`$. In the following Figure 17 we represent this torus by a square with identified sides, and the braid obtained by folding horizontally (as in the previous section). We see that we have two differen simply linked components.


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# References

Nature does not respect invariance for $`CP`$ transformation, although only a few demonstrations are known. To date, in the $`K`$ meson system, and very recently in the $`B`$ meson system, $`CP`$-violating phenomena have been observed. Another manifestation of $`CP`$ violation is baryon asymmetry of the universe. Within the framework of particle physics, the former could be described well by the Kobayashi-Maskawa mechanism of the standard model (SM). However, the latter cannot be explained by the SM.

A nonvanishing value of the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the neutron, though not yet found, unambiguously represents $`CP`$ violation. Experimental measurements have put its upper bounds as $`|d_n|<6.3\times 10^{26}e`$cm. In the SM, disregarding the strong $`CP`$ problem, the EDM is generated only at the three-loop level. Its predicted magnitude is at most of order $`10^{31}e`$cm, which is extremely smaller than the present experimental bounds. However, a new source of $`CP`$ violation could easily enhance the EDM. In fact, from various points of view, the SM is considered to be an effective theory of a more fundamental one for the energy scale of 100 GeV$``$1 TeV. Above this energy scale, some new physics may emerge, making extension of the SM inevitable. Such an extension involves mostly new sources of $`CP`$ violation. These sources may serve for baryogenesis, and may cause new $`CP`$-violating phenomena which are testable in experiments. Studying the EDM, both theoretically and experimentally, provides very useful information about physics beyond the SM.

One of the most hopeful candidates for the extension of the SM is the supersymmetric standard model (SSM). Supersymmetry is a symmetry between the particles with different spin quantum numbers. Therefore, the SSM involves new particles which are supersymmetric partners of the ordinary particles contained in the SM. Through this model, the SM can be consistently embedded in the scheme of grand unification, the unification of the SM gauge groups into a single gauge group. In addition, the SSM contains several new sources of $`CP`$ violation, which could generate baryon asymmetry of the universe. Examination of the SSM thus may be performed by investigating $`CP`$ violation intrinsic in this model.

A prominent effect of the new sources of $`CP`$ violation in the SSM is found in the EDM of the neutron . Its value could be around the experimental bounds. The reason of such a large magnitude is that the EDM is generated at the one-loop level. The EDM of a quark $`q`$ arises from three types of one-loop diagrams in which supersymmetric particles are exchanged: (i.a) charginos $`\omega `$ and squarks $`\stackrel{~}{q}^{}`$, (i.b) neutralinos $`\chi `$ and squarks $`\stackrel{~}{q}`$, (i.c) gluinos $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$ and squarks $`\stackrel{~}{q}`$. The charginos and the neutralinos are supersymmetric partners of the SU(2)$`\times `$U(1) gauge bosons and the Higgs bosons, with their electric charges being $`1`$ and $`0`$, respectively. The gluinos are supersymmetric partners of the SU(3) gauge bosons. The squarks are supersymmetric partners of the quarks. In the diagram (i.a) the third components of weak isospin for the quark and the squarks are different, while in the diagrams (i.b) and (i.c) they are the same. From the nonrelativistic quark model, the neutron EDM is given by $`d_n=(4d_dd_u)/3`$, where $`d_d`$ and $`d_u`$ respectively denote the EDMs of the down quark and the up quark.

The neutron EDM is also generated by two-loop diagrams . In the SSM, a $`CP`$-odd three-body coupling for the $`W`$ bosons and the photon arises from three-types of one-loop diagrams mediated by supersymmetric particles: (ii.a) charginos and neutralinos, (ii.b) squarks, (ii.c) sleptons. The sleptons are supersymmetric partners of the leptons. Through one-loop diagrams generated by the SM interactions, the $`CP`$-odd $`WW\gamma `$ coupling leads to the EDMs of the quarks, which are at the two-loop level.

The interactions relevant to generation of the neutron EDM are described by the model parameters of the SSM contained in the mass terms of supersymmetric particles. The mass matrices of the charginos and the neutralinos consist of the SU(2) gaugino mass $`m_2`$, the U(1) gaugino mass $`m_1`$, the higgsino mass $`m_H`$, and the ratio $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ of the vacuum expectation values for the Higgs bosons. The gluino mass is given by the SU(3) gaugino mass $`m_3`$. The mass-squared matrices of the squarks or sleptons consist of the gravitino mass $`m_{3/2}`$, the left-handed and right-handed squark or slepton masses $`M_L`$ and $`M_R`$, the coefficient $`A`$ for the trilinear couplings of the Higgs bosons and the squarks or sleptons, in addition to $`m_H`$ and $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$. Under the scheme of grand unification, the gaugino masses are related to each other as $`3m_1/5g_1^2=m_2/g_2^2=m_3/g_3^2`$. Assuming the ordinary mechanism of supersymmetry breaking by the model based on $`N=1`$ supergravity, the relation $`m_{3/2}M_LM_R`$ holds.

The magnitude of the neutron EDM correlates with the $`CP`$-violating phases and the masses of intermediate particles. By redefining the phases of particle fields, without loss of generality, we can take the SSM parameters except $`m_H`$ and $`A`$ as real and positive. The complex phases of $`m_H`$ and $`A`$, which are expressed as $`m_H=|m_H|\mathrm{exp}(i\theta )`$ and $`A=|A|\mathrm{exp}(i\alpha )`$, are physical and thus induce $`CP`$ violation. The masses of the charginos and the neutralinos are of order of $`m_2`$ and $`m_H`$, and the gluino mass is about three times $`m_2`$. The masses of the squarks and the slepton are of order of $`m_{3/2}`$. Since the supersymmetric particles have not yet been discovered in collider experiments, their masses should be larger than 100 GeV roughly. The lightest supersymmetric particle should be the lightest neutralino from a cosmological consideration, which is realized for $`m_2,|m_H|<m_{3/2}`$. In general, the EDM becomes suppressed as the complex phases $`\theta `$, $`\alpha `$ decrease, or the mass parameters $`m_2`$, $`|m_H|`$, $`m_{3/2}`$ increase.

Assuming unsuppressed complex phases, for $`1\mathrm{TeV}<m_{3/2}<10`$ TeV and $`100\mathrm{GeV}<m_2,|m_H|<1`$ TeV, the contributions from the one-loop diagrams give the neutron EDM a value $`d_n(10^{26}10^{24})e`$cm. Certain regions of the parameter space can already be excluded by the experimental bounds for the EDM available at present. If the three mass parameters are all smaller than 1 TeV, the predicted magnitude for the EDM becomes too large. Among the three types of one-loop diagrams, the contribution of the diagram (i.a) is generally dominant. This contribution increases as the value of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ becomes large. The two-loop contribution coming from the diagram (ii.a) gives $`d_n(10^{28}10^{26})e`$cm for $`100\mathrm{GeV}<m_2,|m_H|<1`$ TeV. The dependency of this contribution on $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ is opposite to the above one-loop contribution. The other two-loop contributions from the diagrams (ii.b) and (ii.c) yield smaller magnitudes as long as the inequality $`m_2,|m_H|<m_{3/2}`$ is satisfied.

The predicted magnitude of the neutron EDM becomes small as the value of $`m_{3/2}`$ increases, since all the one-loop contributions involve the squarks. On the other hand, the two-loop contribution via the diagram (ii.a) is independent of the squarks. If the squarks are very heavy, the two-loop contribution could become dominant. For instance, for $`m_{3/2}10`$ TeV with $`m_2,|m_H|100`$ GeV and $`\mathrm{tan}\beta 1`$, the one-loop contributions become comparable to or smaller than the two-loop contribution. Therefore, irrespectively of $`m_{3/2}`$, the EDM is expected to have a magnitude $`(10^{28}10^{25})e`$cm for $`100\mathrm{GeV}<m_2,|m_H|<1`$ TeV,

The EDM of the neutron may also have a small magnitude, if the $`CP`$-violating phases intrinsic in the SSM are suppressed. However, such a situation would require reasonable explanation for the reason why the SSM parameters are almost real whereas the quark Yukawa coupling constants have unsuppressed complex phases. Furthermore, the magnitudes of the complex phases are bounded from below, if baryon asymmetry of the universe should be generated.

Within the framework of the SSM, baryogenesis could occur at the electroweak phase transition of the early universe . Provided that the phase transition is strongly first order, the bubbles of broken gauge symmetry nucleate in the SU(2)$`\times `$U(1) symmetric phase. In the course of expansion of the bubbles, particles are reflected or transmitted by the bubble walls. Large $`CP`$-violating effects are then caused by the interactions of the charginos or the top squarks with the wall. Between the $`CP`$ conjugate states of these particles, the reflection and transmission rates become asymmetric, leading to net hypercharge flux emitted into the symmetric phase. The resultant nonvanishing hypercharge density puts a bias to the equilibrium conditions for nonvanishing baryon number density, which is achieved through electroweak anomaly. The yielded net baryon number is subsequently captured by the phase of broken gauge symmetry, as this phase expands. After the phase transition, baryon number of the universe is not changed, since baryon number violation by electroweak anomaly becomes negligible.

The observed ratio of baryon number to entropy in the universe can be produced, if $`CP`$-violating effects are large and certain conditions for the electroweak phase transition are satisfied. For the chargino interactions to properly accomplish baryogenesis, the parameters should be within the ranges $`|\mathrm{sin}\theta |>0.1`$ and $`100\mathrm{GeV}<m_2,|m_H|<1`$ TeV. The neutron EDM is then expected to be $`(10^{27}10^{25})e`$cm for $`1\mathrm{TeV}<m_{3/2}<10`$ TeV. Baryogenesis by the top squark interactions gives the ranges $`\mathrm{sin}\alpha 1`$, $`|\mathrm{sin}\theta |1`$, and $`100\mathrm{GeV}<m_{2/3}<1`$ TeV. If the phase $`\theta `$ is sufficiently suppressed, the EDM receives a dominant contribution from the diagram (i.c). For $`100\mathrm{GeV}<m_2,|m_H|<1`$ TeV, the EDM is expected to have a magnitude $`(10^{26}10^{25})e`$cm. Hence, baryon asymmetry of the universe suggests that the EDM is larger than of order of $`10^{27}e`$cm.

The new sources of $`CP`$ violation in the SSM also generate the EDM of the electron at both the one-loop and the two-loop levels. The one-loop diagrams are mediated by the charginos and the neutralinos together with the sleptons. The two-loop diagrams originate in the $`CP`$-odd $`WW\gamma `$ coupling. Its predicted magnitude is roughly $`0.10.01`$ times that of the neutron EDM, which is far larger than the SM prediction and could be explored in experiments.

The mechanism of generating the neutron EDM in the SSM is related with the radiative decay of the bottom quark . The bottom quark can decay into the strange quark and the photon through one-loop diagrams mediated by supersymmetric particles. Some information on $`CP`$ violation relevant to the neutron EDM could be obtained by collider experiments. For instance, a $`CP`$-violating effect is found in the decay rate asymmetry between the $`CP`$ conjugate processes $`bs\gamma `$ and $`\overline{b}\overline{s}\gamma `$ . For the parameters ranges $`\mathrm{sin}\alpha 1`$, $`|\mathrm{sin}\theta |1`$, and $`100\mathrm{GeV}<m_2,|m_H|,m_{2/3}<1`$ TeV, the decay rate asymmetry can become larger than the SM prediction, and may be detectable in the near future.

The EDM of the neutron provides interesting and useful information for particle physics. Although its predicted magnitude by the SM is extremely small, a much larger magnitude could be generated by new sources of $`CP`$ violation, which are contained in various extensions of the SM. Baryon asymmetry of the universe, which cannot be explained by the SM, also suggests the existence of a new source of $`CP`$ violation. The SSM, which is one of the most plausible extensions of the SM, predicts that the magnitude of the EDM is not much smaller than the present experimental bounds in wide ranges of reasonable parameter values. Any refinement of the experimental bounds is thus useful for studying physics beyond the SM. Measuring the EDM is a very important subject for experiments which use the ultra cold neutron.

This article is based on the works in collaboration with M. Aoki, G.C. Cho, T. Kadoyoshi, Y. Kizukuri, and A. Sugamoto.