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# Anisotropic Flow at the SPS and RHIC

## I Introduction

Directed and elliptic flow are defined by the $`v_1`$ and $`v_2`$ coefficients in the Fourier expansion of the azimuthal distribution of particles relative to the reaction plane:

$$1+2v_1\mathrm{cos}(\varphi \mathrm{\Psi }_r)+2v_2\mathrm{cos}(2(\varphi \mathrm{\Psi }_r)),$$
(1)
where $`\varphi `$ is the azimuthal angle of a particle and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_r`$ is the azimuthal angle of the reaction plane. The coefficients are usually evaluated differentially as a function of $`y`$, $`p_t`$, and centrality.

Three methods of analysis will be discussed. In the conventional method meth  of correlating particles with an event plane the flow coefficients are given by:

$$v_n^{obs}=\mathrm{cos}(n(\varphi _i\mathrm{\Psi }_n)),$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{\Psi }_n`$ is the observed event plane of order $`n`$. Since the observed event plane is not the true reaction plane, the observed coefficients have to be corrected by dividing by the resolution of the event plane, which is estimated by measuring the correlation of the event planes of subevents.

The flow coefficients can also be obtained by the pair-wise correlation Keane  of all the particles without refering to an event plane. This two-particle correlation method produces the squares of the coefficients, so that one has to take the square root of the correlation effect:

$$v_n^2=\mathrm{cos}(n(\varphi _i\varphi _j))_{ij}.$$
(3)
Recently, a multiparticle correlation method has been proposed new-new  using cumulants. For four particles, one calculates the four-particle correlation minus twice the square of the two-particle correlations:

$`v_n^4=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}(n(\varphi _1+\varphi _2\varphi _3\varphi _4))`$ (4)
$`+\mathrm{cos}(n(\varphi _1\varphi _3))\mathrm{cos}(n(\varphi _2\varphi _4))`$
$`+\mathrm{cos}(n(\varphi _1\varphi _4))\mathrm{cos}(n(\varphi _2\varphi _3)).`$
Here one must take the fourth root of the result, and naturally the statistical errors are larger than for the two-particle analysis. However, this method has the advantage of eliminating two-particle non-flow effects which are not correlated with the reaction plane, such as HBT and resonance decay.

## II SPS

### II.1 NA49

From NA49, initial flow results from part of the data set were published NA49PRL ; NA49QM99  a few years ago. The full set of data has now been analyzed NA49Pri . The $`v_1`$ and $`v_2`$ values for pions as a function of rapidity are shown in Fig. 1. The values have been integrated over $`p_t`$ by taking mean values weighted with the cross section. The $`v_1`$ values have been corrected for conservation of momentum OlliMomen . Before this correction, $`v_1`$ crossed mid-rapidity at +0.6%, while after the correction, with no adjustable parameters, it can be seen that the curve now crosses mid-rapidity at zero. Other non-flow effects OlliHBT ; OlliSPS  have been verified to be small using the following tests. Short-range correlations, like HBT, were determined to be not large by using striped sub-events where only physically separated particles were correlated. Coulomb effects were determined to be not large by looking at $`\pi ^+`$ and $`\pi ^{}`$ particles separately. Neutral resonances, like $`\rho ^0`$, were shown to be not important by correlating $`\pi ^{}`$ with an event plane determined only by other $`\pi ^{}`$ particles. The pion flow values integrated over both $`p_t`$ and $`y`$ are show in Fig. 2 as a function of centrality bin.

### II.2 WA98

WA98 has measured WA98QM99  the directed flow of pions near target rapidity in the Plastic Ball. These data are plotted in Fig. 3 reflected into the forward hemisphere, together with the NA49 data. It can be seen that at projectile rapidities the directed flow is huge. WA98 also has shown that for protons $`v_1`$ is just as large, but in the positive direction. This indicates that looking at projectile rapidity fragments might be a good way to determine the reaction plane. However, even though $`v_1`$ is large, the resolution of the event plane also depends on the square root of the multiplicity, which in this rapidity region is low.

### II.3 NA45

Using silicon drift chambers NA45 has measured NA45QM01  the flow coefficients for charged particles. In Fig. 4 their elliptic flow values at mid-rapidity are plotted versus centrality, together with the same quantity for pions from NA49. The agreement is good. NA45 also has a RICH detector which identifies high $`p_t`$ pions. When correlated with an event plane determined from their TPC, the $`p_t`$ dependence falls nicely on a line extrapolated from the lower $`p_t`$ results of NA49. However, when they correlate pairs of high $`p_t`$ pions from the RICH using Eq. 3, their results are somewhat higher NA45INT .

### II.4 NA50

NA50 has analyzed the neutral transverse energy from their calorimeter in the rapidity region from 1.1 to 2.3. NA50 has shown elliptic flow as a function of centrality NA50QM99 , but it is hard to compare their results with the other experiments because of the different method of analysis.

## III RHIC

### III.1 STAR

STAR results for elliptic flow for charged particles STARcharged  and identified particles STARPID  have been published. The flow is larger than at the SPS and comes close to the hydrodynamic predictions Pasi  for the mid-central and central data. The identified particle flow shows a variation with mass as predicted by hydrodynamics. However, the high $`p_t`$ behavior STARQM01  exhibits a saturation effect well below where hydro would saturate. It has been suggested that at high $`p_t`$ elliptic flow could be due to parton energy loss (jet quenching) Gyulassy .

The doubly integrated elliptic flow values as a function of centrality are shown in Fig. 5, using the conventional event plane method (Eq. 2). The asymmetric error bars indicate the systematic uncertainty due to possible non-flow effects. A four-particle correlation analysis STARAihong  using Eq. 4 is also show in the figure. Indeed, when two-particle non-flow effects are eliminated, the points do come down to about the limits of the systematic errors. It should be noted that part of the decrease could be due to fluctuation effects fluct  which also would go in the same direction. However, the agreement with hydro for mid-central and central collisions is not affected.

### III.2 PHENIX

The PHENIX results PHENIX  for charged particle elliptic flow as a function $`p_t`$ for a minimum bias trigger is shown together with the STAR results in Fig. 6. PHENIX uses the pair-wise method of Eq. 3. The agreement is excellent. However, at the moment, the doubly-integrated elliptic flow values as a function of centrality are about 50% higher for PHENIX than for STAR. Only about half of this discrepancy can be accounted for by the higher $`p_t`$ threshold of PHENIX.

### III.3 PHOBOS

The PHOBOS elliptic flow values PHOBOS  as a function of centrality are shown in Fig. 7, together with the STAR values. The agreement is excellent. Fig. 8 shows PHOBOS elliptic flow for a minimum bias trigger measured over a wide range of pseudorapidity. Where there are STAR measurements, in a narrow range near mid-rapidity, the agreement is good with the flat STAR distribution. A 3D hydro calculation Hirano  gets rather flat distributions over a wide range of pseudorapidity for all reasonable initial conditions. Thus the fast fall off away from midrapidity in Fig. 8 is not understood at present in a model with thermalization.

## IV Conclusions

Good agreement between the various experiments has been achieved. There might be some indication that the pair-wise method for high $`p_t`$ particles indicates non-flow effects. The four-particle method at RHIC indicates that there are non-flow effects for peripheral collisions. The elliptic flow increases from the SPS to RHIC, and at RHIC is close to the hydro limit. This is taken to be a signature for early time thermalization at RHIC.

###### Acknowledgements.

I wish to thank Alexander Wetzler, Thomas Peitzmann, Kirill Filimonov, Roy Lacey, Steve Manly, Inkyu Park, and Peter Steinberg for supplying some of the data and graphs. Comments by Hans-Georg Ritter, Nu Xu, Sergei Voloshin, Jean-Yves Ollitrault, and Peter Seyboth are also appreciated. This work was supported by the Division of Nuclear Physics of the Office of Science of the U.S.Department of Energy.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

In this talk, I will make the argument that our strongest insights into a fully nonperturbative framework for string/M theory are to be found in the worldsheet formalism for perturbative string theory . On the other hand, since the spacetime low energy effective action is the likely first point of detailed contact with any candidate nonperturbative framework, it is crucial that any wisdom gained from worldsheet calculations is incorporated into formulating precise relations among both the couplings in the spacetime effective action, as well as the quantum amplitudes of the low energy effective theory at the string scale. Such relations may be interpreted as the specification of renormalization conditions on the candidate nonperturbative theory holding at the string mass scale, $`\alpha ^{1/2}`$. They will play an important role in the next wave of research into candidate nonperturbative frameworks such as the reduced matrix models of .

Perturbative string theory originated in the Dual Model, a phenomenological description of mesons and hadrons that pre-dates the discovery of asymptotic freedom and subsequent development of QCD as the theory of the strong interactions . The spacetime viewpoint and introduction of the worldsheet formalism came with the realization that many properties of dual model amplitudes, such as $`\mathrm{S}`$$``$$`\mathrm{T}`$ channel duality, are automatic in a quantum theory of one-dimensional extended objects or strings. The open string endpoints carry charge, and the lowest-lying excitation in the open string spectrum is identified with a vector boson. Nonabelian symmetry is straightforwardly introduced by assigning the endpoint wavefunctions to the fundamental representations of an internal symmetry group. An added bonus is the discovery that the one-loop amplitude of an open string theory always factorizes on a massless spin two closed string excitation, motivating the natural interpretation of string theory as a unified formulation of gravity and gauge theory. The theory is characterized by a dimensionful scale corresponding to the string tension, $`\alpha ^{1/2}`$, and a dimensionless coupling, $`g_s`$, the strength of the cubic string interaction vertex. It is therefore natural to identify the string tension of fundamental strings with the Planck mass scale, at which the gauge and gravitational interactions are of comparable strength. Note that since closed string interactions only result in producing closed strings, it is consistent with perturbative unitarity to have a pure closed string theory with $`g_s`$$`=`$$`g_{\mathrm{closed}}`$. In the open and closed string theory, consistency requires in addition the tree level relation between couplings, $`g_{\mathrm{closed}}`$$`=`$$`g_{\mathrm{open}}^2`$.

## 2 A Weyl-invariant Quantum Mechanics

The full beauty of perturbative string theory becomes transparent upon detailed examination of the loop expansion. The world-sheet representation of string loop amplitudes implies the existence of a single graph at each order in loop perturbation theory. The loop amplitudes in string theory can be equivalently interpreted as quantum correlators in a two-dimensional “gauge theory”, where the gauge symmetry is general coordinate invariance . The S-matrix describing the scattering of asymptotic string states is obtained by invoking two-dimensional conformal invariance to represent asymptotic on-shell states as operator insertions that are local in the two-dimensional sense, i.e., on the worldsheet. Off-shell string states are boundaries on the worldsheet— either macroscopic closed loops or macroscopic line segments, localized instead in the embedding spacetime . This correspondence between worldsheet and spacetime pictures has remarkable consequences. Consider a gauge invariant path integral expression for the generic Greens function at arbitrary order in the string loop expansion. Upon gauge fixing to conformal gauge, the path integral over metrics is restricted to the fiducial representative from each conformally inequivalent class of metrics. This is an ordinary integral over the finite number of moduli parameters of Riemann surfaces of fixed topology. Remarkably, in any critical string theory both the measure of the path integral, the functional determinants, and vertex operator insertions, can be unambiguously computed as functions of the moduli, while preserving the full Diffeomorphism $`\times `$ Weyl gauge invariance. The result is an unambiguously normalized and ultraviolet finite expression for the Greens function with a well-defined, zero string tension, field theory limit.

The resulting expressions for the field theory Greens functions are free of ultraviolet regulator ambiguity. More importantly, in an infrared finite string theory, they are also free of ambiguity in the choice of renormalization scheme . Both properties are a consequence of having maintained manifest two dimensional general coordinate invariance in computing the full string theory Greens function prior to taking the field theory limit defined as follows: we factorize on massless mode exchange in either open or closed string sectors, projecting also onto the massless on- or off-shell modes in any external states, and integrating out the worldsheet modulus dependence of the resulting expression. The result is a coupling in the field theory in which we can smoothly take the zero string tension limit. Thus, the expression for any renormalized string theory n-point Greens function, including in particular the corresponding field theory limit, is independent of dependence on the string tension, $`\alpha ^{1/2}`$, which plays the role of an ultraviolet cutoff in spacetime.

String theory can therefore be more simply understood as a renormalizable scale invariant quantum mechanics with a single Wilsonian renormalization in the two-dimensional sense: the worldsheet cosmological constant renormalizes to zero in the worldsheet infrared regime, simultaneous with setting the string tension to zero. Thus, spacetime ultraviolet corresponds to worldsheet infrared . Corrections to the tree-level relations for the coupling constants and masses— measured in units of string tension, are given at each order in the string loop expansion by an unambiguously normalized, and finite, 2d general coordinate invariant string amplitude . Factorizing on the lowest-lying modes— those that are massless at tree level, gives the loop corrections to the tree-level values of the coupling constants and masses in the field theory. Once again the results are independent of dependence on the spacetime uv cutoff. But, more importantly, due to modular invariance of closed string amplitudes or open-closed world-sheet duality of open and closed string amplitudes, the worldsheet infrared and worldsheet ultraviolet asymptotics of any string amplitude are closely related . A well-known consequence is the existence of spacetime UV-IR relations in any perturbative string theory .

The renormalizability of perturbative string theory is obscured from the viewpoint of the spacetime Lagrangian. Since the renormalized Greens functions for massless fields are computed in an $`\alpha ^{}`$ expansion using the nonrenormalizable Wilsonian effective action with ultraviolet cutoff of order the string scale, it is simply not possible in this framework to infer that the cutoff can in fact be removed. The conclusion that string theory is perturbatively renormalizable relied crucially on the existence of an all orders in $`\alpha ^{}`$ worldsheet representation of the Greens functions, recasting the computation as a problem in quantum mechanics instead of in a field theory. A remarkable consequence is that, unlike in quantum field theories, the dimensionless vacuum energy density in string theory— where we rescale by the spatial volume and inverse temperature defining, more precisely, the effective action functional , is finite: a calculable quantity in any infrared finite background of the string, as was first noted in .

The discovery of supersymmetry in the mass spectrum of free strings with worldsheet fermionic degrees of freedom results in supersymmetric string theories, where nonrenormalization theorems protect the tree-level relations between masses and couplings. Rapid developments in the eighties culminated in the discovery of anomaly free superstring theories with massless fermions in chiral representations of the gauge group . Ultraviolet finiteness was firmly established at the one-loop level for the ten-dimensional SYM-supergravity obtained in the low energy field theory limit of vanishing string tension: the tower of excitations with Planck scale masses decouples, leaving only massless modes but with the key non-renormalizable couplings necessary for establishing the absence of gauge and gravitational anomalies. The nonrenormalizable terms are the chief remnant signal in the ten-dimensional Wilsonian effective Lagrangian of its string theory origin.

Discovery of the anomaly-free and UV finite type IB O(32) theory of open and closed strings, the non-chiral type IIA and chiral type IIB closed strings, and the heterotic O(32) and $`E_8`$$`\times `$$`E_8`$ closed strings, brings the number of distinct perturbatively consistent ten-dimensional supersymmetric string theories to five. This puzzling multiplicity of consistent perturbation theories was finally removed with the insightful union of the five perturbative string limits by strong-weak coupling and target space dualities. Finally, with the identification of Dbranes as nonperturbative gauge-gravity solitons of zero width, charged also with respect to one or more antisymmetric p-form potential where $`0`$ $``$ $`p`$ $``$ $`10`$, and playing a crucial role in the conjectured string dualities, we have come full circle. We return to discover a new, and deep, underlying relationship between nonperturbative string theory and gauge theory. The focus on reduced matrix models in , and citations thereof, should be understood in light of these previous results.

## 3 UV Asymptotics of Open and Closed Strings

Covariant open and closed string amplitudes are expressed as reparameterization invariant sums over open Riemann surfaces with boundaries. Surfaces with crosscaps must be included in the Polyakov sum whenever a Dirichlet boundary is localized on an orientifold, an orientation-reversing hyperplane in the embedding spacetime . In  I describe the worldsheet representation of the generic open and closed string amplitude with Dirichlet boundaries in the Fenchel-Nielsen parameterization of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces— distinguished by both the simplicity of the measure for moduli, and knowledge of the domain of modular integration .  examines the infrared and ultraviolet finiteness of the generic orientable bosonic open and closed string amplitude introducing, for the sake of pedagogy, both ultraviolet and infrared regulators on the worldsheet, preserving both T-duality and open-closed worldsheet duality. This prescription constitutes an explicit violation of scale invariance, but it can be verified that the regulators can be removed at the end of the calculation .  includes a self-contained account of a beautiful formalism linking the eigenvalue problem for the full set of invariant differential operators on the worldsheet to the geometry of the integration domain of the moduli of the Riemann surface, following uniformization to the hyperbolic upper half plane. The eigenvalue spectrum of the scalar Laplacian has, in turn, a precise isomorphism to the length spectrum of geodesics, enabling both deduction of the Fricke-Klein moduli, and an explicit characterization of the boundary of the modular domain.

These results enable a rather simple analysis of the spacetime ultraviolet and infrared asymptotics of generic multiloop amplitudes. Using Selberg trace techniques , and Huber’s exponential bound on the asymptotic growth in the number of boundary geodesics of fixed length L, in the limit of large L, I show conclusively that the spacetime ultraviolet limit is benign , even in open string amplitudes where the potentially divergent contribution from the lowest-lying modes of the open string spectrum is included in the modular integration. Invoking open-closed worldsheet duality, we can always map this regime into the $`l`$ $``$ $`0`$ regime dominated by the lowest-lying closed string modes. It can be shown that the potential divergence from the “pinched handle” is given by the shortest length geodesic, corresponding to exchange of a closed string tachyon . Thus, in the absence of both open and closed string tachyons, or in an infrared finite string theory, ultraviolet finiteness is automatic .

## 4 UV Asymptotics of Off-shell String Amplitudes

A manifestly Weyl-invariant Poyakov path integral representation of off-shell string amplitudes was introduced in the ingenious paper . In , we formulate the problem of computing from first principles the pair correlation function of Wilson loops with fixed spatial separation in constant external Maxwell (electric) field. This configuration is a probe of sub-string-scale short distance physics. We assume Wilson loops with fixed spatial separation, $`r`$, where $`r`$ is much smaller than the loop length, $`l`$. Note that our gauge theory results will not rely on taking a large N limit, and are more fruitfully interpreted in the abelian theory on the worldvolume of each Dbrane, the total number of Dbranes, N, being fixed by the overall consistency of the string theory . The Dbrane carries, in addition, a constant external electric field. In the case of the type I and type II strings, it may also support one or more constant higher rank antisymmetric gauge potentials coupling to Dbranes, as in .

To obtain a gauge theory correlation function leading to a closed form expression for the short distance sub-string-scale manifestation of the familiar heavy quark potential, we extract the worldsheet infrared “field theory” asymptotics of the off-shell closed string propagator between loops, $`𝒞_i`$, $`𝒞_f`$, with fixed spatial separation $`r`$ in spacetime. The loops represent the proper time evolution of a pair of semiclassical heavy quarks— in slow relative motion in a direction, $`\widehat{𝐢}`$, orthogonal to the direction of fixed spatial separation, $`\widehat{𝐣}`$. Thus, the pair of quarks is free to move as a unit in the embedding spacetime, albeit at small velocity, while maintaining a fixed spatial separation. In the open and closed bosonic string theory, the Wilson loops lie in the worldvolume of the spacefilling D25branes. The small “velocity”, $`\mathrm{tanh}u^i`$, is simply the strength of the constant electric field, $`F^{0i}`$, as in .

Why is this a worldsheet representation of the short distance Wilson loop correlator, and not that of the short distance potential between bosonic Dbranes discussed in ? The two string computations differ in the specification of the boundary value problem on the worldsheet. In , we sum over all worldsheets of cylindrical topology connecting two loops with fixed spatial separation, moving as a unit within the worldvolume of a space-filling D25brane. The computation in  gives instead the potential between a pair of D0branes in slow relative motion, with a slow monotonic increase in spatial separation, although $`r(\tau )`$ is assumed to be a sub-string-scale distance. Wilson loop boundary conditions in the gauge theory require that we impose Dirichlet boundary conditions in the string theory, and D25branes are, of course, hypersurfaces in the embedding spacetime where bosonic open string endpoints satisfy a Dirichlet boundary condition. It will become apparent that the physics is abelian, independent of the total number of D25branes which is determined by the overall consistency of the string theory.

Consider the classic problem of giving an analytic description of the short distance sub-string-scale manifestation of the abelian flux tube linking a pair of semiclassical heavy quarks. We cannot, of course, extend the effective flux tube picture of abelian gauge theory into the short distance regime since the theory is not asymptotically free. However, in the presence of constant external fields, we can probe arbitrarily short sub-string-scale distances in an open and closed string theory . For the bosonic string, where we have no control on strong-weak coupling duality, we will simply complete the systematics of this worldsheet calculation ignoring the question of what dynamics stabilizes such a short abelian flux tube. The crucial new element in the worldsheet calculation of the off-shell closed string propagator is boundary reparameterization invariance. We complete the work begun in , giving a simple extension of Polyakov’s treatment of the manifestly two-dimensional Diffeomorphism $`\times `$ Weyl invariant path integral over bulk worldsheet metrics to the path integral over boundary einbeins, assuming, for simplicity, a 1-to-1 mapping of each worldsheet boundary into a corresponding circular Wilson loop .

In the worldsheet infrared limit, and with $`l`$ $`>>`$ $`r`$, we obtain an expression for the sub-string-scale manifestation of the closed time propagator of a flux tube in a nonsupersymmetric abelian gauge theory. This is, of course, only a formal solution to the boundary value problem since we have not addressed the dynamics responsible for the formation of this classical configuration. Extracting the effective potential, $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0/TV`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$ is the gauge theory limit of the off-shell closed string propagator, we find a universal static potential, $`(d2)/r`$, where $`d`$ $`=`$ $`26`$ is the dimension of the embedding spacetime. The velocity dependent corrections— present also in the analogous result for the type IIB superstring, can be computed in a systematic double expansion in small velocity and short distance. The result probes distance scales down to $`r_{\mathrm{min}}^2`$$``$$`2\pi \alpha ^{}\mathrm{tanh}^1v`$, assuming nonrelativistic velocity $`v`$.

Ref.  gives the supersymmetrization of this result, summing over surfaces of cylindrical topology between closely separated circular Wilson loops lying in the worldvolume of a spacefilling Dbrane in the type IIB superstring. The phases in the path integral representation of the off-shell type IIB closed string propagator between Wilson loops are, a priori, unknown, and correspond to the weighted sum over worldsheet spin structures. We will require the absence of both the leading contribution, which is a tachyonic mode, and the next-to-leading term, which gives the static potential. This ensures that upon application of open-closed worldsheet duality— which maps the short distance gauge potential into a long distance supergravity potential , we preserve the full N=2 spacetime supersymmetry for vanishing constant external field. Turning on a constant electric field induces an external field-dependent short distance potential, also breaking half of the spacetime supersymmetries. For Wilson loops, $`𝒞_i`$, $`𝒞_f`$, wrapped about some spacelike compact direction the potential takes the form: $`V(r)`$$`=`$$`2^4\pi ^{7/2}\alpha ^4\mathrm{\Gamma }(9/2)\left(\frac{(\mathrm{tanh}^1v)^4}{r^9}\right)`$.

A puzzle addressed in  is to explain what accounts for the stability of the short abelian flux tube. Consider a configuration of closely separated parallel IB soliton strings: D1branes, with worldvolume quantized constant $`C_0`$ and $`B_{\mu \nu }`$ potential, wrapped about the compact $`X^9`$ coordinate and with fixed spatial separation in the $`X^8`$ direction. They move as a unit within the worldvolume of a space-filling D9brane under the action of an external electric field. In nine dimensions, the type IB $`O(32)`$ string is the strong coupling dual of the heterotic $`SO(32)`$ string, with identical non-abelian gauge group. Thus, this is nothing but the strong coupling limit of a pair of closely separated wrapped heterotic soliton strings, in a nonperturbative background characterized by both Yang-Mills gauge fields and discrete moduli. A nice check is to consider the inverse of the orientation reversal projection, arriving at a configuration of localized parallel wrapped soliton strings, in the absence of an external electric field, in the 9d IIB massive supergravity . The Dstrings couple to the Ramond-Ramond $`F_{10}`$ scalar background field strength. A T<sup>9</sup>-duality gives a pair of D0branes in the worldvolume of the D8brane stack with half-integer quantized $`B_{NSNS}`$ field strength. The radius $`R_{9B}`$ corresponds to the mass parameter of the massive IIA supergravity , which is quantized in integer units of the inverse IIB radius.

The short tube of abelian flux runs between D0brane sources with fixed spatial separation. It is amusing that this configuration fits both the geometry, and quantized constant background fields, of a well-known massive string soliton of the nine-dimensional IIA supergravity . In a constant external electric field, $`F^{09}`$, a pair of D8branes, carrying a D0brane and its image brane, will be separated by a sub-string-scale distance in a spatial direction orthogonal to the direction of nearest separation, which is held fixed, and which lies within the worldvolume of the D8brane. The difference between computing the potential between a pair of D0brane sources moving as a unit within the worldvolume of the embedding D8brane, and that between a pair of D0branes in slow relative motion with respect to each other is simple: the $`r^7`$ falloff computed in  is replaced by the more rapid $`r^9`$ falloff, characterizing the mass of the bound state of D0branes moving as a unit under the influence of the external electric field. Note that the Wilson loops, $`𝒞_i`$, $`𝒞_f`$, are a fixed distance $`r`$ apart, but there is no constraint on their position. Thus, we have a zero mode corresponding to the center of mass motion of the D0brane pair, parallel to their direction of nearest separation.

What if we take the strong coupling limit of the type I theory assuming the nonabelian gauge group $`E_8`$$`\times `$$`E_8`$? The result can be interpreted as a membrane of finite sub-string-scale width in M theory stretched between 10d walls at the endpoints of the finite interval $`X^{10}`$, the strong coupling limit of the heterotic $`E_8`$$`\times `$$`E_8`$ string.

## 5 String Theory in Noncommutative Spacetime

The manifestly Weyl invariant path integral computation of the closed string tachyon scattering amplitude at one-loop given in , is extended to an analogous result for the scattering of open string tachyons on the boundaries of both the planar, and nonplanar, cylinder amplitude in bosonic string theory, and in the presence of a constant antisymmetric tensor two-form potential, in . The worldvolume of the Dbrane coupled to a background two-form potential is a noncommutative spacetime . The string amplitudes are nevertheless found to be both finite and unambiguously normalized, including in the limit of zero string tension. We infer, by similar arguments as given for vanishing external field, the exact Wilsonian renormalizability of open and closed string theory on a noncommutative space. The ultraviolet cutoff can be taken to infinity. The ordinary integral over the cylinder modulus can, in fact, be carried out in closed form upon taking the worldsheet infrared limit of the expression for the planar amplitude. We demonstrate that the momentum dependent phase factor in the one-loop noncommutative field theory amplitude can indeed be interpreted as a wave-function renormalization, and we obtain its explicit form in terms of the star product. Coupling constant renormalization is exactly reminiscent of that in commutative spacetime, with identical short distance singularity but for a finite renormalization of the open string mass scale: $`(2\pi \alpha ^{})^{(p+1)/2}\mathrm{det}(\mathrm{𝟏}+𝐁)`$, where for simplicity, we assume a Dpbrane with $`p`$ odd, and $``$ $`25`$. The higher effective string tension implies that open string modes probe shorter distances than the closed string scale.

The opposite regime of zero momentum transfer is dominated by the lightest closed string modes, or the worldsheet ultraviolet asymptotics. We will find that the zero momentum transfer limit of the nonplanar amplitude is ordinary gravity with closed string masses scaling in units of the bare string tension, $`(2\pi \alpha ^{})^{1/2}`$. Thus, the infrared regime is completely benign and the puzzling inconsistencies of the infrared regime present in noncommutative field theory are circumvented.

## 6 Type I Duals of the CHL Models

In the appendix of , I gave an analysis of enhanced gauge symmetry and nonperturbative type I states using an extended IIB-IB-I chain in conjunction with S- and T- dualities. The argument is as follows. The states in the spinor representation of $`O(16)`$ necessary to obtain the 9D IB dual of the $`E_8`$$`\times `$$`E_8`$ enhanced symmetry point in the moduli space of the 9D heterotic string requires nonperturbative IB states. Consider the nonperturbative states associated with a pair of D1branes wrapped in the $`X^9`$ direction and lying in the worldvolume of D9branes carrying $`O(16)`$$`\times `$$`O(16)`$ Chan-Paton factors. A $`T_9`$ duality maps this into a type I background, with a D0brane lying in the worldvolume of the stack of 8 D8branes on either of two orientifold planes. The spinor states are associated with configurations of eight D1-D9 strings, or their $`T_9`$-dual D0-D8 strings, at each of two orientifold planes. The counting of extra massless modes is given by the $`(SU(2))^8`$ decomposition of the vector and spinor representations of $`SO(16)`$. The D1-D9 strings live in doublets of the eight $`SU(2)`$’s, and the projection to the spinor and conjugate spinor is isomorphic to the heterotic weight lattice of $`E_8`$. It will be of great interest to give a more detailed description of such nonperturbative excitations of the D1-D9 IB configuration.

At a special radius of $`X^9`$ there is an enhancement of the gauge symmetry to an $`SU(2)`$. As noted in , the IB string coupling diverges as the heterotic string approaches its self-dual radius. Nevertheless, the multiplicity of additional massless IB states can be inferred by mapping IB to IIB by an inverse orientifold transformation, and then using S-duality to map the wrapped Dstrings to wrapped F-strings: at its self-dual radius, the F-string winding states give the well-known enhancement of $`U(1)`$ to a full $`SU(2)`$. This argument relies on special properties of theories with 16 supercharges: S-duality is well-established, and orientation reversal is a freely acting $`Z_2`$ symmetry. With these two extensions to the moduli space of IB backgrounds with 16 supercharges, we can identify IB strong coupling duals for all of the heterotic CHL orbifolds . This is remarkable and striking confirmation of the validity of type I-heterotic duality .

## 7 The Free Closed String Gas

In  I gave a world-sheet representation of the pair correlation function of closely separated time-like Wilson loops, an order parameter for a phase transition to the long string phase in the type I open and closed string gas described more completely in . In formulating the correct set-up for this calculation I became aware of several puzzles and loopholes in the standard treatment of the simpler case of closed string thermodynamics. Let us begin with a gas of free closed bosonic strings, computing the effective action functional at one-loop at finite temperature $`\beta `$$`=`$$`1/T`$. In the sequence of papers , we establish several points of interest that correct misconceptions in the standard treatment. Our starting point for the free energy of the closed string gas is the modular invariant expression obtained directly from the effective action functional: $`F`$ $`=`$ $`W/\beta `$, where $`W`$ is the sum over connected vacuum string graphs at finite temperature. $`W`$ is an intensive thermodynamic variable. The world-sheet representation of $`W`$ is the Polyakov path integral without vertex operator insertions.

An important point of interest is the absence of a Hagedorn phase transition in the free energy of a closed string gas in the absence of tachyonic modes. This cannot be illustrated in the pedagogical, but also unphysical, case of the bosonic string gas since the string spectrum contains a zero temperature tachyon. In the pedagogically similar, but physically meaningful, heterotic string gas, it is easy to establish that the free energy is a finite and normalizable function at all temperatures starting from zero . The reason is modular invariance. In particular, notice that quite apart from the occurence of tachyonic winding modes at high temperature the fermionic closed string gas also has potential tachyonic momentum modes at low temperature. Since there is no tachyonic mode in a supersymmetric fermionic string gas, whether type IIA, IIB, or heterotic, at zero temperature, it would be unphysical to have a tachyon at infinitesimal temperature. In , we show that in the absence of Ramond-Ramond backgrounds there are no tachyon-free solutions for a modular invariant one-loop vacuum amplitude at finite temperature in the type II case, which also recover the correct zero temperature limit. On the other hand, in the heterotic string gas, in the presence of a temperature-dependent Wilson line background we are able to successfully suppress the appearance of tachyons at all temperatures starting from zero. The heterotic string gas has no exponential divergences in the free energy and no Hagedorn phase transition. Instead, it displays a self-dual phase transition at $`T_C`$$`=`$$`1/\pi \alpha ^{1/2}`$ belonging to the universality class of the Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition. The transition is in every respect similar to that exhibited by the free closed bosonic string gas, except that the unphysical fixed point entropy that appears for the bosonic string gas  is absent in the heterotic case. The free energy, and all of its partial derivatives with respect to temperature, are continuous through the transition. The type II string gases exhibit a similar phase transition: type IIA is mapped to type IIB. The IIA winding modes are interchanged with IIB momentum modes, and vice versa .

In summary, for the infrared-finite heterotic string gas with monotonically increasing internal energy and positive specific heat at criticality, we obtain a thermodynamically stable ensemble at all temperatures starting from zero. The nonabelian gauge group is $`SO(16)`$$`\times `$$`SO(16)`$. We should note that the analogous Lorentzian time nonsupersymmetric heterotic string ground state was discovered in . Recall that the finite temperature string gas is defined in the presence of a temperature-dependent self-dual background, $`𝐀_0(\beta )`$$`=`$$`1/\beta `$. In terms of the low energy gauge theory limit, this corresponds to a modification of the usual axial gauge quantization. Here, $`A_0`$ has been set to a temperature dependent constant rather than zero.

We emphasize that gauge fields appear to be essential in order that a given supersymmetric ground state of string theory have a sensible finite temperature description. We have shown that the type IIA and IIB ten-dimensional string gas contains tachyonic modes at any infinitesimal temperature different from zero. A plausible resolution is discussed in . Of necessity, it requires a nontrivial Ramond-Ramond sector and nonperturbative gauge fields.

## 8 The Transition to the Long String Phase

The open and closed string theory can be mapped into its thermal duality transform, the type $`\stackrel{~}{I}`$ string containing thermal Dpbranes: extended objects with a $`p`$-dimensional spatial worldvolume . The low energy field theory on the worldvolume of a thermal Dpbrane is a $`p`$-dimensional finite temperature Higgs-gauge-gravity theory. As shown in , the ten-dimensional type IB theory also has a stable finite temperature ground state characterized by the nonabelian gauge group $`SO(16)`$$`\times `$$`SO(16)`$, and a tachyon-free spectrum at all temperatures different from zero. The amplitude is tadpole-free, and the one-loop free energy is found to vanish identically . We comment that this result is consistent with the weak-strong coupling, heterotic-type I, duality conjectures. This is not too surprising since, at least for infinitesimal temperatures different from zero, the strong-weak duality relations would be expected to hold with small $`\beta `$-dependent modifications. It is not implausible that the heterotic ground state at finite temperature with finite oneloop vacuum cosmological constant and, consequently, a dilaton tadpole, flows to strong coupling. This strongly coupled heterotic ground state has a weakly-coupled type I description as given in . While satisfactory from a physical standpoint, these inferences must remain conjectural in the absence of a nonperturbative formalism.

It is natural to look for an analog of the deconfinement phase transition of gauge theories in our string theory calculations. Accordingly, we compute the pair correlator of parallel and closely separated timelike Wilson loops lying in a thermal Dpbrane. Isolating the low temperature behavior of the gas of short open strings, we find a $`T^{10}`$ growth characteristic of the ten-dimensional finite temperature gauge theory characterizing this limit. At a temperature at, or below, $`T_C`$ we observe a transition to a long string phase characterized by a pair potential approaching a constant. On the other hand, below $`T_C`$, we can expand in a Taylor expansion to obtain a $`1/r^3`$ correction to the leading $`1/r`$ dependence. Precisely at the transition, we observe an inverse power law fall-off with a coefficent independent of the dimensionality of the Dpbrane in question . In the presence of an external electric field the transition temperature is modified with the simple replacement, $`T_C`$$``$$`uT_C`$, where $`u`$$`=`$$`\mathrm{tanh}^1_{09}`$ , where $``$ is the electric field strength .

## 9 Conclusions

I have emphasized at the outset the importance of refining our understanding of the details of the worldsheet prescription for string scattering amplitudes because of the insight it gives into the fully nonperturbative string/M theory. In particular, the world-sheet representation of off-shell string amplitudes is largely unexplored territory, with the potential of suggesting many new worldsheet calculations with field theory limit results that are of significance in both gauge and gravitational physics. Extension of the worldsheet representation to off-shell amplitudes with finite-sized boundary segments is of interest. The inclusion of non-trivial wavefunctions on the boundary representing physical semiclassical D0branes could be of far-reaching importance, raising the possibility of a first-principles computation of both the phase and normalization of the “meson” and “hadron” D0brane bound state wavefunctions. Extended exploration of both strong-weak coupling and target spacetime dualities in the context of off-shell string amplitudes, along the lines of the finite-width bound states described in section IV, remains a goal for future work. In particular, it could facilitate understanding the precise role of the NS spacetime solitons in nonperturbative string/M theory. Finally, the subject of string thermodynamics has far to go. We have exhaustively studied the free string limit. If feasible, an extension of the worldsheet representation that describes non-equilibrium string thermodynamics would be of great interest. A fully nonperturbative formalism that goes beyond the limitations of the worldsheet remains a goal for future work.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: I thank the symposium organizers, especially Tada-san, for the invitation to present this work and the participants for their interest. I would like to acknowledge the hospitality of Prof. H. Kawai, the Physics Department of Kyoto University, and the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, during completion of this work. I am especially grateful to Kawai-san for many stimulating discussions.


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# Conventional and unconventional orderings in the jarosites

## I Introduction.

Research in frustrated magnetic systems follows two main directions. In the first, the effects of frustration are studied in systems that show otherwise conventional behaviour. Rather than being simply a study of the ‘soft modes’ that are characteristic of frustrated magnetism, these investigations can reveal fundamental differences in magnetic properties and their causes. The other, and frequently more pursued, direction is the search for, and study of, new and unconventional types of magnetic ground states. Particular effort in the study of frustrated magnetism is made on systems where the magnetic ions make up the kagomé and pyrochlore geometries. This is because the frustration of their triangular motifs is amplified by the vertex sharing topology, and is at such a degree that the conventional Néel -type of long-range order is not expected to occur even at $`T=0`$ in the $`S=\frac{1}{2}`$ nearest-neighbour systems.

In this article a review is made of the observed magnetic properties of different members of the jarosite family. These present examples of systems in which the kagomé lattice of magnetic ions can be decorated by ions with a variety of spin states. They therefore provide access to the effects of frustration in classical and more quantum regimes, as evidenced in the low-temperature properties of both the members that possess long-ranged spin structures, and of those that show more unconventional orderings (Table I).

## II The alunite and jarosite families

In mineralogical terms, the jarosites are a subfamily of the alunite group. This is a series of compositions with the formula AB3(SO4)2(OH)6 (where A = Na+, K+, Ag+, Rb+, H3O+, NH$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{4}{}^{}`$, $`\frac{1}{2}`$Ba2+, and $`\frac{1}{2}`$Pb2+; and B=Al3+ and Fe3+); alunite itself has the formula KAl3(SO4)2(OH)6 . While in mineralogy the jarosities are the Fe members of this series, the term has been expanded by physicists to include the magnetic members of this series, i.e. those where B=Fe3+, Cr3+ and V3+. Thus, within the jarosites series the spin states can be tailored by chemical methods. Diamagnetic dilution studies can also be made in which a non-magnetic ion, such as Al3+, Ga3+, or In3+, is substituted onto the B site. In addition to this versitility in engineering various kagomé systems, control can also be exercised over the details of the interplane magnetic exchange by replacement of the SO$`{}_{}{}^{2}{}_{4}{}^{}`$ ion by CrO$`{}_{}{}^{2}{}_{4}{}^{}`$, or SeO$`{}_{}{}^{2}{}_{4}{}^{}`$.

## III Crystal structure.

The crystal structure of the majority of the jarosites is depicted in Figure 1. While there has been discussion over whether the actual space group is $`R3`$m or $`R\overline{3}`$m, the latter is now the generally accepted symmetry. A notable exception to this is Pb0.5Fe3(SO4)2(OH)6, where segregation of the Pb2+ ions into mostly full and empty layers leads to a doubling of the unit cell along the c-direction. However, no other deviation away from the rhombohedral jarosite structure is shown in this material.

The most important features for the magnetic properties are the three kagomé layers of Fe3+ ions with the hexagonal stacking sequence …ABC… The details of the intraplane and the interplane exchange will be examined separately in Sections IV A and IV B.

## IV Fe coordination and exchange pathways

The magnetic Fe3+ ions are coordinated by a distorted octahedron made up of 4 equatorial hydroxy and 2 axial sulfate group oxygens, as shown in Figure 2: selected bond distances and angles are given in Table II. The octahedra are tilted with respect to the crystallographic c-direction, and it is this canting that defines the axis of any Ising single-ion anisotropy for the B3+ atoms. XY anisotropy is similarly defined by the plane of the 4 hydroxy groups.

### A Intralayer coupling

As shown in Figure 2, simple distance arguments indicate the strongest intralayer superexchange between nearest-neighbour B atoms is a pairwise interaction that takes place via a shared hydroxide group with a bridging angle of close to 133. Unfortunately, the complexity of the superexchange at a non-linear or non-orthogonal angle prevents an explanation from being made of the exchange observed in these systems.

Also possible is exchange via the sulfate group (labelled S in the Figure). This is likely to be far weaker than that mediated by the bridging hydroxy group because it involves a greater number of chemical bonds. In the jarosite structure this sulfate is shared in the same way between the three B octahedra of a kagomé triangle, and so it will act to equally couple the three magnetic atoms of the triangle.

### B Interlayer coupling

The expectation that the jarosites could be tailored into providing good model kagomé systems comes from the large separation of the kagomé planes, with respect to those within the plane: in (H3O)Fe3(SO4)2(OH)6 the nearest neighbour B—B distance 3.66 Å, whereas the distance between kagomé layers is 5.94 Å. The exchange between the kagomé layers is therefore anticipated to be far weaker than that within a layer from simple arguments of distance and the number of chemical bonds involved in the superexchange (Figure 4) . Despite its relative weakness, it is apparent from the different propagation vectors observed in KFe3(SO4)2(OH)6 and KFe3(CrO4)2(OH)6 that the interlayer coupling involving the XO4 ion plays a definitive rôle in the observed magnetic structure.

In a recent work, symmetry analysis has been used to determine the stability conditions of the different magnetic structures observed in the jarosites. In terms of an exchange constant relating the nearest B3+ atoms of neighbouring layers, it has been found that the different $`𝐤=00\frac{3}{2}`$ spin configurations observed in KFe3(SO4)2(OD)6 and (H3O)V3(SO4)2(OH)6 are stabilised by ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange respectively, while the $`𝐤=000`$ spin structure observed in both KCr3(SO4)2(OD)6 and KFe3(CrO4)2(OD)6 is stabilised by antiferromagnetic coupling.

### C Effects of A cation

The marked difference in the responses of hydronium jarosite from the other iron jarosites indicates that the A cation is capable of having a profound influence on the low-temperature magnetic properties of these systems. This is most likely a consequence of the non-spherical symmetry of the H3O+ ion and its ability to hydrogen bond with some of the 12 sulfate group oxygens that coordinate the A site. When the H3O ions are no longer orientationally mobile, as is the situation at low temperature, these hydrogen bonds will create interactions between neighbouring sulfate groups that are not present in the other jarosites. Due to the complexity this would generate, it is not yet clear if they will act to hinder or improve the interlayer exchange. However, the large difference in the magnetic properties of the hydronium jarosite from those of the monatomic ions, even for compositions with the same Fe atom occupation, suggests that there is indeed a disruption of simple interlayer exchange couplings, and concomitantly a destabilisation of any long-range ordered state that they would induce.

That the ammonium salt behaves like the other spherical A-site metals, suggests that its hydrogen bonding is either less disturbing, or of a lesser consequence, than that of H3O. Further studies are required before the effects of the A cation can be understood.

## V Influences of nonstoichiometry.

It is well known that the jarosites are subject to nonstoichiometry on both the A and the B sites. Deficiency of the A metal or ammonium cation is charge compensated for by incorporation of H3O+ ions onto the A site, so that the site occupation remains essentially at unity. The extreme limit of this situation is of course the hydronium salt itself. Under-occupation of the B site results in protonation of the hydroxy groups in the structure. As these groups play the dominant rôle in the mediation of the superexchange between the metal centres, it is conceivable that such disorder and the associated randomness in the exchange interactions, could have important consequences for the magnetic properties.

## VI Conventional Orderings

Long-range magnetic structures with the propagation vectors***both propagation vectors and Wyckoff labels refer to the non-primitive hexagonal setting of $`R\overline{3}`$m  $`𝐤=000`$ and $`𝐤=00\frac{3}{2}`$ have been observed in the jarosites (see Table I). Representational Analysis calculations have shown that there are only 3 non-zero irreducible representations for the 9d B3+ site and that the basis vectors associated with them are identical for both values of the propagation vector; they are shown in Figure 5. These calculations show that for both of these values of k, the same inplane spin configurations are allowed, and that the relation between moments in successive kagomé layers is determined simply by the value of k: in the case of k=0, the moments related by unit translations of the primitive cell are ferromagnetically aligned, while those for $`𝐤=00\frac{3}{2}`$ are antiferromagnetically aligned.

The basis vectors for the unrepeated first order irreducible representation, here labelled $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$, correspond to a 120 structure in which the moments are fixed along particular crystallographic axes. Those of the doubly-repeated irreducible representation, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$, form an umbrella structure made up of a 120 configuration, in which the in-plane component of the spins are related by 60 to those of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$, and a ferromagnetic component along the crystallographic c\- axis.

It is notable that both these 120 structures possess a uniform chirality, $`𝜿`$ $`\mathbf{=}\mathbf{+}\mathrm{𝟏}`$. Where $`𝜿`$ is defined as the pairwise vector product clockwise around a triangle:

$$\text{κ}\text{ }\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathrm{𝟐}}{\mathbf{\left(}\mathrm{𝟑}\sqrt{\mathrm{𝟑}}\mathbf{\right)}}\mathbf{\left[}𝐒_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{\times }𝐒_\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{+}𝐒_\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{\times }𝐒_\mathrm{𝟑}\mathbf{+}𝐒_\mathrm{𝟑}\mathbf{\times }𝐒_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{\right]}\mathbf{,}$$
(1)
Thus, it is a consequence of symmetry, rather than anisotropy, that the $`𝒒\mathbf{=}\mathrm{𝟎}`$ spin configurations with $`𝜿`$ $`\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟏}`$ are forbidden.

The third irreducible representation, $`𝚪_\mathrm{𝟔}`$, is 2 dimensional and is repeated 3 times. This leads to a total of 6 basis vectors which describe in general a complex spin configuration. However, conjugate pairing on these basis vectors leads to only 3 being required to describe all the possible orderings under this irreducible representation. Notably, coplanar ordering under this representation involves non-spin compensated triangles, i.e.

$$\underset{𝒊}{\mathbf{}}𝐒\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟎}$$
(2)
Where the sum is over the moments of an individual triangle. There is therefore a net moment associated with each of the kagomé planes.

### A $`𝐤\mathbf{=}\mathrm{𝟎𝟎𝟎}`$

Magnetic ordering with the magnetic cell the same size as the nuclear has been observed in the compositions KFe3(CrO4)2(OD)6 and KCr3(SO4)2(OD)6. In both cases it is believed that the nearest neighbour antiferromagnetic exchange results in a 120 spin structure, while some secondary interaction such a single-ion anisotropy leads to a small canting of the moments along the c-axis. The presence of such a ferromagnetic component in a system with antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbour interactions is compatible only with ordering under the repeated first-order representation, $`𝚪_\mathrm{𝟑}`$. The general structure may thus be described by an umbrella mode involving some linear combination of the two basis vectors.

### B $`𝐤\mathbf{=}\mathrm{𝟎𝟎}\frac{\mathrm{𝟑}}{\mathrm{𝟐}}`$

Ordering with this propagation vector is found in the majority of the iron jarosites (AFe3(SO4)2(OD)6, where A = Na+, K+, Ag+, Rb+, Tl+, H3O+, and ND$`{}_{}{}^{\mathbf{+}}{}_{\mathrm{𝟒}}{}^{}`$) and the vanadium salt (H3O)V3(SO4)2(OH)6. In all the Fe compositions, ordering under the repeated first-order representation is again observed. Hydronium vanadium jarosite in contrast, shows ordering under the representation $`𝚪_\mathrm{𝟔}`$.

At present there are still questions over the details of the ordering transitions in the iron jarosites as some samples exhibit two ordering transitions while others display only one. Recent refinement of neutron powder diffraction data collected from KFe3(SO4)2(OD)6 have shown that in the samples with two transitions the intermediate phase is an umbrella structure based on $`𝚪_\mathrm{𝟑}`$. Muon Spin Relaxation (MuSR) experiments revealed the presence of large fluctuations in this intermediate structure that reduce the size of the ordered moment. Harrison et al. confirmed the absence of an out-of-plane component to the ordering by single crystal neutron diffraction from a natural sample using the technique of spherical polarisation analysis, and demonstrated by powder neutron diffraction that the lower-temperature transition, in which the moments drop into the kagomé plane, is disrupted by disorder on the magnetic B sites. The display of a single transition is therefore likely to be consequence of sample nonstoichiometry. As the out-of-plane component of the intermediate phase is not stabilised by exchange interactions, it suggests the presence of some other influence, such as Ising single-ion anisotropy. It is however difficult to imagine that this anisotropy changes to being XY so close to the first ordering temperature (in KFe3(SO4)2(OD)6, $`𝑻_{𝑪\mathrm{𝟏}}`$=64.5 K and $`𝑻_{𝑪\mathrm{𝟐}}`$=57 K), and the reasons for the second transition are consequentially still unclear.

The magnetic structure observed in (H3O)V3(SO4)2(OH)6 will be discussed later in Section VII C as its origins appear to be unconventional.

## VII Unconventional Orderings.

This section presents a brief review of the unconventional orderings observed in the jarosites as a function of the different spin values.

### A $`𝑺\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathrm{𝟓}}{\mathrm{𝟐}}`$ Topological Spin Glass.

The most studied member of the jarosite series is the hydronium salt (H3O)Fe3(SO4)2(OH)6, which is an example of an unconventional spin glass. Before describing its responses, it is useful to examine the occurence of glassy magnetic phases in geometrically frustrated antiferromagnets. In relation to the underconstrained lattices, this possibility was first studied by Villain, who noted that the high degeneracy of the magnetic pyrochlore sublattice of the B-site of the spinels is robust to the introduction of a small degree of disorder. This conclusion can be trivially extended to the kagomé antiferromaget, and so establishes that small amounts of disorder should not give rise to a spin glass phase. Villain further noted that if the degree of disorder was sufficient to break the degeneracies present in the system, then the spin glass-like state that would result would not necessarily be typical as the large degree of frustration in these systems could still lead to unconventional physics. There is therefore a question that hangs over any unconventional spin glass phases observed in the highly frustrated lattices: are they the result of disorder in the sample, whether related to sites or bonding (exchange) ?

With an occupation of the magnetic sublattice of $`\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟗𝟕}`$ %, the degree of site-disorder present in hydronium jarosite is not expected to be at the level required to stabilise spin glass behaviour. The vitreous magnetic phase observed at low temperature is ergo quite remarkable. Measurements of the thermodynamic and kinetic properties confirm its notability as they indicate clearly that the glassy magnetic phase seen below a critical transition at $`𝑻_𝒈\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟏𝟕}`$ K is unlike those of conventional site-disordered spin glasses: the magnetic contribution to the specific heat follows a $`𝑻^\mathrm{𝟐}`$ relation with temperature, as opposed to the linear law typical of site-disordered systems, and the temperature dependence of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics is remarkably weak. The latter provides interesting information about the spin glass state itself: if the relaxation of a spin glass is envisaged as involving the movement towards some equilibrium value, these results indicates that this equilibrium state changes far slower with temperature in hydronium jarosite than in conventional spin glass systems, a situation that is intriguing reminiscent of a system moving through a highly degenerate ground state manifold.

Polarised neutron powder diffraction studies of (D3O)Fe3(SO4)2(OD)6 have shown that despite a freezing temperature of $`𝑻_𝒈\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟏𝟕}`$ K, short-ranged correlations are present at temperatures as high as 250 K, demonstrating well the difficulty with which the moments are freezing. The depression of the freezing temperature with relation to the exchange energy is compatible with suggestions of the freezing being a consequence of a new energy scale— a reduced Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature— that approximates to $`𝜽\mathbf{/}\mathrm{𝟒𝟖}`$ for an XY system. The magnitude and spatial extension of the correlations increase only gradually with cooling, until they reach an apparent saturation value of $`\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}`$ Å at 1.5 K.

Another unorthodox feature of this unconventional spin glass state is its fragility. In sharp contrast with site-disordered spin glasses, where an increase in disorder has only a small effect on the magnetic properties, in hydronium jarosite a deliberate increase in the level of disorder to $`\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}`$ % is found to induce long-range magnetic order. This is an example of ‘order-by-disorder’, where increased disorder acts to stabilise the formation of long-range Néel order with respect to a spin glass state.

While the question of the influences of disorder remains unanswered in (H3O)Fe3(SO4)2(OH)6, the unconventional nature of the observed spin glass phase is manifest. It is clear that the origins of the spin glass state itself and these unconventional properties are related to the frustrated topology of the kagomé lattice. This has lead to hydronium jarosite being termed a topological spin glass.

### B $`𝑺\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathrm{𝟑}}{\mathrm{𝟐}}`$ Highly Fluctuating Ground States.

The apparent nonconformity of the magnetic properties of the hydronium jarosites when compared with the other Fe jarosites holds true also for the chromium analogue. While KCr3(SO4)2(OD)6 shows a transition to long-range order, albeit with a greatly reduced sublattice magnetisation, due to the presence of quantum fluctuations, hydronium chromium jarosite (H3O)Cr3(SO4)2(OH)6 displays quite different behaviour. Despite strong antiferromagnetic exchange ($`𝜽\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟔𝟎}`$ K), at low temperatures only a broad feature corresponding to the onset of short-ranged correlations is observed at $`\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟑𝟎}`$ K in the dc susceptibility, before a small ferromagnetic transition at 2.2 K. The ferromagnetic nature of the correlations involved in this transition is confirmed by the field-dependence of the specific heat data below $`\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟓}`$ K. The magnetic entropy associated with the low temperature transition is only 5.4 % is the value expected for a $`𝑺\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathrm{𝟑}}{\mathrm{𝟐}}`$ system and suggests the presence of extensive quantum fluctuations.

### C $`𝑺\mathbf{=}\mathrm{𝟏}`$ Unconventional long-range order.

The $`𝑺\mathbf{=}\mathrm{𝟏}`$ kagomé system (H3O)V3(SO4)2(OH)6 has been shown to possess long-range order below a critical transition of $`𝑻_𝑪\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟐𝟎}`$ K. However, the magnetic structure observed is remarkable because despite the non-zero exchange field experienced by each moment, some are orientated such as to nullify their exchange energy. It therefore appears that simple arguments of the long-range order being the result of minimised exchange energy cannot explain the formation of this ground state configuration. Rather, recent work has suggested that it is the result of a particular combination of ferromagnetic nearest-neighbour exchange and Ising anisotropies. Notably, these are precisely the types required to stabilise a spin ice phase on the kagomé lattice.

the additional degeneracies that are afforded by these particular spin orientations appear to be the cause of their stabilisation.

## VIII Discussion and Conclusion

There are still numerous questions concerning the effects of nonstoichiometry and how substitution of the different ions influences the magnetic exchange in the jarosites. In particular, the reasons for the apparent distinction of the hydronium salts remains unclear. Unfortunately, these questions are difficult to answer experimentally because synthetic limitations require that the majority of experiments are carried out on powders. Inferences made from the materials that show more comprehensible long-range orderings are consequently important in aiding understanding of those that show more unconventional order. This is well exemplified by the apparent planar anisotropy at low temperature in KFe3(SO4)2(OD)6. Its observation is important, as such an anisotropy is required by a theoretical model of an unconventional spin glass ground state on the kagomé antiferromagnet.

As this paper has shown, the members of the jarosite family display a wide variety of interesting physics. The unconventional spin glass, highly fluctuating, and unconventional long-range magnetic orderings show well different influences of frustration that are still far from being explained. It is hoped that this review will incite further work on these intriguing materials.


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# Transient vortex events in the initial value problem for turbulence

## Abstract

A vorticity surge event that could be a paradigm for a wide class of bursting events in turbulence is studied to examine the role it plays in how the energy cascade is established. The identification of a new coherent mechanism is suggested by the discovery of locally transverse vortex configurations that are intrinsically helical. These appear simultaneously with strong, transient oscillations in the helicity wavenumber co-spectrum. At no time are non-helical, anti-parallel vorticity elements observed. The new mechanism complements the traditional expectation that the development of a peak of the maximum vorticity $`\omega _{\mathrm{}}(t)`$ would be connected to nearly simultaneous growth of the dissipation, eventually leading to the formation of the energy cascade with signatures such as spectra approaching -5/3 and strongly Beltramized vortex tubes. Comparing how different large-eddy simulations treat the spectral transport of helicity demonstrates that the dynamics leading to the helical vortex configurations requires both nonlinear transport and dissipation. This finding emphasizes the importance of properly modeling both nonlinear transport and dissipation in large-eddy simulations.

Although three-dimensional turbulence is characterized by intermittent events both in space and time, it is often envisaged as a homogeneous, statistically-steady tangle of vortex tubes accompanied by a steady transfer of energy through the spectrum to high wavenumbers and a $`k^{5/3}`$ energy spectrum. This statistically-steady description has been used to verify turbulence models through simulations of forced turbulence and decaying homogeneous, isotropic turbulence . In these studies, it is sometimes argued that the initial nonequilibrium transients can be ignored as being non-universal. However, each intermittent burst of turbulence is itself a transient dynamical process involving individual vortex interactions whose ensemble average is responsible for the overall statistical properties. Our objective is to apply a coordinated set of diagnostics in both physical and wavenumber space for numerically detecting individual vortex surge events and their effects upon the subsequent dynamics.

The numerical investigation of the decay of turbulence discussed here is designed to improve our understanding of individual intermittent events and continues a long tradition in numerical modeling of the initial value problems in computational fluid dynamics. Numerically, the question of transient phenomena in turbulence has been considered previously using a variety of initial conditions . In this letter the evolution from smooth, random, initial conditions introduced in  to steady turbulent decay is considered using this coordinated set of diagnostics. These diagnostics show that this initial value problem for turbulence evolves through several complex states in a sequence of transitions. These include:

$``$ formation of vortex sheets that interact, encounter each other transversely and then begin to roll up into vortex tubes,

$``$ development of a peak in the maximum vorticity $`\omega _{\mathrm{}}(t)`$ that is correlated with helicity signatures in both physical and wavenumber space,

$``$ rearrangement of vortex tubes into transverse pairs having oppositely signed helicity $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=𝐮\omega `$, where vorticity $`\omega =\mathrm{curl}𝐮`$. Unlike inviscid configurations, the velocity $`𝐮`$ on each tube of the pair is only partially induced by its partner. Instead, $`𝐮`$ on the tubes arises primarily as a response to strains and dissipation distributed within the pair.

$``$ formation of the classical decay regime with a $`k^{5/3}`$ energy spectrum.

While our analysis also includes traditional diagnostics such as energy decay, our new understanding will arise primarily through: the time evolution of the maximum vorticity in Figure 1; physical space visualizations in Figures 2 and 5; helicity probability distributions in Figure 3; and the accompanying helicity co-spectrum in Figure 4. Central to our new understanding is the following observation: although this initial condition is not a Beltrami flow, spatial regions develop early during its evolution where the helical alignment measured by $`\mathrm{cos}\theta =\mathrm{\Lambda }/(u\omega )`$ of either sign is locally near unity in magnitude. Evidence is given that the ensuing dynamics is influenced by helicity $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, whose evolution depends upon the interplay between nonlinear transport terms, viscous effects and large-eddy stress parameterizations.

The time scale for this investigation is set by a surge in the growth of the maximum vorticity at $`t=0.5`$ in Figure 1. This time scale also appears in three $`64^3`$ results: the $`256^3`$ DNS filtered onto a $`64^3`$ mesh, in a Smagorinsky calculation using a traditional eddy viscosity model, and in a calculation using the new LANS-$`\alpha `$ model, which preserves nonlinear transport properties (see  and references therein). The growth of vorticity comes from the vortex stretching terms, which at early times involves only large-scale strain and, thus, should not be affected by the small scales. Evidence that vortex stretching at early times is not strongly affected by the small scales is that all three calculations have the same time scale $`t=0.5`$ for the vorticity surge. The differences among the calculations should therefore be due to how vorticity is suppressed by either viscous effects or LES model effects. The identical growth in $`\omega _{\mathrm{}}`$ in each case until $`t=0.3`$ tells us that until that time dissipation and LES parameterization have not yet affected the calculations.

It has previously been shown that the dominant initial structures are vortex sheets that arise out of non-Beltrami initial conditions, . From the interaction of those initial vortex sheets in the weakly dissipative regime, Fig. 2 shows that a new configuration of transversely aligned vortex structures has formed by $`t=0.5`$. We will demonstrate that this is an inherently helical configuration that has arisen from the non-Beltrami initial conditions simultaneously with the vorticity surge event. The helical nature of the configuration is shown both by the concentrations of helicity density $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ near the vortex structures in Figure 2 and by a skewed, transient probability density distribution (PDF) of the cosine of the helicity angle at $`t=0.5`$ in Figure 3. Accompanying this helicity signature in physical space, the helicity co-spectrum at low wavenumbers in Figure 4 develops a strong signature of alternating sign between wavenumber bands. This is evidence for the dynamical formation of large, asymmetrical distributions of helicity associated with the vorticity surge in Fig. 1.

While the helicity density is not Galilean invariant, Galilean transformations cannot remove the strong fluctuations in helicity in physical space that we observe, nor could they remove the strong fluctuations in the helicity co-spectrum in Fig. 4. The implication is that if these are configurations that naturally and frequently arise in a turbulent flow, then helicity could be playing a central role in their dynamical evolution. The PDF of the helicity angle in Fig. 3 quickly changes into a distribution with peaks concentrated at $`\mathrm{cos}\theta =\pm 1`$ as reported in other turbulent flows . The appearance of the individual peaks is associated with the formation of nearly Beltrami vortex tubes by $`t=0.7`$, shown Fig. 5.

The association of the vorticity surge with helicity raises some important questions about the absence of anti-parallel vorticity elements. In the inviscid limit, anti-parallel vorticity elements around the position of the maximum vorticity $`\omega _{\mathrm{}}`$, were thought to lead to the strongest increases in vorticity . In a strictly anti-parallel configuration there would be equal concentrations of both signs of the helicity, which would cancel at each length scale and thus preclude any spectral oscillations.

Instead, at no time during this calculation are the the most intense vorticity elements observed to be anti-parallel. The calculations that suggest that the anti-parallel configuration would be dominant are all based upon inviscid calculations using vortex filaments and tubes (see  and references in ). The spectral calculations reported here, which are viscous and initially develop vortex sheets, show no such trend.

Isolated, helical vortex tubes first form immediately after the vorticity surge at $`t=0.5`$. The helical character of these vortex tubes is demonstrated by physical space renderings that show that the strongest helicity fluctuations are clearly tied to vortex tubes in Fig. 5 at $`t=0.7`$ and by strong peaks at both 1 and -1 in the helicity distribution in Figure 3. This PDF was centered upon the domain shown. Note that the two dominant tubes have opposite signs of helicity. Rotating one’s view of this local region shows that the tubes are nearly orthogonal and when the entire flow is rendered, this configuration appears in a localized corner $`1/4^3`$ of the entire domain. This demonstrates that these structures are interacting strongly within this localized region. As time goes on, vortex tubes whose helicity is opposite develop as orthogonal pairs in many localized regions. This is not the first time that nearly orthogonal configurations of vortex tubes have been created in direct simulations. They have appeared in renderings going back to about mid-1980s . The new point we are making is that this intrinsically helical configuration arises in conjunction with the vorticity surge.

The rapid development of structures characteristic of fully-developed turbulence by $`t=0.7`$ from the helical state at $`t=0.5`$ occurs simultaneously with the disappearance of the intermediate peak in the helicity co-spectrum in Fig. 4 seen at $`t=0.5`$. The wavenumber ($`k=5`$) of this peak at $`t=0.5`$ is too low for the disappearance to be a direct effect of viscosity. Instead, we believe it is due to a combined effect of transfer to larger wavenumbers, followed by dissipation at those larger wavenumbers. The evidence for this is the different manner in which the two large-eddy simulations treat the nonlinear transfer of helicity. The LANS-$`\alpha `$ model preserves the transport of helicity. Consequently, when energy is transported to small scales and is dissipated, so should any helicity that accompanies that energy. The is consistent with the observation in Fig. 4 that the intermediate peak in its helicity co-spectrum disappears by $`t=0.7`$. Graphics also show vortex structures consistent with the large-scale structures in the DNS.

For Smagorinsky, the intermediate peak in the helicity co-spectrum that had formed by $`t=0.5`$ persists, only moving slightly towards higher wavenumbers by $`t=0.7`$. There are no assurances in the Smagorinsky model that both helicity and energy will be dissipated. In fact, Smagorinsky can generate anomalous helicity. Furthermore, clearly defined vortex tubes have not formed at this time in the Smagorinsky calculation. Hence, the proper spectral dynamics of helicity and the formation of vortex tubes are part of one nonlinear process involving diffusion, stretching and proper transport. This implies that a large-eddy simulation that has correct transport properties is required to capture this process.

Once the interacting, transversely aligned, helical vortex tubes have formed, dissipation grows rapidly in the DNS and as has been reported and shown in Fig. 6, the kinetic energy spectrum $`E(k)`$ gradually approaches the classical $`k^{5/3}`$ characteristic of a turbulent energy cascade. Once a clear $`5/3`$ spectrum appears near $`t=1.3`$, the energy decay becomes self-similar .

Interactions between regions or modes of oppositely signed helicity have previously been investigated in the context of shell models. In one of the most popular shell models, the GOY model, the sign of helicity in each shell alternates. It has been shown that the GOY interactions are consistent with one channel in a helical decomposition of the energy transfer . This analysis also shows that the strongest wavenumber interactions occur between modes of opposite helicity. In DNS calculations it has been shown that helicity can arise from non-helical initial conditions and that energy and helicity can move together to high wavenumbers and be dissipated .

We conclude that dynamics involving helicity dynamics is essential during an early stage in establishing the turbulent energy cascade from smooth initial conditions. The new features that we wish to emphasize are the formation of a helical state in association with the vorticity surge, and how this state rapidly develops into the structures and distributions that set the stage for fully developed turbulence. We believe that understanding this transition could be important in the parameterization of transient events in turbulence. Such transitions must influence the overall statistical properties controlled by intermittent, intense events. Evidence was presented that the mechanism by which classical vortex tubes first form requires both transport and dissipation and that this implies that large-eddy parameterizations should preserve some of these helicity transport properties. In ongoing work we are investigating the capabilities of several modern approaches to large-eddy simulation in representing these helicity transport properties.

Acknowledgements We are grateful to many friends for their enormous help in supplying suggestions, advice and encouragement during the course of this work. In particular, several helpful and timely discussions with S. Y. Chen, G. Eyink, U. Frisch and K. Sreenivasan especially influenced this work.


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# Entanglement Enhanced Multiplayer Quantum Games

## Introduction

Game theory is a very useful and important branch of mathematics due to its broad applications in economics, social science and biology. Recently, physicists specializing in quantum information theory are very interested in the investigation of extending classical games into the quantum domain. Current researches have led new sights into the nature of information, opening a new range of potential applications. Quantum games are now found helpful in developing new quantum algorithms, and quantum strategies are found helpful in solving problems in classical games. Investigations on evolutionary procedure of quantum games are also presented. Although quantum games are mostly explored theoretically, the quantum Prisoners’ Dilemma has just been successfully realized experimentally.

All the above works focus on 2-player quantum games (within a 2-qubit system). However, S. C. Benjamin and P. M. Hayden recently presented the first study of quantum games with more than two players. They showed that such games can exhibit certain forms of pure quantum equilibrium that have no analog in classical games, or even in 2-player quantum games. They also proposed a physical model which is suitable for multiplayer quantum game, and based their work on maximally entangled states. In this paper, we quantize the 3-player version of the Prisoners’ Dilemma, which is a famous multiplayer game in classical game theory, basing on the physical model proposed in Ref. . We find a Nash equilibrium that can remove the dilemma in the classical game when the game’s state is maximally entangled. This particular Nash equilibrium remains to be a Nash equilibrium even for the non-maximally entangled cases. Furthermore, the payoffs at this equilibrium increase monotonously when the amount of the game’s entanglement increases. Thus the quantum 3-player Prisoners’ Dilemma is enhanced by the entanglement of its initial state.

## 1 3-Player Prisoner’s Dilemma

The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a famous, none zero-sum game which illustrates a conflict between individual and group rationality. The dilemma in this game was first proposed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher in 1950. Later on, Albert Tucker made “the Prisoner’s Dilemma” as the title of this game who wants the game to be more popular. After it was published, the dilemma attracted widespread attention in a variety of disciplines. By far, 2-player Prisoner’s Dilemma has drawn interests of physicists specializing in quantum information theory. The investigation of the 2-player quantum Prisoners’ Dilemma is presented. In this paper, we generalize this game to involve 3 players, and investigate the quantization in a 3-qubit system.

The scenario of the 3-player Prisoner’s Dilemma is as the following hypothetical situation: three players — Alice, Bob and Colin were arrested under the suspicion of robbing the bank. They were placed in isolated cells without a chance to communicate with each other. However, the police does not have sufficient proof to have them convicted. Since each of them cared much more about their personal freedom than about the welfare of their accomplice, a clever policeman makes the following offer to the three players: Each of them may choose to confess or remain silent. For convenience, we denote choosing to confess by strategy $`D`$ (defect), and choosing to remain silent by strategy $`C`$ (cooperate). If they all choose $`D`$ (defect), each of them will get payoff $`1`$; if the players all resort to strategy $`C`$ (cooperate), each of them will get payoff $`3`$; if one of the players choose $`D`$ but the other two choose $`C`$, $`5`$ is the payoff for the former and $`2`$ for the latter two; if one of the players choose $`C`$ while the other two adopt $`D`$, $`0`$ is payoff for the former and $`4`$ for the latter two. This situation and its different outcomes can be summarized by Fig. 1. We can see that strategy $`D`$ is the dominant strategy for each player, i.e. whatever other players do, each is better off defect than cooperate. In terms of game theory, $`(D,D,D)`$ is the unique Nash equilibrium of the game, with payoff $`(1,1,1)`$. Unilateral deviation from this equilibrium will decrease individual payoff. Since each of them is a completely rational player, the game will definitely end in the situation that all players choose strategy $`D`$. However, we can see that $`(C,C,C)`$ can yield payoff $`(3,3,3)`$, much higher than $`(1,1,1)`$ in the situation of $`(D,D,D)`$. In game theory, $`(C,C,C)`$ is a Pareto Optimal, which is regarded as the most efficient strategic profile of a game. Unfortunately, rational reasoning forces each player to defect, and therefore the game will end in $`(D,D,D)`$ rather than $`(C,C,C)`$. This is an instance of that optimizing the outcome for a subsystem will in general not optimizing the outcome for the system as a whole, and is exactly what called a dilemma in this game.

## 2 Physical Model for the Quantum Game

In this paper, we make use of the physical model proposed in Ref.  — see in Fig. 2. In the board of this model, each player is sent a 2-state quantum system (a qubit) and they can locally manipulate their individual qubit. The possible outcomes of the classical strategies “Cooperate” and Defect” are assigned to two bases $`|0`$ and $`|1`$ in the Hilbert space of a single qubit. The state of the game is then described by a state in the tensor product space of the three qubits, spanned by the bases $`|\sigma |\sigma ^{^{}}|\sigma ^{^{\prime \prime }}=|\sigma \sigma ^{^{}}\sigma ^{^{\prime \prime }}`$ ($`\sigma ,\sigma ^{^{}},\sigma ^{^{\prime \prime }}\{0,1\}`$), where the first, second and third entries refer to Alice’s, Bob’s and Colin’s qubits respectively. The initial state of the game is denoted by $`|\psi _i=\widehat{J}|000`$, where $`\widehat{J}=\mathrm{exp}\left\{i\frac{\gamma }{2}\widehat{\sigma }_x\widehat{\sigma }_x\widehat{\sigma }_x\right\}`$ $`\left(0\gamma \pi /2\right)`$ is the entangling gate of the game and is known to all of the players. In fact, $`\gamma `$ could be considered as a measure for the game’s entanglement. Strategic move of Alice (Bob or Colin) is denoted by unitary operator $`\widehat{U}_A`$ ($`\widehat{U}_B`$ or $`\widehat{U}_C`$), which are chosen from a certain strategic space $`S`$. Since the strategic moves of different players are independent, one player’s operators only operate on his/her individual qubit. Therefore the strategic space $`S`$ should be some subset of the group of unitary $`2\times 2`$ matrices. We can set the strategic space to be the following 2-parameter subset of $`SU(2)`$ (for the choose of different strategic spaces, see Ref. ),

$$\widehat{U}(\theta ,\phi )=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{cos}\theta /2& e^{i\phi }\mathrm{sin}\theta /2\\ e^{i\phi }\mathrm{sin}\theta /2& \mathrm{cos}\theta /2\end{array}\right)$$
(1)
with $`0\theta \pi `$ and $`0\phi \pi /2`$. To be specific, $`\widehat{U}(0,0)`$ is the identity operator $`\widehat{I}`$ which corresponds to “Cooperate”, and $`\widehat{U}(\pi ,\pi /2)=i\widehat{\sigma }_x`$, which is equivalent to the bit-flipping operator, corresponds to “Defect”. It is easy to check that $`\widehat{J}`$ commutes with any operator consisting of $`i\widehat{\sigma }_x`$ and $`\widehat{I}`$ acting on different qubits, hence the classical Prisoners’ Dilemma could be faithfully recovered by the quantum game.

Having executed their strategic moves, the players forward their qubits to gate $`\widehat{J}^+`$, after which the game’s final state prior to the measurement can be written as

$`|\psi _f`$ $`=|\psi _f(\widehat{U}_A,\widehat{U}_B,\widehat{U}_C)`$
$`=\widehat{J}^+\left(\widehat{U}_A\widehat{U}_B\widehat{U}_C\right)\widehat{J}|000.`$ (2)
The succeeding measurement yields a particular result with a certain probability. Therefore the payoff for Alice should be the expected payoff

$`\$_A`$ $`=5P_{DCC}+4\left(P_{DDC}+P_{DCD}\right)+3P_{CCC}`$
$`+2\left(P_{CCD}+P_{CDC}\right)+1P_{DDD}+0P_{CDD}`$ (3)
where $`P_{\sigma \sigma ^{^{}}\sigma ^{^{\prime \prime }}}=\left|\sigma \sigma ^{^{}}\sigma ^{^{\prime \prime }}|\psi _f\right|^2`$ is the probability that $`|\psi _f`$ collapses into $`|\sigma \sigma ^{^{}}\sigma ^{^{\prime \prime }}`$. Payoff functions of Bob and Colin can be obtained from similar analyzing.

## 3 Nash Equilibrium In The Quantum Game

We now turn our attention to the Nash equilibrium of the 3-player quantum Prisoner’s Dilemma.

If the measure of the game’s entanglement is $`\gamma =0`$, the game is separable, i.e. at each instance the state of the game is separable. We find that all the eight strategic profiles consisting of $`\widehat{U}(\pi ,\pi /2)=i\widehat{\sigma }_x`$ and $`\widehat{U}(\pi ,0)=i\widehat{\sigma }_y`$ are Nash equilibria. However this situation of multiple equilibria is trivial. For any profile of Nash equilibrium of the separable game, because $`i\widehat{\sigma }_x|0=i|1`$ and $`i\widehat{\sigma }_y|0=|1`$, the final state $`|\psi _f=\left(i\right)^n|1|1|1`$, where $`n`$ denotes the number of players who adopts $`\widehat{U}(\pi ,\pi /2)=i\widehat{\sigma }_x`$. According to the payoff functions, each player receives payoff $`1`$. Hence $`i\widehat{\sigma }_x`$ and $`i\widehat{\sigma }_y`$ have the same effect to the payoffs. Therefore all these Nash Equilibria are equivalent to the classical strategic profile $`(D,D,D)`$. Indeed, any quantum strategy $`\widehat{U}(\theta ,\phi )`$ is equivalent to the classical mixed strategy “$`C`$ with probability $`\mathrm{cos}^2\theta /2`$ and $`D`$ with probability $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta /2`$”, because $`\widehat{U}(\theta ,\phi )|0=\mathrm{cos}\theta /2|0e^{i\phi }\mathrm{sin}\theta /2|1`$ and hence the measurement gives $`|0`$ with probability $`\mathrm{cos}^2\theta /2`$ and $`|1`$ with probability $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta /2`$. Therefore we conclude that the separable quantum game does not exceed the classical game.

Although the separable quantum game does not exhibit any quantum advantages, the maximally entangled game does. It can be proved that the strategic profile $`i\widehat{\sigma }_xi\widehat{\sigma }_xi\widehat{\sigma }_x`$ is no longer the Nash equilibrium. In fact,

$$\$_A(\widehat{U}(\theta ,\phi ),i\widehat{\sigma }_x,i\widehat{\sigma }_x)=\left(1+2\mathrm{cos}^2\phi \right)\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{\theta }{2}3=\$_A(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_x,i\widehat{\sigma }_x)\text{.}$$
(4)
Hence $`i\widehat{\sigma }_x`$ is no longer the best response for one player when the other two choose $`i\widehat{\sigma }_x`$. Besides, we can also get that

$$\$_A(\widehat{U}(\theta ,\phi ),i\widehat{\sigma }_x,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)=\frac{1}{2}\left[7+3\mathrm{cos}\theta 2\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{\theta }{2}\mathrm{cos}2\phi \right]5=\$_A(\widehat{I},i\widehat{\sigma }_x,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)\text{.}$$
(5)
Therefore, considering the symmetry of the game, we obtain that among the eight Nash equilibria in the separable game (consisting of $`i\widehat{\sigma }_x`$ and $`i\widehat{\sigma }_y`$), any one containing $`i\widehat{\sigma }_x`$ is not a Nash equilibrium for the maximally entangled game.

However, the particular one $`i\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_y`$ remains to be a Nash equilibrium with

$$\$_A(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)=\$_B(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)=\$_C(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)=3\text{.}$$
(6)
Indeed, for $`\gamma =\pi /2`$, with equation (3) and equation (6), we have

$$\$_A(\widehat{U}(\theta ,\phi ),i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)=\left(1+2\mathrm{cos}^2\phi \right)\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{\theta }{2}3=\$_A(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)$$
(7)
for all $`\theta [0,\pi ]`$ and $`\phi [0,\pi /2]`$. Analogously

$`\$_B(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,\widehat{U}(\theta ,\phi ),i\widehat{\sigma }_y)`$ $`\$_B(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)`$
$`\$_C(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,\widehat{U}(\theta ,\phi ))`$ $`\$_C(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)`$ (8)
Hence, no player can improve his individual payoff by unilaterally deviating from strategy $`i\widehat{\sigma }_y`$, i.e. $`(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)`$ is a Nash equilibrium. It is interesting to see that the payoffs for the players are $`\$_A=\$_B=\$_C=3`$, which is the best payoffs for them while remaining the symmetry of the game. So the strategic profile $`(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)`$ has the property of Pareto Optimal. By allowing the players to adopt quantum strategies, the dilemma in the classical game is completely removed when the game is maximally entangled.

## 4 The Situation of Non-maximal Entanglement

It is well known that entanglement plays an important role in quantum information processing and is viewed as the essential resource for transmitting quantum information. In the preceding section, we have investigated the maximally entangled game. In that case, we find a particular Nash equilibrium $`(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)`$, which has the property of Pareto optimal. Because of the key role of entanglement in quantum information, it will be interesting to investigate how the properties of the quantum game relate to its entanglement.

The novel feature of $`i\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_y`$ is that this strategic profile remains to be a Nash equilibrium for any $`\gamma [0,\pi /2]`$ . The proof runs as follows. Assume Bob and Colin adopt $`i\widehat{\sigma }_y`$ as their strategies, the payoff function of Alice with respect to her strategy $`\widehat{U}(\theta ,\phi )`$ is

$`\$_A(\widehat{U}(\theta ,\phi ),i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)`$ $`=\left(1+2\mathrm{cos}^2\phi \mathrm{sin}^2\gamma \right)\mathrm{sin}^2{\displaystyle \frac{\theta }{2}}`$
$`1+2\mathrm{sin}^2\gamma =\$_A(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)\text{.}`$ (9)
Hence, $`i\widehat{\sigma }_y`$ is her best reply provided that her opponents all choose $`i\widehat{\sigma }_y`$. Since the game is symmetric, the same holds for Bob and Colin. Therefore, no matter what the amount of the game’s entanglement is, $`i\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_y`$ is always a Nash equilibrium for the game. It can be seen that the payoff of the players is a monotonously increasing function with respect to amount of the entanglement,

$$\$_A(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)=\$_B(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)=\$_C(i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y,i\widehat{\sigma }_y)=1+2\mathrm{sin}^2\gamma $$
(10)
Fig. 3 illustrates how the payoffs depend on the amount of entanglement when the players all resort to Nash equilibrium. From this figure, we can see that entanglement dominates and enhances the property of the game: the payoffs of the players are the same monotonously increasing function of the amount of the game’s entanglement. The strategic profile $`i\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_y`$ is always a Nash equilibrium of the game no matter what the entanglement is. The dilemma could be completely removed when the measure of game’s entanglement $`\gamma `$ increases to its maximum $`\pi /2`$.

## 5 Conclusion

As multipartite physical systems tend to be complex, multiplayer quantum games may be more complicated and interesting than 2-player games. In this paper, we present a symmetric quantum Nash equilibrium, $`i\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_y`$, for the quantum 3-player Prisoners’ Dilemma with certain strategic space. The novel feature of this equilibrium is that it is the only surviving Nash equilibrium among those for the separable game when the game is maximally entangled, and is the Pareto optimal at the same time. The dilemma in the classical game could be completely removed if all the players resort to this equilibrium. What is more interesting is that it remains to be a Nash equilibrium whatever the amount of entanglement is, and the payoffs for the players increase monotonously as the amount of entanglement increases. It seems that in a multiplayer quantum game, not only quantum strategies have superior performance over its classical counterpart, but also entanglement can enhance the property of the game. However we should point out that, in this paper we do not present other Nash equilibria (if exist) for the quantum 3-player Prisoners’ Dilemma, besides $`i\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_yi\widehat{\sigma }_y`$. Finding all the Nash equilibrium is an interesting but a little complicated task, and deserves further investigation in future works. Another thing we should point out is that our work is based on a restricted strategic space. As stated in Ref. , the most general strategic space of the players could be all of the trace-preserving, completely-positive maps. With this strategic space, it has been demonstrated that if the amount of entanglement reaches it maximum, there would be no pure strategic Nash Equilibrium in the 2-player Prisoner’s Dilemma. While maximally entangled multiplayer quantum games can have certain forms of pure quantum equilibrium that have no analog in classical games, or even in 2-player quantum games. Especially when the entanglement varies, the game may have multiple or even asymmetric Nash equilibria, and possibly other fascinating properties similar to that in Ref . What singularity do multiplayer quantum games have remain open in this paper and is interesting for further investigation. We hope these works could also contribute to better understanding of multipartite quantum information processing.

This project was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grants. No. 10075041 and No. 10075044) and Chinese Academy of Science.