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cond-mat/0111374

A Transfer Matrix for the Backbone Exponent of Two-Dimensional Percolation

Jesper Lykke Jacobsen and Paul Zinn-Justin

Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques

Université Paris-Sud, Bâtiment 100

91405 Orsay Cedex, France

Rephrasing the backbone of two-dimensional percolation as a monochromatic path crossing problem, we investigate the latter by a transfer matrix approach. Conformal invariance links the backbone dimension $`D_\mathrm{b}`$ to the highest eigenvalue of the transfer matrix $`𝐓`$, and we obtain the result $`D_\mathrm{b}=1.6431\pm 0.0006`$. For a strip of width $`L`$, $`𝐓`$ is roughly of size $`2^{3^L}`$, but we manage to reduce it to $`L!`$. We find that the value of $`D_\mathrm{b}`$ is stable with respect to inclusion of additional “blobs” tangent to the backbone in a finite number of points.

11/2001

1. Introduction

The critical behavior of percolation has attracted considerable interest in the mathematical physics literature over the last decades. Whereas most practical applications (such as studying the efficiency of oil extraction from a porous soil, or the fractal geometry of a strike of lightning) take place in three spatial dimensions, analytical progress has largely been confined to two dimensions . Although of geometric origin, percolation fits in the framework of critical phenomena, and in particular the concept of universality should apply. One therefore expects the specific choice of a discrete model (bond or site percolation) and of the lattice structure (e.g. square or triangular) to be of no relevance to the determination of the critical exponents.

A large part of the progress made is due to the identification with the $`q1`$ limit of the $`q`$-state Potts model . A very fruitful idea has been to treat the latter in terms of its random cluster formulation , and further in terms of the loops surrounding the clusters . Applying Coulomb gas (and related) methods to the loop model led to a range of exact results around 1980 . In particular, the correlation length exponent $`\nu =\frac{4}{3}`$  and the magnetic exponent $`x_h=\frac{5}{48}`$ \[6,,7\] (the codimension of which is the fractal dimension of the percolating cluster, $`D=2x_h=\frac{91}{48}`$) were computed.

The next major advance followed from the advent of conformal field theory , which provides an appealing correspondence between the $`q`$-state Potts model (for particular values of $`q`$) and the so-called minimal models. For instance, the exponents $`x_k=\frac{1}{12}(k^21)`$ with $`k2`$ \[9,,10\] describing the asymptotic decay of the probability $`P_k(r)r^{2x_k}`$ of having $`k`$ loop segments connecting two narrow regions over a distance $`r1`$  were found to fit in the Kac table of conformal dimensions . Another remarkable result is the celebrated Cardy formula  expressing certain path-crossing probabilities in terms of hypergeometric functions.

More recently, percolation has attracted the interest of probabilists. In a groundbreaking publication, Smirnov has proved that the scaling limit of site percolation on the triangular lattice exists and is described by the stochastic Loewner evolution with parameter $`\kappa =6`$ . Consequently, most of the results referred to in the above have now been rigorously proved.

Nevertheless, a certain class of exponents have continued to resist the physicists’ attempts over the years. These are most conveniently defined by considering bond percolation inside a large square, of which we imagine two opposing sides to be connected to superconducting plates (see Fig. 1). Each percolating bond is stipulated to possess a fixed and finite conductivity, and an electric voltage is applied across the plates. At the percolation threshold $`p=p_\mathrm{c}`$, the part of the network that supports a non-zero current is known as the backbone, and its fractal dimension $`D_\mathrm{b}`$ determines a critical exponent $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2=2D_\mathrm{b}`$. Near $`p_\mathrm{c}`$, the conductivity of the network scales as $`(pp_\mathrm{c})^t`$, defining the conductivity exponent $`t`$. The latter can be connected to the fractal dimension of random walks constrained to the percolating cluster, or to its backbone, via the Einstein relation .

A number of conjectures for $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ have been falsified as numerical simulations have become increasingly accurate. The benchmark thus far is the Monte Carlo method of Grassberger  in which the conducting part of the cluster is identified using a clever recursive algorithm. Large-scale simulations yield the value $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2=0.3568\pm 0.0008`$ . The exponent $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ is actually a member of a family of so-called monochromatic path-crossing exponents $`\stackrel{~}{x}_k`$ , with the magnetic exponent fitting in as $`x_h=\stackrel{~}{x}_1`$. The higher exponents $`\stackrel{~}{x}_k`$, $`k3`$ are all unknown.

In the present publication we provide a numerical estimate of $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ using an algorithm which is entirely different from that of Grassberger. Using the reformulation of $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ as a path-crossing problem, we relate it to the largest eigenvalue of a linear operator (actually a transfer matrix) that builds all possible percolation clusters supporting at least $`k=2`$ mutually non-intersecting paths. We work in the geometry of semi-infinite strips of width $`L`$, with $`L9`$.

Our approach is interesting in several respects. First, the reformulation as an eigenvalue problem makes direct contact with the predictions of conformal field theory . That Grassberger’s recursive algorithm defines a conformally invariant observable is not a priori obvious, but the fact that the transformation to a path-crossing problem involves a conformal transformation and that we here obtain a consistent value of $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ shows that this is indeed the case. One would then further expect $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ to be the conformal dimension of a primary operator $`\widehat{O}_2`$ in some (presently unknown) conformal field theory of percolation. In particular, the conformal tower of $`\widehat{O}_2`$ should possess descendents whose conformal dimensions are integer-spaced with respect to $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$. We have checked this prediction by examining the scaling of the first few eigenvalues of our transfer matrix with system size. We shall present evidence of a level two descendent with conformal dimension $`2.35\pm 0.1`$, whereas there does not appear to be a descendent at level one.

Second, the generalization of our method to the case of more ($`k3`$) paths, or to the Potts model with $`q1`$ states, are immediate. Results for these cases will appear in a separate publication . Third, from a technical point of view we have had to tackle the major obstacle of writing a transfer matrix in which some degrees of freedom (the percolation clusters) must be summed over, whereas others (the paths) act as constraints on the former but must not themselves be summed over. Fourth, we have devised an algorithm which is naturally parallelizable.

Like Grassberger  we find that the data for $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ are hampered by strong (presumably non-analytic) corrections to scaling. As a consequence our final result

$$\stackrel{~}{x}_2=0.3569\pm 0.0006$$

confirms that of , but unfortunately does not improve its precision. On the other hand, we have devised some variants of our algorithm in which the constraint of mutual avoidance of the two paths is relaxed, so that they are allowed to touch in some configurations at vertices but not to share an edge. Physically this means that we measure the fractal dimension of the backbone with some “blobs” that are tangent to it included. The surprising result is that this relaxation of the original definition does not alter the value of $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$.

The paper is laid out as follows. In Sec. 2 we review the reasoning leading from the original formulation of the backbone dimension to that of a path-crossing problem, and we restate the latter in a strip geometry. The construction of the corresponding transfer matrix, and of its associated state space, is described in Sec. 3. In Sec. 4 we transcribe this as an algorithm and discuss its implementation. The data is analyzed and extrapolated to the $`L\mathrm{}`$ limit in Sec. 5. The appendix displays some transfer matrices produced for small system size.

Note added: When this work was being completed we became aware of the preprint of Lawler, Schramm and Werner  in which $`\stackrel{~}{x}_1=\frac{5}{48}`$ is established on a rigorous basis, following Smirnov . The authors also relate $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ to a second-order partial differential equation with specific boundary conditions, but fail to provide an explicit solution of the latter. We thank John Cardy for bringing this to our attention.

2. Path-crossing probabilities

Let us return to the formulation of the backbone problem given in the introduction, namely in the so-called busbar geometry (see Fig. 1). The condition that a given point (site or bond, as the case may be) on the spanning cluster belongs to the backbone is that it can be connected to either of the superconducting plates by means of two mutually non-intersecting paths. 1 Strictly speaking, this condition includes also points which are being held exactly at zero current in a Wheatstone’s bridge-like arrangement. Since in the continuum limit the percolation cluster is almost surely “asymmetric”, such points are extremely rare. See also the discussion below on the possibility of contact points for paths.

Fig. 1: Busbar geometry, here shown for the case of bond percolation on the square lattice. The backbone is indicated by fat edges.

This choice of geometry is somewhat unnatural, as it does not fully display the rotational symmetry of the continuum limit. It is more convenient to work in an annular geometry limited by two concentric circles of radii $`r1`$ and $`R1`$. Interpreting the inner circle as the point which is a potential element of the backbone, and the outer circle as the point at infinity, we see that a given percolating configuration in the annulus contributes to the backbone if and only if the two circles are connected by two mutually non-intersecting paths on the percolating cluster(s); see Fig. 2.

Fig. 2: Annular geometry endowed with critical percolation (here shown in the continuum limit). A possible choice of two disjoint percolating paths is shown as dashed lines.

More generally, one may define higher exponents $`\stackrel{~}{x}_k`$ by studying, at the percolation threshold, the probability $`P_k(r,R)\left(\frac{r}{R}\right)^{\stackrel{~}{x}_k}`$ that the annulus is traversed by $`k`$ mutually non-intersecting paths. Clearly, the configurations in which these paths belong to different clusters are asymptotically subdominant, and so we might as well assume that they belong to the same cluster.

The situation may be further refined  by considering path-crossing events in which a given number of traversing paths belong to the clusters, and the remaining number belong to the dual clusters.2 For site percolation, the dual clusters consist of the non-conducting (uncolored, white) sites. For bond percolation on the square lattice, it is most natural to think of the dual clusters in terms of the standard duality transformation in the random cluster model , according to which any conducting edge is intersected by a non-conducting dual edge, and vice versa. More precisely, for each $`k`$ there are $`2^k`$ types of path configurations, each specified by a set of color variables $`(\tau _1,\tau _2,\mathrm{},\tau _k)`$ with $`\tau _i=+1`$ (resp. $`\tau _i=1`$) meaning that path number $`i`$ belongs to the clusters (resp. to the dual clusters). Within the context of the $`q`$-state Potts model (with $`q1`$), it is not obvious whether different choices of the color variables will lead to the same critical exponents, except of course for the obvious symmetries obtained by rotating the sequence $`(\tau _1,\tau _2,\mathrm{},\tau _k)`$, reversing its order, or dualizing it. But in the percolation case ($`q=1`$) the bonds (or sites) are uncorrelated, and various parts of the system may be dualized independently. Using this approach, it has been proven in the case of site percolation on the triangular lattice  that all the polychromatic sequences (in which both a $`\tau _i=+1`$ and a $`\tau _j=1`$ are represented; $`k2`$) share the same critical exponents. In particular, any polychromatic color configuration may be transformed into the alternating one, $`\tau _i=(1)^i`$.

We expect this result to be independent of a particular lattice realisation, and thus to apply also to bond percolation. In this case, the identification of the critical exponent with that of $`k`$ traversing loop segments on the surrounding lattice, referred to as $`x_k`$ in the introduction, becomes evident (at least for $`k`$ even). A rigorous proof that the formula $`x_k=\frac{1}{12}(k^21)`$ applies to the polychromatic path crossing problem for site percolation on the triangular lattice was spelled out in .

For monochromatic sequences (all $`\tau _i=+1`$) the argument given in  fails, and the corresponding exponents $`\stackrel{~}{x}_k`$ are expected to be different from the $`x_k`$. Indeed, from entropic considerations it should be clear that $`x_k<\stackrel{~}{x}_k<x_{2k}`$.

Several of the $`x_k`$ have nice physical interpretations. Thus, $`x_2`$, $`x_3`$ and $`x_4`$ are respectively the codimensions of the cluster perimeter (hull) , of the external (accessible) perimeter , and of the set of pivotal (singly connecting) bonds . The latter also yields the correlation length exponent , via the scaling relation $`\nu =1/(2x_4)`$.

In the absense of an exact solution, one might imagine evaluating the exponents $`\stackrel{~}{x}_k`$ numerically by measuring the decay of the path crossing probabilities on an annulus, as outlined above. A more feasible alternative is to compute certain restricted free energies on semi-infinite cylinders by using a transfer matrix, as we shall describe in the next section. These free energies can be related to the critical exponents as follows.

Since the scaling limit of critical percolation is conformally invariant \[8,,13\], one is allowed to transform the annular geometry of Fig. 2 into a cylindrical one by means of the conformal mapping $`wu+iv=\frac{L}{2\pi }\mathrm{log}(z)`$. The transformed complex coordinate $`w`$ may be thought of as imbedded in the strip $`\mathrm{}<u<\mathrm{}`$, $`0vL`$ with periodic boundary conditions in the $`v`$-direction. All this means is that Fig. 2 must be viewed in perspective, interpreting the inner and outer circles as the extremities of the cylinder.

We are going to make use of the following result: let $`f_0(L)`$ be the free energy per unit area for the unrestricted percolation problem, and $`\stackrel{~}{f}_k(L)`$ (resp. $`f_k(L)`$) the corresponding quantity for the constrained problem where only those configurations are included in the partition sum in which (at least) $`k`$ monochromatic (resp. polychromatic) paths span the length of a semi-infinite cylinder of width $`L`$. Then as $`L\mathrm{}`$, the discrete lattice model, at criticality, should have a continuum limit described by conformal field theory, so that

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \stackrel{~}{f}_k(L)f_0(L)& =\frac{2\pi \stackrel{~}{x}_k}{L^2}+o(L^2),\hfill & (2.1a)\hfill \\ \hfill f_k(L)f_0(L)& =\frac{2\pi x_k}{L^2}+o(L^2).\hfill & (2.1b)\hfill \end{array}$$

We shall obtain estimates for the $`\stackrel{~}{x}_k`$ by extrapolating data for sufficiently large strips to the limit $`L\mathrm{}`$.

3. Transfer matrix algorithm

It has been known for a long time how to numerically compute the $`f_k(L)`$, by writing the transfer matrix for the loop model  in the basis of planar (Catalan-like) connectivities (see  for a closely related computation). The same is true for $`\stackrel{~}{f}_1(L)`$ by using the trick of adding a ghost site , or alternatively (via a duality argument) by forbidding the clusters to wrap around the cylinder .

The computation of $`\stackrel{~}{f}_2(L)`$, the principle of which we now describe, is considerably more complicated. The main complication stems from the fact that to compute the corresponding partition sum we must exclude those configurations of the percolation clusters that do not support (at least) two spanning paths, and count each of those that do with unit weight (and not with a weight equal to the number of ways two such paths can be realized for the given cluster configuration). Roughly speaking, the degrees of freedom are the clusters and the paths, and we must trace over the former but not the latter.

For the sake of definiteness we consider in this section critical bond percolation on a square lattice, though the principle of the transfer matrix can be applied to any lattice with any probability of occupation $`p`$, and to bond as well as site percolation. Since in our case $`p_\mathrm{c}=\frac{1}{2}`$ , it is convenient to simply assign a weight of one to every configuration of percolating/non-percolating bonds. For now we consider the simplest orientation of the lattice, which corresponds to $`L`$ sites in the transverse direction with periodic boundary conditions (Fig. 3). With all these conventions, $`f_0(L)=2\mathrm{log}2`$ in Eq. $`(2.1)`$. We shall discuss later another possible orientation of the lattice.

Fig. 3: The square lattice with periodic boundary conditions along one of its orientations. The dotted lines are time slices.

We keep track of the paths by defining path configurations in analogy with those used in the transfer matrix calculations of the self-avoiding walk : among the $`L`$ sites in a row (at time $`t=t_0`$), two sites are connected to the point at infinity (time $`t=\mathrm{}`$) by means of paths. Furthermore, in order to allow subsequent backtracking of either path (at a later instant $`t>t_0`$), the remaining sites may be connected in pairs by means of backward arches. The possible configurations for $`L=4`$ are listed on Fig. 4.

Fig. 4: The 10 possible path configurations for $`L=4`$.

To overcome the difficulty of not summing over the possible path configurations, we define the basis states on which the transfer matrix acts as lists of path configurations. Elements of the list give all possible realizations of the positions of the paths (and of the arches) which are compatible with the “past” of the state.

Formally, if $`𝒫`$ is the set of path configurations, then basis states are indexed by non-empty subsets of $`𝒫`$ (one must exclude the empty subset since it corresponds to states for which there is no possibility of two disjoint paths reaching time $`t`$). Note that the dimension of the total space is $`2^{\mathrm{\#}𝒫}1`$, which grows extremely rapidly with $`L`$. We shall return to this point when we discuss practical implementation.

By definition, the matrix element $`𝐓_𝒜`$ between basis states indexed by $`𝒜𝒫`$ and $`𝒫`$ equals the number of configurations of the bonds between time $`t`$ and time $`t+1`$, such that the state $`𝒜`$ at time $`t+1`$ is obtained from the state $``$ at time $`t`$. Given the initial state $``$ and the configuration of the bonds $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$ (that is whether they are percolating or not, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ being the set of all possibilities), the procedure to determine the final state $`𝒜`$ is as follows:

$``$For each possible initial path configuration $`b`$, consider all possible continuations of the existing lines at time $`t`$ (the two original paths and the arches) that are compatible with the configuration of the bonds $`\omega `$. Note that each line must be either continued to a site at time $`t+1`$, or be connected to another line (in which case it will reemerge at the other end of the arch; the lines coming from infinity or from the same arch cannot be connected to each other). Furthermore, for each pair of adjacent empty sites one must consider the possibility of creating a new arch. Let $`\varphi (b,\omega )𝒫`$ be the list of path configurations at $`t+1`$ thus produced.

$``$The full state $`𝒜`$ is reconstructed by simply putting together all the possibilities (of the form $`\varphi (b,\omega )`$, $`b`$) obtained for each initial path configuration. If one finds $`𝒜=\mathrm{}`$, this means that no continuation is possible, and the state is excluded.

We give an example of such a computation on Fig. 5.

Fig. 5: Evolution of two path configurations with the same percolation configuration. Solid (resp. dashed) lines represent percolating (resp. non-percolating) bonds, whereas thick lines represent the possible paths.

In other words, we have the formal identity:

$$𝐓|>=\underset{\omega \mathrm{\Omega }}{}|\underset{b}{}\varphi (b,\omega )>$$

which shows quite explicitly that one sums over bond configurations but not over path configurations.

Finally, the free energy per unit area is given by

$$\stackrel{~}{f}_2(L)=\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{Lt}\mathrm{log}<𝒜\left|𝐓(L)^t\right|>$$

where the states $`𝒜`$, $``$ specify the boundary conditions and are essentially arbitrary (the state $`𝒜`$ should belong to the image of $`𝐓`$, see next section), and $`𝐓(L)`$ is the transfer matrix for strip width $`L`$.

As $`t\mathrm{}`$, the matrix element $`<𝒜\left|𝐓(L)^t\right|>`$ is dominated by the largest eigenvalue $`\lambda (L)`$ of $`𝐓(L)`$, and combining Eqs. $`(2.1a)`$ and (3.1), we find:

$$\frac{1}{2^{2L}}\lambda (L)=1\frac{2\pi \stackrel{~}{x}_2}{L}+o(L^1)$$

4. Algorithmic details

In order to appreciate how effective the transfer matrix approch is, it is important to understand the structure of the matrix constructed in the previous section. It is an integer-valued matrix of extremely large size, but many of its entries are zero. In fact, starting from any basis state $`|>`$, a very limited number of states are generated. These are the only states that matter for the determination of the largest eigenvalue(s) and we can thus restrict ourselves to a submatrix of much smaller size.

We now describe schematically the procedure we used. The main steps of the algorithm are as follows:

(i) Start with an arbitrary basis state (ideally, one that we know is generated by iteration of the transfer matrix). Put it onto a “stack” of states to process.

(ii) Pick a state $``$ from the stack and “process” it, i.e. generate the non-zero entries $`𝐓_𝒜`$, and store them. This encodes one column of the transfer matrix.

(iii) Consider every new basis state $`𝒜`$ that has been generated at step (ii); check if it has already been processed; if not, add it to the stack. If the stack is non-empty, go back to step (ii).

(iv) Finally, once the stack is empty, the largest eigenvalue is computed by simple iteration of the matrix that has been generated.

The transfer matrix is such that the submatrix thus generated has no zero rows or columns. We call this submatrix the reduced transfer matrix.

An important remark for practical applications is that this procedure is highly parallelizable: several CPUs can perform step (ii) simultaneously and independently, only the stack must be shared. In practice, it is necessary to have a server that communicates with the various clients involved in the computation; it ensures that their stacks are synchronized, and dispatches the tasks. At the end of each calculation (step (ii)), a client sends the server the new states created and receives the states created by other clients in the meantime. The time spent updating the stack being very small compared to the calculation time, the parallelization is near 100% efficient (at least up to 20 clients which is the maximum we tested).

Let us now discuss in more detail this procedure.

First, we must define how to encode path configurations. A study of Fig. 4 shows that if exactly $`k=2`$ paths are connected to $`t=\mathrm{}`$, then they can be considered as an extra arch. This trick reduces the number of configurations and slightly simplifies the implementation (but cannot be extended to $`k2`$). We can then move the point at infinity and redraw the configurations as standard arch configurations3 The number of $`L`$-point arch configurations equals $`m_L1`$, where $`m_L`$ are the Motzkin numbers  (the empty configuration is excluded). The generating function $`M(x)_{L=0}^{\mathrm{}}m_Lx^L=(1x\sqrt{12x3x^2})/2x^2`$, has a singularity in $`x=x_\mathrm{c}=\frac{1}{3}`$, showing that the number of path configurations is $`m_L3^L`$ asymptotically., see Fig. 6.

Fig. 6: The configurations of Fig. 4 redrawn as arches.

An arch configuration is then encoded in a standard way as a sequence of closing / empty / opening steps, that is $`ϵ_i\{1,0,+1\}`$, $`1iL`$, such that the height function $`h_{\mathrm{}}=_{i=1}^{\mathrm{}}ϵ_i`$ satisfies $`h_{\mathrm{}}0`$ for all $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`h_L=0`$. States are now defined as sorted lists of path configurations.

Next, we discuss how to perform step (ii) in practice. One possibility would be to apply directly the principle of section 3, that is to consider all possible bond configurations between 2 successive time slices and for each, to produce the resulting state. However, since there are $`2^{2L}`$ such configurations, the time required to do so grows exponentially, which is not satisfactory. Besides, the determination of all possible continuations of the paths to time $`t+1`$ is a rather complex task. Instead, we shall use a factorization of the transfer matrix as a product of $`L`$ sparse matrices $`𝐓_i`$, $`1iL`$ which describe the addition of a single site. The details of the factorization depend on the exact situation envisioned. We present here three cases.

4.1. The square lattice with standard orientation

The example used so far is that of the square lattice with its usual orientation. In this case the factorization can be pushed further by writing that $`𝐓(L)=𝐇_1\mathrm{}𝐇_L𝐕_1\mathrm{}𝐕_L`$ where $`𝐕_i`$ (resp. $`𝐇_i`$) corresponds to the addition of a single vertical (resp. horizontal) bond (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7: Factorization of the transfer matrix.

The action of $`𝐕_i`$ is very simple: $`𝐕_i=𝐕_i^{}+𝐕_i^{\prime \prime }`$ where $`𝐕_i^{}`$ (resp. $`𝐕_i^{\prime \prime }`$) describes the evolution when the vertical bond number $`i`$ is percolating (resp. non percolating). $`𝐕_i^{}`$ is simply the identity, whereas $`𝐕_i^{\prime \prime }`$ acts on path configurations as follows: either a path/arch is at site $`i`$, in which case it gives $`0`$ (the path cannot cross the non-percolating bond), or there is not and it is the identity. The action on a state made of several path configurations can be deduced from these basic rules, as explained in section 3.

The action of $`𝐇_i`$ is slightly more complicated: $`𝐇_i=𝐇_i^{}+𝐇_i^{\prime \prime }`$, similarly as above. The definitions of $`𝐇_i^{}`$ and $`𝐇_i^{\prime \prime }`$ must take into account all the possibilites of continuations, recombinations and creations of paths along the horizontal bonds. This requires working, as intermediate states, with path configurations of length $`L+2`$ instead of $`L`$, since one must temporarily distinguish the paths directed horizontally and vertically at the first and last vertices being currently processed. We leave the details as an exercise to the interested reader.

A final ingredient is that one can use the dihedral symmetry of the transfer matrix: since the latter commutes with cyclic permutations of the sites and with reflections, one can select a representative in each orbit of the dihedral group among the basis states. Note that the action is an overall action on all configurations that constitute the state simultaneously. The states generated by the procedure above can then be replaced with the representative state of their orbit, producing a smaller transfer matrix but with identical eigenvalues. This further reduces the size of the transfer matrix, by a factor of (roughly) $`L`$.

4.2. The square lattice with standard orientation 2: the square/octogon deformation

It is interesting to study variants of the algorithm above. One natural question is: if one allows the paths to touch each other at vertices, how is the asymptotic behavior of the free energy modified and in particular is $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ left unchanged? Another possible formulation of this question is to consider a deformation of the lattice in which each vertex is replaced with a small square, resulting in a square/octogon lattice (Fig. 8). The bonds of the small square are always percolating and allow paths that would have touched at a vertex to avoid each other.4 Note that a path crossing a vertex of the original lattice can correspond to two different paths on the deformed lattice, but since we do not sum over path realizations this is of no consequence.

Fig. 8: Deformation of the square lattice.

Physical insight suggests that such modifications should not affect the values of $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$. The reason is that, just like the Wheatstone bridges configurations mentioned in the introduction, the fact that current flows through loops which are connected to the backbone by just one point is rather unstable since any microscopic defect that breaks the symmetry between the two orientations of the loops (deforming the lattice is precisely a way of introducing such a defect) will produces a non-zero current. If $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ is to be universal it should not depend on such microscopic details. It is this insight that we would like to test. There is another, more practical reason one would want to study such modifications of the algorithm, which will be apparent in section 5.

It is very simple to modify the transfer matrix of section 4.3 to allow such path evolutions. $`V_i`$ is unchanged, whereas $`H_i`$ now allows two paths to reach the same vertex and emerge from it as if they had not touched each other.

4.3. The square lattice with light-cone orientation: the hexagon deformation

Finally, we rotate the lattice by 45 degrees, the motivation being that we expect better convergence properties, as observed empirically in similar computations \[22,,25\]. Unfortunately, there is no efficient way to encode the corresponding configurations, and we are therefore led to a modification of the lattice which is similar to what was done in section 4.2: this time the result is a hexagon lattice in which vertical bonds are always percolating (Fig. 9). This is equivalent to allowing “horizontal tangencies” on the original square lattice, that is allowing two paths to touch at one vertex in the configuration where the two upper edges belong to the same path; however, “vertical tangencies” are still excluded.

Fig. 9: Another deformation of the square lattice.

In this case, encoding the states becomes completely identical to what was done previously. There is a decomposition $`𝐓=𝐓_1\mathrm{}𝐓_L`$ where $`𝐓_i`$ adds an extra vertex $`i`$ at time $`t+1`$ (and two bonds). Since the new sites at $`t+1`$ are now shifted with respect to the sites at $`t`$, the action of the transfer matrix includes a conventional rotation of a half-bond’s length (or $`\pi /L`$).

Relations (3.1)–(3.1) must also be modified to take into account the 45 degrees rotation; the latter introduces an extra factor of $`2`$ in the unit of area, so that $`f_0(L)=4\mathrm{log}2`$ and:

$$\frac{1}{2^{2L}}\lambda (L)=1\frac{\pi \stackrel{~}{x}_2}{L}+o(L^1)$$

This factor of $`2`$ alone increases the accuracy of the measurement of $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ compared to the other two cases, since the corrections are expected to be smaller.

5. Numerical results

We show on table 1 the size of the reduced transfer matrix for $`4L9`$, in the three cases presented above (sections 4.1, 4.2, 4.3). While the full matrix is very roughly of size $`2^{3^L}`$, the size of the reduced matrix seems to grow as $`L!`$, which is still large but not as intractable. It is interesting to note that $`s_2<s_1`$, that is the modification of the lattice to allow configurations where paths touch at a point decreases the number of states.

$`L`$  $`4`$ $`5`$ $`6`$ $`7`$ $`8`$ $`9`$          $`s_1`$  $`15`$ $`72`$ $`515`$ $`4219`$ $`41728`$ $`\mathrm{?}`$  $`s_2`$  $`12`$ $`51`$ $`291`$ $`1893`$ $`14923`$ $`132799`$  $`s_3`$  $`12`$ $`51`$ $`291`$ $`1893`$ $`14923`$ $`132799`$

Tab. 1: Size of the reduced transfer matrix.

We have no deep explanation for the remarkable equality of sizes of algorithms 2 and 3, except the observed fact that the states generated are the same in the two cases.

Next we present the data for the largest eigenvalue of the transfer matrix on table 2 with a twelve digit accuracy.

$`L`$  $`4`$ $`5`$ $`6`$ $`7`$ $`8`$ $`9`$          $`\lambda _1/2^{2L}`$  $`0.514287790945`$ $`0.594678112301`$ $`0.653760363032`$ $`0.698459489246`$ $`0.733243927216`$ $`\mathrm{?}`$  $`\lambda _2/2^{2L}`$  $`0.540388840500`$ $`0.617254658842`$ $`0.672285202673`$ $`0.713573950794`$ $`0.745682316102`$ $`0.771356857232`$  $`\lambda _3/2^{2L}`$  $`0.718747415570`$ $`0.775012703547`$ $`0.812529692986`$ $`0.839330907375`$ $`0.859432882632`$ $`0.875067710677`$  $`\lambda _3^{}/2^{2L}`$  $`0.058692638251`$ $`0.145046191784`$ $`0.224345992159`$ $`0.292806902950`$ $`0.351338353673`$ $`0.40153182`$

Tab. 2: Largest eigenvalue of the transfer matrix. The last row shows the second real eigenvalue for the third transfer matrix.

In order to study the asymptotic behavior of these series of numbers, we use Eq. (3.1) for cases 1 and 2 (or (4.1) for case 3) to extract approximate values of $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$. The results are on Fig. 10. We also presented quadratic fits of these data.

Fig. 10: Values of $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ obtained from the eigenvalues of the transfer matrices (Tab. 2). The order of colors is: 1 – red, 2 – green, 3 – blue.

Several remarks are in order. First the two curves corresponding to the square lattice with its regular orientation (with or without contacts at points) seem to converge nicely within the range allowed by the fits. This means that the value of $`\stackrel{~}{x}_2`$ is not affected by this modification. However, it is clear that the next corrections to $`\lambda _1`$ and $`\lambda _2`$ are quite different. Secondly, it is again manifest on figure 10 that the third set of data, corresponding to the 45 degrees rotated square lattice, reaches its limit much faster than the other two. Whereas various fits will give a limiting value for the first two anywhere between $`0.355`$ and $`0.36`$, the range is limited to $`0.3563`$ to $`0.3575`$ for the latter. Assuming all these limits to be the same, we reach the estimate (1.1) mentioned in the introduction. Note that there is no simple way for us to evaluate error bars since the results are entirely dependent on the fits used, the latter being arbitrary without any knowledge about the subleading corrections.

Finally, numerical estimates of the norms of higher eigenvalues of the transfer matrix spectra can be extracted by a standard iteration/orthogonalization procedure . Using this method, complex eigenvalues are characterized by an oscillatory behavior and can thus be discarded (we expect physical observables to be linked to real eigenvalues). Specializing to case 3 (cf. section 4.3 above), we find the fourth eigenvalue (in norm) to be the second real one. Its finite-size scaling is well fitted by $`(2.1)`$, defining a critical index

$$\stackrel{~}{x}_2^{}=2.35\pm 0.1$$

This is consistent with the conformal dimension of a level two descendent of the backbone operator.

Extracting the scaling dimensions for even higher eigenvalues becomes increasingly problematic, as the finite-size effects get considerably stronger. It should however be noticed that the third real eigenvalue is doubly degenerate for any width $`L4`$. This is supposed to have implications for the organization of the conformal tower of the backbone operator.

Acknowledgements

J.L.J. is grateful to Jean Vannimenus for interesting discussions during an early stage of this project, and wishes to thank Hubert Saleur for drawing his attention to the importance of studying higher eigenvalues. P.Z.-J. would like to thank Claude Jacquemin for introducing him to the mysteries of sockets.

Appendix A. Structure of some small size transfer matrices

As an illustration of the algorithm explained in this article, we provide here the simplest non-trivial transfer matrices obtained with the geometries of sections 4.2 and 4.3. They correspond to a strip length $`L=4`$ and their size is $`s=12`$.

Fig. 11: Basis states (up to overall dihedral transformations) for $`L=4`$.

On Fig. 11 is described the basis in which these matrices are expressed.

The matrices themselves read:

$$𝐓_2=\left(\begin{array}{cccccccccccc}8& 0& 8& 4& 4& 4& 6& 8& 6& 8& 8& 4\\ 0& 4& 2& 1& 2& 2& 0& 2& 2& 2& 0& 1\\ 4& 0& 8& 8& 4& 9& 5& 4& 5& 4& 8& 6\\ 8& 0& 8& 10& 6& 8& 10& 8& 8& 8& 12& 8\\ 8& 16& 16& 12& 16& 20& 6& 16& 18& 16& 8& 12\\ 4& 8& 8& 8& 10& 18& 3& 8& 11& 8& 4& 8\\ 8& 0& 8& 4& 4& 4& 10& 8& 6& 8& 8& 4\\ 8& 8& 28& 13& 12& 16& 6& 20& 22& 28& 14& 13\\ 8& 0& 24& 10& 6& 8& 10& 16& 20& 24& 12& 8\\ 8& 20& 62& 34& 26& 47& 8& 34& 56& 66& 18& 38\\ 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 2& 1\\ 0& 8& 4& 7& 6& 8& 0& 4& 6& 4& 2& 9\end{array}\right)$$

$$𝐓_3=\left(\begin{array}{cccccccccccc}36& 24& 32& 19& 28& 24& 24& 40& 28& 32& 33& 19\\ 9& 18& 18& 12& 15& 16& 7& 18& 17& 18& 12& 12\\ 2& 7& 8& 13& 8& 14& 6& 1& 2& 0& 9& 7\\ 10& 12& 0& 14& 13& 12& 18& 6& 6& 0& 12& 8\\ 36& 48& 24& 38& 49& 52& 30& 40& 38& 24& 34& 34\\ 6& 11& 2& 9& 12& 18& 6& 5& 6& 2& 6& 9\\ 12& 8& 0& 0& 6& 0& 12& 8& 0& 0& 7& 0\\ 10& 12& 84& 39& 24& 44& 12& 48& 64& 84& 32& 44\\ 6& 4& 32& 13& 9& 12& 6& 26& 30& 32& 14& 11\\ 1& 0& 39& 16& 6& 19& 3& 16& 34& 47& 5& 27\\ 0& 0& 0& 7& 3& 6& 4& 0& 3& 0& 6& 6\\ 0& 0& 0& 7& 3& 6& 0& 0& 3& 0& 2& 10\end{array}\right)$$

References

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# Multidimensional Homogeneous Cosmological Models in Wesson Theory of Gravitation

## 1  Introduction

Recently Wesson  proposed a five dimensional theory of gravity where the rest masses varying with time. In this new theory, the space-time is no longer described by a four dimensional manifold but by a five dimensional space-time-mass (STM) Riemannian manifold where the mass plays the role of the fifth coordinate given by $`x^4=\frac{Gm}{c^2}(m=mass)`$. The Einstein theory is recovered when the velocity $`\frac{G}{c^2}\frac{dm}{dt}=0,`$ in other world, the mass is constant. In this regards the four dimensional theory of Einstein can be thought as embedded in a five dimensional STM theory.

This paper concerned with some possible exact solutions for a homogeneous, spatially isotropic n-dimensional $`(n>5)`$ cosmological model in a matter free space. Although some exact vacuum solutions for five dimensional cosmological model have been worked out by Chi  and Chaterjee . We have taken the matter density to be zero because otherwise the higher dimensional field equations with both time and mass as a variable are too complicated to yield explicit solutions. Moreover for the particular case this empty space models provide instructive and transparent examples of various geometric possibilities. The paper ends with some comments and conclusions.

This type of problem has been discussed in STM theory of gravity by Chaterjee  for five dimensional case. However in our solutions, it is pointed out that at this stage, the implications of higher dimension solutions and is nterpretation are priliminary in nature because of some conceptual roblems associated with the new theory and because of the absence of similar higher dimensional solutions in literature so for.

### 1.1 Field Equations

The line element for a n-dimensional homogeneous and spatially isotropic cosmological model is taken as

$$ds^2=e^\nu dt^2e^\omega \underset{i=1}{\overset{(n2)}{}}dx_i^2+e^\mu dm^2$$
(1)
where $`\mu ,\omega `$ and $`\nu `$ are the functions of time and mass. Here the coordinate $`x^0=t,x^{1,2,\mathrm{},(n2)}`$ (space coordinate) and $`x^{(n1)}=m.`$ For simplicity we have set the magnitudes of both c and G to unity. By applying this metric to the Einstein field equation $`G_{ij}=R_{ij}\frac{1}{2}g_{ij}R=0`$ with the assumption $`e^\nu =1`$ we get

$$G_{00}=(n2)(n3)\frac{\dot{\omega }^2}{8}(n2)\frac{\dot{\omega }\dot{\mu }}{4}(n2)e^\mu \left(\frac{{}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega }{2}\frac{{}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega {}_{}{}^{^{}}\mu }{4}+(n1)\frac{{}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega _{}^{2}}{8}\right)=0$$
(2)
$`G_{11}=e^\omega \left({\displaystyle \frac{\ddot{\mu }}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\mu }^2}{4}}\right)+(n3)e^\omega \left({\displaystyle \frac{\ddot{\omega }}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\omega }\dot{\mu }}{4}}+(n2){\displaystyle \frac{\ddot{\omega }^2}{8}}\right)`$
$`+(n3)e^{\omega \mu }\left({\displaystyle \frac{{}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega }{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{{}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega {}_{}{}^{^{}}\mu }{4}}+(n2){\displaystyle \frac{{}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega _{}^{2}}{8}}\right)=0`$ (3)
$$G_{11}=G_{22}=G_{33}=\mathrm{}=G_{(n2)(n2)}$$

$$G_{0(n1)}=(n2)\left(\frac{\dot{\omega }^{}}{2}+\frac{{}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega \dot{\omega }}{4}\frac{\dot{\mu }{}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega }{4}\right)=0$$
(4)
$$G_{(n1)(n1)}=(n2)(n3)\frac{{}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega _{}^{2}}{8}(n2)e^\mu \left(\frac{\ddot{\omega }}{2}+(n1)\frac{\dot{\omega ^2}}{8}\right)=0$$
(5)
where a dot and star denote, respectively partial derivative with respect to time and mass.

### 1.2 Solutions

By solving equation (4) we get

$$e^\mu =\alpha _1(m){}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega _{}^{2}e^\omega $$
(6)
where $`\alpha _1(m)`$ is an arbitrary function of mass. Using equation (6) in (5), we get

$${}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega _{}^{2}\left(\frac{(n3)}{8}+\alpha _1(m)e^\omega (\frac{\ddot{\omega }}{2}+(n1)\frac{\dot{\omega }^2}{8})\right)=0$$
(7)
since $`{}_{}{}^{^{}}\omega _{}^{2}`$ is not equal to zero in higher dimensional metric it follows that

$$\ddot{\omega }+\frac{(n1)}{4}\dot{\omega }^2=\frac{(n3)}{4\alpha _1(m)}e^\omega $$
(8)
which yield the first integral

$$\dot{\omega ^2}=\frac{1}{\alpha _1}e^\omega +C_1(m)e^{\frac{(n1)}{2}\omega }$$
(9)
Equation (9) can also be written as

$$\dot{X}^2=\frac{1}{4\alpha _1}+\frac{C_1}{4}X^{2k+2}$$
(10)
where $`X=e^{\frac{\omega }{2}}`$ and $`k=\frac{(n1)}{2}`$

$$or\frac{dX}{\sqrt{C_1\alpha _1X^{2(1k)}1}}=\frac{dt}{2\sqrt{\alpha _1}}$$
(11)
so that

$$\frac{X\sqrt{1\alpha _1C_1X^{3n}}F_1[\frac{1}{3n},\frac{1}{2},\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}+\frac{1}{3n},\alpha _1C_1X^{3n}]}{\sqrt{\alpha _1C_1X^{3n}1}}=\frac{1}{2\sqrt{\alpha _1}}t+C_2$$
(12)
where $`F_1`$ is a hypergeometric function and $`C_2`$ be the arbitrary function of mass.
For $`C_1=0`$ in equation (9), we get

$$e^\omega =\frac{t^2+2btb^2}{4\alpha _1}$$

$$ore^\omega =\alpha t^2+\beta t+\gamma $$
(13)
where $`\alpha =\frac{1}{4\alpha _1}`$, $`\beta =\frac{1}{2\alpha _1}`$, $`\gamma =\frac{b^2}{4\alpha _1}`$ are all functions of mass $`m`$ only.
Equation (13) is similar to the equation obtained by Chaterjee  for five dimensional case.

We can set $`\mu =0`$ in the line element (1) instead of $`\nu =0,`$ and the resulting solution is

$$\frac{X\sqrt{1ABX^{3n}}F_2[\frac{1}{3n},\frac{1}{2},\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}+\frac{1}{3n},ABX^{3n}]}{\sqrt{ABX^{3n}1}}=\frac{1}{2\sqrt{A}}m+C$$
(14)
where $`F_2`$ is hypergeometric function and $`A,B`$ and $`C`$ are all functions of time t only.

### 1.3 Conclusion

In this paper we have considered the the n-dimensional spatially homogeneous and isotropic cosmological model in STM theory of gravity. The main defect of the present model appears to be the arbitrary nature of mass functions. However, as the role of mass in the STM theory is not yet fully understood, neither in its geometrical concepts nor in its physical realm. We think that this new exact higher dimensional solutions together with cosmological considerations should bring some additional information, and as such, they need to be further investigated. It is our hope that the higher dimensional solutions presented here can be used as the starting point to investigate the behaviour of the rest of the particles in more realistic universe models.


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# SDSS J124602.54+011318.8: A Highly Luminous Optical Transient at 𝑧=0.385Based on observations obtained with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which is owned and operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium.

## 1 Introduction

All gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows discovered to date have been found by follow-up optical or radio imaging of satellite gamma-ray detection localizations. The optical follow-up observations have helped to identify GRB host galaxies, and to determine redshifts, spectral-energy distributions (SED), and decay rates for the optical counterparts. The GRB afterglows observed so far typically exhibit a power-law SED of about $`f_\nu \nu ^1`$, and a luminosity time decay which is also usually well-fit by one or two power-laws with indices of $`0.7`$ to $`2.4`$ (Stanek et al., 1999). The lack of detections of optical GRB afterglows in supernova searches and other variable object surveys has placed constraints on the relative gamma-ray to optical beaming angles, and hence on the GRB rate and energy output (Rhoads, 1997).

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (York et al., 2000, SDSS) was not designed to search for GRB afterglows, or any other transient objects. The explicit use of the camera for such follow-up can only occur under rare favorable conditions (e.g., Lee et al., 2001). However, many classes of highly variable or transient objects have photometric colors which separate them from the locus of main sequence stars in the SDSS color space. Therefore such objects may, in principle, be targeted for spectroscopic follow-up in the SDSS (c.f. Vanden Berk et al., 2002; Stoughton et al., 2002; Rhoads, 2001; Krisciunas, Margon, & Szkody, 1998). We show here that at least one object with properties similar to known GRB afterglows has been detected in the SDSS imaging survey, with follow-up observations in the spectroscopic survey. If the object is indeed a GRB afterglow, then it is the first to be found entirely with optical methods.

## 2 Observations and Selection Techniques

The SDSS is a project to image $`10^4\mathrm{deg}^2`$ of sky centered roughly on the Northern Galactic Pole, in five broad photometric bands ($`u,g,r,i,z`$), to a depth of $`r23`$, and to obtain spectra for $`10^6`$ galaxies and $`10^5`$ quasars selected from the imaging survey. The observations are made with a dedicated 2.5 m telescope (Siegmund et al., 2002) equipped with a large mosaic CCD camera (Gunn et al., 1998) and a pair of fiber-fed spectrographs (Uomoto et al., 2002). Technical details of the survey data acquisition system and reduction are given by York et al. (2000) and Stoughton et al. (2002).

Images are taken nearly simultaneously through 5 filters, $`ugriz`$, reduced with the SDSS photometric reduction pipeline PHOTO (Lupton et al., 2001), and calibrated in the preliminary SDSS photometric system, $`u^{}g^{}r^{}i^{}z^{}`$, which may differ by at most a few percent from that described by Fukugita et al. (1996) (c.f. Stoughton et al., 2002). Three sets of images each containing the coordinates of the optical transient were taken on 1999 March 20, 1999 March 22, and 2000 May 5, denoted by run numbers 745, 756, and 1462 respectively. The OT was observed at $`12\mathrm{h}46\mathrm{m}02\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}54,+1\mathrm{°}13\mathrm{}18\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}8`$. The magnitudes and coordinates on each of the three nights are given in Table 1. A finder chart and comparison images from each night are shown in Figure 1. The profiles of the object on the first two nights are consistent with the point spread function (PSF) of the images (see Lupton et al. (2001) and Stoughton et al. (2002) for a discussion of the SDSS PSF). The object has an $`r`$ band half-light radius of $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}79`$ in the third image set, and is extended relative to the PSF, indicative of a galaxy. The relative astrometric accuracy across runs is $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}07`$ in both RA and DEC, and all three coordinates are consistent within this uncertainty.

The OT was selected for spectroscopic follow-up as a quasar candidate based upon color criteria and a FIRST radio source optical match, from the imaging data in run 756. Several types of transient or otherwise variable objects – including cataclysmic variables, supernovae, and GRB afterglows – may be selected by the quasar algorithms, since they occupy some of the same volume of color space in the SDSS filter system as quasars (Vanden Berk et al., 2002; Rhoads, 2001; Krisciunas, Margon, & Szkody, 1998). The OT was targeted on the SDSS spectroscopic plate number 291, and spectra were obtained on 2000 April 26 and 2001 January 19. The spectra were reduced and calibrated using the SDSS spectroscopic pipeline (Frieman et al., 2002). The coadded spectrum is shown in Figure 2, and reveals a galaxy at a redshift of $`z=0.385`$.

The OT was discovered as part of a program to find supernovae and other highly variable objects in the SDSS dataset, details of which are given by Vanden Berk et al. (2002). Briefly, the flux-calibrated spectra are convolved with the SDSS $`g,r`$, and $`i`$ filter transmission curves (the $`u`$ and $`z`$ bands are not fully covered by the spectra), including 1.2 airmasses of extinction and the CCD response function, to generate synthetic spectroscopic magnitudes. Spectroscopic targets which are significantly fainter in the spectra compared to the images are flagged as variable object candidates. Each candidate’s spectrum and corresponding image are examined in order to identify the object type. The optical transient faded by $`2.5`$ magnitudes in all three bands, and the normal galaxy spectrum made it a candidate supernova or GRB afterglow. The spectroscopic magnitudes are given in Table 1.

## 3 Results

We have generated spectral energy distributions for the OT in its bright phase by transforming the reddening-corrected (Schlegel, Finkbeiner, & Davis, 1998) and galaxy-subtracted magnitudes into flux density values according to the $`AB_\nu `$ system as described by Fukugita et al. (1996). The SEDs of the OT light in runs 745 and 756 are shown in Figure 3. Both SEDs are well-fit by power laws of the form $`f_\nu =(\nu /\nu _0)^{\beta _\nu }`$, with index values $`\beta _\nu =0.92\pm 0.01`$ (run 745) and $`1.29\pm 0.04`$ (run 756). Both values fall well within the typical range for GRB afterglows ($`2.3\beta _\nu 0.7`$). If the OT is at the same redshift as the galaxy, $`z=0.385`$, and using a flat $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-dominated cosmology ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3,\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7,H_0=65\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$), the absolute magnitudes of the OT on 1999 March 20 and 22 were $`M_r^{}=24.75`$ and $`M_r^{}=24.81`$ respectively. This is about 6 magnitudes brighter than Type Ia supernovae at maximum (c.f. Vaughan, Branch, Miller, & Perlmutter, 1995), and as much as 4 magnitudes brighter than the most luminous supernova ever discovered (SN 1997cy, which was discovered perhaps a few weeks post-maximum (Germany et al., 2000)). In addition, the colors of the OT are not similar to those of the most commonly classified supernovae (Poznanski et al., 2002, although we cannot rule out some rare and unusual class of supernova by colors alone).

Before discussing the implications of the GRB afterglow hypothesis, we consider other potential identifications. The OT is unlikely to be within the solar system as Earth reflex motion would cause an offset of greater than $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}3`$ ($`3\sigma `$ detection) between the $`g`$ and $`r`$ image positions for objects out to the Kuiper Belt (Ivezić et al., 2000). The only known types of variable stars that cannot be excluded based upon insufficient variability amplitude or non-matching colors and SEDs are some types of cataclysmic variables. We have examined 22 cataclysmic variables with SDSS photometry (Szkody et al., 2002; Krisciunas, Margon, & Szkody, 1998) and find only 2 or 3 which are reasonably consistent with power-law SEDs. There is also no evidence for the spectral signature of any type of galactic variable star. In addition, we find no evidence for past variability from a visual examination of the publicly available images extracted from the Digitized Sky Survey111The Digitized Sky Survey was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under U.S. Government grant NAGW-2166; the digitized image data is publicly available, but the magnitude-calibrated data is not. of photographic plates observed in 1956, 1979, 1990, and 1991. Furthermore, the remarkably close coincidence with a galaxy would have to be explained as a random alignment (for example, the probability of a random coordinate falling within 0.5′of a galaxy brighter than $`r^{}=20.0`$ is $`10^4`$ (Yasuda et al., 2001)). Based upon these arguments, it is unlikely that the OT can be identified with any type of Galactic object.

Aside from GRB afterglows, the only known types of variable objects luminous enough to identify with the OT are quasars and other active galactic nuclei (AGN). The SEDs of AGN can often be approximated by power laws with indices $`\beta _\nu 0.5`$. Also, the host galaxy is coincident with a radio source detected in the FIRST survey (Becker, White, & Helfand, 1995) with integrated flux $`S=79.4`$ mJy at 1.4 GHz, and the PMN survey (Griffith, Wright, Burke, & Ekers, 1995) with $`S=51`$ mJy at 4.9 GHz. The radio flux is high for a “normal” galaxy (Magliocchetti et al., 2000), and would require a star formation rate $`30,000M_{\mathrm{}}`$ per year to explain it (see, e.g. Condon, 1992; Berger, Kulkarni, & Frail, 2001). However, the galaxy is not detected in the far infrared in the IRAS catalogs (Beichman et al., 1988). These facts imply that AGN activity rather than star formation is the source of the radio emission. Therefore the galaxy probably harbors an AGN which is obscured, perhaps entirely, at optical wavelengths. However, the defining optical characteristics of an AGN – a non-stellar spectrum with strong broad emission lines – are not seen in the galaxy spectrum. The galaxy is also undetected in the ROSAT All Sky Survey (Voges et al., 1999), and a search of all other available X-ray surveys using the NASA High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center reveals no known X-ray source. This nearly precludes the identification of the galaxy as a blazar – a class of AGN with strong X-ray emission which have been observed to vary at optical wavelengths by several magnitudes on timescales of months to years (e.g. Schramm et al., 1994; Webb et al., 1988). Also, as described above, we found no evidence for past optical variability. The coordinates set the location of the OT at $`0.5\pm 0.5`$ kpc from the galaxy center, which is consistent with other known GRB afterglows (Bloom, Kulkarni, & Djorgovski, 2002). These facts suggest that although the galaxy probably harbors an obscured AGN, the OT is not the result of normal AGN activity.

If the galaxy contains an AGN, an intriguing possibility for the OT is that of a tidally disrupted star near a supermassive black hole (Rees, 1988), which may cause a bright relatively short-lived flare. However, estimates of the spectral signature of such events predict either thermal emission from the accretion disk at $`10^5`$K (Ulmer, 1999), which would be too blue to match the OT, or reprocessing of the radiation by tidal debris at $`10^4`$K lasting at least several years (Loeb & Ulmer, 1997), which also would not match the observed properties of the OT. In addition, any flare associated with an obscured AGN would still have to overcome the optical obscuration. While we find the evidence for an AGN less consistent than for a GRB afterglow, we cannot completely rule out the possibility that the OT is some kind of extreme AGN. Further observations such as higher signal-to-noise ratio spectra, high resolution radio mapping, and especially long-term optical monitoring (AGN activity may recur while an afterglow will not) would place further constraints on either the afterglow or AGN hypothesis.

Another possibility is that the object is an AGN of some sort which is reddened to have the observed SEDs. For example, using the reddening function given by Francis, Whiting, & Webster (2000), one can transform a pure $`\beta _\nu =0.3`$ power-law into an SED that roughly approximates a power-law with index -1 in the optical, using $`E(BV)=0.15`$. However, the resulting SED is only poorly matched by a power-law, and to achieve a slope in the correct range requires a fine-tuning of the color excess. Similar attempts to transform a hot thermal accretion disk SED into the appropriate power-law fail for all values of the color excess. In addition, although observed AGN power-law slopes can be as red as this OT, values of $`\beta _\nu 1`$ are well out on the tail of the distribution (e.g. Francis, 1996).

If the OT is a GRB afterglow, then the properties of its presumed host galaxy are of interest. The absolute magnitude of the galaxy (in run 1462) at $`z=0.385`$ is $`M_r^{}=22.3`$ – slightly brighter than an $`L_{}`$ galaxy in the SDSS photometric system (Blanton et al., 2001), and near the median value for GRB host galaxies (Djorgovski et al., 2001). Based upon the possible detection of narrow \[O ii\]$`\lambda 5007`$ and H $`\alpha `$ emission lines, we estimate the star formation rate to be $`SFR1\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, (Kennicutt, 1998). We have argued above that the radio flux is most likely due to an AGN that is heavily obscured at optical wavelengths. The star formation rate estimated from the emission line flux is therefore probably a lower limit, due to extinction. Even so, the inferred star formation rate is well within the range observed for GRB host galaxies (Djorgovski et al., 2001; Berger, Kulkarni, & Frail, 2001). Thus, except for the high radio flux, the intrinsic properties of the host galaxy are quite similar to those of GRB afterglow host galaxies discovered to date. If the OT is a GRB afterglow, it would mark the first detection of a GRB afterglow in a galaxy with an AGN.

## 4 Discussion

Detailed theoretical discussions of the implications of the OT and GRB hypothesis and discussions of GRB beaming may be found elsewhere (Moderski, Sikora, & Bulik, 2000; Granot et al., 2002). Here we consider some of the observational consequences. In two nights the spectral slope of the OT changed from $`0.92`$ to $`1.29`$, which is about a 7$`\sigma `$ difference. These values do not change significantly when the $`u`$-band magnitudes, which are the most uncertain, are excluded. The OT faded modestly, if at all, at the longest wavelengths observed (i.e., in the $`z`$ band). The modest decline rate can be explained by either a late phase ($`t10`$ d) of a power-law flux time decay, or by an early “plateau” or slowly declining phase before the onset of a power-law decay, similar to that of GRB 970508 (Galama et al., 1998; Pedersen et al., 1998) and GRB 000301C (Masetti et al., 2000). During its plateau phase, GRB 970508 reddened, while GRB 000301C’s plateau was achromatic. ROTSE-I archival images (Kehoe et al., 2001) from 50, 30, 10, and 4 days before and 1, 2, and 3 days after run 745 reveal no source to a limiting magnitude of $`r^{}16.0`$ ($`15.0`$ for 8, 17, and 50 days later), casting doubt on the late phase scenario. The absolute magnitude of the OT is near the average value reached by fading afterglows in a only few days (Šimon, Hudec, Pizzichini, & Masetti, 2001). Additionally, a comparable change in spectral slope was observed for the afterglow of GRB 970508 during an early “plateau” phase (Galama et al., 1998). Finally, according to the standard ultrarelativistic external shock model of GRB afterglows, the slope of the optical spectrum is expected to steepen by $`1/2`$ when the so-called “cooling break” moves through the optical band (Sari, Piran, & Narayan, 1998). If we interpret the observed steepening of the optical spectrum as due to this, it implies that the first image was taken $`1`$ day after the GRB (see also Granot et al. 2002). Thus, the OT was likely imaged in the SDSS during an early phase.

The possible detection of a GRB afterglow in the first $`1500\mathrm{deg}^2`$ of the SDSS favors strong gamma-ray beaming relative to the optical emission. We estimate the number of afterglows that should be seen thus far in the SDSS search by integrating the inferred GRB rate in the cosmological volume (Schmidt, 2001) in which an afterglow would be detected, to $`z0.5`$, which is the rough spectroscopic limit of $`L_{}`$ galaxies by the SDSS. Using the inferred total GRB progenitor event rate of $`250\mathrm{Gpc}^3\mathrm{yr}^1`$ at $`z=0`$ (Frail et al., 2001), a GRB rate proportional to the star formation rate, and assuming that GRB afterglows remain brighter than $`r^{}19`$ (the limiting selection magnitude of these particular SDSS images) for about one week, the expected number of bursts observed in the $`1500\mathrm{deg}^2`$ is $`5f_{\mathrm{opt}}`$, where $`f_{\mathrm{opt}}`$ is the fraction of the sky illuminated by the optical emission. Frail et al. find that the beaming fraction of the conical fireball producing the GRB is $`f_\gamma 500^1`$. If the associated optical display is confined to the same jet, i.e. $`f_{\mathrm{opt}}=f_\gamma `$, then the number of afterglow events expected in this SDSS volume is $`10^2`$. Therefore, the observation of this event favors a frequency-dependent beaming angle with $`f_{\mathrm{opt}}f_\gamma `$ (and hence disfavors models such as that of Dalal, Griest, & Pruet (2002)). The only relatively close trigger in the current BATSE archive222http://gammaray.msfc.nasa.gov/batse/grb/catalog/current/ in the months prior to the SDSS imaging is GRB990308, which was identified with an afterglow more than 12 deg away (Schaefer et al., 1999). There is no related IPN trigger, and the nearest Ulysses trigger is an unlocalized event on 1999 March 16 (Hurley et al., 1999). The lack of any clearly associated GRB is not surprising given the implied beaming fraction, and may suggest that the OT is a so-called “orphan afterglow.”

## 5 Conclusions

We have discovered an unusual transient object associated with a galaxy at redshift of $`z=0.385`$. No known type of object is entirely consistent with the observations. The coincidence with an apparently normal galaxy, extreme variability, power-law SED, and high luminosity are suggestive of a GRB afterglow, although other explanations such as a highly unusual AGN are possible. If the object is indeed an afterglow, then the gamma-rays must be strongly beamed relative to the optical emission. Further observations of the galaxy or the discovery of additional transients with similar properties will help to clarify the nature of this unusual object.

## 6 Note Added After Submission

As suggested above, follow-up observations of the OT have been obtained by another group (Gal-Yam et al., 2002) since the submission of this paper. These new observations indicate that the AGN hypothesis is more likely. Gal-Yam et al. (2002) also find past evidence for variability in the Digitized Sky Survey magnitude-calibrated catalog data (only the digitized image data is publicly avilable). The object, if indeed an AGN, is highly unusual and further follow-up work is warranted. The fact that our extensive search for orphan afterglows found only one candidate establishes empirically that the background rate, while possibly non-zero, is low. Thus, although follow-up observations will be necessary in order to confirm orphan afterglow candidates, the number of such candidates will be small and easily manageable. Further color-selected searches for orphan afterglows employing deep and broad sky coverage are therefore practicable.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is a joint project of The University of Chicago, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, The Johns Hopkins University, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington. Apache Point Observatory, site of the SDSS telescopes, is operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC). Funding for the project has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the SDSS member institutions, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, and the Max Planck Society. The SDSS Web site is http://www.sdss.org/. We acknowledge useful discussions with Jean Quashnock and Daniel Reichart, and thank the ROTSE team for access to their imaging archive. JFB and KA were supported in part by NASA (NAG5-10842).


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# Excitation of non-quark degrees of freedom in N*Talk delivered by B. Golli at the workshop on Few body problems in hadronic and atomic physics at Bled, Slovenia, July 7–14, 2001.

## Abstract

We study the contribution of glueball and $`\sigma `$-meson degrees of freedom to nucleon excited states in the framework of a chiral version of the chromodielectric model. We have found that these degrees of freedom considerably lower the energy of the Roper and may substantially weaken the electroexcitation amplitudes for the N(1440) and in particular for the N(1710).

Among the excited states of the nucleon the Roper resonance, N(1440), plays a rather special role since, due to its relatively low excitation energy, a simple picture in which one quark populates the 2s level does not work here. The relatively low energy of the N\* has been explained by

* the residual interaction originating from chiral mesons exchange ,
* allowing the confining potential to vibrate (e.g. in the MIT bag model , or in models with dynamically generated confinement, ),
* describing the N\* as a pure sigma meson excitation rather than the excitation of the quark core ,
* explicit excitations of glue-field .

We present a simple model, the chromodielectric model (CDM), which is particularly suitable to describe the interplay of glueball and meson excitations together with quark radial excitations. The model includes a chromodielectric field $`\chi `$ which assures quark dynamical confinement, and the chiral fields, $`\sigma `$ and $`\pi `$. The Lagrangian takes the form :

$$=\mathrm{i}\overline{\psi }\gamma ^\mu _\mu \psi +\frac{g}{\chi }\overline{\psi }(\widehat{\sigma }+\mathrm{i}\stackrel{}{\tau }\widehat{\stackrel{}{\pi }}\gamma _5)\psi +_{\sigma ,\pi }+_\chi ,$$
(1)
where

$`_\chi `$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}_\mu \widehat{\chi }^\mu \widehat{\chi }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}M^2\widehat{\chi }^2,`$
$`_{\sigma ,\pi }`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}_\mu \widehat{\sigma }^\mu \widehat{\sigma }+\frac{1}{2}_\mu \widehat{\stackrel{}{\pi }}^\mu \widehat{\stackrel{}{\pi }}𝒰(\widehat{\stackrel{}{\pi }}^2+\widehat{\sigma }^2),`$ (2)
and $`𝒰`$ is the usual Mexican hat potential. The model parameters $`g=0.03`$ GeV and $`M=1.4`$ GeV are chosen to reproduce best the ground state properties ; for $`m_\sigma `$ we have taken $`0.6\mathrm{GeV}<m_\sigma <1.2\mathrm{GeV}`$.

The Roper resonance is described as a cluster of three quarks in radial-orbital configuration (1s)2 (2s)1, surrounded by pion and $`\sigma `$-meson clouds and by a chromodielectric field. The fields oscillate together with quarks. The ansätze for the nucleon $`|N`$ and the Roper $`|R^{}`$ are assumed in the form of coherent states  on top of $`(1s)^3`$ and $`(1s)^2(2s)^1`$ configurations, respectively, projected onto subspace with good angular momentum and isospin. Different profiles are assumed for the Roper and the nucleon, and the boson fields are allowed to adapt to the quark configuration. The ‘potential’ breathes together with the quarks as illustrated in Fig. 1. The proper orthogonalization of both states is ensured by writing:

$$|\mathrm{R}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1c^2}}(|\mathrm{R}^{}c|\mathrm{N}),c=\mathrm{N}|\mathrm{R}^{}.$$
(3)
We investigate here another possible type of excitation in which the quarks remain in the ground state configuration (1s)3 while the chromodielectric field and the $`\sigma `$-field oscillate. Such oscillations can be described by expanding the boson fields as small oscillations around their ground state values. For the $`\sigma `$-field we write:

$$\widehat{\sigma }(\stackrel{}{r})=\underset{n}{}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\epsilon _n}}\phi _n(r)\frac{1}{\sqrt{4\pi }}\left[\stackrel{~}{a}_n+\stackrel{~}{a}_n^{}\right]+\sigma (r),$$

where $`\phi _n`$ and $`\epsilon _n`$ satisfy the Klein-Gordon equation

$$\left(^2+m^2+\frac{\mathrm{d}^2V(\sigma (r))}{\mathrm{d}\sigma (r)^2}\right)\phi _n(r)=\epsilon _n^2\phi _n(r).$$
(4)
A simple ansatz for the annihilation (creation) operator of the $`n`$-th mode is given by

$$\stackrel{~}{a}_n=dk\stackrel{~}{\phi }_n(k)\left(\stackrel{~}{a}(k)\sqrt{2\pi \omega _\sigma (k)}\eta (k)\right),\stackrel{~}{a}_n|N=0,$$
(5)
where $`\eta (k)`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\phi }_n(k)`$ are the Fourier transforms of $`\sigma (r)`$ and $`\phi _n(r)`$, respectively, and $`\omega _\sigma (k)=k^2+m_\sigma ^2`$. The effective potential in (4) is

$$V_{\sigma \sigma }(r)=\frac{\mathrm{d}^2V(\sigma (r))}{\mathrm{d}\sigma (r)^2}=\lambda \left[C_2\varphi (r)^2+3\sigma (r)(\sigma (r)+2\sigma _v)\right],$$
(6)
where $`\sigma `$ is the fluctuating part of the full field and $`C_2`$ is a projection coefficient slightly smaller than unity. Similar expressions hold for the $`\chi `$ field with the effective potential

$$V_{\chi \chi }(r)=\frac{\mathrm{d}^2V(\chi (r))}{\mathrm{d}\chi (r)^2}=\frac{3}{2\pi }\frac{g}{\chi (r)^3}\left[(\sigma (r)+\sigma _v)(u(r)^2v(r)^2)+2\varphi (r)u(r)v(r)\right].$$
(7)
The effective potential turns out to be repulsive for the $`\chi `$-field and attractive for the $`\sigma `$-field; in the latter case there exists at least one bound state with the energy $`\epsilon _1`$ of typically 100 MeV below the $`\sigma `$-meson mass.

The ansatz for the Roper can now be simply extended as

$$|\mathrm{R}^{}=c_1|\mathrm{R}+c_2\stackrel{~}{a}_{}^{}{}_{\sigma }{}^{}|N,$$
(8)
where $`\stackrel{~}{a}_\sigma ^{}`$ is the creation operator for the lowest vibrational mode. The coefficients $`c_i`$ and the energy are determined by solving the generalized eigenvalue problem in the $`2\times 2`$ subspace. The solution with the lowest energy corresponds to the Roper, while the orthogonal combination to one of the higher excited states with nucleon quantum numbers, e.g., the $`N(1710)`$, provided the $`\sigma `$-meson mass is sufficiently small. The energy of the Roper is reduced (see Table 1), though the effect is small due to weak coupling between the state (3) and the lowest vibrational state with the energy $`\epsilon _1`$. The reduction becomes more important if the mass of the $`\sigma `$-meson is decreased. The energy of the combination orthogonal to the ground state is close to $`E_N+\epsilon _1`$ with $`\sigma `$-meson vibrational mode as the dominant component.

The electromagnetic nucleon-Roper transition amplitudes as well as the transition amplitudes to higher excitations with nucleon quantum numbers represent an important test which may eventually distinguish between the models listed at the beginning. The transverse helicity amplitude is defined as

$$A_{1/2}=\zeta \sqrt{\frac{2\pi \alpha }{k_W}}\mathrm{d}^3rrr\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{R}}_{+\frac{1}{2},M_T}|JJJ_{\mathrm{em}}(rrr)ϵϵϵ_{+1}\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}kkkrrr}|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{N}}_{\frac{1}{2},M_T}$$
(9)
where $`k_W`$ is the photon momentum at the photon point, and the scalar helicity amplitude as

$$S_{1/2}=\zeta \sqrt{\frac{2\pi \alpha }{k_W}}drrr\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{R}}_{+\frac{1}{2},M_T}|J_{\mathrm{em}}^0(rrr)\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}kkkrrr}|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{N}}_{+\frac{1}{2},M_T}.$$
(10)
Here $`J_{\mathrm{em}}^\mu `$ is the EM current derived from the Lagrangian density (1):

$$J_{\mathrm{em}}^\mu =\underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}\overline{q}_i\gamma ^\mu (i)\left(\frac{1}{6}+\frac{1}{2}\tau _0(i)\right)q_i+\left(\stackrel{}{\pi }\times ^\mu \stackrel{}{\pi }\right)_0.$$
(11)
The amplitudes (9) and (10) contain a phase factor, $`\zeta `$, determined by the sign of the decay amplitude into the nucleon and the pion.

The new term in (8) does not contribute to the nucleon-Roper transition amplitudes. Namely, for an arbitrary EM transition operator $`\widehat{O}`$ involving only quarks and pions we can write

$$N|\stackrel{~}{a}_1\widehat{O}|N=N|[\stackrel{~}{a}_1,\widehat{O}]|N=0,$$
(12)
because of (5) and since the operators $`\stackrel{~}{a}_n`$ commute with $`\widehat{O}`$.

A possible way to identify such a state would be to search for those excited states for which the amplitudes are strongly reduced compared to those calculated in a model with only quark degrees of freedom. There have been several attempts to calculate these amplitudes in various models, such as in chiral quark models , models with explicit gluon degrees of freedom  and relativistic versions of the constituent quark model . Unfortunately, the present status of theoretical prediction is rather unclear because of a strong sensitivity of transition amplitudes on small variation of the Roper wave function. To understand the nature of the Roper remains a big challenge for theoreticians as well as for experimentalists.