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# On a Subspace Perturbation Problem

## 1. Introduction

It is well known (see, e.g., ) that if $`A`$ and $`V`$ are bounded self-adjoint operators on a separable Hilbert space $``$, then (the perturbation) $`V`$ does not close gaps of length greater than $`2V`$ in the spectrum of $`A`$. More precisely, if $`(a,b)`$ is a finite interval and $`(a,b)\varrho (A)`$, the resolvent set of $`A`$, then

$$(a+V,bV)\varrho (A+sV)\text{ for all }s[1,1]$$

whenever $`2V<ba`$. Hence, under the assumption that $`A`$ has an isolated part $`\sigma `$ of the spectrum separated from its remainder by gaps of length greater than or equal to $`d>0`$, the spectrum of the operators $`A+sV`$, $`s[1,1]`$ will also have separated components, provided that the condition

(1.1)
$$V<\frac{d}{2}$$

holds.

Our main concern is to study the variation the corresponding spectral subspace associated with the isolated part $`\sigma `$ of the spectrum of $`A`$ under perturbations satisfying (1.1).

For notational setup we assume the following hypothesis.

###### Hypothesis 1.

Assume that $`A`$ and $`V`$ are bounded self-adjoint operators on a separable Hilbert space $``$. Suppose that the spectrum of $`A`$ has a part $`\sigma `$ separated from the remainder of the spectrum $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ in the sense that

$$\mathrm{spec}(A)=\sigma \mathrm{\Sigma }$$

and

$$\mathrm{dist}(\sigma ,\mathrm{\Sigma })=d>0.$$

Introduce the orthogonal projections $`P=𝖤_A(\sigma )`$ and $`Q=𝖤_{A+V}(U_{d/2}(\sigma )),`$ where $`U_\epsilon (\sigma )`$, $`\epsilon >0`$ is the open $`\epsilon `$-neighborhood of the set $`\sigma `$. Here $`𝖤_A(\mathrm{\Delta })`$ and $`𝖤_{A+V}(\mathrm{\Delta })`$ denote the spectral projections for operators $`A`$ and $`A+V`$, respectively, corresponding to a Borel set $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ .

In this note we address the following question: *Assuming Hypothesis 1, does condition (1.1) imply*

$$PQ<1\mathrm{?}$$

We give a partially affirmative answer to this question. The precise statement reads as follows.

###### Theorem 1.

Assume Hypothesis 1 and suppose that either

(i) $`V<\frac{2}{2+\pi }d`$

or

(ii) $`V<\frac{1}{2}d`$

and

(1.2)
$$\mathrm{conv}.\mathrm{hull}(\sigma )\mathrm{\Sigma }=\text{ or }\mathrm{conv}.\mathrm{hull}(\mathrm{\Sigma })\sigma =.$$

Then

$$PQ<1.$$

Our strategy of proof of Theorem 1 does not allow to relax condition

(1.3)
$$V<\frac{2}{2+\pi }d$$

and just assume the natural condition (1.1) with no additional hypotheses. It is an *open problem* whether Hypothesis 1 alone and the bounds

(1.4)
$$\frac{2}{2+\pi }\frac{V}{d}<\frac{1}{2}$$

on the perturbation $`V`$ imply $`PQ<1`$.

For compact perturbations $`V`$ satisfying inequality (1.1) we can however state that the pair $`(P,Q)`$ of the orthogonal projections is a Fredholm pair with zero index. Recall that the pair $`(P,Q)`$ of orthogonal projections is called Fredholm if the operator $`QP`$ viewed as a map from $`\mathrm{Ran}P`$ to $`\mathrm{Ran}Q`$ is a Fredholm operator . The index of this operator is called the index of the pair $`(P,Q).`$

###### Theorem 2.

Assume Hypothesis 1 and suppose that $`V`$ is a compact operator satisfying (1.1). Then the pair $`(P,Q)`$ is Fredholm with zero index. In particular, the subspaces $`\mathrm{Ker}(PQ^{}I)`$ and $`\mathrm{Ker}(P^{}QI)`$ are finite-dimensional and

$$dim\mathrm{Ker}(PQ^{}I)=dim\mathrm{Ker}(P^{}QI).$$

In the “overcritical” case $`V>d/2`$, the perturbed operator $`A+V`$ may not have separated parts of the spectrum at all. In this case we give an example where the spectral measure of the perturbed operator $`A+V`$ is “concentrated” on the unit sphere in the space of bounded operators $`()`$ centered at the point $`P=𝖤_A(\sigma )`$, with the norm of the perturbation being arbitrarily close to $`d/2`$. That is, given $`d>0`$, for any $`\epsilon >0`$ one can find a self-adjoint operator $`A`$ satisfying Hypothesis 1 and a self-adjoint perturbation $`V`$ with $`V=d/2+\epsilon `$ such that

$$𝖤_A(\sigma )𝖤_{A+V}(\mathrm{\Delta })=1$$

for any Borel set $`\mathrm{\Delta }.`$

### Acknowledgments.

V. Kostrykin is grateful to V. Enss for useful discussions. K. A. Makarov is grateful to F. Gesztesy for critical remarks. A. K. Motovilov acknowledges the great hospitality and financial support by the Department of Mathematics, University of Missouri–Columbia, MO, USA. He was also supported in part by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research within the RFBR Project 01-01-00958.

## 2. Proof of Theorem 1

Our proof of Theorem 1 is based on the following sharp result (see  and references cited therein) taken from geometric perturbation theory initiated by C. Davis  and developed further in , , , , .

###### Proposition 2.1.

Let $`A`$ and $`B`$ be bounded self-adjoint operators and $`\delta `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ two Borel sets on the real axis $``$ . Then

$$\mathrm{dist}(\delta ,\mathrm{\Delta })𝖤_A(\delta )𝖤_B(\mathrm{\Delta })\frac{\pi }{2}AB.$$

If, in addition, the convex hull of the set $`\delta `$ does not intersect the set $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, or the convex hull of the set $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ does not intersect the set $`\delta `$, then one has the stronger result

$$\mathrm{dist}(\delta ,\mathrm{\Delta })𝖤_A(\delta )𝖤_B(\mathrm{\Delta })AB.$$

We split the proof of Theorem 1 into the following two lemmas.

###### Lemma 2.2.

Assume Hypothesis 1. Assume, in addition, that (1.3) holds. Then

$$PQ<1.$$

###### Proof.

Clearly $`\mathrm{spec}(A+V)\overline{U_V(\sigma \mathrm{\Sigma })}`$, where bar denotes the (usual) closure in $``$, and then

$$Q^{}=𝖤_{A+V}\left(\overline{U_V(\mathrm{\Sigma })}\right).$$

By the first claim of Proposition 2.1,

(2.1)
$$PQ^{}\frac{\pi }{2}\frac{V}{\mathrm{dist}(\sigma ,U_V(\mathrm{\Sigma }))}.$$

The distance between the set $`\sigma `$ and the $`V`$-neighborhood of the set $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ can be estimated from below as follows,

$$\mathrm{dist}(\sigma ,U_V(\mathrm{\Sigma }))dV>0.$$

Then (2.1) implies the inequality

$$PQ^{}\frac{\pi }{2}\frac{V}{dV}.$$

Hence, from inequality (1.3) it follows that

(2.2)
$$PQ^{}\frac{\pi }{2}\frac{V}{dV}<1.$$

Interchanging the roles of $`\sigma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ one obtains the analogous inequality

(2.3)
$$P^{}Q<1.$$

Since

(2.4)
$$PQ=\mathrm{max}\{PQ^{},P^{}Q\}$$

(see, e.g., \[2, Ch. III, Section 39\]), inequalities (2.2) and (2.3) prove the assertion. ∎

Under additional assumptions on mutual disposition of the parts $`\sigma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ of the spectrum of $`A`$ one can relax the condition (1.3) on the norm of perturbation and replace it by the natural condition (1.1).

###### Lemma 2.3.

Assume Hypothesis 1 and suppose that condition (1.1) holds.

1. If either $`\sigma \mathrm{conv}.\mathrm{hull}(\mathrm{\Sigma })=`$ or $`\mathrm{conv}.\mathrm{hull}(\sigma )\mathrm{\Sigma }=`$, then

(2.5)
$$PQ<1.$$
2. If in addition the sets $`\sigma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ are subordinated, that is,

$$\mathrm{conv}.\mathrm{hull}(\sigma )\mathrm{conv}.\mathrm{hull}(\mathrm{\Sigma })=,$$

then the following sharp estimate holds

(2.6)
$$PQ<\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}.$$

###### Proof.

(i) The proof follows that of Lemma 2.2. Applying the second assertion of Proposition 2.1 instead of inequality (2.1), one derives the estimates

(2.7)
$$PQ^{}\frac{V}{\mathrm{dist}(\sigma ,U_V(\mathrm{\Sigma }))}\frac{V}{dV}<1,$$

under hypothesis (1.4), and then the inequality $`P^{}Q<1`$, proving assertion (2.5) using (2.4).

(ii) First assume that $`V`$ is off-diagonal, that is,

$$𝖤_A(\sigma )V𝖤_A(\sigma )=𝖤_A(\sigma )^{}V𝖤_A(\sigma )^{}=0.$$

Then the inequality $`PQ<\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}`$ follows from the $`\mathrm{tan}2\mathrm{\Theta }`$-Theorem proven first by C. Davis (see, e.g., )

$$PQ\mathrm{sin}\left(\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{arctan}\frac{2V}{d}\right)<\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}.$$

A related result can be found in .

The general case can be reduced to the off-diagonal one by the following trick. Assume that $`V`$ is not necessarily off-diagonal. Decomposing the perturbation $`V`$ into the diagonal $`V_{\mathrm{diag}}`$ and off-diagonal $`V_{\mathrm{off}}`$ parts with respect to the orthogonal decomposition $`=\mathrm{Ran}𝖤_A(\sigma )\mathrm{Ran}𝖤_𝐀(\sigma )^{}`$ associated with the range of the projection $`𝖤_A(\sigma )`$

$$V=V_{\mathrm{diag}}+V_{\mathrm{off}},$$

one concludes that

$$𝖤_{A+V_{\mathrm{diag}}}(U_{d/2}(\sigma ))=𝖤_A(\sigma ).$$

Moreover, the distance between the spectrum of the part of $`A+V_{\mathrm{diag}}`$ associated with the invariant subspace $`\mathrm{Ran}𝖤_{A+V_{\mathrm{diag}}}(U_{d/2}(\sigma ))`$ and the remainder of the spectrum of $`A+V_{\mathrm{diag}}`$ does not exceed $`d2V_{\text{diag}}>0`$. Using the $`\mathrm{tan}2\mathrm{\Theta }`$-Theorem then yields

$`PQ`$ $`\mathrm{sin}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{arctan}{\displaystyle \frac{2V_{\text{off}}}{d2V_{\text{diag}}}}\right)`$
$`\mathrm{sin}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{arctan}{\displaystyle \frac{2V}{d2V}}\right)<{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}},`$
completing the proof. ∎

The sharpness of estimate (2.6) is shown by the following example.

###### Example 2.4.

Let $`=^2`$. For an arbitrary $`\epsilon (0,3/4)`$ consider the $`2\times 2`$ matrices

$$A=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right),V=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1/2\epsilon & \sqrt{\epsilon }/2\\ \sqrt{\epsilon }/2& 1/2+\epsilon \end{array}\right).$$

Let $`\sigma =\{0\}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=\{1\}`$. Obviously, $`\mathrm{dist}(\sigma ,\mathrm{\Sigma })=1`$. Since

$$V=\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{13\epsilon +4\epsilon ^2}<\frac{1}{2},$$

the perturbation $`V`$ satisfies the hypotheses of Lemma 2.3. Simple calculations yield

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill Q& =𝖤_{A+V}\left(U_{1/2}(\sigma )\right)=𝖤_{A+V}\left((1/2,1/2)\right)\hfill \\ & =\frac{1}{1+(2\sqrt{\epsilon }+\sqrt{1+4\epsilon })^2}\left(\begin{array}{cc}(2\sqrt{\epsilon }+\sqrt{1+4\epsilon })^2& 2\sqrt{\epsilon }\sqrt{1+4\epsilon }\\ 2\sqrt{\epsilon }\sqrt{1+4\epsilon }& 1\end{array}\right),\hfill \end{array}$$

and hence,

$$PQ=\left[1+(2\sqrt{\epsilon }+\sqrt{1+4\epsilon })^2\right]^{1/2}<\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}.$$

Taking $`\epsilon `$ sufficiently small, the norm $`PQ`$ can be made arbitrarily close to $`\sqrt{2}/2`$.

## 3. Proof of Theorem 2

###### Lemma 3.1.

Assume Hypothesis 1 and suppose, in addition, that $`V`$ is a compact operator satisfying condition (1.1). Then there is a unitary $`W`$ such that $`Q=WPW^{}`$ and $`WI`$ is compact.

###### Proof.

Fix $`\epsilon >0`$ such that $`(1+\epsilon )V<d/2`$ and introduce the family of spectral projections

$$𝒫(s)=𝖤_{A+sV}(U_{d/2}(\sigma )),s(\epsilon ,1+\epsilon ).$$

Clearly, $`𝒫(0)=P`$ and $`𝒫(1)=Q`$. From the analytical perturbation theory (see ) one concludes that the operator-valued function $`𝒫(s)`$ is real-analytic on $`(\epsilon ,1+\epsilon )`$. Moreover (see \[10, Section II.4.2\]),

$$𝒫(s)=X(s)𝒫(0)X(s)^{},s[0,1],$$

where $`X(s)`$ is the unique unitary solution to the initial value problem

$`X^{}(s)`$ $`=H(s)X(s),s[0,1],`$
$`X(0)`$ $`=I,`$
with $`H(s)=𝒫^{}(s)𝒫(s)𝒫(s)𝒫^{}(s)`$.

Let $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ be a Jordan counterclockwise oriented contour encircling $`U_{d/2}(\sigma )`$ in a way such that no point of $`U_V(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ lies within $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Then

$$𝒫(s)=\frac{1}{2\pi i}_\mathrm{\Gamma }(A+sVz)^1𝑑z,s[0,1],$$

and hence,

$$𝒫^{}(s)=\frac{1}{2\pi i}_\mathrm{\Gamma }(A+sVz)^1V(A+sVz)^1𝑑z,s[0,1].$$

By the hypothesis $`V`$ is compact, and hence, $`𝒫^{}(s)`$, $`s[0,1]`$ is also compact, which implies that $`H(s)`$ is a compact operator for $`s[0,1]`$.

Applying the successive approximation method

$$X_n(s)=I+_0^sH(t)X_{n1}(t)𝑑t,X_0(s)=I,$$

yields that $`X_n(s)`$ converges to $`X(s)`$, $`s[0,1]`$ in the norm topology and $`X_n(s)I`$ is compact for all $`n`$. Thus, $`X(s)I`$ is a compact operator for all $`s[0,1]`$. Taking $`W=X(1)`$ yields $`Q=WPW^{}`$, completing the proof. ∎

Lemma 3.1 implies that the operator $`PWP`$ viewed as a map from $`\mathrm{Ran}P`$ to $`\mathrm{Ran}P`$ is Fredholm with zero index. By Theorem 5.2 of  it follows that the pair $`(P,Q)`$ is Fredholm and $`\mathrm{index}(P,Q)=\mathrm{index}(PW|_{\mathrm{Ran}P})=0`$, proving Theorem 2.

## 4. Overcritical perturbations

If the perturbation $`V`$ closes a gap between the separated parts $`\sigma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ of the spectrum of the unperturbed operator $`A`$, then, necessarily, we are dealing with the case $`Vd/2`$. In this case one encounters a new phenomenon: It may happen that any invariant subspace of the operator $`A+V`$ contains a nontrivial element orthogonal to $`\mathrm{Ran}P=\mathrm{Ran}𝖤_A(\sigma )`$.

To illustrate this phenomenon we need the following abstract result.

###### Lemma 4.1.

Let $`A`$ and $`V`$ be bounded self-adjoint operators and $`\sigma `$ be a finite set consisting of isolated eigenvalues of $`A`$ of finite multiplicity. Assume that the spectrum of the operator $`A+V`$ has no pure point component. Then for the orthogonal projection $`Q`$ onto an arbitrary invariant subspace of the operator $`A+V`$ the subspace $`\mathrm{Ker}(P^{}QI)`$, where $`P=𝖤_A(\sigma )`$, is infinite-dimensional. In particular,

(4.1)
$$PQ=1.$$

###### Proof.

Since $`A+V`$ has no eigenvalues, $`\mathrm{Ran}Q`$ is an infinite-dimensional subspace. By hypothesis, $`\mathrm{Ran}P`$ is a finite-dimensional subspace. Thus, there exists an orthonormal system $`\{f_n\}_n`$ in $`\mathrm{Ran}Q`$ such that $`f_n`$ is orthogonal to $`\mathrm{Ran}P`$ for any $`n`$ and hence $`P^{}Qf_n=f_n`$, $`n`$, proving $`dim\left(\mathrm{Ker}(P^{}QI)\right)=\mathrm{}`$. Now equality (4.1) follows from representation (2.4). ∎

The next lemma shows that an isolated eigenvalue of the unperturbed operator $`A`$ separated from the remainder of the spectrum of $`A`$ by a gap of length $`1`$ may “dissolve” in the essential spectrum of the perturbed operator $`A+V`$ turning into a “*resonance*”, with the norm of the perturbation being larger but arbitrarily close to $`1/2`$.

###### Lemma 4.2.

Let $`\epsilon >0`$. Let $`A`$ and $`V`$ be $`2\times 2`$ operator matrices in $`=L^2(0,1)`$ ,

$$A=\left(\begin{array}{cc}M& 0\\ 0& I_{}\end{array}\right)\text{and}V=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\left(\frac{1}{2}+\epsilon \right)I_{L^2(0,1)}& \sqrt{\epsilon }v\\ \sqrt{\epsilon }v^{}& (\frac{1}{2}+\epsilon )I_{}\end{array}\right)$$

with respect to the decomposition $`=L^2(0,1)`$ . Here $`M`$ denotes the multiplication operator in $`L^2(0,1)`$,

$$(Mf)(\mu )=\mu f(\mu ),0<\mu <1,fL^2(0,1),$$

and $`v(,L^2(0,1))`$

$`(vg)(\mu )`$ $`=w(\mu )g,\mu (0,1),g,`$
$`w(\mu )`$ $`=\sqrt{\mu (1\mu )}.`$
If $`\epsilon <2/5`$, then the operator $`A+V`$ has no eigenvalues.

###### Proof.

Assume to the contrary that $`\lambda `$ is an eigenvalue of the perturbed operator $`A+V`$, that is,

$$(\mu 1/2\epsilon )f(\mu )+\sqrt{\epsilon }w(\mu )g=\lambda f(\mu )\text{a.e. }\mu (0,1)$$

and

$$\sqrt{\epsilon }_0^1𝑑\mu f(\mu )w(\mu )+(1/2+\epsilon )g=\lambda g$$

for some $`fL^2(0,1)`$ and $`g`$ . In particular,

$$f(\mu )=\sqrt{\epsilon }\frac{w(\mu )}{\lambda (\mu \frac{1}{2}\epsilon )}g,$$

and hence $`fL^2(0,1)`$ whenever $`\lambda [1/2\epsilon ,1/2\epsilon ]`$ (unless $`f=0`$ and $`g=0`$). Thus, the interval $`[1/2\epsilon ,1/2\epsilon ]`$ does not intersect the point spectrum of $`A+V`$. Moreover, $`\lambda (\mathrm{},1/2\epsilon )(1/2\epsilon ,\mathrm{})`$ is an eigenvalue of $`A+V`$ if and only if

(4.2)
$$\lambda +\frac{1}{2}\epsilon +\epsilon _0^1𝑑\mu \frac{\mu (1\mu )}{\mu \frac{1}{2}\epsilon \lambda }=0.$$

Elementary analysis of the graph of the function on the left-hand side of (4.2) then yields that under the condition $`0<\epsilon <2/5`$ there is no solution of equation (4.2) in $`(\mathrm{},1/2\epsilon )(1/2\epsilon ,\mathrm{})`$. Thus, the point spectrum of $`A+V`$ is empty. ∎

###### Remark 4.3.

We note that $`\mathrm{spec}(A)=\{1\}[0,1]`$ and hence $`\mathrm{spec}(A)`$ has two components separated by a gap of length one, and the norm of the perturbation $`V`$ may be arbitrarily close to $`1/2`$ (from above):

(4.3)
$$V=\sqrt{\left(\frac{1}{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}+\epsilon \right)^2+\frac{1}{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}6}}\epsilon }=\frac{1}{2}+\frac{7}{6}\epsilon +𝒪(\epsilon ^2)\text{ as }\epsilon 0.$$

Using scaling arguments, Remark 4.3 combined with the result of Lemma 4.1 shows that given $`d>0`$, for any $`\epsilon >0`$ one can find a self-adjoint operator $`A`$ satisfying Hypothesis 1 and a self-adjoint perturbation $`V`$ with $`V=d/2+\epsilon `$ such that

$$𝖤_A(\sigma )Q=1$$

for the orthogonal projection $`Q`$ onto an arbitrary invariant subspace of the operator $`A+V`$.


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# Acoustic measurement of the low-energy excitations in Nd2-xCexCuO4+δ

## I Introduction

The crystal-field (CF) excitations of the Nd3+ $`4f`$ electrons in Nd2-xCexCuO4 have been extensively studied, mainly by inelastic neutron scattering (INS)  and infrared spectroscopies.  Although discrepancies exist between the proposed sets of phenomenological parameters in the CF hamiltonian, there is general agreement on the level scheme. The ground state multiplet of Nd3+ has $`J=9/2`$ and is split into five doublets, the separation of the first two being 14 meV; each doublet, in turn, is split by the interaction of the Nd magnetic moment with the local magnetic field, mainly created by the antiferromagnetic ordering of the Cu magnetic moments below $`T_\text{N}^{\text{Cu}}260`$ K. The magnetic separation of the first doublet has been determined by INS, and passes from 0.39 meV for the undoped case to 0.2 meV for $`x=0.15`$. Such a low-energy excitation also appears as a Schottky anomaly in the low-temperature specific heat, with values of the level splitting in agreement with the INS results; in principle, it should also give rise to an anomaly in the elastic moduli, if the level separation can be modulated by strain. To our knowledge, only two experiments have been reported on the elastic properties of NCCO at liquid He temperatures, but no attempts have been made to relate those data to the elastic response of the ground state doublet. We made anelastic spectroscopy measurements in the kHz range on Nd2-xCexCuO4 with $`x=0,`$ 0.05 and 0.20, and found a decrease of the Young’s modulus at liquid He temperatures, which can be identified with the paraelastic response of the ground state doublet of Nd3+.

## II Experimental

The samples were prepared by solid state reaction, with repeated sintering and grinding of the powders up to obtaining X-ray diffraction spectra free of unwanted peaks; the methods used, together with a thorough thermodynamic study of the phase diagram and stability of the Nd-Ce-Cu-O system, are reported in Ref. . Generally, a reducing treatment is made on Nd2-xCexCuO4, in order to make it superconducting; the data presented here refer to the as-prepared or reoxygenated status.

The samples were cut as bars approximately $`40\times 4\times 0.6`$ mm3. The dynamic Young’s modulus, $`E(\omega ,T)=E^{}+iE^{\prime \prime },`$ was measured by suspending the bars on their nodal lines on thin wires and electrostatically exciting their flexural vibrations; the 1st and 5th flexural modes were chosen, whose resonance frequencies $`\omega /2\pi `$ are approximately in the ratio $`1:13.3`$. The vibration amplitude was measured by a frequency modulation technique, where the capacity between the sample and the electrode is inserted into a high frequency oscillator, and the resulting signal, after passing through an amplitude-modulation discriminator, is sent to a lock-in amplifier. The real part $`E^{}`$ of the Young’s modulus is given by $`E=\rho \left(0.975\frac{\omega }{2\pi }\frac{l^2}{h}\right)^2`$, where $`\rho `$, $`l`$ and $`h`$ are the sample density, length and thickness; a correction for the porosity should be necessary, but we are only interested in the relative variation of $`E`$ with temperature. The elastic energy loss coefficient $`Q^1=E^{\prime \prime }/E^{}`$ was measured from the free decay of the vibration amplitude after switching off the excitation signal.

## III Results

Figure 1 presents the complex Young’s modulus of Nd2-xCexCuO4 at three doping levels, between 1 and 100 K; only the data of the first mode are presented, since those at higher frequency are identical. The elastic energy loss coefficient decreases monotonously with temperature and with increasing doping, without any particular feature except for a small peak at 15 K for the undoped sample. Such a peak disappears after annealing in vacuum at high temperature, and, although several reorientational transitions of the Nd and Cu spins have been observed at low temperature with various techniques, it does not seem to be associated to any of these magnetic transitions. We will not discuss this peak further. The elastic modulus presents a nearly linear stiffening on cooling below room temperature, which levels off below 30 K; contrary to a normal solid, however, the modulus does not stabilize on further cooling, but drops of several parts in $`10^3`$. The drop actually saturates at the lowest temperatures reached in the experiments (see also Fig. 2), and in some cases we measured the beginning of a rise below 1.5 K. The temperature and amplitude of the drop decrease with increasing doping similarly to the Schottky anomaly in the specific heat, and therefore this feature might well be connected with the ground state doublet of the Nd3+ ions.

## IV Discussion

Most of the specific heat data below 10 K have been interpreted in terms of a Schottky anomaly arising from the ground state doublet, with a splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }\left(T\right)=`$ $`2\mu _0B_{\text{Cu}}\left(T\right)`$ determined through Nd-Cu exchange by the staggered magnetization $`B_{\text{Cu}}\left(T\right)`$ of the AF Cu sublattice below $`T_\text{N}^{\text{Cu}}`$; since $`T_\text{N}^{\text{Cu}}260`$ K, $`B_{\text{Cu}}`$ and the splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ are practically constant below 50 K. The existence of two levels $`E_i`$ separated by $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, whose internal energy is $`U=`$ $`\left(\mathrm{\Delta }/2\right)\mathrm{tanh}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }/2k_\text{B}T\right)`$, contributes to the molar specific heat with the Schottky term

$$\delta C_p=\frac{U}{T}=k_\text{B}c\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2k_\text{B}T}\right)^2\frac{1}{\mathrm{cosh}^2\left(\mathrm{\Delta }/2k_\text{B}T\right)},$$
(1)
where $`c`$ is the molar concentration of the relaxing entities, in the present case the concentration $`1x/2`$ of Nd ions. On the other hand, if the splitting can be modulated by a strain $`\epsilon `$, paraelastic and diaelastic contributions to the elastic modulus $`M=^2U/\epsilon ^2`$ are expected. Here we omit the tensorial character of the elastic properties, since we are dealing with the Young’s modulus of polycrystalline samples, which contains a combination of several elastic constants and we are not entering in the details of the effect of the strain symmetry on the Nd3+ multiplets; then $`M`$ is identified with the Young’s modulus $`E`$ and $`\epsilon `$ is the corresponding effective strain.

The paraelastic contribution can be written as $`\delta M_{\text{para}}=_{ij}\frac{n_i}{E_j}\frac{E_i}{\epsilon }\frac{E_j}{\epsilon }`$ and is due to the relaxation of the populations $`n_i`$, perturbed by the vibration strain $`\epsilon `$ through the modulation of the energies $`E_i`$. For only two levels $`E_2E_1=\mathrm{\Delta }`$, one obtains

$$\delta M_{\text{para}}=\frac{c}{v_0}\gamma ^2\frac{1}{4k_\text{B}T\mathrm{cosh}^2\left(\mathrm{\Delta }/2k_\text{B}T\right)},$$
(2)
where $`v_0`$ is the molecular volume and $`\gamma =\mathrm{\Delta }/\epsilon `$ is the deformation potential. Such a relaxation occurs with a characteristic rate $`\tau ^1`$, and therefore the dynamic modulus has to be multiplied by a factor $`\left(1+i\omega \tau \right)^1`$. The resulting real part of the dynamic modulus $`M^{}(\omega ,T)`$ acquires a frequency-dependent dispersion, while the imaginary part produces absorption in correspondence with the modulus dispersion. The present data, however, do not exhibit any frequency dependence of $`M^{}(\omega ,T)`$ or absorption peak, and this implies $`\omega \tau 0`$, namely the rate $`\tau ^1`$ is much faster than the measuring frequencies $`\omega 10^410^5`$ s-1. Indeed, the Cu and Nd spin rates deduced from muon spin relaxation experiments in samples with $`x=0.20`$ are faster than $`10^{10}`$ s-1.

If the first derivative $`\gamma `$ of the energy split with respect to strain is null for symmetry reasons, than one remains with the diaelastic term, $`\delta M^{\text{dia}}=\frac{c}{v_0}_in_i\frac{^2E_i}{\epsilon ^2}`$, which contains the second derivatives. The physical meaning of such a term is simply that the curvature of each energy level versus strain contributes to the corresponding elastic constant, and its contribution is weighted with the level population. For only two levels one obtains:

$$\delta M_{\text{dia}}=\frac{c}{v_0}\frac{1}{2}\frac{^2\mathrm{\Delta }}{\epsilon ^2}\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2k_\text{B}T}\right).$$
(3)
The continuous curves in Fig. 2 are fits with $`\delta M_{\text{para}}`$ given by Eq. 2 and assuming that the background modulus depends on temperature like an insulating Debye solid, $`M\left(T\right)=M_0\left(1aT^4\right)`$. An additional term quadratic in $`T`$ is expected when the system becomes metallic, due to the energy of the free electrons, which increases quadratically with $`T`$; such a term, however, could be of importance only for the highest doping $`x=0.20`$, and still at $`x=0.15`$ some elastic constants have been found to be well described by the quartic term alone below 60 K. From the data at $`x=0`$ and 0.05 we find that $`M\left(T\right)`$ is described by the coefficient $`a=2.1\times 10^{10}`$ K-4. The values of the splitting deduced from the fits of Fig. 2 are $`\mathrm{\Delta }/k_\text{B}=4.0`$, 2.25 and 1.3 K at $`x=0,`$ 0.05 and 0.20 respectively, while the amplitudes of the paraelastic contributions are in the ratios $`1:0.6:0.05`$. The splitting found for the undoped case is in excellent agreement with the values deduced from INS ($`\mathrm{\Delta }/k_\text{B}=4.06`$ K ), infrared spectroscopy (3.8 K) and specific heat ($`\mathrm{\Delta }/k_\text{B}=4.5`$ K). Doping by Ce substitution introduces electrons mainly of Cu $`3d`$ character, which cancel the magnetic moments of those Cu ions and therefore reduce the Cu-Nd exchange responsible for the ground state splitting. As a result, the Schottky anomaly in the specific heat has been found to shift to lower temperature, to broaden and to decrease in intensity with doping. The present data confirm such a trend, but the reduction in intensity is more marked than in the specific heat measurements; possibly because of a reduction of the strain dependence of the splitting with doping.

At $`x>0.15`$ there is no long range AF order of the Cu spins, and the magnetic ground state splitting should disappear; nonetheless, the specific heat presents a peak up to $`x=0.20`$. Our data at $`x=0.20`$ also present a residue due to the doublet with reduced splitting, but the value deduced from the fit, $`\mathrm{\Delta }/k_\text{B}=1.2`$ K, should be considered with caution in view of the possible influence of an electronic quadratic term in the temperature dependence of the modulus.

In some cases the fits to the specific heat data have been improved by assuming an additional temperature dependence of the magnetic splitting attributed to the ordering of the Nd momenta, which however affects the splitting by less than 10%, or by assuming a three-level structure instead of a doublet. We chose to not overinterpret our data with additional parameters besides a simple Schottky anomaly with constant splitting below 50 K and the $`T^4`$ dependence of the background elastic modulus. In fact, the contribution of the doublet to the elastic response, Eq. 2, has a slower temperature dependence than the contribution to the specific heat, Eq. (1), in the high temperature limit, being proportional to $`T^1`$ instead of $`T^2`$; therefore, the elastic anomaly is spread to higher temperature where additional effects become important. In addition, the lowest temperature attained in our experiments was not sufficient to complete the low-temperature side of the curves, so that some uncertainty in the determination of the minimum of $`\delta M_{\text{para}}\left(T\right)`$ exists. This means that, while it is easy to improve the fit by adding a temperature dependence of the splitting, by taking into account the contribution of the excited doublets, and adopting more sophisticated expressions for $`M\left(T\right)`$, it is difficult to distinguish which of the improvements is the important one. Still, the data presented here, together with other results on reduced samples, are sufficient to indicate the presence of a minimum in the modulus due to a paraelastic response, rather than a step-like anomaly due to a diaelastic response. Fits to the dialeastic expression, Eq. 3, are less satisfactory and yield values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ about twice larger than those of Fig. 2, in contrast with the literature values. If both the diaelastic and paraelastic terms are considered, with both $`\gamma `$ and $`^2\mathrm{\Delta }/\epsilon ^2`$ as free parameters, the splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ remains almost the same as reported here and up to half of the anomaly can be accounted for by the diaelastic term, without a significant improvement of the fit. We conclude that the anelastic response in the modulus is mainly due to the linear part of the response of the ground-state splitting to strain. The magnitude of the deformation potential $`\gamma `$can be extracted inserting in Eq. 2 the value obtained from the fit, $`\left(\delta M_{\text{para}}/M\right)_{\text{max}}=0.0044`$ at 2 K for $`x=0`$, and using $`M=100`$ GPa, as determined from the resonance frequency (without corrections for the porosity); it turns out $`\gamma =0.013`$ eV for $`x=0`$ and 0.01 eV for $`x=0.05`$.

As noted above, the absence of a rise of the absorption in correspondence to the decrease of the modulus implies that the relaxation rate for the Nd3+ spins to redistribute themselves within the ground states doublet is much faster than our measuring frequency, $`\omega 10^410^5`$ s-1. Also, there are no signs of freezing of the Cu spins into a spin-glass or cluster glass states, which instead is observed in the hole-doped CuO2 planes of La2-xSrxCuO4 and YBa2Cu3O6+x; in La2-xSrxCuO4 the frozen spin domains produce a distinct rise of the acoustic absorption, which is totally absent here. Similar conclusions have been drawn from $`\mu `$SR relaxation experiments.

To our knowledge, only two other experiments exist on the acoustic properties of Nd2-xCexCuO4 at liquid He temperatures, which however cannot be compared with the present one in a straightforward way; in fact, they report some elastic constants of single crystals, while we measured the Young’s modulus of polycrystals, which contain a combination of all the compliances. Fill et al. found several anomalies in the elastic constants of undoped Nd2CuO4 as a function of temperature and magnetic field. In particular, the $`c_{66}`$ shear presented a minimum at 5 K with an amplitude nearly ten times larger than our minimum, and with a narrower shape, followed by a smaller decrease below 1 K tentatively attributed to a Schottky anomaly or magnetic ordering of Nd ions. Around 5 K also step-like changes have been found in other elastic constants, which have been interpreted as a ferroelastic transition driven by an ordering of the Nd spins. We cannot find a clear correspondence between those data and the ones presented here.

Regarding the doped material, Saint-Paul et al. measured the sound velocity of a single crystal of Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4; the shear mode in the $`ab`$ plane did not present any anomaly down to 10 K, but this is not in contrast with our data at $`x=0.20`$, where the decrease of the modulus is hardly detectable above 10 K. Instead, the $`c_{33}`$ mode exhibited an upward deviation below 10 K with respect to the $`T^4`$ dependence, opposite to our measurements. A possible explanation for the discrepancy is that the major contribution to the $`c_{33}`$ mode is diaelastic with positive $`^2\mathrm{\Delta }/\epsilon ^2`$, while the Young’s modulus of the polycrystal contains a predominant paraelastic contribution which cancels the diaelastic one.

## V Conclusion

The Young’s modulus and elastic energy loss coefficient of Nd2-xCexCuO4 with $`x=0,`$ 0.05 and 0.20 have been measured from 1.5 to 100 K. On approaching the lowest temperature, the modulus presents a drop whose temperature and amplitude decrease with increasing doping. The data have been interpreted in terms of paraelastic contribution from the relaxation of the Nd3+ $`4f`$ electrons between the levels of the ground state doublet, which is split by the interaction with the antiferromagnetically ordered Cu2+ ions. Excellent agreement is found with the value of the splitting at zero doping deduced from INS, infrared and specific heat measurements, and the shift of the anomaly to lower temperature with doping is consistent with a reduction of the local field from the Cu sublattice. An effective deformation potential $`\gamma =0.013`$ eV is found for the strain derivative of the splitting at $`x=0`$, which decreases with doping. The absorption is very low and featureless, indicating that the relaxation rate for reaching equilibrium within the ground state doublet is much faster than the measuring frequency, $`\tau ^110^5`$ s-1, and also excluding the occurrence of freezing phenomena of the Cu or Nd spins down to 1.5 K.

## VI Acknowledgments

This work has been carried out withthin the framework of the CNR-CNPq cooperation project 2001-2002.


text:
# Phys. Rev. E, Vol. 54, R4560-4563 (1996) Swirling Granular Matter: From Rotation to Reptation

## Abstract

A novel effect in a granular material under swirling motion of the container is presented. At low packing densities the material rotates in the same direction as the swirling motion of the container (rotation). At higher densities the cluster of granular material rotates in opposite direction (reptation). The change of the direction of the motion of the cluster takes place at a critical packing density while the diffusion coefficient changes significantly. The measured critical density of the packing is in good agreement with results obtained by molecular dynamics simulation.

The fascination of the flow behavior of granular material like sand is due to the fact that under certain circumstances it behaves like a fluid – an hour glass is the most popular example. Its solid-like behavior is obvious as well: A pile of sand is stable and it can undergo plastic deformation, but, unlike a fluid, it does not dissolve under gravity. The exotic behavior of granular matter and the sometimes unexpected observations have stimulated many scientists to focus their scientific interest to sand- like materials (see e.g. ). For a recent review see .

We present a novel effect which demonstrates to a certain amount both the similarity and the dissimilarity between granular material and fluid. The experiment is extremely robust, easily visualizable, and can be performed even as a kitchen table experiment using a bunch of marbles and a pot. The basic idea is to bring the pot in a swirling motion, the motion one frequently uses to stir up the bouquet of a glass of wine. If the pot contains only one or a few spheres, they will follow the rotation of the swirl in a similar fashion as the wine in the glass does. When one successively increases the number of spheres the angular velocity of the cluster decreases with increasing density. At a certain critical density an intriguing effect appears: The angular velocity becomes negative, i.e. the cluster rotates in the opposite direction. Now the collective behavior is more reminiscent of a pancake rotated by the swirling motion of a frying pan. The first regime of motion we call “rotation”, the second one “reptation”. In this paper we present the first qualitative and quantitative description of this crossover effect. The experiments are accompanied by a two-dimensional molecular dynamics simulation. The numerical results are qualitatively and quantitatively in good agreement with the experimental findings.

The experimental setup is shown in fig. 1. A Petri dish of inner diameter $`9.0cm`$ is mounted on a table performing a circular vibration, i.e. each point of the table moves along a circular line during one oscillation period. For the experiments presented here, its frequency is chosen to be $`2.5s^1`$ and the amplitude of the swirling motion is $`1.27cm`$. A camera is fixed on the oscillating table, thus the analysis can be done in a comoving frame by visual inspection of the image displayed on a monitor. In between the Petri dish and the camera there is a glass plate with a marker which is fixed in the laboratory frame. Thus the position of the marker relative to the dish indicates the direction of the momentary acceleration. The Petri dish is partially filled with a monolayer of ceramic spheres (density $`1.74g/cm^3`$) of diameter $`1.223\pm 0.035cm`$. The number of particles ranges between 1 and 42, where 42 corresponds to the closest packing of spheres. We want to focus here only on the density dependence of the effect. The dependence on the amplitude, the frequency, the material properties etc. will be discussed in more detail in a forthcoming paper.

The system described above was simulated using two-dimensional molecular dynamics. We applied the soft particle Ansatz by Cundall and Strack  including interaction between colliding particles in normal and tangential direction. Two colliding particles $`i`$ and $`j`$ feel the force

$$\stackrel{}{F}_{ij}=F_{ij}^N\stackrel{}{n}+F_{ij}^T\stackrel{}{t}$$
(1)
with

$`F_{ij}^N`$ $`=`$ $`Y\left(R_i+R_j\left|\stackrel{}{r}_i\stackrel{}{r}_j\right|\right)`$ (3)
$`m_{ij}^{eff}\gamma _N(\dot{\stackrel{}{r}}_i\dot{\stackrel{}{r}}_j)\stackrel{}{n}`$
$`F_{ij}^T`$ $`=`$ $`\text{sign}(v_{ij}^{rel})\mathrm{min}(m_{ij}^{eff}\gamma _T\left|v_{ij}^{rel}\right|,\mu \left|F_{ij}^N\right|)`$ (4)
$`v_{ij}^{rel}`$ $`=`$ $`(\dot{\stackrel{}{r}}_i\dot{\stackrel{}{r}}_j)\stackrel{}{t}+R_i\mathrm{\Omega }_i+R_j\mathrm{\Omega }_j`$ (5)
$`m_{ij}^{eff}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{m_im_j}{m_i+m_j}}.`$ (6)
$`Y=810^6gcm^2`$ is the Young modulus, $`\gamma _N=800s^1`$ and $`\gamma _T=3000s^1`$ are the damping coefficients in normal and tangential direction and $`\mu =0.5`$ is the Coulomb friction coefficient. The unit vectors in normal and tangential direction are given by

$`\stackrel{}{n}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{}{r}_i\stackrel{}{r}_j}{\left|\stackrel{}{r}_i\stackrel{}{r}_j\right|}}`$ (7)
$`\stackrel{}{t}`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{01}{10}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{}{r}_i\stackrel{}{r}_j}{\left|\stackrel{}{r}_i\stackrel{}{r}_j\right|}}.`$ (8)
The parameters are chosen to represent the material properties of the ceramic spheres used in the experiment as close as possible. Eq. (5) describes the relative velocity of the surfaces of the particles at the point of contact and eq. (6) gives the effective mass. Eq. (4) takes the Coulomb friction law into account, saying that two particles slide on top of each other if the shear force overcomes $`\mu `$ times the normal force. For the integration of Newton’s equations we applied a Gear predictor corrector method of fifth order .

The time series of images in fig. 2 visualizes the motion of 26 spheres in a counterclockwise rotating Petri dish at low packing density. They have been taken at time intervals $`T/5`$, with $`T`$ being the period of the driving motion of the Petri dish. The evolution of the positions of the white spheres in figs. 2a to 2f indicates that the cluster of spheres also rotates in counterclockwise direction. Figs. 2$`g`$ to 2$`l`$ show corresponding to figs. 2$`a`$ to 2$`f`$ snapshots from a molecular dynamics simulation using the same parameters as the experiment.

When the number of spheres is increased the rotation becomes slower. At a fairly well defined density it stops. Increasing the density then leads to a different kind of motion, which is displayed in figs. 3 for the case of 37 spheres. Now the cluster rotates in the opposite direction. This motion is now better described by the name reptation. Animated sequences of the motion are available via WWW .

The experimental snapshots show a white arrow which indicates the direction of the momentary inertial force. It is obtained by drawing a vector from the small white cross through the center of the Petri dish. The small white cross is the marker on the glass plate which is fixed in the laboratory frame as mentioned above. Therefore it rotates in the comoving frame. This procedure shows that the phase shift between the crescent-shaped area and the inertial force is different in the rotation and the reptation mode.

The most striking feature of the motion of the cluster of granular material is the dependence of the direction and the absolute value of its angular velocity on the particle number, i.e. the packing density as presented in the upper part of fig. 4. To obtain the experimental data indicated by the solid circles, the time for a single particle located near the wall for one complete path around the container is measured. The inverse of this time is shown for different numbers of spheres. The effect of the change of the sign of the rotation is thus clearly demonstrated. This method of measurement is not sufficiently well defined for a small number of particles. A particle located at the edge of the cluster does not remain there but has a tendency to migrate inwards, which makes the characterization of the cluster movement by tracing an individual particle meaningless. Therefore in the case of low particle numbers $`N<23`$ the experimental method breaks down.

In order to avoid those difficulties in the simulation we used a slightly different measurement method for the rotation velocity drawn in fig. 4 (crosses). The motion of the center of mass is extracted from the numerical data.

$$f=\frac{1}{N}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{\stackrel{}{r}_i^{}\times \stackrel{}{v}_i^{}}{\left|\stackrel{}{r}_i^{}\right|^2}_t,$$
(9)
where $`\mathrm{}_t`$ denotes the time average. $`\stackrel{}{r}_i^{}`$ and $`\stackrel{}{v}_i^{}`$ are the relative position and velocity of the $`i`$th particle with respect to the position and velocity of the center of mass:

$`\stackrel{}{r}_i^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{}{r}_i{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\stackrel{}{r}_j`$ (10)
$`\stackrel{}{v}_i^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{}{v}_i{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\stackrel{}{v}_j.`$ (11)
The experiment and the simulation agree quantitatively, showing that the rotation velocity decreases with particle number. For a critical number of particles $`N_c=32`$ we observe the reversal of the direction of the rotation. To obtain the experimental equivalent of eq. (9) requires computer aided image analysis which is currently under construction. In the experiment the rotation velocity is measured from the velocity of particles close to the wall of the Petri dish only, while in the simulation the velocity is calculated due to eq. (9) taking into account data of all particles. Hence the particles close to the center of mass having lower rotation velocity lead to lower values of $`f`$ for the results of the simulation (s. fig. 4). One can get a visual impression of the described behavior in .

The change of the sense of rotation might be caused by the change of the dynamical structure of the cluster, which depends on the packing density. For high densities one finds that the cluster rolls like a rigid body along the inner wall of the Petri dish, i.e. the neighborhood relations of the particles do not change significantly in time. At lower density the bulk of particles behaves more fluid-like, i.e. the relative positions of the particles change quickly in time. A quantitative measure of this effect is given by the diffusion coefficient $`D`$ shown in the lower part of fig. 4:

$$D=\frac{1}{\pi }\frac{d}{dt}\left(\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\underset{jU(i)i}{}(\stackrel{}{r}_i\stackrel{}{r}_j)^2\right)_t.$$
(12)
Here $`U`$ denotes the surrounding of the $`i`$th particle defined by

$$jU(i)\text{ if }\left|\stackrel{}{r}_i\stackrel{}{r}_j\right|R_U.$$
(13)
In our simulation we used $`R_U=3cm`$. As indicated by fig. 4, the diffusion coefficient changes significantly for $`N`$ approaching $`N_c`$ .

The agreement between the experimental results and numerical calculation is remarkable, when considering the fact that the theory is a two-dimensional one with idealized boundary conditions and particle interactions. Obviously, this experiment can serve as a test for the quality of theoretical models describing the behavior of granular matter, in a field where robust and reproducible experimental effects are not easily obtained.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft sponsors the experiments through Re 588/11-1, and the numerical calculations through Ro 548/5-1. It is a pleasure to thank the “Abteilung für Nichtlineare Phänomene” for enthusiastic support, B. Röder and K. Scherer for technical assistance, S. Seefeld for computer graphics, and A. Engel, K. Kassner, T. Mahr, St. Mertens, and L. Schimansky-Geier for stimulating discussions.


text:
# A generator system of invariant differential forms.

(April 1,2002)

## Abstract

We obtain a generator system of the algebra of $`\mathrm{GL}(V)`$-invariant differential forms on $`\mathrm{End}_𝐤(V)`$. The proof uses the Weyl-Schur reciprocity.

Let $`𝐤`$ be a field of characteristic zero and $`\mathrm{M}_n(𝐤)`$ be the set of all $`n\times n`$ matrices with entries of elements of $`𝐤`$. We consider $`\mathrm{GL}_n(𝐤)`$ adjoint action on $`\mathrm{M}_n(𝐤)`$, i.e. for given $`g\mathrm{GL}_n(𝐤)`$ and $`X\mathrm{M}_n(𝐤)`$, $`\mathrm{ad}(g)X:=gXg^1`$. It is classically known that the algebra $`[\mathrm{M}_n(𝐤)]^{\mathrm{GL}_n(𝐤)}`$ of all $`\mathrm{GL}_n(𝐤)`$-invariant polynomials on $`\mathrm{M}_n(𝐤)`$ is generated by $`\mathrm{Tr}(X^{\mathrm{}})(\mathrm{}=1,2,\mathrm{})`$, where $`X=(x_{ij})_{i,j=1}^n`$. More precisely, if we define polynomials $`\sigma _1(X),\mathrm{},\sigma _n(X)`$ of $`X`$ by

$$det(tI_n+X)=t^n+\sigma _1(X)t^{n1}+\mathrm{}+\sigma _n(X),$$

the invariant ring is the polynomial ring generated by $`\sigma _1(X),\mathrm{},\sigma _n(X)`$ over $`𝐤`$. Furthermore polynomials $`\sigma _1(X),\mathrm{},\sigma _n(X)`$ and $`\mathrm{Tr}(X^{\mathrm{}})(\mathrm{}=1,2,\mathrm{})`$ are connected by Newton’s formula.

We next consider $`\mathrm{GL}_n(𝐤)`$-invariant differential forms on $`\mathrm{M}_n(𝐤)`$ with polynomial coefficients. Similar to the above case, we obtain many invariant differential forms of degree $`p`$ by the formula

$`\omega ^{\mathrm{}_1\mathrm{}_2\mathrm{}\mathrm{}_p}`$ $`:=`$ $`\mathrm{Tr}\left(X^\mathrm{}_1dXX^\mathrm{}_2dX\mathrm{}X^\mathrm{}_pdX\right)`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i_1,\mathrm{},i_p,j_1,\mathrm{},j_p=1}{\overset{n}{}}}(X^\mathrm{}_1)_{i_1j_1}dx_{j_1i_2}(X^\mathrm{}_2)_{i_2j_2}dx_{j_2i_3}\mathrm{}(X^\mathrm{}_p)_{i_pj_p}dx_{j_pi_1},`$
where $`(X^{\mathrm{}})_{ij}`$ is the $`(i,j)`$ component of $`X^{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`dX=(dx_{ij})_{i,j=1}^n`$.

It is natural to ask if the algebra of all $`\mathrm{GL}_n(𝐤)`$-invariant differential forms is generated by these forms. The purpose of this paper is to answer this question affirmatively.

###### Theorem 1

The algebra of all $`\mathrm{GL}_n(𝐤)`$-invariant differential forms on $`\mathrm{M}_n(𝐤)`$ is generated by $`\omega ^{\mathrm{}_1\mathrm{}_2\mathrm{}\mathrm{}_p}=\mathrm{Tr}(X^\mathrm{}_1dXX^\mathrm{}_2\mathrm{}X^\mathrm{}_pdX),(p0,\mathrm{}_1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}_p0)`$ over $`𝐤`$. In other words, any invariant form is expressed as a linear combination of forms of the above type and their product.

Proof of Theorem.
Put $`V=𝐤^n`$, $`E:=\mathrm{End}_𝐤(V)\mathrm{M}_n(𝐤)VV^{}`$ and $`G:=\mathrm{GL}(V)`$. Then we can identify $`E`$ and its dual $`E^{}`$ because $`EX,Y\mathrm{Tr}(XY)`$ is a $`\mathrm{GL}(V)`$-invariant non-degenerate bilinear pairing. So the set of all differential forms on $`E`$ is

$$\mathrm{\Omega }(E)𝒮(E)\mathrm{\Lambda }(E)\underset{p,q0}{}𝒮^p(E)\mathrm{\Lambda }^q(E)$$

where $`𝒮(E)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(E)`$, respectively, are symmetric and alternative tensor algebra of the vector space $`E`$. Hence it is sufficient to show that each component $`𝒮^p(E)\mathrm{\Lambda }^q(E)`$ is generated by $`\omega ^{\mathrm{}_1\mathrm{}_2\mathrm{}\mathrm{}_r}`$ $`(\mathrm{}_1+\mathrm{}+\mathrm{}_rp,rq)`$. Consider the $`G`$-equivariant projection map $`𝒫:E^{(p+q)}𝒮^p(E)\mathrm{\Lambda }^q(E)`$

$$\begin{array}{ccc}E^{(p+q)}& & v_1\mathrm{}v_pw_1\mathrm{}w_q\hfill \\ & & \hfill \\ 𝒮^p(E)\mathrm{\Lambda }^q(E)& & \frac{1}{p!q!}\underset{\sigma 𝔖_p,\tau 𝔖_q}{}\mathrm{sgn}(\tau )v_{\sigma ^1(1)}\mathrm{}v_{\sigma ^1(p)}w_{\tau ^1(1)}\mathrm{}w_{\tau ^1(q)}.\hfill \end{array}$$

Since $`G`$ is a reductive group, $`𝒫`$ induces a surjection of $`G`$-invariant tensors to $`G`$-invariant differential forms.

$$𝒫|_{(E^{(p+q)})^G}:(E^{(p+q)})^G(𝒮^p(E)\mathrm{\Lambda }^q(E))^G.$$

Thus we reduce the problem to description of $`G`$-invariant tensors and its images by $`𝒫`$. Recall $`E^r\mathrm{End}_𝐤(V^r)`$ and $`(E^r)^G\mathrm{End}_G(V^r)`$, we have a special element $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\rho )`$ of $`G`$-invariant tensors $`(E^r)^G`$ corresponding to a permutation $`\rho 𝔖_r`$,

$$\mathrm{End}_G(V^r)\mathrm{\Phi }(\rho ):e_1\mathrm{}e_re_{\rho ^1(1)}\mathrm{}e_{\rho ^1(r)}.$$

Recall that the Weyl-Schur reciprocity assert that

$$\{\mathrm{\Phi }(\rho )(E^r)^G|\rho 𝔖_r\}\text{ form a basis of }(E^r)^G.$$

Put $`r=p+q`$, it is easily checked that $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Phi }(\rho ))(𝒮^p(E)\mathrm{\Lambda }^q(E))^G`$ is a product of $`\omega ^{\mathrm{}_1\mathrm{}_2\mathrm{}\mathrm{}_s}`$s for appropriate $`s`$ and $`\mathrm{}_1,\mathrm{}_2,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}_s`$. In particular, the number of factors of $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Phi }(\rho ))`$ is equal to the number of cyclic permutations in the cyclic decompositon of $`\rho 𝔖_r`$. This completes the proof.

$`\mathrm{}`$

Perhaps it helps some calculations in relative de Rham cohomologies of invariant maps \[Ve\].

Acknowledgement
The author thanks Ms.Ys.(real) for decisive help in the proof of our main result.