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# QUANTUM TUNNELING In Memory of M. Marinov

## 1 Introduction

I am honored to give this talk at the special session of the Israel Physical Society. A brief summary of Marinov’s life-long accomplishments in mathematical and high-energy physics was given by Professor Lipkin. My task was to choose one theme, from several which Misha considered to be central in his career, to show how deeply it is intertwined in the fabrique of today’s theory. I was asked to prepare a nontechnical presentation that would be understandable, at least, in part, to nonexperts.

The center of gravity of Marinov’s research interests rotated around advanced aspects of quantum mechanics, quasiclassical quantization and functional integration methods. For this event I have chosen the topic of quantum tunneling, which Misha cherished and to which he was repeatedly returning through his career, the last time in 1997.  The reader interested in a more technical discussion of Misha’s results on quantum tunneling is referred to Segev’s and Gurvitz’s articles in this Volume.

Apart from the direct involvement in the tunneling-related projects, this subject carries an imprint of other Marinov’s contributions – from dynamics of the Grassmannian variables  to the monopole studies in gauge theories. I will explain this shortly. The second part of my talk is nonscientific. It is a sketch, an attempt to present one of many facets of Misha’s human portrait. In the 1980’s, being a refusenik in Moscow, he volunteered to teach physics under unusual circumstances. I conducted interviews with people who were involved in this activity.

## 2 What is quantum tunneling?

To demonstrate the essence of the phenomenon, let us consider a simple example – the $`\alpha `$ decay of heavy nuclei. For definiteness, one can keep in mind the decay

$$U_{92}^{238}Th_{90}^{234}+\alpha .$$

The energy of the emitted $`\alpha `$ particle in this decay is 4.7 MeV. The emitted $`\alpha `$ particle and the daughter $`Th_{90}^{234}`$ nucleus experience an interaction. At large distances this is the Coulomb repulsion

$$V_\mathrm{C}=\frac{Z_1Z_2e^2}{r}=\frac{2\times 90\times e^2}{r}=\frac{260}{r/\text{fermi}}\text{ MeV}.$$
(1)
The Coulomb potential is equal to 4.7 MeV at $`r=55`$ fermi. At such distances the nuclear force (which is attractive) is negligible since its range approximately coincides with the nucleus radius,

$$R_n1.2A^{1/3}=1.2\times (234)^{1/3}7.4\text{fermi}.$$
(2)
A sketch of the corresponding potential is shown in Fig. 1, where $`V_\mathrm{C}^{}35`$MeV. At $`r>R_n`$ the potential is purely Coulombic, while at $`r<R_n`$ it is essentially determined by the nuclear interaction and is flat in a rough approximation. The energy of the $`\alpha `$ particle is denoted by $`E_1`$.

At the initial moment of time the $`\alpha `$ particle is confined in the well at $`r<R_n`$. According to the laws of the classical mechanics it will stay there forever – the potential barrier at $`R_n<r<R_1`$ prevents the classical particle from the leakage in the domain to the right of $`R_1`$. Thus, classically $`U_{92}^{238}`$ is stable with respect to the $`\alpha `$ decay.

In actuality, the laws of quantum mechanics do allow the $`\alpha `$ particle to leak under the barrier. This is called “Quantum Tunneling.” The wave function of the $`\alpha `$ particle spreads under the barrier even if initially it was confined in the well to the left of $`R_n`$. If the barrier is high, as is the case in the problem at hand, the tunneling probability is exponentially small, and it can be calculated quasiclassically. The tunneling amplitude is proportional to 111 Here and below I use units in which $`\mathrm{}=1`$, a standard convention in particle physics.

$$A_{\mathrm{tunneling}}\mathrm{exp}\left\{_{R_n}^{R_1}\sqrt{2m(VE_1)}𝑑r\right\}.$$
(3)
The integral in the exponent runs over the classically forbidden domain. The decay probability is given by $`|A|^2`$; it can be readily evaluated using the simple expression (3) which nicely explains the fact that the probability is extremely small, of order $`10^{37}`$ in the problem at hand, and is extremely sensitive to the $`\alpha `$ particle energy. For all known $`\alpha `$-particle emitters, the value of $`E_1`$ varies from about 2 to 8 MeV. Thus, the value of the $`\alpha `$ particle energy varies only by a factor of 4, whereas the range of lifetimes (inverse probabilities) is from about $`10^{11}`$ years down to about $`10^6`$ second, a factor of $`10^{24}`$.

The quantum tunneling as an explanation of the heavy nuclei decays was suggested by George Gamow  in 1928 and, somewhat later, (but independently) by Gurney and Condon.

Quantum tunneling is at work in a much wider range of phenomena than the heavy nuclei decays just discussed. I chose this example for illustrative purposes since in these processes the consequences of the tunneling can be readily explained to nonexperts. The very same tunneling determines a global structure of the ground state in a wide variety of quantal and field-theoretical problems. For instance, in the text-book problem of the double-well potential (see Fig. 2), there is no instability. The tunneling from the left to the right well and vice versa manifests itself in that the ground state is unique (rather than doubly degenerate as would be the case in the classical theory). It is symmetric with respect to $`xx`$, and there is an exponentially small energy splitting between the low-lying $`P`$-even and $`P`$-odd states. This splitting is determined by the very same expression (3) where one may put $`E_1=0`$, and the integral runs from $`\eta `$ to $`\eta `$. It can be represented in an identical form as

$$A_{\mathrm{tunneling}}\mathrm{exp}(S_0),$$
(4)
where $`S_0`$ is the action on the classical trajectory $`x(\tau )`$ connecting the points $`\eta `$ to $`\eta `$ in the distant past and distant future in the imaginary time. In the real time there are no classical trajectories connecting $`\eta `$ and $`\eta `$, the domain between these two points is classically forbidden. The particle tunneling can be described as particle’s motion in the imaginary time, $`ti\tau `$. Passing to the imaginary time, $`ti\tau `$, we effectively change the sign of the potential, see Fig. 3. The double-well potential becomes two-hump. It is pretty obvious that in the two-hump potential there is a classical trajectory

$$m\ddot{x}=\frac{dV}{dx},V(x)=\lambda \left(x^2\eta ^2\right)^2$$
(5)
interpolating between $`\eta `$ and $`\eta `$. The minimal action is

$$S_0=\frac{m^2\omega ^3}{12\lambda }.$$
(6)
This strategy is general in the problems of this type. The tunneling amplitude is determined (in the quasiclassical approximation) by the minimal action attained on the least-action trajectory interpolating through the classically forbidden domain in the imaginary time. In one-dimensional problems determination of such trajectories and calculation of the corresponding minimal action is a relatively trivial task. The task becomes exceedingly more complicated in multi-dimensional quantal problems and in field theory. Much of Marinov’s time and effort was invested in the theory of the multi-dimensional tunneling.

## 3 Multi-dimensional quantal problems

Now I would like to demonstrate, in some graphic examples, that 70 years after its inception the topic is alive and continues to attract theorists’ attention. The formulation of the problem to be discussed below is inspired by supersymmetry, although the corresponding dynamical systems need not be supersymmetric. Supersymmetry, by the way, was also very close to Marinov’s heart. The early work he did with Berezin  on the classical description of particles with spin in terms of the Grassmannian variables carries elements inherent to supersymmetry. Moreover, the last paper on which Misha worked being already terminally ill, was a historic essay on supersymmetry.

In this section I will consider a class of quantal multi-dimensional problems. Assume that we have $`n`$ degrees of freedom, $`X^1,X^2,\mathrm{},X^n`$, described by the Hamiltonian

$$H=\underset{\mathrm{}=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{1}{2}\left(\dot{X^{\mathrm{}}}\right)^2+V\left(X^{\mathrm{}}\right),$$
(7)
where the potential $`V`$ can be represented as

$$V=\frac{1}{2}\underset{\mathrm{}=1}{\overset{n}{}}\left(\frac{W(X)}{X^{\mathrm{}}}\right)^2,$$
(8)
$`W`$ is a function of all variables $`X^{\mathrm{}}`$, which I will call “superpotential”, bearing in mind its origin in supersymmetric theories. The mass $`m`$ is put $`m=1`$. This is done for simplicity, and is by no means necessary. In the given context the term superpotential is nothing but a convenient name for the function $`W`$.

Certainly, the potential (8) is very special. It has an interesting feature that at the extremal points of the superpotential,

$$\frac{W(X)}{X^{\mathrm{}}}=0,\mathrm{}=1,2,\mathrm{},n,$$
(9)
the potential $`V`$ vanishes. Since the potential (8) is positive-definite these are the classical ground states of the system. Let us assume that Eq. (9) has more than one solution, and denote these solutions by $`\xi _a\{\xi ^{\mathrm{}}\}_a`$ where the subscript labels distinct solutions,

$$\frac{W(X^{\mathrm{}})}{X^{\mathrm{}}}=0,\text{at}X^{\mathrm{}}=\left(\xi ^{\mathrm{}}\right)_a,a=1,2,\mathrm{}$$
(10)
For simplicity I will assume that there are only two solutions, $`\xi _1`$ and $`\xi _2`$. This assumption does not lead to the loss of generality, it just makes the notation simpler. The barrier separating the points $`\xi _1`$ and $`\xi _2`$ is assumed to be high (see Fig. 4), so that the tunneling problem is solvable in the quasiclassical approximation.

The tunneling amplitude from the first to the second classical minimum of the potential $`V`$ is given by Eq. (4), but finding the tunneling trajectory and the minimal action $`S_0`$ in case of a significant number of variables, $`n1`$, does not seem to be a trivial task, especially if the potential $`V`$ is contrived.

In fact, I will show momentarily that $`S_0`$ can be obtained  without solving the classical equations of motion for the trajectory,

$$S_0=\left|W(\xi _1)W(\xi _2)\right|.$$
(11)
The classical equations in the imaginary time take the form

$$\ddot{X}^{\mathrm{}}=\frac{V(X)}{X^{\mathrm{}}}.$$
(12)
This is a second order differential equation. Consider, instead, the following first order differential equation

$$\dot{X}^{\mathrm{}}=\frac{W(X)}{X^{\mathrm{}}}.$$
(13)
If we manage to find a solution of this latter equation, it will be automatically the solution of Eq. (12). Indeed, differentiating both sides of Eq. (13) over $`\tau `$ one gets

$$\ddot{X}^{\mathrm{}}=\underset{j}{}\frac{^2W}{X^{\mathrm{}}X^j}\dot{X}^j=\underset{j}{}\frac{^2W}{X^{\mathrm{}}X^j}\frac{W}{X^j}=\frac{V(X)}{X^{\mathrm{}}}.$$
(14)
(The inverse is not true).

Equation (13) has a very graphic physical interpretation – it describes the motion of a very viscous fluid (like honey) on the multi-dimensional profile given by $`W(X_{\mathrm{}})`$. The motion must originate in one extremal point of $`W`$ (which, obviously, must be a local maximum or a saddle point) and end up in the second extremal point (which must be a local minimum or a saddle point). The left-hand side is the velocity, there is no inertia; the right-hand side is the “force.” The velocity is proportional to the force. That’s how honey flows.

Although it may be difficult to find the flow trajectory analytically for contrived profiles, a rich mechanical intuition all of us have regarding this type of motion tells us immediately whether the solution exists or there is an obstruction, i.e. the honey flow from the summit is diverted away from the minimum, into an abyss. Once we see that the solution exists, we can get $`S_0`$ “for free”,

$$S_0=\frac{1}{2}𝑑\tau (\underset{\mathrm{}}{}\dot{X^{\mathrm{}}}\dot{X^{\mathrm{}}}+V(x))\frac{1}{2}𝑑\tau \{(\underset{\mathrm{}}{}\dot{X^{\mathrm{}}}+\frac{W}{X^{\mathrm{}}})^22\frac{dW}{d\tau }\}.$$
(15)
The expression in the parentheses on the right-hand side vanishes on the solution, while the second term, the full time derivative, yields Eq. (11).

It may happen that the flow equations (13) do not have a solution with the proper asymptotics – honey does not want to flow from the $`a`$-th to the $`b`$-th extremum of $`W`$. The second order equations (14) always do have a solution, however. From (15) we see that in this case $`S_0>|W(\xi _b)W(\xi _a)|,`$ and

$$\mathrm{exp}\left(\left|W(\xi _b)W(\xi _a)\right|\right)$$
(16)
presents an upper bound on the tunneling amplitude.

The set-up described above (with the first order equations replacing the second order equations of motion) is called the Bogomol’nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) saturation. BPS saturated objects are in the focus of today’s research in supersymmetric theories – from supersymmetric gluodynamics to string and brane theory, where the BPS saturation acquires a deep symmetry foundation. The BPS saturated objects preserve 1/2 or 1/4 of the original supersymmetry. The set-up was introduced by Bogomol’nyi in the pre-supersymmetry era. In 1975 Zhenya Bogomol’nyi was a Ph.D. student at ITEP, like myself. Immediately after the discovery of the ’t Hooft-Polyakov monopoles he started calculating their masses. The first calculation was numerical, a joint project with Misha Marinov. In this work Bogomol’nyi and Marinov observed that the limit of the vanishing Higgs self-coupling was special; in this limit the monopole mass tended to $`4\pi M_W/g^2`$, with the coefficient exactly equal to 1. This observation served as a hint and an initial impetus for the subsequent work, where the limit of the vanishing Higgs self-coupling was worked out analytically, and the monopole mass was reduced to a surface term, the magnetic charge.

## 4 Dynamics on manifolds

The above example describes dynamics generated by the potential $`V(X)`$ related to the superpotential $`W(X)`$ through Eq. (8). The space is flat, $`X^{\mathrm{}}R_n`$. In fact, one can readily generalize the problem to include the motion on nontrivial manifolds $`𝒯`$, endowed with the metric tensor $`g_{ij}(X^{\mathrm{}})`$,

$$L=\frac{1}{2}g_{ij}\dot{X}^i\dot{X}^j\frac{1}{2}g^{ij}\frac{W}{X^i}\frac{W}{X^j},$$
(17)
where the coordinates $`X^{\mathrm{}}`$ parametrize $`𝒯`$, and $`W(X^{\mathrm{}})`$ is a function on $`𝒯`$. As is evident from Eq. (17), the formula for the potential that replaces Eq. (8) is

$$V(X)=\frac{1}{2}g^{ij}\frac{W}{X^i}\frac{W}{X^j}.$$
(18)
I have already mentioned in the beginning of my talk that quantization on group manifolds (a particular class of nontrivial $`𝒯`$’s) was Misha’s perennial topic. Together with Terentev, he wrote a famous article on this subject.

The BPS equations in this case take the form

$$\frac{dX^i}{d\tau }=g^{ij}\frac{W}{X^j},$$
(19)
with the boundary conditions that the trajectory starts at one minimum of the potential $`V`$ and ends at another (i.e. interpolates between two distinct extremal points of $`W`$). The solution of this equation interpolating between $`\xi _a`$ and $`\xi _b`$, if it exists, determines the minimal action and the tunneling amplitude (in the exponential approximation). As previously, the minimal action can be inferred without the knowledge of the explicit solution, and is given by the same formula, see Eq. (11). A remarkable feature is its metric-independence.

The existence/nonexistence of the solutions of Eqs. (19) depends on the global (topological) characteristics of the manifold $`𝒯`$ and the superpotential $`W`$. The corresponding theory – it goes under the name of the Morse theory – is a well-developed and quite beautiful branch of mathematics (see e.g. Refs.  and ). Unfortunately, I have no time to dwell on it, even briefly. The best I can do is to offer a simple illustration.

Let us assume that $`𝒯`$ is a two-dimensional sphere $`S_2`$, and the superpotential is such that it has two isolated extremal points, one at the north pole and another at the south (Fig. 5).

If one extremal point is the maximum of $`W`$, another one has to be the minimum. Alternatively, they can be saddle points. In both cases it is obvious that a droplet of honey, being placed in one extremal point, will find its way to another – the solution of the BPS equations always exists. In the first case (maximum at the north pole and minimum at the south), there exists a continuous family of solutions – the flow lines of the droplet can leave the pole along any meridian.

Now, one can start deforming $`𝒯`$ and $`W`$. For instance, one can squeeze the sphere of Fig. 5 transforming it into the surface of, say, a melon or a lemon, or another surface. As far as the existence of the BPS solution is concerned, nothing will change for small continuous deformations of $`𝒯`$ and $`W`$. The particular form of the solution will change, of course, but not the fact of its existence.

The solution connecting the north and south poles may disappear only if the deformations will be so strong that either topology of $`𝒯`$ changes or $`W`$ develops new extremal points which might trap the droplet on its way from one pole to another. If there are several extremal points, $`𝒯`$ splits into several domains – they are called the Morse cells. Each cell $`M_{ab}`$ presents a domain swept by the family of trajectories connecting $`a`$ and $`b`$,

$$𝒯=\underset{\mathrm{pairs}}{}M_{ab}.$$

## 5 Beyond physics

I would like to conclude my talk on a personal note. I first saw Misha Marinov when I came to ITEP around 1969 to pass my entrance examinations. The examination session was chaired by Professor V.B. Berestetskii. I do not remember exactly what topic was under discussion. I remember, however, that when a certain subtle point was raised, Berestetskii interrupted the session and said that at this point it would be appropriate to consult Okun. We went to his office, which was across the hall, and Marinov was there. Okun introduced us.

Since then we would occasionally bump into each other in the corridors of ITEP, or in the seminar hall. In 1979 Misha became a refusenik, a nonperson according to the Orwellian nomenclature. I remember that this news – that Marinov had applied for emigration to Israel – came when many of us were at the Odessa School of Physics organized by the Landau Institute. I heard Okun telling somebody that Marinov had left ITEP. In those days such a step actually meant “disappearance beyond the horizon”. In 1986, in the beginning of perestroika, when Marinovs finally got their exit visas to Israel, I came to their place to say farewell, since I was absolutely sure that I would never ever see any of them again (as were many other friends and colleagues who gathered in tiny Marinov’s apartment on Bolotnikovskaya street that night).

Well, life can be much richer than our imagination. It was not Marinov who was forced to give up his dream to live and die on the land of his ancestors, but, rather, the antihuman system which kept him hostage for years and to which he resisted, collapsed.

Many people in this audience knew Misha from the human side, as a person on whom one could always rely on a rainy day, always open to one’s needs and ready to help. I’d like to say a few words on that, dwelling on one of Misha’s activities which, regretfully, remains virtually unknown to public. In Marinov’s obituary in Physics Today (the September 2000 issue) it is mentioned that in the early 1980’s “… he volunteered to teach physics at the unofficial university organized by refuseniks to educate Jewish students who were barred by authorities from regular universities.”

In fact, Misha volunteered to teach at the so-called “Jewish People’s University” in Moscow which was organized in the late 1970’s by Bella Abramovna Subbotovskaya. At this time discrimination against Jews in the admission policies of the Soviet universities reached its peak. Sure enough, it was not the first peak, but it was especially strong. In fact, virtually all Departments of Mathematics in Soviet Union completely closed their doors to Jewish students.222 Statistical data illustrating this fact in the most clear-cut manner were presented in samizdat essays, Refs.  and , and in Freiman’s book. I am grateful to Natasha Zanegina, Gabriel Superfin, and Gennady Kuzovkin for providing me with these materials. I do not know why, but (this is a well-known fact) the Soviet mathematical community, which gave to the world some of the most outstanding mathematicians, was also pathologically anti-Semitic. Such great mathematicians as Pontryagin and Vinogradov, who had enormous administrative powers in their hands, were ferocious anti-Semites. The tactics used for cutting off Jewish students were very simple. At the entrance examination special groups of “undesirable applicants” were organized.333 The working definition of “Jewishness” was close to that of Nazis; having at least one Jewish parent of even grandparent would almost certainly warrant one’s placement in the category of undesirables. They were then offered killer problems which, as a rule, were at the level of international mathematical competitions; sometimes, they were flawed, or even completely wrong.444 An extremely illuminating analysis of such killer problems which had been collected in Ref.  was published by Ilan Vardi. Another brief collection of the killer problems can be found in Appendix B in Ref. .

Bella Subbotovskaya’s idea was to launch something like unofficial extension classes, where children unfairly barred from the official universities could get food for their the hungry minds from the hands of the first-class mathematicians and physicists. It was supposed that the classes would take place on a regular basis through the entire school year, that they would be open to everybody (no registration or anything of this kind was required) and that the spectrum of courses offered would be broad and deep enough to provide a serious educational background in the exact sciences.

Andrei Zelevinsky (now at the North-Eastern University, Boston) recollects:

> “Bella Abramovna was the main organizer \[…\]. I didn’t know her very well: she was much older than me \[…\]. It was she who brought Fuchs and me to teach there. I was truly impressed with her courage and quiet determination to run the whole thing. All the organizational work, from finding the places for our regular meetings to preparing sandwiches for participants was done by her and two other activists: Valery Senderov and \[…\] Boris Kanevsky. Both as I understand, were active dissidents at the time. I think they made a deliberate effort to separate mathematics from politics, in order to protect us, professional research mathematicians.”

Another professor of this “university”, Dmitry Fuchs (now at UC, Davis), writes:

> “We taught there major mathematical disciplines corresponding to the first two years of the Mekh-Mat curriculum: mathematical analysis, linear algebra and geometry, abstract algebra and so on. I taught there since 1980 through 1982, until Subbotovskaya’s sudden death in September or October of 1982 put an end to this enterprise. Bella Abramovna was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident which was universally believed to be the act of KGB. This has never been officially confirmed though. At this time we did not use any particular name for our courses. In spirit, this was more a continuous seminar rather than a university. Among other teachers, I knew Andrei Zelevinsky, Boris Feigin, and Alexei Sossinski \[…\]. The number of students varied between 60 and 20. The place of our meetings was not permanent: we met at an elementary school where Bella Abramovna worked as a teacher, at the Gubkin Institute for Petrol and Gas, at the Chemistry and Humanities Buildings of the Moscow State University, and so on. Anywhere, where we could get permission to occupy a large enough room…. I personally asked the Deputy Dean of the Chemistry Department for such a permission, and it was granted. All instructors prepared notes which were photocopied and distributed among the students. An article on our “school” was published by a Russian-Israeli newspaper some time ago. It was interesting but excessively emotional. Among other things, the authors had a tendency to exaggerate the Jewish nature of our “university.” It is certainly true that a substantial part of both, students and teachers, were ethnic Jews. This was the result of the well-known policy of the Mechmat admission committee, and the Soviet State at large, rather than the deliberate aim of the organizers. After all, we taught only exact sciences. No plans were made to teach Jewish culture, history, or language.”

Needless to say that all teachers were enthusiasts, and they received no reward other than the wonderful feeling that what they were doing was a good deed, a mitzva. Misha Marinov taught topics in physics.

Although the goals of this “university” were purely educational, the very fact of its existence was considered by the authorities as a political act of resistance. Any association with it was dangerous. The tragic fate of Bella Subbotovskaya remains uninvestigated so far. Perhaps, in the future her life will become a subject of a historical treatise, or a novel, who knows? Another activist who was mentioned above by Andrei Zelevinsky, Valery Senderov, was sentenced to 7 years in jail with the subsequent 5-year exile to Siberia on charges of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda in 1983. One of the main pieces of incriminating evidence supporting the charges was his and Kanevsky’s essay Intellectual Genocide. If one reads this essay now it is hard to understand how a person could be sent to prison for describing mathematical problems suggested to particular applicants at the entrance examinations at the Department of Mathematics of the Moscow University. Well, they say that everything goes in the struggle of classes. Why not mathematics?

But let me return to Misha and his generous contribution to this endeavor. A former student of Misha, Boris Shapiro recollects (his article  is published in this Volume):

> “Soon after the beginning of the lectures on mathematics, Bella Abramovna announced that for all who desire to come, there would be a series of lectures by a famous physicist on quantum mechanics and field theory.\[…\] The very next Thursday, I think, in the tiny two-room apartment of Bella Abramovna on Nametkina Street, eight or nine people met, mainly second-year students \[…\]. There appeared a tall, sinewy gray-haired man, with a slight lisp. The man was Misha Marinov, the name by which he introduced himself. By his appearance, Misha was close to forty-five years old; he had already been a refusenik for some time, and had seen a great deal. He had, until he applied for his exit visas, worked in ITEP and was personally acquainted with famous people. \[…\] For me, he represented that heroic epoch when Jews were still accepted into the realm of physics and mathematics, where they uncovered so much. My impression was reinforced by occasional Misha’s stories of L.D. Landau, whose biography the younger generation was also eagerly reading. He spoke of his cooperation with F.A. Berezin, and it was then that I first heard of “supermanifold” \[…\] On the other hand, once (during a tea break), he told us about a team of construction workers, shabashniks-refuseniks, to which he belonged, consisting entirely of Ph.D. holders and professors. Those were dark times, and it was uncertain when and to where they would let him go. It was for this reason that Misha was very careful not to compromise the entire system of the “Jewish University” and other teachers, more or less well off and at that time far from any desire to immigrate. As they say, “some are no longer with us, and the others are far away…”.

The following quotation from Shapiro’s essay gives an idea of Misha’s choice of physics topics for teaching. It speaks also of his attitude, thoughtful and demanding. This was his usual attitude.

> “Misha’s lectures were not simple. An understanding of mechanics, functional analysis, differential equations, differential geometry and the like was necessary. Despite this, I remember the ease and clarity with which he explained the fundamental ideas behind the difficult make-up of quantum mechanics. He pointed out the similarities and complexities of classical mechanics such that even I had the impression that I understood everything. I remember the interesting discussions on harmonic and anharmonic oscillators and the difficulties in the quantization of the latter. He even managed to discuss with the second-year students “supermathematics” on the basis of Grassmann algebra. \[…\] He tried with all his strength to bring us to the level of current research, though this was not very realistic, meeting once a week with second-year students. In this way two intensive years went by, until in the spring of 1982 we were all stunned by the death of Bella Abramovna. Everyone went around very crushed, and the “Jewish University” soon fell apart.”

## Acknowledgements

I am grateful to G. Eilam and J. Feinberg for inviting me to deliver this talk at the Special Session of the Israel Physical Society. Special thanks go to A. Losev for thorough discussions of the Morse theory. The work was supported in part by DOE grant DE-FG02-94ER408.

## References


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# Electoral surveys influence on the voting processes: a cellular automata model

## 1 Introduction

During the last decades there has been a great interest in applications of statistical physics in social sciences . Indeed, inherently probabilistic social phenomena such as riots, wars, economic depressions, electoral landslides, and collapses of governmental coalitions seems to exhibit self-organized criticality . A prime example is the observed scale-free distribution for the number of votes obtained by distinct candidates in the 1998 general elections in Brazil . Among a widely range of complex dynamical systems, two classical problems, namely, opinion formation and voting processes, essential to the quality of democracy, received particular attention from physicists . In particular, CA models of opinion formation in a society with a strong leader showed clustering phenomena, homogenization, and hysteresis, as observed in real social systems . Furthermore, real-space renormalization methods applied to a simple model of voting process in hierarchical organizations revealed the paradoxal result that democratic elections can lead to totalitarism .

One of the basic prerequisites for the democracy is the electoral dispute for the power, characterized by free choices and a playfield at least moderately equilibrated. So, democracy demands a wider access of the citizens to relevant information, not only to the programs and proposals of the candidates, but also to an evaluation of their chances in the political processes. In universes marked by some electoral fragmentation and strong competitivity, it is reasonable to assume that certain choices are made, through a strategic and complex way, based on criteria that take into account both affinity and pragmatism at different degrees. Electoral surveys represent an effective tool to provide the informations needed to carry out similar political calculations. From the democratic standpoint, it is unacceptable that such possibility of evaluation should be suppressed from the citizens, assert the republican tradition and the mass media. However, due to the allegated inductive power of the electoral surveys, the citizens’ choices without them might take into account more authentic personal convictions about the candidates and proposals, advocate some others.

This democratic controversy acquires a particular relevance in Latin America which, despite its poverty and inequalities, represents a huge market for the mass media. Indeed, television networks reach more than $`80\%`$ of the homes in its most populated countries. Also, since in Latin America the reading tradition is constrained to limited social segments, the contrast between television and press is significantly greater than that observed in the developed world. Moreover, where the television is private and successful – as in Brazil and Mexico –, it is either slavish to the government or totally irresponsible. Where the television is public, it is influenced, propagandist and hardy accessible to the political opposition. In these countries the monitoring mechanisms of campaign advertisements and electoral surveys in the media are fragile or inexistent. Besides, the people education levels in Latin American nations are in general low, as was demonstrated by surveys carried out during the 1989 general elections in Brazil, which revealed that almost $`70\%`$ of the electors have only fundamental education, if so.

In the present work, we report on the simulation results obtained via a CA model designed to address basic issues concerning the effects of electoral surveys on the dynamics of democratic voting. Specifically, the following questions were investigated: 1. what role do electoral surveys play on the voting processes in societies with different levels of education? 2. Under what conditions can the “status quo” be preserved through subtle manipulations of the opinion formation mechanisms? It is worth emphasizing that we do not expect to give definitive answers to these questions or make predictions about any particular political system. Instead, we believe that the results, obtained using algorithmic models built upon precise hypotheses, simple dynamical variables and evolution rules, can be used as plausibility probes relevant to the actual events. This is the way CA or agent-based modeling can be effective tools to the advancement for the social sciences .

## 2 The model

The CA model consists of $`N=L^2`$ electors distributed on the sites of a square lattice with linear size $`L`$ and periodic boundary conditions. Every voter $`i`$ ($`i=1,2,\mathrm{},N`$) can choose among one of three classical political options: left, center or right, denoted as $`\sigma _i=1,2`$ and $`3`$, respectively. In addition, each citizen has an ideology $`\xi _i=1`$ (left), $`0`$ (center) or $`+1`$ (right), fixed in time. At each time step, the political preferences $`\sigma `$ of all the electors are simultaneously updated. It is assumed, in agreement with the social impact theory , that the vote intention of each elector is influenced by the opinions of the citizens on his Moore neighborhood, including himself, and by an external field associated to the results of electoral surveys. These effects are included in a deterministic field $`I_i(t)`$ used by every elector to make their political evaluations. The CA rules used are the following:

Rule 1: An elector $`i`$ subjected to a social impact $`I_i(t)`$ updates his vote intention $`\sigma _i`$ with probability

$$\nu _i=\frac{|I_i(t)|}{\beta +|I_i(t)|},$$
(1)
which describes the randomness affecting the process of individual opinion formation. The parameter $`\beta `$ measures the sensitivity to changes in the society. Clearly, the citizen’s current vote intention is maintained, i. e., $`\sigma _i(t+1)=\sigma _i(t)`$, with the complementary probability $`1\nu _i`$.

The probability $`\nu _i`$ is a sigmoid curve that saturates at the unity for large values of $`I_i(t)`$ and vanishes when the social impact is null. Therefore, the larger is the social impact on the elector $`i`$, greater is the chance of this elector update his preference.

Rule 2: The social impact $`I_i(t)`$ determines the local political preference $`V_i(t)`$ evaluated by the elector $`i`$. The form of $`I_i(t)`$ depends on the elector ideology and is a function of the local information only.

For a leftist or rightist, $`I_i(t)`$ is calculated through the expression:

$$I_i^{ext}(t)=\alpha _i(\xi _i)\mathrm{\Delta }(t)+\epsilon _i(\xi _i)\xi _i+\underset{k}{}J_k[\delta _{3,\sigma _k(t)}\delta _{1,\sigma _k(t)}],$$
(2)
with $`\xi _i=\pm 1`$. The first term corresponds to the effect of electoral surveys, with $`\alpha `$ being the mass media inductive power over elector $`i`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ the survey result (see rule 4). The second term represents the tendency of an individual to vote according his political ideology, $`\epsilon _i`$ being his ideological strength. The last term accounts for the social neighbors influence, each one with persuasive power $`J_k`$. It considers only the net influence due to all the leftist and rightist neighbors. So, a citizen to the left (or right) build his voting strategy comparing the local persuasive power of his ideological group and that of the opposite extreme, independently of his neighbors of center. If $`I_i^{ext}(t)<0`$, the left tendency is locally majoritary and $`V_i(t)=1`$. If $`I_i^{ext}(t)>0`$ the right tendency dominates and $`V_i(t)=+1`$. Finally, if $`I_i^{ext}(t)=0`$, there is an equilibrium between the local preferences to the political extremes, the social impact on elector $`i`$ vanishes, and his current vote intention $`\sigma `$ is maintained according to rule 1.

In turn, an elector of center compare the social impact to the extreme $`I_i^{ext}(t)`$, given by eq.(2), with the local impact of the moderates

$$I_i^c(t)=\alpha _i(0)\delta _{0,\mathrm{\Delta }(t)}+\epsilon _i(0)+\underset{k}{}J_k\delta _{2,\sigma _k(t)}$$
(3)
If $`I_i^c(t)>|I_i^{ext}(t)|`$ then, as evaluated by the moderate elector $`i`$, the center is majoritary, $`I_i(t)=I_i^c(t)|I_i^{ext}(t)|`$ and $`V_i(t)=0`$. If $`I_i^c(t)<|I_i^{ext}(t)|`$ then one of the political extremes is majoritary, $`I_i(t)=I_i^{ext}(t)`$ and $`V_i(t)=sign(I_i(t))`$. Finally, if $`I_i^c(t)=I_i^{ext}(t)=0`$, there is no social impact $`I_i(t)`$ on elector $`i`$ and, according to rule 1, his current vote intention is maintained.

Rule 3: Vote intention update: (a) an elector of center assumes the local majoritary preference indicated by $`V_i(t)`$. (b) A leftist always votes for the left unless the right becomes the local major tendency, case in which the elector migrates to the center. Similarly, (c) a rightist votes for the right, migrating to the center only if his evaluation of $`V_i(t)`$ indicates the left as majoritary. In mathematical terms, the rules (a), (b) and (c) can be written as

$$\sigma _i(t+1)=\{\begin{array}{cc}1+[1+V_i(t)]div\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2},\hfill & \text{ if }\xi _i=1\hfill \\ 2+V_i(t),\hfill & \text{ if }\xi _i=0\hfill \\ 2+[2+V_i(t)]div\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2},\hfill & \text{ if }\xi _i=+1\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
where $`div\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}`$ is the integer division by $`2`$.

It is worth noting that the CA dynamics try to minimize the conflict between each elector and his social environment constituted by his neighbors and mass media information. However, each citizen follows distinct strategies depending on his political ideology. Electors of center vote with the majority, moving either to the left or to the right if necessary. In contrast, since individuals at the ideological extremes exhibit a limited motility in the political spectrum, they cannot minimize this conflict. Indeed, if the right is the majoritary, the leftist has a single political strategy: change his vote to the center, trying to prevent the victory of his ideological enemy, and vice-versa.

Rule 4: Electoral surveys: periodically the total number of vote intentions to left $`n_l`$, center $`n_c`$ and right $`n_r`$ are counted. The greatest of these values defines the electoral survey result: $`\mathrm{\Delta }=1`$ (left), $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$ center and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=+1`$ (right). Since the mass media does not necessarily represents a way towards a democratic government, factors $`f_l`$, $`f_c`$ and $`f_r`$ multiplying $`n_l`$, $`n_c`$ and $`n_r`$, respectively, can be introduced in order to simulate possible manipulations of the electoral surveys. Thus, the case $`f_l=f_c=f_r=1`$ corresponds to electoral surveys without bias, whereas the set $`f_l=0.98`$, $`f_c=1`$, and $`f_r=1.02`$ introduces a bias to the right within the accepted error bars for opinion surveys.

Exposed the CA rules, some additional comments about the features and social interactions of the model are necessary. Differently from most of the previous opinion formation models, the present one does not involve binary choices since, in general, electoral processes are not constrained to two political options only. Clearly, this detail complicates the model because an Ising-like dynamics is inappropriate. The model assumes that each elector has a bounded rationality, i. e., does not have detailed global information and infinite computational power. Also, as claimed by Althusser , the elector ideology acquires a material character since it guides the actions (political calculations and eventual choices) executed by each voter. It is evident that citizen’s political convictions can evolve in time under the influence of multiple internal and collective factors. However, this is typically a slow dynamics if compared to the periods of electoral campaigns and thus it is reasonable to associate a fixed ideology to any voter. At last, the relevance of the mass media is evident from the fact that it became, above the parties and electoral systems, a major actor in actual contemporary politic .

Concerning social couplings, the persuasive power $`J`$, ideological strength $`\epsilon `$, and susceptibility to mass media influence $`\alpha `$ are complex functions of the elector’s ideology, as assumed in eqs. (2) and (3). Indeed, at the political extremes there is some fraction of the electors that aggressively seeks to convince (high $`J`$) while strongly resisting being influenced (low $`\alpha `$, high $`\epsilon `$). In contrast, it is more probable that some moderate electors absorb information and experience persuasion (high $`\alpha `$, low $`\epsilon `$) without seeking to influence their neighbors (low $`J`$). In turn, the relative values of these parameters $`J`$, $`\epsilon `$ and $`\alpha `$ also depend on highly complex psycological and social phenomena. In societies with low education levels, decreasing political participation and where familiar, friendship and aiding relationships predominate, as in Latin America, one might conjecture an average value of $`J`$ greater than that of $`\epsilon `$. But, in moderate societies with satisfactory levels of education, citizens’ openness to reasoned arguments, as in Europe, again the value of $`J`$ might be greater than $`\epsilon `$ in average. The opposite may happen if the society is characterized by fanaticism, exclusivism or political polarization. In summary, the interpretation of the model interactions $`J`$, $`\epsilon `$ and $`\alpha `$, as well as their relationship, in terms of the underlying psychological and social phenomena is an open problem. Finally, the influence of mass media seems to be greater in societies where education levels are low, political alienation is high and the individualism dominates.

## 3 Simulational results

The initial CA configuration is composed of randomly distributed electors voting to the center, left and right with probabilities $`p_l`$, $`p_r`$ and $`p_c=1(p_l+p_c)`$, respectively. For the sake of simplicity, the same probabilities were independently used to determine the fixed electors ideology $`\xi _k`$. At the beginning of the simulations, the electors’ persuasive powers $`J_k`$ and ideological strengths $`\epsilon _k`$ were chosen, and fixed, from piecewise uniform probability distributions on the unitary interval. Again, for simplicity, these distributions were assumed independent of the voter’s ideology. The social sensitivity $`\beta =10`$ and the average value $`\overline{J}=0.5`$ for the persuasive power of the electors were fixed and distinct $`\overline{\epsilon }`$ tested. The simulations were performed on a lattice of linear size $`L=200`$ and the results averaged over $`200`$ independent samples.

The CA simulations have been implemented using the following procedure. Specified the initial configuration, the result of the electoral survey is determined according to rule 4. This result is fixed for $`T`$ time steps until a next survey is made. Then, all voters simultaneously evaluate, using rule 2, their local social impact. According to rule 1, if the social impact on the elector $`i`$ vanishes, his vote intention is maintained. Otherwise ($`I_i(t)0`$), the voter $`i`$ can update his vote, with probability $`\nu _i(t)`$, applying rule 3. After visit all the electors, a new time step begins and the entire procedure (electoral surveys at $`t=nT`$, $`n\mathrm{}`$, evaluation of the social impact on each elector and application of the vote update rules) is iterated. In the simulations a period $`T=1`$ was used and thus, since electoral surveys are often broadcasted weekly, a time step corresponds to a week.

### 3.1 The ideological strength

Initially, the role of the ideological strength in a society free from the mass media influence ($`\alpha =0`$) was analysed. Figure 1 shows the temporal evolution and the stationary spatial distributions of vote intentions obtained from a random initial configuration in which $`p_l=0.30`$, $`p_c=0.55`$, and $`p_r=0.15`$. As the system evolves the electors aggregate in clusters sharing a common vote intention. For small values of $`\overline{\epsilon }`$ the majoritary group percolates the lattice, becoming less dense and non-percolating as the value of $`\overline{\epsilon }`$ increases. In Figure 2 it is shown that, excluding the eventual percolating cluster, the cluster size distribution of the majoritary groups obeys a power law, whereas for the minoritary political groups an exponential decay can be observed. The exponents of the power laws depend on the average ideological strength $`\overline{\epsilon }`$. The smaller $`\overline{\epsilon }`$ is, greater is the exponent and faster is the decay of the cluster size distribution for the majoritary tendency. In contrast, the characteristic size of the exponentially distributed minoritary aggregates seems to be independent of the ideological strength. So, agreement clustering, indicating convergence of vote intention, rises when ideological strength decreases.

The central role of the ideological strength is exhibited in Figure 3, in which the society is initially polarized between the political extremes (majoritary groups), the liberals (center) represent a minoritary fraction of the electorate, and the vote intentions are built taking into account only the local interactions among the individuals ($`\alpha =0`$). For a low $`\overline{\epsilon }`$, the conflict between the extremes can be progressively resolved via an option to the center, as shown in Figure 3a. This scenario is reminscent of the political affairs occurred in Portugal in 1974, known as the Cravos’ revolution, in which the liberals and the extremes walk rapidly towards a national political consensus of center . In contrast, for a high $`\overline{\epsilon }`$ and, therefore, constrained possibilities of conciliation, democratic elections seems to be, as shown in Figure 3b, unable to overcome the polarization between radically opposed tendencies. In such extreme situation it is often the case that the solution for the political conflict arises from a rupture of the democratic process. A noticeable historical example for this scenario was provided by the Spanish civil war . Thus, in societies with high values of $`\overline{\epsilon }`$, dangerous situations of strong political polarization become more probable, since the extremism or fanaticism prevents the spreading of convincing arguments. It is often the case that the fanaticism can be dominant in populations with very low education levels. However, there is no simple or linear relationship between education level of the citizens and their ideological strength.

In Figure 4 it is shown the CA phase diagram for voting processes without electoral surveys ($`\alpha =0`$). Since the leftists and rightists has a limited motility in the political spectrum and the electors of center update their vote intention according to the majoritary preference indicated by the local social impact $`I_i(t)`$, it is possible to an initial minority becomes majoritary at the end of the electoral process. This possibility, i. e., the final victory of a minoritary group, depends on the average value of the ideological strength and the initial difference of vote intention between the initial majority and the largest minoritary groups. In order to demonstrate this possibility, several initial scenarios in which the majority, center, and the largest minority, left, are separated by a difference of vote intention $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{cl}(0)`$ were simulated. (Notice that there is a perfect symmetry between left and right in the CA evolution rules.) Throught these simulations the probability $`P_{min}`$ of an initial minoritary group wins the election was estimated. As shown in Figure 4, the initial majority (center) wins the election, with certainty $`P_{min}=1`$, if $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{cl}(0)>\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$, a critical value dependent on $`\overline{\epsilon }`$. Otherwise, the minority (left) is the winner. As a result, in societies where apathy, alienation and low education levels prevail, it is possible to a minority attains the political power. Our simulations suggest that these two regions are separated by a sudden transition. In contrast, if the center isthe minoritary initial group, the minority never wins the elections.

Finally, in Figure 5 the distribution of decision time $`P(\tau )`$ is shown. $`\tau `$ is the time each elector spent to change his vote intention and it is distributed as a power law whose exponents decrease as the average ideological strength $`\overline{\epsilon }`$ increases. These results indicate that in populations alienated from political life the electors change more rapidly and frequently their vote intention, as expected. Such power laws for the decision time were also observed in the Sznajd model of opinion formation  in which small sets of voters influence their nearest neighbours if and only if all of them within the given set agree. However, for the Sznajd model the exponents characterizing $`P(\tau )`$ have a constant value $`3/2`$.

### 3.2 The mass media influence

Here, the mass media influence ($`\alpha 0`$) on the dynamics of the democratic voting is analyzed. The stationary spatial distributions of vote intentions shown in Figure 6 reveal that the density of the majoritary group is largely increased as compared to its counterpart in Figure 1. Also, as shown in Figure 7, the exponents describing the power law decays of the majoritary cluster size distributions increase significantly for both small and large values of $`\overline{\epsilon }`$. So, outside the larger percolating clusters, the remaining isolated clusters of the majoritary tendency have a sharper distribution. Thus, agreement clustering rises and the levels of political diversity fall sharply. Furthermore, for small $`\overline{\epsilon }`$ the power law decay for the time $`\tau `$ each elector spent to change his vote intention is governed by greater exponents as compared to those for $`\alpha =0`$, meaning that the electors change more rapidly their vote intention in response to the mass media influence. Summarizing, in all societies, from low to high ideological strength $`\overline{\epsilon }`$, the electorate is susceptible to the effects of electoral surveys broadcasted by the mass media. Clearly, these effects are larger in societies with small $`\overline{\epsilon }`$, as evidenced by the faster power decay of both cluster size and decision time distributions.

In consequence of increasing the agreement clustering, decreasing the levels of political diversity and reducing the “volatility” of electors vote intention, the free flow of information concerning current public opinion via broadcasted electoral surveys has a stabilizing effect on the political “status quo”. Indeed, as shown in Figure 8, the CA phase diagram for the voting process changes for $`\alpha 0`$: the possibility of victory of an initial minoritary group falls sharply if compared with the $`\alpha =0`$ case (Figure 4). Moreover, the simulation results indicate that beyond a given threshold value $`\alpha ^{}`$ the chance of a minoritary vitory vanishes. Indeed, for $`\alpha =2.0`$ the phase diagram in figure 4b reduces to a flat surface $`P_{min}=0`$ everywhere. Thus, the social resistence to political changes rises significantly when external interactions associated to mass media information are allowed. In contrast, an electorate constrained to small group interactions is more openness to collectively changing its political opinion by diffusive-like propagation.

These results naturally lead to the issue: what are the effects on the voting process of broadcast manipulated electoral surveys? In order to answer this question, a scenario in which the left is majoritary, overcoming the center by an initial difference in vote intention $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{lc}(0)`$, was simulated. As shown in Figure 9, the strategy of the minority (center) manipulate pool results —within the universally accepted statistical error bars— in its own benefit produces a paramount chance in the phase diagram of figure 4b. The region in which the minority is successfull enlarges dramatically mainly in societies where the average ideologycal strength $`\overline{ϵ}`$ is small. Indeed, where the minoritary victory was impossible before ($`P_{min}=0`$), now the victory is a certainty if the initial difference in vote intention pro left is small then around $`10\%`$. The reason is that, since the diffusive spread of arguments is difficult because the voters are unable to sustain their arguments (small $`\overline{\epsilon }`$), populations with low education levels and/or significative political alienation are more susceptible to external influences reinforcing the weight of a particular group. So, by manipulating the electoral surveys, it is possible in these societies to hinder a majoritary opposition reach the power through the electoral path. In Latin America, where representative democracy was almost always deprived of meaning, manipulated electoral surveys seems to be the rule. Such unscrupulous political strategies are promptly justified: any “informed” people can not support a comunist or revolutionary government, elected or not

## 4 Conclusions

A stochastic cellular automata model for the dynamic of democratic voting processes have been studied through computer simulations. In the model, each voter updates his vote intention according to distinct political strategies which depend on his own ideology (left, center or right) and the social impact affecting him. The social impact includes the interactions between every elector and his social neighbours, his ideological strength or capacity to sustain his choices, and the influence of mass media through the broadcast of electoral surveys.

Starting from initial disordered configurations, progressive political agreement clustering as well as complex changes in vote intention, characterized by power law distributions for the size of electoral clusters and decision time, have been obtained. In the absence of mass media influence, societies with small ideological strength, maybe associated to low education levels and/or high political alienation, exhibit smaller agreement clustering and higher diversity, allowing that dangerous situations of strong political polarization can be resolved through the voting process. In contrast, since the extremism or fanaticism prevents the spreading of convincing arguments, greater agreement clustering, smaller diversity and persisting dangerous polarizations are observed in societies with high ideological strength.

A central result of this work is the demonstration that electoral surveys play a major role in guiding opinion formation and stabilizing the “status quo”. Indeed, the possibility of victory of an initial minoritary group falls sharply if compared to the case where these surveys are absent. Moreover, in societies where these surveys are manipulated within the universally accepted statistical error bars, even a majoritary opposition can be hindered to reach the power through the electoral path. Finally, societies with low ideological strengths revealed more susceptible to the mass media influence, whereas societies with higher $`\overline{\epsilon }`$ are unable to resolve dangerous polarization events. Therefore, the model suggests that the most desirable balance among agreement clustering, diversity levels and low susceptibility to mass media influences seems to be exhibited in the mid-range of ideological strength.

Acknowledgments: this work was partially supported by the Brazilian Agencies CAPES and CNPq.


text:
# Supergravity Inflation on the Brane

## I  Introduction

In supersymmetric theories with a single supersymmetry generator ($`N=1`$), complex scalar fields are the lowest components, $`\varphi ^a`$, of chiral superfields $`\mathrm{\Phi }^a`$. Masses for fields will be generated by spontaneous symmetry breaking so that the only fundamental mass scale is the reduced Planck mass, $`M=M_P/\sqrt{8\pi }`$. The $`N=1`$ supergravity theory describing the interaction of the chiral superfields, the scalar potential is given by

$$V=\mathrm{e}^{K/M^2}\left[F^A(K_A^B)^1F_B3\frac{|W|^2}{M^2}\right]+\mathrm{D}\mathrm{terms},$$
(1)
where

$$F_A\frac{W}{\mathrm{\Phi }^A}+\left(\frac{K}{\mathrm{\Phi }^A}\right)\frac{W}{M^2},K_A^B\frac{^2K}{\mathrm{\Phi }^A\mathrm{\Phi }_B^{}}.$$
(2)
The Kähler function, $`K`$, sets the form of the kinetic energy terms of the theory while the superpotential, $`W`$, determines the non-gauge interactions. For canonical kinetic energy terms, $`K=_A\varphi _A^{}\varphi ^A`$, the potential takes the relatively simple form

$$V=\mathrm{exp}\left(\underset{A}{}\frac{\varphi _A^{}\varphi ^A}{M^2}\right)\left[\underset{B}{}\left|\frac{W}{\varphi _B}\right|^23\frac{\left|W\right|^2}{M^2}\right].$$
(3)
Expanding the (slowly varying) inflaton potential about the value of the inflaton field at which the quantum fluctuations of interest are produced giving rise to structure formation, $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }`$, by writing $`\phi =\stackrel{~}{\varphi }+\varphi `$, we obtain a polynomial potential in $`\varphi `$

$$V=\mathrm{\Delta }^4\left[1+c_1\frac{\varphi }{M}+c_2\left(\frac{\varphi }{M}\right)^2+\mathrm{}\right],$$
(4)
where we have factored out the mass parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, which sets the scale of the inflationary phase and can be directly related with the amplitude of energy density perturbations. In this work, we shall consider a class of models in which the evolution of the inflaton dynamics is controlled by a single power at the point where the observed density fluctuations are produced; in this case, the potential assumes the following form

$$V\mathrm{\Delta }^4\left[1+c_n\left(\frac{\varphi }{M}\right)^n\right].$$
(5)
The case where the second term is dominant and $`n=2`$, a situation typical of chaotic inflationary models, has already been analysed in Refs. Maartens ; Bento1 , where it is shown that specific features of the braneworld scenario allow for current observational constraints to be successfully accounted for with a single scale at the superpotential level; hence, difficulties with higher order non-renormalizable terms can be quite naturally avoided since it is possible to achieve successful inflation with sub-Planckian field values.

In this work, we consider the case where the first term is dominant and $`n=2`$ or $`n=3`$; regarding the former case, it is well known that a generic supergravity theory gives contributions of order $`\pm H^2`$ Bertolami  to the inflaton mass squared whereas inflation requires $`|m^2|H^2`$, this is the so-called $`\eta `$ problem. We will show that, in the braneworld scenario, this problem can be avoided, provided the $`D=5`$ Planck mass satisfies the condition $`M_5\text{ }<10^{16}\text{GeV}`$. This kind of analysis has recently been done for a particular supergravity F-term hybrid inflation model JohnM , namely the one of Ref. Dvali . It is relevant to point out that hybrid inflationary models Linde ; Cope  allow, as a result of the dynamics of two or more scalar fields, for successful realizations of the old inflationary type models, but have, in some instances, difficulties in what concerns initial conditions. However, these problems are shown to be naturally solved in braneworld scenarios in the case where the potential is dominated by the mass term Mendes .

We shall also consider the case where the quadratic term gets cancelled and, therefore, the inflationary potential is cubic in $`\varphi `$, as is the case of the supergravity natural inflation model of Ref. Adams . We show that this model works in the braneworld scenario provided $`M_51.1\times 10^{16}\text{GeV}`$.

## II Requirements on the inflationary potential

We shall consider the five-dimensional brane scenario, where one assumes that Einstein equations with a negative cosmological constant hold (an anti-De-Sitter space is required) in $`D`$-dimensions and that matter fields are confined to the $`3`$-brane; then, the $`4`$-dimensional Einstein equation is given by Shiromizu :

$$G_{\mu \nu }=\mathrm{\Lambda }g_{\mu \nu }+\frac{8\pi }{M_P^2}T_{\mu \nu }+\left(\frac{8\pi }{M_5^3}\right)^2S_{\mu \nu }E_{\mu \nu },$$
(6)
where $`T_{\mu \nu }`$ is the energy-momentum on the brane, $`S_{\mu \nu }`$ is a tensor that contains contributions that are quadratic in $`T_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`E_{\mu \nu }`$ corresponds to the projection of the 5-dimensional Weyl tensor on the 3-brane (physically, for a perfect fluid, it is associated to non-local contributions to the pressure and energy flux). In a cosmological framework, where the 3-brane resembles our universe and the metric projected onto the brane is an homogeneous and isotropic flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric, the Friedmann equation becomes Shiromizu ; Binetruy :

$$H^2=\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}+\left(\frac{8\pi }{3M_P^2}\right)\rho +\left(\frac{4\pi }{3M_5^3}\right)^2\rho ^2+\frac{ϵ}{a^4},$$
(7)
where $`ϵ`$ is an integration constant. The four and five-dimensional cosmological constants are related by

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }=\frac{4\pi }{M_5^3}\left(\mathrm{\Lambda }_5+\frac{4\pi }{3M_5^3}\lambda ^2\right),$$
(8)
where $`\lambda `$ is the 3-brane tension, and the four and five-dimensional Planck scales through

$$M_P=\sqrt{\frac{3}{4\pi }}\frac{M_5^3}{\sqrt{\lambda }}.$$
(9)
Assuming that, as required by observations, the cosmological constant is negligible in the early universe and since the last term in Eq. (7) rapidly becomes unimportant after inflation sets in, the Friedmann equation becomes

$`H^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{8\pi }{3M_P^2}}\rho \left[1+{\displaystyle \frac{\rho }{2\lambda }}\right]`$ (10)
$`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{3M_5^3}}\right)^2\rho ^2\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\rho _c}{\rho }}\right),`$ (11)
with

$$\rho _c=\frac{3}{2\pi }\frac{M_5^6}{M_P^2}.$$
(12)
Hence, the new term in $`\rho ^2`$ is dominant at high energies, compared to $`\lambda ^{1/4}`$, i.e. $`\rho >\rho _c`$, but quickly decays at lower energies, and the usual four-dimensional FRW cosmology is recovered.

Consistently, we shall assume that the scalar field is confined to the brane, so that its field equation has the standard form

$$\ddot{\varphi }+3H\dot{\varphi }=\frac{dV}{d\varphi }.$$
(13)
Consistency between the slow-roll approximation and the full evolution equations requires that there are constraints on the slope and curvature of the potential. One can define two slow-roll parameters Maartens

$`ϵ`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M_P^2}{16\pi }}\left({\displaystyle \frac{V^{}}{V}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{1+V/\lambda }{(2+V/\lambda )^2}},`$ (14)
$`\eta `$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M_P^2}{8\pi }}\left({\displaystyle \frac{V^{\prime \prime }}{V}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+V/2\lambda }}.`$ (15)
Notice that both parameters are suppressed by an extra factor $`\lambda /V`$ at high energies and that, at low energies, $`V\lambda `$, they reduce to the standard form. The value of $`\varphi `$ at the end of inflation can be obtained from the condition

$$\mathrm{max}\{ϵ(\varphi _F),|\eta (\varphi _F)|\}=1.$$
(16)
The number of e-folds during inflation is given by $`N=_{t_\mathrm{i}}^{t_\mathrm{f}}H𝑑t`$, which becomes Maartens

$$N\frac{8\pi }{M_P^2}_{\varphi _\mathrm{i}}^{\varphi _\mathrm{f}}\frac{V}{V^{}}\left[1+\frac{V}{2\lambda }\right]𝑑\varphi ,$$
(17)
in the slow-roll approximation. We see that, as a result of the modification in the Friedmann equation, the expansion rate is increased, at high energies, by a factor $`V/2\lambda `$.

The amplitude of scalar perturbations is given by Maartens

$$A_s^2\left(\frac{512\pi }{75M_P^6}\right)\frac{V^3}{V^2}\left[1+\frac{V}{2\lambda }\right]^3|_{k=aH},$$
(18)
where the right-hand side should be evaluated as the comoving scale equals the Hubble radius during inflation, $`k=aH`$. Thus the amplitude of scalar perturbations is increased relative to the standard result at a fixed value of $`\varphi `$ for a given potential.

The scale-dependence of the perturbations is described by the spectral tilt Maartens

$$n_s1\frac{d\mathrm{ln}A_s^2}{d\mathrm{ln}k}6ϵ+2\eta ,$$
(19)
where the slow-roll parameters are given in Eqs. (14) and (15). Notice that, as $`V/\lambda \mathrm{}`$, the spectral index of scalar perturbations is driven towards the Harrison-Zel’dovich spectrum, $`n_s1`$.

Finally, the ratio between the amplitude of tensor and scalar perturbations is given by Langlois

$$\left(\frac{A_t}{A_s}\right)^2\frac{3M_P^2}{16\pi }\left(\frac{V^{}}{V}\right)^2\frac{2\lambda }{V}.$$
(20)
In what follows we shall use the inflationary observables defined to study two generic supergravity inflationary models of the type described by Eq. (5). We should stress that we shall be interested in achieving a sucessful inflationary scenario with sub-Planckian field values so as to avoid the abovementioned problems with higher order non-renormalizable terms.

## III Quadratic potential

We first consider the case where the potential is quadratic in $`\varphi `$ and we rewrite it as

$$V=V_0+\frac{1}{2}m^2\varphi ^2,$$
(21)
and assume that the first term is dominant.

In supergravity, effective mass squared contributions of fields are given by Cope

$$\frac{1}{2}m^2=8\pi \frac{V_0}{M_P^2}3H^2$$
(22)
since the horizon of the inflationary De Sitter phase has a Hawking temperature given by $`T_H=H/2\pi `$ Bertolami .

Contributions like the ones of Eq. (22) lead to $`\eta M_P^2V^{\prime \prime }/8\pi V2`$ ; however, the onset of inflation requires $`\eta 1`$. Within the braneworld scenario, however, $`\eta `$ is modified, at high energies, by a factor $`\lambda /V`$ (see Eq. (15)). Hence, if the quantity, $`\alpha V_0/\lambda `$, is sufficiently large, this problem is automatically solved by the brane corrections, as in this case, $`\eta 4/\alpha `$ for large $`\alpha `$.

We shall now see that a constraint on $`M_5`$ can be obtained from the requirement that the magnitude of the energy density perturbations ensuing from our inflationary setup explains the anisotropies in the CMB radiation observed by COBE.

The number of $`e`$-foldings, $`N`$, in terms of $`\alpha `$ is given by

$$N=\alpha \left[\frac{1}{4}\mathrm{log}\left(\frac{\varphi _I}{\varphi _F}\right)+\frac{2\pi }{M_P^2}(\varphi _I^2\varphi _F^2)+\frac{16\pi ^2}{M_P^4}(\varphi _I^4\varphi _F^4)\right].$$
(23)
Using the high energy approximation and $`VV_0`$ in Eq. (18), we obtain for $`A_s^2`$

$$A_s^2\frac{64\pi }{75M_P^6}\frac{V_0^6}{\lambda ^3m^4\varphi _{}},$$
(24)
where $`\varphi _{}`$ is the value of $`\varphi `$ when scales corresponding to large-angle CMB anisotropies, as observed by COBE, left the Hubble radius during inflation. For $`N_{}55`$, $`\varphi _I=\varphi _{}`$ and $`\varphi _F=\beta M`$ in Eq. (23), we get

$$\varphi _{}0.2\beta \mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{220}{\alpha }\right)M_P,$$
(25)
as, for sub-Planckian field values, the logarithmic term in Eq. (23) dominates. We prefer to leave $`\varphi _F`$ as a free parameter since in hybrid models, which are of particular interest because they can give rise to quadratic potentials of the type we are studying once some other field is held at the origin by its interaction with $`\varphi `$, inflation may end due to instabilities triggered by the dynamics of the other field. It then follows that the amount of inflation critically depends on the value of the inflaton field, $`\varphi _F`$, and hence on $`\beta `$, at the time the instabilities arise. Notice that these instabilities are quite necessary in order to end inflation as $`ϵ=64\pi \varphi ^2/\alpha M_P^2<<1`$ for $`\alpha >>1`$ and sub-Planckian field values. Moreover, it is clear that the condition $`ϵ1`$ cannot be met subsequently as the $`\varphi `$ field is decreasing.

We also mention that the problem of initial conditions for hybrid models, discussed in Ref. Mendes , can also be solved in this model due to the brane corrections.

Inserting Eq. (25) into Eq. (24) and using the fact that the observed value from COBE is $`A_s=2\times 10^5`$, we obtain for $`M_5`$:

$$M_5^3\frac{8\pi }{\alpha ^2}\times 10^5\beta \mathrm{exp}(220/\alpha )M_P^3.$$
(26)
Therefore, $`M_5`$ depends on the importance of the brane corrections via the $`\alpha `$ parameter and the value of the field at the end of inflation through $`\beta `$. In Figure 1, we show contours of the inflationary observables $`n_s`$ and $`r4\pi \left(\frac{A_t}{A_s}\right)^2`$, as given by Eqs. (19) and (20), in terms of parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$. The shaded regions in Figure 1 are obtained by requiring that the bounds resulting from latest CMB data from BOOMERANG Boom , and MAXIMA Maxima  and DASI DASI

$$0.8<n_s<1.05,r<0.3,$$
(27)
are satisfied. Also shown is the contour corresponding to $`N=70`$ (we have chosen the initial value of the inflaton field to be sub-Planckian, $`\varphi _I=0.2M_P`$) and, after applying the condition that there is sufficient inflation, $`N70`$, only the darker region remains allowed. This analysis clearly leads to a constraint on parameter $`\alpha `$, $`\alpha \text{ }>140`$. Finally, also in Figure 1, we have superposed contours of the scale $`M_5`$, from which we can derive an upper bound on this quantity

$$M_5\text{ }<10^3M_P.$$
(28)
Finally, we mention that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (or instead $`V_0`$) in Eq. (5) can be estimated from the bound on the reheating temperature so as to avoid the gravitino problem (see Ref. Bento2  and references therein)

$`T_{RH}`$ $`\text{ }<`$ $`2\times 10^9\text{GeV},6\times 10^9\text{GeV},`$
$`\text{for}m_{3/2}`$ $`=`$ $`1\text{TeV},10\text{TeV},`$ (29)
leading to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\text{ }<6.71\times 10^4M_P`$, as the reheating temperature is given by Ross

$$T_{RH}5.5\times 10^1\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }^3}{M_P^2}.$$
(30)
## IV Cubic potential

We shall now consider the case where, due to some cancellation mechanism, the quadratic term is absent and the potential is cubic in $`\varphi `$:

$$V=\mathrm{\Delta }^4\left[1+c_3\left(\frac{\varphi }{M}\right)^3\right].$$
(31)
As mentioned before, we shall assume that the first term is dominant. For instance, the model of Ref. Adams  corresponds to precisely this case, with $`c_3=4`$. We shall consider a generic $`c_3`$ and adapt our results for this particular example.

We start by computing the slow-roll parameters $`ϵ`$ and $`\eta `$:

$$ϵ\frac{18c_3^2}{\alpha }\left(\frac{\varphi }{M}\right)^4,$$
(32)
$$\eta \frac{12c_3}{\alpha }\left(\frac{\varphi }{M}\right).$$
(33)
where $`\alpha \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }^4}{\lambda }`$.

The value of $`\varphi `$ at the end of inflation can be obtained from Eq. (16); we get, from $`|ϵ|1`$

$$\varphi _F\left(\frac{\alpha }{18c_3^2}\right)^{1/4}M$$
(34)
while, from $`|\eta |1`$, we obtain

$$\varphi _F\left(\frac{\alpha }{12|c_3|}\right)M.$$
(35)
Hence, the prescription to be used depends on the value of $`\alpha `$. For $`c_3=4`$, we see that the two prescriptions coincide for $`\alpha 26`$.

The number of $`e`$-foldings, $`N`$, is given by:

$$N=\frac{\alpha M}{6|c_3|}\left[\frac{1}{\varphi _I}\frac{1}{\varphi _F}\right]=\frac{\alpha M}{6|c_3|\varphi _I}2,$$
(36)
using Eq. (35) (see below). Therefore, sufficient inflation to solve the cosmological horizon/flatness problems, that is $`N>70`$, is achieved for

$$\varphi _I<2.3\times 10^3\left(\frac{\alpha }{|c_3|}\right)M,$$
(37)
yielding, for $`\alpha =26`$ and $`c_3=4`$:

$$\varphi _I<7.5\times 10^2M_P.$$
(38)
In order to match CMB anisotropies as observed by COBE, we compute the value of $`\varphi `$, $`\varphi _{}`$, that corresponds to $`N=55`$:

$$\varphi _{}=\frac{\alpha M}{342|c_3|}.$$
(39)
Inserting this result into Eq. (18), we obtain, in the high energy limit:

$`A_s^2`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{64\pi }{75M_P^6}}\alpha ^3\left({\displaystyle \frac{V}{V^{}}}\right)^2V`$ (40)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha ^4\lambda }{5400\pi ^2c_3^2\varphi _{}^4}},`$
which determines $`M_5`$, using Eqs. (9) and (39):

$$M_5=7.3\times 10^2\left(\frac{A_s}{|c_3|}\right)^{1/3}M_P=9.2\times 10^4M_P,$$
(41)
where we have set $`|c_3|=4`$. Naturally, Eq. (40) can also be used to extract the inflationary scale, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=9.9\times 10^4\left(\frac{\alpha }{c_3^2}\right)^{1/4}M_P.$$
(42)
Requiring that the reheating temperature, computed using Eq. (30) and the above result, obeys the bounds necessary to avoid the gravitino problem, Eq. (29), leads, in turn, to the following bounds on $`\alpha `$ (for $`|c_3|=4`$)

$`\alpha `$ $`\text{ }<`$ $`3.4,14.7,`$
$`\text{for}m_{3/2}`$ $`=`$ $`1\text{TeV},10\text{TeV}.`$ (43)
Notice that for such low values of $`\alpha `$, the relevant prescription for the end of inflation is the one given by Eq. (33). Moreover, we find that, within our approximations, $`n_s`$ does not depend on $`\alpha `$ and we get, for $`|c_3|=4`$,

$$n_s0.93$$
(44)
and

$$r=2.5\times 10^8\frac{\alpha ^3}{|c_3|^2}5\times 10^7,$$
(45)
where we have set $`\alpha 14.7`$; these values are clearly consistent with the observations. Notice that the observational limit on $`r`$ implies a relatively weak bound on $`\alpha `$, namely $`\alpha <577`$.

## V Conclusions

In this work, we have analysed a class of $`N=1`$ supergravity inflationary models in which the evolution of the inflaton dynamics is controlled by a single power (quadratic or cubic in the inflaton field) at the point where the observed density fluctuations are produced, in the context of the braneworld scenario. We find that the so-called $`\eta `$-problem encountered in such models can be naturally solved in the context of braneworld scenario for some range of $`\alpha `$, the ratio of the dominant term in the inflationary potential and the brane tension, and the value of the inflaton field at the end of inflation, $`\varphi _F`$. For an inflationary potential with a quadratic term, we find that consistency with data requires $`\alpha \text{ }>140`$. The implied mass scale of the fifth dimension is $`M_5\text{ }<10^3M_P`$. For an inflationary potential that is cubic we find that, for consistency with observational data, $`M_59.2\times 10^4M_P`$. Finally, we have checked that the gravitino problem can be avoided by a proper choice of the scale of the inflationary potential, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, in both models.

###### Acknowledgements.

M.C.B. and O.B. acknowledge the partial support of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal) under the grant POCTI/1999/FIS/36285. The work of A.A. Sen is fully financed by the same grant.