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# SAGBI bases and Degeneration of Spherical Varieties to Toric Varieties

## 1 Introduction

Let $`X(V)`$ be a (normal) projective $`G`$-variety, where $`G`$ is a classical group and $`V`$ is a finite dimensional $`G`$-module. Suppose $`X`$ is spherical, that is a Borel subgroup has a dense orbit. Generalizing the case of toric varieties, one can associate an integral convex polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$ to $`X`$ such that the Hilbert polynomial $`h(t)`$ of $`X`$ is the Ehrhardt polynomial of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$, i.e. $`h(t)=`$ number of integral points in $`t\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$. The polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$ is the polytope fibred over the moment polytope of $`X`$ with the Gelfand-Cetlin polytopes as fibres. This polytope was defined by A. Okounkov in , based on the results of M. Brion. We call this polytope the Newton polytope of $`X`$.

In this paper, for $`G=\text{SP}(2n,)`$, we show that $`X`$ can be deformed (degenerated), by a flat deformation, to the toric variety corresponding to the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$ (Corollary 6.5). This is the consequence of the main result of the paper, i.e. the homogeneous coordinate ring of a horospherical variety has a SAGBI basis (Theorem 6.1). A spherical variety is horospherical if the stabilizer of a point in the dense $`G`$-orbit contains a maximal unipotent subgroup. Flag varieties and Grassmanians are examples of horospherical varieties. It is known that any spherical variety can be deformed, by a flat deformation, to a horospherical variety such that the moment polytopes of the two varieties are the same (see , \[1, $`\mathrm{\S }2.2`$\], \[10, Satz 2.3\]).

More precisely, we prove that if $`X(V)`$ is a projective horospherical $`G`$-variety where $`G=\text{SP}(2n,)`$, the homogeneous coordinate ring $`R`$ of $`X`$ can be embedded in a Laurent polynomial algebra and has a SAGBI basis with respect to a natural term order 111SAGBI stands for Subalgebra Analogue of Gröbner Basis for Ideals.. Moreover, we show that the semi-group of initial terms is the semi-group of integral points in the cone over the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$. A finite collection $`f_1,\mathrm{},f_r`$ of elements of $`R`$ is a SAGBI basis, with respect to a term order, if the semi-group of initial terms is generated by the initial terms of the $`f_i`$ and moreover, every element of $`R`$ can be represented as a polynomial in the $`f_i`$, in a finite number of steps, by means of a simple classical algorithm called the subduction algorithm.

Degenerations of flag and Schubert varieties to toric varieties have been studied by Gonciulea and Lakshmibai in  and by Caldero in . Recently, M. Kogan and E. Miller show the existence of a SAGBI basis for the coordinate ring of the flag variety of $`\text{GL}(n,)`$. More precisely, they prove that for any dominant weight $`\lambda `$ in the interior of the Weyl chamber, the homogenous coordinate ring of the flag variety $`\text{GL}(n)/B`$ embedded in $`(V_\lambda )`$ has a SAGBI basis and $`\text{GL}(n)/B`$ can be degenerated to the toric variety corresponding to the Gelfand-Cetlin polytope of $`\lambda `$ (see ). Main results of the present paper (Theorem 6.1 and Corollary 6.5) , in particular, imply the similar result for the flag varieties $`G/P`$ of $`G=\text{SP}(2n,)`$.

A key step in our proof is a result of A. Okounkov on the representation theory of $`\text{SP}(2n,)`$. Let $`V_\lambda `$ denote the irreducible $`G`$-module with highest weight $`\lambda `$, where $`G=\text{SP}(2n,)`$. It is well-known that one can view $`V_\lambda `$ as a subspace of $`[G]`$ and, after restriction to $`U`$, as a subspace of $`[U]`$, where $`U`$ is the standard maximal unipotent subgroup of $`G`$. In , Okounkov proves that, with respect to a natural term order on $`[U]`$, the set of highest terms of elements of $`V_\lambda `$ can be identified with the Gelfand-Cetlin polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ (Theorem 5.2). As Okounkov informed the author, using similar methods used for $`\text{SP}(2n,)`$, one can prove his result for other classical groups. But so far he has not published the proofs for other classical groups. The results of the present paper as well as their proofs go verbatim for other classical groups, provided that Okounkov’s result is shown to hold for them.

In Section 2, we discuss SAGBI bases. Section 3 deals with some facts about homogeneous coordinate ring of spherical varieties. We give a description of the homogeneous coordinate ring of a horospherical variety. In Section 4, we define the Gelfand-Cetlin polytopes and the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$. Section 5 discusses the result of A. Okounkov on the initial terms of elements of an irreducible $`G`$-module and Gelfand-Cetlin polytopes, for $`G=\text{SP}(2n,)`$. Finally, in Section 6 we state and prove our main results.

Acknowledgment: The author would like to thank I. Arzhantsev, J. Chipalkatti, A.G. Khovanskii, A. Okounkov and Z. Reichstein for stimulating discussions. Also I would like to thank I. Arzhantsev and Z. Reichstein and for reading the first version and giving helpful comments.

## 2 SAGBI bases

In this section we define the notion of a SAGBI basis for a subalgebra of the Laurent polynomials. SAGBI bases play an important role when one deals with subalgebras of the polynomial or Laurent polynomial algebras. Their theory is more complicated than the theory of Gröbner bases. In particular, not every subalgebra has a SAGBI basis with respect to a given term order. It is an unsolved problem to determine, for a given term order, which subalgebras have a SAGBI basis.

Let $`[x_1^{\pm 1},\mathrm{},x_n^{\pm 1}]`$ denote the algebra of Laurent polynomials in $`n`$ variables. Let $``$ be a term order on $`^n`$, that is a total order compatible with addition. An important example is the lexicographic order. The initial term, with respect to $``$, of a polynomial $`f`$ is denoted by $`\text{in}(f)`$. If $`R`$ is a subalgebra of $`[x_1^{\pm 1},\mathrm{},x_n^{\pm 1}]`$, we denote by $`\text{in}(R)`$ the semi-group of initial terms in $`R`$, i.e. $`\{\text{in}(f)0fR\}`$.

First consider the case where $`R`$ is a subalgebra of $`[x_1,\mathrm{},x_n]`$. In this case, one usually assumes that $``$ satisfies the extra condition:

$$𝐚(0,\mathrm{},0),𝐚0𝐚^n.$$

###### Definition 2.1.

Let $`R`$ be a subalgebra of $`[x_1,\mathrm{},x_n]`$. A finite collection of polynomials $`\{f_1,\mathrm{},f_r\}R`$ is a SAGBI basis for $`R`$, if $`\{\text{in}(f_1),\mathrm{},\text{in}(f_r)\}`$ generates the semi-group $`\text{in}(R)`$.

When $`R`$ has a SAGBI basis, one has a simple classical algorithm, due to Kapur-Madlener and Robbiano-Sweedler, to express elements of $`R`$ in terms of the $`f_i`$ as follows: Write $`\text{in}(f)=d_1\text{in}(f_1)+\mathrm{}+d_r\text{in}(f_r)`$ for some $`d_1,\mathrm{},d_r`$. Dividing the leading coefficient of $`f`$ by the leading coefficient of $`f_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{d_1}\mathrm{}f_{r}^{}{}_{}{}^{d_r}`$, we obtain a $`c`$ such that the leading term of $`f`$ is the same as the leading term of $`cf_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{d_1}\mathrm{}f_{r}^{}{}_{}{}^{d_r}`$. Set $`g=fcf_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{d_1}\mathrm{}f_{r}^{}{}_{}{}^{d_r}`$. If $`g=0`$, we are done; otherwise we replace $`f`$ by $`g`$ and proceed inductively. Since $`g`$ has a smaller leading exponent than $`f`$, and $`^n`$ is well-ordered with respect to $``$, this process will terminate, resulting an expression for $`f`$ as a polynomial in the $`f_i`$. This is referred to as subduction algorithm. See  for a detailed discussion of SAGBI bases for subalgebras of $`[x_1,\mathrm{},x_n]`$.

In general when $`R`$ is a subalgebra of $`[x_1^{\pm 1},\mathrm{},x_n^{\pm 1}]`$, since $`^n`$ is not well-ordered there is no guarantee that this algorithm terminates. Following \[15, p. 2\], we define the SAGBI basis as follows:

###### Definition 2.2.

Let $`R`$ be a subalgebra of $`[x_1^{\pm 1},\mathrm{},x_n^{\pm 1}]`$. A finite collection of polynomials $`\{f_1,\mathrm{},f_r\}`$ is a SAGBI basis for $`R`$ if:

* The $`\text{in}(f_i)`$ generate $`\text{in}(R)`$ as a semi-group; and
* the subduction algorithm described above terminates for every $`fR`$, no matter what choices are made for $`d_1,\mathrm{},d_r`$ in the course of the algorithm.

The algebra $`R`$ is said to have a SAGBI basis, if it has a SAGBI basis for some choice of a term order.

## 3 Homogeneous coordinate ring of spherical and horospherical varieties

Let $`V`$ be a finite dimensional $`G`$-module and $`X(V)`$ a projective spherical $`G`$-variety, i.e. $`X`$ is normal and a Borel subgroup $`BG`$ has a dense orbit in $`X`$. Let $`R=[X]`$ denote the homogeneous coordinate ring of $`X`$. This algebra is graded by the degree of polynomials,

$$R=\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}R_k.$$

We decompose the spaces $`R_k`$ into irreducible $`G`$-modules,

$$R_k=\underset{\lambda }{}m_{\lambda ,k}V_\lambda ,$$

where $`V_\lambda `$ is the irreducible $`G`$-module with the highest weight $`\lambda `$ and $`m_{k,\lambda }`$ is its multiplicity. Since $`X`$ is spherical its spectrum is multiplicity free, i.e. $`m_{k,\lambda }\{0,1\}`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Phi }(X)`$ denote the moment polytope of $`X`$, i.e. the intersection of the image of the moment map with the positive Weyl chamber for the choice of $`B`$. Also, denote by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ the weight lattice of $`G`$. The following theorem due to Brion (see  and ) determines which weights $`\lambda `$ occur in the decomposition of $`R_k`$ with multiplicity $`1`$:

###### Theorem 3.1 (Brion, $`\mathrm{\S }3`$ ).

There is a sublattice $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Phi }(X)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^{}`$, the vector space spanned by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$, and we have:

$$R_k=\underset{\lambda k\mathrm{\Phi }(X)\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}}{}V_\lambda .$$

The rank of the sublattice $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ is called the rank of the spherical variety $`X`$.

###### Remark 3.2.

It follows from the above theorem that one can recover the moment polytope $`\mathrm{\Phi }(X)`$ from the multiplicities of the irreducible $`G`$-modules appearing in $`R_k`$. More precisely, we have

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(X)=\text{ closure of }\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\{\frac{\mu }{k}V_\mu \text{ appears in the decomposition of }R_k\}.$$

One can show that the ring multiplication in $`R`$ sends $`V_\lambda \times V_\mu `$ to $`V_{\lambda +\mu }_\nu V_\nu `$, where $`\nu =\lambda +\mu \xi `$ and $`\xi `$ is some non-negative combination of simple roots. When all the stabilizer subgroups of the points of $`X`$ contain a maximal unipotent subgroup, from a theorem of Popov (see \[14, Theorem 2.3 \]) it follows that the ring multiplication sends $`V_\lambda \times V_\mu `$ to $`V_{\lambda +\mu }`$ and this map coincides with a Cartan multiplication. 222For definition of Cartan multiplication see \[7, p. 429\]

###### Definition 3.3.

A spherical $`G`$-variety $`X`$ such that the stabilizer of a point in the dense $`G`$-orbit contains a maximal unipotent subgroup is called a horospherical variety.

It can be shown that if $`X`$ is horospherical, then all the stabilizer subgroups contain a maximal unipotent subgroup. Examples of horospherical varieties are toric varieties, flag varieties and Grassmanians.

Now, assume $`X`$ is horospherical. Fix a point $`x`$ in the dense $`G`$-orbit of $`X`$. Choose highest weight vectors $`f_\lambda `$ in each simple submodule $`V_\lambda `$ of $`R`$ by the condition that $`f_\lambda (x)=1`$. Then the product of these highest weight vectors is again such a vector, and for any two $`\lambda `$ and $`\mu `$ appearing in the decomposition of $`R`$, one can uniquely define Cartan multiplication. We can then give the following description for the homogeneous coordinate ring of $`X`$:

###### Theorem 3.4.

We have the following isomorphism of graded algebras:

$$R\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\underset{\lambda k\mathrm{\Phi }(X)\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}}{}V_\lambda ,$$

where the multiplication in the righthand side is defined as follows: Let $`R_d=_\lambda V_\lambda `$ and $`R_e=_\mu V_\mu `$ be the decomposition of two graded pieces of $`R`$. Then the multiplication $`R_d\times R_eR_{d+e}`$ is given by the Cartan multiplication $`V_\lambda \times V_\mu V_{\lambda +\mu }`$, defined uniquely by the above choice of the highest weight vectors $`f_\lambda `$ and $`f_\mu `$.

## 4 Newton polytope of a spherical variety

Let $`G`$ be a classical group. In this section, following , we briefly explain the definition of the Newton polytope of a spherical $`G`$-variety $`X`$. We start by recalling Gelfand-Cetlin polytopes.

To each dominant weight $`\lambda `$ of $`G`$, there corresponds a Gelfand-Cetlin (or briefly G-C) polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$. The convex polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ has the property that the number of integral points in $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ is equal to the dimension of the irreducible $`G`$-module $`V_\lambda `$. The dimension of the Gelfand-Cetlin polytope is equal to the complex dimension of the maximal unipotent subgroup $`U`$ of $`G`$, i.e. $`\frac{1}{2}(\text{dim}(G)\text{rank}(G))`$. We recall the definition of Gelfand-Cetlin polytopes for $`\text{GL}(n,)`$ and $`\text{SP}(2n,)`$. For the definition of G-C polytopes for the orthogonal group see .

###### Definition 4.1 (G-C polytope for $`\text{GL}(n,)`$).

Let $`\lambda =(\lambda _1\mathrm{}\lambda _n)`$ be a decreasing sequence of integers representing a dominant weight in $`\text{GL}(n,)`$. The G-C polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ is the set of all real numbers $`x_1,x_2,\mathrm{},x_{n1}`$, $`y_1,\mathrm{},y_{n2}`$, $`\mathrm{},z`$, such that the following inequalities hold:

$$\begin{array}{ccccccccccc}\lambda _1& & \lambda _2& & \lambda _3& \mathrm{}& \lambda _{n2}& & \lambda _{n1}& & \lambda _n\\ & x_1& & x_2& & \mathrm{}& & x_{n2}& & x_{n1}& \\ & & y_1& & y_2& \mathrm{}& y_{n3}& & y_{n2}& & \\ & & & \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}& & & \\ & & & & & & & & & & \\ & & & & \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}& & & & \\ & & & & & z& & & & & \end{array}$$

where the notation

$$\begin{array}{ccc}a& & b\\ & c& \end{array}$$

means $`acb`$.

###### Definition 4.2 (G-C polytope for $`\text{SP}(2n,)`$).

Let $`B`$ be the Borel subgroup of upper triangular matrices in $`\text{SP}(2n,)`$ and the maximal torus of $`\text{SP}(2n,)`$ be $`\{(t_1,\mathrm{},t_n,t_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{1},\mathrm{},t_{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{1})t_i^{},i=1,\mathrm{},n\}`$. Every dominant weight is then represented by a decreasing sequence of positive integers $`\lambda =(\lambda _1\mathrm{}\lambda _n0)`$. The G-C polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ is the set of all real numbers $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_n,y_1,\mathrm{},y_{n1},\mathrm{},z,w`$, such that the following inequalities hold:

$$\begin{array}{cccccccc}\lambda _1& & \lambda _2& & \mathrm{}& \lambda _n& & 0\\ & x_1& & x_2& \mathrm{}& & x_n& \\ & & y_1& & \mathrm{}& y_{n1}& & 0\\ & & & \mathrm{}& & & \mathrm{}& \\ & & & & \mathrm{}& & & \\ & & & & & z& & 0\\ & & & & & & w& \end{array}$$

If the components of the weight $`\lambda `$ are real, we still can define the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ by the above inequalities. So we can extend the definition of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ to all real $`\lambda `$.

###### Lemma 4.3.

The assignment $`\lambda \mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ is linear, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{c\lambda }=c\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ for any positive $`c`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\lambda +\mu }=\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda +\mathrm{\Delta }_\mu `$, where the addition in the righthand side is the Minkowski sum of convex polytopes.

###### Proof.

The proof is immediate from the definition in each of the three cases of classical groups. ∎

Now, let $`X(V)`$ be a (smooth) projective spherical $`G`$-variety and $`\mathrm{\Phi }(X)`$ its moment polytope. As before, let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ denote the weight lattice and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}`$ the real vector space spanned by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

###### Definition 4.4 (Newton polytope of a spherical variety).

Define the set $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^{\text{dim}U}=^{\text{dim}B}`$, by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(X)=\underset{\lambda \mathrm{\Phi }(X)}{}(\lambda ,\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda ).$$

From Lemma 4.3, it follows that $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$ is a convex polytope.

###### Remark 4.5.

In , as a corollary of a theorem of Brion, it is shown that the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$ has the property:

$$\text{dim}R_k=\mathrm{\#}\{k\mathrm{\Delta }(X)\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}\},$$

where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ is the sublattice of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ in Theorem 3.1. This means that the Hilbert polynomial of the variety $`X`$ coincides with the Ehrhardt polynomial of the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$. Note that since the Hilbert polynomial of a toric variety corresponding to a polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the Ehrhardt polynomial of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and the Hilbert polynomial is invariant under a flat deformation, the above fact agrees with the main result of the paper, i.e. $`X`$ can be deformed to the toric variety of the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$ (Corollary 6.5).

## 5 Initial terms of elements of an irreducible $`G`$-module and Gelfand-Cetlin polytopes

Let $`\lambda `$ be a dominant weight and $`V_\lambda `$ the corresponding irreducible $`G`$-module, where $`G=\text{SP}(2n,)`$. The purpose of this section is to explain the result of A. Okounkov in , regarding the initial terms of the elements of $`V_\lambda `$. We will need it in the proof of our main theorem.

First, we explain how one can identify $`V_\lambda `$ with a subspace of a polynomial algebra, that is, the coordinate ring of the standard maximal unipotent subgroup. Let $`T`$ be the standard maximal torus of diagonal matrices in $`G`$, $`B_+`$ the Borel subgroup of upper triangular matrices, and $`U_+`$ the maximal unipotent subgroup of $`B_+`$. Denote by $`B_{}`$ and $`U_{}`$ the opposite subgroups of $`B_+`$ and $`U_+`$ respectively. Fix a $`B_{}`$-eigenvector $`\xi `$ in $`(V_\lambda )^{}`$. It is well-known that the mapping from $`V_\lambda `$ to $`[G]`$, defined by

$$vf_v,$$

$$f_v(g)=\xi (g^1v),$$

maps the $`G`$-module $`V_\lambda `$ isomorphically to the subspace

$$\{f[G]f(gb)=(\lambda )(b)f(g),bB_{}\}$$
(1)
where $`\lambda `$ is regarded as a character of $`B_{}`$. We identify $`V_\lambda `$ with its image in $`[G]`$. Choose the highest weight vector $`v_\lambda V_\lambda `$ such that $`\xi (v_\lambda )=1`$.

Consider the Bruhat decomposition

$$G=\underset{wW}{}B_+wB_{},$$

where $`W`$ is the Weyl group. We have $`G/B_{}=_{wW}B_+wB_{}/B_{}`$ and, the big Bruhat cell $`𝒰`$ in $`G/B_{}`$ is $`B_+B_{}`$. Since $`B_+B_{}=T`$ and $`B_+=U_+T`$, the cell $`𝒰`$ can be identified with $`U_+`$, via $`uuB_{}`$. Since $`𝒰`$ is dense in $`G/B_{}`$, every element of $`V_\lambda [G]`$ is uniquely determined by its restriction to $`U_+`$. So we can consider $`V_\lambda `$ as a subspace of $`[U_+]`$. Note that $`U_+`$ is isomorphic, as a variety, to the affine space of dimension $`\frac{1}{2}(\text{dim}(G)\text{rank}(G))`$. One has:

###### Proposition 5.1.

The following diagram is commutative:

where the map in the first row is the Cartan multiplication, defined uniquely with the above choice of $`v_\lambda `$ and $`v_\mu `$, and the maps in the second and third rows are the usual product of functions.

###### Proof.

From (1) it follows that each $`f_v`$ defines a function on $`G/U_{}`$ and hence each $`V_\lambda `$ can be identified with a subspace of $`[G/U_{}]`$. Now the commutativity of the top part of the diagram follows from a theorem of Popov (\[14, Theorem 2. 3\], see also the paragraph after Remark 3.2). The commutativity of the bottom part of the diagram is trivial. ∎

In , Okounkov interprets the G-C polytopes as the set of highest terms of the elements of the $`V_\lambda `$ regarded as polynomials in $`[U_+]`$. Choose a basis $`e_1,\mathrm{},e_{2n}`$ of $`^{2n}`$ in which the matrix of the symplectic form is

$$\left[\begin{array}{cccccc}& & & & & 1\\ & 0& & & \mathrm{}& \\ & & & 1& & \\ & & 1& & & \\ & \mathrm{}& & & 0& \\ 1& & & & & \end{array}\right].$$

Let $`x_{ij}`$ be the matrix elements in this basis. We use $`x_{11},\mathrm{},x_{nn}`$ as coordinates in $`T`$ and use the dual coordinates

$$g^\lambda =x_{11}^{\lambda _1}\mathrm{}x_{nn}^{\lambda _n},gT,\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda },$$

for weights. The weights

$$\lambda _1\lambda _2\mathrm{}\lambda _n0$$

are dominant for $`B_+`$.

We use $`x_{ij},i<j,i+j2n+1`$, as coordinates in $`U_+`$, and the big Bruhat cell $`𝒰`$. Consider the following lexicographic ordering on $`[U_+]`$:

$$x_{ij}^{p_{ij}}x_{ij}^{q_{ij}}$$

if $`p_{1,2n}<q_{1,2n}`$, or if $`p_{1,2n}=q_{1,2n}`$ and $`p_{1,2n1}<q_{1,2n1}`$, and so on. Note that in particular

$$x_{1,2n}x_{1,2n1}\mathrm{}x_{12}x_{2,2n1}\mathrm{}x_{23}\mathrm{}x_{n,n+1},$$
(2)
which is exactly the reverse of the ordering of positive roots induced by the standard lexicographic order in $`^n`$. For a dominant weight $`\lambda `$ and a monomial

$$x_{ij}^{p_{ij}},$$

put

$`\eta _i`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda _ip_{1,2ni+1},i=1,\mathrm{},n,`$ (3)
$`\theta _i`$ $`=`$ $`\eta _{i+1}+p_{1,i+1},i=1,\mathrm{},n1,`$ (4)
$`\eta _i^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\theta _ip_{2,2ni},i=1,\mathrm{},n1,`$ (5)
$`\theta _i^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\eta _{i+1}^{}+p_{2,i+1},i=1,\mathrm{},n2,`$ (6)
###### Theorem 5.2 (, Theorem 2).

View $`V_\lambda `$ as a subspace of $`[U_+]`$. Then, with the above grading on $`[U_+]`$, the monomial

$$x_{ij}^{p_{ij}}$$

is a highest monomial of a polynomial in $`V_\lambda `$ if and only if the numbers $`\eta _1,\mathrm{},\eta _n,\theta _1,\mathrm{},\theta _{n1},\eta _1^{},\mathrm{},\eta _{n1}^{},\mathrm{}`$, belong to the G-C polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$.

Let us denote the vector $`(\eta ,\theta ,\eta ^{},\theta ^{},\mathrm{})^{\text{dim}U}`$ by $`(q_{ij}),i<j,i+j2n+1`$. The change of variables $`p_{ij}q_{ij}`$ in (3), can be written in the matrix form as:

$$(q_{ij})=A(p_{ij})+B\lambda ,$$
(7)
where $`A`$ is a constant upper triangular matrix with $`0,1`$ and $`1`$ as entries and $`1,1`$ on the diagonal, and $`B`$ is the matrix of the linear transformation

$$\lambda =(\lambda _1,\mathrm{},\lambda _n)(\lambda _1,\lambda _2\mathrm{},\lambda _n,\lambda _2,\lambda _3\mathrm{},\lambda _n,\mathrm{},\lambda _n)^{\text{dim}(U)}.$$

Note that $`\text{det}(A)=\pm 1`$ and hence the inverse of $`A`$ also has integer entries. From (7) we can write

$$(p_{ij})=A^1((q_{ij})B\lambda ),$$

Now, Theorem 5.2 can be stated as follows: the monomial

$$x_{ij}^{p_{ij}}$$

is a highest term of an element of $`V_\lambda `$ if and only if $`(p_{ij})A^1(\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda B\lambda )`$.

###### Definition 5.3.

We denote the polytope $`A^1(\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda B\lambda )`$ by $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda ^{}`$.

One has $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda =A\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda ^{}+B\lambda `$, and hence the two polytopes can be transformed to each other by integral translations and integral transformations. Thus $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda ^{}`$ are integrally equivalent. The following is immediate from the definition:

###### Lemma 5.4.

The map $`\lambda \mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda ^{}`$ is linear, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{c\lambda }^{}=c\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda ^{}`$ for a positive $`c`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\lambda +\mu }^{}=\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda ^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }_\mu ^{}`$ where the addition in the righthand side is the Minkowski sum.

###### Definition 5.5.

For a spherical variety $`X`$, similar to the definition of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$, define $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(X)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^{\text{dim}U}=^{\text{dim}B}`$, by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(X)=\underset{\lambda \mathrm{\Phi }(X)}{}(\lambda ,\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda ^{}).$$

From the above lemma, $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(X)`$ is a convex polytope.

###### Remark 5.6.

The map $`(\lambda ,x)(\lambda ,A^1(xB\lambda ))`$, is an integral transformation that maps $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$ to $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(X)`$. The inverse of this transformation is $`(\lambda ,x)(\lambda ,Ax+B\lambda )`$ which is also integral. So the polytopes $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(X)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$ can be transformed to each other by integral transformations and hence are integrally equivalent.

## 6 Main Theorem

In this section, we prove the main results of the paper.

###### Theorem 6.1.

Let $`V`$ be a finite dimensional $`G`$-module, and $`X(V)`$ a projective horospherical $`G`$-variety, where $`G=\text{SP}(2n,)`$. We have:

* The homogeneous coordinate ring $`R`$ of $`X`$ can be embedded into the Laurent polynomial algebra $`[x_1,\mathrm{},x_d,y_1^{\pm 1},\mathrm{},y_r^{\pm 1},t]`$, where $`d=\frac{1}{2}(\text{dim}(G)\text{rank}(G))`$ and $`r=\text{rank}(X)`$.
* $`R`$ has a SAGBI basis with respect to a natural term order. Moreover, the semi-group of initial terms $`S=\text{in}(R)^{d+r+1}`$ coincides with the semi-group of integral points in the cone over the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(X)`$ (see Definitions 5.3 and 5.5), i.e.

$$S=^{d+r+1}\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}(k\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(X),k).$$

###### Proof.

We identify $`[U_+]`$ with the polynomial algebra $`[x_1,\mathrm{},x_d]`$ equipped with the term order $``$ in Theorem 5.2. For each $`\lambda `$, let $`\varphi _\lambda `$ denote the embedding $`V_\lambda [x_1,\mathrm{},x_d]`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ be the sublattice of the weight lattice in Theorem 3.1. Let $`C(^{})^r`$ be a torus whose lattice of characters is $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$. Let $`y_1,\mathrm{},y_r`$ be a choice coordinates in $`C`$, hence $`[C]=[y_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm 1},\mathrm{},y_{r}^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm 1}]`$. For $`\lambda =(\lambda _1,\mathrm{},\lambda _r)\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$, and $`y=(y_1,\mathrm{},y_r)C`$, define $`y^\lambda =y_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{\lambda _1}y_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{\lambda _2}\mathrm{}y_{r}^{}{}_{}{}^{\lambda _r}`$. Having the algebra isomorphism in Theorem 3.4 in mind, define the function

$$\mathrm{\Psi }:R=\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\underset{\lambda k\mathrm{\Phi }(X)\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}}{}V_\lambda [x_1,\mathrm{},x_d,y_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm 1},\mathrm{},y_{r}^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm 1},t],$$

by

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(f)=t^ky^\lambda \varphi _\lambda (f),fV_\lambda ,\lambda k\mathrm{\Phi }(X)\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}$$

where $`t`$ is an extra free variable. Then we have

###### Lemma 6.2.

$`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is an injective homomorphism of algebras.

###### Proof.

Since the $`\varphi _\lambda `$ are additive homomorphisms, it follows that $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is also additive. The multiplicativity of $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ follows from Proposition 5.1. $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is 1-1, because the $`\varphi _\lambda `$ are 1-1. ∎

Now, $`R`$ can be thought of as a subalgebra of $`[x_1,\mathrm{},x_d,y_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm 1},\mathrm{},y_{r}^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm 1},t]`$. Extend the term order $``$ to $`[x_1,\mathrm{},x_d,y_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm 1},\mathrm{},y_{r}^{}{}_{}{}^{\pm 1},t]`$ by lexicographic order such that $`ty_r\mathrm{}y_1x_i,i=1,\mathrm{},d`$. Let $`S=\text{in}(R)^{d+r+1}`$. From Theorem 5.2, we have

$$S=^{d+r+1}\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\underset{\lambda k\mathrm{\Phi }(X)\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}}{}(\mathrm{\Delta }_\lambda ^{},\lambda ,k),$$

i.e. $`S`$ is the semi-group of integral points in the cone over the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(X)`$. This cone is a (strictly) convex rational polyhedral cone and hence $`S`$ is finitely generated (Gordon’s lemma). Also, from the definition of $``$ and $`S`$, there are only finitely many points in $`S`$ which are smaller than a given point in $`S`$. This means that the subduction algorithm terminates after a finite number of steps. Thus $`R`$ has a SAGBI basis and the proof of the theorem is finished. ∎

Suppose $`R`$ is an arbitrary subalgebra of a Laurent polynomial algebra. It is standard that the polynomials in $`R`$ can be continuously deformed to their initial terms. More precisely, one can show that there is a flat family of algebras $`\pi :`$, such hat $`\pi ^1(t)R,t0`$ and $`\pi ^1(0)=[\text{in}(R)]`$, the semi-group algebra of $`\text{in}(R)`$ (see \[6, Theorem 15.17\]). If the semi-group $`\text{in}(R)`$ is finitely generated then $`[\text{in}(R)]`$ is the coordinate ring of an affine (possibly non-normal) toric variety. Geometrically speaking, this means that $`\text{Spec}(R)`$ can be deformed, by a flat deformation, to this affine toric variety.

###### Corollary 6.3.

Let $`G=\text{SP}(2n,)`$. Any projective horospherical $`G`$-variety $`X(V)`$ can be deformed, by a flat deformation, to the toric variety corresponding to the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$. That is, there exists a flat family of varieties $`\pi :𝒳`$, such that $`\pi ^1(t)X,t0`$ and $`\pi ^1(0)`$ is the toric variety of the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$.

###### Proof.

Let $`R`$ be the homogeneous coordinate ring of $`X`$. From \[6, Theorem 15.17, p. 343\], we know that $`\text{Spec}(R)`$ can be deformed, by a flat deformation, to the affine toric variety whose coordinate ring is the semi-group algebra $`[S]`$. Since $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(X)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$ can be transformed to each other by integral transformations (Remark 5.6), the semi-group $`S`$ is isomorphic to $`S_0`$, the semi-group of integral points in the cone over $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$. So $`\text{Spec}(R)`$ can be deformed to the toric variety $`\text{Spec}([S_0])`$. It is well-known that the projectivization of this affine toric variety is the toric variety corresponding to the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$ (see , p. 36). This finishes the proof of the corollary. ∎

Now, let $`X(V)`$ be a projective spherical $`G`$-variety. By a general result of Popov applied to the spherical varieties, one can deform $`X`$, by a flat deformation, to a horospherical variety $`X_0`$. More precisely:

###### Theorem 6.4 (see ;  $`\mathrm{\S }`$2.2;  Satz 2.3).

Let $`G`$ be a reductive group and $`Y`$ an affine spherical $`G`$-variety. There exists a flat family of affine $`G`$-varieties $`\pi :𝒴`$ such that:

1. the $`Y_t=\pi ^1(t)`$ are isomorphic to $`Y`$ as $`G`$-varieties for $`t0`$.
2. $`Y_0=\pi ^1(0)`$ is horospherical.
3. $`[Y]`$ and $`[Y_0]`$ are isomorphic as graded $`G`$-modules, in particular the multiplicities of the irreducible representations $`V_\lambda `$ appearing in the graded pieces $`[Y]_d`$ and $`[Y_0]_d`$ are the same, for any $`d0`$

If $`X(V)`$ is a projective spherical variety, let $`Y`$ in the above theorem be the cone over $`X`$ in $`V`$. We obtain that $`X`$ can be degenerated to a projective horospherical variety $`X_0`$ where $`X_0`$ is the projectivization of $`Y_0`$ in the theorem. Since the multiplicities of the irreducible $`G`$-modules apparing in the homogenuous coordinate rings of $`X`$ and $`X_0`$ are the same we see that the moment polytopes of $`X`$ and $`X_0`$ are the same (see Remark 3.2). It is then immediate from the definition that $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)=\mathrm{\Delta }(X_0)`$.

###### Corollary 6.5.

Let $`G=\text{SP}(2n,)`$. Any projective spherical $`G`$-variety $`X(V)`$ can be deformed, by a flat deformation, to the toric variety corresponding to the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$. That is, there exists a flat family of varieties $`\pi :𝒳`$, such that $`\pi ^1(t)X,t0`$ and $`\pi ^1(0)`$ is the toric variety of the polytope $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)`$.

###### Proof.

By the above comment $`X`$ can be deformed to a horospherical variety $`X_0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(X)=\mathrm{\Delta }(X_0)`$. The corollary now follows from Corollary 6.3. ∎

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.
Email address: kaveh@math.ubc.ca


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# Towards a classification of wave catastrophes

## Abstract

Wave catastrophes are characterized by logarithmic phase singularities. Examples are light at the horizon of a black hole, sound in transsonic fluids, waves in accelerated frames, light in singular dielectrics and slow light close to a zero of the group velocity. We show that the wave amplitude grows with a half-integer power for monodirectional and symmetric wave catastrophes.
Keywords: waves at horizons, logarithmic phase singularities

Imagine light propagating away from a black hole. Suppose that the light has been emitted immediately before the horizon. A distant observer decomposes the light into its spectral components with frequencies $`\omega `$. The wavelength of each spectral component must shrink to zero close to the horizon, in order to compensate for the infinite gravitational redshift here. It turns out  that the wavelength is proportional to the radial distance from the horizon. Consequently, the wavenumber depends inversely on the distance and the phase diverges logarithmically. Such rapid oscillations occur only in the direction orthogonal to the horizon, which allows us to ignore all other spatial dimensions and to focus on an effectively 1+1 dimensional model where we can also ignore the polarization of light. In this model a monochromatic wave $`\phi `$ behaves like

$$\phi (zz_0)^{i\nu }e^{i\omega t}$$
(1)
near the horizon at $`z_0`$ where $`z`$ denotes the spatial coordinate and $`t`$ the time. Note that the behavior (1) may extend also beyond the horizon for negative $`zz_0`$ . The dimensionless power $`i\nu `$ characterizes the wave singularity. The real part of $`\nu `$ gives the number of phase cycles per e-fold of $`zz_0`$ and the imaginary part of $`\nu `$ describes how the amplitude grows near the horizon. For a black hole $`\nu `$ equals $`\omega /\alpha `$ where $`\alpha `$ denotes the gravitational acceleration at the horizon divided by the speed of light.

Logarithmic phase singularities of the type (1) are not confined to the physics of waves near black holes. Sound waves in fluids suffer a similar fate in transsonic flows (at sonic horizons)  and so do waves in accelerated frames (Rindler coordinates) , light in singular dielectrics  and slow light close to a zero of the group velocity . We refer to a behavior of the type (1) as a wave catastrophe , in contrast to diffraction catastrophes  that are catastrophes of light rays in the sense of catastrophe theory  as singularities of gradient maps. The ray catastrophes are accompanied by characteristic wave effects — interference patterns, whereas the wave catastrophes may be responsible for characteristic quantum effects  — spontaneous particle production . The spectrum of the generated quantum radiation seems to depend on the imaginary part of the index $`\nu `$ . All the examples of wave catastrophes studied so far correspond to

$$\mathrm{Im}\nu =\frac{\mathrm{n}}{2},\mathrm{n}\mathrm{Z}.$$
(2)
In this paper we develop a simple argument showing that the property (2) is not a coincidence for two general classes of wave catastrophes. (A) The catastrophe affects only waves propagating in one direction, such as the outgoing waves from the horizon of a black hole where incident waves are not singular. In this case only one non-zero $`\nu `$ exists at the horizon $`z_0`$. (B) The catastrophe affects both directions equally. This case corresponds to two powers $`i\nu `$ that are complex conjugate, one describing waves propagating to the right and the other refers to waves propagating to the left. Waves in accelerated frames , light in singular dielectrics  and slow-light catastrophes  belong to case (B).

Consider real scalar waves $`\varphi `$ in 1+1 dimensions that are subject to the Principle of Least Action. We assume that the wave equation is linear and of second order. Consequently the most general Lagrangian for $`\varphi `$ is

$$=A^{\mu \mu ^{}}(_\mu \varphi )(_\mu ^{}\varphi )+2B^\mu \varphi _\mu \varphi +C\varphi ^2.$$
(3)
The indices refer to the time $`t`$ ($`\mu =0`$) and to the spatial coordinate $`z`$ ($`\mu =1`$), the $`_\mu `$ denote partial derivatives and we employ Einstein’s summation convention. Without loss of generality we assume that

$$A^{\mu \mu ^{}}=A^{\mu ^{}\mu }.$$
(4)
We express the Lagrangian as

$$=A^{\mu \mu ^{}}(_\mu \varphi )(_\mu ^{}\varphi )+\varphi ^2(C_\mu B^\mu )+_\mu (B^\mu \varphi ^2).$$
(5)
Since the divergence $`_\mu (B^\mu \varphi ^2)`$ does not influence the action and hence the equations of motion, we can reduce the problem to a Lagrangian of the form

$$=A^{\mu \mu ^{}}(_\mu \varphi )(_\mu ^{}\varphi )M\varphi ^2.$$
(6)
We obtain the Euler-Lagrange equations

$$_\mu A^{\mu \mu ^{}}_\mu ^{}\varphi +M\varphi =0.$$
(7)
We assume a stationary regime where $`A^{\mu \mu ^{}}`$ and $`M`$ may depend on $`z`$, but not on $`t`$, and we decompose $`\varphi `$ into monochromatic waves $`\phi `$ with

$$_t\phi =i\omega \phi .$$
(8)
We get

$$\left(\omega ^2A^{00}2i\omega A^{01}_zi\omega (_zA^{01})+_zA^{11}_z+M\right)\phi =0.$$
(9)
In order to obtain a solution of the type (1) near $`z_0`$, the $`A^{\mu \mu ^{}}`$ matrix and $`M`$ must behave like

$$A^{\mu \mu ^{}}\gamma \left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{\alpha }{zz_0}& \beta \\ \beta & z_0z\end{array}\right)(zz_0)^n,M\gamma \delta (zz_0)^{n1}$$
(10)
with the constants $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$, $`\gamma `$, $`\delta `$. The power $`n`$ must be integer, because otherwise the Lagrangian (6) is not real for all $`\varphi `$. We substitute the structure (10) into the wave equation (9) and solve for $`\nu `$ with the result

$$\nu =i\frac{n}{2}\beta \omega \pm \sqrt{(\alpha +\beta ^2)\omega ^2\delta ^2\frac{n^2}{4}}.$$
(11)
If the wave catastrophe affects only wave propagating in one direction, like the outgoing wave from a black hole, one of the $`\nu `$ is zero. Consequently, the other is $`in/22\beta \omega `$. In the case the catastrophe affects both directions equally, $`\beta `$ must vanish. If $`\nu `$ corresponds to a wave catastrophe it must have a non-vanishing real part. Consequently, the imaginary part of $`\nu `$ is $`n/2`$.

This proves our statement. At wave catastrophes, i.e. at logarithmic phase singularities, the wave amplitudes rise with the power $`n/2`$ for monodirectional and for symmetric catastrophes.

Our paper was supported by the ESF Programme Cosmology in the Laboratory, the Leverhulme Trust, the National Science Foundation of Hungary (contract No. T43287), and the Marie Curie Programme of the European Commission.


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# A Supplement: on the Quantum-vacuum Geometric Phases†footnote ††footnote †The present paper is a supplement to the two papers: J.Q. Shen and H.Y. Zhu, Ann.Phys.(Leipzig) 12 (2003) p.131 [3] and arXiv: quant-ph/0309007 [6](entitled: An experimental realization of quantum-vacuum geometric phases by using the gyrotropic-medium optical fiber). It will be submitted nowhere else for the publication, just uploaded at the e-print archives.

## I A brief review: the investigation of vacuum effect
and its experimental realization

Geometric phases has received special attention of many researchers since Berry showed that there exists a topological phase (i.e., the adiabatic geometric phase) in quantum-mechanical wavefunction in adiabatic quantum process where the cyclic evolution of wavefunction yields the original state plus a phase shift, which is a sum of a dynamical phase and a geometric phase shift. In the published papers Gao and we considered a second-quantized spin model which can characterize the wave propagation of photon field in a noncoplanarly curved optical fiber. In this work, we dealt only with the case where the photon spin operator is taken the normal-order form, which does not involve the vacuum zero-point electromagnetic fluctuation fields. So, the previous mathematical treatment cannot predict the existence of the geometric phases resulting from the vacuum photon fluctuation in the curved fiber. Here we refer to such vacuum-induced topological phases as the quantum-vacuum geometric phases. In order to treat the so-called quantum-vacuum geometric phases, we should study the non-normal-order spin operators of photon field, where the zero-point electromagnetic fields is involved in the effective Hamiltonian (and hence in the time-evolution equation, i.e., the time-dependent Schrödinger equation). For the detailed discussions, readers may be referred to the paper, where we discussed the contribution of vacuum quantum fluctuation to geometric phases of photons moving inside a sufficiently perfect optical fiber and suggested an experimental scheme to detect them by using the noncoplanar fiber made of certain gyrotropic materials with suitable permittivity and permeability tensors.

Nearly four years has passed since we began to consider the quantum-vacuum geometric phases. The reason that drew our attention to such vacuum effects was as follows: in the quantum field theory the infinite zero-point vacuum energy is often cancelled (deleted) by using the normal-product procedure and a new vacuum background is thus re-defined. It is believed that this formalism is valid for the time-independent quantum systems since in these cases the divergent background energies may have no observable effects (except for the Casimir’s effect, vacuum polarization leading to Lamb’s shift, atomic spontaneous radiation due to the interaction of the excited atom with the zero-point electromagnetic field, as well as the anomalous magnetic moment of electron) and hence do not influence the observed physical results of the interacting quantum fields. However, if the normal product technique is applied to the time-dependent systems of quantum field theory (such as field theory in the expanding universe and the time-dependent gravitational backgrounds), and thus the vacuum background is so re-defined by removing different zero-point energies at different time, then some observable vacuum effects (e.g., the vacuum contribution to Berry’s phase that arises in time-dependent quantum systems) may be deleted theoretically and therefore the validity of this formalism may deserve incredulityIf in experiments we find no information on the existence of this geometric phases at quantum-vacuum level (i.e., this vacuum effect does not exist), then it is believed that the normal-product procedure in second quantization is still valid for time-dependent quantum systems. But, once if the quantum-vacuum geometric phases is truly present experimentally, then we might argue that the normal-product procedure in second quantization may be no longer valid for time-dependent quantum systems, namely, these vacuum effects associated with the time-dependent evolution process in the time-dependent quantum field theory should not be removed by the normal-product procedure (i.e., it is not appropriate to re-define a vacuum background by removing different zero-point energies at different time)..

Unfortunately, the left-handed polarized light due to vacuum fluctuation always inescapably coexists with the zero-point right-handed polarized light and the total of quantum-vacuum geometric phases is therefore vanishing, which may follow from the following expressions for the cyclic adiabatic geometric phases

$$\varphi _L=\left(n_L+\frac{1}{2}\right)2\pi \left(1\mathrm{cos}\lambda \right),\varphi _R=\left(n_R+\frac{1}{2}\right)2\pi \left(1\mathrm{cos}\lambda \right),$$
(1)
where $`n_L`$ and $`n_R`$ denote the occupation numbers of left- and right- handed (LRH) circularly polarized photons, respectively. Note that the geometric phases at quantum-vacuum level of left-handed polarized light,

$$\varphi _L^{(\mathrm{vacuum})}=\frac{1}{2}2\pi \left(1\mathrm{cos}\lambda \right),$$
(2)
acquires a minus sign, which may be cancelled (counteracted) by $`\varphi _R^{(\mathrm{vacuum})}`$, i.e.,

$$\varphi _R^{(\mathrm{vacuum})}=+\frac{1}{2}2\pi \left(1\mathrm{cos}\lambda \right)$$
(3)
that possesses a plus sign.

Since the total vacuum geometric phases ($`\varphi ^{(\mathrm{vacuum})}+\varphi _R^{(\mathrm{vacuum})}`$) is vanishing and therefore trivial, it prevents physicists from investigating experimentally this nontrivial vacuum effect (i.e., vacuum contribution to the geometric phases). This, therefore, means that our above theoretical remarks as to whether the normal-product procedure is valid or not for the time-dependent quantum field theory (TDQFT) cannot be easily examined experimentally. It depressed me to be confronted with such difficulties.

Moreover, as was stated more recently by Fuentes-Guridi et al., in a strict sense, the Berry phase has been studied only in a semiclassical context until now. Thus the effects of the vacuum field on the geometric evolution are still unknown. So, we think that in addition to its physical significance in investigating the normal-product procedure in time-dependent field theory, the quantum-vacuum geometric phases itself is also physically interesting. These factors always encouraged me to seek a way to test this vacuum effect.

During the last four years, I tried my best but often unfortunately failed to suggest an excellent idea of experimental realization of this quantum-vacuum geometric phases of photons in the fiber. We conclude that it seems not quite satisfactory to test the quantum-vacuum geometric phases by using the optical fiber that is made of isotropic media, inhomogeneous media (e.g., photonic crystals§§§Photonic crystals are artificial materials patterned with a periodicity in dielectric constant, which can create a range of forbidden frequencies called a photonic band gap. Such dielectric structure of crystals offers the possibility of molding the flow of light (including the zero-point electromagnetic fields of vacuum). It is believed that, in the similar fashion, this effect (i.e., modifying the mode structures of vacuum electromagnetic fields) may also take place in gyrotropic media. The suppression of spontaneous emission in certain gyrotropic media can be regarded as an illustrative example.), left-handed media (a kind of artificial composite metamaterial with the negative permittivity and permeability and the consequent negative refractive index), uniaxial (biaxial) crystals or chiral materials. Is it truly extremely difficult to realize such a goal? It is found finally that perhaps in the fiber composed of some anisotropic media such as gyrotropic materials (gyroelectric or gyromagnetic media) the quantum-vacuum geometric phases may be achieved test experimentally.

Gyrotropic media is such electromagnetic materials where both the electric permittivity and the magnetic permeability are tensors, which can be respectively written as

$$(ϵ)_{ik}=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}ϵ_1& iϵ_2& 0& \\ iϵ_2& ϵ_1& 0& \\ 0& 0& ϵ_3& \end{array}\right),(\mu )_{ik}=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}\mu _1& i\mu _2& 0& \\ i\mu _2& \mu _1& 0& \\ 0& 0& \mu _3& \end{array}\right).$$
(4)
Let us assume that the electromagnetic wave is propagating along the third component of the Cartesian coordinate system. By using the Maxwellian equations, it is verified that the optical refractive indices squared of gyrotropic media corresponding to the two directions of polarization vectors (left- and right- handed polarized) are of the form $`n_\pm ^2=(ϵ_1\pm ϵ_2)(\mu _1\pm \mu _2)`$. According to this expression for $`n_\pm ^2`$, it is possible for us to choose: $`n_+^2>0`$ and $`n_{}^2<0`$, and then in these gyrotropic media only one of the LRH polarized lights can be propagated without being absorbed by media. This result holds also for the zero-point electromagnetic fields (e.g., the inhibition and enhancement of spontaneous emission in photonic crystals and cavity resonator, where the vacuum mode density is modified under certain conditions). If, for example, in some certain gyrotropic media one of the LRH polarized lights, say, the left-handed polarized light (including its vacuum fluctuation field), dissipates due to the medium absorption and only the right-handed light is allowed to be propagated (in the meanwhile the vacuum mode structure in these anisotropic media also alters correspondingly), then only the quantum-vacuum geometric phase of right-handed polarized light is retained and can be easily tested in the fiber fabricated from these gyrotropic media.

Since it is known that people can manipulate vacuum so as to alter the zero-point mode structures of vacuum, which has been illustrated in photonic crystals and Casimir’s effect (additionally, the space between two parallel mirrors, cavity resonator in cavity QED, etc.)Spontaneous emission from an excited electronic state reflects the properties of the surrounding vacuum-field fluctuations. By placing the radiator near a metallic surface or in a cavity, one can modify the spectral density of these fluctuations and either enhance or inhibit spontaneous emission . For instance, spontaneous radiation by an atom in a Rydberg state has been inhibited by use of parallel conducting planes to eliminate the vacuum modes at the transition frequency ., we will put forward another scheme to extract the nontrivial quantum-vacuum geometric phases in the noncoplanar fiber by using Casimir’s effect. It is well known that in a finitely large space (e.g., the space between two parallel metallic plates, which is the main equipment of Casimir’s effect experiment), the vacuum-fluctuation electromagnetic field alters its mode structuresBecause its “wavelength” is much larger than the length scale of the surrounding space, it cannot form a stationary wave., namely, the zero-point field with wave vector $`k`$ less than $`\left(\frac{\pi }{a}\right)`$ is expelled from this space with a finite scale length $`a`$. Likewise, in some certain gyrotropic media, if the electromagnetic parameters $`ϵ_1`$, $`ϵ_2`$ and $`\mu _1`$, $`\mu _2`$ in expressions (4) for electric permittivity and magnetic permeability tensors can be chosen to be $`ϵ_1ϵ_2`$ and $`\mu _1\mu _2`$, then the optical refractive index $`n_{}`$ of left-handed polarized light is very small (or approaching zero) and hence the wave vector $`k_{}0`$ , since in these media $`k_{}`$ is proportional to $`n_{}`$. Thus the left-handed polarized zero-point field inside these gyrotropic media is absent if, for example, the media are placed in a finitely large space, and consequently the only retained quantum-vacuum geometric phase is that of right-handed circularly polarized light. In order to perform the detection of this geometric phase, we should make use of the optical fiber that is fabricated from the above gyrotropic media, and the devices used in Tomita-Chiao fiber experiments should be placed in a sealed metallic chamber or cell, where the zero-point circularly polarized field with lower wave vector does not exist. Hence the measurement of quantum-vacuum geometric phases of photons may be achievable by means of this scheme.

Although the infinite vacuum energy in conventional time-independent quantum field theories is harmless and easily removed theoretically by normal-order procedure, here for a time-dependent quantized-field system, we think that the existence of quantum-vacuum geometric phases indicates that zero-point fields of vacuum will also participate in the time evolution process and perhaps can no longer be regarded merely as an inactive onlooker in time-dependent quantum field theories such as field theory in curved space-time, e.g., in time-dependent gravitational backgrounds and expanding universe. In order to investigate this fundamental problem of quantum field theory, we hope the vacuum effect presented here would be tested experimentally in the near future. We also hope to see anyone else putting forward some new more clever suggestions of detecting this interesting geometric phases at quantum-vacuum level.
Note added: Just after I finished the paper, S.L. Zhu of Hongkong University drew my attention to Fuentes-Guridi et al.’s recently published work, where they considered the interaction between a spin-$`1/2`$ charged particle (similar to the case of two-level atom) and the external quantized electromagnetic field, and studied a so-called vacuum-induced Berry’s phase which they regarded as the contribution of vacuum-field fluctuation. I think that Fuentes-Guridi et al.’s result can also be treated in more detail by the method presented in our paper, where we obtained the exact solutions of the time-dependent supersymmetric two-level multiphoton Jaynes-Cummings model.

## II Our sequence of ideas of investigation of geometric phases in the fiber

During the past four years, we studied the noncyclic nonadiabatic time evolution of photon wavefunction in the noncoplanar fiber by using the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant theory, second-quantized spin model and non-normal product procedure. The outline of our sequence of ideas is given as follows:

## III Three derivations of effective Hamiltonian of photons inside a noncoplanarly curved fiber

The effective Hamiltonian describing the light wave propagation in a curved optical fiber is helpful in considering the nonadiabatic noncyclic time evolution process of photon wavefunction in the fiber. We have three methods to derive this effective Hamiltonian

$$H_{\mathrm{eff}}(t)=\frac{𝐤(t)\times \dot{𝐤}(t)}{k^2}𝐒,$$
(5)
where dot denotes the derivative of wave vector $`𝐤`$ with respect to time and $`𝐒`$ stands for the photon spin operators.

Method i By using the infinitesimal rotation operator of wavefunction

The photon wavefunction $`|\sigma ,𝐤(t)`$ varies as it rotates by an infinitesimal angle, say $`\stackrel{}{\vartheta }`$, namely, it obeys the following transformation rule

$$|\sigma ,𝐤(t+\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\mathrm{exp}\left[i\stackrel{}{\vartheta }𝐉\right]|\sigma ,𝐤(t),$$
(6)
where $`\mathrm{exp}\left[i\stackrel{}{\vartheta }𝐉\right]1i\stackrel{}{\vartheta }𝐉`$ with $`𝐉`$ being the total angular momentum operator of photon and $`𝐤(t+\mathrm{\Delta }t)=𝐤(t)+\mathrm{\Delta }𝐤(t)`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }𝐤(t)=\dot{𝐤}\mathrm{\Delta }t`$. Here $`|\stackrel{}{\vartheta }|`$ is the angle displacement vector between $`𝐤(t)`$ and $`𝐤(t+\mathrm{\Delta }t)`$, and the direction of $`\stackrel{}{\vartheta }`$ is parallel to that of $`𝐤(t)\times 𝐤(t+\mathrm{\Delta }t)`$. One can therefore arrive at

$$\stackrel{}{\vartheta }=\frac{𝐤(t)\times 𝐤(t+\mathrm{\Delta }t)}{k^2}=\frac{𝐤(t)\times \dot{𝐤}}{k^2}\mathrm{\Delta }t.$$
(7)
Thus it follows from Eq.(6) and (7) that

$$i\frac{|\sigma ,𝐤(t)}{t}=\frac{𝐤(t)\times \dot{𝐤}(t)}{k^2}𝐉|\sigma ,𝐤(t)$$
(8)
by calculating the time derivative of $`|\sigma ,𝐤(t+\mathrm{\Delta }t)`$. The total angular momentum is $`𝐉=𝐋+𝐒`$, where the orbital angular momentum $`𝐋`$ is orthogonal to the linear momentum $`𝐤`$ for the photon. So, $`\frac{𝐤(t)\times \dot{𝐤}(t)}{k^2}𝐋=0`$ and the only retained term in $`\frac{𝐤(t)\times \dot{𝐤}(t)}{k^2}𝐉`$ is $`\frac{𝐤(t)\times \dot{𝐤}(t)}{k^2}𝐒`$. This, therefore, means that if we think of Eq.(8) as the time-dependent Schrödinger equation governing the propagation of photons in the noncoplanar fiber, then we can obtain the effective Hamiltonian (5).

Method ii By using the equation of motion of a photon in a “gravitomagnetic” field

If the momentum squared $`𝐤^2`$ of a photon moving in a noncoplanarly curved and sufficiently perfect optical fiber is conserved, then we can derive the following identity

$$\dot{𝐤}+𝐤\times \left(\frac{𝐤\times \dot{𝐤}}{k^2}\right)=0,$$
(9)
which can be regarded as the equation of motion of a photon in the noncoplanarly curved fiber. Since Eq.(9) is exactly analogous to the equations of motion of a charged particle moving in a magnetic field or a spinning particle moving in a rotating frame of reference, $`\frac{𝐤\times \dot{𝐤}}{k^2}`$ can be considered a “magnetic field” or “gravitomagnetic field” (thus $`𝐤\times (\frac{𝐤\times \dot{𝐤}}{k^2})`$ can be thought of as a “Lorentz magnetic force” or “Coriolis force”). Similar to the Mashhoon et al.’s work (i.e., the derivation of the interaction Hamiltonian of gravitomagnetic dipole moment in a gravitomagnetic field), one can also readily write the Hamiltonian describing the coupling of the photon “gravitomagnetic moment” (i.e., photon spin $`𝐒`$) to the “gravitomagnetic field” as follows

$$H=\frac{𝐤\times \dot{𝐤}}{k^2}𝐒,$$
(10)
which is just the expression (5).

Method iii By using the Liouville-Von Neumann equation

If a photon is moving inside a noncoplanarly curved optical fiber that is wound smoothly on a large enough diameter, then its helicity reversal does not easily take place and the photon helicity $`I(t)=\frac{𝐤(t)}{k}𝐒`$ is therefore conserved and can thus be considered a Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant $`I(t)`$, which agrees with the Liouville-Von Neumann equation

$$\frac{I(t)}{t}+\frac{1}{i}[I(t),H(t)]=0.$$
(11)
With the help of the spin operator commuting relations $`𝐒\times 𝐒=i𝐒`$, one can solve the Liouville-Von Neumann equation (11), namely, if the effective Hamiltonian\**\**\**Since in the Liouville-Von Neumann equation, $`I(t)`$ is $`\frac{𝐤(t)}{k}𝐒`$, it is certain that $`H(t)`$ should also be the linear combination of photon spin operator $`S_1,S_2,S_3`$. is written as $`H(t)=𝐡(t)𝐒`$, then according to the Liouville-Von Neumann equation, one can arrive at $`[I(t),H(t)]=\left[\frac{𝐤(t)}{k}\times 𝐡(t)\right]i𝐒`$, and readily obtain the expression for the effective Hamiltonian (5) of photons in the curved optical fiber, i.e., the coefficients of the effective Hamiltonian is $`𝐡(t)=\frac{𝐤(t)\times \dot{𝐤}(t)}{k^2}`$.

It is apparently seen that substitution of $`I(t)=\frac{𝐤(t)}{k}𝐒`$ and $`H(t)=\frac{𝐤(t)\times \dot{𝐤}(t)}{k^2}𝐒`$ into the Liouville-Von Neumann equation (11) yields the equation of motion of a photon in a “gravitomagnetic” field, i.e., Eq.(9).
Acknowledgements This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the project No. $`90101024`$. I benefited much from useful advice of X.C. Gao when I tried my best to suggest an experimental scheme to extract the nontrivial quantum-vacuum geometric phases in the noncoplanar fiber. My special thanks are due to him also.


text:
# HU–EP–03/54 September 2003 The Aoki phase for 𝑁_𝑓=2 Wilson fermions revisited Talk presented by A. Sternbeck at the International Symposium Lattice 2003, Tsukuba, Japan.

## 1 The Aoki phase

In studies of chiral symmetry breaking it is desirable to start from an (almost) chirally invariant formulation of lattice fermions. At present this is best realized by using fermions satisfying the Ginsparg-Wilson relation, e.g. using the overlap operator, or by working with the domain wall framework . In such approaches Wilson fermions are still important as an input.

For the Wilson-Dirac operator (which breaks chiral invariance explicitly) in $`N_f=2`$ lattice QCD Aoki  has predicted that in a certain parameter range there is a phase in which parity and flavor symmetry are both spontaneously broken. It is separated from an unbroken phase by a line of second order phase transition on which the pion states are expected to become massless . In Fig. 1 the proposed phase diagram is sketched in the $`(\beta ,\kappa )`$-plane .

In a recent paper  it has been pointed out that the features of the Aoki phase are of relevance for locality and for restoration of chiral invariance in quenched and full QCD with Ginsparg-Wilson and domain wall fermions. Accordingly, the region of the Aoki phase has to be avoided in such investigations in order not to spoil physical reliability.

In the light of this it is important to have precise information about the region where the Aoki phase really occurs. In the past it has been questioned  whether the Aoki phase exists also at larger $`\beta `$-values, i.e. towards the continuum. However, previous investigations of this issue did not lead to a unique answer. Therefore we have addressed this problem again .

Here we report on results showing that most likely the Aoki phase does not exist for $`\beta 4.6`$ at zero temperature. Furthermore, we present data for finite temperature indicating such broken phase still at $`\beta =4.6`$ and connecting it to the finite temperature phase transition.

## 2 Simulation details

To investigate the Aoki phase we have simulated lattice QCD with two flavors of unimproved Wilson fermions using the Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm. An explicitly symmetry-breaking source term was added to the fermion matrix $`M_W`$,

$$M(h)=M_W+hi\gamma _5\tau ^3,$$
(1)
since without the added term the order parameter $`\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau ^3\psi `$ would always be zero on a finite lattice. Then $`\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau ^3\psi `$ was measured varying the lattice size $`V`$ and the (non-zero) $`h`$-values. The order parameter $`\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau ^3\psi _{h=0}`$ monitoring spontaneous symmetry breaking is obtained by taking the double limit in the following order

$$\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau ^3\psi _{h=0}=\underset{h0}{lim}\underset{V\mathrm{}}{lim}\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau ^3\psi .$$
(2)
For zero temperature the simulations were performed on lattices ranging from $`4^4`$ to $`12^4`$ at $`\beta `$-values 4.0, 4.3, 4.6, and 5.0, with $`\kappa `$ and $`h`$ in the intervals $`0.15\kappa 0.28`$ and $`0.003h0.04`$, respectively. For each $`\beta `$ and each lattice size (starting on $`6^4`$) the physically relevant values of $`\kappa `$ were determined first, namely the region where $`\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau ^3\psi `$ has a peak at finite $`h`$.

This is shown on the left hand sides of Figs. 2 and 3. One sees that for $`\beta =4.3`$ and $`\beta =4.6`$ the crucial values are near $`\kappa =0.21`$ and $`\kappa =0.1981`$, respectively. At these values we have increased the lattice sizes until the measurements for different sizes agreed within errors. In this way we achieved that we can treat our largest lattices as infinitely large.

## 3 The extrapolation $`𝒉\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟎}`$

As described in Ref.  a reasonable ansatz to extrapolate the data to $`h=0`$ is

$$f(h)=A+Bh^C+\mathrm{}.$$
(3)
With $`C`$ as a free parameter it describes the data well. Indeed, the parameter of interest, $`A`$, is then robust against the introduction of correction terms linear and quadratic in $`h`$.

At $`\beta =4.3`$ the parameter $`\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau ^3\psi `$ has a non-vanishing extrapolation, while at $`\beta =4.6`$ the best fit gives $`A=0`$. Combined with similar simulation results at $`\beta =4.0`$ and $`\beta =5.0`$ (see ) we confirm the Aoki phase at $`(\beta ,\kappa )=(4.0,0.22)`$ and $`(4.3,0.21)`$. The fit parameters $`B`$ and $`C`$ turn out to agree for different $`\beta `$ within errors (the values are $`B1`$ and $`C0.65`$). At $`\beta =4.6`$ the ansatz also works, but results in a vanishing order parameter. Also at $`\beta =5.0`$ no finite order parameter was found . This suggest that the Aoki phase ends somewhere near $`(\beta ,\kappa )=(4.6,0.1981)`$ as shown in Fig. 4. The shift in $`\kappa `$ with increasing lattice size (see Fig. 3) appears to be related to the end of the symmetry-breaking phase.

## 4 Outlook for finite temperature

We have also performed simulations for the finite-temperature case. In contrast to zero temperature we find the Aoki phase at $`\beta =4.6`$ as shown in Fig. 5. One can see that the Polyakov loop (open symbols) steeply rises near $`\kappa =0.19705`$ where $`\overline{\psi }i\gamma _5\tau ^3\psi `$ (filled symbols) extrapolates to a finite value. This means that the finite-temperature phase transition occurs close to the Aoki phase. We were not able to detect a separation of this transition from the Aoki phase. This is in contrast to Ref.  where a scenario with separated transition lines is proposed.

## Acknowledgements

All simulations were done on the Cray T3E at Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik Berlin. A. S. would like to thank the DFG-funded graduate school GK 271 for support.


text:
# A multicolor CCD photometric study of the open clusters NGC 2866, Pismis 19, Westerlund 2, ESO96-SC04, NGC 5617 and NGC 6204Based on observations obtained with the telescopes of the South African Astronomical Observatory.

## 1 Introduction

In this paper we present new CCD multicolor photometry for the compact southern open clusters NGC 2866, Pismis 19, Westerlund 2, ESO96-SC04, NGC 5617 and NGC 6204, aiming at deriving updated estimates of their fundamental parameters. The basic parameters of the clusters are summarized in Table 1. This study is part of a survey of southern open clusters conducted by us at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in 1992. Other 11 young open clusters observed during the same survey have been already investigated by Munari & Carraro (1995, 1996a), Munari et al.(1998), Barbon et al.(2000) and Sagar et al.(2001).

All clusters considered in this paper have already received some attention in the literature. Nonetheless, here and there uncertainties remain because of limited number of measured members, or bright limiting magnitude, or absence of profile CCD photometry in crowded areas or uncertain data calibration. This paper intends to offer high quality photometry of the program cluster and an homogeneous derivation of basic parameters using the most recent family of isochrones.

The layout of the paper is as follows. In Sect. 2 we briefly summarize the present knowledge of the clusters under investigation; Sects. 3 and 4 illstrate the observations and data reduction strategies, respectively, whereas Sect 5 is devoted to the detailed comparison of our photometry with previous ones. Sect 6 present our results on a cluster by cluster basis, and, finally, Sect. 7 briefly summarizes the content of the paper.

## 2 Previous Investigations

NGC 2866. This is a compact, young and poorly populated cluster. It was firstly studied by Vogt & Moffat (1973, hereafter VM73) who obtained $`UBV`$ photoelectric photometry of the four brightest stars. Later Clariá (1979, hereafter Cl79) provided $`UBV`$ photoelectric photometry of 23 stars, from which the cluster turned out to have a reddening $`E_{BV}=0.66\pm 0.02`$ and a distance of 2.6$`\pm `$0.2 kpc. No precise estimates are available for its age, only the suggestion it is probably too old to be a spiral arm indicator.
Pismis 19. This is an intermediate age open cluster. CCD photometry has been obtained by Phelps et al. (1994, hereafter Ph94) in $`VI`$ and by Piatti et al. (1998a, hereafter Pt98a) in $`BVI`$. The latter provide also integrated spectra. They estimated the reddening in the direction of Pismis 19 to be $`E_{BV}=1.45\pm 0.10`$, and a 2.40$`\pm `$0.88 kpc cluster distance. They also derived a 1.0$`\pm `$0.2 Gyr age and (from the integrated spectra) \[Fe/H\]=–0.1 metallicity.
Westerlund 2. This is a very young cluster, embedded in nebulosity. Vogt & Moffat (1975, hereafter VM75) firstly obtained $`UBV`$ photoelectric photometry for 9 stars in this cluster. Later on Moffat et al. (1991, hereafter Mf91) got $`UBV`$ CCD photometry of 220 stars, deriving a distance of about 8 kpc. The cluster was found to exhibit a high differential reddening. In addition spectral classification for 7 stars was reported, one being a new identified WN7 Wolf Rayet star which implies for the cluster a very young age. Finally, Piatti et al. (1998b, hereafter Pt98b) obtained integrated spectra, from which they derived an age of 2-3 Myr, and an absorption $`A_V=5`$ mag. Interestingly, they revised the cluster distance, shortening it to 5.7$`\pm `$0.3 kpc.
ESO96-SC04. This is a faint cluster of intermediate age. It has been observed by Ph94 and Carraro et al. (1995, hereafter Ca95) who both obtained $`BV`$ CCD photometry. The latter derived a distance of 11.8 kpc, a reddening $`E_BV`$=0.75 mag and an age somewhat less than 1 Gyr.

NGC 5617. Photoelectric photometry for 30 stars has been obtained by Moffat & Vogt (1975, hereafter MV75), who derived $`E_{BV}=0.52\pm 0.03`$, and a distance of 1.34 kpc from the Sun. Subsequently, the cluster was studied by Haug (1978, hereafter Ha78), who carried out photoelectric and photographic photometry, found a similar reddening, and a longer 1.82 kpc distance. CCD $`UBV`$ photometry has been reported by Kjeldsen & Frandsen (1991, hereafter KF91), who found a smaller reddening $`E_{BV}=0.48\pm 0.02`$, a larger distance $`2.05\pm 0.2`$ kpc, and an age of 70 Myr age.
NGC 6204. This cluster was studied by Moffat & Vogt (1973, hereafter MV73), who obtained $`E_{BV}=0.39`$, and distance of 0.81 kpc from $`UBV`$ photometry of 13 stars. Somewhat different results are found by KF91, who placed the cluster at $`1.2\pm 0.15`$ kpc and suggest a reddening $`E_{BV}=0.45\pm 0.03`$ and an age of 0.22 Gyr. More recently, new photoelectric photometry was carried out by Forbes & Short (1996, hereafter FS96), who reported a reddening $`E_{BV}=0.51\pm 0.07`$, the same KS91 distance and an age of $`125\pm 25`$ Myr.

## 3 Observations

The observations were carried out between June 4 and 6, and on July 13, 1992, in the Cousins UBVRI photometric system, using an RCA SID53612 thinned CCD detector at the f/15.8 Cassegrain focus of the 1.0-m Elizabeth Telescope at the South Africa Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), Sutherland. A 30 $`\mu `$m square pixel of the 320 $`\times `$ 512 CCD corresponded to 0.388 arcsec and the entire chip covered a field of 2.1 $`\times `$ 3.3 arcmin2 on the sky. The readout noise for the system was 73 electrons pixel-1, while the number of electrons per ADU was 11. The photometric quality of the sky was monitored using an off-axis photoelectric photometer that continuously measures a bright, non-variable star located close to the field imaged on the CCD. The 4 nights were of good photometric quality with seeing ranging between 1.2 and 2.2 arcsec. Table 2 lists the log of our observations. Prior to each exposure, a 330-ms pre-flash was given to avoid charge transfer problems. Before that the CCD chip was quickly cleaned 50 times and read once. Every hour a 33-s pre-flash was acquired to obtain a pre-flash pattern. It was found to be extremely stable with scatter resulting only from photon statistics. Flat-field exposures were made of the twilight sky. Dark current frames were secured in night-time dark conditions.

About 40 E- and F-region standards covering a range in brightness ($`7.9V10.3`$) as well as in color ($`0.01(VI)2.4`$) were observed for calibration purposes. The actual timings of the CCD camera shutter was monitored by a series of LEP-PSD couples that accurately record the effective exposure time to 10ms precision, thus permitting the use of bright photometric standards from the E and F regions. Typically every 1-1.5 hr, we observed one red and one blue standard star at small airmass and one red and one blue standard at large airmass in order to have several independent determinations of the primary and secondary coefficients during the night, as well as system color equations. They were found to be quite constant during the observing run. The excellent photometric quality of the sky and the small values of airmass at which the observations have been done ensure the accuracy of the data here presented.

## 4 Reduction

The data were reduced using the computing facilities available at the Astronomy Department of the University of Padova, Italy and at the European Southern Observatory in Garching, Germany, with initial data processing performed in the usual way via IRAF111IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract to the National Science Foundation. directly at SAAO in Cape Town. Stellar magnitudes were obtained by using the DAOPHOT software (Stetson 1987, 1992), and following processing and conversion of the raw instrumental magnitudes into those of the standard photometric system were done using procedures outlined by Stetson (1992). Several stars brighter than $`V10.5`$ mag could not be measured because they saturated even on the shortest cluster and field regions frames.

In deriving the color equations for the CCD system and evaluating the zero-points (zp), we have used nightly values of atmospheric extinction coefficients. The color equation for the CCD system are derived by performing aperture photometry on the photometric standards. By fitting least-squares linear regressions in the observed aperture magnitudes as a function of the standard photometric indices, we obtained the color equation listed in Table 3, where $`\gamma _i`$ is the color term and $`k_i`$ the extinction coefficients, $`M_i`$ and $`m_i`$ the calibrated and instrumental magnitudes, zpi the zero points and $`z`$ the airmass:

$$M_i=m_i+\mathrm{zp}_\mathrm{i}+\gamma _i(M_iM_j)k_iz$$
(1)
We estimated global r.m.s. errors following the expression given in Patat and Carraro (2001, Eq. A3), and the results are shown in Table 4.

Complete photometric data for the stars observed in the 6 program clusters are given in electronic form only. They are made available also via the WEBDA database222http://obswww.unige.ch/webda/navigation.html maintained by J.-C. Mermilliod. Astrometric coordinates to J2000 are provided for all observed stars, as obtained by astrometric calibration of recorded frames against local USNO-A2.0 stars.

## 5 Comparison with previous photometry

All program clusters have some photometry already available in literature, and a comparison is in order assess the accuracy and evaluate the agreement of the datasets as well as to compare completeness and photometric band coverage. The comparisons in this section are always in the sense our data minus literature data.
NGC 2866. We have observed 377 stars, in BVI, down to $`V`$=22 mag. Only scanty, photoelectric photometry is available in literature for this cluster. VM73 have measured 4 stars (in UBV bands) brighter than 13 mag, and for the 3 stars in common with us it is:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ $`=`$ $`0.030\pm 0.026`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$ $`=`$ $`0.021\pm 0.008`$
Cl79 measured 23 stars brighter than 16 mag, and for the 19 in common with us it is

$`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ $`=`$ $`0.058\pm 0.114`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$ $`=`$ $`0.028\pm 0.039`$
The large dispersion in $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ seems caused by field stars contaminating Cl79 photometry in the core of the cluster, where he used a relatively large diaphragm (7.6 arcsec).

Pismis 19. We have observed 372 stars, in BVI, down to $`V`$=21 mag. BVI CCD photometry has been presented by Pt98a and VI CCD one by Ph94. For the 250 stars in common with Pt98a it is:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ $`=`$ $`0.010\pm 0.016`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$ $`=`$ $`0.011\pm 0.008`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ $`=`$ $`0.009\pm 0.009`$
and for the 200 in common with Ph94 it is:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ $`=`$ $`0.041\pm 0.037`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ $`=`$ $`0.020\pm 0.087`$
Westerlund 2. We have obtained UBVRI photometry for $``$300 stars, down to 19 mag in $`V`$. Photoelectric photometry has been presented by VM75 for 10 stars and CCD photometry of 89 stars by Mf91, calibrated on the 8 stars in common with VM75, spanning however a quite limited range in color. Mf91 report that they find insignificant slopes for the color equations, and therefore they have not color corrected their photometry. Actually, the color term is not negligible, and comparison of their and our (color-corrected) $`U`$ band photometry for the 28 stars in common yields:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }U=0.076\times (UB)0.214$$

Similar problems were encountered previously (Munari and Carraro 1995) when comparing our UBVRI photometry of Bochum 2 with the CCD one by Turbide and Moffat (1993) that used MV75 photoelectric photometry as local calibrators. In that case too, as kindly pointed out by A.F.J.Moffat in a private communication, the CCD photometry was not color corrected. For these reasons we here refrain from comparison with Mf91 photometry of Westerlund 2.
ESO 96-SC04. We have observed 890 stars, in BVI, down to $`V`$=22 mag. Ph94 presents BVI CCD observations of this cluster, which has been used by Ca95 to calibrate their own BV photometry. Our BVI photometry extends $``$1 mag fainter than Ph94, while Ca95 photometry is about $``$1 mag deeper than ours. The comparison with the 600 stars in common with Ph94 yields:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ $`=`$ $`0.098\pm 0.049`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$ $`=`$ $`0.053\pm 0.080`$
NGC 5617. We have obtained BVI photometry for 140 stars, down to 17.5 mag in $`V`$. Ha78 gives photoelectric UBV photometry of 20 stars, used to calibrate photographic UBV photometry of 377 star brighter than 15 mag in $`V`$. For the 12 un-blended stars in common with our photometry, the comparison gives:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ $`=`$ $`0.069\pm 0.033`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$ $`=`$ $`0.049\pm 0.031`$
UBV and Gunn-$`r`$ CCD photometry is presented by KF91. The comparison with our photometry for the 59 stars in common gives:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ $`=`$ $`0.054\pm 0.027`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$ $`=`$ $`0.002\pm 0.003`$
NGC 6204. We have obtained BVI photometry for $``$75 stars, down to 17.5 mag in $`V`$. UBV and Gunn-$`r`$ CCD photometry is presented by KF91. The comparison for the 45 stars in common provides:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ $`=`$ $`0.041\pm 0.020`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$ $`=`$ $`0.003\pm 0.005`$
The mean deviation of our photometry from the cited references is:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ $`=`$ $`0.009\pm 0.017`$ (2)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$ $`=`$ $`0.006\pm 0.009`$ (3)
which is very small and well within the error of the mean. This confirms previous findings (cf. Munari & Carraro 1995, 1996, Munari et al. 1998, Barbon et al. 2000, Sagar et al. 2001) that the UBVRI photometry of open clusters that we secured during the 1992 observing runs with the SAAO 1.0m telescope is accurate and well placed on the international absolute scale.

## 6 Results

The main parameters for each cluster were adopted the following way:

The reddening of Westerlund 2, for which our photometry includes the $`U`$ band, has been derived via the standard $`Q`$method. For all the other clusters, for which we obtained only BVI photometry, the reddening has been obtained from the distribution of member stars on the B-I, B-V plane. As discussed in Munari & Carraro (1996b, hereafter MC96), the linear fit to the main sequence on such a plane

$$(BI)=Q+2.25\times (BV)$$
(4)
can be expressed in terms of $`E_{BV}`$ as

$$E_{BV}=\frac{Q0.014}{0.159}$$
(5)
for a standard $`R_V=3.1`$ extiction law and stars in the color range $`0.23(BV)_o+1.30`$.

Distances and ages of the program clusters have been derived by fitting the observed CMDs with isochrones from the Padova group (Girardi et al. 2000). The fit provides an estimate of the reddening too, which has always been very close to that obtained with the MC96 method just outlined. The fit to theoretical isochrones has been performed by eye, paying particoular attention to the shape of the MS, the position of the brightest MS stars, the turn-off point and the location of evolved stars, if present.

The theoretical isochrones are available for a wide range of metallicities. We have adopted for all clusters those with a solar value because we lacked firm photometric or spectroscopic determinations of metallicities of individual clusters, and this information is missing in literature too. The effect of metallicity has been frequently considered in literature: increasing it shifts the isochrones fitting toward older ages, larger distances and smaller reddening.

The results are finally summarized in Table 5, where the basic parameters are listed together with their uncertainties. The latter correspond to the shift allowed to isochrone fitting before a mismatch is clearly perceived by eye inspection.

### 6.1 NGC 2866

Cl79 has derived for this cluster $`E_{BV}=0.66\pm 0.02`$, with no marked evidence of differential reddening. Our CDMs presented in Figure 1 shows however a certain breath of the cluster main sequence (MS) suggesting some $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{BV}`$0.1 mag. Applying to our photometry the method by Munari and Carraro (1996b) to derive the reddening from BVI photometry of cluster MS stars, we obtain $`E_{BV}=0.68\pm 0.10`$. The result is close to what found by Cl79, with a larger error due to our deeper and wider field photometry that increases the chance of contamination of the observed cluster ZAMS by field stars.

Cl79, while not providing an estimate of the age, argued that NGC 2866 is too old to be considered a spiral arm indicator. From ZAMS and the isochrone fitting in Figure 1, a distance of 2.6$`\pm `$3 kpc can be inferred, in fine agreement with similar findings by Cl79, and ruling out the much shorter distance of 1.2 kpc proposed by VM73 on the base of photoelectric photometry of 4 stars. The isochrone fitting indicates an age of 200 Myr.

### 6.2 Pismis 19

Pt98a have estimated $`E_{BV}=1.45\pm 0.10`$, 1.1$`\pm 0.3`$ Gyr age and 2.2$`\pm `$0.6 kpc distance for this cluster.

Following the same approach for NGC 2866, our reddening estimate from BVI photometry is $`E_{BV}=1.48\pm 0.15`$, while isochrone fitting in Figure 2 suggests a 0.8 Gyr age and ($`mM`$)=15.3$`\pm `$0.3 distance modulus, corresponding to a distance of 1.5$`\pm `$0.4 kpc. The main sequence is well defined down to the magnitude limit of our photometry, with the turn-off located at $`V17.0`$, $`(BV)1.80`$. The bluer, less populated sequence visible in the CMDs of Figure 2 is due to foreground galactic disk MS stars.

The discrepancy in distance and age between us and Pt98a can be - at least in part - traced to the different set of fitting isochrones adopted. We have performed a direct fitting of our accurate photometric data onto a modern family of theoretical isochrones from the Padova group (Girardi et al. 2000). Pt98a fitting is instead against an set of seven empirical isochrones built from fiducial points derived from observed CMDs of 10 clusters calibrated against older theoretical isochrones (including those of the Padova group released by Bertelli et al. 1994). For such reasons we are inclined to consider our estimates of distance and age more accurate than those of Pt98a.

### 6.3 Westerlund 2

This is a rather compact open cluster believed to be responsible for the excitation of the core the HII region RCW 49 (Belloni & Mereghetti 1994). Mf91 and Shara et al. (1991) report the discovery of a WN7 Wolf-Rayet member, indicating that Westerlund 2 is very young.

The observed CMDss for Westerlund 2 are presented in Figure 3. They look very sparse and depicting two “sequences”. When the observed stars are plotted in a U–B/B–V diagram (cf. Figure 4), the stars of the bluer sequence appear to be galactic disk stars along the line of sight, while those of the redder sequence are cluster members heavily and differentially reddened by 1.5$`E_{BV}`$2.1. Only the latter are considered in the lower panels of Figure 3 where they are plotted after reddening correction following the standard $`Q`$ method. The mean cluster reddening turns out to be $`E_{BV}=1.67\pm 0.23`$, in close agreement with the $`A_V`$5.0 spectroscopically estimated by Pt98b.

None of the cluster members appear to clearly evolving away from the ZAMS. The isochrone fitting against it is presented in Figure 3, providing a distance modulus of ($`mM`$)=14.0, corresponding to 6.3 kpc. The same distance is obtained by combining our photometry and the spectral classification of its brightest members by Mf91. The close placing of all members on the empirical ZAMS confirms the cluster to be very young, probably not older than 2 Myr. A similar young age and distance have been estimated by Pt98b.

### 6.4 ESO96-SC04

CMDs of this cluster presented in Figure 2 are evidently largely contaminated by field stars, as in Ph94 and Ca95 previous CCD photometry of this faint target.

Application of the MC96 method to BVI photometry to derive the reddening provides $`E_{BV}=0.7\pm 0.2`$ for ESO96-SC04, with the strong contamination from field stars causing a large uncertainty. Ca95 estimated a similar $`E_{BV}`$0.75.

Our fit to Padova modern isochrones provides and age of 0.8 Gyr and a 12$`\pm `$1 kpc distance, close to the 0.7 Gyr and 12 kpc derived by Ca96 using older versions of the Padova isochrones. From radial star counts and radial behaviour of the observed CMDs, it may be concluded that the whole cluster is contained within a radius of 1.5 arcmin from its apparent center. The turn-off appears located at $`V17.5`$, $`(BV)0.90`$.

### 6.5 NGC 5617

To cover enough area of this open cluster (the larger on the sky among the program targets), two adjacent fields have been observed, over which cluster members largely outnumber field stars (cf. Figure 1).

Application of the MC96 method to BVI photometry to derive the reddening provides $`E_{BV}=0.48\pm 0.05`$ for NGC 5617, close to literature based on photoelectric data (Ha78 has derived $`E_{BV}`$=0.53, MV75 found $`E_{BV}`$=0.52$`\pm `$0.02 and Lindoff 1968 got $`E_{BV}`$=0.53$`\pm `$0.02) and identical to more recent CCD determinations (KF91 found $`E_{BV}`$=0.48$`\pm `$0.02).

The main sequence is well defined down to the limit of our photometry, with $`V12.5`$ stars evolving away from it. Our fitting to modern isochrones provides an age of 80 Myr and a distance of 2.0$`\pm `$0.3 kpc (cf. Figure 1), close to KF91 values of 70 Myr and 2.05$`\pm `$0.20 kpc. This is significantly largen than old values based on photoelectric photometry: Lindoff (1968) derived 1.1 kpc and MV75 1.3 kpc, while Ha78 got closer with 1.8 kpc.

### 6.6 NGC 6204

Application of the MC96 method to BVI photometry to derive the reddening provides $`E_{BV}=0.47\pm 0.05`$ for NGC 6204, which is close to and intermediate between KF91 value of $`E_{BV}=0.45\pm 0.03`$ and FS96 determination of $`E_{BV}=0.51\pm 0.07`$.

Similarly to NGC 5617, our photometry (cf. Figure 1) is dominated by cluster members showing a perfectly defined main sequence down to the magnitude limit, with $`V11.5`$ stars evolving away from it. The fitting to modern isochrones provide an age of 80 Myr and a distance of 1.2$`\pm `$0.2 kpc. In previous studies, KF91 found 200 Myr and 1.20$`\pm `$0.15 kpc, while FS96 obtained 125 Myr and 1.2$`\pm `$0.1 kpc.

Thus the three available CCD investigations of this cluster pretty well converge on the distance and reddening, with age estimate getting younger with time, probably reflecting different and improved sets of reference isochrones.

## 7 Conclusions

We have presented new homogeneous CCD multicolor photometry for the six Galactic open clusters NGC 2866, Pismis 19, Westerlund 2, ESO96-SC04, NGC 5617 and NGC 6204. For all of them we have provided updated estimates of their fundamental parameters useful in statistical investigations of the open clusters in our Galaxy. The results are summarized in Table 5, where we report for each cluster the reddening, the apparent distance modulus, the distance and the age, together with their uncertainties.

## Acknowledgments

The generous telescope time allocation for this project and the financial support to UM provided by the SAAO is gratefully acknowledged. One of us (GC) acknowledges financial support from ESO, where part of this work has been done. We finally thank dr. Brian Chaboyer for carefully reading the manuscript. This study has been financed also by the Italian Ministry of University, Scientific Research and Technology (MURST) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and made use of Simbad and WEBDA databases.