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# Heavy fermion 𝑑 wave superconductivity: a X-boson approach

## 1 Introduction

Recently, we have used the X-boson method  to study the superconducting phase diagram of the PAM in the $`U\mathrm{}`$, where $`U`$ is the on-site Coulomb repulsion, in the presence of an attractive interaction between the localized $`f`$-electrons,

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤,\sigma }{}}ϵ_{𝐤,\sigma }c_{𝐤,\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤,\sigma }+{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤,\sigma }{}}E_fX_{𝐤,\sigma \sigma }`$ (1)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤,\sigma }{}}V(X_{𝐤,\mathrm{𝟎}\sigma }^{}c_{𝐤,\sigma }+c_{𝐤,\sigma }^{}X_{𝐤,\mathrm{𝟎}\sigma })`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤,𝐤^{}}{}}W_{𝐤,𝐤^{}}b_𝐤^{}b_𝐤^{},`$
where we only considered site independent local energies $`E_{f,j,\sigma }=E_{f,\sigma }`$ and a constant hybridization $`V=V_{j,\sigma ,𝐤}`$. The operator $`b_𝐤^{}=X_{𝐤,\mathrm{𝟎}\sigma }^{}X_{𝐤,\mathrm{𝟎}\overline{\sigma }}^{}`$, creates Cooper pairs, where $`X_{𝐤,\sigma \sigma ^{}}`$ is the Hubbard operator. We have shown  that the existence of superconductivity is constrained to a region where the $`f`$-band densities of states $`\rho _f(\omega )`$ at $`\omega =\mu `$ is sufficiently high. A high $`\rho _f(\mu )`$ usually implicates higher values of $`T_c`$, what suggests that the Kondo behavior of the system favors superconductivity in the X-boson approach. Nevertheless, as charge carriers are added to the system the superconductivity was found both for configurations where the system presented intermediate valence (IV) and heavy fermion (HF) behavior and we have recovered the three characteristic regimes of the PAM: Kondo, IV and magnetic. This behavior which cannot be found for the same model by the slave-boson treatment , since it breaks down when the $`f`$-occupation number $`N_f1`$.

Despite the fact that the model was primarily designed to the study of the heavy fermion compounds, theoretical descriptions of the superconducting phases based on two-band models have application for a large variety of systems and the model could fit into the description of the high temperature superconductors compounds (HTSC)  or into the new two-band superconductor MgB2. Meanwhile, unconventional superconductors may exhibit different pair symmetries. For instance, HTSC cuprates appears to present $`d_{x^2y^2}`$ superconductivity for some compounds and $`s`$-wave for others while for the HF compounds the crystallographic anisotropies and strong spin-orbit coupling make the task of determining the pair symmetry very difficult, athough $`d`$-wave model is still one of the leading candidates to describe superconductivity in UPt3 .

In this paper we employ the X-boson approach to compare the results for the superconducting phase diagram of an isotropic $`s`$-wave superconductor with the results provided by a $`d_{x^2y^2}`$ superconductor.

## 2 The Method

The X-boson approach consists of introducing the variational parameter $`R=1_\sigma <X_{\sigma \sigma }>`$, which modifies the Green’s functions (GF) so that it minimizes an adequate thermodynamic potential while being forced to satisfy the “completeness” relation $`n_0+n_\sigma +n_{\overline{\sigma }}=1`$, where $`n_{j,a}=<X_{j,aa}>`$. To this purpose we added to the model the product of each “completeness” relation into a Lagrange multiplier $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_j`$, and use this new Hamiltonian to generate the functional that shall be minimized by employing the Lagrange’s method.

At the critical temperature the Green’s functions yields to the previous result found in the chain approximation of the PAM,  but now with the localized energy levels $`E_f`$ and $`D_\sigma =R+n_\sigma `$ renormalized, and we solve the mean-field superconducting gap equation  at $`T=T_c`$ constrained to the “completeness” relation above. For the two dimensional $`d_{x^2y^2}`$ superconductor we use the tight-binding band dispersion $`ϵ(𝐤)=2t_{i=x,y}cos(k_i)`$ and an attractive interaction with a $`cos(k_x)cos(k_y)`$ dependence in $`𝐤`$-space leads to the same superconducting gap symmetry. On the other hand, the superconducting phase diagram for the $`s`$-wave isotropic gap is obtained using a constant conduction density of states, $`\rho (ϵ_𝐤)=1/2D`$, only defined for the interval $`Dϵ_𝐤\mu D`$. We make $`E_f=0.15`$, $`V=0.3`$ and the superconducting interaction $`W=0.20`$ in units of the half-bandwidth $`D`$ or the hopping parameter $`t`$. Finally, the total electron number $`N_t=N_f+N_c`$, is kept constant and the chemical potential is calculated self-consistently while the electrons are allowed to transfer between bands.

## 3 Results

In Fig. 1 the superconducting phase diagrams for a 2-$`d`$ $`d_{x^2y^2}`$ superconductor and an isotropic $`s`$-wave superconductor are shown. As previously obtained  the superconductivity is constrained to a region where $`\rho _f(\mu )`$ is high and our results show that $`d`$-wave pairing exhibits the highest $`T_c`$ up to occupations of about $`N_t1.4`$, which is in the vicinity of the Kondo regime. For higher occupations, both systems present a superconductor-insulator transition when the chemical potential $`\mu `$ crosses the hybridization gap, what means that $`\mu `$ lies in the region between the peaks of the density of states and the system presents a IV behavior. Notice that for even more higher occupations, $`\mu `$ reaches the upper band, what cannot be obtained by the slave-boson method, since it breaks down when $`N_f1`$. For $`N_t1.4`$ a crossover occurs into a regime where the isotropic $`s`$-wave pairing becomes the most stable for the parameters considered.


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# Area distribution of the planar random loop boundary

## 1 Introduction

In recent years, a number of predictions for critical exponents related to random planar curves have been proved using probabilistic methods. Particular examples are the proof of old conjectures concerning exponents of critical percolation on the triangular lattice , and the proof of the conjecture that the Hausdorff dimension of the outer boundary of planar Brownian motion is $`4/3`$ . The latter conjecture was stated in 1982 on the basis of an investigation of random loops on the square lattice , while a non-rigorous derivation using methods of quantum gravity was given in 1998 .

A main ingredient of the approach  is a family $`SLE_\kappa `$ of conformally invariant stochastic processes, called Schramm-Loewner evolution (sometimes also stochastic Loewner evolution). Critical percolation and the outer boundary of planar Brownian motion are described by $`SLE_6`$. More generally, it is conjectured that Schramm-Loewner evolution describes critical Fortuin-Kasteleyn clusters . The area distribution of such clusters has been analysed recently .

Schramm-Loewner evolution is also connected to the self-avoiding walk model . It has recently been shown that, if the continuum limit of self-avoiding walks exists and is conformally invariant, it is described by $`SLE_{8/3}`$ . This led to another derivation of the critical exponents of the self-avoiding walk $`\nu =3/4`$ and $`\gamma =43/32`$, and to predictions of the distribution of some random variables related to the self-avoiding walk problem. Some of these have been numerically tested recently . Moreover, there are predictions for the self-avoiding polygon model  based on $`SLE_{8/3}`$. Essentially, the scaling limit of self-avoiding polygons is predicted to be described by the union of two Brownian excursions . Also, it is predicted that the scaling limit coincides with the outer boundary of loops of Brownian motion . Since the area under a Brownian excursion is Airy distributed , one thus expects the Airy distribution111The Airy distribution appears in a variety of other contexts such the path lengths in trees and the analysis of the linear probing hashing algorithm, see  for a review. as the area distribution of the outer boundary of Brownian motion.

A completely different, independent approach to the self-avoiding polygon problem is inspired by the analysis of exactly solvable models of lattice polygons, counted by perimeter and area. A conjecture for the scaling function of self-avoiding polygons  has recently been tested , on the basis of an extrapolation of exact enumeration data and Monte Carlo simulations on the square, triangular and hexagonal lattices. The validity of the conjecture implies that the asymptotic distribution of area of self-avoiding polygons is the Airy distribution.

Within this framework, the conjecture for the scaling function of self-avoiding polygons arose from an analysis of polygon models whose perimeter and area generating function satisfy a $`q`$-algebraic functional equation , compare also . It was shown that if their perimeter generating function displays a square-root singularity as the dominant singularity, then the mean area $`a_m`$ of a polygon of perimeter $`m`$ generically grows as $`a_mAm^{2\nu }`$ as $`m\mathrm{}`$, where $`\nu =3/4`$. This implies a dimension $`1/\nu =4/3`$ for such polygons. Moreover, a certain scaling function of Airy-type generically arises . Since the prediction of the dimension of self-avoiding polygons $`4/3`$ was also supported by conformal field theory arguments and numerical analysis , it was natural to ask whether self-avoiding polygons might have the same scaling function. Noting that the outer boundary of planar random loops also has dimension $`4/3`$, one might suspect that the Airy distribution appears here as well.

In this article, we test the conjecture that the Airy distribution arises as the limit distribution of the outer boundary of planar random loops, based on Monte Carlo simulations on the square and triangular lattices. Our conjecture arises from the connection to the self-avoiding polygon model, which may be viewed from either the stochastic perspective or from the exactly solvable polygon model perspective, as indicated above. We find the conjecture of an Airy distribution for the limit distribution of the outer boundary of planar random loops satisfied, within numerical accuracy.

The article is organised as follows. In the following section, we will gather basic results about the Airy distribution. The third section explains our algorithms and presents the analysis of data. We then summarise our results and discuss possible future work. In the appendix, we discuss the connection between scaling functions and limit distributions. This motivates the particular form of our prediction for the area moments in section two.

## 2 Airy distribution

A random variable $`X`$ is said to be Airy distributed222 For the definition of the Airy distribution and its properties we follow . if its moments are given by

$$𝔼[X^k]=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1/2)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }((3k1)/2)}\mathrm{\Omega }_k,$$
(1)
where the Airy constants $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k`$ are determined by the quadratic recurrence

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1,2\mathrm{\Omega }_k=(3k4)k\mathrm{\Omega }_{k1}+\underset{j=1}{\overset{k1}{}}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{k}{j}\right)\mathrm{\Omega }_j\mathrm{\Omega }_{kj}(k1).$$
(2)
The first few numbers $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k`$ are $`1`$, $`1/2`$, $`5/4`$, $`45/4`$, $`3315/16`$, $`25425/4`$, $`18635625/64`$, $`18592875`$. The moments uniquely define a probability distribution, which is called the Airy distribution. The name relates to the fact that the numbers $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k`$ also appear in the asymptotic expansion

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}s}\mathrm{log}\text{Ai}(s)\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{(1)^k}{k!}\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_k}{2^k}\frac{1}{s^{(3k1)/2}}(s\mathrm{}),$$
(3)
where $`\text{Ai}(z)=\frac{1}{\pi }_0^{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{cos}(t^3/3+tz)`$ is the Airy function.

In the following section, we will analyse the conjecture that the outer boundary of planar random loops is Airy distributed, using a Monte Carlo simulation, both for the square and triangular lattices. More precisely, denote by $`\stackrel{~}{p}_{m,n}`$ the number of sampled outer boundaries of planar random loops with perimeter $`m`$ and area $`n`$. (An algorithmic definition of the outer boundary of a random loop will be presented in the following section.) Define a corresponding random variable $`Y_m`$ via

$$(Y_m=n)=\frac{\stackrel{~}{p}_{m,n}}{_n\stackrel{~}{p}_{m,n}}.$$
(4)
We will numerically analyse the area moments $`𝔼[Y_m^k]`$ under the assumption that

$$𝔼[Y_m^k]=\frac{_nn^k\stackrel{~}{p}_{m,n}}{_n\stackrel{~}{p}_{m,n}}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1/2)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }((3k1)/2)}\left(Cm^{3/2}\right)^k\mathrm{\Omega }_k(m\mathrm{})$$
(5)
for some constant $`C>0`$. In comparison to (1), the factor $`m^{3k/2}`$ accounts for the growth of the area moments in powers of $`m^{3/2}`$. This formula correctly describes the area statistics of the self-avoiding polygon model on the square and triangular lattice, with $`\stackrel{~}{p}_{m,n}`$ the number of (sampled) self-avoiding polygons of perimeter $`m`$ and area $`n`$. (The perimeter of a polygon is the number of edges, its area is the number of enclosed squares or triangles.) See the appendix for a derivation of (5) from the conjectured scaling function of self-avoiding polygons.

## 3 Numerical analysis

Let us consider random walks on a planar lattice. For those walks returning to their starting point, we construct the outer boundary using the following three-step algorithm.

* Find the bottom vertex $`v_0`$ of the random walk. This is the first vertex in an increasing lexicographic ordering of the walk vertices by their coordinates; first in the $`x`$-direction and then in the $`y`$-direction. Define the direction vector $`e_{v_0}=e_y`$, where $`e_y`$ is the unit vector in the $`y`$-direction. Set $`i=0`$.
* For the vertex $`v_i`$, consider the set $`F_i`$ of direction vectors pointing from $`v_i`$ to those random walk vertices which are also lattice nearest neighbours of $`v_i`$. Choose from $`F_i`$ the direction vector $`f_i`$ of maximal angle $`\alpha (e_{v_i},f_i)[0,2\pi )`$. Set $`v_{i+1}=v_i+f_i`$ and $`e_{v_{i+1}}=f_i`$.
* If $`v_{i+1}v_0`$, then repeat step (2), with $`i`$ replaced by $`i+1`$. Otherwise, set $`N=i`$ and stop.

The vertices $`v_i`$, subsequently obtained from the algorithm, yield a closed walk $`(v_0,v_1,\mathrm{},v_N)`$, called the outer boundary of the random walk. We define its perimeter to be $`N+1`$. The walk travels along the random walk in clockwise direction. A typical square lattice example is shown in Fig. 1.

Note that the outer boundary is not a self-avoiding polygon, since it has cut vertices. The simulations suggest however that such vertices occur with zero density in the limit of infinite length of the outer boundary.

We considered the cases of the square lattice and the triangular lattice. The triangular lattice case was implemented on the computer using a square lattice with additional edges along the positive diagonal of each square. Due to piecewise linearity, the area $`A`$ of a loop $`(v_0,v_1,\mathrm{},v_N)`$ is, on both lattices, given by

$$A=\underset{i=0}{\overset{N}{}}(v_{i+1,x}v_{i,x})\frac{v_{i+1,y}+v_{i,y}}{2},$$

where $`v_{i,x}`$ and $`v_{i,y}`$ denote the $`x`$-coordinate and $`y`$-coordinate of the vertex $`v_i`$, and $`v_{N+1}=v_0`$. It can thus be determined “on the fly” together with the construction of the outer boundary.

We generated random walks up to length $`10^5`$ on the square and triangular lattices, using the random number generator ran2.c . For each lattice, we generated $`10^8`$ random walks. The size of the array was chosen such that the random walks did not reach the array boundaries. In our situation, an array of size $`5000\times 5000`$ was sufficient. For those random walks returning to their start point, we constructed the outer boundary and computed the values of the first ten area moments for perimeter up to $`10^3`$, i.e., we sampled $`𝔼[Y_m^k]`$ for $`m<10^3`$ and $`k10`$. Note that only even values of $`m`$ occur for the square lattice. For the data analysis, we rejected all values of $`m`$ with less than $`10^4`$ samples. Furthermore, we chose $`m50`$ in order to reduce finite size effects. This led to $`50m512`$ for the square lattice and to $`50m401`$ for the triangular lattice. The total number of loops used in the data analysis was $`8.6\times 10^6`$ for the square lattice and $`11.6\times 10^6`$ for the triangular lattice.

We first analysed the predicted power-law behaviour of the area moments (5)

$$𝔼[Y_m^k]A_km^{\alpha _k}(m\mathrm{}),$$
(6)
with $`\alpha _k=3k/2`$. Estimates of $`\alpha _k`$ were obtained by a least squares fit of the data to the assumed asymptotic form

$$\mathrm{log}(𝔼[Y_m^k])\mathrm{log}A_k+\alpha _k\mathrm{log}m+\underset{l=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{B_{k,l}}{m^{\beta _{k,l}}}(m\mathrm{}).$$
(7)
Since the exponents of the corrections to the asymptotic behaviour of (5) are not known, we chose $`\beta _{k,l}=l`$. This corresponds to analytic correction terms in (5). The results of a least squares fit with $`N=3`$ are shown in Table 1. The numbers in brackets give the statistical error of the fit in the last two digits. We found that differences in the estimates of $`\alpha _k`$ due to different choices of the exponents $`\beta _{k,l}`$ are an order in magnitude smaller than the statistical errors. This reflects the observation that the statistical fluctuations of the data points dominate effects due to different corrections to the asymptotic behaviour (6). The obtained values are consistent with the prediction $`\alpha _k=3k/2`$, which we employ in the following.

We then tested our prediction for the area moment amplitudes. It follows from (5) that the ratios $`A_k/A_1^k`$ are independent of the constant $`C`$. In particular, we get

$$A_{2k}/A_1^{2k}=\frac{2^{6k2}}{\pi ^k}\frac{(3k2)!}{(6k3)!}\mathrm{\Omega }_{2k},A_{2k+1}/A_1^{2k+1}=\frac{2}{\pi ^k}\frac{1}{(3k)!}\mathrm{\Omega }_{2k+1},$$
(8)
where the numbers $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k`$ are the Airy constants defined in (2). We extrapolated the numbers $`A_k/A_1^k`$ by a least squares fit to $`𝔼[Y_m^k]/𝔼[Y_m]^kA_k/A_1^k+c_k/m+d_k/m^2`$ as $`m\mathrm{}`$. A typical data plot is shown in Figure 2.

The corresponding results for the first ten amplitude ratios are given in Table 2, together with their predicted values. The numbers in brackets give the statistical error of the fit in the last two digits.

Finally, we estimated the constant $`C`$ in (5) using the first area moment $`𝔼[Y_m]C\sqrt{\pi }m^{3/2}`$ as $`m\mathrm{}`$. A least squares fit to $`𝔼[Y_m]/m^{3/2}`$ with a polynomial of degree 4 in $`1/m`$ yields $`C_{sq}=0.0910(11)`$ for the square lattice and $`C_{tr}=0.1262(29)`$ for the triangular lattice.

## 4 Conclusion

Our numerical analysis supports the conjecture that the area of the outer boundary of planar random loops is Airy distributed, on both the square and triangular lattices. Since we expect this result to be universal, it would be interesting to check the appearance of the Airy distribution for boundaries of random walks on, for example, non-periodic tilings such as the Penrose tiling or the Ammann-Beenker tiling. Also, the question arises whether the Airy distribution can be found in other models of cluster boundaries with fractal dimension $`4/3`$. The outstanding question is whether our conjecture can be proved, possibly by using quantum gravity methods  or the probabilistic approach .

## Acknowledgements

The author thanks John Cardy, who pointed the author’s attention to the problem. Financial support by the German Research Council (DFG) is gratefully acknowledged.

## Appendix: Scaling functions and limit distributions

We explain how limit distributions are derived from the scaling function of a combinatorial model. We show, in particular, how the Airy distribution is derived from the scaling function of polygon models  such as staircase polygons or self-avoiding polygons. This relates the scaling function viewpoint employed in  to the present approach. In particular, it motivates formula (5).

For a polygon model on a given lattice, denote the number of polygons of (half-) perimeter $`m`$ and area $`n`$ by $`p_{m,n}`$. The perimeter and area generating function of the model is given by $`G(x,q)=_{m,n}p_{m,n}x^mq^n`$. The function $`G(x,1)=g_0(x)`$ is called the perimeter generating function. Let $`x_c`$ denote the radius of convergence of the perimeter generating function. Typically , the factorial area moment generating functions $`g_k(x)`$ have the asymptotic behaviour

$$g_k(x)=\frac{(1)^k}{k!}\frac{\text{d}^k}{\text{d}q^k}G(x,q)|_{q=1}\frac{f_k}{(x_cx)^{\gamma _k}}(xx_c^{}),$$
(9)
with critical amplitudes $`f_k`$ and critical exponents $`\gamma _k`$, where $`\gamma _{k+1}>\gamma _k`$. See \[20, Ch. 7\] for a proof that the functions $`g_k(x)`$ exist and are finite for polygon models. It is convenient to incorporate the numbers $`f_k`$ and $`\gamma _k`$ into the function

$$F(s)=\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{f_k}{s^{\gamma _k}}.$$
(10)
Typically, the function $`F(s)`$ describes scaling behaviour of the perimeter and area generating function about $`(x,q)=(x_c,1)`$,

$$G^{(sing)}(x,q)(1q)^\theta F\left(\frac{x_cx}{(1q)^\varphi }\right)(x,q)(x_c^{},1^{}),$$
(11)
with critical exponents $`\theta `$ and $`\varphi `$. The function $`F(s)`$ is also called the scaling function. The form (11) is consistent with (9) if the exponents $`\gamma _k`$ are of the form $`\gamma _k=(k\theta )/\varphi `$. One should note that (11) has been proved only for a few examples including staircase polygons . For typical polygon models such as staircase polygons333 More generally, for polygon models satisfying a $`q`$-algebraic functional equation with a square-root singularity as dominant singularity of their perimeter generating function . and rooted self-avoiding polygons , the scaling function has the particular form \[18, Eqn. 3.9\]

$$F(s)=4f_1\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}s}\mathrm{log}\text{Ai}\left(\left(\frac{f_0}{4f_1}\right)^{2/3}s\right),$$
(12)
with critical exponents $`\theta =1/3`$ and $`\varphi =2/3`$.

We now turn to a probabilistic description, see also . Selecting polygons uniformly among the set of all polygons with perimeter $`m`$ defines a discrete random variable $`X_m`$ with probability distribution

$$(X_m=n)=\frac{p_{m,n}}{_np_{m,n}},$$
(13)
whose moments are given by

$$𝔼[X_m^k]=\frac{_nn^kp_{m,n}}{_np_{m,n}}.$$
(14)
The numerator in (14) is related to the coefficients of the factorial moment generating functions (9) via

$$\frac{(1)^k}{k!}\underset{n}{}n^kp_{m,n}\frac{(1)^k}{k!}\underset{n}{}(n)_kp_{m,n}=[x^m]g_k(x)\frac{f_k}{x_c^{\gamma _k}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\gamma _k)}x_c^mm^{\gamma _k1}(m\mathrm{}),$$
(15)
where $`(n)_k=n(n1)\mathrm{}(nk+1)`$, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(z)`$ is the Gamma function. This relation can be used to characterise the leading asymptotic behaviour of the moments $`𝔼[X_m^k]`$ of the underlying distribution. Let us introduce distribution coefficients $`\mathrm{\Phi }_k`$ defined by $`f_k=\frac{(1)^k}{k!}2^k\mathrm{\Phi }_kf_1^kf_0^{1k}`$. We obtain

$$𝔼[X_m^k]\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\gamma _0)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\gamma _k)}\left(\left(\frac{m}{x_c}\right)^{1/\varphi }\frac{2f_1}{f_0}\right)^k\mathrm{\Phi }_k(m\mathrm{}).$$
(16)
Now introduce a normalised random variable $`\stackrel{~}{X}_m`$ defined by

$$\stackrel{~}{X}_m=\frac{X_m}{\left(\frac{m}{x_c}\right)^{1/\varphi }\frac{2f_1}{f_0}}.$$
(17)
The moments $`𝔼[\stackrel{~}{X}_m^k]`$ of the normalised random variable $`\stackrel{~}{X}_m`$ are then asymptotically given by

$$𝔼[\stackrel{~}{X}_m^k]\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\gamma _0)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\gamma _k)}\mathrm{\Phi }_k(m\mathrm{}).$$
(18)
Note that (18) is independent of $`x_c`$ and asymptotically constant. In conjunction with (3), it follows that the particular scaling function (12) leads to the Airy distribution (1) in (18). Formula (5) is chosen in analogy with (16).


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# Feshbach resonance induced shock waves in Bose-Einstein condensates

## Abstract

We propose a method for generating shock waves in Bose-Einstein condensates by rapidly increasing the value of the nonlinear coefficient using Feshbach resonances. We show that in a cigar-shaped condensate there exist primary (transverse) and secondary (longitudinal) shock waves. We analyze how the shocks are generated in multidimensional scenarios and describe the phenomenology associated with the phenomenon.

Shock waves have been thoroughly investigated during the last century in several branches of physics including fluid mechanics, plasma physics, astrophysics, optics and solid state physics (see e.g. meyers ). Very recently it has been recognized that there exists one more type of media – ultracold dilute alkali gases in a condensed state, i.e. Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC’s) – where existence of shock waves is possible SSS02 ; BKK ; KZ ; preprints ; kamch .

In general, BEC’s represent a universal laboratory for nonlinear phenomena. In the last few years there have been theoretical predictions and experimental realizations of many nonlinear structures in BEC’s such as vortices, vortex lattices and vortex rings Sols , bright solitons  and dark dark  solitons, collapsing waves collapse  and stabilized solitons Ueda , to cite a few examples.

Theoretical studies of shock waves in BEC’s so far have been restricted to effectively one-dimensional (1D) models and explored regimes of free expansion of the condensate. Moreover, the initial conditions considered in some of the previous studies seem to be not experimentally feasible. In this Letter we propose and investigate a new mechanism for the generation of *matter shock waves* in BEC’s which could be easy to implement experimentally. As a key ingredient of our analysis we keep the multidimensional character of the condensate, something which is missing in previous works SSS02 ; BKK ; KZ ; preprints ; kamch .

*Estimates for shock wave generation.-* In order a shock could develop from an initially smooth pulse, the quantum pressure must be negligible at the initial stages of evolution. In this situation the hydrodynamical approach (see e.g. Pit ) holds and exploiting the analogy one can expect the appearance of a breaking point and the subsequent development of a shock wave in a BEC. In other words, for the breaking point to be reached one has to require $`|(^2\sqrt{n})/\sqrt{n}|8\pi a_sn`$ where $`n`$ is the density of the condensate and $`a_s`$ is the s-wave scattering length (considered positive hereafter). The quantum pressure can be estimated as $`1/L_0^2`$ where $`L_0`$ is a characteristic scale of the condensate to be estimated as the minimal scale between all the characteristic spatial scales of the order parameter and its first derivative. This scale must be larger than the healing length, $`\xi =(8\pi na_s)^{1/2}`$. The hydrodynamic approximation and thus the previous estimates fail when discontinuities appear since when a shock starts to develop $`L_00`$ because of growth of the first derivative near the edge of the shock (although the typical size of the condensate is preserved). Due to the role of the kinetic energy near the shock edge one should not expect formation of real discontinuities (like ones analyzed, for example in KZ ) in a matter-wave system. This is similar to what it happens in real fluids where the existence of dissipation smoothes out the shock waves. When the characteristic size of the wave front becomes of order of the healing length, thus making the dispersive term relevant, we expect the appearance of oscillations of the wave front near the quasi-discontinuity. This behavior, which differs from the fluid case, is due to the essential differences between the regularization mechanisms of fluids (diffusion) and matter waves (dispersion).

The condition $`L_0^2a_sn1`$ is not sufficient for the generation of shock waves since there are two essential factors not accounted for by this estimate. First, the density, and thus the sound velocity rapidly decrease during the condensate expansion. Second, the largest spatial derivative of the condensate is not achieved where the sound velocity has its maximum. As an example in the well known Thomas-Fermi approximation this point is reached at the minimum of the sound velocity. This requires special, with finite support SSS02  or non-smooth kamch , initial states of the condensate, in order to produce shock waves.

Our shock-wave generation method is based on the use of Feshbach resonances (FR) Feshbach0  to control the nonlinear interactions. The idea is to make $`a_s`$ increase with time thus increasing the time domain in which the quantum pressure is negligible. In order to make qualitative estimates of the effects expected in this scenario we assume that initially the product $`a_sn_{\text{max}}`$ is negligible so that the initial spatial distribution of the atoms is well approximated by a gaussian distribution. For simplicity, we consider a cylindrically symmetric trap, with transversal and longitudinal frequencies $`\omega _{}`$ and $`\omega _{}`$, respectively. Then the characteristic spatial scales of the problem can be identified as the healing length $`\xi `$, and the transverse $`L_{}=\sqrt{\mathrm{}/m\omega _{}}`$ and longitudinal $`L_{}=\sqrt{\mathrm{}/m\omega _{}}`$ linear oscillator lengths.

As the s-wave scattering length is ramped up to a larger value we get an expansion of the initial state with a velocity gradient strengthened by the parabolic potential. If the characteristic time, $`\tau _0`$, of the growth of $`a_s`$ is small enough and the increase of $`a_s`$ is large enough then at the initial stages one can consider free expansion of the condensate. In our case there are two characteristic velocities of the expansion nota2  $`v_\alpha =\mathrm{}/(2mL_\alpha )`$ were $`\alpha `$ stands for $``$ or $``$ depending which direction is considered. There are four characteristic times in this problem: the two breaking times $`t_\alpha =L_\alpha /c_{max}`$ (i.e. the times at which the breaking would occur if expansion would be absent) and the expansion times $`T_\alpha =L_\alpha /v_\alpha `$. We notice that these estimates involve $`c_{max}`$ which is the maximal sound velocity after the growth of the scattering length is terminated. In order the breaking point to be reached experimentally in a given direction one should have $`t_\alpha T_\alpha `$ what can be rewritten as the condition $`R_\alpha =L_\alpha ^2a_sn_{max}1`$ where $`n_{max}`$ is the BEC’s density in the center of the trap after the increase of the scattering length comment . At this point it is important to emphasize that due to existence of the trapping potential only the regions of large density undergo a quasi-free expansion while the expansion of the low-density regions located near to the periphery of the atomic cloud is suppressed by the potential. This is in a sharp contrast to the truly free expansion considered elsewere SSS02 ; BKK ; KZ ; preprints ; kamch . Our estimates suggest that there should exist two types of shock waves in a cigar-shaped condensate, where $`t_{}t_{}`$. A *first shock wave* would be developed in the *transverse direction* while a *second shock wave* is expected to arise in the *longitudinal direction*.

*The model.-* Our model is the usual time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation

$$i\frac{\psi }{t}=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{}\psi +\frac{1}{2}\left(\nu ^2z^2+x^2+y^2\right)\psi +U|\psi |^2\psi ,$$
(1)
The adimensional quantities used are related with the physical spatial ($`r_j`$) and temporal ($`\tau `$) variables through $`x_j=r_j/L_{}`$, $`t=\omega _{}\tau `$. The new wavefunction $`\psi `$ is related to the physical one $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ by $`\psi (𝐱,t)\mathrm{\Psi }(𝐫,\tau )\sqrt{L_{}^3/N}`$, where $`N`$ is the number of particles in the condensate. Finally $`U=4\pi Na_s/L_{}`$, $`a_s`$ being the scattering length of the cold collisions within the condensate and $`\nu =\omega _{}/\omega _{}`$. The normalization for $`\psi `$ is $`|\psi |^2d^3x=1`$.

We ramp up the scattering length according to

$$U(t)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\alpha \left(e^{t/\tau _0}1\right),\hfill & t<T_0,\hfill \\ \alpha \left(e^{T_0/\tau _0}1\right)\hfill & tT_0.\hfill \end{array}$$
(2)
In what follows we choose $`\alpha =1`$ without loss of generality and study the dependence of the formation of shock waves on the parameters $`T_0,\tau _0,\nu `$.

*One-dimensional shocks.-* We first consider the cross-section of the condensate along one of the directions (radial or axial) as an effectively 1D case. By solving numerically the 1D version of the GPE (1) we have found the dependence of the time of the shock wave formation $`t_b`$ on the size of the condensate characterized by the trap asymmetry. As it clear from Fig.1 the shock waves develop faster in time in systems with smaller aspect ratio in agreement with our previous qualitative arguments.

*Two-dimensional shocks.-* We have studied the formation of shock waves from gaussian ground states under variation of the parameters $`\nu ,\tau _0`$, and $`T_0`$. Results of typical numerical simulations of Eq. (1) are summarized in Figs. 2,3 and 4 corresponding to $`T_0=0.14,\tau _0=0.02`$ thus $`U_{\text{max}}=U(T_0)1100`$ \[Fig. 2 solid lines\] and $`T_0=0.16,\tau _0=0.02`$, $`U_{\text{max}}3\times 10^3`$ \[Fig. 2(a,c) dotted lines and Figs. 3 and 4\]. The increase of the nonlinearity leads to an expansion of the condensate which is faster along the transverse direction due to the higher compression and thus the increased non-stationarity along this direction (notice that this is the case $`t_{}t_{}`$ qualitatively described above, see also BKK ). On long time scales the effect of the potential is to confine the wavepacket thus generating recurrent oscillations.

As it has been predicted above qualitatively and on the basis of the numerical simulations of the 1D model, the faster transversal expansion implies that the shock wave is first generated along the *transverse* direction and not along the longitudinal one as one could naively think because of the geometry of the condensate. The formation of this shock is seen as an increase of the maximum value of the spatial derivatives along $`x`$ \[Fig. 2(a)\]. This phenomenon is accompanied by a small sympathetic increase on the derivatives along $`z`$ which does not correspond to a true shock. The true longitudinal shock appears later due to the slower expansion along this direction \[Fig. 2(c)\].

The structures of the longitudinal and transverse shocks are shown in Figs. 3 and 4. It can be seen how the longitudinal shocks lead to a very oscillating behavior near the shock edge while for the transverse shocks the behavior is smoother, although small amplitude oscillations are also present.

For longer times and due to the effect of the trapping potential we observe the recurrent formation of very strong shocks (see the peaks in $`S_x,S_z`$ for $`t\pi ,2\pi `$ in Fig. 2). In Fig. 5 we observe that the wave becomes filamented due to the strongly compression induced by the combined effect of nonlinear forces and the harmonic potential, a phenomenon which could be used as a very efficient matter wave compressor.

The amplitude of the shocks increases as the nonlinearity is increased. In Fig. 6 we study the dependence of the shocks amplitude and breaking times as a function of the trap asymmetry $`\nu `$. It can be seen that as the trap becomes more symmetric the breaking time for the transverse and longitudinal shocks become more similar. This is a reasonable result since in the case $`\nu =1`$ the shocks should develop at the same time along all the spatial directions starting from symmetric initial data. We have also studied the dependence of the shock formation on the rising time of the nonlinearity $`\tau _0`$ and seen that it plays an essential role in the transverse shock formation. For instance, taking $`\tau _0=0.1`$ and $`T_0=0.70`$, which give the same values of $`U_{\text{max}}`$ as those shown in Figs. 2,3 and 4, we have found that there are no transverse shocks (only those corresponding to the revival of the oscillation in the trap appear). This effect has a simple explanation: since $`L_{}L_{}`$, for a definite region of densities $`n_{max}`$ one may have $`R_{}R_{}1`$, what means that it is possible to reach the breaking point only longitudinally.

*Three-dimensional condensates.-* We have also studied the formation of shock waves in three-dimensional condensates using the same type of numerical methods on grids of up to 256$`\times `$256$`\times `$200 points. With this resolution we have been able at least to detect the formation of the first shock waves. We have found features similar to those described for the two-dimensional case with the shocks first generating transversely and later longitudinally if the nonlinearity rises fast enough.

To conclude, we have proposed a mechanism for generating shock waves and described their dynamics. In doing so we have kept the multidimensional nature of the system, something which is missing in previous works and could lead to flawed results. We hope that our method could guide experimentalists in the field of matter waves to observe the formation of shock waves with Bose-Einstein condensates.

V. M. P-G. is partially supported by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (MCyT) under grant BFM2003-02832 and Consejería de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha under grant PAC-02-002. V.V.K. acknowledges support from the European grant, COSYC n.o. HPRN-CT-2000-00158. Work of V.A.B. has been supported by the FCT fellowship SFRH/BPD/5632/2001. Cooperative work has been supported by the Integrated-Action No E-23/03 and Acciones Integradas of MCyT HP2002-0059.


text:
# Anomalous dynamics of confined water at low hydration.

## I  Introduction

Water plays a major role in many different biological, chemical and physical phenomena debenedetti ; robinson ; grenoble . In most of these cases a large fraction of water is at contact with different substrates and its motion is restricted in small spaces.

It is expected that both the geometrical confinement and the interaction with the substrate perturb the structural and dynamical properties of water and some general trends have been found in experiments and computer simulation noi-grenoble03 .

In many phenomena, like those connected with biological matter, it is of great relevance the behaviour of the shells of water close to substrates. In particular the slow dynamics of water close to the surfaces of proteins might play a fundamental role in the protein functionality and evidences have been found of a glasslike behaviour of water at contact with plastocyanin investigated in a wide temperature range by computer simulation bizzarri1 .

Water confined in Vycor glass is a good prototype system for studying the effect of an hydrophilic substrate since the surface of Vycor pores is well characterized mar1 . In particular experimental studies with quasi-elastic neutron scattering and neutron resonance spin-echo zanotti ; zanotti1  on confined water indicated a slowing down of the dynamics with respect to the bulk and a study focused on the low hydration regime has evidenced upon supercooling the existence of a low frequency scattering excess typical of strong glass former venturini .

In computer simulations of water confined in a pore of Vycor glass we found that strong layering effects are present where the molecules close to Vycor glass show very slow dynamics even at ambient temperature noi-prl ; noi-jcp ; noi-jpcm . In a more focused study on the low hydration regime lowhyd ; eps2002  we recently performed also a preliminary study of the residence time (RT) of the water molecules. We found that the RT is strongly dependent on the distance from the substrate and its distribution shows an anomalous non-brownian behaviour when the contribution of the molecules close to the substrate alone is considered.

The aim of this paper is to show the connection between the anomalous behaviour of the RT and the long time limit of the mean square displacement (MSD) in the low hydration regime. The paper is structured as follows: in the next section we briefly describe the system, give details of the computer simulation and discuss some structural properties of confined water lowhyd  useful for the characterization of the RT behaviour. In the third section by considering the residence time distribution and the molecular diffusion we show the onset of an anomalous behaviour connected to the presence of the solid disordered substrate. The last section is devoted to conclusions.

## II  Structural properties of confined water

The molecular dynamics (MD) calculations have been performed in a cell of silica glass previously obtained by the usual quenching procedure jmol1 .

Inside the glass cubic cell of $`71`$ Å a cylindrical cavity of $`40`$ Å diameter has been carved. The surface of the cavity has been treated to reproduce the average properties of the surface of the pores of Vycor. Along this line hydrogen ions (acidic hydrogens) have been added to oxygens non saturated by silicons in order to mimic the procedure followed by experimentalists in the preparation of the Vycor sample before hydration. The surface of silica glass can be considered as a prototype model for a disordered hydrophilic substrate. Being primarily interested in the dynamics of water the substrate is kept rigid. The water inserted in the cavity is simulated by using the SPC/E potential, where each molecule is represented by three charged sites. These sites interact also with the silicon and oxygen atoms of the substrate by means of an hydrophilic potential described in previous work noi-jcp ; jmol1 . The molecular dynamics (MD) is performed at different hydrations by varying the number of water molecules contained in the pore. For each hydration the system is equilibrated at different temperatures. The quantities of interest presented in the following are averaged over runs that extend up to $`1.21.3`$ ns. We note that we have extended the simulation length at all temperatures with respect to ref. lowhyd  to improve statistics especially on the computation of the RT.

The number of water molecules considered in this work are $`N_W=500`$, $`N_W=1000`$, $`N_W=1500`$, which correspond to hydration levels of the pore of $`19\%`$, $`38\%`$ and $`56\%`$ respectively, since the density corresponding to the full hydration in the experiments $`\rho =0.878`$ g/cm2 is obtained in our geometry for $`N_W=2600`$.

The effects of the hydrophilic interaction of the substrate on the water molecules are shown in the bottom panels of Fig. 12 and 3 for the different hydrations. The radial density profiles normalized to the density of bulk water at ambient conditions show the formation of two layers of molecules close to the substrate. The positions of the peaks of the double layer structure do not change with hydrations, the first layer is located at around $`R=17.5`$ Å and the second layer is at $`R15.5`$ Å with a minimum in the density at $`R16`$ Å. The heights of the peaks increase with increasing hydrations and for $`N_W=1500`$ the normalized density profile for confined water in the layers reaches values higher than one at ambient temperature.

In the middle panels of Fig. 12 and 3 it is shown that the intermolecular hydrogen bond (HB) profiles increase and reach a maximum value at the position of the minimum of density ($`R16`$ Å) where they start to go down in correspondence with the increase of the HB of water molecules with the atoms of the Vycor surface. The layering effect shown in the bottom panels is due to the formation of the Vycor-water HB. We found that the temperature has little effects on the density and HB profiles at all the hydration levels and for this reason we show here only the results corresponding to ambient temperature.

## III Residence time and anomalous diffusion

At the top of Fig. 12 and 3 the residence times (RT) of the water molecules at ambient temperature are reported along the pore radius lowhyd . The large oscillations of the RT appear modulated by the structure of the density profiles, reported in the bottom panels of the same figures. Apart for the molecules attached to the surface water resides for the longer time inside the shells, where the density profile reaches the highest values. The minima of the RT are located close to the minima of the density profiles.

In Fig 4 are reported the calculations of the mean square displacement (MSD) at $`N_W=1000`$ for decreasing temperatures. It is clear that after the ballistic regime at short time, at around $`0.1`$ ps there is the onset of a cage effect characterized by the presence of a plateau which increases by lowering the temperature. The plateau is determined by the transient caging of the nearest neighbours. At longer times the MSD does not appear to reach the usual Brownian diffusion since the behaviour is sub-linear. Analogous results are found for the other hydration levels investigated. At this point further analysis is needed in order to clarify whether this subdiffusive behaviour is just a transient leading to normal brownian diffusion for longer times, although unreachable with normal computers, or it can be framed in the context of anomalous subdiffusive phenomena.

Anomalous diffusion is generally speaking defined trough the time dependence of the MSD, the second moment of the spatial coordinates of the diffusive particles, which generally has a long time dependence of the form

$$<r^2(t)>=at^\alpha $$
(1)
Anomalous diffusion corresponds to $`\alpha 1`$. In particular $`\alpha >1`$ is termed superdiffusion and $`\alpha <1`$ subdiffusion. From a theoretical point of view the origin of anomalous diffusion can be traced back to the analytic form of the distribution of the waiting times $`\psi (t)`$. Under the assumption that the amplitude of the random jumps is constant and finite anomalous diffusion has been shown to be generated by an inverse power law distribution for large times mannella ; montroll

$$\psi (t)=At^\mu $$
(2)
In the case of ordinary brownian motion the long time limit of the distribution would decay with an exponential law.

In our case the sublinear diffusion observed can be connected to the processes which take place close to the substrate and to the interaction of the water molecules with the disordered surface bychuk . In this respect since oscillations of the RT appear so closely connected to the double layer structure it is of interest to look at the residence time distribution of the water molecules close to the substrate.

In Fig. 5 and 6 we report the residence time distributions (RTD) $`\psi (t)`$ at the highest $`T=300`$ K and the lowest $`T=240`$ K temperatures investigated for $`N_W=1000`$ and $`N_W=1500`$ . The RTD, calculated for the molecules in the layer $`14<R<20`$ Å, shows the predicted power law behaviour of Eq. 2 while for the rest of the molecules we get an exponential decay, as shown in the inset of the figures. The power law behaviour related to the temporal disorder of the distribution of the residence times of the molecules has been observed in computer simulation and experiments on water at contact with proteins bizzarri1 . They are specifically related to the interaction of the solvent with the protein sites.

The power law decay of the RTD of the molecules in the $`6`$ Å layer from the surface is determined by values of the exponents which are similar to the ones obtained for the RTD of water in few Å shells close to protein hydration sites bizzarri1 . In particular for the case $`N_W=1000`$ we have $`\mu =1.54\pm 0.05`$ at $`T=300`$ K and $`\mu =1.50\pm 0.05`$ at $`T=240`$ K, while for $`N_W=1500`$ the fits yield $`\mu =1.50\pm 0.05`$ at $`T=300`$ K and $`\mu =1.52\pm 0.05`$ at $`T=240`$ K. We note that the present result for $`\mu `$ at $`N_W=1500`$ and ambient temperature is slightly different from the preliminary one reported in ref. lowhyd , where the statistics was poorer.

The sublinear behaviour of the MSD is connected to the power law decay of the RTD by the asymptotic temporal dependence

$$<r^2(t)>t^{\mu 1}$$
(3)
From the fit of the long time behaviour of the MSD for $`N_W=1000`$ and $`N_W=1500`$, reported in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, we get the values of the exponent $`\mu `$ which are consistent with the exponents obtained from the power law behaviour of the RTD seen in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.

In the lower hydration case $`N_W=500`$, Fig. 9, the RTD decays for long time with an exponent similar to the previous cases, $`\mu =1.45\pm 0.05`$ and $`\mu =1.55\pm 0.05`$ for $`T=300`$ K and $`T=240`$ K respectively, but the MSD show, as seen in the inset of Fig. 9, a long time behaviour not in agreement with the one predicted by Eq. 3.

The asymptotic behaviour of the MSD shows a further slowing down with respect to the higher hydrations. This behaviour is likely connected to the fact that the water molecules are arranged in clusters close to the substrate.

## IV Conclusions

The dynamical properties of confined water are expected to be changed by the interaction with the substrate. We performed computer simulation of water molecules confined in a silica pore in low hydration regimes, where the larger amount of water resides in the shells closer to the hydrophilic surface. We found drastic changes of the diffusion of the water molecules. From a layer analysis for the investigated hydrations we find that the diffusive regime at long time of the molecules close to the substrate is characterized by a sublinear trend.

Anomalous diffusion phenomena are related to a temporal disorder typical of particles which diffuse close to and interact with a disordered surface. Different interaction processes between the water molecules and the sites of the substrate modulate the residence time of the molecules bizzarri1 . A dispersive transport regime related to temporal disorder shows up in the power law decay of the residence time distribution with an exponent which determines also the long time tail of the mean square displacement. In our system the exponent of the long time behaviour of the mean square displacement is related to the long time decay of the residence time distribution of the molecules in the same layer for the cases $`N_W=1500`$ and $`N_W=1000`$ as theoretically predicted. For the lowest hydration case ($`N_W=500`$) the mobility of the molecules is more strongly modulated by the substrate with respect to the higher hydrations. The formation of clusters of molecules close to the solid surface does not appear to modify the long time decay of the RTD but it induces a further slowing down of the dynamics with a violation of the expected behaviour of the MSD.

## V Acknowledgments

We thank J. Baschnagel for useful and stimulating discussions.


text:
# On K-Stability of Reductive Varieties

## Introduction

Around 1997 G. Tian and S.K. Donaldson formulated a conjecture relating GIT stability of a polarized algebraic variety to the existence of a Kähler metric of constant scalar curvature, see \[Tia97, Tia00, Tia02\] and \[Don97a, Don97b, Don02\]. The general idea of such a relationship has been known as a “folklore conjecture” for a long time. It comes naturally from earlier works of Yau and Tian.

Here, we will refer to the Donaldson’s version of the conjecture (1.1 below), since we will make a strong use of notations and results developed in \[Don02\]. In this beautiful paper Donaldson partially confirmed conjecture 1.1 in the case of projective toric varieties, where his arguments are based on the following foundation blocks:

1. a very well-known correspondence between projective toric varieties and lattice polytopes (see e.g. \[Ful93, Oda88\]);
2. a somewhat lesser-known correspondence between convex piecewise linear functions on polytopes and equivariant degenerations of projective toric varieties (see e.g. \[KSZ92\] or \[Ale02\]); and
3. the general framework developed by Guillemin and Abreu \[Gui94, Abr98\] which relates invariant Kähler metrics on projective toric varieties to convex functions on the corresponding polytopes.

Now let $`G`$ be a complex reductive group with Weyl group $`W`$. Then to every $`W`$-invariant maximal-dimensional lattice polytope $`P`$ in the weight lattice of a maximal subtorus of $`G`$ one can, in a rather elementary way, associate an equivariant projective normal compactification $`V_P`$ of $`G`$, generalizing the correspondence (1) above.

On the other hand, in \[AB02a, AB02b\] the first author and M. Brion built a theory of degenerations parallel to (2), and obtained an answer that is formally very similar: Any $`W`$-invariant rational convex PL function on $`P`$ defines a $`W`$-invariant subdivision of $`P`$ and a degenerating family $`𝒱`$ in which every fiber $`𝒱_t`$ with $`t0`$ is isomorphic to $`V`$ and the special fiber $`𝒱_0`$ is a *stable reductive variety* in the sense of \[AB02a, AB02b\].

The purpose of this paper is to extend the Guillemin-Abreu-Donaldson theory and results and computations of \[Don02\] to this new and much larger class of projective $`G`$-compactifications and reductive varieties. In particular, our Theorem 3.7 is a generalization of one of the main results of \[Don02\]. We use Theorem 3.7 together with Donaldson’s examples \[Don02\] of polarized toric surfaces that do not admit metrics of constant scalar curvature to produce new *non-toric* examples. Instead of 2-dimensional toric, our examples are 8-dimensional reductive varieties.

The paper is organized as follows: In Section 2 we review the relevant definitions and results from \[Don02\]. In Section 3 we recall some results about reductive varieties from \[AB02a, AB02b\]. In Section 4 we extend several of Donaldson’s results from \[Don02\] to the case of reductive varieties. Section 5 contains examples of reductive varieties which do not admit Kähler metrics of constant scalar curvature.

###### Acknowledgments.

We are very grateful to M. Brion, S.K. Donaldson and W. Graham for many helpful discussions, and to G. Tian and the referee for useful suggestions. The second author also would like to thank V. Apostolov for explaining Abreu’s work. S. Donaldson informed us that his student A. Raza has studied some differential geometric aspects of the constant scalar curvature problem for reductive varieties.

It is our pleasure to thank IHES, where a large part of this work was done for wonderful working conditions. The first author’s work was partially supported by NSF grant 0101280.

Throughout the paper, we will use the following

###### Notations 0.1.

$`K`$ will denote a compact real reductive group of dimension $`n`$ with a maximal subtorus $`T`$ of dimension $`r`$. We will denote by $`G=K_{}`$ and $`H=T_{}`$ their complexifications. We choose a Borel subgroup $`B`$ of $`G`$ and an opposite Borel subgroup $`B^{}`$ so that $`BB^{}=H`$.

Let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^r`$ denote the group of characters of $`H`$. It comes with an action of the Weyl group $`W`$ and with a decomposition of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}`$ into Weyl chambers. $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^+`$ will denote the positive chamber, and $`r_i\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ the simple roots.

## 1. Basic definitions and results from \[Don02\]

The precise formulation of the conjecture relating K-stability and existence of Kähler metric of constant scalar curvature was given by Donaldson in \[Don02\]:

###### Conjecture 1.1.

A smooth polarized projective variety $`(V,L)`$ admits a Kähler metric of constant scalar curvature in $`c_1(L)`$ if and only if it is K-stable.

The definition of K-stability \[Don02, Def.2.1.2\] involves another space $`V_0`$ which is allowed to be a general scheme. Let $``$ be an ample line bundle over a projective scheme $`W`$, and suppose one has a fixed $`^{}`$-action on the pair $`(W,)`$. For each positive integer $`k`$ one has a vector space

$$H_k=H^0(W,^k)$$

with a $`^{}`$-action. From this, one obtains integers $`d_k=\text{dim}H_k`$ and $`w_k`$, the weight of the induced action on the highest exterior power of $`H_k`$. The integers $`d_k,w_k`$ are, for large $`k`$, given by polynomial functions of $`k`$, with rational coefficients: $`d_k=Q(k),w_k=P(k)`$ say. Define $`F(k)=w_k/kd_k`$. For large enough $`k`$ one has an expansion

$$F(k)=F_0+F_1k^1+F_2k^2+\mathrm{},$$

with rational coefficients $`F_i`$. The *Futaki invariant* of the $`^{}`$-action on $`(W,)`$ is defined to be the coefficient $`F_1`$.

###### Definition 1.2.

A *test configuration* or *test family* for $`(V,L)`$ of exponent $`r`$ consists of

1. a scheme $`𝒱`$ with a $`^{}`$-action;
2. a $`^{}`$-equivariant line bundle $`𝒱`$;
3. a flat $`^{}`$-equivariant map $`\pi :𝒱`$, where $`^{}`$ acts on $``$ by multiplication in the standard way;

such that any fiber $`V_t=\pi ^1(t)`$ for $`t0`$ is isomorphic to $`V`$ and the pair $`(V,L^r)`$ is isomorphic to $`(V_t,|_{V_t})`$.

###### Definition 1.3.

The pair $`(V,L)`$ is *K-stable* if for each test configuration for $`(V,L)`$ the Futaki invariant of the induced action on $`(V_0,|_{V_0})`$ is less than or equal to zero, with equality if and only if the configuration is a product configuration.

The pair $`(V,L)`$ is *equivariantly K-stable* if one restricts oneself only to equivariant test configurations. For a toric variety this means $`H`$-invariant families, and in our case this will mean $`G\times G`$-equivariant families.

See also the discussion in \[Don02\] showing that K-stability is closely related to assymptotic GIT stability.

Following \[Don02\] we briefly recall some facts about Mabuchi functional. It is a real-valued function $``$ on the set of Kähler metrics in the same Kähler class $`[\omega _0]`$, defined up to the addition of an overall constant. The metrics of constant scalar curvature are critical for the Mabuchi functional. The functional is defined through the formula for its variation at a metric $`\omega =\omega _0+i\overline{}\psi `$ with respect to an infinitesimal change $`\delta \psi `$ in the Kähler potential:

$$\delta =_V(Sa)\delta \psi \frac{\omega ^n}{n!}$$

Here, $`S`$ is the scalar curvature of $`\omega `$ and $`a`$ is the average value of the scalar curvature. Therefore $`\delta `$ is not changed if one adds a constant to $`\delta \psi `$, and so depends only on the variation of the metric.

###### Definition 1.4.

A functional $`I_V`$ on the set of Kähler potentials is defined by the formula

$$\delta I_V=2_V\delta \psi \frac{\omega ^n}{n!}$$

Assume that $`D=D_i`$ is an effective divisor on $`V`$ representing $`c_1(V)`$, with smooth components $`D_i`$ (such $`D`$ exists for any smooth toric variety $`V`$). Let $`\chi `$ be a meromorphic form with $`(\chi )=D`$ and let $`\nu =|\chi |^2`$.

###### Proposition 1.5 (\[Don02\], 3.2.4).

For any metric $`\omega =\omega _0+2i\overline{}\psi `$ on $`V`$

$$(\omega )=_a(\omega )+_V\mathrm{log}\nu \frac{\omega ^n}{n!},\text{ where }_a(\omega )=I_D(\psi )+aI_V(\psi )$$

is the linear part of Mabuchi functional.

Now, let $`(V,L)`$ be a polarized projective toric variety with a moment polytope $`P`$. Via the Guillemin-Abreu theory, an equivariant Kähler potential on $`V`$ corresponds to a convex function $`u`$ on the interior of $`P`$ with a logarithmic asymptotic behavior near the boundary. Namely, if faces are defined by linear inequalities $`\delta _k(x)0`$ then

$$u=\delta _k(x)\mathrm{log}\delta _k(x)+\text{ a smooth function.}$$

The lattice determines standard measures $`d\mu `$ on the polytope $`P`$ and $`d\sigma `$ on faces of $`P`$. In \[Don02, 3.2.6\] Donaldson establishes the following formula for the linear part of Mabuchi functional:

$$_a=(2\pi )^n\left(_Pu𝑑\sigma a_Pu𝑑\mu \right)$$

On the other hand, in \[Don02, 4.2.1\] Donaldson shows that Futaki invariant of an equivariant test configuration defined by a rational PL function $`f`$ is given by a very similar formula

$$F_1=\frac{1}{2\mathrm{Vol}P}\left(_Pf𝑑\sigma a_Pf𝑑\mu \right)$$

Thus, one obtains an ingenious connection between two seemingly very different invariants. Donaldson uses this connection to prove, among other things, the following

###### Proposition 1.6 (\[Don02\], Prop. 7.1.2).

Suppose there is a function $`fC^1`$ with $`_a(f)<0`$. Then the Mabuchi functional is not bounded below on the invariant metrics and the manifold $`V`$ does not admit any Kähler metric of constant scalar curvature in the given cohomology class.

Our aim will be to generalize these results to the reductive case.

## 2. Overview of reductive varieties

### 2.1. Complexes of polytopes and (stable) reductive varieties

We recall some of the results and constructions of \[AB02b\].

Lattice points $`\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }^+`$ are in bijection with irreducible $`G`$-representation $`E_\lambda `$. The algebra of regular functions on $`G`$ can be written canonically as

$`[G]=_{\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }}\mathrm{End}E_\lambda ,\text{ and }\mathrm{End}E_\lambda \mathrm{End}E_\mu \mathrm{End}E_{\lambda +\mu _{n_i0}n_ir_i}.`$
Let $`P\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ be a maximal-dimensional $`W`$-invariant polytope with vertices in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Let $`P^+=P\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^+`$ be the part of $`P`$ lying in the positive chamber, and $`\mathrm{Cone}\mathrm{\Delta }^+\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}`$ be the cone over $`(1,P^+)`$. The vector space

$$R_P=_{\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{Cone}\mathrm{\Delta }^+}\mathrm{End}E_\lambda $$

has a natural structure of a subalgebra in $`[^{}\times G]`$. It is finitely generated e.g. by \[AB02a, 4.8\].

One defines $`V_P=\mathrm{Proj}R_P`$ and $`L_P=𝒪(1)`$. Then $`V_P`$ is a normal projective equivariant $`G\times G`$-compactification of group $`G`$ (with $`G\times G`$ acting on $`G`$ by left and right multiplication: $`(g_1,g_2).g=g_1^1gg_2`$), and $`L_P`$ is a $`G\times G`$-linearized ample sheaf on $`V_P`$.

The fixed point set $`(V^{\mathrm{diag}H},L^{\mathrm{diag}H})`$ is a toric variety with a $`H`$–linearized ample line bundle. It corresponds to the same polytope $`P`$, and it comes with an action by $`WH`$, a semidirect product of $`W`$ and $`H`$. The $`G\times G`$-orbits of $`V`$ are in bijection with $`WH`$-orbits of $`V^{\mathrm{diag}H}`$ and with $`W`$-orbits of faces of the polytope $`P`$.

###### Example 2.1.

Take $`G=\mathrm{PGL}_n`$ embedded into $`V=Mat_{n\times n}=^{n^21}`$. In this case, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}`$ is $`^{n1}`$ divided into $`n!`$ Weyl chambers. The polytope $`P`$ is a simplex with a vertex on one of the rays of the positive chamber $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^+`$, and the other $`n1`$ vertices are its reflections under $`W=S_n`$.

###### Example 2.2.

In the previous example, take $`n=2`$. The polytope $`P`$ is an interval symmetric about the origin. The variety $`V=^3`$ is the wonderful compactification of De Concini-Procesi for $`\mathrm{PGL}_2`$.

###### Example 2.3.

For any semisimple group $`G`$, consider a point in the interior of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^+`$ and let $`P`$ be the convex hull of its $`W`$-reflections. The corresponding variety $`V_P`$ is called a wonderful compactification of $`G`$.

For $`G=\mathrm{PGL}_3`$ and $`W=S_3`$, $`P`$ is a hexagon and $`P^+`$ is a 4-gon. Note that the wonderful compactification of $`\mathrm{PGL}_3`$ is not toric.

\[AB02a, Sec.5\] and \[AB02b, Sec.2\] generalize this picture to the case of a $`W`$-invariant complex of polytopes, i.e. a finite $`W`$-invariant collection $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\{P_i\}`$ of lattice polytopes in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}`$ such that the intersection $`P_iP_j`$ of any two polytopes is a union of faces of both. Note that the polytopes need not be maximal-dimensional and that reductive varieties in general do not contain $`G`$.

###### Theorem 2.4 (\[AB02b\], Thm. 2.8).

1. A complex of polytopes $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ defines a family of polarized stable reductive varieties $`\{(V_{\mathrm{\Delta },t},L_{\mathrm{\Delta },t})\}`$ parameterized by a certain cohomology group $`H^1(\mathrm{\Delta }/W,\mathrm{Aut})`$. The choice $`t=1`$ gives a distinguished “untwisted” member of this family.
2. $`V_{\mathrm{\Delta },t}^{\mathrm{diag}H}`$ is a stable toric variety, a union of ordinary toric varieties corresponding to polytopes $`P_i`$ in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, together with a $`W`$-action.
3. The $`G\times G`$-orbits of $`V_{\mathrm{\Delta },t}`$ are in a bijection with $`WH`$-orbits of $`V_{\mathrm{\Delta },t}^{\mathrm{diag}H}`$ and with the set $`\mathrm{\Delta }/W`$.
4. Variety $`V_{\mathrm{\Delta },t}`$ is irreducible iff $`\mathrm{\Delta }/W`$ contains a unique maximal polytope. In this case, $`H^1(\mathrm{\Delta }/W,\mathrm{Aut})=\{1\}`$. Variety $`V_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is a $`G`$-compactification iff $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ consists of one $`W`$-invariant polytope $`P`$ of maximal dimension plus its faces.

Note that here we use the notion of stable reductive varieties as defined in \[AB02b\] and not the notion of K-stability.

### 2.2. Nonsingular reductive varieties

In toric geometry, a lattice polytope $`P`$ corresponds to a projective toric variety $`V_P`$ together with a linearized ample sheaf $`L_P`$. It is well-known that the variety $`V_P`$ is non-singular if and only if $`P`$ is a *Delzant polytope*, i.e. at every vertex precisely $`dimP`$ edges meet and the integral generators of these edges form a basis of the lattice. We will need the following generalization of this result to the case of reductive varieties, which we will use in the case of a single $`W`$-invariant polytope.

###### Proposition 2.5.

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\{P_i\}`$ be a $`W`$-invariant complex of polytopes, and $`V=V_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ be the corresponding (stable) reductive variety.

1. If $`V`$ is nonsingular, then $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is a disjoint union of Delzant polytopes plus its faces.
2. If $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is a disjoint union of Delzant polytopes none of whose vertices lie on the supporting hyperplanes of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^+`$, plus its faces, then $`V`$ is nonsingular.

###### Proof.

If $`H`$ is a torus acting on a smooth variety $`Z`$, then the fixed point set $`Z^H`$ is also nonsingular. By Theorem 2.4, $`V^{\mathrm{diag}H}`$ is a stable toric variety, a union of ordinary toric varieties corresponding to $`P_i\mathrm{\Delta }`$. It is nonsingular if and only if the maximal polytopes are disjoint and each of them is Delzant.

In the opposite direction, if none of the polytopes $`P_i`$ contain vertices on the supporting hyperplanes of the positive chamber, then the variety $`V`$ is toroidal, i.e. locally analytically it is isomorphic to $`𝔸^N`$ times the toric variety corresponding to the polytopes $`P_i`$. Hence, it is nonsingular if $`P_i`$ are Delzant. ∎

### 2.3. Canonical class

According to \[Bri97\], the anticanonical divisor of any spherical variety for group $`G`$ can be written as

$$K_V=_GV+_BG$$

Here $`_GV=D_v`$ is the reduced sum of $`G`$-invariant divisors, and $`_BG=n_\rho D_\rho `$ is the union of $`B`$-invariant, non-$`G`$-invariant divisors (“colors”), with uniquely defined positive coefficients $`n_\rho `$. For spherical varieties in general the coefficients $`n_\rho `$ can be arbitrary, and \[Bri97\] provides the precise formula. However, for reductive varieties, which are spherical for the group $`G\times G`$, all coefficients $`n_\rho =2`$, see \[AB02b, Sec.5.2\]. We will call $`_{G\times G}V`$ the *vertical* and $`_{B\times B^{}}V`$ the *horizontal* parts of the anticanonical divisor (this notation comes from the behavior of these boundaries under the moment map). The above formula then becomes

$$K_V=D_{\mathrm{vert}}+D_{\mathrm{hor}}$$

If $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is a complex of polytopes satisfying the conditions of Proposition 2.5(2) then all codimension one faces also satisfy 2.5(2). Hence, every $`D_v`$ is a smooth reductive variety. In addition, since $`V`$ is toroidal, the linear system $`|D_{\mathrm{hor}}|`$ is basepoint-free. Hence, there exists a smooth divisor representing $`D_{\mathrm{hor}}`$.

### 2.4. One-parameter degenerations

Let $`f`$ be a convex rational $`W`$–invariant PL function on $`P`$. In the same fashion as in the toric case, $`f`$ defines a $`(dimV+1)`$-dimensional “test” family $`𝒱`$ such that every fiber $`𝒱_t`$ for $`t0`$ is isomorphic to $`V`$. The construction, contained in \[AB02b, Sec. 4.2\], is as follows.

After replacing the polytope $`P`$ by a large divisible multiple $`NP`$, i.e. replacing $`L`$ by $`L^N`$, one can assume that the domains of linearity of $`f`$ are lattice polytopes $`P_i`$.

Consider a bigger polytope $`\stackrel{~}{P}`$ in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}`$ which is bounded from below by $`(0,P)`$ and from above by the graph of $`Rf`$ for some $`R0`$. Then, by the above construction, the variety $`V_{\stackrel{~}{P}}`$ is a projective compactification of the group $`^{}\times G`$, and it comes with a natural map $`\pi `$ to $`^1`$. The test family $`𝒱`$ is $`V_{\stackrel{~}{P}}\pi ^1(\mathrm{})`$. The special fiber $`\pi ^1(0)`$ is a stable reductive variety for the complex of polytopes $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\{P_i\}`$.

## 3. Linear part of Mabuchi functional and Futaki invariant

Every symplectic variety $`V`$ with a Hamiltonian action of a compact Lie group $`K`$ admits a moment map $`m:Vk^{}`$ to the dual of the Lie algebra. The moment map commutes with the $`K`$–action on $`V`$ and with the coadjoint action of $`K`$ on $`k^{}`$. Therefore, the image is a union of coadjoint orbits.

Let $`tk`$ be the Cartan subalgebra and let $`t^{}k^{}`$ be a splitting of the projection $`k^{}t^{}`$. Since every coadjoint orbit intersects the positive Weyl chamber $`(t^{})^+`$ at one point, one obtains a continuous map $`\pi :V(t^{})^+=\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^+`$. By a theorem of Guillemin-Sternberg \[GS84\] the image of $`V`$ under the moment map $`m_T`$ for a maximal torus $`TK`$ is a polytope, and by a result of Kirwan \[Kir84\] the image $`\pi (V)`$ is a polytope. Both polytopes live in the space $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}`$ and both are traditionally called moment polytopes. For us, $`\pi (V)`$ will be important.

In the case when $`V`$ is a projective spherical variety for the complexified Lie group $`G=K_{}`$, some general facts about the moment map were established in \[Bri87\] via representation theory. In particular, $`\pi (V)`$ identifies with the Brion’s moment polytope of a spherical variety. For a reductive variety corresponding to a polytope $`P`$ one thus obtains the moment polytope $`P^+`$.

Let $`\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^+`$ be an integral vector. It corresponds to an irreducible $`G`$–representation $`E_\lambda `$. According to the Weyl character formula, $`dimE_\lambda `$ is given by a polynomial

$$h(x)=h_e(\lambda )+h_{e1}(\lambda )+\mathrm{}$$

written as a sum of its homogeneous parts.

Any reductive variety is spherical for the action of $`G\times G`$. For each $`\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }^+`$ the corresponding $`G\times G`$-representation is $`\mathrm{End}E_\lambda `$. Let us write its dimension as the sum of its homogeneous parts

$$dim\left(\mathrm{End}E_\lambda \right)=H(\lambda )=h^2(\lambda )=H_d(\lambda )+H_{d1}(\lambda )+\mathrm{}$$

and extend each $`H_d`$ to a polynomial function on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^+`$.

In the previous section, we wrote $`K_V`$ and the $`B\times B^{}`$-boundary of $`V`$ in the form $`D_{\mathrm{vert}}+D_{\mathrm{hor}}`$. The vertical part $`D_{\mathrm{vert}}`$ is a union of $`G\times G`$-invariant divisors, each of them is a reductive variety corresponding to a face of polytope $`P`$ modulo the $`W`$-action. Under the map $`\pi `$, $`D_{\mathrm{vert}}`$ maps to a union of faces of $`P^+`$. As in the toric case, for every face $`FP`$ we will denote by $`d\sigma `$ the Euclidean measure on $`F`$ induced by the sublattice $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_F=\mathrm{\Lambda }F`$.

The horizontal part $`D_{\mathrm{hor}}`$ is not $`G\times G`$-invariant, and it is easy to see that under the map $`\pi `$ it maps surjectively onto $`P^+`$.

###### Lemma 3.1.

1. The push-forward of the Liouville measure on $`V`$ is

$$\pi _{}\frac{\omega ^n}{n!}=(2\pi )^rH_d(x)d\mu $$
2. Similarly, the push-forward of the Liouville measure on $`D_{\mathrm{vert}}`$ is

$$\pi _{}\frac{\omega ^{n1}}{(n1)!}=(2\pi )^rH_d(x)d\sigma .$$
3. The push-forward of the Liouville measure on $`D_{\mathrm{hor}}`$ is

$$\pi _{}\frac{\omega ^{n1}}{(n1)!}=(2\pi )^r2H_{d1}(x)d\mu .$$

###### Proof.

This comes out straight from the Riemann-Roch theorem applied to $`H^0(L^s)`$ on the variety $`V`$ and on a single coadjoint orbit $`𝒪_\lambda `$ for $`s0`$. The push-forward of the Liouville measure is given by integrating $`\omega ^n/n!`$. On the other hand, the Riemann-Roch theorem gives

$$H^0(L^s)=ch(L^s)\mathrm{Td}(𝒯)=s^n\frac{c_1(L)^n}{n!}s^{n1}\frac{1}{2}K\frac{c_1(L)^{n1}}{(n1)!}+\mathrm{}$$

So, the volume of a single coadjoint orbit $`𝒪_\lambda `$ is given by $`H_d(\lambda )`$ and the volume of the restriction of the horizontal part of $`K_V`$ to $`m^1(𝒪_\lambda )`$ by $`2H_{d1}(\lambda )`$. Reductive varieties are spherical for $`G\times G`$-action, so in the decomposition of $`H^0(V,L^s)`$ every $`\mathrm{End}E_\lambda `$, $`\lambda sP^+`$ appears with multiplicity one; and the formula follows. ∎

###### Proposition 3.2.

$`K\times K`$–invariant Kähler metrics on $`V`$ are in a bijection with $`W`$–invariant symplectic convex potentials $`u`$ on $`P`$ which have the same behavior near the boundary of $`P`$ as in the toric case (i.e. $`u=l_i\mathrm{log}l_i+`$ a smooth function).

###### Proof.

By \[GS84, Thm.3.1\], $`\omega =i\overline{}\varphi `$ for a some potential $`\varphi `$ on $`V`$. The restriction $`\varphi _T`$ of this potential to the toric variety $`V^{\mathrm{diag}T}`$ is $`W`$–invariant, and hence by the toric case, applying the Legendre transform, gives a symplectic potential $`u`$ on $`P^+`$. Clearly, it has to be $`W`$–invariant.

Vice versa, every $`W`$–invariant symplectic potential $`u`$ on $`P`$ gives a $`W`$–invariant potential $`\varphi _T`$ on $`V^{\mathrm{diag}T}`$. By $`K\times K`$–action, it extends to a unique potential $`\varphi `$ on $`V`$. Here, we are using the fact that for a spherical variety the preimages of coadjoint orbits under the moment map are precisely the $`K\times K`$–orbits. ∎

###### Theorem 3.3.

Let $`f`$ be a convex rational $`W`$–invariant PL function on $`P`$. Then the Futaki invariant of the corresponding test family is given by the formula

$$F_1(f)=\frac{1}{2_{P^+}H_d}\left(_{P^+}fH_d𝑑\sigma +2_{P^+}fH_{d1}𝑑\mu a_{P^+}fH_d𝑑\mu \right),$$

where

$$a=\frac{_{P^+}H_d𝑑\sigma +2_{P^+}H_{d1}𝑑\mu }{_{P^+}H_d𝑑\mu }$$

###### Proof.

Same as the proof of Proposition 4.2.1 of \[Don02\]. The difference is that this time an integral point $`\lambda P^+`$ represents not a one-dimensional vector space, as in the toric case, but the vector space $`\mathrm{End}E_\lambda `$ whose dimension is $`H(\lambda )`$. We use the next lemma to estimate the sum, and get

$`A`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{P^+}}(Rf)H_d𝑑\mu `$
$`B`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle _^+}(Rf)H_d𝑑\sigma +{\displaystyle _{P^+}}(Rf)H_{d1}𝑑\mu `$
$`C`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{P^+}}H_d𝑑\mu `$
$`D`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle _{P^+}}H_d𝑑\sigma +{\displaystyle _{P^+}}H_{d1}𝑑\mu `$
Substituting $`F_1=(ADBC)/2C^2`$ gives the formula. ∎

###### Remark 3.4.

In the toric case one has $`H_d=1`$, $`H_{d1}=0`$, $`P^+=P`$ and the formula reduces to that of \[Don02, 4.2.1\].

###### Lemma 3.5.

Let $`P^n`$ be a lattice polytope of dimension $`n`$ and $`H_d:^n`$ be a homogeneous polynomial function of degree $`d`$. Then for $`k0`$,

$$\underset{\lambda kP^n}{}H_d(\lambda )=k^{n+d}_PH_d𝑑\mu +\frac{1}{2}k^{n+d1}_PH_d𝑑\sigma +O(k^{n+d2})$$

###### Proof.

Elementary. For a monomial $`x_1^{a_1}\mathrm{}x_n^{a_n}`$ the computation easily reduces to the case of a polytope of dimension $`n+d`$ and the function $`H_0=1`$, i.e. to counting integral points in a polytope, where the analogous formula is well-known (cf. \[Don02, A1\]). Alternatively, this is a corollary of a general formula of Pukhlikov and Khovanski \[PKh93\]. ∎

###### Theorem 3.6.

Let $`u`$ be a $`W`$–invariant symplectic potential on $`P`$ corresponding to a Kähler form $`\omega `$. Then the linear part of the Mabuchi functional is given by the formula

$$_a(u)=(2\pi )^r\left(_{P^+}uH_d𝑑\sigma +2_{P^+}uH_{d1}𝑑\mu a_{P^+}uH_d𝑑\mu \right),$$

where

$$a=\frac{_{P^+}H_d𝑑\sigma +2_{P^+}H_{d1}𝑑\mu }{_{P^+}H_d𝑑\mu }$$

###### Proof.

As in the proof of Proposition 3.2.4 and Lemma 3.2.6 of \[Don02\], we use the formula from Proposition 1.5 and compute

$`I_D(\psi )aI_V(\psi )`$ $`=`$ $`I_{D_{\mathrm{vert}}}(\psi )+I_{D_{\mathrm{hor}}}(\psi )aI_V(\psi )`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{D_{\mathrm{vert}}}}\psi {\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^{n1}}{(n1)!}}+{\displaystyle _{D_{\mathrm{hor}}}}\psi {\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^{n1}}{(n1)!}}a{\displaystyle _{D_{\mathrm{hor}}}}\psi {\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^n}{n!}}`$
Applying Lemma 3.1 completes the computation. ∎

Therefore, for equivariant compactifications of $`G`$, similar to the toric case, the two seemingly unrelated functions, Futaki invariant of an equivariant test configuration and the linear part of Mabuchi functional, are given by the same formula. Although they are defined on different sets, convex PL functions in the first case and convex $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$–functions with a prescribed boundary behavior in the second, we can approximate one class of functions by another one freely. Hence, in the cases when the sign of $`F_1`$, resp. $`_a`$, is definite, we get the equivalence between (equivariant) K–stability and boundedness of Mabuchi functional from below. As a corollary, we obtain

###### Theorem 3.7 (cf. \[Don02\], Prop. 7.1.2).

Let $`V`$ be a smooth equivariant compactification of a complex reductive group $`G`$. Suppose there is a function $`fC^1`$ with $`_a(f)<0`$. Then the Mabuchi functional is not bounded below on the invariant metrics and the manifold $`V`$ does not admit any Kähler metric of constant scalar curvature in the given cohomology class.

###### Remark 3.8.

This theorem also applies, with the same proof, to a larger class of smooth reductive varieties described by Proposition 2.5(2).

## 4. Examples of $`G`$-compactifications without CSC metrics

We modify Example \[Don02, 7.2\] appropriately to get a new series of varieties $`V_n`$ without a Kähler metric of constant scalar curvature.

Donaldson starts with a triangle $`(0,0)`$, $`(0,1)`$, $`(1,0)`$. Working with the corner $`A=(0,0)`$ first, he considers the part of the first quadrant bounded by the $`x`$\- and $`y`$-axes and points $`B=(0,1/4)`$, $`C=(1/4,0)`$ and $`D_n=(r_n,r_n)`$, where $`(n2)/4(3n5)`$. He then smoothes out the corners $`B`$ and $`C`$ by adding very short segments of various slopes so that the resulting polyhedral body is Delzant, i.e. at every vertex the integral generators of edges form a basis of the standard lattice $`^2`$.

He then translates this picture symmetrically to the other three corners of the original triangle, and calls the resulting polytope $`P_n`$. It is clear that $`P_n`$ is a Delzant polytope which is a “smoothing” of a 9-gon, and that the corresponding smooth toric variety $`V_n`$ can be obtained by repeating blow-ups of the projective plane. The polytope represents an ample sheaf $`L_n`$ on $`V_n`$. Donaldson shows that $`P_n`$ does not contain a metric of constant curvature in the cohomology class $`c_1(L_n)`$.

We take $`G=PGL_3`$. Then Weyl group is $`S_3`$ acting on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=^2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}`$ is divided into 6 cones, the chambers. Take a point $`A`$ far in the interior of the positive chamber, at the same distance from both sides. Reflect it symmetrically to obtain vertices of a hexagon. At each of the 6 vertices, repeat Donaldson’s construction close to the corners.

The resulting polytope $`P_n`$ is then a Delzant polytope approximating a polytope with $`36=18`$ vertices. The corresponding polarized variety $`V_n`$ is a compactification of $`G`$ and has dimension 8. It is nonsingular by Proposition 2.5.

The Weyl character formula gives:

$$H_d=x^2y^2(x+y)^2,H_{d1}=xy(x+y)^3+2x^2y^2(x+y)$$

Here, $`(x,y)`$ are natural coordinates on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{}^+\mathrm{\Lambda }_0^2`$.

We claim that $`P_n`$ does not have a metric of constant curvature in the cohomology class $`c_1(L_n)`$ by exhibiting a convex function $`f`$ on it with $`_a(f)<0`$. We use the formula of Theorem 3.6 to compute it.

First, we need to observe that the function $`2H_{d1}/H_d`$ reaches its minimum near the corner $`A`$, therefore near the corner $`D_n`$ of $`P^+`$ the function $`2H_daH_d`$ is negative.

Define the function $`f=f_{ϵ,n}0`$ to be a convex function which is equal to zero on the inside of $`P_n`$ and has a simple crease at the distance $`ϵ`$ to the point $`D_n`$. Define it at other corners by symmetry, to be $`W`$-invariant. We claim that for $`n1/ϵ0`$ one has $`_a(f)<0`$, as required. Indeed, the expressions

$$_{P^+}H_d𝑑\mu ,_{P^+}H_d𝑑\sigma ,_{P^+}H_{d1}𝑑\mu $$

all have finite positive limits near $`D_n`$. The contribution of $`P^+`$ to $`_a(f)`$ in Theorem 3.6 is $`O(ϵ/n)`$, as Donaldson’s computation shows, and is positive. Finally, the contribution of the integral over $`P^+`$ is approximately $`ϵ^2(2H_{d1}aH_d)d\mu .`$ As we observed, this is negative and grows as $`\mathrm{const}ϵ^2`$. Since $`ϵ^2ϵ/n`$, we get $`_a(f)<0`$. We note that the varieties $`V_n`$ are not toric. They are, however, reductive varieties.

In conclusion, we note that Donaldson \[Don02\] includes a number of conjectures and tentative results in the toric case. Using Theorems 3.3 and 3.6 we can generalize them to our situation. Once they are established in the toric case, we expect that they can be proved in the reductive case, as well.