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# Resonant excitations of the ’t Hooft-Polyakov monopole

## Abstract

The spherically symmetric magnetic monopole in an SU(2) gauge theory coupled to a massless Higgs field is shown to possess an infinite number of resonances or quasinormal modes. These modes are eigenfunctions of the isospin 1 perturbation equations with complex eigenvalues, $`E_n=\omega _ni\gamma _n`$, satisfying the outgoing radiation condition. For $`n\mathrm{}`$, their frequencies $`\omega _n`$ approach the mass of the vector boson, $`M_W`$, while their lifetimes $`1/\gamma _n`$ tend to infinity. The response of the monopole to an arbitrary initial perturbation is largely determined by these resonant modes, whose collective effect leads to the formation of a long living breather-like excitation characterized by pulsations with a frequency approaching $`M_W`$ and with an amplitude decaying at late times as $`t^{5/6}`$.

Magnetic monopoles – magnetically charged finite energy solutions in field theories with spontaneously broken gauge symmetries mon  – play an important role in a number of field theoretic considerations. They can account for the quantization of the electric charge, catalyze the decay of proton, might be among the relevant topological defects in the universe, determine supersymmetric vacua, etc. – see monrev  for reviews.

In the present Letter we point out yet another interesting aspect of the monopole which seems to have gone unnoticed so far – the existence of its quasinormal modes (QNM) or resonant excitations. We show that the Bogomol’nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) monopole admits an infinite number of QNM. They manifest themselves as resonance peaks in the low energy scattering cross section of isospin $`1`$ scalar particles. The QNM can also be described as complex energy solutions of the isospin $`1`$ small fluctuation equations that are regular at the origin and satisfy the outgoing radiation condition at spatial infinity. For previous studies of the real energy small fluctuations around the monopole we refer to bais .

We shall demonstrate, in particular, that the QNM of the monopole lead to a universal late time behavior of the perturbed monopole by giving rise collectively to a quasiperiodic, long living excitation whose amplitude decays as $`t^{5/6}`$ at late times ($`t`$ being the standard Minkowski time). In a recent numerical study of Fodor and Rácz a breather-like excitation of the monopole retaining a considerable fraction of the energy of the external perturbation has actually been observed Racz . It has been one of our aims to explain their observations.

It is worth noting the striking analogy of the $`t^{5/6}`$ asymptotic behavior of the monopole with the late time evolution of massive fields in black hole spacetimes 5/3 . Black holes also possess the QNM, which have been much studied recently (see e.g. BH ).

We consider a Yang-Mills-Higgs (YMH) theory with gauge group SU(2) defined by the Lagrangian

$$=\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }^aF^{a\mu \nu }+\frac{1}{2}D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }^aD^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }^a\frac{\lambda }{4}(\mathrm{\Phi }^a\mathrm{\Phi }^a1)^2.$$
(1)
Here $`F_{\mu \nu }^a=_\mu A_\nu ^a_\nu A_\mu ^a+\epsilon _{abc}A_\mu ^bA_\nu ^c`$ is the non-abelian field strength tensor, $`D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }^a=_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }^a+\epsilon _{abc}A_\mu ^b\mathrm{\Phi }^c`$ denotes the covariant derivative, and in our units the mass of the gauge bosons is equal to one, $`M_W=1`$, while the mass of the Higgs particle is $`\sqrt{2\lambda }`$. The energy-momentum tensor of the theory defined by Eq.(1) is $`T_\nu ^\mu =F_{\nu \rho }^aF^{a\mu \rho }+D^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }^aD_\nu \mathrm{\Phi }^a\delta _\nu ^\mu `$.

We restrict our analysis to the ‘minimal’ spherically symmetric sector, where the ansatz for the YMH fields is given by $`A_0^a=0`$,

$$A_i^a=\epsilon _{aik}\frac{x^k}{r^2}(1W(t,r)),\mathrm{\Phi }^a=\frac{x^a}{r^2}H(t,r),$$
(2)
where $`a,i,k=1,2,3`$ and $`r^2=x^kx^k`$ . With $`\mathrm{}\frac{^2}{t^2}\frac{^2}{r^2}`$ the YMH equations reduce to

$`(r^2\mathrm{}+W^2+H^21)W=0,`$
$`(r^2\mathrm{}+2W^2+\lambda (H^2r^2))H=0.`$ (3)
The static, finite energy solution of these equations is the ’t Hooft-Polyakov monopole mon . For the special case, $`\lambda =0`$, the solution is analytically known – the BPS monopole,

$$W(r)=\frac{r}{\mathrm{sinh}r},H(r)=r\mathrm{coth}r1.$$
(4)
We shall consider small fluctuations around the static monopole background: $`WW(r)+w(t,r)`$ and $`HH(r)+\sqrt{2}h(t,r)`$. Linearizing Eqs.(Resonant excitations of the ’t Hooft-Polyakov monopole) with respect to $`w`$ and $`h`$, we obtain

$`(r^2\mathrm{}+3W^2+H^21)w=q\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\sqrt{2}WHh,`$ (5)
$`(r^2\mathrm{}+2W^2+\lambda (3H^2r^2))h=q\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\sqrt{2}WHw.`$ (6)
Here an auxiliary parameter, $`q`$, has been introduced, presently $`q=1`$. In this Letter we concentrate on the case $`\lambda =0`$, when $`W,H`$ are given by Eq.(4).

Resonant scattering.– First we shall demonstrate that Eqs.(5),(6) describe resonance phenomena indeed. Separating the variables as $`w=\mathrm{}(e^{i\omega t}w_\omega (r))`$ and $`h=\mathrm{}(e^{i\omega t}h_\omega (r))`$ with real $`\omega `$, Eqs.(5),(6) become a standard two-channel Schrödinger system. As it will be clear from what follows, the frequency spectrum is continuous, $`\omega ^20`$. Regular solutions of Eqs.(5),(6) have to satisfy the conditions $`w_\omega h_\omega r^2`$ for $`r0`$, and they can be normalized for $`r\mathrm{}`$ such that

$$h_\omega (r)\mathrm{sin}(\omega r+\delta (\omega )),w_\omega (r)C(\omega )r^{\frac{1}{\nu }}e^{\nu r},$$
(7)
where $`\nu =\sqrt{1\omega ^2}`$. The $`h`$-field is massless, so it oscillates as $`r\mathrm{}`$ for any value of $`\omega `$. The $`w`$-field is massive, and for $`\omega ^2<1`$ it shows a bound state type behavior, with exponential decay as $`r\mathrm{}`$. The fact that the $`w`$-field is non-radiative for $`\omega ^2<1`$ plays the crucial role in our analysis, and below we shall concentrate to this frequency range. Eqs.(5),(6) describe in this case the scattering of a massless $`h`$-radiation on the monopole surrounded by a confined massive $`w`$-field. We note that for $`\omega ^2<1`$ this is effectively a one-channel scattering problem, so that the scattering cross section is given by the standard formula $`\sigma (\omega )=(4\pi /\omega ^2)\mathrm{sin}^2(\delta (\omega ))`$.

It is worth noting that the interaction of the $`h`$-field with the monopole is in fact short range, so that the cross section is finite. We integrate Eqs.(5),(6) numerically to obtain $`w_\omega (r)`$ and $`h_\omega (r)`$ subject to the boundary conditions (7). The resulting cross section $`\sigma (\omega )`$ shown in Fig.1 exhibits a sequence of resonant peaks accumulating near the value $`\omega =1`$. This can be so interpreted that for certain energies of the incident $`h`$-radiation the monopole core gets strongly excited.

QNM – numerical results.– The scattering resonances can be usually related to the quasinormal modes – complex energy solutions satisfying the purely outgoing wave condition at $`r=\mathrm{}`$. To construct the QNM, we integrate Eqs.(5),(6) with $`w=\mathrm{}(e^{iEt}w_E(r))`$ and $`h=\mathrm{}(e^{iEt}h_E(r))`$, where $`w_E`$ and $`h_E`$ are complex, the energy $`E=\omega i\gamma `$, and

$$Ar^2h_E(r)e^{iEr},Br^2w_E(r)Cr^{\frac{1}{\nu }}e^{\nu r}$$
(8)
for $`0r\mathrm{}`$. With the ‘shooting to a fitting point’ numerical method we find a discrete family of global solutions $`w_E(r)`$, $`h_E(r)`$ subject to the boundary conditions (8) labeled by $`n=1,2,\mathrm{}`$, the number of nodes of $`\mathrm{}(w_E(r))`$ (see Fig.2). Notice that $`h_Ee^{i\omega r+\gamma r}`$ grows at infinity – the QNM are not physical solutions themselves, but only approximate such solutions for a fixed $`r`$ and for $`t\mathrm{}`$. The first $`10`$ eigenvalues $`E_n=\omega _ni\gamma _n`$ are listed in Table I.

Table I clearly indicates that $`\omega _n1`$ and $`\gamma _n0`$ for growing $`n`$. It seems that the QNM can be obtained for any $`n`$, thus comprising an infinite family. The values of $`\omega _n`$ coincide well with the positions of the resonance peaks shown in Fig.1.

QNM – qualitative analysis.– The existence of the QNM of the BPS monopole can be qualitatively understood as follows. Let us consider $`q`$ introduced in Eqs.(5),(6) as a free parameter, $`q[0,1]`$, and denote the corresponding solutions by $`w_{(q)}`$ and $`h_{(q)}`$. For $`q=0`$ the equations decouple. Setting $`h_{(0)}(t,r)=e^{i\omega t}(C_+h_++C_{}h_{})`$ with constant $`C_\pm `$, Eq.(6) is then solved by

$$h_\pm (r)=(\mathrm{coth}ri\omega )e^{\pm i\omega r}.$$
(9)
Eq.(5) with $`w_{(0)}(t,r)=e^{i\omega t}w(r)`$ reduces to the eigenvalue problem

$$\left(\frac{d^2}{dr^2}+\frac{3W^2+H^21}{r^2}\right)w(r)=\omega ^2w(r).$$
(10)
The potential in this equation has an attractive Coulombian tail, since it behaves as $`12/r+O(e^r)`$ for $`r\mathrm{}`$, thus there are infinitely many bound states, $`w(r)=w_n(r)`$ for $`\omega ^2=\omega _n^2`$, $`n=1,2,\mathrm{}`$. Several low lying $`\omega _n`$’s are given in Table II. The $`n`$-th eigenfunction $`w_n(r)`$ has $`n1`$ nodes in the interval $`r[0,\mathrm{})`$ and can be normalized by the condition $`_0^{\mathrm{}}w_n^2𝑑r=1`$. For large $`n`$ the $`w_n(r)`$’s extend to the asymptotic region where the potential is Coulombian. As a result, they can be well approximated by solutions of the hydrogen atom problem. This implies that for $`n\mathrm{}`$ one has $`\omega _n^2=11/n^2+O(n^3)`$ and also that $`w_nn^{3/2}`$. More precisely, for $`\omega =1`$ Eq.(10) admits a limiting solution with infinitely many nodes, $`w_{\mathrm{}}(r)`$, which itself is not normalizable, but $`w_{\mathrm{}}(r)`$ corresponds to the pointwise limit of $`w_n(r)`$; i.e. for a fixed $`\overline{r}`$

$$\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}w_n(r)=n^{3/2}w_{\mathrm{}}(r)r<\overline{r}.$$
(11)
Let us consider a solution of Eqs.(5),(6) given by $`h_{(0)}=0`$ and $`w_{(0)}=\mathrm{}(A_ne^{i\omega _nt}w_n(r))`$, where $`A_n`$ is a constant. “Switching on” a small value of the coupling between the channels, $`q1`$, the $`w`$-bound state will start loosing its energy to the $`h`$-channel, where this energy will be radiated to infinity. To find approximatively the corresponding solutions $`h_{(q)}`$ and $`w_{(q)}`$ by successive iterations, we solve first Eq.(6) for $`h_{(q)}`$ by replacing $`w`$ by $`w_{(0)}`$ in its right hand side. The solution is regular at the origin and reduces to an outgoing wave at infinity: $`h_{(q)}qA_ne^{i\omega _n(rt)}`$ as $`r\mathrm{}`$.

Since there is now an outgoing flux of the $`h`$-radiation, the energy of the $`w`$-bound state will be slowly decreasing. In the adiabatic approximation this process is described by a decrease of the amplitude of the $`w`$-field by replacing $`A_nA_n(t)`$. To determine $`A_n(t)`$ we use the law of energy conservation, $`_\mu T_0^\mu =0`$, whose integral form is

$$\frac{d}{dt}\left(_0^{\mathrm{}}r^2T_0^0𝑑r\right)=\underset{r\mathrm{}}{lim}r^2T_0^r.$$
(12)
Expanding $`T_\nu ^\mu `$ up to terms quadratic in $`w`$ and $`h`$, the expression on the left in Eq.(12) is proportional to $`\frac{d}{dt}A_n^2`$ and determines the decrease of the bound state energy. The expression on the right is proportional to $`A_n^2`$ and gives the energy flux at infinity. Thus $`\dot{A_n}=\gamma _nA_n`$, from which $`A_n(t)=c_ne^{\gamma _nt}`$ with a constant $`c_n`$. The coefficient $`\gamma _n`$ is given by

$$\gamma _n=q^2\frac{4}{\omega _n^2(1+\omega _n^2)}\left(_0^{\mathrm{}}\frac{h_+h_{}}{2ir^2}WHw_n𝑑r\right)^2.$$
(13)
Summarizing, upon switching on a small value of $`q`$, the stationary bound state of the $`w`$-field, $`w_n(r)`$, becomes quasistationary and is approximately given by

$$w_{(q)}=\mathrm{}(e^{iE_nt}c_nw_n),h_{(q)}=q\mathrm{}(e^{iE_nt}c_nh_n),$$
(14)
where $`E_n=\omega _ni\gamma _n`$, and $`h_n(r)`$ can be expressed by quadratures in terms of $`w_n(r)`$. Note the appearance of a complex energy, $`E_n`$, in Eq.(14). Evaluating the integral in Eq.(13) (see Table II) shows that $`\gamma _n`$ decreases as $`n`$ grows. This feature can be understood qualitatively by viewing the QNM as quasibound states of the massive $`w`$-field slowly decaying via an energy transfer to the $`h`$ channel. For large $`n`$ the coupling between the $`w`$ and $`h`$ channels becomes weaker and weaker, since it is proportional to $`WHw_nn^{3/2}`$, and so the decay becomes more and more unlikely. Using the asymptotic relation (11) in Eq.(13) yields $`\gamma _nn^3`$ for $`n\mathrm{}`$.

The approximative formulas derived above under the assumption $`q1`$ give in fact, when straightforwardly extrapolated to $`q=1`$, a good approximation for $`\omega _ni\gamma _n`$ (see Tables I, II). This approximation is actually getting better with growing $`n`$. We can therefore use the asymptotic relations derived above to obtain for $`n1`$

$$1\omega _n^2=n^2+O(n^3),\gamma _n=bn^3.$$
(15)
Using the results of Table I, $`b0.2`$.

Collective effect of the QNM.– The numerical simulations in Ref.Racz  of the non-linear temporal dynamics of the BPS monopole hit by a strong spherically symmetric pulse have shown that a considerable fraction of the energy received from the pulse is not radiated away immediately. It gets ‘trapped’ by the monopole and forms a long living quasiperiodic excitation that radiates very slowly, and whose late time behavior is to a large extent independent of the structure of the initial perturbation pulse, i.e., it shows certain type of universality. We can now offer an explanation to these observations.

It is intuitively clear that, according to the decomposition of the eigenfunctions of the linearized problem, there is a ‘radiative’ sector containing the massless $`h`$-modes with $`\omega ^2>0`$ and massive $`w`$-modes with $`\omega ^2>1`$, and also a ‘non-radiative’ sector consisting of the $`w`$-modes with $`\omega ^2<1`$. One expects that a part of the energy of the pulse received by the monopole will be distributed among the radiative modes and will be radiated away. However, as a generic perturbation will have a nonzero overlap also with the non-radiative modes, the remaining energy will get trapped in the non-radiative sector. Since it cannot be radiated away directly, a long living excitation on the monopole forms that will decay only due to a slow energy leakage to the radiative channels. In the terminology of black hole physics, the perturbed monopole keeps some of its ‘hair’ for a long time.

Although initially the dynamic of the system will be nonlinear, one expects the nonlinear effects to become negligible when a sufficient amount of the received energy is radiated away. The linear approximation will therefore give a good description of the late time behavior, providing also an explanation of the observed universality.

Let $`t=0`$ be the starting point of linear regime, when the perturbed monopole is described by $`w(0,r)=\delta W(r)`$ and $`h(0,r)=\delta H(r)`$. The subsequent temporal evolution is determined to a large extent by the QNM, since they hold their energies for a long time. Using (14), we therefore approximate the general solution for $`t>0`$ by

$$w(t,r)=\mathrm{}\left(\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}c_ne^{i\omega _nt\gamma _nt}w_n(r)\right),$$
(16)
and similarly for $`h(t,r)`$. Here $`c_n=_0^{\mathrm{}}w_n(r)\delta W(r)𝑑r`$. This sum of damped oscillations corresponds to a long living excitation with the following properties.

For a localized $`\delta W`$ the overlap coefficients $`c_n`$ will be maximal for small $`n`$. Therefore terms with small $`n`$ will dominate at first the sum in Eq.(16). They will soon be damped, however, since their damping rates, $`\gamma _n`$, are the largest. Terms with higher $`n`$ will then become more important at later times. This ‘dying out’ of modes has indeed been observed in Ref.Racz  (Fig.6), and the values of frequencies $`\omega _n`$ measured there are in good agreement with those given in Table I.

For any $`t`$ there is a number, $`k(t)`$, determined by the condition $`\gamma _kt1`$, such that all terms with $`nk`$ in (16) are already damped, while those with $`nk`$ are not yet important, since their $`c_n`$’s are small compared to $`c_k`$. The sum will therefore be dominated by terms with $`nk(t)`$. Considering for simplicity the sum of only two of these terms, with frequencies $`\omega _k`$, $`\omega _{k+1}`$, gives beats with the base frequency $`\omega (t)=\frac{1}{2}(\omega _{k+1}+\omega _k)`$ whose amplitude is modulated with the frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }(t)=\frac{1}{2}(\omega _{k+1}\omega _k)`$. This explains qualitatively the behavior shown in Fig.3. Since $`\gamma _k`$ decreases with $`k`$, the value of $`k(t)`$ will grow with $`t`$, and so will do the base frequency $`\omega (t)`$. Since $`\gamma _kk^3`$ for large $`k`$, it follows that $`k(t)t^{1/3}`$ for large $`t`$. Using (15), we conclude that for large $`t`$ one has $`1\omega ^2(t)t^{2/3}`$, which explains the feature observed in Ref.Racz  (Fig.5). In a similar way we obtain for the modulation frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }(t)t^1`$.

Even though each term in the sum (16) tends to zero exponentially fast, the sum as a whole decreases considerably slower. Since for large $`t`$ only terms with large $`n`$ are relevant in (16), we can use Eqs.(11),(15) to obtain $`\omega _n11/2n^2`$ and $`w_n(r)n^{3/2}w_{\mathrm{}}(r)`$ for $`r\overline{r}=_0^{\mathrm{}}rw_n^2𝑑rn^2`$. For a localized $`\delta W`$ this implies that $`c_n𝒩n^{3/2}`$ with $`𝒩=_0^{\mathrm{}}w_{\mathrm{}}\delta W𝑑r`$. As a result, for $`t\mathrm{}`$ and for $`r<\overline{r}(t)n(t)^2t^{2/3}`$ the solution (16) reduces to $`w(t,r)=𝒩w_{\mathrm{}}(r)\mathrm{}(G(t))`$, with

$$G(t)=e^{it}\underset{n>t^{1/3}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{n^3}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{it}{2n^2}\frac{bt}{n^3}\right).$$
(17)
This shows that the late time dynamics is indeed universal, since changing the initial conditions affects only the normalization $`𝒩`$. The final task is to determine the asymptotic behavior of $`G(t)`$. Transforming the sum (17) to a contour integral and using the saddle point method, we find that $`|G(t)|t^{5/6}`$ for $`t\mathrm{}`$. This $`t^{5/6}`$ exponent explains the feature observed in Ref.Racz  (Fig.5).

The perturbed monopole thus ends up in a long living breathing state dominated by the confined, slowly radiating massive modes of the gauge field. In the region $`rt^{2/3}`$ this state is characterized by modulated pulsations whose base frequency approaches the vector boson mass, while the amplitude decreases as $`t^{5/6}`$.

The total energy of the breather can be obtained by summing over the QNM, $`E=_nc_n^2\omega _n^2e^{2\gamma _nt}_nn^3\mathrm{exp}(2bn^3t)t^{2/3}`$. This includes the energy of the confined massive $`w`$-modes and also that of the massless $`h`$-radiation emitted by these modes. $`E`$ decreases, since there is a flux of the $`h`$-radiation at infinity, $`S=\dot{E}t^{5/3}`$. This value agrees with the result of Racz . Specifically, Fig.2 in Racz  shows the flux $`ST^{5/3}`$ at future null infinity, with $`Ttr`$. By continuity, the flux through a 2-sphere of a very large but finite radius $`r`$ is still $`ST^{5/3}`$. But since $`t`$ is finite then, for $`tr`$ one has $`Tt`$, which agrees with out result $`St^{5/3}`$.

In conclusion, we have found resonant excitations of the monopole and studied some of their applications. Although we have considered above only the BPS monopole, the existence of similar resonances can also be shown in the case of a non-zero Higgs self-coupling $`\lambda `$.

Acknowledgments.– We would like to thank Gyula Fodor and István Rácz for communicating to us their results prior to publication and stimulating discussions.


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# Chaos-induced breaking of the Franck-Condon approximation

## Abstract

We investigate the vibrational structure of electronic spectra for the transition from the non-degenerate $`A`$ state to $`E`$ states in $`E_ge_g`$ Jahn-Teller systems with the trigonal field included. In connection with the underlying chaotic behavior for vibronic energy levels in this model reported by the present authors in Phys.Rev.E68(2003)046201, we extend the analysis by Longuet-Higgins et al. to the classically chaotic system. In particular, the triple-humped structure is manifest with increasing the anharmonicity. Such structure is completely inconsistent with the shape obtained from Franck-Condon(FC) approximation, and is caused by the chaos-induced beaking of the FC principle.

We investigate the vibronic problem in degenerate $`E_g`$ orbitals of $`d`$-levels in transition metal ions coupled with 2-d vibrational modes $`e_g`$ expressed by coordinates $`Q_1(=Q_{e_gu})`$ and $`Q_2(=Q_{e_gv})`$ by taking into account the trigonal distortion. This $`E_ge_g`$ model is the typical system4  showing dynamic Jahn-Teller effects(DJTE), which has been discussed in the field of magnetism for transition-metal ions. In fact, the numerical work was launched 7 ; 8  by Longuet-Higgins et al\[LH\] in 1958. Since then, the double-humped vibrational structure of electronically allowed transitions from the electronically non-degenerate ground state $`A`$ to a Jahn-Teller degenerate state $`E_ge_g`$ has been the fundamental subject in optical properties of transition-metal ionic compounds. There the ground state is taken as the level of zero-phonon in $`A`$ state at zero temperature.

Recently, the present authors32  found the relationship between the chaotic behavior of this system and the magnetic $`g`$-factors of electronic orbital angular momentum as well as features of level statistics for vibronic states. The statistical properties of those levels and the energy dependence of $`g`$-factor shed light on the quantum signature of “Chaos” in this Jahn-Teller system.

In the present paper, we first report the novel vibrational structure in the spectra of the transition from the non-degenerate $`A`$ state to the excited states in the $`E_ge_g`$ model. Secondly, the comparative study between vibrational structure in quantum mechanical treatment and the semiclassical one in Condon approximation for the adiabatic potential is made in order to see the role of “Quantum Chaos”1 ; 2 .

The Hamiltonian matrix $``$ is expressed as

$``$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{^2}{Q_1^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{Q_2^2}}\right)𝐈+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\omega ^2(Q_1^2+Q_2^2)𝐈`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`k[Q_1\sigma _3+Q_2\sigma _1]+bQ_1(Q_1^23Q_2^2)𝐈,`$
where $`𝐈`$ is the unit matrix and $`\sigma _i`$ with $`i=1,2,3`$ are Pauli matrices. This Hamiltonian operates on $`\phi _u`$ and $`\phi _v`$ bases in $`E_g`$ state, which are expressed as $`|3z^2r^2`$ and $`|x^2y^2`$, respectively. In the third term called “linear Jahn-Teller matrix”, $`k`$ is the coupling between electronic and vibrational states. The strength of the anharmonic trigonal field is expressed by $`b`$ of the forth term.

Without the trigonal field, the second and the linear Jahn-Teller matrix give the adiabatic potential energy surfaces(APES) for axial symmetry: APES is expressed as $`(1/2)\omega ^2\rho ^2\pm k\rho `$, where $`\rho =\sqrt{Q_1^2+Q_2^2}`$. It should be noted that APES is independent on azimuthal angle $`\theta =\mathrm{tan}^1(Q_2/Q_1)`$. Therefore, APES for the lower branch has the continuous minima whose value is $`k^2/\omega ^2`$. Such minima draw the circle located at the bottom of the so-called “Mexican Hat” potential. In the vibronic problem, we take into account the first term of (1) in addition to the other static terms. Namely, we treat the vibrational modes $`e_g`$ as the 2-dimensional harmonic oscillator for quantum mechanics in order to investigate the dynamical effects: Wavefunctions are described as $`\varphi _{nm}=F_{n|m|}(\rho )e^{im\theta }`$, where $`n=1,2,\mathrm{}`$ and $`m=n1,n3,\mathrm{},n+1`$. Here, $`F_{n|m|}(\rho )`$ is the confluent hypergeometric function11 ; 25 . According to the conventional procedure for the degenerate electronic state $`E_g`$, we employ the expressions $`\phi _\pm `$ of eigenfunctions for 2-dimensional angular momentum, which are transformed from $`\phi _u`$ and $`\phi _v`$: The transformation is $`\phi _\pm =(1/\sqrt{2})(\phi _u\pm i\phi _v)`$. Thus, the linear Jahn-Teller matrix in (1) is transformed to $`\sqrt{2}k\rho e^{i\theta }i\sigma _2`$. Using $`\varphi _{nm}(\rho ,\theta )`$ and $`\phi _\pm `$, we can express bases of present vibronic wavefunctions as

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{nm}^\pm =\phi _\pm \varphi _{nm}(\rho ,\theta ).$$
(2)
The qunatum mechanical expression of the present $`E_ge_g`$ model is obtained from the following nonvanishing elements:

$`\varphi _{n,m}|\rho e^{i\theta }|\varphi _{n^{},m^{}}`$
$`=\{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{2\omega }}\left[n\pm (m1)\right]\}^{1/2}\delta _{n^{},n1}\delta _{m^{},m1}`$
$`\varphi _{n,m}|\rho e^{i\theta }|\varphi _{n^{},m^{}}`$
$`=\{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{2\omega }}\left[n\pm (m+1)\right]\}^{1/2}\delta _{n^{},n\pm 1}\delta _{m^{},m+1}.`$ (3)
If we assign the quantum numbers $`j=\pm 1`$ to $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{n,m}^\pm `$, the Jahn-Teller interaction without the anharmonic term connects the states with the same quantum number, $`\mathrm{}=m(1/2)j(j=\pm 1)`$. The present matrix decomposes into matrices labeled by quantum number $`\mathrm{}`$. For any given value of $`\mathrm{}`$, $`m`$ can take two values, $`m=\mathrm{}1/2`$ and $`\mathrm{}+1/2`$ corresponding to $`j=1`$ and $`+1`$, respectively. Thus, the $`p`$-th eigenfunction for a given $`\mathrm{}`$ is expressed as $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{p,\mathrm{}}`$. As a results, the total angular momentum $`\mathrm{}`$ whose values are $`\pm 1/2,\pm 3/2,\pm 5/2,\mathrm{}`$ becomes the good quantum-number in the case of $`b=0`$.

In the absence of the trigonal field in (1), LH obtained the vibrational structure appearing in allowed electronic spectra from the non-degenerates electronic state $`A`$ to $`E_ge_g`$ system for various values of $`k`$, finding the structure with two intensity maxima in the energy region of $`10\mathrm{}\omega \epsilon 15\mathrm{}\omega `$. This double-humped structure can be explained by the transitions to a pair of branches of APES in the $`E_ge_g`$ system.

In this paper, we consider the third term $`(b0)`$ in (1), which expresses the anharmonicity keeping invariant to any operation in the cubic group. In fact, it gives the trigonal ligand field $`\rho ^3\mathrm{cos}3\theta =Q_1(Q_1^23Q_2^2)`$ to the adiabatic potential as shown in Fig.1: The continuous circular symmetry is destroyed and three minima appear in the lower branch. We shall calculate vibrational structures in the spectra in this case. O’Brien investigated3  the system (1) with the trigonal field in the low-energy approximation that $`\rho `$ is fixed to be $`\rho _0`$ at the bottom of the Mexican-hat, but gave no discussion on the spectra3 . Here we numerically calculate eigenvalues and eigenvectors without having recourse to such an approximation in order to obtain the spectra exactly. In this case, the angular momentum $`\mathrm{}`$ is not a good quantum number: By the trigonal field, the levels for $`\mathrm{}=1/2\pm 3\nu `$ (where $`\nu =1,2,3,\mathrm{}`$) are mixed into the levels of $`\mathrm{}=1/2`$. We get in this way a set of vibronic doublets arising from combinations with $`\mathrm{}=\pm 1/2,5/2,\pm 7/2,11/2,\pm 13/2,\mathrm{}`$ (where either the upper or lower sign is to be taken throughout). Namely, we treat the doubly degenerate $`E`$ representations of the symmetry group $`C_{3v}`$. On the other hand, solutions with $`\mathrm{}=\pm 3/2,\pm 9/2,\pm 15/2,\mathrm{}`$ correspond to identical representation $`A`$ and $`B`$ of group $`C_{3v}`$: $`A`$ is the mode with the symmetric composition for $`\mathrm{}>0`$ and $`\mathrm{}<0`$, while $`B`$ with anti-symmetric one.

One of the observable phenomena where the trigonal field plays an notable role is the spectral line shape of a parity-allowed transition in which the final state is $`E_ge_g`$ while the initial state is an orbital singlet $`A`$. The quantum mechanical calculation of the spectral line-shape is possible if the eigenvectors of the matrix with elements (3) are known. In short, the spectra are made of the probability density to find the first basis $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}u_{}(𝐫)\varphi _{1,0}(\rho ,\theta )`$ in the final state of the transition.

The calculated vibrational structure in the transition spectra from $`A`$ to the excited levels are shown in Fig.2(a),(b),(c) and (d), where the strength of the trigonal field $`b`$ is 0,1.41,2.5 and 5, respectively. Here, the coupling parameter $`k`$ in (1) is fixed to be 4.47 (i.e., $`k^2=20`$). It is certain that the double-humped structure for $`b=0`$(see Fig.2(a)), composed of transitions only to levels in $`\mathrm{}=1/2`$, agrees with that in LH7 .

As $`b`$ increases, however, the double-humped structure changes into the triple-humped one, because of the mixing of levels for $`\mathrm{}=5/2,\pm 7/2,11/2,\mathrm{}`$ into the excited $`E`$ state. In other words, an extra new hump appears at the conical interaction, i.e., around the dip of double-humped structures. The central branch in the spectrum is the common result proper to the system with the trigonal field, as shown in Fig.2(b),(c) and (d). This new hump can also be interpreted as “Quantum Chaos” emanating in the region $`bk`$32 , as explained below.

In order to discuss this triple-humped structure in detail, we calculate semiclassical spectra in Franck-Condon(FC) approximation, which is schematically shown in Fig.3. The physical implication for this approximation is intuitively clear: It shows that the electronic transition takes place so rapidly that the nuclear positions do not change during the transition. In fact, the two intensity maxima of the transition spectra without anharmonicity were revealed by Y.Toyozawa and M.Inoue31 . They showed the absorption line-shape function for the transition spectrum by using the semiclassical FC approximation. Here, we shall show the consequence of the FC approximation applied explicity to the system with cases of $`b0`$. Namely, APES consists of two branch surfaces as shown in Fig.1, corresponding to

$$\epsilon _\pm (\rho ,\theta )=\epsilon _0k\rho +b\rho ^3\mathrm{cos}3\theta $$
(4)
where $`\epsilon _0`$ is the excitation energy from the ground state $`A`$ to the excited one $`E`$ at $`\rho =0`$. Within the semiclassical FC approximation, the normalized line-shape function of the optical absorption is given by

$`F(\mathrm{}\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\pm }{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\theta \mathrm{sin}\theta d\rho \rho \left(\frac{1}{\pi \kappa T}\right)}`$ (5)
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\rho ^2}{\kappa T}}\right)\delta \{\mathrm{}\omega \epsilon _\pm (\rho ,\theta )\},`$
where $`\kappa ,T`$ and $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ are the Boltzmann constant, the absolute temperature and the photon energy, respectively. Namely $`\kappa T`$ give the width to line spectra. In the present calculation, we use $`\kappa T=0.72\mathrm{}\omega `$. Without anharmonicity the absorption shape function is integrable31 .($`b=0`$): This gives a line-shape which is completely split into upper and lower parts, as shown in Fig.3. In Fig.4, we show the line shape in FC approximation for $`b=2.5`$, which is completely inconsistant with the triple-humped feature in Fig.2(c).

In the presence of the trigonal(anharmonic) potential, the nonadiabatic motion of electron wave packet can show chaotic features with the outstanding occupation probability at the conical intersection due to its subtle distortions. This means the increase of density of state at the energy where the conical intersection locates. Therefore, the transition from $`A`$ state has extra final states at the level of the conical intersection, i.e., triple-humped structure as a whole. Here a simple application of the FC principle is not justified(see the pertinacious double-humped structure in Fig.4).

As a result of comparative discussion between vibrational structure and the semiclassical spectra in FC approximation, we would like to point out the following fact: The new peak comes from the non-adiabatic dynamic mixing to the pair of lower and upper APES for electronic $`E_g`$ state, which is a typical quantum manifestation of the underlying chaos.

In conclusion, we find a new hump induced by the trigonal field in the transition spectrum, which is manifesting of quantum chaos in vibrations coupled with electronic states in the case of $`b=0`$. In the strong coupling limit ($`k1`$), the void between a pair of APES is obvious. This fact led to the double-humped structure of LH7  in the nonadiabatic spectra of the transition from $`A`$ to degenerate $`E_ge_g`$ states. This spectra can be nicely reproduced by application of the FC principle. However, the anharmonic trigonal term, which yields the new density of states near the energy of the conical intersection, breaks the FC principle.

In the case of the oscillation of magnetic $`g`$-factor32  we assumed the small $`k`$ value. The quenching of the regular oscillation was also caused by the underlying classical chaos due to anharmonic term. On the contrary, in the present work, we require the $`k`$ value to be sufficiently large to ensure the double-humped transition spectra due to the obvious splitting of two APES, and chaos in the nonadiabatic electron wave packet plays an essential role.

The relationship between vibrational structures of spectra and chaotic behavior in the present quantum system is quite attractive, though there is very much left to study of analyzing this characteristic structure in connection with experimental work for transition-metal ions in compounds.


text:
# A counterexample to the Gouvêa–Mazur conjecture.

## Abstract

Gouvêa and Mazur made a precise conjecture about slopes of modular forms. Weaker versions of this conjecture were established by Coleman and Wan. In this note, we exhibit examples contradicting the full conjecture as it currently stands.

Let $`p`$ be a prime number, and let $`N`$ be a positive integer coprime to $`p`$. For an integer $`k`$, let $`f_k𝐙[X]`$ denote the characteristic polynomial of the Hecke operator $`U_p`$ on the space of cusp forms of level $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0(Np)`$ and weight $`k`$. Normalise the multiplicative valuation $`v:\overline{𝐐}_p^\times 𝐐`$ so that $`v(p)=1`$. If $`\alpha 𝐐`$ then let $`d(k,\alpha )`$ denote the number of roots of $`f_k`$ in $`\overline{𝐐}_p`$ which have valuation equal to $`\alpha `$.

###### Conjecture 1 (Gouvêa–Mazur,).

If $`k_1,k_2𝐙`$ are both at least $`2\alpha +2`$ and $`k_1k_2`$ mod $`p^n(p1)`$ for some integer $`n\alpha `$, then $`d(k_1,\alpha )=d(k_2,\alpha )`$.

This important conjecture was, as far as we know, one of the first precise formulations of the idea that Hida’s theory of ordinary families might be generalised to the non-ordinary case. The conjecture can be thought of as saying that non-ordinary families of cuspidal eigenforms exist, and Gouvêa and Mazur went on to conjecture that these conjectural families should in fact be analytic in the weight variable. Many of the conjectures that Gouvêa and Mazur made in this area became theorems soon afterwards, as a result of deep ideas of Coleman (), but the conjecture above, which we shall refer to as the Gouvêa–Mazur conjecture, remained open. Coleman’s ideas, extended by Wan in , could only prove that if $`k_1`$ and $`k_2`$ were congruent modulo $`p^N(p1)`$ for some integer $`N=O(\alpha ^2)`$ then $`d(k_1,\alpha )=d(k_2,\alpha )`$. For a while the situation was almost paradoxical, because computations of Gouvêa, Stein, and the first author all seemed to indicate that in fact the Gouvêa–Mazur conjecture was much too weak. See for example  which introduces the notion of a prime $`p`$ being $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0(N)`$-regular and makes some much more precise conjectures when this condition holds.

If $`N=1`$ then the smallest prime which is not $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0(N)`$-regular is $`p=59`$, and the authors decided to attempt to study this case in detail. In particular, they wanted to study the point of the eigencurve corresponding to the slope 1 form of level 59 and weight 16. To their surprise, they discovered

###### Theorem 2.

Set $`N=1`$ and $`p=59`$. Then there exists $`\alpha 𝐐`$ with $`0\alpha 1`$ such that $`d(16,\alpha )d(3438,\alpha )`$. In particular, because $`3438=16+5859`$, the Gouvêa–Mazur conjecture is false.

###### Remark.

We know $`d(16,1)=1`$, and it is probably true that $`d(3438,1)=2`$, but it is, at the present time, difficult to compute characteristic polynomials of Hecke operators at such high weight.

###### Proof.

It is well-known that the space of level 1 cusp forms of weight 16 is 1-dimensional, and that the 59-adic valuation of the eigenvalue of $`T_{59}`$ is 1 on this space. Because any newforms of level 59 and weight 16 will have slope $`(162)/2=7`$, we see that $`d(16,1)=1`$ and $`d(16,\alpha )=0`$ for $`0\alpha <1`$.

Now using the Eichler–Selberg trace formula (see for example Theorem 2 on p48 of , and ), it is possible to compute the trace of $`T_{59}`$ and $`T_{59^2}`$ on the space of cusp forms of level 1 and weight 3438. These can be computed as real numbers to very large precision in about 30 seconds using pari-GP on a 300MHz Pentium III (the trace of $`T_{59^2}`$ is about $`6.79926\mathrm{}\times 10^{6086}`$), and these real numbers turn out to be very close to integers, so one can round to get the exact result. In fact, for the argument below, we only need to know the traces modulo $`59^3`$ and these can be computed in less than a tenth of a second using a modular implementation of the trace formula.

Let the characteristic polynomial of $`T_{59}`$ on the space of cusp forms of level 1 be $`X^{286}+_{i=1}^{286}a_iX^{286i}`$. From the above calculations one has enough data to compute $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ exactly (although we only need them modulo $`59^3`$). One now checks that the 59-adic valuations of $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ are 1 and 2 respectively. There are now two cases to consider: either $`v(a_i)i`$ for all $`i`$, in which case $`d(3438,1)2`$, or there exists $`i`$ with $`v(a_i)<i`$, in which case $`d(3438,\alpha )>0`$ for some $`\alpha `$ with $`0\alpha <1`$. In either case the conjecture is violated. ∎

###### Remark.

The authors strongly suspect that $`v(a_i)i`$ for all $`i`$, and perhaps a more intense computation and some estimates on the $`a_i`$ might prove this.

This counterexample comes from a point on an eigencurve with integral slope, whose associated mod $`p`$ representation is irreducible even when restricted to a decomposition group at $`p`$. In fact a search for other similar points led to other counterexamples:

###### Theorem 3.

Set $`p=5`$. Then the set of $`N`$ with $`1N83`$ and such that $`5N`$ and $`d(6,1)>0`$ is $`\{14,28,34,37,38,42,53,56,68,69,71,74,76,83\}`$, and for each $`N`$ in this set we have $`d(26,1)=2d(6,1)>d(6,1)`$, so every such $`N`$ gives a counterexample to the Gouvêa–Mazur conjecture.

###### Proof.

One verifies this statement easily using William Stein’s programs for modular forms, written for the MAGMA computer algebra package . ∎

###### Remark.

As opposed to the $`p=59`$ counterexample above, which relies on “custom computations” done by the authors, these latter counterexamples rely only on standard programs of Stein which have existed for many years and are likely to be bug-free.

The counterexamples exhibited above all pertain to forms of positive slope and weight at most $`p+1`$, and hence to forms whose associated mod $`p`$ representation is irreducible when restricted to a decomposition group at $`p`$. After our counterexamples were discovered, Graham Herrick pointed out to us that if one extends the domain of the conjecture to forms of level $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1(N)\mathrm{\Gamma }_0(p)`$ then one can find counterexamples coming from forms whose associated mod $`p`$ representation is reducible, even globally. For example if $`p=5`$ then there are two slope 1 forms of level $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1(4)`$ at weight 7, and four slope 1 forms of this level at weight 27. The mod 5 representations associated to all of these forms are reducible. Note that once again there are twice as many slope 1 forms in the higher weight than are predicted by the Gouvêa-Mazur conjecture.

Finally, we remark that Breuil has made local conjectures (Conjecture 1.5 in ) which imply that if $`f`$ is an eigenform of level $`N`$ and weight $`k`$ with $`2k2p`$, and if the slope of $`f`$ is strictly between 0 and 1, then the mod $`p`$ representation associated to $`f`$ is irreducible when restricted to a decomposition group at $`p`$. Breuil has asked (personal communication with K.B.) whether one should expect such a result when $`k>2p`$. However, the mod 5 representations associated to the four forms of level $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1(4)`$ and weight 11 are all reducible, and all of these forms have slope $`1/2`$. The generalisation of Breuil’s conjectures to the case $`k>2p`$ remains an interesting open problem, which might shed more light on the results of this paper.

k.buzzard@ic.ac.uk
fcale@math.harvard.edu


text:
# The connection between conformal group and quantum states of photons†footnote ††footnote †This note is mainly devoted to a physically interesting comparison between the photonic quantum states and the conformal group. Because of the trivial and lengthy calculation involved, the detailed analysis of comparison made between photonic states and conformal transformations will be submitted nowhere else for publication, just uploaded at the e-print archives.

## I The 15-parameter conformal group

The group under consideration is the 15-parameter Lie group often referred to as “conformal transformation”, which is defined as the set of those transformations that transforms flat space into flat space. The conformal group consists of the space-time translations ($`x^\mu =x^\mu +\alpha ^\mu `$, 4 parameters), the proper homogeneous Lorentz transformations (i.e., the Lorentz rotation, $`x^\mu =\mathrm{\Lambda }_\nu ^\mu x^\nu `$, 6 parameters), the dilatation (or scale) transformation ($`x^\mu =sx^\mu `$, 1 parameter) and the special conformal (acceleration) transformation ($`x^\mu =(1+2a^\alpha x_\alpha +x^2a^2)^1(x^\mu +a^\mu x^2)`$, 4 parameters). The corresponding algebraic generators can be realized in terms of the differential operators acting on the Minkowski space, which are as follows:

$`P_\mu `$ $`=`$ $`i_\mu (\mathrm{translation}),`$ (1)
$`M_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`i(x_\mu _\nu x_\nu _\mu )(\mathrm{Lorentz}\mathrm{transformation}),`$ (2)
$`D`$ $`=`$ $`ix^\nu _\nu (\mathrm{dilatation}\mathrm{transformation}),`$ (3)
$`K_\mu `$ $`=`$ $`i(2x_\mu x_\nu ^\nu x^2_\mu )(\mathrm{special}\mathrm{conformal}\mathrm{transformation}).`$ (4)
The algebraic commuting relations of the above 15 generators are given

$`[P_\mu ,P_\nu ]`$ $`=`$ $`0,[P_\lambda ,M_{\mu \nu }]=i(g_{\mu \lambda }P_\nu g_{\nu \lambda }P_\mu ),`$ (5)
$`[P_\mu ,D]`$ $`=`$ $`iP_\mu ,[P_\mu ,K_\nu ]=2i(g_{\mu \nu }DM_{\mu \nu }),`$ (6)
$`[D,M_{\mu \nu }]`$ $`=`$ $`0,[D,K_\mu ]=iK_\mu ,`$ (7)
$`[M_{\mu \nu },M_{\sigma \rho }]`$ $`=`$ $`i(g_{\mu \rho }M_{\nu \sigma }+g_{\nu \sigma }M_{\mu \rho }+g_{\mu \sigma }M_{\rho \nu }+g_{\nu \rho }M_{\sigma \mu }),`$ (8)
$`[K_\mu ,K_\nu ]`$ $`=`$ $`0,[K_\lambda ,M_{\mu \nu }]=i(g_{\mu \lambda }K_\nu g_{\nu \lambda }K_\mu ).`$ (9)
In what follows we will concern ourselves with the unitary phase transformation operators in the photonic quantum states, i.e., the Fock state, coherent state and squeezed state.

## II Photonic quantum states

Historically, the fundamental concepts of the Fock state, coherent state and squeezed state were proposed by Dirac, Glauber and Stoler, respectively. In this section we will take into a comprehensive consideration these three photonic quantum states and discuss several topics such as the unitary phase transformation operators, the generators and the algebraic structures in quantum states of photons as well as the close relation to the conformal transformation.

### A Free-Hamiltonian time-evolution operator in Fock state

The operators $`a^{}a`$ and $`aa^{}`$ may be considered the generators of the Free-Hamiltonian time-evolution operator of photon state, which is of the form

$$P(\alpha )=\mathrm{exp}(\alpha a^{}a\alpha ^{}aa^{}),P^{}(\alpha )=\mathrm{exp}[(\alpha a^{}a\alpha ^{}aa^{})].$$
(10)
The unitary transformation operator $`P(\alpha )`$ leads to the following transformation

$$aa^{}=P^{}(\alpha )aP(\alpha )=\mathrm{exp}(\alpha ^{}\alpha )a,a^{}a^{}=P^{}(\alpha )a^{}P(\alpha )=\mathrm{exp}[(\alpha ^{}\alpha )]a^{},$$
(11)
and consequently the infinitesimal variations of $`a`$ and $`a^{}`$ under the transformation $`P(\alpha )`$ are

$$\delta a=(\alpha ^{}\alpha )a,\delta a^{}=(\alpha ^{}\alpha )a^{},$$
(12)
which follows that $`\delta a`$, $`a^{}`$ and the infinitesimal variations of space-time coordinates

$$\delta x^\mu =\frac{1}{i}\alpha Dx^\mu =\alpha x^\mu $$
(13)
under the dilatation transformation are alike in some way. The new states generated by the dilatation transformation $`P(\alpha )`$ are written

$$|\alpha ,0=P(\alpha )|0=\mathrm{exp}(\alpha ^{})|0,|\alpha ,n=P(\alpha )|n=\mathrm{exp}[(\alpha ^{}\alpha )a^{}a]\mathrm{exp}(\alpha ^{})|n.$$
(14)
It follows that $`|\alpha ,n=P(\alpha )|n=\mathrm{exp}[n(\alpha ^{}\alpha )]\mathrm{exp}(\alpha ^{})|n`$. It is known that the quantum state $`|\alpha ,n`$ can be realized by the time evolution with a free Hamiltonian $`H=\frac{\omega }{2}(aa^{}+a^{}a)`$ (governed by the time-dependent Schrödinger equation), namely, $`|t,n=\mathrm{exp}[\frac{1}{i}(n+\frac{1}{2})\omega t]|n`$. If the parameters in the unitary transformation operator $`P(\alpha )`$ are taken

$$\alpha =\frac{1}{2i}\omega t,\alpha ^{}=\frac{1}{2i}\omega t,$$
(15)
then $`|t,n`$ will be the photonic states characterized in (14). Thus it is concluded that the free-Hamiltonian time-evolution operator acting on the photon creation and annihilation operators closely resembles the dilatation (or scale) transformation in the conformal group, and that a stationary Fock state acted upon by the free-Hamiltonian time-evolution operator $`P(\alpha )`$ will be transformed into a time-dependent Fock state.

### B Displacement operator in coherent state

The coherent state of photons is defined to be $`|\alpha =D(\alpha )|0`$ with the displacement operator being

$$D(\alpha )=\mathrm{exp}(\alpha a^{}\alpha ^{}a).$$
(16)
The displacement operator acting on the vacuum state is equivalent to the following transformation

$$aa^{}=D^{}(\alpha )aD(\alpha )=a+\alpha ,a^{}a^{}=D^{}(\alpha )a^{}D(\alpha )=a^{}+\alpha ^{},$$
(17)
which will yield the infinitesimal variations

$$\delta a=\alpha ,\delta a^{}=\alpha ^{}.$$
(18)
It is physically interesting that the above $`\delta a`$ and $`\delta a^{}`$ are in analogy with the variations of the space-time coordinates $`x^\mu `$ under the infinitesimal translation transformation in the conformal group, i.e.,

$$\delta x^\mu =\frac{1}{i}\alpha ^\nu P_\nu x^\mu =\alpha ^\mu .$$
(19)
### C Squeezing operator in squeezed state

The squeezed state is defined to be $`|\zeta =S(\zeta )|0`$ with the squeezing operator being

$$S(\zeta )=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2}\zeta ^{}a^2\frac{1}{2}\zeta (a^{})^2\right],\zeta =s\mathrm{exp}(i\theta ).$$
(20)
The corresponding variations of $`a`$ and $`a^{}`$ are

$$aa^{}=S^{}(\alpha )aS(\alpha )=a\mathrm{cosh}sa^{}\mathrm{exp}(i\theta )\mathrm{sinh}s,a^{}a^{}=S^{}(\alpha )a^{}S(\alpha )=a^{}\mathrm{cosh}sa\mathrm{exp}(i\theta )\mathrm{sinh}s.$$
(21)
The infinitesimal variations

$$\delta a=[\left(\frac{1}{2}\zeta ^{}a^2\frac{1}{2}\zeta (a^{})^2\right),a]=\zeta a^{},\delta a^{}=[\left(\frac{1}{2}\zeta ^{}a^2\frac{1}{2}\zeta (a^{})^2\right),a^{}]=\zeta ^{}a,$$
(22)
which shows some analogy with the two-dimensional infinitesimal Lorentz rotation, $`\delta x^\mu =\frac{1}{2i}ϵ^{\omega \nu }M_{\omega \nu }x^\mu =ϵ^{\nu \mu }x_\nu `$, i.e.,

$$\delta x^0=ϵ^{10}x^1,\delta x^1=ϵ^{10}x^0.$$
(23)
## III Defining a kind of operator integral to obtain the generators of quantum states of photons

In this section, we will define a kind of operator integral technique to get the algebraic generators of the above three quantum states of photons.

The generators of displacement operator $`D(\alpha )=\mathrm{exp}(\alpha a^{}\alpha ^{}a)`$ can be obtained via the following two integrals (with c-number $`\alpha `$ and $`\alpha ^{}`$ being the integrands)

$$\alpha ^{}a=\alpha ^{}da,\alpha a^{}=\alpha da^{},$$
(24)
where the integral constant (unit matrix) is omitted due to its triviality. In (24) we obtain the linear-form operators (generators) $`a`$ and $`a^{}`$.

In the similar fashion, we calculate the following operator integrals (note that the definition of the operator integral is implied in the following calculation)

$``$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle da\left(\zeta a^{}+\zeta ^{}a\right)}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\zeta \left(aa^{}+a^{}a\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\zeta ^{}a^2,`$ (25)
$`^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle da^{}\left(\zeta a^{}+\zeta ^{}a\right)}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\zeta ^{}\left(aa^{}+a^{}a\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\zeta \left(a^{}\right)^2.`$ (26)
So, one can arrive at the generators of squeezed state (and Fock state), which are involved in

$$^{}=\frac{1}{2}\left[\zeta ^{}a^2\zeta \left(a^{}\right)^2\right]+\frac{1}{2}\left(\zeta \zeta ^{}\right)\left(aa^{}+a^{}a\right).$$
(27)
Note that the generators in (27) are quadratic-form operators. In Eq.(27) $`aa^{}`$ and $`a^{}a`$ can be viewed as the generators of the dilatation transformation $`P(\alpha )`$ in (10). If, for example, $`\frac{1}{2i}\left(\zeta \zeta ^{}\right)=\mathrm{Im}\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{Re}\alpha =0`$, then we have $`\frac{1}{2}\left(\zeta \zeta ^{}\right)\left(aa^{}+a^{}a\right)=\alpha a^{}a\alpha ^{}aa^{}`$.

The calculations in Eq.(24) and (27) shows that one can obtain the generators of photonic quantum states by using such operator integrals just defined above.

Now we continue calculating the following operator integrals

$`𝒢`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle da\left[\varrho ^{}a^2+\varrho \left(a^{}\right)^2\right]}={\displaystyle \frac{\varrho }{3}}\left[a\left(a^{}\right)^2+a^{}aa^{}+(a^{})^2a\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{\varrho ^{}}{3}}a^3=\varrho a^{}aa^{}+{\displaystyle \frac{\varrho ^{}}{3}}a^3,`$ (28)
$`𝒢^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle da^{}\left[\varrho ^{}a^2+\varrho \left(a^{}\right)^2\right]}={\displaystyle \frac{\varrho ^{}}{3}}\left[\left(a^{}\right)a^2+aa^{}a+a^2a^{}\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{\varrho }{3}}\left(a^{}\right)^3=\varrho ^{}aa^{}a+{\displaystyle \frac{\varrho }{3}}\left(a^{}\right)^3.`$ (29)
In the same manner as (27), we have

$$𝒢𝒢^{}=\varrho Q\varrho ^{}Q^{},$$
(30)
where

$$Q=a^{}aa^{}\frac{1}{3}\left(a^{}\right)^3,Q^{}=aa^{}a\frac{1}{3}a^3,$$
(31)
which are nonlinear (cubic-form) generators.

## IV Cubic-nonlinearity phase transformation operator

It is of physical interest to consider the so-called cubic-nonlinearity phase transformation operator $`C(\varrho )`$, which is defined to be

$$C(\varrho )=\mathrm{exp}\left(\varrho Q\varrho ^{}Q^{}\right).$$
(32)
In the meanwhile, we define a new photonic quantum state as follows

$$|\varrho =C(\varrho )|0.$$
(33)
The variations of $`a`$ and $`a^{}`$ under the nonlinear unitary transformation $`C(\varrho )`$ are

$`\delta a`$ $`=`$ $`[\left(\varrho Q\varrho ^{}Q^{}\right),a]=\varrho \left(aa^{}+a^{}a\right)\left[\varrho ^{}a^2+\varrho \left(a^{}\right)^2\right],`$ (34)
$`\delta a^{}`$ $`=`$ $`[\left(\varrho Q\varrho ^{}Q^{}\right),a^{}]=\varrho ^{}\left(aa^{}+a^{}a\right)\left[\varrho \left(a^{}\right)^2+\varrho ^{}a^2\right].`$ (35)
Accordingly, here we may take into account the special conformal transformation in the conformal group, i.e.,

$$\delta x^\mu =\frac{1}{i}\varrho ^\nu K_\nu x^\mu =2\varrho ^\nu x_\nu x^\mu x^2\varrho ^\mu ,$$
(36)
that is, the two-dimensional infinitesimal special conformal transformation is of the form

$`\delta x^0`$ $`=`$ $`2\varrho ^\nu x_\nu x^0x^2\varrho ^0=\left\{2\varrho ^1x^1x^0\varrho ^0\left[\left(x^0\right)^2+\left(x^1\right)^2\right]\right\},`$ (37)
$`x^1`$ $`=`$ $`2\varrho ^\nu x_\nu x^1x^2\varrho ^1=2\varrho ^0x^0x^1\varrho ^1\left[\left(x^0\right)^2+\left(x^1\right)^2\right].`$ (38)
It follows that the quantum state $`C(\varrho )|0`$ and the special conformal transformation (characterized by the generators $`K_\mu `$’s) are alike in some way. If, for example, in the particular case the two-dimensional infinitesimal parameters agree with $`\varrho ^0=\varrho ^1`$, and $`\varrho =\varrho ^{}`$, then the two variations (35) and (38) are of the same mathematical form. Both (35) and (38) are their respective extensions of this same special case. Thus we may think of $`|\varrho =C(\varrho )|0`$ as the fourth quantum state of photons and refer to it as the optical conformal state. Differing from the three photonic quantum states studied previously, the conformal state is a nonlinear one. It is reasonably believed that such quantum state may be of special physical interest and deserves further investigation.

Acknowledgements This project was supported partially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the project No. $`90101024`$.


text:
# Turning CARTwheels: An Alternating Algorithm for Mining Redescriptions

## 1 Introduction

Classification and regression trees (CART) were among the earliest proposed approaches for pattern classification and data mining . While being powerful in terms of accuracy and efficiency of induction, their results are also simple to understand as they mimic the decision-making logic of human experts. The renewed emphasis on data mining propagated by the knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) community in the early 1990s has fueled a resurgence of interest in tree-based methods. Researchers have revisited tree induction algorithms in the context of datasets residing in secondary storage , creating scalable and highly efficient implementations . The many fielded applications of tree-based methods range from everyday uses such as spam filtering  to astrophysical domains such as classifying galaxies .

In this paper we introduce a new data mining task—redescription mining—and also propose a novel tree-based algorithm (CARTwheels) for mining redescriptions. A redescription is a shift-of-vocabulary, or a different way of communicating information about a given subset of data; the goal of redescription mining is to find subsets of data that afford multiple descriptions.

Consider the set of all countries in the world. The elements of this set can be described in various ways, e.g., geographical location, political status, scientific capabilities, and economic prosperity. Such descriptors allow us to define various subsets of the given (universal) set. A redescription involves a subset definable in two ways, for instance:

| ‘Countries with $`>200`$ Nobel prize winners’ | $``$ | ‘Countries with $`>150`$ billionaires’ |
| --- | --- | --- |

This redescription involves two descriptors, and says that the countries with more than 200 Nobel prize winners are also those countries with more than 150 billionaires. One country satisfies both descriptors, namely U.S.A., and we say that it has been redescribed. The strength of the redescription is given by the symmetric Jaccard’s coefficient, which is the ratio of the size of the intersection of two descriptors to the size of their union (in this case, 1/1 = 1).

Descriptors on either side of a redescription can involve more than one entity, e.g.,

| ‘Countries with defense budget $`>`$ $30 billion’ | $``$ | ‘Permanent members of U.N. Security Council’ |
| --- | --- | --- |

This redescription is only approximate, however, since the left descriptor contains {U.S.A., U.K., Japan, France, Germany} and the right descriptor represents {U.S.A., U.K., Russia, France, China}. The Jaccard’s coefficient is hence 3/7 = 0.428.

To strengthen redescriptions such as above, we can use more selective descriptors:

| ‘Countries with declared nuclear arsenals’ | $``$ | ‘Permanent members of U.N. Security Council’ |
| --- | --- | --- |

which improves the Jaccard’s coefficient to 5/8 = 0.625 since the left descriptor now represents {U.S.A., U.K., Russia, France, China, India, Israel, Pakistan}. Another approach to strengthening is to form set-theoretic operations (union, intersection, difference) involving the given descriptors; e.g. the redescription

| ‘Countries with defense budget $`>`$ $30 billion’ $``$ ‘Countries with declared nuclear arsenals’ | $``$ |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ‘Permanent members of U.N. Security Council’ $``$ ‘Countries with history of communism’ |  |  |

holds with Jaccard’s coefficient $`1`$. It refers to three countries: {U.S.A., U.K., France}.

The inputs to redescription mining are the universal set of objects $`O`$ and two sets ($`X`$ and $`Y`$) of subsets of $`O`$. The elements of $`X`$ are the descriptors $`X_i`$, and are assumed to form a covering of $`O`$ ($`_iX_i=O`$). Similarly $`_iY_i=O`$. The only requirement of a descriptor is that it be a proper subset of $`O`$ and denote some logical grouping of the underlying objects (for ease of interpretation). The goal of redescription mining is to find equivalence relationships of the form $`EF`$ that hold at or above a given Jaccard’s coefficient $`\theta `$ (i.e., $`\frac{|EF|}{|EF|}\theta `$), where $`E`$ and $`F`$ are set-theoretic expressions involving $`X_i`$’s and $`Y_i`$’s, respectively. For tractability purposes, some syntactic bias on the allowable set-theoretic expressions or their length is assumed to be provided. For instance, we might restrict $`E`$ to only involve intersections of two descriptors from $`X`$ and $`F`$ to either an intersection or difference of two descriptors from $`Y`$. Redescription mining hence involves constructive induction (the task of inventing new features) and exhibits traits of both unsupervised and supervised learning. It is unsupervised because it finds conceptual clusters underlying data, and it can be viewed as supervised because clusters defined using descriptors are given meaningful characterizations (in terms of other descriptors).

Why is this problem relevant? We posit that today’s high-throughput data-driven sciences are drowning in not just the dimensionality of data, but also in the multitude of descriptors available for characterizing data. Consider gene expression studies using bioinformatics approaches. The universal set of genes in a given organism ($`O`$) can be studied in many ways, such as functional categorizations, expression level quantification using microarrays, protein interactions, and biological pathway involvement. Each of these methodologies provides a different vocabulary to define subsets of $`O`$ (e.g., ‘genes localized in cellular compartment nucleus,’ ‘genes up-expressed two-fold or more in heat stress,’ ‘genes encoding for proteins that form the Immunoglobin complex,’ and ‘genes involved in glucose biosynthesis’). While traditionally we would custom-build data mining algorithms to work with each of these vocabularies, redescription mining provides a uniform way to characterize and analyze the results from any of them. In addition, it helps bridge diverse experimental methodologies by uniformly relating subsets across the corresponding vocabularies.

We further argue that redescription mining serves as a fundamental building block of many important steps in the iterative, often unarticulated, knowledge discovery process. A shift of vocabulary allows a given subset of data to be interpretable in a different context, and allows us to harness existing knowledge from this other context. For instance, if we are able to redescribe results from a new stress experiment onto, say, a heat shock experiment studied earlier, we will be able to study the new results in terms of known biological knowledge about heat shock. Chains of redescriptions allow us to relate diverse vocabularies, through important intermediaries.

Even redescriptions that hold with Jaccard’s coefficient $`<1`$ find application in many domains. An approximate redescription implies a common meeting ground for two concerted communities of objects. A chain of such approximate redescriptions can effectively relate two subsets that have nothing in common! This is especially useful in story telling and link analysis applications. A query such as ‘what is the relationship between people traveling on Flight 847 and the top 10 wanted list by the FBI?’ can be posed in terms of redescription finding.

While related problems have been studied in the data mining community (most notably, conceptual clustering , niche finding, and profiling classes ), we believe that the above formulation of redescription mining has not been attempted before. Our contributions here are both the introduction of this new data mining problem, as well as a novel tree-based algorithm for mining redescriptions.

## 2 Redescription Mining as Alternating Tree Induction

We now introduce an approach (CARTwheels) to mining redescriptions that involves growing two trees in opposite directions, so that they are matched at their leaves. The decision conditions in the first tree (say, top) are based on set membership checks in entries from $`X`$ and the bottom tree is based on membership checks in entries from $`Y`$; thus matching of leaves corresponds to a potential redescription. This idea hence uses paths in the classification trees as representations of boolean expressions involving the descriptors.

The CARTwheels algorithm is an alternating algorithm, in that the top tree is initially fixed and the bottom tree is grown to match it. Next, the bottom tree is fixed, and the top tree is re-grown. This process continues, spouting redescriptions along the way, until designated stopping criteria are met.

### 2.1 Working Example

For ease of illustration, consider the artificial example in Fig. 1 that shows two sets of descriptors for the universal set $`O=\{o_1,o_2,o_3,o_4,o_5\}`$. Here, the set $`X`$ corresponds to the set of descriptors $`\{X_1,X_2,X_3,X_4\}`$ and $`Y`$ corresponds to $`\{Y_1,Y_2,Y_3,Y_4\}`$. The cardinalities of $`X`$ and $`Y`$ may not be the same in the general case. Further, in a realistic application, the number of descriptors would far exceed the number of objects.

To initialize the CARTwheels alternation, we prepare a traditional dataset for classification tree induction, where the entries correspond to the objects, the boolean features are derived from one of $`X`$ or $`Y`$, and the classes are derived from the other. In the dataset shown in Fig. 2 (left), the features correspond to set membership in entries of $`Y`$ and each object is assigned a unique class, chosen from the $`X_i`$’s it participates in. We employed a greedy set covering of the objects using the entries of $`X`$ in order to establish the class labels in Fig. 2 (left). For instance, $`o_2`$ belongs to both $`X_1`$ and $`X_3`$, but the tie is broken in favor of $`X_1`$. Notice that in this process, $`X_3`$ does not receive any representation in the prepared dataset.

A classification tree can now be grown using any of the impurity measures studied in the literature (e.g., entropy, Gini index, misclassification rate). Fig. 2 (right) depicts a possible tree. The leaves of the tree deterministically predict a class label from $`X`$, typically the majority class. At this point, the specific details of how the tree was induced are not important, only that any such tree will induce a partition of the underlying objects. In this case, the tree induces a 3-partition which mirrors the 3-class partition present in the original dataset, but is not exactly the same. The left most path corresponds to the region $`Y_3Y_2`$, the right most path corresponds to $`OY_3Y_1`$, and the union of the two middle paths gives $`(Y_3Y_2)(Y_1Y_3)`$. The reader can verify that these regions do not have a one-to-one correspondence with the regions $`X_1`$, $`X_2`$, and $`X_4`$ in the original partition. For instance, only $`X_2`$ enjoys such a correspondence, with $`OY_3Y_1`$. In ‘reading off’ a partition from a tree in this manner, a conjunction thus results from a path of length $`>1`$, a disjunction results from multiple paths predicting the same class, with negations corresponding to following the ‘no’ branch from a given node. This partition is used as the starting point for the alternation (Fig. 4, first frame).

We now prepare a dataset with entries from $`X`$ as the features and the regions thus formed (involving $`Y_i`$’s) as the classes, as shown in Fig. 3 (left). Inducing a classification tree from this dataset really corresponds to growing a second tree to match the first tree at the leaves, as depicted in Fig. 4 (second frame). In this case, the second tree also learns a 3-partition and we can evaluate each of these matchings using the Jaccard’s measure. This produces three redescriptions:

$`(X_3X_1)(X_4X_3)`$ $``$ $`(Y_3Y_2)(Y_1Y_3)`$
$`(X_3X_1)`$ $``$ $`(OY_3Y_1)`$
$`(OX_3X_4)`$ $``$ $`(Y_3Y_2)`$
all of which hold at Jaccard’s coefficient $`1`$. This need not be the case in general. The bottom tree might be able to match only some paths in the top tree, or the matches might not pass our Jaccard’s cutoff. This process is then continued, now with $`Y_i`$’s as features and the partitions derived from the bottom tree as classes (see right of Fig. 3). The new matchings yield the redescriptions:

$`(X_3X_1)(X_4X_3)`$ $``$ $`Y_4`$
$`(OX_3X_4)`$ $``$ $`(Y_3Y_4)`$
$`(X_3X_1)`$ $``$ $`(OY_3Y_4)`$
which, fortuitously, also have a Jaccard’s coefficient of $`1`$. Notice that, this time, the root decision node that has been picked is $`Y_4`$ (see third frame of Fig. 4) and the tree actually resembles a decision list (a tree where every internal node has a leaf on its ‘yes’ branch). The alternation can be continued (see next section for ways to configure the search).

If we limit the size of the trees at every iteration, it is easy to see that the set-expressions constructed cannot get arbitrarily long. In our running example, we use a depth limit of 2 so that all expressions on either side of a mined redescription can involve at most three descriptors. The longest expressions result from unions of two paths involving different subtrees.

### 2.2 The CARTwheels Algorithmic Framework

Why does CARTwheels work? The use of trees to mine one-directional implications (rules) is well understood and is the idea behind algorithms such as C4.5 . In CARTwheels, we exploit the duality between class partitions and path partitions to posit the stronger notion of equivalence. In fact, if a tree reduces the entropy to zero, it is clear that there must be a one-to-one correspondence between its path partitions and class partitions, which are really path partitions from the other tree. Keep in mind that different paths are union-ed when they predict the same class, and this property is crucial to establishing the duality.

The search for redescriptions in CARTwheels can be viewed as a problem of identifying (and creating) correlated random variables. A descriptor, e.g., $`D`$, can be considered to be a discrete random variable that takes on values from $`O`$. Every object in $`D`$ occurs with probability $`\frac{1}{|D|}`$ and other objects occur with probability zero, to yield total probability mass of $`1`$. Notice that this makes the self entropy of such a random variable to be the logarithm of the size of the descriptor. Now consider running a CARTwheels alternation with a depth limit of 1 for the classification trees. Mining a redescription with Jaccard’s coefficient of $`1`$ means that we have identified a random variable $`D^{}`$ whose entropy distance from $`D`$ is zero. The entropy distance  is given by:

$$H(D,D^{})I(D;D^{})$$

where $`H(D,D^{})`$ is the joint entropy function of {$`D`$, $`D^{}`$} and $`I`$ qualifies the mutual information, in turn given by:

$$I(D;D^{})=H(D)H(D|D^{})$$

where $`H(D)`$ is the self-entropy of $`D`$ and $`H(D|D^{})`$ is the conditional entropy of $`D`$ given $`D^{}`$. In other words, the average reduction in uncertainty about $`D`$ due to knowing $`D^{}`$ is exactly the self entropy of $`D`$, causing an entropy distance of $`0`$. Entropy distance is a true distance measure, unlike measures such as the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence. Smaller values of entropy distance hence imply higher values of Jaccard’s coefficient.

When we increase the depth limit, the analysis gets complicated because the redescription mining problem as stated is severely underconstrained. Any successful algorithm is required to arrive at both the set theoretic expressions as well as test them for equivalence. The growing of classification trees with boolean features multiplexes the steps of constructive induction and guarantees implication, while the duality of partitions helps set the stage for equivalence testing. Ideally we would like to exercise precise control over the sequence in which the algorithm explores options, in order to qualify the nature of the mined redescriptions.

#### 2.2.1 Modeling CARTwheels Alternation

Towards this end, the operation of CARTwheels can be modeled as a Markov process since the choice of next state is a function of only the current state (and perhaps global information such as $`O`$, $`X`$, and $`Y`$). This means that we can reduce the search for potential redescriptions to the design of a suitable state exploration policy.

What does ‘state’ mean in modeling the operation of CARTwheels? Refer back to the duality of path partitions and class partitions – either of them could be used as a representation of state. The representation can be given as a label vector employing some canonical ordering of the objects in $`O`$ (to ensure uniqueness). In addition, we have the option of including the descriptors for these partitions (in terms of $`X_i`$’s or $`Y_i`$’s) as part of the state representation. This is important when the same partition is realized by different descriptors, but must be considered distinct for redescription mining purposes (a simple example arises when $`X`$ or $`Y`$ have elements that are exactly the same). We employ this approach in our studies.

#### 2.2.2 Designing an Exploration Policy

Once the representational issue is decided, the more fundamental question pertains to the design of a suitable exploration policy. In contrast to traditional classification tree induction which is motivated at reducing entropy, CARTwheels must actually maintain entropy in some form, since impurity drives exploration.

Should CARTwheels attempt to find all redescriptions? This is clearly a tall order, and is reminiscent of the difficulties encountered in association rule mining , where the number of rules generated can quickly become unwieldy. Attempting to do this in the CARTwheels framework is unappealing since every set expression postulated by one tree must be matched by every expression modelable in the other tree! This will require multiple visitations of the same state and, while we can interleave the testings for matches to a certain extent, would involve enormous overhead in book-keeping. Instead we can exploit the algebraic structure of the problem to identify a minimal generating set of redescriptions, and design the policy to only visit the relevant states for this purpose. This is similar to the strategy pursued by Zaki for mining a non-redundant set of association rules . How this can be done effectively for redescriptions is the topic of a future paper.

A second approach forsakes the desire to explore all redescriptions, and instead exploits the property that a redescription can be viewed as a subset of $`O\times O`$ space, i.e., a binary relation on $`O`$. Here, instead of computing all possible equivalences, we only find enough redescriptions to cover this space a specified number of times. We have to be careful here because redescriptions occur in two flavors. A redescription with Jaccard’s coefficient $`1`$ is a strong one, and has a complementary redescription—with both left side and right side expressions negated—that will also be strong. A redescription with Jaccard’s coefficient $`<1`$ is approximate and might hold in only one complement. For instance, if both sides of the redescription cover, say, 90% of the objects in $`O`$, then a very high Jaccard’s coefficient can result purely by chance! Needless to say, the complementary redescription involving the remaining 10% of the objects may not hold. The net effect is that some redescriptions might imply a complete cover of $`O\times O`$ space, whereas others will only cover subsets. A workable criterion of coverage hence requires careful study.

In this paper, we employ a simpler exploration policy where descriptors participating in a path (but not the leaf) and yielding a good redescription are removed from consideration in subsequent alternations. In experimental tests, we have observed that this greedy policy guarantees a rapid exhaustion of the sets $`X`$ and $`Y`$. We also place a limit on the number of alternations that the algorithm can pass through without finding any redescriptions. Once this limit is exceeded (happens after many useful entries from $`X`$ and $`Y`$ have been deleted), the algorithm terminates.

CARTwheels also employs randomization heuristics to facilitate state exploration. For instance, when assigning class labels after inducing a tree, we take care to ensure that the same label is not assigned to all leaves, and suitably randomize assignments toward this purpose. This might appear counter-intuitive, but notice that it only has the effect of re-organizing the partitions derived from the paths, and can be seen as buying time for the Markov chain. Another example pertains to how decision nodes are selected for inclusion in a tree. While we use entropy as the primary driver for tree induction, we sometimes perform randomized moves at the root level, in order to prevent over-dominance of one descriptor in the ensuing redescriptions.

### 2.3 Implementation Details

CARTwheels is implemented in C++ atop a Postgres database providing access to the descriptors. We use an AD-tree data structure  for fast counting purposes and estimation of entropy (this is distinct from the classification tree that combines the descriptors). The AD-tree provides access to the distributions of ‘class labels’ for every combination of ‘features’ and, since the definition of features and class labels change at every iteration, is rebuilt continually. Notice that the data structure is expected to provide both the sizes of descriptors as well as their negations (when we follow the ‘no’ branch) and hence, the depth of the AD-tree is set to just greater than the allowable depth of the classification trees. The CARTwheels algorithm consults the AD-tree whenever it must make a choice of a decision node (except when its move is exploratory). After evaluating matchings, set-expressions read off the trees are subjected to tabular minimization, in order to arrive at a canonical form.

The implementation allows for configuring the space of redescriptions that are explored. The depth limit for the top and bottom trees can be individually specified, and we can also preferentially include or exclude certain types of expressions in mined redescriptions. For instance, syntactic constraints on redescriptions (e.g., only conjunctions are allowed) can be incorporated as biases in the tree construction phase of CARTwheels.

## 3 Applications in Bioinformatics

We now present an application of CARTwheels to studying gene expression datasets from microarray experiments conducted on the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Bioinformatics is fertile ground for application of CARTwheels and S. cerevisiae is arguably the most well studied (and documented) model organism through bioinformatics techniques. Practically every experimental methodology applied towards yeast can be viewed as a way to define descriptors. Even the results of other data analysis/mining algorithms can be used as a source of descriptors! The underlying universal set of objects could be initialized to the set of genes, proteins, or processes, in S. cerevisiae. CARTwheels hence brings many computational and experimental technologies to bear upon redescription mining. It supports the capture of both similarities and distinctions among descriptors derived from these diverse sources.

The redescription process begins by defining an universal set of genes $`O`$, which is dependent on our biological goals. Here, we are interested in characterizing similarities and differences in yeast gene expression behavior across related families of stresses. Gasch et al.  is an important source for such a study since it provides results from more than 170 comparisons, across a variety of environmental stresses. We selected five stresses from this dataset (heat shock from $`25^{}`$C to $`37^{}`$C, hyper-osmotic shock, hypo-osmotic shock, $`H_2O_2`$ exposure, and mild heat shock at variable osmolarity) and initialized $`O`$ to be the set of genes that show significant expression (more than 1-fold up- or down-expression) in some time point in each of these stresses. This results in a set of 74 genes/ORFs.

The choice of the universal set can be viewed as a conditioning context and must be kept in mind when interpreting any mined redescriptions. It can be viewed as an implicit descriptor occurring on both sides of every redescription, e.g., $`EF`$ in $`O`$ can be viewed as $`EOFO`$.

We defined 824 descriptors, in a variety of ways. One class of descriptors was derived from categories in the GO biological process, GO cellular component, and GO molecular function taxonomies, that have representation among the chosen 74 genes. This yields a total of 378 descriptors (210 GO BIO + 42 GO CELL + 126 GO MOL). The microarray results from the five stresses of Gasch et al.  were bucketed to yield range descriptors of the form ‘expression level $``$ \[%x, 0\] in time point %y of stress experiment %z’ (for negative %x) and ‘expression level $``$ \[0, %x\] in time point %y of stress experiment %z’ (for positive %x). This produces 224 descriptors. Further, k-means clustering was performed using the Genesis software suite  on each of the stresses individually, with a setting of 10 clusters. Since heat shock and mild heat shock at variable osmolarity are actually pairs of experiments, this step yields (5+2) $`\times `$ 10 = 70 descriptors depicting clusters of genes with similar time profiles. Finally, we included microarray results from a histone depletion experiment conducted by Wyrick et al.  and created 152 range descriptors similar to the Gasch stresses; this is to allow us to relate the effect of histone depletion to that of environmental stresses.

To invoke CARTwheels, we initialized $`X`$ to be all descriptors derived from the Gasch et al. dataset (which includes the range descriptors as well as the k-means clusters). This ensures that all redescriptions will involve some aspect of the Gasch et al. experiment and prevents the possibility of, say, mining a redescription between two GO taxonomies. $`Y`$ was initialized to the set of all descriptors; thus, there is some overlap between $`X`$ and $`Y`$. In order to prevent obvious redescriptions arising from this overlap, the algorithm was precluded from utilizing descriptors in one tree if they are already present in the other tree.

We employed a Jaccard’s threshold of 0.5 and a depth-limit of 2 in both the top and bottom tree induction alternations. The limit on the number of allowable alternations till a redescription is mined is set to 10. Redescriptions inferred from CARTwheels are required to hold in both the mined and complementary forms. For example, for the equivalence $`E_1E_2F`$ to be considered as a redescription, it must hold with Jaccard’s coefficient at least 0.5, as must its complement: $`\neg E_1\neg E_2\neg F`$. This ensures that every redescription truly induces a partition of $`O`$. Thus whetted, redescriptions are then subjected to a ‘tightening’ step, akin to rule pruning in packages like C4.5. This might involve attempting to drop terms from both sides of the redescription, or restricting range descriptors (if they occur in the redescription), and determining whether this causes significant degradation of Jaccard’s coefficient. If no degradation is observed, then the redescription can be tightened. With these design choices, and the greedy exploration policy, CARTwheels terminates after using 150 of the 824 descriptors, yielding about 200 redescriptions.

Seven key mined redescriptions (R1–R7) are depicted in Fig. 5. They were selected for both their biological interest as well as for their feature construction novelties. R1 is a redescription between the GO taxonomy and experimental stresses from the Gasch dataset, and involves two genes. The rectangular region on the right side is bounded by the extremal values specific to the experiment, and hence is captured by a conjunction of merely two descriptors. From a biological perspective, R1 is interesting because it relates contrasting behavior in two different experimental comparisons (positive in heat shock 10 minutes, and negative in hypo-osmotic shock) to a GO biological category related to stress.

R2 is actually a chain of two redescriptions, mined in successive iterations of CARTwheels. This redescription involves 11 genes and relates the disjunction of two different GO biological categories to expression data across three different stresses (this time, all involving positive expression). Notice that one of the derived expression descriptors is also a disjunction. It is pertinent to note that R2 experienced some tightening of its range descriptors – this is why one of its expressions has an extra term than would be expected for a 2-level tree.

R3 satisfies our curiosity about the similarity between the histone depletion experiment and a Gasch comparison (heat shock). It involves 7 genes, two of which are hypothetical and one with a putative annotation. Such redescriptions involving un-annotated genes are important for suggesting testable hypotheses about their functionality.

The remaining redescriptions involve cluster profiles on one or both sides. R4 relates a k-means cluster to a set difference of two related GO cellular component categories. Interestingly, two of the genes participating in this redescription (YDR342C and YHR096C) are singled out by the next redescription (R5), which identifies a different k-means cluster to characterize these genes; and which also uses a set-difference, this time of related GO molecular function categories.

R6 is another chain of redescriptions, similar to R2, and relates a particular trend in the Gasch dataset to positively expressed genes in three different time points of the histone experiment. It involves 7 genes. Finally, R7 is actually a triangle of redescription relationships that illustrates the power of CARTwheels. Three different experimental comparisons are involved in this circular chain of redescriptions, with 10 genes being implicated in all three descriptors. From a biological standpoint, this is a very interesting result – the common genes indicate concerted participation across stress conditions; whereas the genes participating in, say, two of the descriptors, but not the third, suggest a careful diversification of functionality.

## 4 Discussion

This paper is a first exploration into the formulation of the redescription mining problem and has presented an approach for mining redescriptions automatically. Redescriptions can be thought of as generalizations of one-directional implications (e.g., association rules , rules in ILP ), where one descriptor is required to be a proper subset of the other. This generalization coupled with the automatic identification of set-theoretic constructions makes CARTwheels a very powerful approach to mining (approximate) equivalence relations. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of CARTwheels in a domain that exhibits a richness of descriptors, and shown how it captures patterns involving small as well as large sets of objects.

The work presented here can be considered a significant extension of ideas pursued in the schema matching , clustering categorical data , and model management  literature. The relationships considered in schema matching research are primarily of the foreign key nature or otherwise operate at the instance level, whereas we consider more complex set-theoretic relationships. Clustering categorical data focuses on defining similarity measures in non-metric spaces and this research can be fruitfully integrated with our work. However, notice that we are not merely clustering data but also imposing describability constraints. Model management is a framework that recognizes the complex inter-relationships that would exist in multi-database enterprises and provides union, intersection, and difference operators for reconciliation, integration, and migration purposes. The relationships here are assumed to be user provided, and the emphasis is on actually ‘executing a redescription.’ CARTwheels can thus be usefully employed here as a driver for determining what these relationships should be.

We now outline some directions for future research. The connection between Jaccard’s coefficient and algorithmic driver parameters (such as entropy) deserves further study. Other ways of evaluating redescriptions  are also pertinent here (e.g., Dice coefficient) and some of these could support more efficient tree-based algorithms than the Jaccard’s coefficient. Ideally, an evaluation metric would obey some closure properties in the space of redescriptions, which can be used to configure an exploration strategy. In addition, it is preferable that an evaluation metric lends itself to the design of a statistical test of significance for redescriptions.

Thus far, we have assumed a ‘flat’ organization of the given descriptors and do not recognize any structural relationships between them. However, some descriptor vocabularies (e.g., derived from GO) enjoy a hierarchical structure, which can be exploited by the mining algorithm. Specialized redescription algorithms can thus be designed for targeted descriptor families.

There is an intrinsic limit to a dataset’s potential to reveal redescriptions, which can be studied through statistical analysis of set size distributions and estimates of overlap potential. Of particular interest here is qualifying the ‘expected’ results from a CARTwheels alternation before actually performing the alternation; the entropy rate of the stochastic process underlying the Markov chain  can be a useful indicator in this regard.

Our current focus is on using redescriptions to automatically span multiple levels of abstraction (e.g., gene subsets $``$ pathways $``$ biological processes). This would firmly establish the importance of redescription in bridging the diverse levels at which information is created and characterized.

### Acknowledgements

This work is supported through the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program of the Department of Defense (Biomimetic Cell and Tissue Stasis; N00014-01-1-0852), the Metabolic Engineering for Cellular Stasis program of DARPA (N00173-98-1-G005-P00004 and N00173-02-1-G016), and the National Science Foundation (Next Generation Software program; grants EIA-9984317 and EIA-0103660). We thank Bud Mishra, Chris Bailey-Kellogg, and T.M. Murali for critically reading the manuscript and providing useful comments.