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# THEORETICAL CONSTRAINTS ON INTERACTION AMPLITUDES OF LIGHT MESONS

## Abstract

We impose unitarity constraints on the $`S`$–wave isoscalar $`\pi \pi `$ amplitudes extracted from the analysis of the $`\pi ^{}p\pi ^+\pi ^{}n`$ data which have been measured by the CERN–Cracow–Munich collaboration on a transversely polarized target at 17.2 GeV/c $`\pi ^{}`$ momentum. Two ”steep” solutions contain a narrow $`S`$–wave $`f_0(750)`$ resonance under the $`\rho (770)`$ and exhibit a considerable inelasticity $`\eta `$ which is in disagreement with the four pion production data below the $`K\overline{K}`$ threshold. We impose $`\eta 1`$ for all data points and examine four sets of solutions for the $`S`$–wave isoscalar phase-shifts. The ”down–flat” and ”up–flat” solutions easily pass the $`\eta 1`$ constraint but the remaining ”down–steep” and ”up–steep” are eliminated. We conclude that the 17.2 GeV data cannot be described by a relatively narrow $`f_0(750)`$.

PACS numbers: 14.40Cs, 13.75Lb

Scalar meson spectroscopy is a subject of many phenomenological analyses in which a construction of interaction amplitudes between light pseudoscalar mesons (like $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ , $`K^+K^{}`$ and other pairs of mesons) is very important. The spectrum of scalars is poorly known  but an agreement on the existence of its lowest member $`f_0(4001200)`$, also called $`\sigma `$ meson, is now rather common. At higher energies there exist isoscalars $`f_0(980)`$, $`f_0(1370)`$ and $`f_0(1500)`$ found in various production processes. Nature of scalar mesons is naturally related to a spectrum of scalar glueballs since a mixing of the $`q\overline{q}`$ states with gluonia can enrich a number of the observed scalar resonances .

A final success of phenomenological analyses in systematization of the existent experimental data depends quite substantially on application of the appropriate theoretical constraints on multichannel amplitudes. For example, using relations coming from parity or isospin symmetry of strong interactions can lead to an important reduction of a number of independent scattering amplitudes. In some channels like $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ one can apply chiral symmetry constraints and the relations following from the crossing symmetry. Analyticity of the coupled channel amplitudes is also a very important property. The masses and widths of the resonances can be essentially obtained in a model-independent way if they are extracted from positions of the T-matrix poles present in all the relevant decay and production channels. The dispersion relations serve as a tool to construct mesonic amplitudes like those appearing in Roy’s equations of the $`\pi \pi `$ $`S`$ and $`P`$ waves. One should also mention a particular role played by constraints following from unitarity of the S-matrix. Limitations on the phenomenological amplitudes coming from unitarity requirement will be discussed in the analysis presented below.

Let us briefly recall the results of our phenomenological analysis  of the CERN–Cracow–Munich data  on the reaction $`\pi ^{}p\pi ^+\pi ^{}n`$ obtained at 17.2 GeV/c. In this reaction several $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ partial waves ($`S`$, $`P`$, $`D`$ and $`F`$) are important. There are significant contributions of three scalar resonances in addition to leading resonances $`\rho (770)`$ , $`f_2(1270)`$ and $`\rho _3(1690)`$. Using the same data Svec claimed that a narrow scalar resonance $`f_0(750)`$ exists below the $`K\overline{K}`$ threshold . In  an energy independent separation of the $`S`$–wave pseudoscalar and pseudovector amplitudes has been performed and we have extracted four solutions of the $`\pi \pi `$ scalar–isoscalar phase shifts called ”down–flat”, ”down–steep”, ”up–flat” and ”up–steep”. The labels ”down” and ”up” refer to a behaviour of the $`S`$-wave intensity which in the effective $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ mass range between 800 MeV and 980 MeV is smaller for the case ”up” than for the case ”down”. The other two-fold ambiguity is related to the fact that a sign of the $`SP`$ phase difference can be chosen in two ways, so the ”flat” phase shifts are smaller and the ”steep” phase shifts are larger than the $`P`$–phases near the $`\rho (770)`$ resonance. Thus the ”steep” solutions could be related to the $`f_0(750)`$ while the ”flat” solutions to a broad $`f_0(500)`$ postulated in .

The $`S`$–wave isospin 0 $`\pi \pi `$ amplitude can be written as

$$a_0=\frac{\eta e^{2i\delta _0}1}{2i},$$
(1)
where $`\eta `$ is inelasticity and $`\delta _0`$ is the isoscalar phase shift. The unitarity constraint leads to inequality $`\eta 1`$ which in phenomenological analysis can sometimes be violated due to experimental errors. In  we have, however, eliminated the solution ”down-steep” since the values $`\eta `$ reached 2 at the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ effective mass $`m_{\pi \pi }`$ near 900 MeV. However, the ”up–steep” solution cannot be eliminated in the same way since the values of $`\eta `$ are smaller in that range and their errors are substantial. Nevertheless, a general behaviour of $`\eta `$ for the ”up–steep” solution is similar to the ”down–steep” solution showing a two–bump character. In contrast to two previous solutions the remaining ”down–flat” and ”up–flat” solutions exhibit a very smooth behaviour of $`\eta `$ very close to 1.

In  we have examined in more detail a range of $`m_{\pi \pi }`$ between 720 MeV and 820 MeV, where five points of $`\eta `$ corresponding to the ”up–steep” solution systematically lie below 1. The average value of inelasticity in that range is $`0.67\pm 0.17`$, well below 1. The probability to find accidentally all five points below 1 is small, equal to 0.002. Therefore we have looked for inelastic reactions in which four pions can be produced below the $`K\overline{K}`$ threshold with the same quantum numbers as those of the $`\pi \pi `$ system. The reactions such as the central $`4\pi `$ production in the high energy proton–proton collisions, peripheral $`4\pi ^0`$ or $`2\pi ^+2\pi ^{}`$ production by high energy pion beams and multipion production in the antiproton annihilation have been considered. We have noticed that there were generally only a few $`4\pi `$ events below 1 GeV and that no peak was seen in the $`4\pi `$ effective mass distribution near $`\rho (770)`$ . Thus a natural assumption in the analysis of the $`\pi \pi `$ production data below 990 MeV is that the inelasticity $`\eta 1`$. With this theoretical constraint we have made a new analysis of the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ isoscalar–scalar phase shifts obtained from the $`\pi ^{}p\pi ^+\pi ^{}n`$ data at 17.2 GeV/c. In  we have extracted the S-wave $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ elastic amplitude $`a_S`$ which was related to the isoscalar $`a_0`$ and isotensor amplitude $`a_2`$ in the following way:

$$a_0=3a_S\frac{1}{2}a_2.$$
(2)
We have also assumed that the $`a_2`$ amplitude is fully elastic and the isotensor phase shifts are known from the analysis of the $`\pi ^+p\pi ^+\pi ^+n`$ data of . Now in view of experimental errors we have to modify the values of $`a_S`$ obtained in  to fulfill the postulated equality $`\eta 1`$. The minimum modification is to multiply $`a_S`$ by a real factor $`n`$ such that

$$\eta ^2=\left|1+2ia_0\right|^2=\left|1+2i(3na_S\frac{1}{2}a_2)\right|^21.$$
(3)
This is a quadratic equation for $`n`$ which has to be solved for each value of $`m_{\pi \pi }`$. Existence of roots is equivalent to the elastic unitarity condition satisfied by $`a_0`$, namely $`Ima_0=\left|a_0\right|^2`$.

We have obtained the following numerical results for the solutions discussed in : values of $`n`$ exist for all twenty $`m_{\pi \pi }`$ points of the solution ”up–flat” and for 19 points (except of the extreme point at 990 MeV) corresponding to the solution ”down–flat” . However for 7 points of the solution ”up–steep” and for 12 points of the solution ”down–steep” the elastic unitarity condition cannot be satisfied. The remaining points of $`n`$ vary with $`m_{\pi \pi }`$ forming a parabolic shape with a maximum at about 800 MeV. In contrast to the ”steep” solutions both ”flat” solutions are well fitted by constants very close to unity in the whole $`m_{\pi \pi }`$ range between 600 and 1000 MeV. These facts represent a strong argument against our accepting the ”steep” solutions as good physical solutions.

Let us now discuss common features of the ”flat” solutions and the major differences between them. There is an initial slow growing of phase shifts with $`m_{\pi \pi }`$ above 600 MeV, then at the $`K\overline{K}`$ threshold there is a sudden jump up by more than $`100^0`$ and then a further rise particularly steep near 1400 MeV. This behaviour of phases has been interpreted in terms of three scalar resonances $`f_0(500)`$, $`f_0(980)`$ and $`f_0(1400)`$. The parameters of these resonances have been recently determined from the positions of the T-matrix poles in the complex energy plane using a three coupled channel model . The major differences between the ”up–flat” and ”down–flat” solutions exist for $`m_{\pi \pi }`$ between 800 MeV and 1000 MeV where the ”up–flat” phase shifts are larger than the ”down–flat” ones by a few tens of degrees, the difference reaching about $`45^0`$. This fact has some consequences since the values of the $`f_0(500)`$ mass and width differ by about 50 MeV between two ”flat” solutions (see ). Around the $`K\overline{K}`$ threshold both solutions approach each other but the ”up–flat” phases are systematically larger than the ”down–flat” phases up to about 1300 MeV.

In conclusion, we have demonstrated that theoretical constraints imposed on the meson-meson interaction amplitudes are very useful in elimination of some ambiguities found in phenomenological analyses of experimental data. Both ”steep” solutions of the scalar-isoscalar $`\pi \pi `$ phase shifts show unphysical behaviour in contrast to the two ”flat” solutions which satisfy well the unitarity tests. As a consequence a narrow resonance $`f_0(750)`$ can be eliminated and the broad $`f_0(500)`$ is confirmed.


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# Rejection of the hypothesis that Markarian 501 TeV photons are pure Bose–Einstein condensates

## 1 Introduction

The propagation of multi–TeV photons through extragalactic space is hindered by pair-production processes that are due to interactions of TeV photons with photons of the diffuse extragalactic background radiation (DEBRA; Gould & Schréder, 1966; Biller, 1999; Bullock et al., 1999; Stecker & de Jager, 1998). The opacity for TeV photons depends on the spectral energy distribution of the DEBRA roughly between wavelengths of 10 and 100 $`\mu `$m. Direct measurements of this weak background radiation is a challenging task because of the orders-of-magnitude higher fluxes of foreground radiation of Galactic and solar system origin. The good spectroscopy of TeV radiation, combined with simultaneous X-ray observations from blazars gives us a tool at hand to determine the level of DEBRA radiation independently (Coppi & Aharonian, 1999). The recent High-Energy-Gamma-Ray Astronomy (HEGRA) and Cerenkov Atmospheric Telescope (CAT) results on the energy spectrum of Markarian 501 and its interpretation yield consistent results on the flux of the DEBRA up to wavelengths of 50 $`\mu `$m (Aharonian et al., 1999b; Guy et al., 2000; Konopelko et al., 1999b; Krawczynski et al., 2000).

Recently, however, Finkbeiner, Davis & Schlegel (2000) claimed a tentative detection of the DEBRA at 60 $`\mu `$m with the DIRBE instrument on board the COBE satellite. The cited flux level would translate into a large optical depth ($`>10`$ for 20 TeV photons) as mentioned by Finkbeiner, Davis & Schlegel (2000) and would result in unreasonable reconstructed source spectra (Protheroe & Meyer, 2000).

A possible solution to this apparent contradiction was previously put forward by Harwit, Protheroe & Biermann (1999). Assuming that powerful sources could produce Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) of photons with energies in the GeV regime, such condensates could be erroneously detected as TeV air shower events by air Cerenkov telescopes. Due to the strong energy dependence of the pair-production cross section the mean free path length for a condensate of, e.g. ten 1 TeV photons would increase by a few 100 Mpc in comparison to the mean free pathlength for a single 10 TeV photon. This would reduce the influence of absorption on the measured energy spectrum of Mrk 501 (distance 157 Mpc assuming $`H_0=65`$ km s-1 Mpc-1) considerably. In this Letter, we present the results of a search for signatures of Bose-Einstein condensates in air shower events with the HEGRA-imaging air Cerenkov telescopes.

## 2 Signatures of Bose-Einstein condensates

When impinging on Earth’s atmosphere, the photons of the condensate would arrive almost simultaneously and fake higher energy air shower events. Since the BECs behave like a superposition of $`N`$ independent photons (Harwit, Protheroe & Biermann, 1999) with a total energy $`E_0`$, the resulting air shower reaches its maximum earlier \[$`X_{max}=\lambda \mathrm{log}_{10}(E_0/N)+const.`$, for the Crab Nebula: $`\lambda =(74.1\pm 0.8^{stat.}\pm 6^{syst.})`$ g/cm2 \] and fluctuates less in its longitudinal development. Since differences in the penetration depth with regard to normal photon-induced showers are comparable to those due to the regular shower fluctuations of $``$ 60 g/cm2, a discrimination on an event-by-event basis is not possible. However, the distribution of penetration depths allows to easily distinguish between different scenarios for the existence of BECs in TeV air shower events:

1. For a pure BEC, there would be a constant shift of greater than $`24`$ g/cm2 to smaller penetration depths depending on the multiplicity of the photons in the condensate.
2. For a given constant fraction of BECs, the mean value of the distribution of penetration depths would be shifted to smaller values. In addition, the shape of the distribution would be asymmetric towards smaller penetration depths due to the superposition of a BEC component.
3. An energy dependent relative content of BECs (due to the energy-dependent absorption of TeV photons) would reduce the rate with which the mean penetration depth increases with increasing energy (elongation rate) and would show an observable change in the shape of the distribution of penetration depths.

These characteristic signatures, as already suggested in Harwit, Protheroe & Biermann (1999), have been searched for in the HEGRA data gathered on Mrk 501 during the 1997 flaring period. By comparing the energy dependent penetration depth of events from the direction of Mrk 501 with the ones from the Crab Nebula and with simulated data, the existence of a pure condensate with $`N2`$ can be tested (case 1) and the relative content of condensates with $`N=10`$ can be probed to a level of 20-30% (case 2). The sensitivity is limited by the systematic error on the energy scale. Independent of this systematic uncertainty on the energy scale, changes in the elongation rate would be an obvious signature for case 3.

## 3 Data selection and analysis

The HEGRA Collaboration operates a system of six imaging air Cerenkov telescopes on the Canary Island of La Palma at 2200 m a.s.l. (800 g/cm2 mass overburden). Five telescopes operate in a stereoscopic mode, registering simultaneously the images of extended air showers in the light produced by the air Cerenkov effect from different viewing angles (Daum et al., 1997; Bulian et al., 1998; Konopelko et al., 1999a). One telescope observes in a stand–alone mode (Mirzoyan et al., 1994). The stereoscopic imaging allows for the complete geometrical reconstruction of the shower axis. In addition, the position of the maximum of particle numbers in the shower development can be inferred geometrically from the position of the image centroid. The method described in Hofmann et al. (2000) has been extended to cover different energies and zenith angles. The average resolution of the reconstruction of the position of the shower maximum is better than one radiation length including all experimental uncertainties. For the reconstruction of the mean penetration depths in bins of energy, an energy reconstruction method based upon Hofmann et al. (1999) has been used. The relative energy resolution obtained is smaller than 20%. The absolute calibration of the energy scale is known to an accuracy of 15%.

The data have been taken in a nodding mode, where the ON and OFF regions are shifted by $`\pm 0.5^{}`$ in declination with respect to the center of the camera, changing sign every 20 minutes. Data processing and the reconstruction of the shower geometry follows the standard analysis described in Aharonian et al. (1999b).

The data on Mrk 501 used in this analysis have been gathered during 1997 with a four-telescope setup. In 1997, Mrk 501 underwent a very strong flaring activity with a peak flux reaching 40 times the intensity of the quiescent state as measured in 1995 and 1996 (Quinn et al., 1996; Bradbury et al., 1997). The mean flux of the source was approximately three times as high as the flux measured from the Crab Nebula (Aharonian et al., 1999b).

The data taken on the Crab Nebula have been accumulated during the observation periods of 1997/1998 and 1998/1999. The observations of 1998/1999 were partially carried out with the five-telescope setup. The energy spectrum derived from a subset of these data is published in Aharonian et al. (2000)

The data have been selected to ensure good quality, details are given in Aharonian et al. (1999a, b). Events with a distance to the zenith angle exceeding 30 have been excluded to reduce systematic uncertainties. The data sample amounts to 81 hr (Mrk 501) and 98 hr (Crab Nebula) of data under small zenith angles and excellent conditions.

The selection of gamma-ray events is based upon an image cut on the quantity mean scaled width $`\stackrel{~}{w}<1.1`$ rejecting 90% of the hadronic background and 40% of the photons (Konopelko et al., 1999a). In this procedure, the image width of each telescope is scaled according to the expectation for a photon-induced shower of a given image size, the impact point distance, and the zenith angle. The scaled widths $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$ from individual telescopes are combined to obtain $`\stackrel{~}{w}`$. In addition to the cut on the image shapes, the direction of accepted events were constrained to be within a half angle of $`0.2^{}`$ of the source direction and the reconstructed impact point of the shower has to be within 200 m of the central telescope.

Simulations of air showers have been carried out using CORSIKA (Heck et al., 1998) with a complete and detailed simulation of the atmosphere (Bernlöhr, 1999) and the detector, including Rayleigh and Mie scattering, single-photon ray-tracing, detailed modeling of signal digitization and threshold behaviour (Bernlöhr 1998, internal report). The simulated data are processed and analyzed in the same way as actual data.

## 4 Results and Interpretation

The resulting distribution of penetration depths are obtained within equally sized logarithmical bins of reconstructed energy. The distributions of reconstructed penetration depths for photons from Mrk 501 and from the Crab Nebula are displayed in Figure 1 for one of the energy bins from 8-12 TeV. The distributions of background events constituting a relative fraction of less than 10% have been subtracted. The distribution for photons derived from simulated air showers including a complete detector simulation and the data processing chain, is superposed. The distributions of penetration depths of the simulated and the actual data are in good agreement ($`\chi ^2`$ and Kolmogorov tests of the distributions give probabilities ranging from 70% to 98%). For comparison, the expected distribution for a BEC with $`N=10`$ is overlaid. The expectation is derived from simulated data by parameterizing the histogram with a Gaussian distribution and changing the width and the mean value according to the occupation number, taking the experimental resolution into account.

Figure 2 displays the mean values of $`X_{max}`$ for eight energy bins, comparing the ones from Mrk 501 with the ones from the Crab Nebula. The error bars indicate the 1 $`\sigma `$ statistical uncertainty on the mean value. The given elongation rate for $`N=1`$ is derived from the simulated data. The grey shaded region indicates the systematic error that is due to the 15% uncertainty on the energy scale.

An additional systematic error in the elongation rate is expected because of the different spectral shapes of the TeV spectra from the Crab Nebula and Mrk 501 combined with the finite-energy resolution. This is expected to change the mean penetration depths in the exponential cutoff region beyond 10 TeV by $``$5 g/cm2. Other sources of systematic errors (deviation in the alignment of the telescopes, changes in the atmospherical conditions) affect both data sets in the same way and are not further discussed in this Letter. From a comparison with the simulated data, the contribution of these systematic errors is estimated to be less than $``$10g/cm2.

The prediction for the elongation rate in the case of a condensate of 2 and 10 photons is illustrated by lines in Figure 2, assuming that all photons are produced in a condensate state (case 1). The prediction is derived by shifting the elongation rate for the simulated photon showers according to the expectation for a given occupation number. Besides an overall shift in the mean value, the condensates would change the fluctuations in the position of the shower maximum, causing a smaller root mean square value of the distributions.

The mean penetration depths of the photon induced showers from Mrk 501, the Crab Nebula and from simulated air shower events are in good agreement with each other and are not compatible with the expectation for a pure beam of BECs with $`N`$ 2 for all considered energies. Furthermore, focusing on the events with a reconstructed Energy $``$ 10 TeV, a $`\chi ^2`$ test of the distributions of penetration depths from Mrk 501 with simulated data adding a relative fraction of $`N=10(2)`$ condensate sets an upper limit for the relative content of 30%(65%) on the 90% confidence level (case 2).

## 5 Conclusion

The precise reconstruction of the shower geometry with the stereoscopic technique has been used to determine the penetration depth and the energy for individual photon induced air showers with the HEGRA system of imaging air Cerenkov telescopes.

The distributions of penetration depths of TeV air showers from the extragalactic source Mrk 501 have been compared with those from simulated data and with those from the Crab Nebula to search for Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). The analysis rules out a pure beam of condensates with occupation numbers $`N`$ 2. The relative content of $`N=10(2)`$ condensates is limited to be below $`30\%`$(65%) with 90% confidence for Energies $``$ 10 TeV. The allowed relative content of BECs would change the optical depth for TeV photons only marginally.

The support of the German ministry for Research and technology BMBF and the Spanish Research Council CYCIT is gratefully acknowledged. We thank the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias for the use of the site and for supplying excellent working conditions at La Palma. We gratefully acknowledge the technical support staff of the Heidelberg, Kiel, Munich, and Yerevan Institutes. The air shower simulations have been carried out using CORSIKA v5.91 and it is a pleasure to thank its authors for their support.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The long awaited Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven (RHIC) could yield many fascinating results concerning the accepted theory of the strong force, QCD. Although the main goal of this experiment is to study the quark-gluon plasma, there exist many other possibilities. One of the most sought after results is the nature of the chiral symmetry restoration and/or deconfining phase transition. Another possible outcome is the so called disoriented chiral condensate (DCC). In addition, it was recently suggested  that it may be possible to create an induced $`\theta 0`$-state in heavy ion colliders. If this is possible, the consequences could include the observation of a new state of matter.

Indeed, as is known, in the infinite volume limit and in thermal equilibrium the $`\theta `$-vacuum state is the absolutely stable ground state of a new world with new physics quite different from ours. In particular, $`P`$ and $`CP`$ symmetries are strongly violated in this world. In spite of the fact that the $`\theta `$-vacuum state has a higher energy (see below) this state is stable due to the super selection rule: There does not exist a gauge invariant observable $`𝒜`$ in QCD, which would communicate between two different worlds, $`\theta ^{}|𝒜|\theta \delta (\theta \theta ^{})`$. Therefore, there are no transitions between these worlds.

Of course, we do not expect that such a stable $`\theta `$-state can be produced in heavy ion collisions. However, we do expect that locally, for a short period of time due to the non-equilibrium dynamics after the QCD phase transition, a large domain with wrong $`\theta `$ direction may be formed. This provides us with a unique opportunity to study a new state of matter. The idea is very similar to the old idea of the creation of the Disoriented Chiral Condensate (DCC) in heavy ion collisions  -. DCC refers to regions of space (interior) in which the chiral condensate points in a different direction from that of the ground state (exterior), and separated from the latter by a hot shell of debris. Our starting point is the conjecture that a classically large domain with a nonzero $`U(1)_A`$ chiral phase may be formed in a heavy ion collisions, i.e. we assume that the expectation value for the chiral condensate in a sufficiently large domain has, in general, a non-zero $`U(1)`$ phase: $`\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}_L\mathrm{\Psi }_Re^{i\varphi ^{singlet}}|\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\mathrm{\Psi }|`$. This phase is identified with $`\theta ^{ind}`$. Such an identification is a direct consequence of the transformation properties of the fundamental QCD Lagrangian under $`U(1)_A`$ rotations when the chiral singlet phase can be rotated away at the cost of the introduction of the induced $`\theta `$, $`\theta ^{ind}=N_f\varphi ^{singlet}`$.

We should remind the reader at this point that in QCD, the fundamental $`\theta `$ parameter enters in the combination $`\theta Q=\theta \frac{\alpha _s}{8\pi }G^a\stackrel{~}{G^a}`$. This gives us the first contribution to the physically observable parameter $`\overline{\theta }`$. The second contribution is related to the phase which is introduced upon diagonalization of the quark mass matrix, which can be in principle arbitrary. Current experimental results indicate that these two numbers cancel with precision better than $`10^9`$. The problem of why $`\overline{\theta }0`$ in our world is known as the strong $`CP`$-problem, and we do not address this problem in the present paper. Our point is the following: by having a non-zero $`U(1)`$ phase $`\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}_L\mathrm{\Psi }_Re^{i\varphi ^{singlet}}|\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\mathrm{\Psi }|`$ in a sufficiently large region, we essentially break this precise cancellation between two contributions in a macroscopically large domain111We use the term macroscopic in this paper to refer to scales which are larger than the fundamental scale, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}^1`$. Exactly this non-cancellation will mimic a non-zero $`\theta `$-parameter.

The production of non-trivial $`\theta ^{ind}`$-vacua would occur in much the same way as discussed previously for DCC-. The new element is that, in addition to chiral fields differing from their true vacuum values, the induced $`\theta `$-parameter, which is zero in the real world, becomes effectively nonvanishing in the macroscopically large domain as explained above. Therefore, although the fundamental $`\theta `$-parameter remains zero, we would expect that an induced $`\theta `$-parameter can be non-zero in a macroscopically large domain, and it will mimic the physics of the world with $`\theta ^{fund}0`$. A different name for the same object would be a “ zero (spatially independent) mode of the $`\eta ^{}`$ field” which exactly corresponds to the flavor-singlet spatially independent part of the chiral condensate phase. However, we prefer to use the term $`\theta ^{ind}`$ because the symbol $`\eta ^{}`$ is usually associated with the free asymptotic state of the heavy $`\eta ^{}`$-meson (excitation) and not with a classical constant field (condensate) in a large domain where $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons interact very strongly and change their properties in this background. This other terminology could be also misleading because of this reason. In addition to the above mentioned difference, the disoriented chiral condensate involves the amplification of the low momentum modes of the charged pions, while the formation the $`\theta `$-state involves the amplification of the low momentum modes of only the neutral particles, including the $`\eta ^{}`$ singlet .

One might ask, “How could such a $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state be detected if it is created in heavy ion collisions for a very short period of time?”. One obvious possibility is that the $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state could be observed through Goldstone bosons with specific $`CP`$-odd correlations . However, a more promising signature is related to the low momentum modes of the chiral fields. Indeed, as was shown in , the creation of the $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state involves the enhancement of the low frequency modes of the neutral chiral fields. Therefore, it is natural to expect that particles made of these chiral fields are to be produced when the $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state blows apart. To be more precise, in the limit $`m_u=m_d=m_s\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$ the only relevant physical degree of freedom is a singlet phase of the chiral condensate which transforms, at the very end of the transition exclusively, to the $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons when the $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state falls apart. Therefore, in this limit we would expect an excess of $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons to be produced. However, due to the mixing and difference in masses, $`m_um_dm_s`$, it is expected that all neutral modes are to be produced. The main goal of the present work is to study the spectrum and the angular distribution of particles which will be produced when the $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state falls apart.

However, before we discuss some numerical estimates, we would like to present some estimates based on simple energetic considerations. As we discuss below (6), the vacuum energy density in the $`\theta `$-state is greater than in the $`\theta =0`$ vacuum state by the amount:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E=E_{vac}(\theta )E_{vac}(\theta =0)=2m|\overline{q}q|(1|\mathrm{cos}\frac{\theta }{2}|),$$

where for simplicity we use $`N_f=2`$ with $`m_u=m_d=m`$. When the $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state blows apart, the energy associated with this background will be released as Goldstone bosons carrying the total energy:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }EV2m|\overline{q}q|(1|\mathrm{cos}\frac{\theta }{2}|)V20\left(\frac{V}{(10fm)^3}\right)GeV,$$

where $`V=L^3`$ is $`3d`$ volume of the $`\theta ^{ind}`$-background measured in $`Fermi`$. Therefore, given the $`cm`$ energy $`\sqrt{s}=40TeV`$, only a small fraction:

$$\rho \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }EV}{\sqrt{s}}\frac{20(\frac{V}{(10fm)^3})GeV}{40TeV}10^3\left(\frac{V}{(10fm)^3}\right)$$

of the total collision energy will be released through the decay of the induced $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state. Two of the most profound features of the Goldstone bosons produced in this decay are the following:
1. Due to the fact that the $`\theta ^{ind}`$ formation is caused by amplification of low momentum modes, we expect the spectrum of the Goldstone bosons from this decay to be strongly enhanced at low $`|\stackrel{}{k}|L^1`$;
2. Due to the nonzero value for the topological density $`\theta |\frac{\alpha _s}{8\pi }G\stackrel{~}{G}|\theta =\frac{V_{vac}(\theta )}{\theta }=m|0|\overline{q}q|0|\mathrm{sin}\frac{\theta }{2}`$, see (6), one could expect that some $`P,CP`$ odd correlations would appear in this background.

Considering this, we should look for enhanced production of particles such as the $`\pi ,\eta ,`$ and $`\eta ^{}`$ with low momentum, on the $`(10100)MeV`$ scale (depending on the size of the domain $`L`$). The difference between the $`\theta `$-vacuum state and the DCC which also involves enhancement of low momentum modes is that the $`\theta `$-vacuum state also produces $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons. These should decay eventually by various processes to photons and dileptons, and if a large number of these low momentum particles are detected this would be a definite signal of the creation of a macroscopically large domain with $`\theta ^{ind}0`$. One could further speculate that such an enhancement could also account for the unexplained large number of low momentum dileptons seen at CERN  as suggested in. However, detailed calculations are needed to give this speculative conjecture further support.

The presentation is organized as follows. In Sect. 2 we briefly describe the effective Lagrangian constructed for QCD as given in . In Sect. 3 we demonstrate that it is theoretically possible to create $`\theta ^{ind}0`$-states in heavy ion collisions. The spectrum of the Goldstone bosons produced in the nonzero $`\theta `$ background is calculated in Sect. 4 for different geometries of the $`\theta ^{ind}`$-region. Finally, we end with concluding remarks and future considerations in Sect 5.

## 2 Low Energy Effective QCD Lagrangian

The starting point of our analysis is the low energy effective Lagrangian which reproduces the anomalous conformal and chiral Ward Identities. The corresponding construction in the large $`N_c`$ limit has been known for a long time. The generalization of the construction of ref. for finite $`N_c`$ was given in , and we shall use formulae from the papers . However, we should remark at the very beginning that all local properties of the effective Lagrangians for finite and infinite $`N_c`$ are very much the same. Small quantitative differences in local physics between the description of  on the one hand and the description of on the other hand, do not alter the qualitative results which follow.

The effective Lagrangian describes the light matter fields of QCD which consists of an octet of pseudo-Goldstone bosons ($`\pi `$’s, $`K`$’s, and the $`\eta `$), and the $`\eta ^{}`$ singlet field. We parameterize these fields by a unitary matrix $`U_{ij}`$ corresponding to the $`\gamma _5`$ phases of the chiral condensate ($`\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }_R^i}\mathrm{\Psi }_L^j=|\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }_R}\mathrm{\Psi }_L|U_{ij}`$) in the following way:

$$U=U_0\mathrm{exp}\left[i\sqrt{2}\frac{\pi ^a\lambda ^a}{f_\pi }+i\frac{2}{\sqrt{N_f}}\frac{\eta ^{}}{f_\eta ^{}}\right],$$
(1)
where $`U_0`$ solves the minimization equation for the effective potential, $`\pi ^a`$ represents the pseudoscalar octet, and $`N_f`$ is the number of flavors. The effective potential derived in  takes the following form:

$$V(U,\theta )=E\mathrm{cos}[\frac{1}{N_c}(\theta i\mathrm{log}DetU)]\frac{1}{2}Tr(MU+M^{}U^{}),$$
(2)
where $`M`$ is the diagonal quark mass matrix defined with their condensates: $`M=diag(m_i\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }_i}\mathrm{\Psi }_i)`$ and $`E=b\alpha _s/(32\pi )G^2`$ is the vacuum energy with $`b=11N_c/32N_f/3`$. Expanding the cosine (this corresponds to the expansion in $`1/N_c`$) we recover the result of  at lowest order in $`1/N_c`$ together with the constant term $`E`$ required by the conformal anomaly:

$$V(U,\theta ,N_c\mathrm{})=E\frac{\nu ^2_{YM}}{2}(\theta i\mathrm{log}DetU)^2\frac{1}{2}Tr(MU+M^+U^+)+\mathrm{}.$$
(3)
Here we used the fact that in the large $`N_c`$ limit $`E(\frac{1}{N_c})^2=\nu ^2_{YM}`$ where $`\nu ^2_{YM}<0`$ is the topological susceptibility in pure YM theory. Corrections in $`1/N_c`$ stemming from Eq.(3) constitute a new result of ref.. In order to demonstrate that the effective potential shown above is of the correct form, we can verify that the following three features are characteristic of Eq.(2):

1. Eq.(2) correctly reproduces the Witten-Di Vecchia-Veneziano effective chiral Lagrangian  in the large $`N_c`$ limit;
2. It reproduces the anomalous conformal and chiral Ward identities of $`QCD`$;
3. It reproduces the known dependence in $`\theta `$ (ie. $`2\pi `$ periodicity of observables) .

To study the vacuum properties of the $`\theta `$ vacua it is convenient to choose a diagonal basis to parameterize the fields $`U`$ as $`U=diag(\mathrm{exp}i\varphi _q),q=u,d,s`$ such that the potential (2) takes the form:

$$V(\theta ,\varphi _i)=E\mathrm{cos}(\frac{\theta \varphi _i}{N_c})M_i\mathrm{cos}\varphi _i,$$
(4)
where $`M_i`$ are the diagonal entries of the quark mass matrix which was introduced above. Notice that in Eq.(4) the $`\theta `$ parameter appears only in the combination $`\varphi _i\theta `$. The minimum of the potential is given by the solution to the following equations:

$$\mathrm{sin}(\frac{\theta \varphi _i}{N_c})=\frac{N_cM_i}{E}\mathrm{sin}\varphi _i.$$
(5)
In the limit where all the quark masses are equal and $`M_iE`$, the approximate solution is given by $`\varphi _i\frac{\theta }{N_f}`$. In particular, in this limit and for $`N_f=2`$, the vacuum energy $`V_{vac}(\theta )`$ can be approximated as follows:

$`V_{vac}(\theta )V_{vac}(\theta =0)2m|\overline{q}q|(|\mathrm{cos}{\displaystyle \frac{\theta }{2}}|1),`$
$`\theta |{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{8\pi }}G\stackrel{~}{G}|\theta ={\displaystyle \frac{V_{vac}(\theta )}{\theta }}=m|0|\overline{q}q|0|\mathrm{sin}{\displaystyle \frac{\theta }{2}},`$ (6)
which was used in the Introduction for estimates. From this we see that a $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state is degenerate with the $`\theta =0`$ state in the chiral limit where $`m_q=0`$, as expected.

## 3 Induced $`\theta `$-Vacua

It was recently argued  that it may be possible to create an arbitrary $`\theta 0`$ state in heavy ion collisions. In this scenario, we propose that the $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state is separated from our world $`(\theta =0)`$ by a shell of debris expanding out at the speed of light. This idea is similar to the so called disoriented chiral condensate that has been extensively studied in the last ten years -.

We would like to stress the point that an induced $`\theta `$-parameter is very different from $`\theta ^{fund}`$ which is zero in our world and which cannot be changed. The simplest way to visualize $`\theta ^{ind}`$ is to assume that right after the QCD phase transition the flavor singlet phase of the chiral condensate is non-zero in a macroscopically large domain. This phase is identified with $`\theta ^{ind}`$. This identification is a direct consequence of the transformation properties of the fundamental QCD Lagrangian under $`U(1)_A`$ rotations by which the chiral singlet phase can be rotated away at the cost of introducing $`\theta ^{ind}`$. From now on we will refer to a $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state as simply a $`\theta `$-state, omitting the “ind” label.

Numerical lattice calculations in the past have provided strong evidence that QCD undergoes a phase transition at a temperature in the range of $`150200MeV`$. It is believed that above this critical point that chiral symmetry is restored and/or deconfinement occurs (quark-gluon plasma). The idea of the Disoriented Chiral Condensate (DCC) arises when we consider what happens immediately after the phase transition upon cooling within heavy ion collisions. DCC refers to regions of space (interior) where the chiral condensate points in a different direction from that of the ground state (exterior), and separated from the latter by a hot shell of debris. The difference in energy between the created state and the lowest energy state is proportional to the small parameter $`m_q`$ (see Eq.(6)) for both the DCC and the $`\theta `$-state and is therefore negligible at high temperature.

First, we recall the DCC scenario as given in  with emphasis on the analogy between DCC and $`\theta ^{ind}`$-state. Rajagopal and Wilczek  use the $`O(4)`$ linear sigma model to describe the low energy dynamics of the pions and the chiral condensate. All fields are represented by a 4-vector with components $`\varphi =(\sigma ,\stackrel{}{\pi })`$, where $`\sigma `$ represents the chiral condensate and $`\stackrel{}{\pi }`$ represents the triplet of pions. Throughout the exterior region the vacuum expectation value of $`\varphi `$ is $`(v,0)`$. In the interior region, however, the pion fields can become non-zero and $`(\sigma ,\stackrel{}{\pi })`$ wanders in the four dimensional configuration space. The high energy products (shell of debris) of the collision expand outwards at relativistic speeds and separates the misaligned vacuum interior from the exterior region.

In  all calculations were done under the assumption of a quenched system. In the quenched approximation, the $`(\sigma ,\stackrel{}{\pi })`$ fields are suddenly removed from a heat bath $`(TT_c200MeV)`$ and evolved according to the zero temperature equations of motion. This is done numerically by giving the fields a non-zero vacuum expectation value $`\varphi 0`$ and letting this field configuration evolve in time according to the zero temperature equations of motion. The hope is that regions of misaligned vacuum with an arbitrary isospin direction will be created. In  it was shown that if the cooling process is very rapid and the system is initially out of equilibrium, there is a temporary growth of long wavelength spatial modes of the pion field corresponding to domains where the chiral condensate is approximately correlated. In the case of DCC, the created state will relax to the true vacuum by coherent emission of pions with the same isospin orientation producing clusters of charged or neutral pions. To be more specific, let us consider the case $`N_f=2`$. The matrix $`U`$ is parameterized by the misalignment angle $`\varphi `$ and the unit vector $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ in the isospin space:

$$U=e^{i\varphi (\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{\tau })},UU^+=1,\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}_L^i\mathrm{\Psi }_R^j=|\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}_L\mathrm{\Psi }_R|U_{ij}.$$

The energy density of the DCC is determined by the mass term:

$$E_\varphi =\frac{1}{2}Tr(MU+M^{}U^{})=2m|\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\mathrm{\Psi }|\mathrm{cos}(\varphi ).$$
(7)
Eq. (7) implies that that any $`\varphi 0`$ is not a stable vacuum state because $`\frac{dE}{d\varphi }0`$, i.e. the vacuum is misaligned. Since the energy difference between the misaligned state and the true vacuum is proportional to $`m_q`$, the probability to create a state with an arbitrary $`\varphi `$ at high temperature $`TT_c`$ is proportional to $`\mathrm{exp}[V(E_\theta E_0)/T]`$ and depends on $`\varphi `$ only very weakly, i.e. $`\varphi `$ is a quasi-flat direction. Right after the phase transition when $`\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\mathrm{\Psi }`$ becomes non-zero, the pion field oscillates.

Now we turn to our main subject, the $`\theta `$-vacuum state. First we would like to comment that even though the $`\theta `$ parameter is related to the large constant $`E`$ in Eq. (4), $`\theta `$ dependence is actually proportional to $`m_q`$ since in the chiral limit all dependence can be removed by performing a $`U(1)_A`$ rotation of the chiral condensate phases. When the combination of $`(\varphi _i\theta )`$ is close by an amount $`O(m_q)`$ to its vacuum value, the Boltzmann suppression due to the term $`E`$ at high temperature is absent. This is essentially what allows the induced $`\theta `$-state to be formed.

To model the creation of an arbitrary $`\theta `$-state, we will use the effective chiral Lagrangian described in the previous Sect. 2. We consider three flavors of massive quarks, and derive the following equation of motions:

$$\ddot{\varphi _i}+^2\varphi _i+E\mathrm{sin}(\frac{\theta +\varphi _i}{N_c})M_i\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _i)\gamma \dot{\varphi _i}=0,i=u,d,s,$$
(8)
where the constant $`\gamma `$ in front of $`\dot{\varphi }`$ represents the damping of the system which can be attributed to various sources such as expansion or the emission of pions.

In order to model the situation numerically, several assumptions are made. First, assume that the $`\theta ^{ind}`$ parameter acquires a non-zero value when the temperature T $`m_q`$ and the system is out-of-equilibrium. Once again, $`\theta ^{ind}0`$ follows from the assumption that the mean value of singlet phase $`\varphi _i`$ is not zero over a macroscopically large domain immediately upon cooling through the phase transition. Performing a $`U(1)_A`$ rotation then gives us an equivalent description with $`\theta ^{ind}0`$. The second assumption is that the phases $`\varphi _u`$, $`\varphi _d`$, and $`\varphi _s`$ have small random values (modulo $`\pi /3`$) at these high temperatures. The final assumption is that the cooling process is very rapid and the system obeys the zero temperature equations of motion after this initial quench. There is obviously some sort of damping mechanism present in any real system, and this damping can be attributed to the expansion of the region inside the shell and/or the radiation of Goldstone bosons. The damping constant, $`\gamma `$, was chosen to be of the same order order of magnitude as $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$, which should be a reasonable value according to all other scales in the system.

The numerical algorithm used to solve these coupled differential equations was a fourth-order Adams-Bashforth-Moulton predictor-corrector method. The phases were initially assigned random values according to a uniform distribution ($`|\varphi _i|<\pi /3`$). The phases were rescaled in such a way as to be dimensionless. We evolved the equations for 6000 time steps of size $`10^{27}sec`$ on a cubic lattice with spacing $`a=0.005MeV^1=1fm`$. In order to examine the momentum dependence, the Fourier transform  of the field configuration was calculated at periodic intervals in time. The data was then binned according to the magnitude of the wave vector $`\stackrel{}{k}`$ so that the dependence on $`|\stackrel{}{k}|`$ could be examined. We consider a volume of $`(8fm)^3`$. In all calculations that follow, we use the current quark masses $`m_u=4MeV,m_d=8MeV,`$ and $`m_s=150MeV`$.

In Fig. 1 we show that the zero modes of the $`\varphi _i`$ fields settle down to a constant value in a time $`\tau 10^{23}s`$. In the same time interval, all other modes die off. This, along with a test of volume independence, shows that a true non-perturbative condensate has been formed. In the case where all quark masses are equal, the zero mode is expected to settle down to $`\varphi _i\theta /N_f`$, which has also been verified numerically.

In order to incorporate the effects of expansion, we could introduce a time dependent lattice spacing $`a(t)`$. If $`a(t)`$ increases with time, this will model the dilution of energy in the system. Following an analogy with an expanding universe, the coefficient of the damping term $`\dot{\varphi _i}`$, $`\gamma `$ goes like $`constant\times \dot{a}/a`$. Although we have not taken this into account in our analysis, we can estimate the result as follows. The Laplacian term in Eq.(8) is numerically proportional to $`1/a`$, and if $`a(t)`$ increases with time, the system will require more time to relax to the $`\theta `$-state. If the coefficient, $`\gamma `$, is altered as mentioned above and $`a(t)`$ increases at a constant rate, the damping term will become smaller as time goes on. The overall effect of a time dependent lattice spacing is to increase the formation time of the $`\theta `$-state.

## 4 Goldstone Bosons

Now that we have argued the induced $`\theta `$-state may be formed in heavy ion collisions we would like to discuss how to detect them experimentally. Naturally, the first thing to look for would be axion production. If axions do exist, they can be produced during the relaxation of $`\theta ^{ind}0`$ to the lowest energy state with $`\theta =0`$. However, the axion production rate under the conditions which can be achieved at RHIC will be too low in comparison with the limit already achieved from the astrophysical and cosmological considerations. Therefore, the question remains: “How could the the formation of a $`\theta `$-state be detected experimentally?” Fortunately there are a number of ways in which this might be done. One proposed possible signature is related to the observation of specific $`CP`$ odd correlations of the Goldstone bosons  but the effect would probably be washed out by final state interactions. A second possible signature was proposed in  which comes about because of the unusual properties of the Goldstone bosons and $`\eta ^{}`$ in the $`\theta `$-background. In the $`\theta `$-world the masses of these particles are altered and for example the mass of $`\pi ^0`$ would be noticeably smaller. As well, these particles become a mixture of pseudoscalar/scalar rather than pure pseudoscalars as for $`\theta =0`$. This fact means that the $`CP`$ odd decays $`\eta \pi \pi `$ and $`\eta ^{}\pi \pi `$ are no longer suppressed in the $`\theta `$ background and become of order 1 . The full width of the $`\eta ^{},\eta `$ decays in our world are much smaller than the above decays in the $`\theta `$-world:

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\theta 0}(\eta ^{}\pi \pi )2MeV\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\theta =0}^{total}(\eta ^{})0.2MeV(experimental),`$ (9)
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\theta 0}(\eta \pi \pi )0.2MeV\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\theta =0}^{total}(\eta )118keV(experimental).`$ (10)
Thus observation of an increased rate of decay of $`\eta ^{},\eta `$ at masses slightly shifted from the accepted values would be a signature of the $`\theta `$-vacuum. However, this signal may be a difficult one to distinguish in the large amounts of data generated in heavy ion collisions. Therefore we would like to discuss a signature that would be easier to experimentally observe. In this work we consider an additional new signature which could possibly verify if a $`\theta `$-state is created in heavy ion collisions. As was discussed briefly in the introduction, the creation of a $`\theta `$-state could greatly enhance the production of low momentum $`(10MeV100MeV)`$ Goldstone bosons.

Before going into the details we would like to discuss the concepts behind this idea. We have already presented some arguments that a $`\theta `$-state may be formed in heavy ion collisions if protected from the exterior $`\theta =0`$ world by the shell of debris. At some point, however, this shell ceases to isolate the interior and the influence of the exterior world will be felt. The way in which this happens is not well understood, but we would like to use an instantaneous approximation in order to obtain some feeling about the possible outcome. There are basically two time scales present in the system: the lifetime $`\tau _{shell}`$ of the shell separating the two worlds and the scale associated with strongly interacting particles, $`(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD})^1`$. If these differ by orders of magnitude, the disappearance of the shell can be considered either as an instantaneous perturbation or an adiabatic perturbation.

Realistically, we expect $`\tau _{shell}`$ to be about the same order of magnitude as $`(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD})^1`$ and therefore the disappearance of the shell is somewhere between an instantaneous process and an adiabatic one. However, we do not yet know how to treat the process properly so we will use the instantaneous approximation in order to obtain an order of magnitude estimate of the spectrum of emitted particles.

The instantaneous perturbation is an approximation that is well known in quantum mechanics. For our specific problem we essentially assume that all states which were formed in the $`\theta ^{ind}`$ background will suddenly find themselves in the new vacuum state (with $`\theta =0`$) after the shell instantaneously blows apart. These states have no choice but to transform to the asymptotic states of this new (for them) $`\theta =0`$ world. The dynamics of this strong transformation is quite complicated and beyond the scope of the present work. However, if this transition is instantaneous, the procedure to do the calculations for such a transition is well known: we assume that the initial state has no time to adjust its properties when the shell decays, and therefore, we expand the initial state in terms of the asymptotic states of $`\theta =0`$ world.

In more detail, we do the following. The field values, $`\varphi _i`$, obtained for the $`\theta `$-state as in previous work  are embedded into a larger grid where the field values take their $`\theta =0`$ vacuum values. This data now contains a plateau of field values corresponding to $`\theta `$-state values surrounded by zero field values. This field configuration must now resolve itself into asymptotic free particles. With this process in mind we determine the momentum spectrum of free particles corresponding to this distribution by considering the Goldstone boson fields as true quantum fields at this instant.

In order to calculate the spectrum, we must obtain the quantities $`a(\stackrel{}{k})`$ and $`a^{}(\stackrel{}{k})`$. These are obtained by performing the Fourier transform of the field configuration at time $`t=\tau _{shell}`$ when the shell breaks down,

$$a(\stackrel{}{k})=d^3\stackrel{}{x}\psi (\stackrel{}{x})\mathrm{exp}(i\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{x}),$$
(11)
where $`\psi (\stackrel{}{x})`$ is the distribution amplitude of the $`\varphi _i`$ fields obtained from evolving the equations of motion (Eq.(8)) on a cubic lattice, as was done in . From Eq.(11), the number operator is given by $`N(\stackrel{}{k})=N_0a(\stackrel{}{k})a^{}(\stackrel{}{k})`$ where $`N_0`$ is an overall constant that will be determined using the following argument. As we mentioned earlier, the $`\theta `$-state differs from the true vacuum state by a small amount of energy $`m_q`$. The amount of energy that is available when the $`\theta `$-vacua decays is obtained by analyzing the $`\theta `$ dependence of the vacuum energy density $`E`$:

$$E_\theta =m_q|\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\mathrm{\Psi }|N_f\mathrm{cos}(\frac{\theta }{N_f}).$$
(12)
Therefore, the amount of energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }EV`$ available due to the formation of the $`\theta `$-state as discussed above is given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }EV=(E_{\theta =0}E_\theta )V20\left(\frac{V}{(10fm)^3}\right)GeV,$$
(13)
where $`V`$ is the the volume of the created $`\theta `$-region. If we take for example a $`\theta `$-state with volume $`V=(8fm)^3`$ the amount of energy available is $`\mathrm{\Delta }EV=10GeV`$. This represents only a small amount of energy compared to the $`cm`$ energy, $`\sqrt{s}=40TeV`$, expected in heavy ion collisions. If the total amount of available energy is known, the constant $`N_0`$ can be fixed by enforcing the following conservation of energy constraint

$$\mathrm{\Delta }EV=\underset{i}{}\frac{d^3\stackrel{}{k}}{2(2\pi )^3}N_0a_i(\stackrel{}{k})a_i^{}(\stackrel{}{k}),$$
(14)
where the sum is performed over all types of particles considered (ie. all neutral Goldstone bosons). Once this constant $`N_0`$ is fixed, the total number of pions and etas can be calculated by

$$N=\frac{d^3\stackrel{}{k}}{2\omega _k(2\pi )^3}N_0a(\stackrel{}{k})a^{}(\stackrel{}{k}),$$
(15)
for the simplified case of only one collision of two nuclei. If we consider that RHIC will collide gold nuclei at a rate of central collisions of about 1 $`kHz`$, we can estimate the total number of these low momentum particles produced by simple multiplication. In what follows we present all results for just one event.

As we have already described, we proceed as follows. At some time $`t`$ before the fields $`\varphi _i`$ settle down to the constant field configuration (see Fig. 1), we take the position space data and embed this in a larger square grid where the field values are zero (our world). We assume an instantaneous perturbation and then take the fourier transform of this field configuration in order to obtain the operators $`a(\stackrel{}{k})`$ and $`a^{}(\stackrel{}{k})`$. It may be argued that the instantaneous approximation is not completely justified in this case as we expect $`\tau _{shell}\tau _{QCD}`$ and therefore this calculation gives us a rough estimate at best.

In order to analyze the spectrum of the diagonal (neutral) components of the matrix $`U`$ ($`\pi ^0,\eta ,\eta ^{}`$) we must analyze the following combination of the $`\varphi _i^{}s`$:

$`\pi ^0={\displaystyle \frac{f_\pi }{2\sqrt{2}}}(\varphi _u\varphi _d),`$
$`\eta ={\displaystyle \frac{f_\pi }{2\sqrt{6}}}(\varphi _u+\varphi _d2\varphi _s),`$ (16)
$`\eta ^{}={\displaystyle \frac{f_\eta ^{}}{2\sqrt{3}}}(\varphi _u+\varphi _d+\varphi _s).`$
For all numerical calculations, we can take the constant $`f_\eta ^{}`$ to be $`f_\pi `$. One of the crucial decisions which must be made is when to choose the time at which the shell breaks down. We chose several values for $`\tau _{shell}`$. The majority of the particles which are produced due to the formation of the $`|\theta `$-state have momentum $`k<25MeV`$ ( for our choice of the volume $`V=(8fm)^3`$). In Fig. 2 we show a plot of $`N_{\pi ^0}(k)`$ as a function of $`|\stackrel{}{k}|`$ for the neutral pion. The function $`N_{\pi ^0}(k)`$ has dimensions $`MeV^1`$, so that the total number of particles, $`N_{\pi ^0}`$, is a dimensionless number given by:

$`N_{\pi ^0}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑kN_{\pi ^0}(k)`$ (17)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑k{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{2(2\pi )^3w_k}}N_0a(\stackrel{}{k})a^{}(\stackrel{}{k}).`$
The two different lines represent the times at which we assumed the shell to break down. The solid line represents the earlier time ($`\tau _{shell}=t_1=1500/6000`$ time steps) while the dotted line represents $`\tau _{shell}=t_2=3000/6000`$ time steps (this representation for $`t_1`$ and $`t_2`$ will be followed in all graphs that follow). For this calculation, we assumed the created $`\theta `$-state had a volume of $`(8fm)^3`$ which exists in a larger volume of $`(64fm)^3`$. The explanation of this phenomenon is simple: at time $`t_1`$ the amplification of the zero mode is not as profound as at time $`t_2`$. Furthermore, at time $`t_1`$ a considerable portion of the energy goes to high momentum particles.

Below we show the same graph for the $`\eta `$ and the $`\eta ^{}`$. Notice that that the $`\eta ^{}`$ is produced in large amounts compared to the $`\pi ^0`$-mesons and the $`\eta `$-mesons. In order to obtain the total number of each particle produced, we use Eq.(15) to calculate the total number of particles produced per collision: $`N_{\pi ^0}=0.1`$, $`N_\eta =2.8`$, $`N_\eta ^{}=19.3`$ for $`t=t_1`$ and $`N_{\pi ^0}=0.5`$, $`N_\eta =4.3`$, $`N_\eta ^{}=18.4`$ for $`t=t_2`$. We have also checked that in the limit where all quark masses are equal, only the $`\eta ^{}`$ is produced, as expected. It should be noted that, as demonstrated by these figures and the coarsening phenomenon (i.e. the phenomenon of amplification of the zero mode as time increases), we would expect that as $`\tau _{shell}`$ increases up to a maximum value, the majority of the particles would reside in the low momentum regime. We consider our estimate as a very conservative one due to the fact that we do not count the particles $`\eta `$ and $`\eta ^{}`$ which will be produced during the formation period of the $`\theta ^{ind}`$ state. These particles will have higher momentum modes and can not be easily distinguished from the large number of the similar particles from the background. Therefore, the main conclusion of our analysis is as follows: if induced $`\theta `$ state is produced than it will result in the strong enhancement of emission of low-energy $`\eta `$ and $`\eta ^{}`$ mesons which clearly signals the existence of the induced $`\theta `$ state.

When our analysis was completed, we became aware that a similar conclusion has been reached in a recent paper by Baier et al.  where the production of an excess of $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons is discussed in the scenario suggested in . Despite the fact that the starting points of the present work and  are quite different (we start from the induced $`\theta `$ state while in paper  the starting point is a metastable state which acts like a region with a non-vanishing $`\theta `$ angle), the general conclusion is very similar. Namely, a strong enhancement of emission of low-energy $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons is expected irrespectively of the origin of the initial unusual state. The details, however, are quite different. The main difference is the following. We assume that a $`\theta `$-state is produced and instantaneously decays such that we calculate the particle production due to this single event, not taking into account previous particle production during the formation period. As was mentioned above, we expect that those particles will have much higher momentum modes and we ignore them. The approach of  is different from ours as their calculation of the number of produced $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons is based on the specific mechanism of the decay of the original metastable state . Such a decay receives contributions from the whole evolution, not just one particular instant. This difference explains the difference in rates: for a domain with radius 5 $`fm`$, they estimate that about 90-100 $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons would be produced while our estimation is $`45`$ times smaller.

In the above calculations of $`N(\stackrel{}{k})`$ the geometry of the created $`\theta `$-state is assumed to be a cubical box. For the case of heavy ion collisions, the more realistic case is that of an ellipsoid or elongated rectangular box. Upon collision, we expect the collision to create a region of quark-gluon plasma which has an asymmetry in one direction. In order to model this situation, we evolve a rectangular grid and embed it in a larger square grid and compute the Fourier transform. Once again, we consider the angular averaged value of $`N(\stackrel{}{k})`$.

For a $`\theta `$-region with dimensions $`32fm\times (8fm)^2`$, we show the spectrum of the $`\eta ^{}`$ at the same times as shown in Fig. 4. The side of length $`32fm`$ is the direction parallel to the beam direction. The low momentum modes still dominate, but the peak is not as sharp and the higher modes show a stronger presence. Also, since the $`\theta `$-region is now larger, from Eq.(13) we would expect more particles to be created since there is now more energy available. This is evident when comparing Fig. 4 with Fig. 5. For the two different times shown, we find that $`N_{\pi ^0}=0.3`$, $`N_\eta =12.7`$, $`N_\eta ^{}=76.3`$ for $`t=t_1`$ and $`N_{\pi ^0}=1.7`$, $`N_\eta =16.8`$, $`N_\eta ^{}=73.8`$ for $`t=t_2`$.

In this case where spherical symmetry is lost, we must also examine the angular distribution of the system. We choose the coordinates such that the long edge of the $`\theta `$-region is parallel to the z-axis. In Fig. 6, we show the angular distribution of $`N_{\pi ^0}(\theta )`$ as a function of the azimuthal angle $`\theta `$. This plot suggests that the majority of the particles would have larger momentum components in the direction perpendicular to the beam direction.

As was shown in Figs. 2,3,4, and 5, if a $`\theta `$-state can be created in heavy ion collisions we should expect an excess of low momentum Goldstone bosons. In particular, the $`\eta ^{}`$ would be produced in large amounts. Besides that, the low momentum $`\pi ^0`$, $`\eta `$, and $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons would considerably increase the photon and $`e^+e^{}`$ pair production through such decays as $`\pi ^0\gamma e^+e^{}`$, $`\eta \gamma e^+e^{}`$, and $`\eta ^{}\gamma e^+e^{}`$. In particular, it would result in enhancement of low-energy dileptons, which could possibly provide a solution to the observation of an excess of these particles seen at CERN . Indeed, as was demonstrated by Kapusta et al. in  a sufficiently large enhancement222The enhancement mechanism of $`\eta ^{}`$-production suggested in  is quite different from what we have considered in this paper. However, the general conclusion (that $`\eta ^{}`$ enhancement leads to the excess of dileptons) is insensitive to the nature of the $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons. Only by performing a detailed experimental analysis of the momentum and angular distributions can one mechanism be chosen over another. of $`\eta ^{}`$-production could easily explain the excess of dileptons seen at CERN . The large amount of produced $`\eta ^{}`$-mesons in our work is a direct consequence of the decay of the induced $`\theta `$-state.

## 5 Conclusion

In this work we showed that the consequences of creating non-trivial $`\theta `$-vacua in heavy ion collisions could be the amplification of production of light Goldstone bosons in the $`10MeV`$ momentum range. In all calculations, we worked in the instantaneous approximation where the shell separating the $`\theta `$-state disappears in a time much less than any internal time scale. These low momentum particles could possibly then decay to low momentum photons and dileptons, which could be easily detected. We would like to make the suggestion that this could possibly account for the unexplained abundance of low momentum dileptons observed at CERN . We are thankful to Dima Kharzeev for correspondence regarding the relevant work in .


text:
# Principal models on a solvable group with nonconstant metric

## 1 Introduction

The Lax pair formulation for principal models with the trivial ($`\delta _{ij}`$) metric was published in  and Lax formulation of related $`O\left(N\right)`$-sigma models in , . The models with the nontrivial but constant metric on the group manifold were investigated e.g. in . The goal of this paper is to present an example of the principal model with a nonconstant metric on the group manifold having the Lax pair. The models with the nonconstant metrics we are aware of (e.g. , ) are different from those investigated in this paper.

In the previous work  we have given several conditions on the metric for $`SU\left(2\right)`$ models but we were not succesful in finding an example of the metric that is not constant on the group manifold and admits the Lax formulation of field equations. Trying to find such an example, we have chosen much simpler group, namely the group of afine transformations of the real line – denoted here $`Af\left(1\right)`$. It is a nonabelian solvable two–dimensional Lie group that can be realized as the group of matrices

$$g=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& b\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right),a>0,b𝐑.$$
(1)
It is diffeomorphic to $`𝐑^2`$ and one can choose the global coordinates $`\theta _1,\theta _2`$ on $`Af\left(1\right)`$ setting e.g. $`a=\mathrm{exp}\left(\theta _1\right),b=\theta _2`$. The basis in the corresponding two–dimensional solvable Lie algebra can be chosen that the only nonvanishing structure coefficients are

$$c_{12}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}=c_{21}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}=1$$
(2)
The coordinates of the left–invariant fields $`J_\mu :=g^1_\mu g`$ in this basis are $`(_\mu \theta _1,e^{\theta _1}_\mu \theta _2)`$.

## 2 Formulation of generalized principal chiral models

Principal chiral models are given by the action

$$I\left[g\right]=d^2x\eta ^{\mu \nu }L(J_\mu ,J_\nu ),$$
(3)
where

$$J_\mu :=\left(g^1_\mu g\right)\left(G\right),$$
(4)
$`g:𝐑^2G,\mu ,\nu \{0,1\},\eta :=diag(1,1)`$ and $`L`$ is the Killing form on the corresponding Lie algebra $`\left(G\right)`$.

An immediate generalization of the principal chiral models is obtained when one considers a general invertible bilinear form instead of the Killing ,. Next step of generalization (3) is introducing $`G`$dependent symmetric bilinear forms. The generalized principal chiral models are then defined by the action

$$I\left[g\right]=d^2xL_{ab}\left(g\right)\eta ^{\mu \nu }\left(g^1_\mu g\right)^a\left(g^1_\nu g\right)^b,$$
(5)
where $`L_{ab}\left(g\right)`$ is invertible symmetric matrix $`dimG\times dimG`$ defined by the $`G`$ dependent bilinear form $`L\left(g\right)`$ as

$$L_{ab}\left(g\right):=L\left(g\right)\left(t_at_b\right),$$
(6)
and $`t_j`$ are elements of a basis in the Lie algebra of the left-invariant fields. It is useful to consider the bilinear form $`L\left(g\right)`$ as a metric on the group manifold. Lie products of elements of the basis define the structure coefficients

$$[t_a,t_b]=c_{ab}^{}{}_{}{}^{c}t_c$$
(7)
and in the same basis we define the coordinates of the field $`J_\nu `$

$$J_\nu =g^1_\nu g=J_\nu ^bt_b$$
(8)
that satisfy the Bianchi identities

$$_\mu J_\nu _\nu J_\mu +[J_\mu ,J_\nu ]=0$$
(9)
Varying the action (5) w.r.t. $`\eta :=g^1\delta g`$ we obtain equations of motion for the generalized principal chiral models

$$_\mu J^{\mu ,a}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{}J_\mu ^bJ^{\mu ,c}=0,$$
(10)
where

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{}:=S_{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{}+\gamma _{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{},$$
(11)
$`S_{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{}`$ is the so called flat connection given by the structure coefficients

$$S_{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{}:=\frac{1}{2}\left(C_{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{}+C_{}^{a}{}_{cb}{}^{}\right),C_{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{}:=\left(L^1\right)^{ap}c_{pb}^{}{}_{}{}^{q}L_{qc}$$
(12)
and $`\gamma _{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{}`$ are the Christoffel symbols for the metric $`L_{ab}\left(g\right)`$ on the group manifold

$$\gamma _{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{}:=\frac{1}{2}\left(L^1\right)^{ad}\left(U_bL_{cd}+U_cL_{bd}U_dL_{bc}\right).$$
(13)
The vector fields $`U_a`$ in (13) are defined in the local group coordinates $`\theta _i`$ as

$$U_a:=U_a^i\left(\theta \right)\frac{}{\theta _i}$$
(14)
where the matrix $`U`$ is inverse to the matrix $`V`$ of vielbein coordinates

$$U_a^i\left(\theta \right):=\left(V^1\right)_a^i\left(\theta \right),V_i^a\left(\theta \right):=\left(g^1\frac{g}{\theta _i}\right)^a.$$
(15)
Note that the connection (11) is symmetric in the lower indices

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}^{a}{}_{bc}{}^{}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}^{a}{}_{cb}{}^{}.$$
(16)
For the group $`Af\left(1\right)`$

$$U_a=(\frac{}{\theta _1},e^{\theta _1}\frac{}{\theta _2}).$$
(17)
## 3 The Lax pairs

In the paper , the ansatz for the Lax formulation of the generalized chiral models was taken in the form

$$[_0+P_{ab}J_0^bt_a+Q_{ab}J_1^bt_a,_1+P_{ab}J_1^bt_a+Q_{ab}J_0^bt_a]=0$$
(18)
where $`P,Q`$ are two auxiliary $`dimG\times dimG`$ matrices. The ansatz (18) is a generalization of the Lax pair for Killing metric on the compact semisimple group $`Ł_{ab}=Tr\left(t_at_b\right)`$ (in that case $`Q`$ and $`P`$ are multiples of the unit matrix).

Necessary conditions that the operators in (18) form the Lax pair for the equations of motion (10) are

$$_0P=_1Q,_0Q=_1P$$
(19)
$$\left(P_{bp}P_{cq}Q_{bp}Q_{cq}\right)c_{bc}^{}{}_{}{}^{a}=P_{ab}c_{pq}^{}{}_{}{}^{b},$$
(20)
$$\frac{1}{2}c_{cd}^{}{}_{}{}^{a}\left(P_{cp}Q_{dq}+P_{cq}Q_{dp}\right)=Q_{ab}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}^{b}{}_{pq}{}^{}.$$
(21)
If $`\mathrm{Q}`$ is invertible, that we shall assume in the following, then these conditions are also sufficient. Note that the first two conditions are independent of the bilinear form $`L`$ so that one can start with solving the equation (20) and then look for the bilinear forms $`L`$ that admit solution of the equation (19,21). Moreover, as we have no a priori conditions for the first derivatives of the fields $`g`$ i.e. derivatives of $`\theta _1,\theta _2`$, we get from (19)

$$_{\theta _j}P=0,_{\theta _j}Q=0$$
(22)
### 3.1 Solution of the equations (1921) for $`Af(1)`$

The equations (2021) where $`a=1`$ become linear equations for elements $`P_{1b}`$ and $`Q_{1b}`$ due to the fact that $`c_{pq}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}=0`$. It is rather easy to see that there is only trivial solution $`Q_{11}=Q_{12}=0`$ of the equations $`Q_{1b}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}^{b}{}_{pq}{}^{}=0`$ for constant nondegenerate metric $`L`$ (i.e. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}^{b}{}_{pq}{}^{}=S_{}^{b}{}_{pq}{}^{}`$) so that there is no invertible matrix $`\mathrm{Q}`$ that satisfy the equations (21) for $`\mathrm{A}\mathrm{f}(1)`$ and the constant nondegenerate metric $`\mathrm{L}`$.

On the other hand, there are solutions of the equations (2021) with $`detQ0`$ for the nonconstant metric. In the following we shall present solutions for the diagonal metric

$$L\left(g\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}k_1(\theta _1,\theta _2)& 0\\ 0& k_2(\theta _1,\theta _2)\end{array}\right).$$
(23)
The equation (20) for $`Af\left(1\right)`$ imply that matrix $`P`$ is of the form

$$P=\left(\begin{array}{cc}p_1& 0\\ p_3& p_2\end{array}\right)$$
(24)
where

$$p_2\left(p_1+1\right)=detQ$$
(25)
The linear equations for the elements $`Q_{1b}`$ given by (21) read

$$Q_{1b}\gamma _{}^{b}{}_{11}{}^{}=0,$$

$$2Q_{1b}\gamma _{}^{b}{}_{12}{}^{}+Q_{12}=0,$$
(26)
$$k_1Q_{1b}\gamma _{}^{b}{}_{22}{}^{}k_2Q_{11}=0.$$

The condition $`detQ0`$ requires that this system has a nontrivial solution. The nontrivial solvability of this system implies a system of quadratic equations for the Christoffel symbols that finally give a system of partial differential equations for the elements of the metric

$$\left(k_2k_{2,1}\right)k_{1,1}e^{2\theta _1}k_{1,2}^2=0$$
(27)
$$\left(2k_2k_{2,1}\right)k_{1,2}+k_{1,1}k_{2,2}=0$$
(28)
$$\left(k_2k_{2,1}\right)\left(2k_2k_{2,1}\right)+e^{2\theta _1}k_{1,2}k_{2,2}=0$$
(29)
where $`k_{i,j}\frac{k_i}{\theta _j}.`$ For every solution of this system we can get a solution of the equations (20, 21) with $`detQ0`$. However, the equations (19) or (22) can be satisfied only if

$$k_1=K_1,k_2=K_2\mathrm{exp}\left(2\theta _1\right),$$
(30)
or

$$k_1=K_1\mathrm{exp}\left(\theta _1\right),k_2=K_2\mathrm{exp}\left(\theta _1\right),$$
(31)
where $`K_1,K_2`$ are arbitrary nonzero constants.

For the case (30), i.e. for

$$L\left(g\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}K_1& 0\\ 0& K_2e^{2\theta _1}\end{array}\right),$$
(32)
we get

$$P=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1+ϵq_1& 0\\ c_1\left(1+ϵq_1\right)/q_1& p_2\end{array}\right),Q=\left(\begin{array}{cc}q_1& 0\\ c_1& ϵp_2\end{array}\right).$$
(33)
where $`ϵ=\pm 1,c_1,q_1,p_2`$ are arbitrary constants $`q_10,p_20`$. The equations of motion of this model read

$$_\nu J^{1\nu }=0$$
(34)
$$_\nu J^{2\nu }+J_\nu ^1J^{2\nu }=0$$
(35)
that actually represent the free model

$$_\nu ^\nu \theta _1=0$$
(36)
$$_\nu ^\nu \theta _2=0$$
(37)
For the case (31) i.e. for

$$L\left(g\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}K_1e^{\theta _1}& 0\\ 0& K_2e^{\theta _1}\end{array}\right),$$
(38)
the Lax pair is given by

$$P=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{2}& 0\\ \frac{q_2}{\kappa }& c_1\kappa \end{array}\right),Q=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& \frac{\kappa }{2}\\ c_1& q_2\end{array}\right)$$
(39)
where $`\kappa ^2=K_2/K_10`$ and $`c_1,q_2`$ are constants, $`c_10`$. The equations of motion of this nontrivial $`\mathrm{A}\mathrm{f}(1)`$ model with the nonconstant metrics are

$$_\nu J^{1\nu }+\frac{1}{2}\left(J_\nu ^1J^{1\nu }\kappa ^2J_\nu ^2J^{2\nu }\right)=0$$
(40)
$$_\nu J^{2\nu }=0$$
(41)
or

$$_\nu ^\nu \theta _1+\frac{1}{2}\left(_\nu \theta _1\right)\left(^\nu \theta _1\right)\frac{1}{2}\kappa ^2e^{2\theta _1}\left(_\nu \theta _2\right)\left(^\nu \theta _2\right)=0$$
(42)
$$_\nu ^\nu \theta _2\left(_\nu \theta _1\right)\left(^\nu \theta _2\right)=0$$
(43)
Inserting (39) into (18) we get a linear combination of the equations (40), (41) containing the parameter $`q_2`$ and we find that without loss of generality we can set $`q_2=0`$. The Lax operators for the system (40), (41) then read

$$L_0=_0+\left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{2}\left(J_0^1+\kappa J_1^2\right)& \lambda \left(J_1^1+\kappa J_0^2\right)\\ 0& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(44)
$$L_1=_1+\left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{2}\left(J_1^1+\kappa J_0^2\right)& \lambda \left(J_0^1+\kappa J_1^2\right)\\ 0& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(45)
where $`\lambda =c_1`$ is free (spectral) parameter.

## 4 Painlevé analysis and particular solutions

To check the integrability of the model (42),(43) we can apply the usual Painlevé test ,  i.e. to check the existence of the generic solution in the form of series with apropriate number of undetermined coefficients.

To be able to perform the test we must first convert the equations (42),(43) to the polynomial form. It can be done by the substitution $`Z=\mathrm{exp}\left(\theta _1/2\right),W=\kappa \theta _2/2`$ that transform the equations to the form

$$Z^3_\nu ^\nu Z\left(_\nu W\right)\left(^\nu W\right)=0$$
(46)
$$Z_\nu ^\nu W2\left(_\nu Z\right)\left(^\nu W\right)=0$$
(47)
The singular point analysis is trivial as all possible leading powers for the above system are nonnegative. The analysis around $`Z=0`$ can be done by setting $`Z=1/Y`$ and consequent singular point analysis of the system

$$Y_\nu ^\nu Y2\left(_\nu Y\right)\left(^\nu Y\right)+Y^6\left(_\nu W\right)\left(^\nu W\right)=0$$
(48)
$$Y_\nu ^\nu W+2\left(_\nu Y\right)\left(^\nu W\right)=0$$
(49)
The singular solutions of this system have leading powers of $`Y`$ and $`W`$ (-1,3) and (-1,0). The resonances are $`r=3,1,0,0`$ and $`r=1,0,0,3`$ respectively and compatibility conditions are satisfied. (In the former case they are trivial and in the latter case we have used a Mathematica code for the check.)

The polynomial form (46), (47) of the field equations is also convenient for obtaining particular solutions of the model. Indeed, choosing $`Z(x_0,x_1)=z\left(y\right),W(x_0,x_1)=w\left(y\right)`$ where $`y=f(x_0,x_1)`$ and $`f`$ solving the wave equation $`_\nu ^\nu f=0`$ we obtain from (46), (47) a system of ODEs for $`z,w`$ that is rather easy to solve. We get

$$z\left(y\right)=Ae^{By}+Ce^{By},$$

$$w\left(y\right)=D\pm \frac{1}{2}\left(A^2e^{2By}+4ABCyC^2e^{2By}\right)$$

or

$$z\left(y\right)=y,w\left(y\right)=C$$

where $`A,B,C,D`$ are arbitrary real constants.

## 5 Conclusion

We have classified the generalized principal $`Af\left(1\right)`$ models that posses the Lax pair of the form (18). We have found that no such model with constant metric $`L_{ab}`$ in the action (5) exists and that there are just two models with the nonconstant diagonal metric. One of them is the two–component free model and the other one is given by the equations of motion (42), (43). A particular solution of the latter model was obtained and the Painlevé analysis confirms its integrability.


text:
# Radial Excitations of low–lying Baryons and the Structure of the Z+ Penta–Quark1footnote 11footnote 1Talk presented at the 7ᵗʰ Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Quebec, May 2000. To appear in the proceedings.

## Introduction

In the collective quantization of chiral solitons higher dimensional representations of flavor $`SU(3)`$ play a major role222See ref We96  for a review and references on chiral solitons in flavor $`SU(3)`$.. Upon flavor symmetry breaking, members of these representations admix to the ordinary octet and decuplet states of the same quantum numbers to form the low–lying $`\frac{1}{2}^+`$ and $`\frac{3}{2}^+`$ baryons. Notably these higher dimensional representations also contain states with quantum numbers that are not found in the octet (decuplet) representation. In a quark model picture these baryons cannot be formed as simple three quark states, rather they consist of at least four quarks and an anti–quark. The $`\overline{\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}}`$ representation contains the presumably lightest such state, the $`Z^+`$, with the quantum numbers $`Y=2`$, $`I=0`$, $`J=1/2`$. Details of the presented study are found in ref We98 . For earlier studies on the $`Z^+`$ see ref Wa92 . An experimental search for the $`Z^+`$ was proposed in ref Pa99 .

## Collective quantization

We consider a chiral Lagrangian in flavor $`SU(3)`$. The basic variable is the chiral field $`U=\mathrm{exp}(i\lambda _a\varphi ^a/2)`$ representing the pseudoscalar fields $`\varphi ^a`$ ($`a=0,\mathrm{},8`$). Other fields may be included as well. For example, the specific model used later also contains a scalar meson. In general this chiral Lagrangian can be written as

$$=_\mathrm{S}+_{\mathrm{SB}}$$
(1)
with flavor symmetric (S) and flavor symmetry breaking (SB) pieces. Denoting the (classical) soliton solution of (1) by $`U_0(\stackrel{}{r})`$ states with baryon quantum numbers are constructed by quantizing the flavor rotations

$$U(\stackrel{}{r},t)=A(t)U_0(\stackrel{}{r})A^{}(t),A(t)SU(3)$$
(2)
canonically. According to (1) the Hamiltonian for the collective coordinates $`A(t)`$ can be written as $`H=H_\mathrm{S}+H_{\mathrm{SB}}.`$ For unit baryon number the eigenstates of $`H_\mathrm{S}`$ are the members of $`SU(3)`$ representations with the condition that the representation contains a state with identical spin and isospin quantum numbers (such as e.g. the nucleon or the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$). The symmetry breaking piece, $`H_{\mathrm{SB}}`$ mixes states from different $`SU(3)`$ representations. For example, the state identified with the nucleon becomes

$$|N=|N,\mathrm{𝟖}+c_{\overline{\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}}}^{(N)}|N,\overline{\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}}+c_{\mathrm{𝟐𝟕}}^{(N)}|N,\mathrm{𝟐𝟕}+\mathrm{},$$
(3)
where the coefficients are computed as matrix elements of $`H_{\mathrm{SB}}`$. Another interesting question, of course, is what role do states play which diagonalize $`H`$ and have dominant contributions from the higher dimensional representations such as

$`|N^{}`$ $`=`$ $`|N,\overline{\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}}+c_\mathrm{𝟖}^{(N^{})}|N,\mathrm{𝟖}+c_{\mathrm{𝟐𝟕}}^{(N^{})}|N,\mathrm{𝟐𝟕}+\mathrm{},`$ (4)
$`|Z^+`$ $`=`$ $`|Z^+,\overline{\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}}+c_{\overline{\mathrm{𝟑𝟓}}}^{(Z^+)}|Z^+,\overline{\mathrm{𝟑𝟓}}+\mathrm{}\mathrm{?}`$ (5)
A naïve analysis predicts the $`N^{}`$ to be $`400500\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ heavier than the nucleon which suggests to identify this state with the Roper (1440) resonance. However, such an interpretation contradicts the common folklore viewing the Roper as a radial excitation of the nucleon. In order to resolve this puzzle and also to provide a sensible interpretation to the state $`|Z^+`$, the radial degrees of freedom need to be quantized as well. For this end we introduce the corresponding collective coordinate $`\xi (t)`$ via Sch91a ; Sch91b

$$U(\stackrel{}{r},t)=A(t)U_0(\xi (t)\stackrel{}{r})A^{}(t).$$
(6)
Changing variables to $`x(t)=[\xi (t)]^{3/2}`$ the flavor symmetric piece of the collective Hamiltonian can be diagonalized for a given $`SU(3)`$ representation of dimension $`\mu `$

$$H_\mathrm{S}=\frac{1}{2\sqrt{m\alpha ^3\beta ^4}}\frac{}{x}\sqrt{\frac{\alpha ^3\beta ^4}{m}}\frac{}{x}+V+\left(\frac{1}{2\alpha }\frac{1}{2\beta }\right)J(J+1)+\frac{1}{2\beta }C_2(\mu )+s,$$
(7)
where $`J`$ and $`C_2(\mu )`$ are the spin and (quadratic) Casimir eigenvalues associated with the representation $`\mu `$. Note that $`m=m(x),\alpha =\alpha (x),\mathrm{},s=s(x)`$ are all functions of the scaling variable. We use (7) to build towers of radially excited states $`|\mu ,n_\mu `$ with $`n_\mu =0,1,\mathrm{}`$ denoting the number of nodes in the respective wave–functions. These states serve to diagonalize the Hamiltonian including symmetry breaking

$$H_{\mu ,n_\mu ;\mu ^{},n_\mu ^{}^{}}=_{\mu ,n_\mu }\delta _{\mu ,\mu ^{}}\delta _{n_\mu ,n_\mu ^{}^{}}\mu ,n_\mu |\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{tr}\left(\lambda _8A\lambda _8A^{}\right)s(x)|\mu ^{},n_\mu ^{}^{},$$
(8)
yielding the baryonic states $`|B,m=_{\mu ,n_\mu }C_{\mu ,n_\mu }^{(B,m)}|\mu ,n_\mu .`$ The resulting spectrum Sch91b  is depicted in figure 1 and compared to the known resonances PDG98 . We recognize a good agreement although the Roper is predicted about $`90\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ too low. It also worth to note that this state turns out to dominantly be a radial excitation of the nucleon state in the octet representation, i.e. $`|\mathrm{𝟖},1`$ We98 .

$`\mathrm{𝐅𝐈𝐆𝐔𝐑𝐄}\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{:}`$ The mass differences of the predicted baryons in the scaling mode treatment of the three flavor Skyrme model with a scalar field included (full lines) Sch91b ; empirical data PDG98  are denoted by dotted lines. The model predictions for the ground states of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ channels and the experimentally observed counterparts are (almost) indistinguishable.

For the baryon state we are interested in most, we find $`M_{Z^+}M_N630\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}.`$ This state has a sizable admixture of the counterpart in the $`\overline{\mathrm{𝟑𝟓}}`$ representation.

## Estimate of decay widths

In order to further specify the $`Z^+`$ we demand the width for the decay $`Z^+KN`$. This is one of the strong decays of excited baryons which are described by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{B^{}B\varphi }=\frac{3G_{B^{}B\varphi }^2}{8\pi M_B^{}M_B}|𝒑_\varphi |^3.$$
(9)
Here $`𝒑_\varphi `$ is the momentum of the outgoing meson in the rest frame of $`B^{}`$. The coupling constants $`G_{B^{}B\varphi }`$ are not easily accessible in chiral soliton models. Fortunately, it seems sufficient to estimate them from the appropriate flavor operator (For example, $`a=3`$ when $`B`$ and $`B^{}`$ have identical isospin projections, $`I_3`$.),

$$G_{B^{}B\varphi }=C_\mathrm{\Delta }B^{}m^{}|x^{2n/3}\mathrm{tr}\left(\lambda _aA\lambda _3A^{}\right)|Bm$$
(10)
and allow for different forms for the scaling operators parameterized by the power $`n`$. The constant $`C_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is fixed such that the experimental width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{\Delta }\pi N}=120\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ is properly reproduced. From table 1 we observe that only the width of the decay $`RN\pi `$ has a significant dependence on the shape of the scaling function in (10).

The width for $`R\mathrm{\Delta }\pi `$ is underestimated because the respective phase space is small as a consequence of the too low prediction for the Roper mass. Otherwise the widths are reasonably well reproduced and we estimate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{Z^+KN}120\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}.`$

## Conclusion

We have investigated the role of higher dimensional flavor $`SU(3)`$ representations for the description of excited baryon states. In particular the interplay between the states in these representations and the radial excitations of the octet (and decuplet) baryons has been discussed. A reasonable description of the spectrum and the decay widths has been achieved. The lightest of the exotic states in such a higher dimensional representation, the $`Z^+`$, was predicted to have a mass of about $`1.57\mathrm{GeV}`$ and a width of about $`120\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ for its decay into a nucleon and a kaon.

### Acknowledgements

This work is supported in part by funds provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (D.O.E.) under cooperative research agreement #DF-FC02-94ER40818 and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under contract We 1254/3-1.


text:
# Air shower simulation using geant4 and commodity parallel computing

## 1 Introduction

The steeply falling end of the cosmic ray spectrum now extends up to $`3\times 10^{20}`$ eV (see Ref.  for a recent survey), three orders of magnitude higher than the highest energy achieved by hadron colliders. Direct measurements using sophisticated equipment on satellites or high altitude balloons are limited in detector area and in exposure time. Ground-based detectors with large apertures make such a low flux detectable after a magnification effect in the upper atmosphere. Namely, the incident cosmic radiation interacts with atomic nuclei of the air molecules and produces extensive air showers which spread out over large areas. This indirect method of detection bears a number of serious difficulties in the interpretation of the recorded data. In particular, since many variables are involved the processes describing the shower development are intrinsically complicated, numerical simulation of the giant cascades has to be performed. The most important source of fluctuations in Monte Carlo simulations such as corsika  and aires  are the depth and characteristic of the first few interactions, necessarily related to the quality of our understandying of hadronic collisions.

The parts of the shower model which are based on electromagnetic or weak interactions can be calculated with “good accuracy”. The hadronic interaction, however, is still subject to large uncertainties. In recent years, many models of hadronic interactions have been built around experimental results, predominantly of $`p\overline{p}`$ colliders. Extrapolations to higher energies, to small angle processes, and to nucleus–nucleus collisions have been performed with varying levels of sophistication. In particular, the algorithms of sibyll  and qgsjet  are tailored for efficient operation to the highest cosmic ray energies.111It is important to stress that the latest version of dpmjet was improved for operation up to primary energies of $`10^{21}`$ eV (per nucleon in he lab. frame) . However, it was not yet efficiently implemented in aires, nor in corsika. The different approaches used in these codes to model the underlying physics can lead to different results when applied to the same data . Hence, considerable systematic uncertainties remain. In addition, a significant deviation was recently reported in the predictions of aires and corsika, even when both programs invoked the same hadronic interaction model to account for the first generation of particles . These discrepancies could result from different energy cuts for the hadronic interaction routines, or there may be some discrepancies in the sampling techniques implemented in these programs to reduce the number of generated particles. We, therefore, considered it worthwhile to compare the simulation results of aires (which utilizes the Hillas thinning algorithm ) to that obtained with geant4+top-c  (top-c makes tractable the problem of following each particle during the atmospheric cascade).222geant4 is the latest stage in the development of the GEANT software, superseding the earlier FORTRAN versions with a new object-oriented approach in C++ . top-c (Task Oriented Parallel C) provides a framework for parallel algorithm development .

## 2 Air shower simulation

The most direct way to test the predictions of aires and geant4+top-c is to study the characteristics of the secondaries generated under similar conditions. Therefore, in order to reduce possible differences caused by the implementation of hadronic collisions, we analyze the showers induced by 10 TeV protons. Furthermore, we have fixed the energy cuts of geant4 according to the default values of aires. All shower particles with energies above the following thresholds were tracked: 750 keV for gammas, 900 keV for electrons and positrons, 10 Mev for muons, 60 MeV for pions and kaons and 120 MeV for nucleons. The particles were injected at the top of the atmosphere (100 km.a.s.l) and the ground was located at sea level. In the simulations with geant4+top-c, the atmosphere was defined by a stack of 230 layers of increasing thickness and decreasing density (with the height above sea level). The geomagnetic field was not taken into account. The variable density was modeled using Linsley’s parametrization of the U.S. Standard Atmosphere , leading to the density profile shown in Fig. 1. Each point in the figure corresponds to a layer starting with thickness 50 m at sea level and increasing to 1 km at the top of the atmosphere. The above description is consistent with that used in aires. qgsjet was used to model the hadronic processes in the simulation with aires (we note that at 10 TeV the results obtained with aires+sibyll are almost the same).

In Fig. 2 we show preliminary results of the longitudinal development of the total number of secondaries that a 10 TeV proton may produce after cascading in the atmosphere. We also show the longitudinal development of different groups of secondary particles (we have considered separately $`\gamma `$, $`e^\pm `$, and $`\mu ^\pm `$).

At 600 g/cm2 the ratio between the total number of particles produced by geant4 and the total number of particles produced by aires is $`2`$. This ratio increases as the shower front gets closer to the ground, and roughly reaches the value of 4 at 800 g/cm2. The main reason for this divergence comes from a difference in the number of charged pions produced during the shower development. In the first generation of particles (governed by the hadronic interaction) geant4 produces more charged pions than aires. Consequently, in the first steps, the muon shower profile developes faster in geant4 than in aires.

The photopion production threshold is at a photon energy of 145 MeV in the proton rest frame, with a strongly increasing cross section in the region of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonances, which decay into neutral and charged pions. With increasing energy photon-proton collisions are no longer mediated by resonances, but by the diffractive production of the vector mesons, $`\rho `$ and $`\omega `$, or direct multi-pion production. We are currently evaluating whether the physical models available in geant4 are sufficient to describe photon-nuclear interactions in the energy range of interest. We note that geant4 provides a framework for introducing new physical models if need be. Though our (geant4) simulation produces $`\gamma `$’s above the photopion threshold, we observe no charged pions from this process. Therefore, as the shower front approaches the ground, the neutral pion decay channel dominates the cascade, yielding a huge number of electrons and positrons. As a result, the total number of particles is increased, and the position where the shower develops the maximum number of particles is shifted to greater depths.

## 3 Final Comment

The above comparison between aires and geant4 is not yet complete. A detailed discussion including the geomagnetic field effects, study of the $`\gamma p`$–interaction, and the analysis of different kinds of primaries at “Auger energies”  will be given in a future publication.

## Acknowledgments

We have benefited from discussions with María Teresa Dova and Sergio Sciutto. This work was supported by CONICET, and the National Science Foundation.