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# Model-independent low momentum nucleon interaction from phase shift equivalence

## 1 Introduction

A major challenge of nuclear physics lies in the description of finite nuclei and nuclear matter on the basis of a microscopic theory. By microscopic, it is understood that the input nuclear force is, as best as possible, based on the available free-space data, e.g., the elastic nucleon-nucleon and nucleon-deuteron scattering phase shifts. The theoretical predictions are then obtained using a systematic many-body approach, which is reliable for strongly interacting systems.

At low energies and densities, one typically starts by treating protons and neutrons as nonrelativistic point-like fermions. However, as opposed to the Coulomb interaction in electronic systems, the nucleon-nucleon interaction remains unknown from the underlying theory of the strong interactions, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Thus, phenomenological meson-exchange models of the two-nucleon force are commonly used as input in many-body calculations. Moreover, three- (and possibly four-) body forces are needed to obtain accurate results for few-body systems. Recent Green’s function Monte Carlo calculations using a realistic two-body interaction, the Argonne $`v_{18}`$ potential, have shown that three-body forces typically contribute a net attraction of $`20\%`$ to the low-lying states of light nuclei, $`A10`$ .

However, already at the lowest level of the two-body interaction, there are several quite different potential models commonly used. Therefore, it is a natural first step to ask whether it is possible to remove or to minimize this model dependence. In this work, we expand on previous results  and demonstrate that this is indeed possible, as long as one restricts the interaction to momenta which are constrained by the experimental scattering data, and explicitly includes the long-range part of the interaction.

There are a number of high precision models of the nucleon-nucleon force $`V_{\text{NN}}`$, which we will refer to as the “bare” interactions. All realistic potentials are given by the one-pion exchange (OPE) interaction at long distances, but vary substantially in their treatment of the intermediate-range attraction and the short-range repulsion. We briefly summarize the different frameworks used to generate the intermediate and short-range parts of the realistic potential models . The Paris potential  calculates the intermediate-range contributions to the nucleon-nucleon scattering amplitude from two-pion exchange using dispersion theory, and then assumes a local potential representation consisting of several static Yukawa functions. The $`\omega `$-meson exchange at short distances is included as part of the three-pion exchange, and a repulsive core is introduced by sharply cutting off these parts at the internucleon distance $`r0.8\text{fm}`$. At short distances, the interaction is simply given by a constant (but energy-dependent) soft core. The Bonn potentials  are based on multiple one-boson exchange interactions and the two-pion exchange potential calculated in perturbation theory. The two-pion exchange contribution is then approximated by an energy-independent $`\sigma `$-meson exchange term. Smooth form factors (with typical form factor masses $`12\text{GeV}`$) cut off the potential at short distances. The short range repulsion originates from the $`\omega `$ exchange. The second generation CD-Bonn potential  refines the treatment of the one-boson exchange amplitudes to take into account the non-local structure arising from the covariant amplitudes. The Nijmegen potentials  consist of multiple one-boson exchange parts (with separate local and non-local versions), where the interaction parameters of the heavier mesons depend on the partial waves. At very short distances, the potentials are regularized by exponential form factors. Finally, the local Argonne potential  consists of the OPE interaction regularized at short distances, and a phenomenological parametrization at short and intermediate distances. The core is provided by Woods-Saxon functions that are effective at a distance $`r0.5\text{fm}`$.

Over the past decade, there has also been a great effort in deriving low-energy nucleon-nucleon interactions in the framework of effective field theory (EFT)  (for a review see ). The EFT approach is based on local Lagrangian field theory with low-energy degrees of freedom, constrained by the symmetries of QCD. The Lagrangian contains the nucleon and pion fields and all possible interactions consistent with chiral symmetry. At low energies, the heavy mesons and nucleon resonances can be integrated out of the theory. Their effects are encoded in the renormalized pion exchange and scale-dependent coupling constants of model-independent contact interactions. By formulating a power counting scheme, the number of couplings in the effective Lagrangian can be truncated and fitted to a set of low-energy data. Once the low-energy couplings are determined, the power counting scheme enables the EFT to predict other processes with controlled error estimates.

In addition to the high precision phenomenological interactions, we study the Idaho potential , which is a chiral model inspired by EFT. The Idaho potential introduces some model dependence in contrast to the rigorous EFT interactions by, e.g., including several terms in the expansion which are subleading in the power counting with respect to omitted ones. This leads to a better description of the experimental phase shifts, comparable in accuracy to the realistic models. Since we will argue that our results are dependent on the accurate reproduction of the scattering phase shifts, the results for the Idaho EFT potential are presented here as well.

The couplings and parameters of the different potentials described above are fitted to the elastic nucleon-nucleon scattering phase shifts over laboratory energies $`E_{\text{lab}}350\text{MeV}`$ and the low-energy deuteron properties. As a consequence, the bare interactions are constrained by the experimental data up to a corresponding relative momentum scale of111Here, we use conventional scattering units where $`c=\mathrm{}=\mathrm{}^2/m=1`$, i.e., the laboratory energy is related to the relative momentum through $`E_{\text{lab}}=2k^2`$.

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\text{data}}2.1\text{fm}^1.$$
(1)
This is manifest in Fig. 1, where we observe that various high precision potential models of $`V_{\text{NN}}`$ have quite different momentum-space components, despite their common treatment of the OPE interaction and the reproduction of the same low-energy data. This indicates that the low-energy observables are not sensitive to the details or different assumptions of the short-distance physics. This insensitivity is a consequence of the separation of long and short-distance scales in the nuclear force, and implies that the nucleon-nucleon interaction is amenable to an effective theory or renormalization group treatment.

### 1.1 The two-body problem in effective theories

In this work, we propose a renormalization group (RG) approach to the nucleon-nucleon interaction which removes the short-distance model dependencies of the high precision potentials, while preserving their high accuracy description of the nucleon-nucleon scattering data and deuteron properties. As our approach is a compromise between an EFT treatment and the high precision potentials, we first discuss in general terms how effective theory methods can be applied to the two-nucleon problem.

The fundamental principle underlying modern effective theory methods is simple: the low-energy physics is not sensitive to the details of the high-energy dynamics. In other words, one can construct arbitrarily many theories, which have the same long-wavelength structure and lead to identical low-energy observables, but differ at short distances and higher-energy scales. This ambiguity can be used constructively. Namely, it is possible to replace the detailed short-distance dynamics by simple effective interactions, which preserve the low-energy symmetries of the full theory.

For example, a forerunner to the modern EFT approach is the well-known effective range theory of Bethe and Longmire . This allowed a quantitative description of low-energy nuclear phenomena without a detailed knowledge of the nuclear force. The low-energy scattering amplitude $`T(k,k;k^2)`$ is given by two phenomenological low-energy constants independent of an assumed nuclear force model

$$\frac{1}{T(k,k;k^2)}=\frac{1}{a_s}\frac{1}{2}r_0k^2+𝒪(k^4),$$
(2)
where $`a_s`$ denotes the scattering length and $`r_0`$ is the effective range parameter. The effective range theory encompasses the fundamental principle of modern effective theories, as any force models with different short-distance details can be tuned to give the same low-energy physics, which is captured in the effective range parameters.

More generally, this insensitivity can be exploited when the short-distance dynamics are either poorly understood, or are too complicated for calculation. Consider a quantum system described by the Hamiltonian

$$H=H_0+V_\text{L}+V_\text{H},$$
(3)
where $`V_\text{L}`$ primarily couples to low-energy states, in our case the long-range part of the OPE interaction, and $`V_\text{H}`$ includes the remaining complicated or unknown short-distance part of the interaction.

A first step in building an effective theory is to impose a cutoff $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ on the intermediate state energies and momenta. In the modern viewpoint, the cutoff takes on a physical meaning. It divides the low-energy states, which are essential to the low-energy physics, from the high-energy modes. In this way, one explicitly maintains only dynamics that are well-understood. It is, however, not possible to simply neglect the remaining $`V_\text{H}`$, since its effects on the low-energy physics need to be included in the form of correction, or so-called counterterms. The correction terms are constrained by demanding that all low-energy spectra, low-energy amplitudes, etc., calculated using the bare Hamiltonian $`H`$ are exactly reproduced using an effective Hamiltonian $`H_{\text{low k}}`$ in the truncated Hilbert space.

Schematically, in perturbation theory all amplitudes are of the form

$$f|𝒜|i=f|V_{\text{bare}}|i+\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{f|V_{\text{bare}}|nn|V_{\text{bare}}|i}{E_iE_n}+𝒪(V_{\text{bare}}^3),$$
(4)
where the intermediate state summations are over both low and high-energy states. We now define an effective low momentum potential $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ by demanding

$$f|𝒜|i=f|V_{\text{low k}}|i+\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}}\frac{f|V_{\text{low k}}|nn|V_{\text{low k}}|i}{E_iE_n}+𝒪(V_{\text{low k}}^3),$$
(5)
where we introduce the correction terms through

$$V_{\text{low k}}=V_\text{L}+\delta V_{\text{ct}}.$$
(6)
The physical amplitudes cannot depend on the way in which we split the Hilbert space and must therefore be independent of the cutoff. Consequently, $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ changes or “runs” with the cutoff in order to cancel the cutoff dependence arising from the truncated intermediate state summations. This means that the effective theory must be RG invariant. Demanding RG invariance implies a RG equation for the low momentum interaction

$$\frac{d}{d\mathrm{\Lambda }}f|𝒜|i=0\frac{d}{d\mathrm{\Lambda }}V_{\text{low k}}=\beta ([V_{\text{low k}}],\mathrm{\Lambda }),$$
(7)
where the $`\beta `$ function of the problem depends on the cutoff-dependent low momentum potential, as well as explicit cutoff dependence from the regularization. Starting from a bare interaction defined in the full Hilbert space, i.e., with a large cutoff, the RG equation can be solved to obtain the physically equivalent effective potential. This process is referred to as integrating out, or decimating the high-energy degrees of freedom. It can be viewed as filtering out the details of the assumed high-energy dynamics, while implicitly incorporating their detail-independent effects on the low-energy physics.

Since the virtual high-energy states propagate over distances of the order $`1/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ or shorter, the correction terms are well approximated by contact interactions, regardless of the detailed form of $`V_\text{H}`$. The general form of $`\delta V_{\text{ct}}`$ should therefore be given by a sum over all local contact operators consistent with the symmetries of the problem. In the specific case of the two-body system, we have schematically (for an excellent discussion of the details of the approach, see Lepage .)

$`\delta V_{\text{ct}}(𝐫)`$ $`=`$ $`C_0{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}}\delta ^3(𝐫)+C_2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^4}}^2\delta ^3(𝐫)+C_2^{}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^4}}\delta ^3(𝐫)+\mathrm{}`$ (8)
$`+C_{2n}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2n+2}}}^{2n}\delta ^3(𝐫)+\mathrm{},`$
with dimensionless couplings $`C_{2n}`$. To a low-energy probe, the effective theory is indistinguishable from the underlying theory, provided the decimation has been performed exactly.

The power counting scheme of the EFT enables one to reliably truncate the correction terms, Eq. (8), and fit the couplings directly to a set of low-energy data, since a RG decimation of the underlying fundamental theory is at present not feasible. In our current approach, we will assume that the nucleon-nucleon interaction in the full Hilbert space is given by a high precision potential model, and then perform the RG decimation to low momenta exactly. In this way, the resulting low momentum potential contains all necessary counterterms to maintain exact RG invariance of the theory, and therefore reproduces the experimental phase shift data and the deuteron properties over the same kinematic range as the conventional models.

### 1.2 A schematic model

Before considering realistic nucleon-nucleon potential models, we apply the RG approach to a simplified schematic model that allows for a straightforward solution of the RG equation to construct $`V_{\text{low k}}`$. In addition, the schematic model nicely illustrates the main point of our current approach. Independent of the schematic model constructed in the full Hilbert space, the RG decimation leads to a model-independent low momentum interaction $`V_{\text{low k}}`$.

We consider a separable interaction, which we construct to approximately fit the experimental neutron-proton phase shift data in the 1S0 channel. For this purpose, we found the following separable interaction to be particularly useful222For simplicity, we have chosen different functions for $`L(k^{})`$ and $`R(k)`$, in order to include a repulsive part in the potential without having to introduce several separable terms, which would complicate the discussion.

$`V_{\text{bare}}(k^{},k)`$ $`=L(k^{})R(k)`$ (9)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{g}{(k^2+m^2)^n}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{g}{(k^2+m^2)^n}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha g(k^2+m^2)^n}{(k^2+\eta ^2m^2)^{2n}}}\right).`$ (10)
For the diagonal matrix elements, the analogy to the nucleon-nucleon interaction can be seen better

$$V_{\text{bare}}(k,k)=\frac{g^2}{(k^2+m^2)^{2n}}+\frac{\alpha g^2}{(k^2+\eta ^2m^2)^{2n}}.$$
(11)
The separable model consists of an attractive part and a short-range, $`\eta >1`$, repulsive part. The strength of the repulsion, for given $`\eta `$, can be constructed to fit the 1S0 phase shift data reasonably.

For separable potentials, the Lippmann-Schwinger equation can be resummed explicitly and one finds

$$T_{\text{bare}}(k^{},k;k^2)=\frac{L(k^{})R(k)}{1+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}𝒫\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{L(p)R(p)}{p^2k^2}}p^2𝑑p}.$$
(12)
We choose a typical $`\eta =2`$, which approximately reflects the ratio of the repulsive to attractive meson contributions $`m_\omega /2m_\pi `$. The remaining parameters of our model, $`g,m`$ and $`\alpha `$, are then fitted to reproduce the effective range expansion,

$$T_{\text{bare}}(k,k;k^2)=\frac{1}{\frac{1}{a_s}\frac{1}{2}r_0k^2},$$
(13)
and the change in sign of the experimental phase shifts $`T_{\text{bare}}(\kappa ,\kappa ;\kappa ^2)=0`$ at $`\kappa =1.79\text{fm}^1`$ for a given power $`n`$. We constructed two exemplary separable models with the parameters given in Table 1.

The separable models are fitted to a neutron-proton 1S0 scattering length, $`a_s=23.73\text{fm}`$, and effective range $`r_0=2.70\text{fm}`$.

In Fig. 2, we show the phase shifts calculated from the models of $`V_{\text{bare}}`$. We observe that the separable models I and II can achieve a reasonably realistic description of the nucleon-nucleon phase shifts for laboratory energies below $`E_{\text{lab}}350\text{MeV}`$, i.e., for relative momenta $`k2.1\text{fm}^1`$.

As discussed in the previous Section, the low momentum amplitudes can be preserved with an effective interaction $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ acting in the Hilbert space of low momentum modes, $`k<\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, exclusively. The low momentum potential is renormalized by the high momentum modes according to an RG equation, of general form given by Eq. (7). In the current approach, we demand that the low momentum half-on-shell $`T`$ matrix (and consequently the phase shifts) are RG invariant, see also . The RG equation which follows from this requirement is derived in . For separable interactions, the RG equation for the diagonal components of the low momentum interaction simplifies and is given in closed form by333The RG equation is regularized by imposing a small gap between the low momentum Hilbert space, $`k\mathrm{\Lambda }\epsilon `$, and the cutoff $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ in the integration over intermediate momenta, $`p_{\text{loop}}\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. In this way the $`T`$ matrix can be calculated to chosen accuracy. In other words, the effect of this regularization on the scattering amplitude is $`𝒪(\epsilon )`$.

$$\frac{d}{d\mathrm{\Lambda }}V_{\text{low k}}(k,k;\mathrm{\Lambda })=\frac{2/\pi }{1(k/\mathrm{\Lambda })^2}\frac{V_{\text{low k}}(k,k;\mathrm{\Lambda })V_{\text{low k}}(\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Lambda };\mathrm{\Lambda })}{1+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}𝒫\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{V_{\text{low k}}(p,p;\mathrm{\Lambda })}{p^2\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}}p^2𝑑p}.$$
(14)
The initial condition of the RG equation is given by the bare interaction,

$$V_{\text{low k}}(k,k;\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)=V_{\text{bare}}(k,k),$$
(15)
at an initial scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_0`$ where the high momentum modes are negligible,

$$V_{\text{bare}}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)0.$$
(16)
The RG equation is then used to evolve the bare potentials to low momenta, thus removing the model-dependent realization of the high momentum parts. We solve the separable RG equation to a cutoff $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=2.1\text{fm}^1`$, which corresponds to a laboratory energy scale up to which the realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions are constrained by experiment, $`E_{\text{lab}}350\text{MeV}`$. First, we compare the phase shifts calculated in the low momentum space

$`\mathrm{tan}\delta `$ $`=kT_{\text{low k}}(k,k;k^2)`$ (17)
$`T_{\text{low k}}(k,k;k^2)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{V_{\text{low k}}(k,k;\mathrm{\Lambda })}{1+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}𝒫\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{V_{\text{low k}}(p,p;\mathrm{\Lambda })}{p^2k^2}}p^2𝑑p}}`$ (18)
and verify in Fig. 2 that the phase shifts are indeed reproduced by $`V_{\text{low k}}`$. In the RG approach, we have by construction

$$T_{\text{low k}}(k^{},k;k^2)=T_{\text{bare}}(k^{},k;k^2).$$
(19)
In Fig. 3, we show the resulting diagonal matrix elements of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ in comparison to the $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ derived from the high precision nucleon-nucleon interactions. Although the bare separable models I and II differ substantially, we find that the low momentum interactions in the truncated Hilbert space are identical. Furthermore, we observe that, to a surprisingly good accuracy, these simple models can in fact reproduce the diagonal matrix elements of the low momentum interaction obtained from the realistic potential models. In the RG equation for separable models, the matrix element corresponding to zero phase shift remains invariant,

$$V_{\text{low k}}(\kappa ,\kappa ;\mathrm{\Lambda })=V_{\text{bare}}(\kappa ,\kappa )=T(\kappa ,\kappa ;\kappa ^2)=0.$$
(20)
Interestingly, we find that the diagonal matrix element of the realistic $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ also changes sign approximately at relative momentum $`\kappa `$.

### 1.3 Organization

This work is organized as follows. In the next Section we discuss the calculational methods used for constructing the effective low momentum interaction $`V_{\text{low k}}`$. In particular, we show how $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ is related to the solution of the Bloch-Horowitz equation. Since the equivalence of the model space effective interaction methods and the RG approach is discussed in detail in , we will focus on the discussion of the effective interaction methods used in this work. In Section 3, we present the results for the low momentum interactions derived from the realistic potential models. We give results for all partial waves with $`J4`$, which provides ample evidence for the claimed model independence of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$. By studying specific partial waves, we will show how the model indepence is reached as the cutoff is varied, and also demonstrate its relation to the phase shift equivalence and the common long-range pion physics of the different potential models. Finally, we verify that the low momentum interaction indeed reproduces the scattering data below $`E_{\text{lab}}350\text{MeV}`$ and the deuteron binding energy with similar accuracy as the high precision potentials. After summarizing our results, we elaborate on the advantages of using $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ as the microscopic input interaction for nuclear many-body calculations.

## 2 Calculational methods

The schematic model provides a nice example illustrating the use of nonperturbative RG techniques to construct the low momentum effective theory. One could therefore apply the same direct method as for the schematic model. However, in the general non-separable case, the direct solution of the RG equation would be more involved. Therefore, we have adapted conventional effective interaction techniques, also referred to as model space methods, for the calculation of the low momentum interaction in the general case. These methods have been successfully used to derive nuclear shell model interactions in a truncated Hilbert space, see e.g., the review . Both the RG and model space techniques are concerned with integrating out the high-energy states, such that the low-energy observables remain invariant in the simpler effective theory. In spite of their similarities, the formal equivalence of conventional effective interaction theory and the RG was only recently demonstrated for the two-body problem . There, we have shown that the low momentum Hamiltonian obtained from the solution of the RG equation is equivalent to the effective theory derived using Bloch-Horowitz or Lee-Suzuki projection methods. Since our current work makes use of this equivalence for the calculation of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$, we briefly discuss the relevant techniques below.

### 2.1 Integrating out the high momentum modes by similarity transformations

Consider a physical system, for which we are only interested in its low-energy properties. The first step in effective interaction theory is to define Feshbach projection operators onto the physically important low-energy model space, the so-called $`P`$-space, and the high-energy complement, the $`Q`$-space,

$$P=\underset{i=1}{\overset{d}{}}|ii|=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 0\end{array}\right)\text{and}Q=\underset{i=d+1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}|ii|=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right).$$
(21)
The projection operators satisfy $`P+Q=1`$, $`PQ=QP=0`$, $`P^2=P`$ and $`Q^2=Q`$, and we have written the projection operators in matrix form as well. In most applications, the eigenstates of the unperturbed Hamiltonian $`H_0`$ are taken as basis states $`|i`$.

The Schrödinger equation can then be written in block form as

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}PHP& PHQ\\ QHP& QHQ\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}P|\mathrm{\Psi }\\ Q|\mathrm{\Psi }\end{array}\right)=E\left(\begin{array}{c}P|\mathrm{\Psi }\\ Q|\mathrm{\Psi }\end{array}\right).$$
(22)
By using the second block-row of Eq. (22), the $`Q`$-space projection $`Q|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ can be eliminated and one obtains the fundamental equations of Bloch-Horowitz effective interaction theory

$$P_{\text{low k}}^{\text{BH}}(E)P|\mathrm{\Psi }=EP|\mathrm{\Psi },$$
(23)
where the effective Hamiltonian $`_{\text{low k}}^{\text{BH}}(E)`$ is obtained by the solution of the Bloch-Horowitz equation

$$_{\text{low k}}^{\text{BH}}(E)=H+H\frac{1}{EQHQ}H.$$
(24)
The Bloch-Horowitz equation generates an effective Hamiltonian, whose $`P`$-space projection $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{BH}}(E)=P_{\text{low k}}^{\text{BH}}(E)P`$ is operative only within the low-energy model space and, e.g., enables an exact diagonalization in shell model applications. The $`Q`$-space states have been decoupled from the problem in a way that preserves the low-energy spectrum exactly, i.e., the $`d`$ lowest-lying eigenvalues. The eigenstates of $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{BH}}(E)`$ are simply given by the $`P`$-space projections of the exact eigenstates $`P|\mathrm{\Psi }_n`$. The effective Hamiltonian $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{BH}}(E)`$ depends on the exact energy eigenvalue one is solving for, and thus necessitates a self-consistent treatment. Although the self-consistency problem can be solved nicely using the Lanczos algorithm , the use of energy-dependent two-body interactions in many-body calculations can pose computational and conceptual difficulties.

A refinement of the Bloch-Horowitz theory that avoids these difficulties is the Lee-Suzuki similarity transformation . The Lee-Suzuki method constructs a similarity transformation that brings the Hamiltonian to the following block structure

$$\mathrm{\Theta }^1H\mathrm{\Theta }=_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}PP& & PQ\\ 0& & QQ\end{array}\right).$$
(25)
Since the determinant of a block-triangular matrix factorizes into the determinants of the independent $`P`$-space and $`Q`$-space blocks, the low-energy spectrum can be calculated exactly from the smaller effective model space Hamiltonian $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}=P_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}P`$. As in the Bloch-Horowitz approach, the eigenstates of $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}`$ are given by $`P|\mathrm{\Psi }_n`$. Making an ansatz for the Lee-Suzuki similarity transformation, one parametrizes $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ as a non-orthogonal transformation in terms of the so-called wave operator $`\omega `$

$$\mathrm{\Theta }=1+\omega =\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ \omega & 1\end{array}\right)\text{and}\mathrm{\Theta }^1=1\omega =\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ \omega & 1\end{array}\right),$$
(26)
where $`\omega =Q\omega P`$ connects the $`Q`$ and $`P`$-space. Inserting the ansatz into Eq. (25) leads to a non-linear constraint on $`\omega `$, the decoupling equation,

$$Q_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}P=0QHP+QHQ\omega \omega PHP\omega PHQ\omega =0.$$
(27)
Once a solution to this non-linear operator equation is found, the energy-independent effective Hamiltonian is given by

$$H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}=PHP+PHQ\omega P=PHP+PVQ\omega P,$$
(28)
where we have assumed that $`P`$ and $`Q`$ commute with the unperturbed Hamiltonian.

The relation to the Bloch-Horowitz theory can be clarified by inserting the Lee-Suzuki solution, Eq. (28), into the decoupling equation, Eq. (27), and solving for the wave operator. The resulting formal expression for the wave operator allows one to express the energy-independent Lee-Suzuki $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}`$ as a summation of the lowest $`d`$, self-consistent Bloch-Horowitz solutions $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{BH}}(E)`$, where each term is weighted by the projection of the corresponding eigenstate of the effective theory $`P|\mathrm{\Psi }_n\stackrel{~}{\left(\mathrm{\Psi }_n|P\right)}`$444The tilde denotes the bi-orthogonal complement, since projections of orthogonal $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_n`$ are not necessarily orthogonal.

$`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}`$ $`={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{d}{}}}\left(PHP+PH{\displaystyle \frac{1}{E_nQHQ}}HP\right)P|\mathrm{\Psi }_n\stackrel{~}{\left(\mathrm{\Psi }_n|P\right)}`$
$`={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{d}{}}}H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{BH}}(E_n)P|\mathrm{\Psi }_n\stackrel{~}{\left(\mathrm{\Psi }_n|P\right)}.`$ (29)
In this work, we apply the Lee-Suzuki formalism to the free-space nucleon-nucleon problem to derive the energy-independent low momentum interaction

$$V_{\text{low k}}=H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}PH_0P=PVP+PVQ\omega P.$$
(30)
This approach has been proven to be equivalent to the solution of the RG equation that results from imposing a momentum-space cutoff and demanding RG invariant half-on-shell (HOS) $`T`$ matrices . For a given partial wave, the $`P`$ and $`Q`$ operators are defined in a continuous plane wave basis as

$$P=\frac{2}{\pi }_0^\mathrm{\Lambda }p^2𝑑p|pp|\text{and}Q=\frac{2}{\pi }_\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{}}q^2𝑑q|qq|.$$
(31)
There are several methods to solve the non-linear decoupling equation for the wave operator. For the two-body problem, e.g., the exact solutions for the eigenstates can be used, and $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ can be calculated directly using Eq. (29). For more complex applications, one solves the decoupling equation using iterative techniques. Since the iterative methods are numerically very robust, we have utilized the iterative algorithm of Andreozzi  to calculate $`V_{\text{low k}}`$. The defining equations of this iteration scheme are given by

$`𝒳_0`$ $`=\left(QHQ\right)^1QHP`$ (32)
$`𝒳_n`$ $`=\left(𝒬(\omega _{n1})\right)^1𝒳_{n1}H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}(\omega _{n1}),\text{for}n1,`$ (33)
where

$`\omega _n`$ $`=𝒳_0+𝒳_1+\mathrm{}+𝒳_n`$ (34)
$`𝒬(\omega _n)`$ $`=QHQQ\omega _nPHQ`$ (35)
and

$$H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}(\omega _n)=PHP+PHQ\omega _nP.$$
(36)
The iteration converges when $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}(\omega _n)H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}(\omega _{n1})`$.

A convenient feature of the algorithm is that each iteration only requires one matrix inversion in the $`Q`$-space. The $`Q`$-space matrix inversion is manageable, typically requiring a set of $`60`$ Gauss-Legendre mesh points extending to $`25\text{fm}^1`$ to include the high momentum behavior of the input interaction. Finally, we mention that variations of the algorithm exist in which all matrix inversions occur in $`P`$-space, which can offer significant computational advantages for large-scale problems .

### 2.2 A refinement: hermitian low momentum interactions

By construction, the Lee-Suzuki $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}`$ is non-hermitian because the eigenstates of the effective theory are projections of the full eigenstates onto the low momentum subspace. The non-hermiticity is a result of eliminating the energy-dependence of the Bloch-Horowitz theory by means of the non-orthogonal similarity transformation.555Although the Bloch-Horowitz Hamiltonian $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{BH}}(E_n)`$ is hermitian for a given energy $`E_n`$, one encounters the same non-orthogonality problem between eigenstates, since the Hamiltonian changes self-consistently depending on the energy $`E_n`$. However, one can perform an additional similarity transformation on $`H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}`$ to obtain an energy-independent and hermitian Hamiltonian , which we denote by $`\overline{H}_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}`$ and correspondingly, the hermitian low momentum interaction by $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$. Both similarity transformations combine to give a unitary transformation, which is equivalent to the well-known Okubo transformation .

Here, we follow the method of Andreozzi  in constructing the second similarity transformation. Using the definition of the Lee-Suzuki transformation, Eq. (25), one finds

$$\mathrm{\Theta }^{}\mathrm{\Theta }_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}=\left(_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}\right)^{}\mathrm{\Theta }^{}\mathrm{\Theta },$$
(37)
where we have used $`H=H^{}`$. Projecting onto the low momentum space, the $`P`$-space block can be written as

$$(P+\omega ^{}\omega )H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}=\left(H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}\right)^{}(P+\omega ^{}\omega ).$$
(38)
The operator $`P+\omega ^{}\omega `$ is hermitian and positive definite. Therefore, it can be written by means of a Cholesky decomposition as a product of a lower-triangular matrix $`L`$ and its adjoint $`L^{}`$. Writing

$$(P+\omega ^{}\omega )=LL^{}$$
(39)
in Eq. (38) and multiplication by $`L^1`$ from the left and $`(L^{})^1`$ from the right, one finds

$$L^1\left(_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}\right)^{}L=L^{}_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}(L^{})^1=\left(L^1\left(_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}\right)^{}L\right)^{}.$$
(40)
Therefore, we can write the hermitian $`\overline{H}_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}`$ directly in terms of the Lee-Suzuki transformation and the Cholesky decomposition as

$$\overline{H}_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}=L^{}H_{\text{low k}}^{\text{LS}}(L^{})^1,$$
(41)
and the combined transformation $`U=\mathrm{\Theta }(L^{})^1`$ is unitary.

We mention that the differences between the non-hermitian $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ and the hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$ can be understood in the RG approach. The non-hermitian effective theory is obtained by introducing a cutoff in momentum space and imposing RG invariance for the HOS $`T`$ matrix with an energy-independent low momentum potential. Since the initial conditions of the RG equation are given by the bare interaction, this implies that the effective theory preserves the low momentum components of the full wave functions, in addition to the phase shifts and the bound state poles. The choice of HOS $`T`$ matrix invariance is motivated by the physical observation that the low momentum components of the wave functions mainly probe the long-range OPE part of the interaction. Conversely, the hermitian effective theory results from RG invariant on-shell $`T`$ matrices. Thus, the resulting hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$ no longer preserves the low momentum components of the full wave functions, although the observable phase shifts and bound state poles are preserved. In practice, we will find that the numerical differences between the hermitian and non-hermitian interactions are quite small.

Finally, we note that the Lee-Suzuki similarity transformation method is an algebraic realization of the more general folded diagram method of Kuo, Lee and Ratcliff . In this connection, one can recast the results of this Section in a diagrammatic formalism, which can be useful in many-body systems. Moreover, the folded diagram formulation has been applied to the two-body problem to prove diagrammatically that the low momentum effective theory preserves the low-energy scattering observables of the input interaction .

## 3 Results

We now discuss the main results for the low momentum interaction $`V_{\text{low k}}`$, which we have obtained by integrating out the high momentum components of different realistic potential models. Most of the results shown here are for a momentum cutoff of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=2.1\text{fm}^1`$, which corresponds to a distance scale $`1/\mathrm{\Lambda }0.5\text{fm}`$. With cutoffs chosen in this range, the model-dependent parameterization of the repulsive core at $`r0.5\text{fm}`$ in the bare interactions is not resolved in the effective theory. Consequently, one is able to reproduce the deuteron pole and scattering observables below $`E_{\text{lab}}=350\text{MeV}`$ without introducing a specific short-distance model. Moreover, the RG invariance of the decimation guarantees that our conclusions are independent of the precise value of the cutoff.

Before we present our results in detail, we summarize our main findings and refer the reader to the key figures. The most important properties of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ are:

1. $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ renormalizes to a nearly universal interaction as the cutoff is lowered to the scale of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }2.1\text{fm}^1`$. We will argue that the model-independence of the diagonal matrix elements of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$, as shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 5, is driven by the phase shift equivalence of the input models. The correlation between the phase shift equivalence and the collapse of the low momentum interactions is clearly demonstrated in Fig. 8. We also find practically identical results for the hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$, see Fig. 19 and Fig. 19.
2. $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ reproduces the phase shifts and the deuteron binding energy with similar accuracy as the high precision models. The phase shifts calculated from $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ are shown in Fig. 17 and Fig. 17.
3. In the effective theory one does not have to make model-dependent assumptions on the short-distance interaction. The RG evolution filters out the short-distance details of the input potentials, while preserving the model-independent effects of the high momentum modes on the low momentum observables, and leaving the long-range part (OPE) of the interaction intact. This can be seen most clearly in Fig. 11, Fig. 13 and Fig. 13.

We also point out that the numerical differences between $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ and the hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$ are quite small, see Fig. 15. For brevity, we mostly present results for $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ in this work, since the $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$ is easily derived from $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ using the transformation described in Section 2.2.

### 3.1 Model-independence of the low momentum interaction

For cutoffs around $`\mathrm{\Lambda }2.1\text{fm}^1`$, the effective theory preserves the nucleon-nucleon phase shifts up to laboratory energies of $`E_{\text{lab}}350\text{MeV}`$. This corresponds to the scale of the scattering data that all the high precision potential models are fitted to. We have argued that, based on the separation of mass scales, the model-dependence of the realistic interactions should be reduced as we integerate out the ambiguous high momentum modes.

In Fig. 5 and Fig. 5, we present the results of the RG decimation. We observe that the diagonal matrix elements of the low momentum interactions derived from the different potential models are nearly identical, and thus insensitive to the input potential model for cutoffs $`\mathrm{\Lambda }2.1\text{fm}^1`$. The largest relative differences between the $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ are found in the 3F2, 3D3, 1F3 and 3F3 partial waves. These differences are correlated with the deviations in the phase shifts, i.e., the different accuracies, of the potential models. We will discuss this point in detail below.

We note that if we perform the additional similarity transformation to obtain the resulting hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$, we find the same model-independence and practically identical diagonal matrix elements, as shown in Fig. 19 and Fig. 19 in the Appendix. Since the hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$ is obtained by symmetrizing $`V_{\text{low k}}`$, it is expected that the effects on the diagonal matrix elements are not significant.

One obtains further insight into the collapse of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ by studying the off-diagonal matrix elements. These are shown in the 1S0 partial wave in Fig. 6. We find a similar nearly universal behavior for the off-diagonal matrix elements of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$, although those calculated from the Idaho potential differ at $`k^{}1.2\text{fm}^1`$, which is approximately the mass scale given by the $`2\pi `$ exchange. The conventional models include $`2\pi `$ contributions in which non-nucleonic intermediate states are explicitly taken into account. In contrast, the Idaho potential starts from a local, effective Lagrangian, in which nucleons and pions are the only explicit degrees of freedom. For example, contributions from $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ intermediate states between two successive pion exchanges are contracted to a renormalized $`_{\pi \text{N}\text{N}}^{\text{eff}}`$ vertex. Moreover, the conventional potential models all contain a strong, short-range repulsion associated with the exchange of heavy mesons, mostly originating from the $`\omega `$ exchange. In the Idaho potential, the repulsive core is not explicitly present. However, the effects of the short-range repulsion on low-energy observables are contained in contact terms that are fitted to the low-energy data . Therefore, in momentum space, the Idaho potential changes over to contact terms at momentum transfers above the range given by $`2m_\pi `$.

While the Idaho potential is phase shift equivalent to the conventional models, the HOS $`T`$ matrices, i.e., the low momentum components of the wave functions, differ significantly from the conventional models at energies and momenta larger than the above scale of $`2m_\pi `$. In Fig. 7, we find that the conventional models give remarkably similar HOS $`T`$ matrices over their range of phase shift equivalence. This approximate HOS $`T`$ matrix equivalence can be understood by expanding the HOS $`T`$ matrix around the fully on-shell part. The difference can be written as a wound integral that contains the off-shell behavior,

$$T(k^{},k;k^2)=T(k,k;k^2)+\frac{k^2k^2}{k^{}}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑r\mathrm{sin}(k^{}r)\left(u_k(r)v_k(r)\right),$$
(42)
where $`u_k(r)=r\mathrm{\Psi }_k(r)`$ denotes the exact and $`v_k(r)`$ is the asymptotic S-wave wave function

$$\underset{r\mathrm{}}{lim}u_k(r)v_k(r)\mathrm{sin}(kr+\delta ).$$
(43)
We can use Eq. (42) to express the difference of the HOS $`T`$ matrices for two different, but phase shift equivalent bare interactions. This leads to

$$\mathrm{\Delta }T(k^{},k;k^2)=\frac{k^2k^2}{k^{}}_0^R𝑑r\mathrm{sin}(k^{}r)\mathrm{\Delta }u_k(r),$$
(44)
where $`R`$ is the distance over which the two models differ substantially at short distances, which we can take for simplicity as the size of the repulsive core. Regardless of the details of the differences, at scattering energies well below the strength of the short-range repulsion, the differences between the wave functions in the core are suppressed by strong two-body correlations. Therefore, it is physically reasonable that the conventional realistic potentials give similar HOS $`T`$ matrices at low energies.

The deviations in the off-diagonal matrix elements of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ derived from the Idaho potential are obviously removed, if we integrate out further below $`2m_\pi `$. As shown in Fig. 6, we find that the off-diagonal matrix elements in the 1S0 partial wave collapse onto one curve as well for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }1.2\text{fm}^1`$.

The preceding observations strongly suggest that the collapse of the diagonal matrix elements of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ is driven by the phase shift equivalence of the input models, while the collapse of the off-diagonal matrix elements is controlled by approximate HOS $`T`$ matrix equivalence at low energy and momentum. The latter can in turn be mainly attributed to a common off-shell behaviour in the OPE interaction, with some differences arising from the two-pion exchange and the crossover to contact interactions. The correlation between the diagonal matrix elements and the phase shifts is nicely shown in the 3D3 and 3F3 partial waves, where we observe the largest relative deviations from model-independence. The left panels of Fig. 8 clearly show that the older generation Paris and Bonn potential models give significantly different phase shifts in these partial waves. This leads to the observed differences in the $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ derived from these bare interactions, as can be seen in the right panels of Fig. 8. For comparison, we have also shown the results of the Nijmegen multi-energy phase shift analysis (PSA93) .

A further example of this correlation can be seen in Fig. 10, where the Idaho potential leads to considerably different phase shifts in the 3F2 partial wave above laboratory energies $`E_{\text{lab}}100\text{MeV}`$. This corresponds to a relative momentum of $`k1.0\text{fm}^1`$. Accordingly in Fig. 10, we find that the diagonal matrix elements of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ derived from the Iadaho potential deviate from the others for momenta larger than this scale. As for the off-diagonal matrix elements in the 1S0 partial wave, these differences vanish as the cutoff is lowered to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }1.0\text{fm}^1`$.

In the N2LO version of the Idaho potential used here, the contact interactions do not contribute to the $`L3`$ partial waves. Thus, in the 3F2 partial wave the Idaho potential is completely given by pion exchange. Our results demonstrate that the effects of the short-distance physics cannot simply be ignored. Rather, their renormalization effects on the low momentum physics has to be taken into account. If we lower the cutoff to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }1.0\text{fm}^1`$, the effects of the high momentum modes is sufficiently small, and one finds that indeed the physics is given adequately by pion exchange. This can be understood in the Born approximation, which is a reasonable approximation for the high partial waves, especially at low energies. In the Born approximation, the integral term of the Lippmann-Schinger equation is neglected, and thus the low momentum interaction in the cutoff Hilbert space is given by simply cutting off the bare interaction.

The RG approach has the advantage that the nature of the low momentum interaction can be revealed by studying the change of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ with the cutoff scale. In this way, the RG evolution clearly provides evidence for the separation of scales in the two-nucleon problem, see also . Furthermore, we will show that it also provides physical insight into the low momentum interaction.

In the evolution of the 1S0 matrix elements shown in Fig. 11, we find that the model independence of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ is reached at somewhat larger values of the cutoff around $`\mathrm{\Lambda }3.5\text{fm}^1`$. This scale lies below the $`\omega `$ and $`\rho `$ meson masses, and consequently the details of the repulsive core are not resolved in the effective theory. Also note that for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }3.0\text{fm}^1`$, the Idaho potential is not renormalized, since it is an EFT potential without high momentum components by construction.

Conversely, we find in Fig. 13 that the collapse in the 3S1 partial wave occurs at a comparatively lower value for the cutoff of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }2.12.6\text{fm}^1`$. This arises from the fact that the tensor force is operative in the triplet S-wave. Since $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ acquires a large second-order renormalization from the tensor force, one indeed expects that $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ becomes model-independent at a lower cutoff in the 3S1 partial wave.

The nature of the tensor interaction of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ can be studied by considering the couping between the 3S1 and 3D1 partial wave. In this channel, only the tensor force enters. The results for the RG evolution in the 3S13D1 block are presented in Fig. 13. We observe that the realistic models are practically identical for momenta below $`k0.7\text{fm}^1`$, which corresponds to the pion mass. This clearly demonstrates that the tensor part of the input models differs significantly for momenta above $`m_\pi `$. However, the effects of the different high momentum tensor components on the low momentum physics can be taken into account by employing a renormalized interaction, which in turn becomes model-independent at a cutoff of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }2.1\text{fm}^1`$.

The RG decimation to $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ preserves the deuteron binding energies of the bare interactions. In Table 2, we give the binding energies obtained from the $`V_{\text{low k}}`$, and verify that the deuteron poles are in fact reproduced in the effective theory. We note that we have not optimized the momentum mesh for each input $`V_{\text{NN}}`$, which would further improve the agreement with the quoted values. Referring to Fig. 14, the low momentum components of the bare deuteron S and D-state wave functions are RG invariant as well. Moreover, although the hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$ does not exactly preserve the low momentum projections of the wave functions, we find in Fig. 14 that the deuteron wave functions calculated from $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ and the hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$ are practically identical.

Finally, we note that the same general results hold for both $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ and $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$, and that the numerical differences are quite small. This is demonstrated as an example for the 1S0 partial wave in Fig. 15. It can also be seen that the differences are as expected most noticeable for the far off-shell parts of the low momentum interaction.

### 3.2 Phase shift equivalence of the low momentum interaction

The model-independent low momentum interaction reproduces the experimental phase shift data with similar accuracy as the high precision nucleon-nucleon potentials. Therefore, $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ fits the measured phase shifts for laboratory energies below $`E_{\text{lab}}=350\text{MeV}`$ with a similar $`\chi ^2/\text{datum}12`$, depending on which conventional potential model $`V_{\text{NN}}`$ is used. Since the hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$ preserves this content as well as the hermiticity of the Hamiltonian, we demonstrate the high accuracy of the hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$ here. In Fig. 17 and Fig. 17, the neutron-proton phase shifts and the mixing parameters in coupled channels for all partial waves $`J4`$ are given. For clarity of the Figures, we show these for the low momentum $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$ derived from the CD Bonn potential only. Since both the hermitian and non-hermitian low momentum interactions preserve the phase shifts of the input models, results of the same accuracy are derived from the various other models. For comparison, the phase shifts and mixing parameters calculated from the bare CD Bonn potential and the results of the Nijmegen multi-energy phase shift analysis  are included in Fig. 17 and Fig. 17.

We conclude that the low-energy scattering data can be equally well reproduced by an effective low momentum interaction $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ restricted to the Hilbert space of low momentum modes, $`k<\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\text{data}}`$. This is achieved with a model-independent interaction, without introducing further assumptions on the details of the short-distance dynamics.

## 4 Summary and advantages

We have shown that the RG decimation of different high precision nucleon-nucleon interactions to low momenta leads to a unique interaction, called $`V_{\text{low k}}`$. This result is obtained by truncating the full Hilbert space to an effective space, which consists of momentum components up to the scale of the constraining low-energy data. The differences in the realistic interactions arise from the assumed high momentum dynamics. By restricting the interaction to the low momentum space, the details of the short-distance physics are not resolved, and the detail-independent effects of the high momentum modes on the low momentum observables are included in the renormalized effective interaction. The existence of a nearly universal $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ demonstrates that it is possible to separate the physics of low momentum nucleons from the ambiguous short-distance parametrizations used in the realistic potential models.

The RG invariance of the effective theory guarantees that the HOS $`T`$ matrix and the deuteron properties of the full theory are exactly preserved in the model space. Consequently, $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ is phase shift equivalent to the high precision potential models and reproduces the experimental elastic scattering data with similar accuracy. A further refinement transforms $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ into a hermitian low momentum interaction $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$, which remains model-independent and preserves the low-energy on-shell amplitudes of the bare interactions. In this manner, the resulting RG decimation incorporates the model-independent effects of the short-distance physics in the low momentum interaction, while the model-dependent effects are filtered out.

We believe that the low momentum interaction $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ satisfies the first of the two requirements of a microscopic many-body theory given in the Introduction. Namely, that the input interaction is, as best as possible, based on the available low-energy data. A necessary condition for the collapse of the low momentum interactions is the separation of long from short-distance scales in the nuclear problem. In addition, we have argued that the accuracy of the reproduction of the phase shifts drives the collapse of the on-shell components of the low momentum interactions. Furthermore, the evolution of $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ with the cutoff provides physical insight into the separation of scales in the nuclear problem, the effects of the short-range repulsion in the renormalization, and the tensor content of the low momentum interaction.

$`V_{\text{low k}}`$ sums high momentum ladders in free space. Therefore, the low momentum interaction is considerably softer than the bare interactions and does not have a repulsive core. As a consequence, when used as the microscopic input in the many-body problem, $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ does not lead to strong high momentum scattering effects in the particle-particle channel, which necessitates a Brueckner resummation or short-range correlation methods for the conventional models.

The low momentum interaction should be regarded as a new input potential for many-body calculations. However, we emphasize that in contrast to the Brueckner $`G`$ matrix, $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ does not have high momentum components above the cutoff and therefore one does not have to be concerned about double counting the high momentum contributions. In EFT, this is understood easily, since the ultraviolet divergences can be renormalized in free space and the many-body dynamics does not lead to new ultraviolet divergences. More precisely, in any many-body diagram, the excitations to high momentum states that are absorbed in $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ vanish due to the momentum space cutoff by construction. Using $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ is simply analogous to using the relatively soft CD Bonn interaction, instead of the stronger Argonne $`v_{18}`$ potential.

Since $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ accounts for a large part of the phase space in the many-body system, it will be interesting to explore whether calculations starting with $`V_{\text{low k}}`$ could be organized in a more perturbative fashion. Encouraging results for a perturbative expansion of the shell model effective Hamiltonian in few-body systems has been demonstrated for the deuteron in . For larger systems, this idea more relies on a geometrical phase space argument.

We thank Gerry Brown, Bengt Friman and Dick Furnstahl for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the US-DOE Grant DE-FG02-88ER40388, the US-DOE Grant DE-FG03-00ER41132, the NSF under Grant No. PHY-0098645 and by an Ohio State University Postdoctoral Fellowship.

## Appendix A Diagonal matrix elements of the hermitian $`\overline{V}_{\text{low k}}`$


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# A Compact X-ray Source and Possible X-ray Jets within the Planetary Nebula Menzel 3

## 1 Introduction

Planetary nebulae (PNs) are the descendents of intermediate-mass stars (initial masses $`18M_{}`$). The central star of a PN eventually will evolve into a white dwarf, with a mass of between $`0.55M_{}`$ and $`1.0M_{}`$. Much of the star’s initial mass is expelled during the $`10^5`$ years that the star spends on the upper asymptotic giant branch (AGB). This AGB star wind usually consists of a more or less spherically symmetric outflow at rates of up to $`10^4`$ $`M_{}`$ yr-1 and speeds of $`1020`$ km s-1. As the star leaves the AGB, however, its surface escape velocity and, hence, wind speed, drastically increases to $`1000`$ km s-1 and its mass loss rate drops to $`10^8`$ $`M_{}`$ yr-1. Eventually, the UV flux from this emerging white dwarf ionizes the AGB ejecta, producing a PN detectable in atomic recombination line emission.

Optical images of PNs obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) very clearly show that, during late AGB and/or early PN stages, the geometry of the outflow often takes on axial (bipolar) or even more spectacular, high-order symmetries (Sahai & Trauger 1998; Kastner, Soker & Rappaport 2000a; Balick & Frank 2002). Various models have been proposed to explain this transition; some or all of these may apply at different times and to various central star configurations. For example, during late AGB phases when the mass loss rate is highest, the accretion of material by a nearby companion may cause a collimating disk to form (Mastrodemos & Morris 1999; Soker & Rappaport 2000; and references therein). The presence of such a companion and disk potentially provides an additional source of wind momentum and/or ionizing UV flux, thereby significantly altering the “standard” picture of late-AGB, early-PN evolution described above. Another proposal is that magnetic fields emerge from the stellar core as the AGB star’s outer layers are stripped away (Blackman et al. 2001b). The resulting $`1`$ G fields can either help to collimate the radiation driven wind, or mediate a stronger, more anisotropic, magnetically driven wind. This stellar wind can interact with, and be collimated by, a surrounding magnetically mediated disk wind. Disk winds and stellar winds may therefore operate in tandem to produce the observed rates and morphologies of mass loss and very high momenta of outflowing material prior to the onset of wind ionization by the emerging white dwarf (Blackman et al. 2001a, Frank et al. 2003).

The tenuous but very fast stellar wind from the emerging central white dwarf (or a companion, if the mass-losing central star is still on the AGB) will shock the relatively slow-moving AGB ejecta, creating an overpressured (and therefore rapidly expanding) “hot bubble” interior to the optical nebula. The shocked gas generated by these PN wind interactions should be detectable in the form of X-ray emission that fills an optically dark cavity within swept-up stellar ejecta. Simple energy conservation arguments predict that such a wind-heated bubble can reach temperatures of $`10^710^8`$ K, although it is likely that the bulk of the shocked gas will appear cooler ($`10^6`$ K), due to various processes (such as early wind onset, adiabatic expansion, and conduction of heat from the wind-shocked gas to cooler, denser nebular gas) that can moderate the gas temperature (Soker & Kastner 2003a, and references therein). In addition, the new classes of PN shaping models that rely on magnetohydrodynamics and/or the presence of accreting, magnetically active companion stars predict magnetic fields at the base of the flow that are strong enough to produce detectable, compact X-ray emission (Blackman et al. 2001a; Soker & Kastner 2002). Hence, there is reason to expect both point-like and diffuse X-ray emission from some PNs.

Correspondingly, recent observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) and XMM-Newton have revealed examples of diffuse, X-ray-emitting gas within the well-studied PNs BD $`+30^{}`$3639 (Kastner et al. 2000b), NGC 7027 (Kastner, Vrtílek & Soker 2001), and NGC 7009 (Guerrero et al. 2002), point-like emission within NGC 7293 (Guerrero et al. 2001), and both diffuse and point-like emission within NGC 6543 (Chu et al. 2001; Guerrero et al. 2001). In optical and infrared images, all four PNe thus far detected in diffuse X-ray emission share a general elliptical morphology, punctuated by knots or loops indicative of recently established, high-velocity, collimated flows. In this Letter we extend the high-resolution X-ray observations to the important class of extreme bipolar PNe (referred to as “butterfly” PNs; Balick & Frank 2002), via CXO observations of Menzel 3 (Mz 3 = Hen 2-154 = PK 331-01 1 = PN G331.7-01.0).

Mz 3 has long been considered a prototypical example of an extreme bipolar PN (López & Meaburn 1983). Like many objects in this class, however, the core of Mz 3 is evidently a symbiotic Mira system, consisting of an AGB primary with dense, slow winds and a companion white dwarf that provides the UV flux which ionizes the nebula. The symbiotic Mira nature of Mz 3 is revealed by deep optical spectra (Zhang & Liu 2002) and by infrared colors (Schmeja & Kimeswenger 2001). If Mz 3 is indeed a symbiotic system, then it may not be a PN, but rather a PN in the making; nevertheless, we refer to it as a PN in this paper.

In high-resolution, visual-wavelength images obtained by the HST, Mz 3 presents a highly complex morphology (Fig. 1). Its bright, bipolar lobes appear as enclosed bubbles embedded within a larger cylindrical structure; this structure is in turn surrounded by an extended set of “streamers” that seem to point directly away from the central star. The distance to Mz 3 is poorly known (Zhang & Liu 2002) but, adopting an estimate of 2.7 kpc (Kingsburgh & English 1992), each enclosed bipolar bubble is $``$40,000 AU long.

High-resolution optical spectroscopy reveals that gas in Mz 3 is outflowing along its polar axis at velocities of between 300 km s-1 and 500 km s-1 (Redman et al. 2000; Balick, unpublished; Guerrero et al. 2003). Such velocities are only observed, for PNe, in the case of the most extreme bipolar objects (Bujarrabal et al. 2001). The potential for X-ray-generating shocks due to the collimated, fast winds in Mz 3, and the evidence that it harbors a central binary system, makes this nebula a particularly interesting object to probe for X-ray emission at high resolution.

## 2 Observations

We observed Mz 3 with Chandra for 40.83 ks on 2002 October 23. The detector was the back-illuminated CCD S3 of the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS). ACIS has a pixel size of 0.49′′ — very similar to the width of the point spread function (PSF) of the Chandra mirrors — and the Chandra/ACIS combination is sensitive over the energy range 0.3-10 keV. The data, consisting of individual CCD X-ray and particle events, were subject to standard processing by Chandra X-ray Center pipeline software (CIAO111http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/, version 2.2), which determines the distribution of photon-generated charge within a 3$`\times `$3 CCD pixel island centered on the event position, flags events likely due to particles, and computes the celestial positions and nominal energies of incident X-rays. To optimize image resolution, the event charge distibutions were used, along with the telescope pointing history and nominal photon energies, to calculate a subpixel position for each X-ray (Li et al. 2003).

## 3 Results

The Chandra/ACIS-S3 image of Mz 3 (Fig. 1) represents the first detection of X-rays from this object. Both diffuse and point-like X-ray emission is detected. The central X-ray source lies at the position of the central star seen in HST images, based on the spatial coincidence of several background HST sources with X-ray sources in the Chandra/ACIS-S3 field.

We used CIAO tools (version 2.3) to extract X-ray source counts and spectra within $`7.5^{\prime \prime }\times 19^{\prime \prime }`$ elliptical and $`3.5^{\prime \prime }`$ diameter regions encompassing the diffuse and point-like emission, respectively. We find a total, background-subtracted count rate of 1.9$`\pm `$0.2 ks-1 ($`0.22.5`$ keV) from the combined diffuse and point-like components. We estimate that $`60`$ total counts arise from the diffuse emission, and $`17`$ from the central source.

Nearly all of the detected emission from Mz 3 is confined to energies between 0.6 and 2.0 keV (Fig. 2). Its X-ray spectral distribution is similar to that of NGC 7027, indicative of an X-ray emission temperature in the range $`38\times 10^6`$ K (Kastner et al. 2001; Maness et al. 2003). To confirm this, we used CIAO spectral fitting tools to perform fits of a variable-abundance thermal emission (VMEKAL) model with intervening absorption. Results from optical spectroscopy (Zhang & Liu 2002, their Table 11) were used to constrain the model abundances. Adopting these abundances, we find an X-ray emission temperature of $`T_x=6\times 10^6`$ K and absorbing column of $`N_H=5\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2. Because the observed spectral energy distribution is sharply peaked, the formal uncertainties in these parameters are $`\pm 15`$%, despite the poor photon counting statistics. Given the likelihood that the abundances of the X-ray-emitting gas depart significantly from the nebular abundances (e.g., Chu et al. 2001; Maness et al. 2003), however, $`T_x`$ and $`N_H`$ are actually not so well constrained, and the model fitting procedure cannot be used to further refine abundances for the X-ray emitting region (in contrast to results in, e.g., Maness et al.). In particular, although the best-fit model abundances of Ne and Fe — 0.4 and 0.2 solar, respectively — appear consistent with the nebular values (0.4 and 0.3 solar, respectively; Zhang & Liu), each is uncertain by a factor $`3`$, reflecting the uncertainty in assigning the emission peak near 0.9 keV to highly ionized Ne, highly ionized Fe, or both. If Fe is severely depleted (as appears to be the case for BD $`+30^{}`$ 3639; Maness et al. 2003), we find that values of $`T_x3\times 10^6`$ K and $`N_H8\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 provide the best fit.

Adopting values of $`T_x=6\times 10^6`$ K and $`N_H=5\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2, the absorbed flux derived from the model fitting procedure is $`7\times 10^{15}`$ erg cm-2 s-1. The implied total (combined diffuse and point-like) intrinsic source X-ray luminosity is $`3\times 10^{31}`$ $`(\frac{D}{2.7\mathrm{kpc}})^2`$ erg s-1, where $`6\times 10^{30}`$ $`(\frac{D}{2.7\mathrm{kpc}})^2`$ erg s-1 can be ascribed to the point source under the assumption that its intrinsic spectrum is not much harder than that of the diffuse component (see below).

As in previous X-ray detections of PNs, the modeling results for intervening X-ray absorbing column are consistent with measurements of visual extinction. Zhang & Liu (2002) deduce $`E(BV)=1.38`$ and $`E(BV)=1.59`$ toward the nebula and the central star, respectively, suggesting $`A_V4.5`$. Hence, the ratio $`N_H/A_V`$ in Mz 3 ($`10^{21}`$ cm-2 mag-1) is similar to that in BD +303639 and in NGC 7027 (Kastner et al. 2000b, 2001, 2002; Maness et al. 2003). There is probably a significant absorption component that is due to the interstellar medium along the line of sight to Mz 3, given its large estimated distance and low galactic latitude ($`b=1.01^{}`$). The nebula is a strong far-infrared source (IRAS 25 $`\mu `$m flux of 343 Jy) and displays a local component of diffuse optical absorption bands (Zhang & Liu), however, indicating that some or most of the soft X-ray absorption is due to dense gas and dust within the nebula itself.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 An X-ray jet and obscured central X-ray source in Mz 3

The CXO imaging reveals a strong correspondence between the diffuse X-ray emitting region of Mz 3 and its visual-wavelength emission (Fig. 3). Specifically, the diffuse X-ray emission is confined to the interiors of the bubbles of ionized gas seen in HST imaging. This correspondence resembles those of earlier CXO and XMM-Newton detections of diffuse X-ray emission from planetaries (Kastner et al. 2000b, 2001, 2002; Chu et al. 2001; Guerrero et al. 2002). With the possible exception of NGC 7027 (Kastner et al. 2001, 2002), the X-ray emitting gas is precisely outlined by bright elliptical shells within these nebulae.

In contrast, the brightest X-ray emission from Mz 3 lies close to the symmetry axis of the object (Fig. 3). This morphology strongly suggests that most of the diffuse X-ray emission is associated with collimated outflows, perhaps in the form of jets. Jet-like structure is suggested by the diffuse emission south of the nucleus. In particular, there is a “knot” of emission located along the polar axis, $`11,000`$ AU ($`4^{\prime \prime }`$) south of the source. Based on the density of field X-ray sources within $`1^{}`$ of Mz 3, we estimate that there is only a $`3`$% probability that this feature is a foreground or background X-ray source. A plausible interpretation of the diffuse X-ray morphology within the south lobe of Mz 3, therefore, is that this lobe harbors a “blobby” X-ray jet that extends at least 18,000 AU ($`7^{\prime \prime }`$) from the central source, perhaps terminating at the leading edge of the southern lobe.

To the north of the central star the X-ray and optical surface brightness distributions are somewhat more amorphous, with the X-ray emission brightest near the tip of, and apparently outlining, the protrusion in the north lobe. No feature corresponding to the southern X-ray “knot” is seen immediately to the north of the central star. Instead, there appears to be a gap within the diffuse X-ray nebula, spatially coincident with a similar feature in optical recombination line emission, just north of the central source. As high-resolution optical spectroscopic observations indicate that the north lobe is slightly tipped away from the observer (e.g., Redman et al. 2000), it is possible that the lack of emission just to the north of the central star is due to the orientation of the nebula, which is such that the inner northern lobe is partially obscured by material located along the equatorial plane. Alternatively, the X-ray emission along the polar axis of Mz 3 may be intrinsically asymmetric, as is the case in another symbiotic Mira system, R Aqr (Kellogg et al. 2001; see §4).

All of the photons detected from the central source have energies $`1`$ keV, suggesting either that this source is intrinsically harder than the shocked nebular gas or, perhaps, that the central source is especially deeply embedded in X-ray absorbing gas. The latter interpretation is consistent with the relative degree of visual extinction, which is larger toward the central star than toward the nebula (Zhang & Liu 2002).

### 4.2 The X-ray evidence for magnetized accretion disks in symbiotic Miras

The combination of an X-ray-bright core and X-ray emission along the polar axis of Mz 3 resembles that observed in R Aqr (Kellogg et al. 2001), which is also a symbiotic Mira system. Adopting respective distances of 2.7 kpc and 200 pc, however, the X-ray emission from Mz 3 appears much more luminous and extensive than that of R Aqr, which has a total X-ray luminosity $`10^{30}`$ erg s-1 and whose discontinous, southwest jet (the longer of its two, asymmetric X-ray jets) extends $`6000`$ AU from the central source. If, instead, Mz 3 is as close as $`1`$ kpc — the smallest of many, disparate distance estimates for this PN (see Zhang & Liu 2002 and references therein) — the X-ray properties of this symbiotic Mira system and R Aqr would be remarkably similar.

Alternative explanations for the unresolved, core X-ray emission within Mz 3 and R Aqr (see also Guerrero et al. 2001 and Soker & Kastner 2002) are (1) magnetic star-disk interactions (or, perhaps, accretion shocks) associated with accretion by a companion to the central AGB star; (2) star-disk interactions or shocks due to accretion by the AGB star itself (if the secondary is less than a solar mass, and approaches close enough to the AGB star to be tidally disrupted; Reyes-Ruiz & López 1999); (3) stellar magnetic activity originating with the AGB star (e.g., Blackman et al. 2001a; García-Segura, López, & Franco 2003; Soker & Kastner 2003b); (4) X-ray-generating wind shocks analogous to those around O/B stars (e.g., Cassinelli et al. 1994); or, perhaps most speculatively, (5) hard X-ray emission from the companion white dwarf itself (e.g., O’Dwyer et al. 2003).

Given that both Mz 3 and R Aqr evidently harbor symbiotic binary central stars, it seems most likely that the compact X-ray source arises, in each case, from an accretion disk around a hot secondary (alternative 1, above). By analogy with, e.g., models for disk-driven winds from young stellar objects (YSOs), such a configuration also would explain the presence of high-velocity, collimated winds that generate X-rays as they collide with ambient nebular gas (e.g., Pravdo et al. 2001).

It has been proposed that magnetic fields play a fundamental, dynamical role in disk-jet systems as diverse as YSOs (e.g., Pudritz & Konigl 2000), active galactic nuclei (AGNs; e.g., Ferrari 1998 and references therein), and, indeed, R Aqr (Hollis & Koupelis 2000). The combination of collimated, “knotty,” X-ray emitting outflows and compact, central X-ray source observed in both Mz 3 and R Aqr is, morphologically, similar to that characteristic of AGNs (e.g., 3C 273, Marshall et al. 2001; Cen A, Hardcastle et al. 2003). In the case of the symbiotic Mira systems — as in AGNs — a natural relation between the X-ray-emitting core and jet(s) would be that the central engine has a mixture of closed small scale and open large scale fields, dynamically reforming. The jets flow along open field lines, while the point-like X-ray emission is generated via the dissipation of the closed structures as they open, much like solar flares. This suggests that the core X-ray emission in Mz 3 and R Aqr may be variable; sensitive X-ray monitoring of these nebulae (and of NGC 6543, the other known example of both diffuse and point-like X-ray emission in a PN) is required to establish whether or not this is the case.

We caution that it remains to establish theoretically, via detailed numerical modeling, whether magnetic fields necessarily play a central role in either the launching or the collimation of jet-like outflows from evolved star systems. Nonetheless, the presence of compact X-ray sources and the appearance of X-ray emission that is confined to the outflow axes of the symbiotic Mira systems Mz 3 and R Aqr supports models that invoke collimating circumstellar disks driving high-velocity jets to explain the profound bipolar structure of these and other, similar nebulae around evolved stars.

Support for this research was provided by NASA/CXO grant GO2–3009X to RIT. Geoffrey Franz assisted in preparation of data for Figs. 1 and 3. N.S. acknowledges support from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation. S.D.V acknowledges support from NASA grant NAG5–6711.


text:
# A Counterpart of Schwarz’s Inequality in Inner Product Spaces

## 1. Introduction

Let $`\overline{a}=(a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$ and $`\overline{b}=(b_1,\mathrm{},b_n)`$ be two positive $`n`$tuples with

(1.1)
$$0<m_1a_iM_1<\mathrm{}\text{ and }0<m_2b_iM_2<\mathrm{};$$

for each $`i\{1,\mathrm{},n\},`$ and some constants $`m_1,m_2,M_1,M_2.`$

The following counterparts of the Cauchy-Bunyakowsy-Schwarz inequality are valid:

1. Pólya-Szegö’s inequality

(1.2)
$$1\frac{_{k=1}^na_k^2_{k=1}^nb_k^2}{\left(_{k=1}^na_kb_k\right)^2}\frac{1}{4}\left(\sqrt{\frac{M_1M_2}{m_1m_2}}+\sqrt{\frac{m_1m_2}{M_1M_2}}\right)^2;$$
2. Shisha-Mond’s inequality

(1.3)
$$\frac{_{k=1}^na_k^2}{_{k=1}^na_kb_k}\frac{_{k=1}^na_kb_k}{_{k=1}^nb_k^2}\left[\left(\frac{M_1}{m_2}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\left(\frac{m_1}{M_2}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\right]^2;$$
3. Ozeki’s inequality

(1.4)
$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}a_k^2\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}b_k^2\left(\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}a_kb_k\right)^2\frac{n^2}{4}\left(M_1M_2m_1m_2\right)^2;$$
4. Diaz-Metcalf’s inequality

(1.5)
$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}b_k^2+\frac{m_2M_2}{m_1M_1}\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}a_k^2\left(\frac{M_2}{m_1}+\frac{m_2}{M_1}\right)\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}a_kb_k.$$

If $`\overline{𝐰}=(w_1,\mathrm{},w_n)`$ is a positive sequence, then the following weighted inequalities also hold:

1. Cassel’s inequality . If the positive real sequences $`\overline{a}=(a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$ and $`\overline{b}=(b_1,\mathrm{},b_n)`$ satisfy the condition

(1.6)
$$0<m\frac{a_k}{b_k}M<\mathrm{}\text{ for each }k\{1,\mathrm{},n\}$$

then

$$\frac{\left(_{k=1}^nw_ka_k^2\right)\left(_{k=1}^nw_kb_k^2\right)}{\left(_{k=1}^nw_ka_kb_k\right)^2}\frac{\left(M+m\right)^2}{4mM};$$
2. Greub-Reinboldt’s inequality

(1.7)
$$\left(\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_ka_k^2\right)\left(\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_kb_k^2\right)\frac{\left(M_1M_2+m_1m_2\right)^2}{4m_1m_2M_1M_2}\left(\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_ka_kb_k\right)^2.$$

provided $`\overline{a}=(a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$ and $`\overline{b}=(b_1,\mathrm{},b_n)`$ satisfy the condition $`\left(\text{1.1}\right).`$
3. Generalised Diaz-Metcalf inequality , see also \[6, p. 123\]. If $`u,v[0,1]`$ and $`vu,`$ $`u+v=1`$ and $`\left(\text{1.6}\right)`$ holds, then one has the inequality

(1.8)
$$u\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_kb_k^2+vMm\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_ka_k^2\left(vm+uM\right)\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_ka_kb_k.$$
4. Klamkin-McLenaghan’s inequality . If $`\overline{a},\overline{b}`$ satisfy (1.6), then

(1.9)
$$\begin{array}{c}\left(\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_ia_i^2\right)\left(\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_ib_i^2\right)\left(\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_ia_ib_i\right)^2\hfill \\ \hfill \left(M^{\frac{1}{2}}m^{\frac{1}{2}}\right)^2\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_ia_ib_i\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}w_ia_i^2.\end{array}$$

For other results providing counterpart inequalities, see the recent monograph on line .

In this paper we point out a new counterpart of Schwarz’s inequality in real or complex inner product spaces. Particular cases for isotonic linear functionals, integrals and sequences are also provided.

## 2. An Inequality in Inner Product Spaces

The following reverse of Schwarz’s inequality in inner product spaces holds.

###### Theorem 1.

Let $`A,a𝕂`$ $`\left(𝕂=,\right)`$ and $`x,yH.`$ If

(2.1)
$$\mathrm{R}eAyx,xay0,$$

or, equivalently,

(2.2)
$$x\frac{a+A}{2}y\frac{1}{2}\left|Aa\right|y,$$

holds, then one has the inequality

(2.3)
$$0x^2y^2\left|x,y\right|^2\frac{1}{4}\left|Aa\right|^2y^4.$$

The constant $`\frac{1}{4}`$ is sharp in (2.3).

###### Proof.

The equivalence between $`\left(\text{2.1}\right)`$ and $`\left(\text{2.2}\right)`$ can be easily proved, see for example .

Let us define

$$I_1:=\mathrm{R}e\left[\left(Ay^2\left|x,y\right|\right)\left(\overline{x,y}\overline{a}y^2\right)\right]$$

and

$$I_2:=y^2\mathrm{R}eAyx,xay.$$

Then

$$I_1=y^2\mathrm{R}e\left[A\overline{x,y}+\overline{a}x,y\right]\left|x,y\right|^2y^4\mathrm{R}e\left(A\overline{a}\right)$$

and

$$I_2=y^2\mathrm{R}e\left[A\overline{x,y}+\overline{a}x,y\right]x^2y^2y^4\mathrm{R}e\left(A\overline{a}\right),$$

giving

(2.4)
$$I_1I_2=x^2y^2\left|x,y\right|^2;$$

for any $`x,yH`$ and $`a,A𝕂`$, which is an interesting equality in itself as well.

If (2.1) holds, then $`I_20`$ and thus

(2.5)
$$x^2y^2\left|x,y\right|^2\mathrm{R}e\left[\left(Ay^2\left|x,y\right|\right)\left(\overline{x,y}\overline{a}y^2\right)\right].$$

If we use the elementary inequality for $`u,v𝕂`$ $`\left(𝕂=,\right)`$

(2.6)
$$\mathrm{R}e\left[u\overline{v}\right]\frac{1}{4}\left|u+v\right|^2,$$

then we have for

$$u:=Ay^2x,y,v:=x,yay^2$$

that

(2.7)
$$\mathrm{R}e\left[\left(Ay^2\left|x,y\right|\right)\left(\overline{x,y}\overline{a}y^2\right)\right]^2\frac{1}{4}\left|Aa\right|^2y^4.$$

Making use of the inequalities $`\left(\text{2.5}\right)`$ and $`\left(\text{2.7}\right),`$ we deduce $`\left(\text{2.3}\right)`$.

Now, assume that (2.3) holds with a constant $`C>0,`$ i.e.,

(2.8)
$$x^2y^2\left|x,y\right|^2C\left|Aa\right|^2y^4,$$

where $`x,y,a,A`$ satisfy (2.1).

Consider $`yH,`$ $`y=1,`$ $`aA`$ and $`mH,`$ $`m=1`$ with $`my.`$ Define

$$x:=\frac{A+a}{2}y+\frac{Aa}{2}m.$$

Then

$$Ayx,xay=\left|\frac{Aa}{2}\right|^2ym,y+m=0$$

and thus the condition (2.1) is fulfilled. From (2.8) we deduce

(2.9)
$$\frac{A+a}{2}y+\frac{Aa}{2}m^2\left|\frac{A+a}{2}y+\frac{Aa}{2}m,y\right|^2C\left|Aa\right|^2,$$

and since

$$\frac{A+a}{2}y+\frac{Aa}{2}m^2=\left|\frac{A+a}{2}\right|^2+\left|\frac{Aa}{2}\right|^2$$

and

$$\left|\frac{A+a}{2}y+\frac{Aa}{2}m,y\right|^2=\left|\frac{A+a}{2}\right|^2$$

then by (2.9) we obtain

$$\frac{\left|Aa\right|^2}{4}C\left|Aa\right|^2,$$

giving $`C\frac{1}{4},`$ and the theorem is completely proved.

## 3. Applications for Isotonic Linear Functionals

Let $`F\left(T\right)`$ be an algebra of real functions defined on $`T`$ and $`L`$ a subclass of $`F\left(T\right)`$ satisfying the conditions:

1. $`f,gL`$ implies $`f+gL;`$
2. $`fL,`$ $``$ implies $`\alpha fL.`$

A functional $`A`$ defined on $`L`$ is an isotonic linear functional on $`L`$ provided that

1. $`A\left(\alpha f+\beta g\right)=\alpha A\left(f\right)+\beta A\left(g\right)`$ for all $`\alpha ,\beta `$ and $`f,gL;`$
2. $`fg,`$ that is, $`f\left(t\right)g\left(t\right)`$ for all $`tT,`$ implies $`A\left(f\right)A\left(g\right).`$

The functional $`A`$ is normalised on $`L,`$ provided that $`\mathrm{𝟏}L,`$ i.e., $`\mathrm{𝟏}\left(t\right)=1`$ for all $`tT,`$ implies $`A\left(\mathrm{𝟏}\right)=1.`$

Usual examples of isotonic linear functionals are integrals, sums, etc.

Now, suppose that $`hF\left(T\right),`$ $`h0`$ is given and satisfies the properties that $`fghL,`$ $`fhL,`$ $`ghL`$ for all $`f,gL.`$ For a given isotonic linear functional $`A:L`$ with $`A\left(h\right)>0,`$ define the mapping $`(,)_{A,h}:L\times L`$ by

(3.1)
$$(f,g)_{A,h}:=\frac{A\left(fgh\right)}{A\left(h\right)}.$$

This functional satisfies the following properties:

1. $`(f,f)_{A,h}0`$ for all $`fL;`$
2. $`(\alpha f+\beta g,k)_{A,h}=\alpha (f,k)_{A,h}+\beta (g,k)_{A,h}`$ for all $`f,g,kL`$ and $`\alpha ,\beta `$;
3. $`(f,g)_{A,h}=(g,f)_{A,h}`$ for all $`f,gL.`$

The following reverse of Schwarz’s inequality for positive linear functionals holds.

###### Proposition 1.

Let $`f,g,hF\left(T\right)`$ be such that $`fghL,`$ $`f^2hL,`$ $`g^2hL.`$ If $`m,M`$ are real numbers such that

(3.2)
$$mgfMg\text{ on }F\left(T\right),$$

then for any isotonic linear functional $`A:L`$ with $`A\left(h\right)>0`$ we have the inequality

(3.3)
$$0A\left(hf^2\right)A\left(hg^2\right)\left[A\left(hfg\right)\right]^2\frac{1}{4}\left(Mm\right)^2A^2\left(hg^2\right).$$

The constant $`\frac{1}{4}`$ in (3.3) is sharp.

###### Proof.

We observe that

$$(Mgf,fmg)_{A,h}=A\left[h\left(Mgf\right)\left(fmg\right)\right]0.$$

Applying Theorem 1 for $`(,)_{A,h}`$ we get

$$0(f,f)_{A,h}(g,g)_{A,h}(f,g)_{A,h}^2\frac{1}{4}\left(Mm\right)^2(g,g)_{A,h}^2,$$

which is clearly equivalent to (3.3).

The following corollary holds.

###### Corollary 1.

Let $`f,gF\left(T\right)`$ such that $`fg,`$ $`f^2,g^2F\left(T\right).`$ If $`m,M`$ are real numbers such that (3.2) holds, then

(3.4)
$$0A\left(f^2\right)A\left(g^2\right)A^2\left(fg\right)\frac{1}{4}\left(Mm\right)^2A^2\left(g^2\right).$$

The constant $`\frac{1}{4}`$ is sharp in (3.4).

###### Remark 1.

The condition (3.2) may be replaced with the weaker assumption

(3.5)
$$(Mgf,fmg)_{A,h}0.$$

## 4. Applications for Integrals

Let $`(\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Sigma },\mu )`$ be a measure space consisting of a set $`\mathrm{\Omega },`$ a $`\sigma `$algebra $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ of subsets of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and a countably additive and positive measure on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ with values in $`\left\{\mathrm{}\right\}.`$

Denote by $`L_\rho ^2(\mathrm{\Omega },𝕂)`$ the Hilbert space of all $`𝕂`$-valued functions $`f`$ defined on $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ that are $`2\rho `$integrable on $`\mathrm{\Omega },`$ i.e., $`_\mathrm{\Omega }\rho \left(t\right)\left|f\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right)<\mathrm{},`$ where $`\rho :\mathrm{\Omega }[0,\mathrm{})`$ is a measurable function on $`\mathrm{\Omega }.`$

The following proposition contains a counterpart of the weighted Cauchy-Buniakowsky-Schwarz’s integral inequality.

###### Proposition 2.

Let $`A,a𝕂`$ $`\left(𝕂=,\right)`$ and $`f,gL_\rho ^2(\mathrm{\Omega },𝕂).`$ If

(4.1)
$$_\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{R}e\left[\left(Ag\left(s\right)f\left(s\right)\right)\left(\overline{f\left(s\right)}\overline{a}\text{ }\overline{g}\left(s\right)\right)\right]\rho \left(s\right)d\mu \left(s\right)0$$

or, equivalently,

$$_\mathrm{\Omega }\rho \left(s\right)\left|f\left(s\right)\frac{a+A}{2}g\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right)\frac{1}{4}\left|Aa\right|^2_\mathrm{\Omega }\rho \left(s\right)\left|g\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right),$$

then one has the inequality

(4.2) $`0`$ $`{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Omega }}\rho \left(s\right)\left|f\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right){\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Omega }}\rho \left(s\right)\left|g\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right)\left|{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Omega }}\rho \left(s\right)f\left(s\right)\overline{g\left(s\right)}𝑑\mu \left(s\right)\right|^2`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\left|Aa\right|^2\left({\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Omega }}\rho \left(s\right)\left|g\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right)\right)^2.`$
###### Proof.

Follows by Theorem 1 applied for the inner product $`,_\rho :=L_\rho ^2(\mathrm{\Omega },𝕂)\times L_\rho ^2(\mathrm{\Omega },𝕂)𝕂`$,

$$f,g_\rho :=_\mathrm{\Omega }\rho \left(s\right)f\left(s\right)\overline{g\left(s\right)}𝑑\mu \left(s\right).$$

###### Remark 2.

A sufficient condition for (4.1) to hold is

(4.3)
$$\mathrm{R}e\left[\left(Ag\left(s\right)f\left(s\right)\right)\left(\overline{f\left(s\right)}\overline{a}\text{ }\overline{g}\left(s\right)\right)\right]0\text{ for }\mu \text{a.e. }s\mathrm{\Omega }.$$

In the particular case $`\rho =1,`$ we have the following counterpart of the Cauchy-Buniakowsky-Schwarz inequality.

###### Corollary 2.

Let $`a,A𝕂`$ $`\left(𝕂=,\right)`$ and $`f,gL_\rho ^2(\mathrm{\Omega },𝕂).`$ If

(4.4)
$$_\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{R}e\left[\left(Ag\left(s\right)f\left(s\right)\right)\left(\overline{f\left(s\right)}\overline{a}\text{ }\overline{g}\left(s\right)\right)\right]d\mu \left(s\right)0,$$

or, equivalently

$$_\mathrm{\Omega }\left|f\left(s\right)\frac{a+A}{2}g\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right)\frac{1}{4}\left|Aa\right|^2_\mathrm{\Omega }\left|g\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right),$$

then one has the inequality

$`0`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Omega }}\left|f\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right){\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Omega }}\left|g\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right)\left|{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Omega }}f\left(s\right)\overline{g\left(s\right)}𝑑\mu \left(s\right)\right|^2`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\left|Aa\right|^2\left({\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Omega }}\left|g\left(s\right)\right|^2𝑑\mu \left(s\right)\right)^2.`$
###### Remark 3.

If $`𝕂=,`$ then a sufficient condition for either (4.1) or (4.4) to hold is

(4.6)
$$ag\left(s\right)f\left(s\right)Ag\left(s\right)\text{ for }\mu \text{a.e. }s\mathrm{\Omega },$$

where, in this case, $`a,A`$ with $`A>a.`$

## 5. Applications for Sequences

For a given sequence $`\left(w_i\right)_i`$ of nonnegative real numbers, consider the Hilbert space $`\mathrm{}_w^2\left(𝕂\right),`$ $`\left(𝕂=,\right),`$ where

(5.1)
$$\mathrm{}_w^2\left(𝕂\right):=\left\{\overline{x}=\left(x_i\right)_i𝕂\right|\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}w_i\left|x_i\right|^2<\mathrm{}\}.$$

The following proposition that provides a counterpart of the weighted Cauchy-Bunyakowsky-Schwarz inequality for complex numbers holds.

###### Proposition 3.

Let $`a,A𝕂`$ and $`\overline{x},\overline{y}\mathrm{}_w^2\left(𝕂\right).`$ If

(5.2)
$$\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}w_i\mathrm{R}e\left[\left(Ay_ix_i\right)\left(\overline{x_i}\overline{a}\text{ }\overline{y_i}\right)\right]0,$$

then one has the inequality

(5.3)
$$0\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}w_i\left|x_i\right|^2\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}w_i\left|y_i\right|^2\left|\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}w_ix_i\overline{y_i}\right|^2\frac{1}{4}\left|Aa\right|^2\left(\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}w_i\left|y_i\right|^2\right)^2.$$

The constant $`\frac{1}{4}`$ is sharp.

###### Proof.

Follows by Theorem 1 applied for the inner product $`,_w:\mathrm{}_w^2\left(𝕂\right)\times \mathrm{}_w^2\left(𝕂\right)𝕂`$,

$$\overline{x},\overline{y}_w:=\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}w_ix_i\overline{y_i}.$$

###### Remark 4.

A sufficient condition for (5.2) to hold is

(5.4)
$$\mathrm{R}e\left[\left(Ay_ix_i\right)\left(\overline{x_i}\overline{a}\overline{y_i}\right)\right]0\text{ for all }i.$$

In the particular case $`w_i=1,`$ $`i`$, we have the following counterpart of the Cauchy-Bunyakowsky-Schwarz inequality.

###### Corollary 3.

Let $`a,A𝕂`$ $`\left(𝕂=,\right)`$ and $`\overline{x},\overline{y}\mathrm{}^2\left(𝕂\right).`$ If

(5.5)
$$\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\mathrm{R}e\left[\left(Ay_ix_i\right)\left(\overline{x_i}\overline{a}\overline{y_i}\right)\right]0,$$

then one has the inequality

(5.6)
$$0\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left|x_i\right|^2\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left|y_i\right|^2\left|\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}x_i\overline{y_i}\right|^2\frac{1}{4}\left|Aa\right|^2\left(\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left|y_i\right|^2\right)^2.$$

###### Remark 5.

If $`𝕂=`$, then a sufficient condition for either (5.2) or (5.5) to hold is

(5.7)
$$ay_ix_iAy_i\text{ for each }i,$$

with $`A>a.`$