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# Bounded cohomology and non-uniform perfection of mapping class groups

## 1. Introduction

It is well-known that the mapping class group of a closed oriented surface $`F`$ of genus $`3`$ is perfect. In this paper we shall prove that it is not uniformly perfect, meaning that there is no number $`N`$ such that every element of the group is a product of at most $`N`$ commutators. By a result of Bavard , this statement implies the non-injectivity of the map from the second bounded cohomology of the mapping class group to its ordinary cohomology. This non-injectivity and the non-perfection of the mapping class groups confirm two conjectures of Morita .

We shall also prove the above statement about the bounded cohomology for some non-perfect subgroups of mapping class groups, namely for the Torelli groups and for the hyperelliptic mapping class groups.

As in , we use results of Taubes  on the Seiberg–Witten invariants of $`4`$–dimensional symplectic manifolds to study the mapping class groups of surfaces. We generalise the main argument of  from smooth surface bundles to Lefschetz fibrations. The result is an estimate from above for the number of separating singular fibers in Lefschetz fibrations over aspherical surfaces, in terms of the base and fiber genus (and of the number of nonseparating singular fibers). The existence of such an estimate implies that mapping class groups are not uniformly perfect, even if one does not know the exact shape of the estimate. Every concrete estimate, however, quantifies the failure of uniformity of perfection; see Theorem 2 below.

## 2. The main theorems

In this section we prove the main technical result about Lefschetz fibrations and conclude that mapping class groups are not uniformly perfect. For definitions and further information on smooth Lefschetz fibrations we refer to . We assume throughout that Lefschetz fibrations have at most one critical point in each fiber, and we call the corresponding singular fiber separating or nonseparating according to whether the vanishing cycle is separating or nonseparating.

###### Theorem 1.

Let $`X`$ be a connected smooth closed oriented $`4`$-manifold and $`f:XB`$ a relatively minimal Lefschetz fibration with fiber genus $`h2`$ and base genus $`g1`$ having $`s`$ separating and $`n`$ nonseparating singular fibers. Then

(1)
$$s6(3h1)(g1)+5n.$$

###### Proof.

By a result of Gompf, see , $`X`$ is a symplectic manifold, and the fibers are symplectic submanifolds. As has been observed before , the assumption of relative minimality here implies that $`X`$ is minimal and not ruled, because any pseudo-holomorphic sphere in $`X`$ would have to be contained in a fiber because $`g1`$. Thus Liu’s extension  of Taubes’s results  implies $`K^20`$, which we can write as

(2)
$$b_2^+(X)\frac{1}{5}(b_2^{}(X)+4b_1(X)4).$$

Every reducible singular fiber contains a curve of negative selfintersection, and all of these are linearly independent in homology and independent of the class of a smooth fiber, which has selfintersection zero. Therefore $`b_2^{}(X)s+1`$. Substituting this in (2) and using $`b_1(X)2g2`$, we obtain

$$b_2^+(X)1+\frac{1}{5}s.$$

As the claim (1) is trivial for $`s=0`$, we may assume $`s1`$, and therefore $`b_2^+(X)2`$.

The Euler characteristic of $`X`$ is

(3)
$$\chi (X)=4(g1)(h1)+s+n.$$

We estimate the signature of $`X`$ using Novikov additivity by decomposing the fibration into two pieces. Let $`DB`$ be an embedded $`2`$-disk containing all the critical values of $`f`$. If $`X_1=f^1(D)`$, then a result of Ozbagci  gives

(4)
$$\sigma (X_1)ns.$$

Let $`X_2`$ denote the restriction of $`X`$ to $`BD`$. As $`BD`$ can be decomposed into $`2g1`$ pairs of pants, and the signature of $`X_2`$ over each of them is given by the Meyer cocycle  and therefore bounded by $`2h`$, we conclude

(5)
$$\sigma (X_2)2h(2g1).$$

Combining (4) and (5), we obtain

(6)
$$\sigma (X)2h(2g1)+ns.$$

Passing to finite covers of $`B`$ and applying (6) to the pulled-back fibrations, we finally have

(7)
$$\sigma (X)2h(2g2)+ns.$$

As $`b_2^+(X)2`$, a result of Taubes  ensures that the canonical class $`K`$ of $`X`$ is represented by a symplectically embedded surface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }X`$. It may be disconnected, but because $`X`$ is minimal, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ has no spherical component. In the argument below we will tacitly assume that it is connected. In the general case the same argument works by summing over the components.

For the genus of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ we have the adjunction formula $`g(\mathrm{\Sigma })=1+K^2=1+2\chi (X)+3\sigma (X)`$. Using (3) and (7) we obtain:

(8)
$$g(\mathrm{\Sigma })12(10h4)(g1)+5ns.$$

The fibration $`f`$ induces a smooth map $`\mathrm{\Sigma }B`$ of degree $`d`$ equal to the algebraic intersection number of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ with a fiber. This is calculated from the adjunction formula applied to a smooth fiber $`F`$:

(9)
$$d=\mathrm{\Sigma }F=KF=2h2.$$

Now Kneser’s inequality $`g(\mathrm{\Sigma })1|d|(g(B)1)`$ gives:

$$g(\mathrm{\Sigma })12(h1)(g1),$$

which together with (8) completes the proof of (1). ∎

The following consequence of Theorem 1 makes precise the failure of uniformity of perfection of mapping class groups. It also applies to the genus $`2`$ case, where the mapping class group is not perfect.

###### Theorem 2.

Let $`a`$ be a nontrivial separating simple closed curve on a surface $`F`$ of genus $`h2`$, and let $`t_a`$ be the corresponding Dehn twist. Suppose that $`t_a^k`$ with $`k>0`$ can be written as a product of $`N`$ commutators. Then

(10)
$$N1+\frac{k}{6(3h1)}.$$

###### Proof.

We consider a Lefschetz fibration over the $`2`$-disk $`D`$ with precisely $`k`$ singular fibers, such that with respect to a basepoint on the boundary of $`D`$ the vanishing cycles of all the singular fibers can be identified with $`a`$. Then the monodromy of the fibration around the boundary of $`D`$ is $`t_a^k`$. If this can be expressed as a product of $`N`$ commutators, then we can find a smooth surface bundle with fiber $`F`$ over a surface of genus $`N`$ with one boundary component and the same restriction to the boundary. Let $`X`$ be the Lefschetz fibration over the closed surface $`B`$ of genus $`N`$ obtained by gluing together the two fibrations along their common boundary.

By construction, no fiber contains a sphere, so $`X`$ is relatively minimal. Thus we can apply Theorem 1 to conclude $`k6(3h1)(N1)`$ as $`n=0`$ in this case. ∎

###### Remark 3.

Theorem 2 implies in particular that no $`t_a^k`$ equals a single commutator. For $`k=1`$ this was previously proved in . The proof there depends on a result of  whose proof is not correct as written, but can by salvaged in the case needed for , see the Erratum to .

###### Remark 4.

It is clear that the number of factors needed to express $`t_a^k`$ as a product of commutators grows at most linearly with $`k`$. Thus Theorem 2 settles Problem 2.13 (D) in Kirby’s list  qualitatively.

###### Corollary 5.

Let $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{h,r}^k`$ be the mapping class group of genus $`h`$ with respect to $`r`$ marked points and $`k`$ boundary components (fixed pointwise). The group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{h,r}^k`$ is not uniformly perfect for $`h2`$.

###### Proof.

If $`k1`$, then we have a surjective homomorphism

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{h,r}^k\mathrm{\Gamma }_{h,r+1}^{k1}$$

given by collapsing a boundary component to a point. We also have surjective forgetful homomorphisms

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{h,r}^k\mathrm{\Gamma }_{h,r1}^k,$$

so it is enough to prove the claim in the case $`r=k=0`$. But this case is immediate from Theorem 2. ∎

## 3. Bounded cohomology and commutator lengths

In this section we relate Theorems 1 and 2 to the second bounded cohomology.

Let $`G`$ be a group, and $`[G,G]`$ its commutator subgroup. For an element $`g[G,G]`$, the minimal number $`c_G(g)`$ of factors in an expression of $`g`$ as a product commutators is called the commutator length of $`g`$. The limit

$$g_G=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{c_G(g^n)}{n}$$

is called the stable commutator length of $`g`$. This is related to the second bounded cohomology of $`G`$ by the following result:

###### Theorem 6.

(Bavard ) The map $`H_b^2(G)H^2(G)`$ is injective if and only if the stable commutator length $`g_G`$ vanishes identically on $`[G,G]`$.

Now the proof of Theorem 2 implies that the stable commutator length of the Dehn twist along a separating simple closed curve is bounded below by $`\frac{1}{6(3h1)}`$. More generally, if $`g\mathrm{\Gamma }_{h,r}^k`$ is a product of $`s`$ separating Dehn twists, not necessarily along the same curve, then we obtain

(11)
$$g_{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{h,r}^k}\frac{s}{6(3h1)}.$$

Thus Theorem 6 implies:

###### Corollary 7.

The map $`H_b^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{h,r}^k)H^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{h,r}^k)`$ is not injective for all $`h2`$ and $`k,r0`$.

As Theorem 6 is not limited to perfect groups, we can also deal with some subgroups of mapping class groups.

### 3.1. Hyperelliptic mapping class groups

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }_h`$ be the hyperelliptic mapping class group of genus $`h2`$. It is known that $`H^2(\mathrm{\Delta }_h,)=0`$, cf. , so that the statement analogous to Corollary 7 is just:

###### Corollary 8.

The bounded cohomology $`H_b^2(\mathrm{\Delta }_h)`$ is non-trivial.

###### Proof.

From the presentation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_h`$ due to Birman-Hilden , it follows that the Abelianisation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_h`$ is a finite cyclic group of order $`4(2h+1)`$ if $`h`$ is odd, and of order $`2(2h+1)`$ if $`h`$ is even.

Let $`a`$ be a nontrivial separating simple closed curve on the surface of genus $`h`$ which is invariant under the hyperelliptic involution. Then $`t_a^{4(2h+1)}[\mathrm{\Delta }_h,\mathrm{\Delta }_h]`$, and using (11) we obtain:

$$t_a^{4(2h+1)}_{\mathrm{\Delta }_h}t_a^{4(2h+1)}_{\mathrm{\Gamma }_h}\frac{4(2h+1)}{6(3h1)}>0.$$

Thus the claim follows from Theorem 6. ∎

### 3.2. Torelli groups

Let $`𝒯_h`$ be the Torelli group of a closed oriented surface of genus $`h2`$ defined by

(12)
$$1𝒯_h\mathrm{\Gamma }_h\stackrel{\varphi }{}Sp(2h,)1,$$

where $`\varphi `$ denotes the represention of the mapping class group on homology.

###### Corollary 9.

The map $`H_b^2(𝒯_h)H^2(𝒯_h)`$ is not injective.

###### Proof.

For $`h=2`$ this follows from the result of Mess  that $`𝒯_2`$ is a free group (on infinitely many generators).

Johnson  proved that for $`h3`$ the commutator subgroup of the Torelli group is:

$$[𝒯_h,𝒯_h]=𝒯_h^2𝒦_h,$$

where $`𝒯_h^2`$ is the subgroup generated by all squares of elements of $`𝒯_h`$, and $`𝒦_h`$ is the subgroup generated by the Dehn twists along separating simple closed curves.

Thus, if $`t_a`$ is a separating Dehn twist, then $`t_a^2[𝒯_h,𝒯_h]`$. Using (11), we have

$$t_a^2_{𝒯_h}t_a^2_{\mathrm{\Gamma }_h}\frac{2}{6(3h1)}>0,$$

and so the claim follows from Theorem 6. ∎

###### Remark 10.

Here we have used the bound (11) on the stable commutator length in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_h`$ obtained from Theorem 1, which is certainly not optimal for $`𝒯_h`$. Examining the proof of Theorem 1, we see that for Lefschetz fibrations whose monodromy is in the Torelli group, we have $`\sigma (X)ns`$ instead of (6), so that (1) is replaced by

(13)
$$s6(h1)(g1)+5n.$$

With this we obtain

$$t_a^2_{𝒯_h}\frac{2}{6(h1)}.$$

###### Remark 11.

It has been pointed out to us by M. Burger that the kernel of $`H_b^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }_h)H^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }_h)`$, which is non-trivial by Corollary 7, injects into the kernel of $`H_b^2(𝒯_h)H^2(𝒯_h)`$ under the restriction map. This follows from the exact sequence in bounded cohomology associated to an extension of the form (12), see , together with the injectivity in degree $`2`$ of the map from the bounded to the ordinary cohomology of $`Sp(2h,)`$ proved in .


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# Rotation and lithium in single giant stars Based on observations collected at the Observatoire de Haute – Provence (France) and at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla (Chile).

## 1 Introduction

One of the best known properties of the late-type evolved stars is that their rotational velocity and lithium content decrease with age. Nevertheless, the root cause of this property, as well as the relationship between rotation and lithium abundance, are not yet completely established. Which physical processes control the behavior of rotation and lithium once stars evolve along the giant branch? In particular, how does rotation affect lithium dilution? How does magnetic braking affect rotation and lithium content in evolved stars? Solid answers to these questions have been hampered by the difficulties in the measurement of rotation rates for cool stars as well as by the paucity of lithium abundance measurements for large and complete sample of evolved stars. However, over the last 10 years it has become possible to measure rotational velocities of evolved stars with a precision better than 1.0 km s-1 (e.g.: Gray 1989; De Medeiros & Mayor 1989, 1999). In addition, large observational surveys of the lithium line 6 707.81 Å, with high precision, were carried out (e.g.: Brown et al. 1989; Wallerstein et al. 1994; Balachandran 1990; Randich et al. 1999; Lébre et al. 1998). As a result, some very interesting new features on the behavior of rotation and lithium content in evolved stars are emerging.

A dramatic drop in the rotation of subgiant and giant stars occurs, respectively, near the spectral types F8IV and G0III (Gray & Nagar 1985; Gray 1989; De Medeiros & Mayor 1989, 1991). For the more luminous classes, namely bright giant and Ib supergiant stars, De Medeiros & Mayor (1989, 1991) observed a sudden decrease in their rotation near the spectral types F9II and F9Ib, respectively. On the other hand, the giant stars, to the left of the rotational discontinuity, namely in the F spectral region, present a wide range of rotational velocity values, from a few km s-1 to about one hundred times the solar rotation rate. To the right of this discontinuity, namely along the G and K spectral regions, the large majority of stars show low rotation. Along this spectral region only binary systems presenting orbital periods shorter than about 250 days and circular or nearly circular orbits and a dozen of apparently single giant stars present enhanced rotation. Should one expect some kind of link between the rotational discontinuity and the distribution of lithium abundances? A gradual decrease of surface lithium abundance is expected once stars evolve along the giant branch. At the end of the main-sequence, theory predicts that lithium is confined to the outermost regions of the star in a thin convective layer. Once the star evolves up the giant branch, the convective envelope expands towards the stellar interior and the convective mixture of the outer material rich in lithium with deeper and Li-free material leads to the depletion of this fragile element (e.g.: Iben 1967a,b). Lithium is destroyed when the convective envelope with Li-rich material reaches stellar inner regions with temperatures higher than about $`2.5\times 10^6`$ K. Following the initial study by Bonsack (1959), different studies have attempted to analyse the observational behavior of the lithium abundance along the giant branch. The abundance of lithium in F and early-G giants has been investigated by Wallerstein (1966), Alschuler (1975) and Wallerstein et al. (1994). These works have shown a steady decline in lithium abundances from F5III to F8III, a wide spread around the spectral type G0III and low values up to G5III. Wallerstein et al. (1994) have analysed the behavior of lithium abundances of F2 – G5 giants looking for the main features of lithium in the Hertzsprung gap. These authors have found that rapidly rotating giants, namely stars with $`v\mathrm{sin}i>50`$ km s-1, located in the color interval from $`(BV)`$ = 0.40 to $`(BV)=0.70`$ present lithium abundances close to the presumed primordial value $`\mathrm{log}n(Li)=3.0`$. For slow rotators, $`v\mathrm{sin}i<50`$ km s-1, a drop in lithium abundance appears in the color interval $`(BV)=0.45`$ to $`(BV)=0.60`$, i.e. stars with $`(BV)>0.45`$ show reduced lithium abundances in spite of their early spectral types. Luck (1977), Lambert et al. (1988) and Luck and Lambert (1982) have determined lithium abundances for normal G, K and M-type field giants. From these works, strong evidences have emerged that the content of lithium in this spectral region is primarily controlled by the stellar mass. On the basis of a very large survey of about 644 G and K-type giants Brown et al. (1989) have found that a small percentage of late-type giant stars have lithium content far in excess of the standard predictions, a few of them approaching the primordial value. The lithium content distribution of the remaining stars in such survey shows that giants only very rarely are in agreement with standard first dredge-up predictions, in the sense that their lithium content falls below the theoretical predictions. De Medeiros et al. (1996a) have shown that, except for a few chromospherically active giants, Li-rich evolved stars show normal rotational velocity with respect to the typical lithium-normal evolved stars of the same spectral type. Recently, a study of lithium abundance for population I subgiants carried out by Lebre at al. (1999) have shown a sudden decrease in the lithium abundance around Teff = 5 600 K, corresponding to a spectral type near G2IV. Such a feature occurs slightly later than the rotational discontinuity at F8IV. Furthermore, some dependence of lithium abundance on rotation, in the sense that fastest rotators show enhanced lithium content, was observed in different classes of luminosity. This dependence, for example, was found for population I subgiant (Randich et al. 1999, De Medeiros et al. 1997, do Nascimento et al. 2000) and for unevolved late-type stars in young clusters (Garcia Lopez et al. 1994, Randich et al. 1998).

In spite of the important results obtained from the works discussed above, up to date there have been no studies on the link between rotation and lithium content along the giant branch. In the present work we investigate specifically the relationship between rotational velocity and lithium abundance for giant stars on the basis of a large and homogeneous data sample for which we have now precise rotational velocities obtained with the CORAVEL spectrometer.

## 2 Observational data

The data sample selected for the present investigation has as its main characteristics the high precision of the rotational velocity and lithium abundance, as well as the large size of the sample. The rotational velocity measurements were taken from the Catalog of Rotational and Radial Velocities for Evolved Stars by the De Medeiros & Mayor (1999). By using the CORAVEL spectrometer (Baranne et al. 1979) these authors have measured rotational velocities for a large sample of about 2 000 evolved stars. For giant stars of luminosity class III, in particular, these authors have shown that CORAVEL $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ values present an uncertainty of about 1.0 km s-1 for stars with $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ lower than about 30.0 km s-1. For higher rotators, the estimations indicate an uncertainty of about 10% . For a complete discussion on the observational procedure, calibration and error analysis the reader is referred to De Medeiros and Mayor (1999).

Lithium abundances were taken from three different sources: 16 F and early-G stars from Wallerstein et al. (1994), 7 F stars from Balachandran (1990) and 286 late-G and K type giants from Brown et al. (1989), all of them with a $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ given by De Medeiros & Mayor (1999). Because lithium abundances come from different authors, a comparison for those stars in common in the given sources would be important. For four stars observed by Wallerstein et al. (1994) and Balachandran (1990) a least-square solution yields a linear correlation coefficient of about 0.91 and standard deviation about 0.27, indicating for an excellent agreement between the lithium abundance values obtained by these authors. Brown et al. (1989) and Wallerstein et al. (1994) present only two stars in common. Let us underline here the uncertainties in lithium abundances estimated by the different authors mentioned above. Wallerstein et al. (1994) estimate an uncertainty of $`\pm 0.1`$ dex in $`[Li/Fe]`$ for stars presenting low rotation and weak Li lines and $`\pm 0.3`$ dex for rotating stars with strong Li lines, but for rotating stars with $`(BV)<0.5`$ such uncertainty may rise by 0.1 or 0.2 dex. Balachandran (1990) estimates uncertainties for $`\mathrm{log}n(Li)`$ to be $`\pm 0.02`$ dex at large equivalent widths and $`\pm 0.07`$ dex at small equivalent widths, while for rapidly rotating stars the error in lithium abundances is probably $`\pm 0.1`$ dex. Finally, Brown et al. (1989) have estimated an uncertainty of about $`\pm 0.2`$ dex. Moreover, Wallerstein et al. (1994) obtained spectra with a signal-to-noise ratio of about 200, Balachandran (1990) pointed out a signal-to-noise ratio of about 100 for the spectra, whereas all spectra obtained by Brown et al. (1989) showed a signal-to-noise ratio of at least 150. In fact, the detailed error analysis made by these authors indicate that their lithium abundance measurements have the same high quality. The entire sample with rotational velocities and lithium abundances is listed in electronic table at CDS (http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/)

## 3 Results and discussion

The rotational velocity $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ as a function of the color index $`(BV)`$ is plotted in Figure 1, where one sees clearly the sudden decline in rotation near $`(BV)`$ = 0.70, corresponding to the spectral type G0III (De Medeiros & Mayor 1989, 1991, Gray 1989). This cutoff in the distribution of the rotational velocity results from a mixing in age and masses associated with the rapid evolution of giant stars into the Hertzsprung gap (De Medeiros & Mayor 1991). To the left of this cutoff one sees a wide range of rotational velocity values, which seems to reflect the distribution of rotation of the progenitors of giant stars. To the right of the cutoff, as pointed out by De Medeiros & Mayor (1991), single giants with high rotation are unusual. Only a dozen of single G and K single giants, in addition to synchronized binary systems, present enhanced rotation. As shown by De Medeiros et al. (1996b), to the right of the cutoff rotation decreases smoothly from about 6.0 km s-1 at G1III, to about 3.0 km s-1 at G5III and to about 2.0 km s-1 along the spectral region from G8III to K7III.

The well established gradual decline of lithium abundances as a function of the color index $`(BV)`$ for single giant stars is illustrated in Figure 2. Let us recall that the $`(BV)`$ interval represented in that figure covers the spectral range from F2III to K5III. Such a decline is interpreted as an evidence of convective mixing. The convective zone begins to grow towards the stellar interior as the star evolves from the F to the G spectral region and finally deepens rapidly as the star ascends the first giant branch, so that the thin surface layer containing lithium is mixed with the larger inner Li-free stellar material. Lithium is then burned when the convective envelope drags the mixed material into regions with temperatures of about $`2\times 10^6K`$. However, such observed decline in lithium abundance is not yet fully explained by the standard stellar evolution theory. Along the giant branch the lithium abundance falls below the standard predictions. In fact, standard theory shows a factor of dilution of about 40 to 60 for 1.0 M and 2.0 M, respectively. Nevertheless, from a comparison of the lithium abundances listed in table 2 (at http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/) with the standard theoretical predictions, one can observe a factor of dilution as large as 400, in particular for stars in the spectral region G8III – K0III. Such a contrast between predicted and observed factor of dilution was also observed by other authors (e.g.: Brown et al. 1989). However, the present work which combines a large sample of data from the literature (Brown et al. 1989; Balachandran 1990; Wallerstein et al. 1994) shows that the dilution of lithium from the spectral type F2III to K5III is far more important than pointed out up to date. Another important feature that emerges from Figure 2 is the well known large spread in lithium abundance for a given color index or spectral type, which could result from the mixing in masses.

A comparison of figures 1 and 2 shows, at first glance, no clear link between the drop in rotation near G0III and the behavior of lithium abundance around such a spectral type. As it has been already outlined, rather than a drop, the lithium abundance shows a gradual decrease. Zahn (1992) and Pinsonneault et al. (1989, 1990) have proposed, following different approaches, that depletion of lithium in single late-type stars is directly related to the loss of angular momentum. In this context, a correlation between rotation and lithium content should be expected. In spite of no clear discontinuity in the lithium contents presented in Figure 2, the distribution of lithium abundances represented by the histogram displayed in Figure 4 shows a trend for a bimodal behavior. In fact, one observes a first mode around $`\mathrm{log}n(Li)=0.2`$, corresponding to stars later than G0III, namely stars located to the right of the rotational discontinuity, and a second mode around $`\mathrm{log}n(Li)=3.0`$ which is mainly due to the lithium content of F-type giants. In principle, such a result seems to point in the direction of a discontinuity in the distribution of lithium at the same spectral region where the rotational discontinuity is observed, namely around G0III. One could inquire here about the root cause of this apparent discontinuity in lithium abundances. Could it be associated to the same root cause controlling the rotational discontinuity?

In Figure 3 we show the behavior of lithium abundances as a function of rotational velocity. Several important features emerge from this figure. First of all, one observes that giant stars presenting the highest lithium content, typically stars earlier than the spectral type G0III, are also those with the highest rotation rates. Stars located to the right of the drop in rotation, namely stars later than G0III, present as a rule, the lowest rotation rate and lithium content. In fact, these features indicate a trend leading to a correlation between lithium abundance and rotation along the giant branch, which confirms, for single giant stars, the dependence of lithium on rotation, observed in other luminosity classes. An additional important feature is the large spread in lithium abundance of the slow rotators. Stars with a $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ lower than about 4.0 km s-1 show a wide range of lithium abundance values with $`\mathrm{log}n(Li)`$ ranging from about $`1.5`$ to the cosmic value, clearly five orders of magnitude.

For a more solid study on the link between rotational velocity and lithium abundance in single giant stars, we have carried out a least-square regression analysis of the stars listed in Table 1. A $`\mathrm{log}`$-linear least-square fit of $`\mathrm{log}n(Li)`$ against $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ was derived first for the entire sample of stars and then for stars located earlier and later the spectral type G0III. The least-square solution yields very poor linear correlation coefficients and standard deviations, as indicated in Table 1 and, at first glance, we could regard these results as an indication that rotation and lithium would be poorly correlated in single giant stars. As a second step, we have segregated the stars by mass intervals. The stellar masses were estimated from evolutionary tracks computed with the Toulouse-Geneva code for a range of stellar masses between 1 and 4 M and for metallicities consistent with population I giants (see do Nascimento et al. 2000 for a description). However, solar composition being relevant to most objects in the sample, only tracks computed with $`[Fe/H]=0`$ were considered here. Intrinsic absolute magnitudes MV were derived from the parallaxes and mV magnitudes given by Hipparcos. We have determined the bolometric corrections $`BC`$ by using the Buser and Kurucz’s relation (1992) between $`BC`$ and V-I (again taken from the Hipparcos Catalogue). The stellar luminosity and the associated error were computed from the sigma error on the parallax. The correlation coefficients obtained from this regression analysis, by interval of mass, are listed in Table 1, from which one can observe a clear trend for a linear correlation between lithium and rotation for stars with masses between 1.5 and 2.5 solar masses. For the additional mass intervals the results of the present least-squares solutions indicates a poor correlation between lithium and rotation.

## 4 Conclusions

The distribution of lithium abundance for single giant stars shows a trend for a discontinuity near $`(BV)`$ = 0.70, correponding to the spectral type G0III. Such a discontinuity follows the one observed in rotational velocity. In addition, this work shows a clear dependence of lithium abundance on rotation, in the sense that the highest rotators are also the stars presenting the highest lithium content. One observes that giant stars, presenting the highest lithium content and highest rotation are typically stars earlier than the spectral type G0III. Stars located to the right of the drop in rotation, namely stars later than G0III, present as a rule, the lowest rotation rate and lithium content. In fact, these features show, for giant stars, the same dependence of lithium on rotation observed in other luminosity classes. Giant stars with masses $`1.5<M/M_{}2.5`$ show the more solid trend for a correlation between rotational velocity and lithium abundance. For other mass intervals the least-square solutions show a trend for poor correlation, indicating that the dependence of lithium content on rotation is mass dependent. An additional important feature is the large spread in lithium abundance of the slow rotators. Stars with a $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ lower than about 4.0 km s-1 show a wide range of lithium abundance values with $`\mathrm{log}n(Li)`$ ranging from about $`1.5`$ to the cosmic value, namely five orders of magnitude. Neverthless, because the sample of giants analyzed in the present work is somewhat limited, in particular for late F and early G type stars, additional measurements of lithium abundance are clearly required for stars located in this spectral region, for a more solid analysis of this apparent discontinuity in lithium.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work has been supported by continuous grants from the CNPq Brazilian Agency. J.D.N.Jr. acknowledges the CNPq grant 300925/99-9. We are grateful to J. R. P. da Silva for assistance with the preparation of the data basis. We would like to thank the referee for his useful comments on the manuscprit.


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# Quantum Dynamics of Three Coupled Atomic Bose-Einstein Condensates

## I Introduction

The recent creation of neutral atom Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC)  stimulated theoretical research aimed at understanding this new state of matter. Models of two coupled BECs in a two mode approximation are considered a tractable system when total particle number is conserved and eigenstates of the two well system are labeled by the particle number difference between the wells. Two coupled BECs in a symmetric double-well potential has been analyzed with the use of the SU(2) group  to show the dynamical transition from self-trapping in one well to delocalized oscillation through both potential wells due to the nonlinear particle interaction. This model in the weak coupling region has been further shown to demonstrate $`\pi `$-phase oscillations , while a semiclassical functional expression for the three-dimensional Josephson coupling energy have been derived . This model, however, can be considered as a special case because of its simplicity and low-dimensionality. Any extension of this model significantly increase the nonlinearity while higher dimensional effects increase the complexity of the model structure.

These more complex systems are of interest as the richer dynamics and model structure allows us to treat quantum states with non-zero currents, for instance. In the limit of large mode number $`n`$, Bose-Hubbard type approaches are useful using a mean field approximation . However systems with intermediate numbers of modes, $`2<n<100`$, are complex and models must exploit system symmetries in order to obtain solutions. The symmetries of these groups are the SU(n) group symmetries. In this paper we analyze a three coupled BEC system using the operator algebra of SU(3). This could be realized as three spatially separated atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) as illustrated in the right corner of Fig. 1. Alternatively it could describe a three condensates, occupying a single trap and distinguished by three internal hyperfine atomic states. The spatially separated system could represent a BEC confined in a three dimensional trapping potential with three harmonic minima in the $`xy`$ plane. Tunneling is possible between all three minima. This symmetric triple-well system represents the simplest two-dimensional generalization of the one dimensional double-well  which allows states of non-zero angular momentum. If the nonlinear interaction between the atoms is not too large, see  (that is the total number of atoms $`N`$ is not too big), we can describe this system using a minimum of three Bose modes for the quantum field;

$$\widehat{\psi }(x,y,t)=\underset{j=1}{\overset{3}{}}[c_j(t)u_j(x,y)+c_j^{}(t)u_j(x,y)^{}],$$
(1)
where the $`u_j(x,y)`$ are an appropriate set of orthonormal single-particle mode functions for this potential, and the annihilation and creation operators $`c_j,c_j^{}`$ satisfy the equal time commutation relations

$$[c_i,c_j^{}]=\delta _{ij}.$$
(2)
As in the double-well case , we can choose approximate single particle mode functions which are the localized single particle ground states for each of the three wells. We further assume that these three lowest localized states are sufficiently well separated from higher energy states, and that interactions between particles do not change this basic property of the system configuration. Finally we assume that the total number of particles $`N`$ are conserved. These assumptions allow us to treat this model system in a three mode approximation. Hence, the many-body Hamiltonian describing atomic BECs  can be written in terms of the mode operators as

$$\widehat{H}=\omega \underset{j=1}{\overset{3}{}}\widehat{c}_j^{}\widehat{c}_j+\mathrm{\Omega }\underset{j,k=1,jk}{\overset{3}{}}\widehat{c}_j^{}\widehat{c}_k+\chi \underset{j=1}{\overset{3}{}}\widehat{c}_j^{}\widehat{c}_j^{}\widehat{c}_j\widehat{c}_j,$$
(3)
where $`\omega `$ is the mode frequency, $`\chi (0)`$ is the two particle interaction strength and $`\mathrm{\Omega }(0)`$ is the tunneling frequency. The condition, $`\chi 0`$, corresponds to atoms with attractive interactions. This is the Hamiltonian of our model system in this paper.

## II SU(3) Group Approach

This section shows the group theoretical treatment of the system with the Hamiltonian specified in (3). In order to describe this system with SU(3) generators, we extend the Schwinger boson method  and we define the eight generators of SU(3) $`\{\widehat{Z}_k,\widehat{Y}_k,\widehat{X}_k\}`$ as

$$\begin{array}{cc}\{\begin{array}{cc}\widehat{X}_1=\widehat{c}_1^{}\widehat{c}_1\widehat{c}_2^{}\widehat{c}_2\hfill & \\ \widehat{X}_2=\frac{1}{3}(\widehat{c}_1^{}\widehat{c}_1+\widehat{c}_2^{}\widehat{c}_22\widehat{c}_3^{}\widehat{c}_3)\hfill & \end{array}\begin{array}{cc}\widehat{Y}_k=i(\widehat{c}_k^{}\widehat{c}_j\widehat{c}_j^{}\widehat{c}_k)\hfill & \\ \widehat{Z}_k=\widehat{c}_k^{}\widehat{c}_j+\widehat{c}_j^{}\widehat{c}_k,\hfill & \end{array}& \end{array}$$
(4)
where $`k=1,2,3`$ and $`j=(k+1)mod3`$. We note that the two operators $`\widehat{X}_i`$ commute with each other. $`\widehat{X}_1`$ and $`\widehat{X}_2`$ represent particle distributions projected on the y and x axes respectively in the right corner of Fig. 1, and $`\widehat{Y}_1+\widehat{Y}_2+\widehat{Y}_3`$ corresponds to angular momentum in this system. The most important relation which the generators satisfy is the Casimir invariant of SU(3), $`4\widehat{N}(\widehat{N}/3+1)`$, where $`\widehat{N}`$ is the total number operator, $`\widehat{N}=_{j=1}^3\widehat{c}_j^{}\widehat{c}_j`$. The operator algebra implies three further important identities;

$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{2\widehat{N}}{3}}+\widehat{X}_2+\widehat{X_1}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{2\widehat{N}}{3}}+\widehat{X}_2\widehat{X}_1\right)`$ $`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\widehat{N}}{3}}+2\widehat{X}_2`$ (5)
$`=`$ $`\widehat{Y}_1^2+\widehat{Z}_1^2`$ (6)
$`2\left({\displaystyle \frac{2\widehat{N}}{3}}+\widehat{X}_2\widehat{X_1}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\widehat{N}}{3}}\widehat{X}_2\right)`$ $`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\widehat{N}}{3}}\widehat{X}_2\widehat{X}_1`$ (7)
$`=`$ $`\widehat{Y}_2^2+\widehat{Z}_2^2`$ (8)
$`2\left({\displaystyle \frac{2\widehat{N}}{3}}+\widehat{X}_2+\widehat{X_1}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\widehat{N}}{3}}\widehat{X}_2\right)`$ $`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\widehat{N}}{3}}\widehat{X}_2+\widehat{X}_1`$ (9)
$`=`$ $`\widehat{Y}_3^2+\widehat{Z}_3^2.`$ (10)
With the use of SU(3) generators, we can represent the Hamiltonian (3) in the form

$$\widehat{H}=\mathrm{\Omega }(\widehat{Z}_1+\widehat{Z}_2+\widehat{Z}_3)+\frac{\chi }{2}(\widehat{X}_1^2+3\widehat{X}_2^2).$$
(11)
Here we ignore constant terms involving the conserved total number of particles $`\widehat{N}`$ which do not change the dynamics of the system.

We now specifically consider the case with $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0`$ and $`\chi 0`$. Such condensates are necessarily limited to a small number of atoms. For attractive forces, the ground state is three-fold degenerate and in the occupation number representation ($`|m,n,N(m+n)=|m_1|n_2|N(m+n)_3`$) these states are

$$|e_1=|0,0,N,|e_2=|N,0,0,|e_3=|0,N,0.$$
(12)
For all these states the ground state energy is $`E_0=2\chi N^2/3`$.

## III Semiclassical dynamics

We treat the three coupled BEC model using the semiclassical mean-field approximation. Ignoring correlations between all operators and taking expectation values converts the eight operator differential equations for the SU(3) generators in the quantum system into eight differential equations for real variables in the semiclassical system. It is, however, very difficult to analytically solve the full eight dimensional equations. This leads us to consider a specific simplified subspace of the set of eight equations by taking the symmetric condition, $`x_1=0`$. The nature of this condition will be explained in subsection $`A`$ below as to see the dynamics clearly we first need to scale the semiclassical variables.

The expectation values of generators are distinguished by their subscripts, while the expectation value of the total number operator is $`N`$. It is convenient to scale all the semiclassical averages by $`N`$. Thus we define,

$$x_j=\frac{\widehat{X}_j}{N},y_j=\frac{\widehat{Y}_j}{N},z_j=\frac{\widehat{Z}_j}{N}.$$
(13)
The equations of motion can be derived from the Heisenberg equations of motion of the Hamiltonian (11), by factoring all higher order moments.

The three degenerate ground states for $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0`$ can be associated with particular initial conditions in the semiclassical limit. To see this we first note that if we take matrix elements of both sides of the three operator identities in Eq. (5) we find that

$$e_i|\widehat{Y}_j^2+\widehat{Z}_j^2|e_i=(1\delta _{ij})2N.$$
(14)
Using the commutation relations for $`\{\widehat{Z}_i,\widehat{Y}_i,\widehat{X}_i\}`$ and the corresponding uncertainty relations with respect to the ground states it is possible to show that the ground state variances in $`\{\widehat{Z}_i,\widehat{Y}_i\}`$ scale as $`N`$ for $`N1`$. In physical terms this means that the relative fluctuations in these variables goes to zero as $`N\mathrm{}`$, as expected for a semiclassical limit. This indicates that in the semiclassical limit we may approximate

$`\widehat{Z}_i^2/N^2`$ $``$ $`\widehat{Z}_i^2/N^2=z_i^2`$ (15)
$`\widehat{Y}_i^2/N^2`$ $``$ $`\widehat{Y}_i^2/N^2=y_i^2.`$ (16)
The resulting semiclassical equations will be analyzed from two perspectives. We first show a dynamical transition between self-trapping and delocalization when initial conditions are given by Eq. (12). This analysis determines the critical point for the dynamics transition. Secondly we consider the dependence of the stable points on the ratio of the coupling between condensates to the particle-particle interaction strength, and show bifurcations in the set of the stable points.

### A Dynamics transition

Using these relations in Eq. (14) we can construct semiclassical correspondences for each of the ground states. This is shown below

$`\begin{array}{ccc}|e_1& |e_2& |e_3\\ y_1^2+z_1^2=0& y_2^2+z_2^2=0& y_3^2+z_3^3=0\\ x_1=0& x_1=1& x_1=1\\ x_2=2/3& x_2=1/3& x_2=1/3.\end{array}`$
It is easy to verify that these curves are invariant under the semiclassical dynamics with $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0`$. As each of the ground states is equivalent, up to a rotation in the phase space, we will now restrict the discussion to $`|e_1`$ (a condensate localized initially in the third well) without loss of generality, and examine the dynamics when $`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$.

Use of the initial state $`|e_1`$ naturally restricts the dynamics due to system symmetries, allowing us to study an analytically solvable subsystem. The initial state $`|e_1`$ and the Hamiltonian (11) are symmetric to permutations of wells 1 and 2, then the resulting dynamics also satisfy this symmetry. This ensures that $`x_1=0`$ for all time in the semiclassical limit, which we previously referred to as the symmetric condition. This symmetric condition specifies the subspace in which the reduced system dynamics lies, giving the additional conditions, $`y_1=0`$, $`y_2=y_3`$, and $`z_2=z_3`$. The semiclassical dynamics is governed by the following four dimensional system

$`\dot{x}_2`$ $`=`$ $`2\mathrm{\Omega }y_2`$ (18)
$`\dot{y}_2`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }(3x_2+z_1z_2)3\chi Nz_2x_2`$ (19)
$`\dot{z}_1`$ $`=`$ $`2\mathrm{\Omega }y_2`$ (20)
$`\dot{z}_2`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }y_2+3\chi Nx_2y_2.`$ (21)
The initial state $`|e_1`$ gives the semiclassical system the initial conditions

$`x_2(0)`$ $`=`$ $`2/3`$ (22)
$`y_i(0)`$ $`=`$ $`z_i(0)=0.`$ (23)
The semiclassical dynamics governed by the equations of motion (18) is numerically shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 shows a transition from localization to global oscillation, and this dynamics change can be explained by the stable point analysis. This reduced system is integrable as these equations satisfy two constants of motion;

$`\mathrm{\Omega }(z_1+2z_2)+{\displaystyle \frac{3\chi Nx_2^2}{2}}`$ $`=`$ $`H/N`$ (24)
$`3x_2^2+2(y_2^2+z_2^2)+z_1^2`$ $`=`$ $`4/3,`$ (25)
which correspond to energy and total number conservation respectively. The latter constant (25) follows from two stricter constraints

$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}+x_2\right)^2`$ $`=`$ $`z_1^2`$ (26)
$`2\left(x_2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}}\right)^2+y_2^2+z_2^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}},`$ (27)
which are derived from Eq. (5) with the symmetric condition in the semiclassical limit.

The equations of motion with the chosen initial conditions may be solved explicitly as a function of $`x_2`$ and depend on only one parameter; the ratio of the coupling constant $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ to the interaction strength $`\chi `$,

$$r=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{N\chi }(0).$$
(28)
The solutions are,

$`z_1(t)`$ $`=`$ $`x_2(t)+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}`$ (29)
$`z_2(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{x_2(t)}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{3x_2(t)^2}{4r}}+\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3r}}\right)`$ (30)
$`y_2(t)^2`$ $`=`$ $`f(x_2(t)),`$ (31)
where

$`f(x_2(t))`$ $`=`$ $`\left(a(r)\left(x_2(t)+{\displaystyle \frac{r}{3}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4r}}\right)^2`$ (32)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{2r}{3}}\left(x_2(t)+{\displaystyle \frac{r}{3}}\right)(2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{r}})+B(r),`$ (33)
and where the integration constants are given by

$`a(r)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4r}{3}}+{\displaystyle \frac{(r2)^2}{12r}}`$ (34)
$`B(r)`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{4r}{3}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{2}{9}}(2r1)(r2).`$ (35)
The solutions are oscillatory and only exist for $`2/3x_21/3`$, and are strongly dependent on the roots of the function $`f(x)`$. $`f(x_2)`$ is fourth order in terms of $`x_2`$ and can have up to four real roots. For increasing $`r`$, the root structure of $`f(x_2)`$ changes. To really understand these changes it is instructive to look at the fixed point structure of system (18). If all the derivatives of the equations of motion (18) are zero then,

$`y_2=0,`$ (36)
$`3x_2z_1+z_2+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{r}}z_2x_2=0.`$ (37)
Taking the positive root for $`z_1`$ in the constraint (27), $`z_1=x_2+2/3`$, the second equation can be written

$$4x_2+z_2+\frac{3}{r}z_2x_2\frac{2}{3}=0.$$
(38)
So the fixed points are the crossing points of this equation with the constraint,

$$2\left(x_2+\frac{1}{6}\right)^2+z_2^2=\frac{1}{2},$$
(39)
obtained by applying $`y_2=0`$ to constraint (27). Together these result in the following fourth order ploynomial in $`z_2`$

$`{\displaystyle \frac{18}{r^2}}\left(z_2{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}\right)\left(z_2^3+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}(14r)z_2^22r(1r)z_2+{\displaystyle \frac{4r^2}{3}}\right)=0.`$ (40)
Fig. 2 shows the curves (38) and (39) in the $`x_2`$$`z_2`$ plane for various values of $`r`$. The first factor of (40) gives us the point $`A`$ ($`x=0,z_2=\frac{2}{3}`$). For larger $`r`$ only one branch of the hyperbola (38) intersects the constraint and there are just two elliptic fixed points, one at A and one in the third quadrant. The solutions with initial condition $`x_2=\frac{2}{3}`$ are far away from the elliptic fixed points and perform large delocalised oscillations on the sphere (27). A projection of one such solution is shown in Fig. 1 for $`r=0.52`$. As $`r`$ is decreased a second branch touches the constraint at C Fig. 2.

This occurs when the second factor in (40) has a double root at $`r=0.507425`$. Two new fixed points, a saddle and a center, then appear and move apart as $`r`$ is decreased away from $`0.507425`$. The stable and unstable manifolds of the saddle intersect, forming a lopsided figure eight like separatrix with the new elliptic fixed point in the one lobe and the elliptic fixed point at A in the other. When $`r`$ is $`\frac{1}{2}`$ the hyperbola reduces to the lines $`z_2=\frac{2}{3},x_2=\frac{1}{6}`$ and the solutions in $`(x_2,y_2)`$ space are symmetrical about $`x_2=\frac{1}{6}`$. If $`r`$ is further decreased the separatrix approaches our initial condition (22). At $`r=\frac{1}{3}`$ the initial condition actually lies on the separatrix. This occurs when the unstable fixed point lies on the solution curve (29), which amounts to looking for a double root of $`f(x_2)`$. If we let $`u=x_2+\frac{r}{3}`$, then

$$f(u\frac{r}{3})=\left(a(r)\frac{3u^2}{4r}\right)^2+\frac{2u}{3}(2r1)+B(r).$$
(41)
and we require $`f=0`$ and $`f^{}=0`$. $`f^{}=0`$ gives,

$$u^2=\frac{4r}{9}\left(a(r)\sqrt{4a(r)^23B(r)}\right),$$
(42)
which when substituted into $`f=0`$ gives only one real solution at $`r_{}=1/3`$, $`x_2=0`$. Now for $`r>\frac{1}{3}`$ the solutions lie within the separatrix and so as $`r`$ is decreased through $`\frac{1}{3}`$ the oscillations suddenly reduce to half their former size as can be clearly seen in Fig. 1.

In the physical space of the potential then, the condensate remains localized at the bottom of the first well,$`x_2=\frac{2}{3}`$, for $`r=0`$ . As we increase $`r`$ from zero, $`x_2(t)`$ begins to oscillate. In the $`x_2y_2`$ plane, the point is replaced by small oscillations, within the separatrix, which pass through $`x_2=2/3`$. This is referred to as dynamical localization. Even though the coupling between wells is present, the nonlinear interaction between particles prevents the condensate from moving away from its initially localized state. Eventually for the critical value of $`r_=\frac{1}{3}`$ the orbit in the $`x_2y_2`$ plane extends across both half planes for positive and negative $`x_2`$ values and the condensate is no longer localized.

In Fig. 1 we show the phase space orbits of the semiclassical dynamics projected onto the $`x_2y_2`$ plane for various values of the parameter $`r`$. The initial conditions correspond to a condensate localized in well 3. The transition from localized to delocalized motion is seen when the orbit in the phase space extends into the $`x_2>0`$ half of the plane. In Fig. 3 we plot $`x_2(t)`$ as a function of time for the condensate initially localized in well 3 with the same initial conditions as in Fig. 1 for two values of $`r`$, one above and below the critical value $`r_{}`$ for localization. The transition from localized to delocalized oscillations is apparent.

## IV Quantum dynamics

In this section we treat the three coupled BEC model fully quantum mechanically and numerically calculate the time evolution of the particle distribution with the initial condition $`|e_1`$. For fixed total atom number $`\widehat{N}`$, a suitable basis of the system Hilbert space is the number eigenstates $`|n,m,N(n+m)`$ which are simultaneous eigenstates of the generators, $`\widehat{X}_1`$ and $`\widehat{X}_2`$ of the Abelian sub-algebra of SU(3). The unitary evolution operator is given by $`U(t)=\mathrm{exp}\left[iHt\right]`$ where $`H`$ is specified by (11). The unitary evolution matrix is then computed and the initial state $`|\psi (0)=|e_1`$ is then propagated forward in time. At each time step we compute the averages of $`\widehat{X}_1`$ and $`\widehat{X}_2`$. These averages show the particle distribution projected on the y and x axes in Fig. 1 respectively. However because of the initial conditions for the state $`|\psi (0)`$ the average of $`\widehat{X}_1`$ does not change and in fact remains zero. It is not considered further here.

Fig. 4 shows the evolution of a condensate initially localized in state $`|e_1`$ with number of atoms fixed at $`N=50`$. For short times we see the same oscillations as in the corresponding semiclassical case, both below and above the critical value $`r_{}`$. The oscillations of the quantum mean values decay due to the intrinsic quantum fluctuations in the number of atoms in each individual well, while the total particle number in the system remains fixed. The collapses and revivals of the oscillations in the quantum system arise from the discrete nature of the eigenvalue spectrum for finite atom number. Such phenomena were also observed in two coupled condensates .

One of the interesting higher dimensional features of this system is the existence of non-zero circular current states. For $`r=0`$, the system has the three-fold degenerate ground states, $`|e_1`$, $`|e_2`$, and $`|e_3`$, and superpositions of those states create another set of orthonormal ground states given as

$`|g_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}}\left(|e_1+|e_2+|e_3\right)`$ (43)
$`|g_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}}\left(e^{i2\pi /3}|e_1+|e_2+e^{i2\pi /3}|e_3\right)`$ (44)
$`|g_3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}}\left(e^{i2\pi /3}|e_1+e^{i2\pi /3}|e_2+|e_3\right).`$ (45)
These states are invariant under $`2\pi /3`$ rotations due to system symmetries, as discussed in . Taking the state $`|g_2`$, we examine the quantum dynamics of the angular momentum $`\widehat{Y}_s=\widehat{Y}_1+\widehat{Y}_2+\widehat{Y}_3`$. (The state $`|g_3`$ gives the same dynamics, however since these states are anti-symmetric to each other, clockwise motion in $`|g_2`$ corresponds anti-clockwise in $`|g_3`$.) For $`r=0`$, the state $`|g_2`$ is the ground state, and the average angular momentum remains zero, though for non-zero $`r`$, a non-zero average angular momentum appears as seen in Fig. 5. This shows quantum dynamics of the average angular momentum normalized by the total number $`N`$ for two different values of $`r`$. For small $`r`$ the non-zero angular momentum does not develop into any stable circular motion (Fig. 5a), while circular motion can be established for large $`r`$ (Fig. 5b), and becomes increasingly stable for larger $`r`$.

## V Discussion and Conclusion

In this paper we have shown how the generators of SU(3) can be used to describe the quantum and semiclassical dynamics of three symmetrically coupled atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. By taking expectation values of the Heisenberg equations of motion and factoring all higher order moments we can derive the semiclassical mean field equations. The nonlinear terms arising from hard collisions lead to a dynamical bifurcation in the semiclassical dynamics as the tunneling strength is increased, reflecting a transition from localized dynamics to tunneling currents. The $`r`$ dependence of the system is much more complicated than that found for two coupled BECs. The $`r`$ dependence of the stationary solutions in this paper constitutes only a small part of the total complexity of this system and only some of the higher dimensional effects. Our quantum treatment verified the dynamical transition found in the semiclassical analysis. This three coupled BEC model is the simplest model to have non-zero circular current states, and we have shown non-zero circular motion can appear given appropriate initial conditions.

The analysis of this paper focused on comparing the semiclassical dynamics with the evolution of quantum mean values. This restricted analysis naturally suggests further examination of the dynamics of full quantum states. However in order to examine full quantum states, it is necessary to use more powerful group theoretic tools and this will be the subject of a future paper.

###### Acknowledgements.

KN would like to thank Australian International Education Foundation (AIEF) for financial support. WJM acknowledges the support of the Australian Research Council.


text:
# Microlensing of Quasars

## 1 What is Microlensing of Quasars?

### 1.1 Mass, length and time scales

The lensing effects on quasars by compact objects in the mass range $`10^6m/M_{}10^3`$ is usually called “quasar microlensing”. The microlenses can be ordinary stars, brown dwarfs, planets, black holes, molecular clouds, globular clusters or other compact mass concentrations (as long as their physical size is smaller than their Einstein radius). In most practical cases, the microlenses are part of a galaxy which acts as the main (macro-)lens. However, microlenses could also be located in, say, clusters of galaxies or they could even be imagined “free floating” and filling intergalactic space.

The relevant length scale for microlensing (in the quasar plane) is the Einstein radius of the lens:

$$r_E=\sqrt{\frac{4GM}{c^2}\frac{D_SD_{LS}}{D_L}}4\times 10^{16}\sqrt{M/M_{}}\mathrm{cm},$$

where “typical” lens and source redshifts of $`z_L0.5`$ and $`z_S2.0`$ are assumed for the numerical value on the right hand side ($`G`$ and $`c`$ are the gravitational constant and the velocity of light, respectively; $`M`$ is the mass of the lens, $`D_L`$, $`D_S`$, and $`D_{LS}`$ are the angular diameter distances between observer – lens, observer – source, and lens – source, respectively). Quasar microlensing turns out to be an interesting phenomenon, because (at least) the size of the continuum emitting region of quasars is comparable to or smaller than the Einstein radius of stellar mass objects.

This length scale translates into an angular scale of

$$\theta _E=r_E/D_S10^6\sqrt{M/M_{}}\mathrm{arcsec}.$$

It is obvious that image splittings on such angular scales cannot be observed directly. What makes microlensing observable anyway is the fact that observer, lens(es) and source move relative to each other. Due to this relative motion, the micro-image configuration changes with time, and so does the total magnification, i.e. the sum of the magnifications of all the micro-images. This change in magnification over time can be measured: microlensing is a “dynamical” phenomenon.

There are two time scales involved: the standard lensing time scale $`t_E`$ is the time it takes the source to cross the Einstein radius of the lens, i.e.

$$t_E=r_E/v_{,\mathrm{eff}}15\sqrt{M/M_{}}v_{600}^1\mathrm{years},$$

where the same assumptions are made as above, and the effective relative transverse velocity $`v_{,\mathrm{eff}}`$ is parametrized in units of 600 km/sec: $`v_{600}`$. This time scale $`t_E`$ results in discouragingly large values. However, in practice we can expect fluctations on much shorter time intervals. The reason is that the sharp caustic lines separate regions of low and high magnification. Hence, if a source crosses such a caustic line, we can observe a large change in magnification during the time $`t_{cross}`$ it takes the source to cross its own diameter $`R_{source}`$:

$$t_{cross}=R_{source}/v_{,\mathrm{eff}}4R_{15}v_{600}^1\mathrm{months}.$$

Here the quasar size $`R_{15}`$ is parametrized in units of $`10^{15}`$cm.

### 1.2 Early Promises of Quasar Microlensing

The early papers exploring microlensing made four predictions concerning the potential scientific results. Microlensing should help us to determine: 1) the existence and effects of compact objects between the observer and the source, 2) the size of quasars, 3) the two-dimensional brightness profile of quasars, 4) the mass (and mass distribution) of lensing objects. In Section 3 the observational results to date will be discussed in some detail. It can be stated here that 1) has been achieved. Some limits on the size of quasars have been obtained, so 2) is partly fulfilled. We are still (far) away from solving promise 3), and concerning point 4) it is fair to say that the observational results are consistent with certain (conservative) mass ranges.

### 1.3 Quasar Microlensing versus “Local Group” Microlensing

In most cases of quasar microlensing, the surface mass density (or optical depth) is of order unity. In contrast to that, the “local group” microlensing deals with very low optical depths, where the action is due to single lenses or physical binaries. Since there are interesting similarities as well differences between these two kinds of microlensing, in Table 1 a few quantities relevant to microlensing are compared to each other for the two regimes.

## 2 Theoretical Work on Quasar Microlensing

For a multiply imaged quasar, the surface mass density (or “optical depth”) at the position of an image is of order unity. If this matter is made of compact objects in the range described above, microlensing is expected to be going on basically “all the time”, due to the relative motion of source, lens(es) and observer. In addition, this means that the lens action is due to a coherent effect of many microlenses, because the action of two or more point lenses whose projected distances are of order their Einstein radii combines in a very non-linear way (cf. Wambsganss 1998).

The lens action of more than two point lenses cannot be easily treated analytically any more. Hence numerical techniques were developed in order to simulate the gravitational lens effect of many compact objects. Paczyński (1986) had used a method to look for the extrema in the time delay surface. Kayser, Refsdal, Stabell (1986), Schneider & Weiss (1987) and Wambsganss (1990) had developed and applied an inverse ray-shooting technique that produced a two-dimensional magnification distribution in the source plane. An alternative technique was developed by Witt (1993) and Lewis et al. (1993); they solved the lens equation along a linear source track. All the recent theoretical work on microlensing is based on either of these techniques.

Recently, Fluke & Webster (1999) explored analytically caustic crossing events for a quasar. Lewis et al. (1998) showed that spectroscopic monitoring of multiple quasars can be used to probe the broad line regions. Wyithe et al. (2000a, 2000b) investigated and found limits on the quasar size and on the mass function in Q2237+0305.

Agol & Krolik (1999) and Mineshige & Yonehara (1999) developed techniques to recover the one-dimensional brightness profile of a quasar, based on the earlier work by Grieger et al. (1988, 1991). Agol & Krolik showed that frequent monitoring of a caustic crossing event in many wave bands (they used of order 40 simulated data points in eleven filters over the whole electromagnetic range), one can recover a map of the frequency-dependent brightness distribution of a quasar. Yonehara (1999) in a similar approach explored the effect of microlensing on two different accretion disk models. In another paper, Yonehara et al. (1998) showed that monitoring a microlensing event in the X-ray regime can reveal structure of the quasar accretion disk as small as AU-size.

## 3 Observational Evidence for Quasar Microlensing

Fluctuations in the brightness of a quasar can have two causes: they can be intrinsic to the quasar, or they can be microlens-induced. For a single quasar image, the difference is hard to tell. However, once there are two or more gravitationally lensed (macro-)images of a quasar, we have a relatively good handle to distinguish the two possible causes of variability: any fluctuations due to intrinsic variability of the quasar show up in all the quasar images, after a certain time delay. (This argument could even be turned around: the measured time delays in multiple quasars are the ultimate proof of the intrinsic variability of quasars.) So once a time delay is measured in a multiply-imaged quasar system, one can shift the lightcurves of the different quasar images relative to each other by the time delay, correct for the different (macro-)magnification, and subtract them from each other. All remaining incoherent fluctuations in the “difference lightcurve” can be contributed to microlensing. In a few quadruple lens systems we can detect microlensing even without measuring the time delay: in some cases the image arrangement is so symmetrical around the lens that any possible lens model predicts very short time delays (of order days or shorter), so that fluctuations in individual images that last longer than a day or so and are not followed by corresponding fluctuations in the other images, can be safely attributed to microlensing. This is in fact the case for the quadruple system Q2237+0305.

### 3.1 The Einstein Cross: Quadruple Quasar Q2237+0305

In 1989 the first evidence for quasar microlensing was found by Irwin et al. (1989) in the quadruple quasar Q2237+0305: one of the components showed fluctuations. In the mean time, Q2237+0305 has been monitored by many groups (Corrigan et al. 1991; Østensen et al. 1996; Lewis et al. 1998). The most recent (and most exciting) results (Wozniak et al. 2000) show that all four images vary dramatically, going up and down like a rollercoaster in the last three years: $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_A`$ 0.6 mag, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_B`$ 0.4 mag, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_C`$ 1.3 mag (and rising?), $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_D`$ 0.6 mag.

### 3.2 The Double Quasar Q0957+561

The microlensing results for the double quasar Q0957+561 are not as exciting. In the first few years there appears to be an almost linear change in the (time-shifted) brightness ratio between the two images ($`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{AB}0.25`$ mag over 5 years). But since about 1991, this ratio stayed more or less “constant” within about 0.05 mag, so not much microlensing was going on in this system recently (Schild 1996; Pelt et al. 1998; Schmidt & Wambsganss 1998). The possibility for some small amplitude rapid microlensing (cf. Colley & Schild 2000) cannot be excluded; however, one needs a very well determined time delay and very accurate photometry, in order to confirm it.

With numerical simulations and limits obtained from data of three years of Apache Point monitoring data of Q0957+561, and based on the Schmidt & Wambsganss (1998) analysis, Wambsganss et al. (2000) extend the limits on the masses of “Machos” in the (halo of the) lensing galaxy in 0957+561: the small “difference” between the time-shifted and magnitude-corrected lightcurves of images A and B excludes a halo of the lensing galaxy made of compact objects with masses of $`10^7M_{}10^2M_{}`$. Similar results were found by Refsdal et al. (2000) based on an independent data set.

### 3.3 Other multiple quasars/radio microlensing?

A number of other multiple quasar systems are being monitored more or less regularly. For some of them microlensing has been suggested (e.g. H1413+117, Østensen et al. 1997; or B0218+357, Jackson et al. 2000). In particular the possiblity for “radio”-microlensing appears very interesting (B1600+434, Koopmans & de Bruyn 2000), because this is unexpected, due to the presumably larger source size of the radio emission region. The possibility of relativistic motion of radio jets may make up for this “disadvantage”.

## 4 Unconventional Quasar Microlensing

### 4.1 Microlensing in individual quasars?

There were a number of papers interpreting the variability of individual quasars as microlensing (e.g., Hawkins & Taylor 1997, Hawkins 1998). Although this is an exciting possibility and it could help us detect a population of cosmologically distributed lenses, it is not entirely clear at this point whether the observed fluctuations can be really attributed to microlensing. After all, quasars are intrinsically variable, and the expected microlensing in single quasars must be smaller than in multiply imaged ones, due to the lower surface mass density. More studies are necessary to clarify this issue.

### 4.2 “Astrometric Microlensing”: Centroid shifts

An interesting aspect of microlensing was explored by Lewis & Ibata (1998). They looked at centroid shifts of quasar images due to microlensing. At each caustic crossing, a new very bright image pair emerges or disappears, giving rise to sudden changes in the “center of light” positions. The amplitude could be of order 100 microarcseconds or larger, which should be observable with the SIM satellite (Space Interferometry Mission), to be launched in June 2006.

## 5 Quasar Microlensing: Now and Forever?

Monitoring observations of various multiple quasar systems in the last decade have clearly established that the phenomenon of quasar microlensing exists. There are uncorrelated variations in multiple quasar systems with amplitudes of more than a magnitude and time scales of weeks to months to years. However, in order to get closer to a really quantitative understanding, much better monitoring programs need to be performed.

On the theoretical side, there are two important questions: what do the lightcurves tell us about the lensing objects, and what can we learn about the size and structure of the quasar. As response to the first question, numerical simulations are able to give a qualitative understanding of the measured lightcurves (detections and non-detections), in general consistent with “conservative” assumptions about the object masses and velocities. But due to the large number of parameters (quasar size, masses of lensing objects, transverse velocity) and due to the large variety of lightcurve shapes, no satisfactory quantitative explanation or even prediction could be achieved. So far mostly “limits” on certain parameters have been obtained. The prospects of getting much better lightcurves of multiple quasars, as shown by the OGLE collaboration, should be motivation enough to explore this direction in much more quantitative detail.

The question of the structure of quasars deserves more attention. Here gravitational lensing is in the unique situation to be able to explore an astrophysical field that is unattainable by any other means. Hence more effort should be put into attacking this problem. This involves much more ambitious observing programs, with the goal to monitor caustic crossing events in many filters over the whole electromagnetic spectrum, and to further develop numerical techniques to obtain useful values for quasar sizes and luminosity profiles from unevenly sampled data in (not enough) different filters.

## References


text:
# CENTER VORTICES IN CONTINUUM YANG-MILLS THEORY11footnote 1Invited talk presented by H. Reinhardt at the International Conference on “Confinement and the Structure of Hadrons” in Vienna, 3.-8.7.00.

## 1 Introduction

At present there are two popular confinement mechanisms: the dual Meissner effect, which is based on a condensation of magnetic monopoles in the QCD vacuum, and the vortex condensation picture. Both pictures were proposed a long time ago, but only in recent years mounting evidence for the realization of these pictures has been accumulated in lattice calculations. Both pictures show up in specific partial gauge fixings.

The vortex picture of confinement, which received rather little attention after some early efforts following its inception, has recently received strong support from lattice calculations performed in the so-called maximal center gauge, where one fixes only the coset $`G/Z`$, but leaves the center $`Z`$ of the gauge group $`G`$ unfixed . Subsequent center projection, which consists of replacing each link by its closest center element, allows the identification of the center vortex content of the gauge fields. It is found that the vortex content is a physical property of the gauge ensemble  and produces virtually the full Yang-Mills string tension . Conversely the string tension disappears in the absence of center vortices. This property of center dominance persists at finite temperature  and the deconfinement phase transition can be understood in a 3-dimensional slice at a fixed spatial coordinate as a transition from a percolating vortex phase to a phase in which vortices cease to percolate . The vortices have also been shown to condense in the confinement phase . Furthermore, in a gauge field ensemble devoid of center vortices, chiral symmetry breaking disappears and all field configurations belong to the topologically trivial sector . In fact, the magnetic degrees of freedom causing confinement, monopoles and vortices, can be connected with the topological properties commonly thought to be carried by instantons.

In this lecture, I will discuss center vortices from the point of view of continuum Yang-Mills theory and study their topological properties. We will find that center vortices with non-vanishing Pontryagin index carry magnetic monopole loops. The talk is largely based on ref. .

## 2 Center vortices in continuum Yang-Mills theory

As a warming-up exercise I review how center vortices are identified in lattice gauge theory by center projection after implementing the maximal center gauge.

The lattice gauge theory is defined in terms of link variables $`U_\mu (x)G`$. In the maximal center gauge the gauge freedom of these link variables is exploited to bring the links $`U_\mu (x)G`$ as close as possible to a center element of the gauge group,

$$\underset{x,\nu }{}\left(trU_\mu (x)\right)^2max.$$
(1)
For simplicity let us consider the gauge group $`SU(2)`$. The center is given by $`Z(2)=\{1,1\}`$. The condition (1) is insensitive to a change of the sign of the link variable $`U_\mu (U_\mu )`$, which just reflects the residual $`Z(2)`$ symmetry. Once the maximal center gauge is implemented, center projection implies to put by hand $`U_\mu (x)sign\left(trU_\mu (x)\right)`$. After center projection, all links become center elements, that is for $`SU(2)`$, $`U_\mu (x)=\pm 1`$ . As a result of the center projection $`D1`$ dimensional domains (hypersurfaces) $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ of links equal to a non-trivial center element arise in a background of links given by $`U_\mu (x)=1`$, see fig. 1.

The boundaries of these hypersurfaces are given by closed $`D2`$ dimensional surfaces $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, which live on the dual lattice and define an ideal center vortex. When the boundary $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is non-trivially linked to a Wilson loop, the latter receives the corresponding non-trivial center element $`Z=1`$. This can be also seen in the following way. As one travels along the loop, accumulating phases from different links making up the path, the Wilson loop stays either constant or picks up a phase corresponding to a non-trivial element of the center of the gauge group on a length of a lattice spacing. This latter change happens whenever the Wilson loops intersect the $`D1`$ dimensional hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ describing an ideal center vortex configuration $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$.

The concept of introducing center vortices by center projection can be straightforwardly extended to higher gauge groups $`SU(N>2)`$, for which the center elements are given by the N’th roots of unity $`Z(k)=e^{i\frac{2\pi }{N}k},k=0,1,\mathrm{},N1`$. Vortices are still given by the boundaries of $`D1`$ domains of links equal to a definite non-trivial center element $`Z(k)`$. Since for $`N>2`$ multiplication of non-trivial center elements can yield another non-trivial center element the possibility of center vortex fusion and fission exists. For example, for $`SU(3)`$ the center consists of the set of elements $`\left\{z=e^{i\frac{2}{3}\pi },z^2=e^{i\frac{4}{3}\pi }=e^{i\frac{2}{3}\pi },z^3=1\right\}`$ and two vortices with $`z(k=1)=e^{\frac{2i}{3}\pi }`$ can fuse to a vortex with $`z(k=2)=z(k=1)^2`$.

Assume now, we perform an “inverse blocking”, successively replacing coarser by finer lattices. As the lattice spacing is taken to zero, these $`D1`$ dimensional hypersurfaces $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ become infinitely thin. Therefore, the continuum analogue of ideal center vortices consists in specifying $`D1`$ dimensional hypersurfaces, which when intersected by a Wilson loop contribute a center element to the latter. Hence, in the continuum an explicit gauge field representation of an ideal center vortex configuration in $`D`$ space-time dimensions is given by

$$𝒜_\mu (\mathrm{\Sigma },x)=E\underset{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{}d^{D1}\stackrel{~}{\sigma }_\mu \delta ^D\left(x\overline{x}(\sigma )\right),$$
(2)
where $`\overline{x}_\mu (\sigma )=\overline{x}_\mu (\sigma _1,\mathrm{}\sigma _{D1})`$ denotes a parametrization of the $`D1`$ dimensional hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`d^{D1}\stackrel{~}{\sigma }_\mu `$ is the dual of the $`D1`$ dimensional volume element. Furthermore $`E`$ denotes a co-weight vector, which lives in the Cartan subalgebra $`E=E_{a_0}T_{a_0}`$ and is defined by

$$E^{E(k)}=Z(k)Z(N),k=1,\mathrm{},N1$$
(3)
where the $`Z(k)`$ denote the center elements of the gauge group $`SU(N)`$ given by the N’th roots of unity. (Thick analogs of such configurations have been considered in ref. .)

Calculating the Wilson loop for the gauge field (2) one obtains

$$e^{\underset{C}{}𝒜(\mathrm{\Sigma })}=e^{EI(C,\mathrm{\Sigma })}=Z^{I(C,\mathrm{\Sigma })},$$
(4)
where

$$I(C,\mathrm{\Sigma })=\underset{C}{}𝑑x_\mu \underset{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{}d^{D1}\stackrel{~}{\sigma }_\mu \delta ^D\left(x\overline{x}(\sigma )\right)$$
(5)
denotes the intersection number between the loop $`C`$ and the hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. To obtain the last relation, we have used eq. (3). Eq. (4) can be used as gauge invariant definition of center vortices. In the following we will refer to the gauge field defined in eq. (2) as ideal center vortex. One should emphasize, that the precise position of the open hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is irrelevant for the value of the Wilson loop. This is because the intersection number $`I(C,\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ (5) equals the linking number $`L(C,\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ between the loop $`C`$ and the boundary $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, which represents the position of the magnetic flux of the vortex. In fact, the open hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ can be deformed arbitrarily by (singular) gauge transformations keeping, however, its boundary $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ fixed.

Whether the flux of a center vortex is electric or magnetic depends on the position of the $`D2`$ dimensional vortex surfaces $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ in $`D`$-dimensional space. For example in $`D=4`$ the center vortex defined by the boundary of a purely spatial 3-dimensional volume $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ carries only electric flux, which is directed normal to vortex surface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. On the other hand a vortex $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ defined by a hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ evolving in time represents at fixed time, a closed loop and carries magnetic flux, which is tangential to vortex loop, see fig. 2.

Consider the gauge transformation $`V(\mathrm{\Sigma },x)=exp\left(E\mathrm{\Omega }(\mathrm{\Sigma },x)\right)`$ defined by the solid angle $`\mathrm{\Omega }(\mathrm{\Sigma },x)`$ subtended by the $`D1`$ dimensional hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ from the point $`x`$. When $`x`$ crosses the hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, the solid angle $`\mathrm{\Omega }(\mathrm{\Sigma },x)`$ changes by an integer and accordingly the gauge function $`V`$ changes by a center element $`VZV`$, but $`V`$ is smooth otherwise. In particular, one should note that the derivative of $`V`$ along a path normal to $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is the same before and after the discontinuity at $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. Indeed , one can show that

$$V(\mathrm{\Sigma })V^{}(\mathrm{\Sigma })=𝒜(\mathrm{\Sigma })a(\mathrm{\Sigma }),$$
(6)
where

$$a_\mu (\mathrm{\Sigma },x)=E\underset{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{}d^{D2}\stackrel{~}{\sigma }_{\mu \nu }_\nu ^{\overline{x}}D\left(x\overline{x}(\sigma )\right)$$
(7)
represents a vortex which carries the same flux (located on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$) as $`𝒜(\mathrm{\Sigma },x)`$. Indeed for any closed loop $`C`$ one has

$$\underset{C}{}𝑑x_\mu a_\mu (\mathrm{\Sigma },x)=EL(C,\mathrm{\Sigma })$$
(8)
with $`L(C,\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ being the linking number between the loop $`C`$ and the boundary $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. Any Wilson loop is the same for the ideal center vortex $`𝒜(\mathrm{\Sigma },x)`$ and $`a(\mathrm{\Sigma },x)`$, which is referred to in the following as thin center vortex. One can also show that the thin center vortex $`a(\mathrm{\Sigma },x)`$ is the transversal part of the ideal center vortex

$$a_\mu (\mathrm{\Sigma },x)=P_{\mu \nu }𝒜_\nu (\mathrm{\Sigma },x),P_{\mu \nu }=\delta _{\mu \nu }\frac{_\mu _\nu }{^2}.$$
(9)
Obviously, the thin center vortex eq. (7) manifestly depends only on the boundary $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, where the flux associated with the vortex is located.

As an illustration consider the magnetic flux of an infinitely thin and long solenoid, which represents a vortex if its magnetic flux is appropriately quantized. If we put the vortex on the $`z`$-axis the corresponding thin vortex gauge potential is given by

$$a(\mathrm{\Sigma },x)=E\frac{1}{\rho }\stackrel{}{e}_\phi ,\rho =\sqrt{x^2+y^2},\phi =\mathrm{arctan}\frac{y}{x}.$$
(10)
A related ideal vortex gauge potential is, for example, given by

$$𝒜(\mathrm{\Sigma },x)=E\stackrel{}{e}_y\delta (y)\mathrm{\Theta }(x),$$
(11)
which has support only on the positive $`x`$-axis, but yields the same value for Wilson loops as the thin vortex.

We are now in a position to present the continuum analogue of the maximal center gauge. If one represents the link variables $`U_\mu (x)`$ in the standard fashion by a gauge potential $`U_\mu (x)=\mathrm{exp}\left(aA_\mu (x)\right)`$ and takes the naive continuum limit $`a0`$ the maximal center gauge condition reduces to $`trA^2\mathrm{min}`$, which results in the Lorentz gauge $`A=0.`$ This result is, however, wrong, since it relies on the expansion of the link variables in powers of the lattice spacing around unity $`U_\mu (x)=1aA_\mu (x)+\mathrm{}`$, which is not justified if the link is close to a non-trivial center element (for example, $`U_\mu =1`$ for $`SU(2)`$). Even if the lattice spacing $`a`$ is made smaller and smaller, during the process of gauge fixing, some of the links, initially close to unity, are rotated to group elements close to a non-trivial center element, for which the expansion around $`U_\mu =1`$ fails.

A careful analysis  shows that the continuum analogue of the maximal center gauge condition is given by

$$\underset{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{\mathrm{min}}\underset{g}{\mathrm{min}}tr\left(A^ga(\mathrm{\Sigma })\right)^2,$$
(12)
where the minimization has to be performed with respect to all continuum gauge transformations $`g`$ and to all vortex sheets $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. As the result of this double minimization procedure, a given gauge potential $`A`$ is brought as close as possible to a thin center vortex $`a(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$. In this sense the maximal center gauge in the continuum theory represents a “maximal vortex gauge”.

For a fixed vortex sheet $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ minimization with respect to the gauge group yields the condition

$$[+a(\mathrm{\Sigma }),A]=0,$$
(13)
which is the background gauge fixing with the thin vortex $`a(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ figuring as background field.

## 3 Topology of center vortices

There is an essential difference between the center vortices on the lattice and in the continuum theory. After center projection on the lattice, the direction of the magnetic flux of the vortex is lost, while in the continuum theory the center vortices are given by oriented (patches of) surfaces, where the flux direction is defined by the orientation of the surfaces. The orientation of the vortices, however, is crucial for their topological properties as will be shown later.

A closed vortex surface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ need not be globally oriented but can consist of several oriented patches $`S_k`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=\underset{k}{}S_k`$ . Furthermore, these patches will in general carry flux corresponding to different non-trivial center elements, that is to different co-weight vectors $`E`$. We will now see that the boundaries between different oriented vortex patches host magnetic monopole loop currents. Let us first illustrate this in $`D=3`$.

Consider an ordinary magnetic monopole and an anti-monopole, which are connected by a Dirac string, see fig. 3.

Since the Dirac string is a gauge artifact, it has to be invisible for any Wilson loop, i.e. contribute unity to the Wilson loop, just like a vanishing gauge potential. This must hold, in particular, for loops non-trivially linked to the Dirac string, which requires the magnetic flux contained in the Dirac string to be quantized in multiples of $`2\pi i`$

$$\varphi =\underset{S}{}𝑑\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{B}=\underset{S=C}{}𝑑\stackrel{}{x}\stackrel{}{A}=2\pi i,$$
(14)
such that $`e^\varphi =1`$ . This is the usual Dirac quantization condition. In fact the magnetic flux through a sphere $`S_2`$ around the monopole position (excluding from $`S_2`$ the piercing point of the Dirac string) is the same as the flux of the Dirac string flowing into the monopole. Hence quantization of the flux of the Dirac string implies the quantization of the magnetic charge of the monopole.

Assume now that the magnetic flux of the Dirac string is split into two equal portions, see fig. 3 . The half Dirac string carries the flux $`\varphi /2=\pi `$ and hence contributes $`e^{i\pi }=(1)`$ to a Wilson loop non-trivially linked to it. This is the “largest” contribution a field configuration can contribute to the Wilson loop (in the sense that $`1`$ is the phase which has the largest distance from the trivial phase $`1`$). The half Dirac string, obviously, represents a center vortex. By splitting the Dirac string into two strings of half flux, we have created a center vortex. This center vortex consists of two strings, which are connected by magnetic monopoles. The crucial point is, that at the monopole position, the direction of the magnetic flux (that is the orientation of the vortex) is reversed. This feature will survive in $`D=4`$, where vortices are closed sheets and magnetic monopoles move on closed loops.

The reversal of the orientation on the vortex sheet by magnetic monopole loops can also be seen in an alternative way: The vortex line (sheet) with reversed orientations can be also interpreted as an oriented vortex covered with an oppositely directed (open) Dirac string (sheet). This is because the Dirac string (sheet) carries twice the flux of a center vortex. The boundary of the open Dirac string world sheet represents the word line of a Dirac magnetic monopole (that is having a magnetic charge in accord with Dirac’s quantization condition).

In this way non-oriented closed magnetic vortex sheets consist of oriented surface pieces joined by magnetic monopole current loops. Such a non-oriented closed magnetic sheet defines a center vortex, which still gives the same contribution to a Wilson loop as the corresponding oriented vortex (in the absence of a monopole loop). Thus for the confinement properties measured by the Wilson loop, the orientation of the vortex sheet and hence the magnetic monopole currents are irrelevant. The Abelian magnetic monopole currents are, however, necessary in order to generate a non-vanishing Pontryagin index for vortex configurations as will be shown below.

The gauge fields can be topologically classified by the Pontryagin index (second Chern class)

$`\nu [A]={\displaystyle \frac{1}{16\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle d^4xtrF_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{F}_{\mu \nu }}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle d^4xE_i^aB_i^a},`$ (15)
where $`E_i^a=F_{i0}^a`$ and $`B_i^a=\frac{1}{2}ϵ_{ijk}F_{jk}^a`$ are the corresponding colour electric and magnetic fields. From the above relation it is clear that topologically non-trivial center vortices with $`\nu 0`$ have to carry both electric and magnetic flux. Furthermore, it is also easy to see that magnetic monopole currents are absolutely necessary on the Abelian center vortex sheet in order to generate a non-vanishing Pontryagin index. In fact, using the definition of the vortex field strength in terms of the ideal center vortex gauge potential $`𝒜_\mu (\mathrm{\Sigma },x)`$, $`_{\mu \nu }(\mathrm{\Sigma })=_\mu 𝒜_\nu (\mathrm{\Sigma })_\nu 𝒜_\mu (\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ and performing a partial integration, one obtains

$$\nu =\frac{1}{8\pi ^2}\underset{M}{}_\mu tr\left(𝒜_\nu \stackrel{~}{}_{\mu \nu }\right)+\frac{1}{8\pi ^2}\underset{M}{}tr\left(𝒜_\nu _\mu \stackrel{~}{}_{\mu \nu }(\mathrm{\Sigma })\right).$$
(16)
Using Gauss’ law in the first term and the definition of the monopole current, $`j_\mu ^m=_\nu \stackrel{~}{}_{\mu \nu }`$, in the second one, we obtain

$`\nu `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{}{}}𝑑\sigma _\mu tr\left(𝒜_\nu _{\mu \nu }\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{}{}}tr\left(𝒜_\nu j_\nu ^m\right)`$ (17)
$``$ $`\nu ^{(1)}+\nu ^{(2)}.`$
The surface term $`\nu ^{(1)}`$ vanishes unless the integrand contains singularities, which give rise to internal surfaces wrapping the singularities. Such internal surfaces precisely arise in the presence of magnetic charges, which may be magnetic monopoles or more extended magnetic charge distributions such as line or surface charges. The second term can be cast into the form $`\nu ^{(2)}=\frac{1}{4}L(\mathrm{\Sigma },C)`$ where $`L(\mathrm{\Sigma },C)`$ is the linking number between the vortex surface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and the monopole loop $`C`$. This shows that a non-zero Pontryagin index indeed requires the existence of magnetic charges in the Abelian projected configurations, to which the center vortices introduced above belong.

An alternative expression for the Pontryagin index of center vortex sheets, which does not make explicit reference to magnetic monopoles, can be obtained by inserting the explicit expression for the field strength of a center vortex, $`_{\mu \nu }(S)=E\underset{S}{}d^2\sigma _{\mu \nu }\delta ^4\left(x\overline{x}(\sigma )\right)`$ into eq. (15). Using (for $`SU(2)`$) $`tr(EE)=2\pi ^2`$, one finds immediately

$$\nu \left[𝒜(\mathrm{\Sigma })\right]=\nu \left[a(\mathrm{\Sigma })\right]=\frac{1}{4}I(\mathrm{\Sigma },\mathrm{\Sigma }),$$
(18)
where

$$I(S_1,S_2)=\frac{1}{2}\underset{S_1}{}d^2\stackrel{~}{\sigma }_{\mu \nu }d^2\sigma _{\mu \nu }^{}\delta ^4\left(\overline{x}(\sigma )\overline{x}(\sigma ^{})\right)$$
(19)
is the oriented intersection number between two 2-dimensional (in general open) surfaces $`S_1,S_2`$ in $`R^4`$. From its definition, it follows that (in $`D=4`$) $`I(S_2,S_1)=I(S_1,S_2)`$. Generically two 2-dimensional surfaces intersect in $`R^4`$ at isolated points. Obviously the (self-)intersection number $`I(\mathrm{\Sigma },\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ receives contributions only from those points $`\overline{x}(\sigma )=\overline{x}(\sigma ^{})`$ where the intersecting surface patches give rise to four linearly independent tangent vectors (otherwise $`d\sigma _{\mu \nu }d\stackrel{~}{\sigma }_{\mu \nu }=0`$). Such points will be referred to as singular points. One can distinguish two principally different types of singular points :

1. transversal intersection points, for which $`x(\sigma )=\overline{x}(\sigma ^{})\mathrm{and}\sigma \sigma ^{}`$
2. twisting (or writhing) points $`\overline{x}(\sigma )=\overline{x}(\sigma ^{})\mathrm{and}\sigma =\sigma ^{}`$

Examples of the singular points of a lattice realization of a vortex sheet are given in figure 4 . The surface in figure 4 is closed, orientable, has one genuine self-intersection point (precisely at the center of the configuration). Additionally, it has twisting (or writhing) points, at $`n_0=1`$ and $`n_0=3`$ in Fig. 4, as well as at $`n_0=2`$ at the front and back edges of the configuration (from the viewer’s perspective).

Transversal intersection points yield a contribution $`\pm 1`$ to the (oriented) intersection number, where the sign depends on the relative orientation of the two intersecting pieces<sup>4</sup><sup>4</sup>4Later on, it will be seen that each transversal intersection point actually contributes twice to the self-intersection number, so that these points contribute $`\pm 2`$ to $`I(\mathrm{\Sigma },\mathrm{\Sigma })`$.. (This is easily seen by considering the intersection of two orthogonal intersecting planes.) Twisting (or writhing) points yield positive or negative contributions of modulus smaller than one to the self-intersection number.

It is well-known in topology that the self-intersection number of closed 2-dimensional surfaces in $`R^4`$ is a multiple of 4, so that the Pontryagin index (18) is indeed integer valued. It is also known that the self-intersection number of closed globally oriented 2-dimensional surfaces in $`R^4`$ vanishes. This implies that the Pontryagin index vanishes for globally oriented vortex surfaces. Consequently non-orientedness of the vortex surfaces is crucial for generating a non-vanishing Pontryagin index. To illustrate this, consider the following 3-dimensional slice of two intersecting $`SU(2)`$ vortex surfaces in $`D=4`$ dimensions, cf. fig. 2. Let the one vortex be located entirely within the spatial 3-dimensional slice of our 4-dimensional space-time manifold. It is therefore visible as a closed surface $`S`$, namely the sphere in fig. 2. On the other hand, let the other vortex extend into the time dimension not displayed in fig. 2. At a fixed time, it is then visible in 3-space as a closed loop $`C`$. Let $`C`$ intersect $`S`$ at two points as shown in fig. 2. If $`S`$ and $`C`$ are both globally oriented as in fig. 2 a, the (oriented) intersection number (in $`D=3`$) vanishes, since the two intersection points occur with opposite relative orientation between the intersecting manifolds. Thus, a non-zero intersection number requires at least one of the two intersecting closed manifolds to be not globally oriented. Globally non-oriented surfaces consist nevertheless of oriented patches. Assume for example the sphere $`S`$ in fig. 2 c to consist of two hemispheres of opposite orientation connected by a monopole loop. In this case the contributions to the oriented intersection number from the two intersection points no longer cancel but add, giving an intersection number of two.

It should come as no surprise that the magnetic monopoles are required to endow the vortex sheets with a non-trivial topological structure. This is because in certain Abelian gauges, the Pontryagin index can be expressed entirely in terms of magnetic charges. Let us consider for example the Polyakov gauge, where one diagonalizes the Polyakov line

$$\mathrm{\Omega }(\stackrel{}{x})=\mathrm{exp}\left(𝑑x_0A_0(x)\right)=V^{}(x)\omega (x)V(x)\omega (x)$$
(20)
by performing the gauge transformation $`AA^V=VaV^{}+VV^{}`$ with the coset matrix $`VSU(2)/U(1)`$. At those isolated points in space $`\stackrel{}{x}_i`$ where the Polyakov line becomes a center element $`\mathrm{\Omega }(\stackrel{}{x}_i)=(1)^{n_i}Z(2)`$, the inhomogeneous part of the gauge transformed field $`VV^{}`$ develops a magnetic monopole, whose charge is topologically quantized and given by the winding number $`m[V]\pi _2\left(SU(2)/U(1)\right)`$ of the mapping $`V(\stackrel{}{x})`$ from $`S_2`$ around the magnetic monopole at $`\stackrel{}{x}_i`$ into the coset $`SU(2)/U(1)S_2`$. The Pontryagin index is then given by the exact relation

$$\nu =\underset{i}{}n_im_i,$$
(21)
where the sum runs over all magnetic monopoles. This relation was first derived in ref.  and was later rederived in .

## 4 Concluding remarks

The topological properties of center vortices discussed in this talk are directly relevant for an understanding of the anomalous generation of the $`\eta ^{}`$ mass within the vortex picture of the QCD vacuum, since this mass is determined by the topological susceptibility through the Witten-Veneziano formula. Furthermore, these topological properties are likely to play a role in the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry, in analogy to the arguments advanced in the framework of instanton models. To explain these phenomena, it is necessary to study the occurence of the various intersection points within the vortex ensemble . Since these intersection points carry non-trivial topological charge, by the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, they should give rise to fermionic zero modes, which within the instanton picture of the QCD vacuum have proven responsible for the spontanous breaking of chiral symmetry. In view of the lattice result, which shows that the quark condensate disappears when the center vortices are removed , it is our strong belief that the vortex picture cannot only give an appealing picture of confinement and the deconfinement phase transition, but at the same time can provide an understanding of spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry and the emergence of the topological susceptibility.

## Acknowledgments

R. Bertle and M. Faber are gratefully acknowledged for providing the MATHEMATICA routine with which the image in Fig. 4 was generated.

## References