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HUTP-01/A010 RUNHETC-2001-07 hep-th/0103011

On Domain Walls of

$`𝒩=1`$ Supersymmetric Yang-Mills in Four Dimensions

Bobby Acharya 1 and Cumrun Vafa2

1 Department of Physics

Rutgers University

Piscataway, NJ 08855-0849

2 Jefferson Physical Laboratory

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

We study the BPS domain walls of supersymmetric Yang-Mills for arbitrary gauge group $`G`$. We describe the degeneracies of domain walls interpolating between arbitrary pairs of vacua. A recently proposed large $`N`$ duality sheds light on various aspects of such domain walls. In particular, for the case of $`G=SU(N)`$ the domain walls correspond to wrapped $`D`$-branes giving rise to a 2+1 dimensional $`U(k)`$ gauge theory on the domain wall with a Chern-Simons term at level $`N`$. This leads to a counting of BPS degeneracies of domain walls in agreement with expected results.

March 2001

1. Introduction

$`𝒩=1`$ Yang-Mills in $`d=4`$ for a gauge group $`G`$ admits $`V=c_2(G)`$ vacua where $`c_2(G)`$ denotes the dual Coxeter number of the group. In particular the $`U(1)`$ R-symmetry is anomalous, having a $`𝐙_{\mathrm{𝟐}𝐕}`$ anomaly free subgroup, which is spontaneously broken to $`𝐙_\mathrm{𝟐}`$ by the gaugino condensate

$$\lambda \lambda =\mathrm{\Lambda }^3\omega $$

where $`\omega ^V=1`$. This raises the possibility of having domain walls. In fact one can consider BPS saturated domain walls since the value of the superpotential in each vacuum is proportional to the gaugino condensate. In particular the BPS tension of a domain wall connecting a pair of vacua which are separated by $`k`$ units in phase of the gaugino condensate is given by

$$T=|\mathrm{\Delta }W|\mathrm{\Lambda }^3|(1\omega ^k)|$$

The basic aim of this paper is to study the existence and degeneracy of domain walls which interpolate between any pair of such vacua, a question which clearly depends on $`k`$ and the group $`G`$.

A related problem is the study of domain walls in $`𝒩=1`$ supersymmetric Wess-Zumino model in 4 dimensions. The Wess-Zumino model with a superpotential $`W`$ has as many vacua as the number of critical points of $`W`$, i.e. solutions to $`dW=0`$ and we can consider domain walls interpolating between these vacua. This is equivalent to counting the kink solutions in its dimensional reduction to 2 dimensions (in which case it is often referred to as the $`𝒩=2`$ Landau-Ginzburg model). In this context, the question of the number of BPS kinks (weighted with suitable signs  ) has been completely solved  and is related to intersection theory in the context of the Picard-Lefshetz theory of singularities.

In fact the two problems are not unrelated: Consider the case of gauge group $`G=SU(N)`$. In this case, as noted in \[2,,3\] the effective superpotential for the gaugino superfield, is identical to that of the supersymmetric sigma model on $`\mathrm{𝐂𝐏}^{N1}`$, in terms of linear sigma model fields . In particular both have $`N`$ vacua. The number of BPS domain walls interpolating between vacua separated by $`k`$ units for the $`\mathrm{𝐂𝐏}^{N1}`$ sigma model is known to be $`N!/k!(Nk)!`$  , and this suggests the same answer for the $`SU(N)`$ case. In fact this can be made even more plausible by noting that the compactification of the $`SU(N)`$ theory on the $`S^1`$ gives rise to a superpotential  which is exactly the same as the mirror description for the $`\mathrm{𝐂𝐏}^{N1}`$ discovered in . Or if we compactify the 4d theory on $`T^2`$ the theory has a branch which corresponds to a sigma model on the moduli space of flat $`SU(N)`$ connections on $`T^2`$, which is $`\mathrm{𝐂𝐏}^{N1}`$ \[8,,9\].

In recent years there has been a fairly subtantial amount of work focussing on BPS domain walls in the $`𝒩`$ $`=1`$ Yang-Mills theory from the viewpoint of low energy effective field theory . A summary of many of the properties of the solutions can be found in . One of the important features of the BPS domain walls is that they behave like $`D`$-branes for the QCD string as can be seen from the $`M`$ theory formulation of $`𝒩=1`$ Yang-Mills \[12,,13\].

As for the degeneracy of the $`SU(N)`$ domain walls between vacua separated by one unit of the gaugino condensate phase, the embedding into $`M`$ theory  resulted in finding a single domain wall  . This appears to be in contradiction with the expected answer of $`N`$, noted above, at least for the domain walls connecting adjacent vacua. We will be able to shed light on this apparent contradiction in this paper.

More recently, certain large $`N`$ dualities for $`𝒩=1`$ Yang-Mills were proposed \[15,,16,,17\]. In particular the duality proposed in  was reformulated in terms of $`M`$ theory on $`G_2`$ holonomy manifolds in \[18,,19\] and explained in terms of a geometric flop in .

We will use these recently discovered dualities to study the $`𝒩=1`$ Yang-Mills domain walls. Our main insight will be to realise that the world-volume theory on the domain walls in these large $`N`$ duals is a particular supersymmetric Chern-Simons-Yang-Mills theory. The enumeration of BPS domain walls is thus reduced to appropriately counting supersymmetric vacua of this theory. We will be able to recover the results anticipated based upon the equivalance with the supersymmetric $`\mathrm{𝐂𝐏}^{N1}`$ sigma model. Moreover we explain the apparent discrepancy with the result based on $`M`$QCD, by noting that the issue involves global boundary conditions on the wall - counting vacua in a toroidally compactified theory is not necessarily the same as counting vacua in Minkowski space.

The organization of this paper is as follows: In section 2 we discuss the prediction of the number of domain walls interpolating between adjacent vacua using the dual $`G_2`$ holonomy geometry, as well as from the Type IIA description involving RR-flux. In section 3 we use the Type IIA superstring description of the domain wall to compute the degeneracies of all the domain walls for arbitrary separation of vacua. In particular we show that the theory on the domain wall interpolating between vacua separated by $`k`$ units, is an $`𝒩=1`$ $`U(k)`$ gauge theory, with level $`N`$ Chern-Simons term, with an extra scalar adjoint field. In section 4 we find the degeneracies of domain walls for arbitrary group $`G`$ by considering the compactification of the theory to 3 and 2 dimensions and using the dual Landau-Ginzburg description. This turns out to provide a very simple general answer for the degeneracies of BPS domain walls for all gauge groups, based on the Dynkin diagram and the Dynkin numbers of the gauge group. We also comment on how these general results might be derived in the context of $`G_2`$ holonomy geometries dual to $`𝒩=1`$ systems.

2. Domain Walls of $`𝒩=1`$ Yang-Mills

In the $`M`$ theory formulation \[18,,19\] of the duality of , one considers a $`G_2`$ holonomy geometry, which is topologically $`(S^3\times 𝐑^\mathrm{𝟒})/𝐙_𝐍`$, where $`𝐙_𝐍`$ acts differently in the IR versus the UV region, in a continuous way . We will be mainly interested in the IR description where $`𝐙_𝐍`$ acts on $`S^3`$ freely and produces a Lens space. From the Type IIA perspective, if we choose the eleventh dimension to be the fiber of the Hopf map $`S^3/𝐙_𝐍`$ $``$ $`S^2`$ this corresponds to an $`S^2`$ geometry with $`N`$ units of RR-flux through it. The domain wall corresponds to an $`M5`$-brane wrapped over $`S^3/𝐙_𝐍`$, which in Type IIA theory is realized by a $`D4`$-brane wrapped over $`S^2`$ (with $`N`$ units of RR flux through it). Each such domain wall shifts the vacuum by one unit, as is evident from the identification of the supersymmetric vacua with the geometry .

Let us consider the theory on a single $`M`$5-brane at low energies. This theory is free and in particular contains a 2-form field, $`b`$. If we wrap the $`M`$5-brane on a manifold $`M`$, then there arises the possibility of turning on a topologically non-trivial, but flat $`b`$-field on $`M`$. Such choices are classified by $`H^2(M,U(1))`$ and these $`b`$-field backgrounds are the analogue of backgrounds with discrete torsion in string theory \[20,,21\]. However $`H^2(S^3/𝐙_𝐍,U(1))`$ is trivial, so we do not have the freedom to turn on any discrete torsion. In other words there is a single domain wall in $`3+1`$ dimensions. Let us now consider compactifying one spatial direction on a circle. In this case we can turn on discrete torsion along the torsion class 2-cocycles formed from the 1-cocycle on the circle and the non-trivial 1-cocycles in $`H^1(S^3/𝐙_𝐍,U(1))`$ since,

$$H^2(S^3/𝐙_𝐍\times S^1)𝐙_𝐍$$

Thus upon going to 2+1 dimensions on a circle, we do get $`N`$ BPS domain walls interpolating between adjacent vacua, as expected from considering the solitons of the $`\mathrm{𝐂𝐏}^{N1}`$ supersymmetric sigma model. If we consider the circle going down to 3 dimensions as the “11”-th direction, then from the perspective of Type IIA theory the domain wall corresponds to a $`D4`$-brane wrapped over $`S^3/𝐙_𝐍`$ and in that case we can turn on any of the $`N`$ inequivalent flat connections on the brane world-volume . These correspond to the $`N`$ choices of discrete torsion in the $`M`$ theory perspective.

2.1. Type IIA perspective in 3+1 dimensions

There is yet another way to understand this domain wall degeneracy, and that is from the perspective of Type IIA theory where instead we now consider the “11-th” direction to be the fibers of the Hopf map $`S^3/𝐙_𝐍S^2`$. The wrapped $`M`$5-brane domain wall goes over to a $`D4`$-brane wrapped around $`S^2`$. The existence of the $`U(1)`$ gauge field on the wrapped $`D`$-brane is related to the fact that the fundamental string can end on the $`D`$-brane and thus provides a source for it. Since the domain wall is a wrapped $`D`$-brane and the QCD string in this context is identified with the fundamental string, this is consistent with the observation , that the QCD string can end on the Yang-Mills domain wall.

On the world-volume of the domain wall we have a $`2+1`$-dimensional $`U(1)`$ gauge theory with $`𝒩`$ $`=`$ $`1`$ supersymmetry, together with a scalar multiplet, giving the normal position of the domain wall. This can be viewed as the multiplet we would have gotten if we did not have any flux through the $`S^2`$, in which case we would have gotten an $`𝒩`$ $`=`$ $`2`$ multiplet in $`2+1`$ dimensions on the domain wall. However the flux on the domain wall breaks this to $`𝒩`$$`=1`$ in the following way: The gauge field picks up a Chern-Simons term of level $`N`$. This follows from the fact that on the $`D4`$-brane world-volume there is the interaction

$$\stackrel{~}{A}FF=\stackrel{~}{F}AdA$$

where $`\stackrel{~}{A}`$ is the bulk RR-gauge potential of Type IIA string theory and $`F`$ denotes the field strength of the $`U(1)`$ gauge field $`A`$ on the $`D4`$-brane. Since $`\stackrel{~}{F}`$ over $`S^2`$ is $`N`$, this gives a Chern-Simons term of level $`N`$ (after one takes into account the correct normalizations in the action). The existence of this interaction is consistent with the fact that without RR-flux, the Type IIA theory has twice the amount of supersymmetry, so the $`D4`$-brane in the theory without flux would have $`𝒩`$ $`=2`$ supersymmetry on its world-volume. Turning on RR-flux breaks the bulk Type IIA supersymmetry by half and that induces the above Chern-Simons interaction on the $`D4`$-brane, which breaks its supersymmetry by half also. Note that if we turn on a field strength $`F`$ on the domain wall, say as a delta function, it serves as a source for the gauge field $`A`$, with $`N`$ units of charge, due to this Chern-Simons term. This charge can be neutralized by $`N`$ fundamental strings ending on the domain wall. This is to be identified with the Baryon vertex on the domain wall, and is consistent with the fact that a $`D2`$-brane wrapped over $`S^2`$ can be viewed as the Baryon vertex (cf. ,  ) of the four dimensional gauge theory, which in turn is equivalent to turning on a delta function flux for $`F`$ on the $`D4`$-brane worldvolume.

The $`U(1)`$ gauge theory on the $`2+1`$ dimensional world-volume of the domain wall is massive, due to this interaction. This mass is identified with the only mass scale in the problem which is the physical scale of $`𝒩=1`$ Yang-Mills. Note that the existence of the CS term and the generation of the mass for the gauge field implies that there are no long range propagating massless modes (other than the normal deformation of the domain wall) on the domain wall.

Even though the gauge theory on the domain wall is massive, the zero modes survive and lead to a topological counting of the number of vacua . This has been studied mostly in compact spaces, in particular when we compactify the theory on the wall from $`2+1`$ to $`0+1`$ on a $`T^2`$ in which case we get $`N`$ vacua, i.e. the number of conformal blocks of RCFT, for the $`U(1)`$ theory at level $`N`$. Note, that this corresponds to the statement that in the four dimensional super Yang-Mills theory compactified on $`T^2`$, there are $`N`$ domain walls between neighbouring vacua.

Even if we consider the theory on $`S^1`$ instead of the torus, the above results suggest that we should still obtain $`N`$ vacua for the $`U(1)`$ Chern-Simons theory at level $`N`$. We also note that since this $`U(1)`$ theory is free, the uncompactified theory has one bosonic zero energy state, consistent with the $`M`$ theory description above.

We have thus considered the number of domain walls between adjacent vacua in supersymmetric $`SU(N)`$ gauge theory from various points of view and also resolved the puzzle of their degeneracies in connection with the $`M`$ theory realization . It is natural to ask what happens when we consider domain walls separating vacua which are not adjacent. It turns out that the last viewpoint, namely that of Type IIA in 3+1 dimensions with $`k`$ D4 branes wrapping the $`S^2`$ is the most fruitful for this question and we consider that next. However, we will make comments about the description involving $`M`$ theory, or Type IIA, on $`G_2`$-holonomy geometries at the end of section 4, after we describe the expected result for domain wall degeneracies for arbitrary gauge groups.

3. Gauge Theory on the Domain Wall

Consider the Type IIA background considered in . The spacetime contains an $`S^2`$ with $`N`$ units of RR-flux through it. Consider $`k`$ D4 branes wrapping this $`S^2`$. These $`k`$ $`D4`$-branes are the domain wall which interpolates between vacuum $`l`$ and $`l+k`$ (mod $`N`$) of the $`𝒩`$ $`=1`$ theory.

The discussion in the previous section easily extends to the case of more than one brane and we obtain a $`U(k)`$ gauge theory on the $`2+1`$ dimensional world-volume of the domain wall with the same matter content as an $`𝒩`$$`=2`$ supersymmetric theory (which has 4 supercharges) but broken to an $`𝒩`$$`=1`$ supersymmetric theory, by a Chern-Simons term for the gauge field at level $`N`$. We can view this as an $`𝒩`$$`=1`$ supersymmetric $`U(k)`$ gauge theory with Chern-Simons coupling of level $`N`$ coupled to a massless scalar multiplet in the adjoint representation. We would like to compute the number of ground states of this theory. To be more preciese we compute the number of ground states of this theory compactified on $`T^2`$, and identify it with the number of BPS domain walls interpolating between vacua which are $`k`$ units apart. To be more precise we will compute the net number of vacua of the theory weighted by $`(1)^F`$, except for the overall $`U(1)`$ factor which gives for every ground state an opposite statistic ground state due to the fermionic zero mode in the matter multiplet. This is because the Witten index of the full $`U(k)`$ theory is zero, since the “central $`U(1)`$-theory” is free. This $`U(1)`$ corresponds to the usual center of mass motion of the domain wall which gives it the correct spacetime supersymmetry multiplet structure. If the index of the full $`U(k)`$ theory were non-zero the domain wall would not be in a supermultiplet. This is also related to computing $`Tr(1)^FF`$  for each kink sector.

In other words we regard the $`𝒩`$$`=1`$ $`U(k)`$ gauge theory coupled to the adjoint scalar, as being a

$$U(k)=\frac{U(1)\times SU(k)}{𝐙_𝐤}$$

gauge theory, and we will be interested in computing the Witten index of this system, modulo the trivial doubling (leading to zero) coming from the fermionic zero mode in the $`U(1)`$ factor.

Thus we have to find the number of ground states of the $`U(1)`$ theory at level $`N`$ times that of the $`𝒩=1`$ $`SU(k)`$ system at level $`N`$ coupled to an adjoint scalar. The number of ground states coming from the $`U(1)`$ system (ignoring the fermion zero mode in the matter adjoint) is $`N`$. For the $`SU(k)`$ system, we have moduli given by the vev of the adjoint scalar $`\varphi `$. If we compactify the theory on a $`T^2`$ we have to integrate over all allowed moduli. For any non-vanishing vev of the adjoint scalar the $`SU(k)`$ gauge symmetry is broken to a factor, which includes at least one $`U(1)`$ given by the direction of the vev in the adjoint of $`SU(k)`$. Thus the corresponding contribution to Witten index vanishes from such points due to the extra fermionic zero mode in the matter system along that $`U(1)`$ direction. Thus the only point in moduli space which can contribute to the index is the origin.

Consider adding a mass term for the $`SU(k)`$ components of $`\varphi `$ (this can be done, for example by making the gauge theory an $`𝒩=2`$ system). This changes the behavior of the system for large vevs of $`\varphi `$ without affecting the theory near the origin of $`\varphi `$. This could have potentially changed the Witten index, because we are changing the behavior of the system at infinity in the field space. However, as we already argued, away from the origin there is no contribution to Witten index, and so with this deformation we would not be modifying the Witten index computation.

Thus we need to compute the Witten index for an $`𝒩=2`$ $`SU(k)`$ gauge theory at level $`N`$. This has been done in  following the work of , and it is given by the number of level $`Nk`$ representations of affine $`SU(k)`$ theory. The answer is

$$I_{SU(k)}=Tr_{SU(k)}(1)^F=\frac{(N1)!}{(k1)!(Nk)!}$$

To find the total number of vacua we include the contribution of the $`U(1)`$ piece, which gives a factor of $`N`$; taking the $`𝐙_𝐤`$ quotient which takes us from $`U(1)\times SU(k)`$ to the $`U(k)`$ theory, gives an additional factor of $`1/k`$ and we obtain

$$I_{U(k)}^{}=\frac{N!}{k!(Nk)!}$$

(where the prime denotes deleting the zero mode from the $`U(1)`$ fermionic factor). This answer is exactly as expected for the net number of BPS domain walls of the $`𝒩`$$`=1`$ $`SU(N)`$ gauge theory interpolating between vacua $`k`$ units apart.

Note that the above answer applies to the four dimensional theory compactified on $`T^2`$. The number of walls in the four dimensional theory in non-compact $`𝐑^\mathrm{𝟒}`$ is given by the index of the three dimensional Chern-Simons theory on $`𝐑^\mathrm{𝟑}`$ which may not be the same as the index on $`T^2\times 𝐑`$, as we have seen already for the case of $`k`$ $`=`$ $`1`$.

4. The BPS Domain Walls for $`d=4,𝒩=1`$ Supersymmetric Gauge Theory for Arbitrary Gauge Group

In this section we expand upon the known results in the literature and compute the (net number of) BPS domain walls for $`d=4`$, $`𝒩`$$`=1`$ Supersymmetric Gauge theories for arbitrary gauge group compactified on a circle or $`T^2`$ to $`3`$ or $`2`$ dimensions. Before we explain the derivation, we state the result which is surprisingly simple: For each group $`G`$ consider the affine Dynkin diagram. Associate to each node a fermion with a “$`U(1)`$ charge” given by the corresponding Dynkin index. Note that the sum of the Dynkin indices is $`c_2(G)`$, i.e., the total number of vacua of the $`𝒩`$$`=1`$ theory. Consider all the possible monomials of the fermions with a total “$`U(1)`$ charge” of $`k`$. Then the net number of domain walls between vacua separated by $`k`$ units (for $`1<k<c_2(G)`$) is given by the net number of fermions with total charge $`k`$, where the net number is counted relative to the $`(1)^F`$. Note that for the $`SU(N)`$ case, the affine Dynkin diagram has $`N`$ nodes each with Dynkin index $`1`$, and this gives the expected answer $`(1)^kN!/k!(Nk)!`$ for the number of domain walls separating vacua which are $`k`$ units apart.

Upon compactifying $`𝒩`$$`=1`$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on $`S^1`$ or $`T^2`$ one obtains an effective Landau-Ginzburg theory described as follows: Consider the affine Dynkin diagram of the group $`G`$, and for each node introduce a chiral field $`Y_i`$, whose imaginary part is periodic with period $`2\pi `$. Consider a theory with $`4`$ supercharges given by a holomorphic superpotential

$$W=\underset{i}{}e^{Y_i}$$

with the constraint that $`_ia_iY_i=0`$, where $`a_i`$ are the associated Dynkin indices. It is a simple exercise to show that this Landau-Ginzburg theory has $`c_2(G)=a_i`$ vacua, and that the value of the superpotential is given by $`W=r\omega `$ for some real parameter $`r`$, where $`\omega `$ is a $`c_2(G)`$-th root of unity.

For the compactification on a circle, this superpotential was derived in  by embedding the system into $`F`$-theory, and from a field theory analysis in . In compactification to 2 dimensions this has been argued to arise by noting that the compactification of the gauge theory on $`T^2`$ leads to an $`𝒩`$$`=2`$ supersymmetric sigma model on the moduli space of flat $`G`$-connections on $`T^2`$ which in turn is given by a weighted projective space $`WP^{a_i}`$ where the weights are given by the Dynkin indices of the corresponding affine Dynkin diagram \[8,,9\]. This corresponds to a $`U(1)`$ linear sigma model with $`𝒩=(2,2)`$ in $`d=2`$ with $`rank(G)+1`$ fields of charges given by the indices $`a_i`$, as shown in figure 1 (which is borrowed from ). Then, as discussed in  mirror symmetry maps this sigma model to a Landau-Ginzburg theory with the superpotential given above.

The computation of the BPS domain wall solutions thus reduces to the computation of the intersection number of vanishing cycles of the corresponding Landau-Ginzburg theory, as discussed in detail in . In fact it is more convenient to compute this intersection number by using the mirror symmetry to the weighted projective space, as was done in . In this case one considers a certain intersection number of $`D`$-branes in the sigma model, which project to lines on the $`W`$ plane emanating from the critical values and going to $`W=+\mathrm{}`$. If we consider a sequence of such $`D`$-branes in an ascending order (see figure 20 of ), the $`l`$-th $`D`$-brane corresponds to the line bundle $`𝒪(l)`$ of the weighted projective space $`WP^{a_i}`$. Holomorphic sections of this bundle correspond to symmetric monomials of total charge $`l`$ made of the matter fields of the linear sigma model, which have charges $`a_i`$. Denote the number of such sections by $`n_l`$. In fact this number also gives the index of the $`\overline{}`$ operator coupled to the $`𝒪(l)`$ bundle, which in turn is the net number of ground states of strings stretched between $`D`$-branes separated by $`l`$ units (as the other cohomology groups of the $`\overline{}`$-operator vanish). Note that the generating function of this index is given by

$$S(q)=\frac{1}{_i(1q^{a_i})}=\underset{l}{}n_lq^l.$$

Consider the upper triangular matrix $`S=I+A`$ where $`I`$ is the identity matrix and $`A`$ is strictly upper triangular with $`A_{i,j}=n_{ij}`$, with $`n_l`$ as given by the above generating function. Then the number of kinks between the $`i,j`$ vacua is given by suitable brading (discussed in ) which amounts to considering the inverse matrix $`S^1`$. In particular $`(S^1)_{ij}`$ gives the net number of kinks between the $`i`$-th and $`j`$-th vacua. Clearly the entries of $`S^1`$ depend only on $`ij`$. If we encode this information in a generating function $`S^1(q)`$ then the condition that this be inverse of $`S`$ implies that

$$S^1(q)S(q)=1S^1(q)=1/S(q)=\underset{i}{}(1q^{a_i})$$

This is exactly the partition function of $`rank(G)+1`$ fermionic system graded by Dynkin indices. Moreover the coefficient of $`q^k`$ in the above expansion is the net number of kinks between vacua separated by $`k`$ units, which leads us to the statement that we made at the beginning of this section.

As an example consider the number of domain walls for the group $`E_7`$. There are two BPS domain walls connecting adjacent vacua corresponding to the two nodes labeled by $`1`$ as can be seen from figure 1 (each with fermionic number $`(1)^F=1`$). For domain walls connecting the next nearest neighbor we have to consider total Dynkin label of $`2`$. This can be done either by taking any of the three nodes labeled by $`2`$ or taking one copy of each of the nodes labeled by $`1`$. The first type will have fermion number $`1`$ and the second one will have fermion number $`+1`$ and so the net number of BPS domain walls interpolating between next nearest neighbors is given by $`13=2`$. Similarly one can enumerate the net degeneracies for all separations. The total partition function of the domain wall for $`E_7`$ gauge group is, as noted before, given by

$$(1q)^2(1q^2)^3(1q^3)^2(1q^4)$$

where the coefficient of $`q^k`$ is the net number of domain walls separating vacua which are $`k`$ units apart in the phase of the gaugino condensate.

4.1. IIA on $`G_2`$-holonomy Perspective

As noted in section 2, in the context of the Type IIA theory we can also consider the 11-th circle to correspond to the circle we choose to go from 4 to 3 dimensions. In this way we have a Type IIA perspective involving a background with a $`G_2`$-holonomy metric. For the $`SU(N)`$ group this contains the Lens space $`S^3/𝐙_𝐍`$. The $`D4`$-branes wrapped over the Lens space correspond, as discussed before, to domain walls interpolating between neighbouring vacua. As noted before there are exactly $`N`$ of them. The question is whether we can extend this to obtain also the result for the degeneracy involving vacua separated by $`k`$ units. In this case we consider $`k`$ $`D`$4 branes and get a $`U(k)`$ gauge theory on $`S^3/𝐙_𝐍`$. Consider turning on flat connections in $`U(k)`$. If all the connections are inequivalent (which can be done only if $`kN`$) then the gauge group is broken down to $`U(1)^k`$. If not the gauge group contains non-Abelian factors. In general, there are scalar fields which are massless classically. The question is whether there is a normalizable ground state at the origin of field space. This can happen, for example if the corresponding scalars pick a mass (except for the overall $`U(1)`$). This is in principle allowed by the number of supersymmetries (namely (1,1) on the domain wall in 1+1 dimension), but we have not demonstrated that it is generated. If it is generated (or at any rate if there is a normalizable zero mode at the origin), and in addition if the configurations with non-abelian factors, which arise when some of the flat connections are taken to be the same, make no contributions to the index, this would explain the result we obtained for the degeneracy of domain walls for the $`SU(N)`$ case. This sounds very much like the s-rule , and is probably connected to it by using some chain of dualities similar to the considerations of .

We can also consider geometries involving $`D`$ and $`E`$ groups (in principle we can also consider non-simply laced cases, for which the same arguments below should apply). These correspond to $`G_2`$ holonomy metrics having an $`S^3/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the associated group. Aspects of the QCD strings for these cases were discussed in . Certain aspects of the D case was discussed in .

As noted in  for each irreducible representation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of dimension $`a_i`$ we get a bound state of $`a_i`$ D4-branes wrapping over $`S^3/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Moreover the irreducible representations of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are in 1-1 correspondence with the nodes of the affine Dynkin diagram with $`a_i`$ corresponding to the Dynkin numbers. Now if we consider $`k`$ D4 branes, we get a $`U(k)`$ system, and decomposing it to flat connections using the irreducible connections, this corresponds to splitting $`k`$ in terms of sum of some number of $`a_i`$. Again if all the flat connections are inequivalent the gauge groups is broken to $`U(1)^r`$ for some $`r`$ and if our previous conjecture holds again, this would explain the degeneracy we obtained above.

We would like to thank K. Hori, A. Iqbal, D. Kabat, S. Katz, H. Liu, G. Moore, A. Rajaraman, M. Rozali, M. Strassler and D. Tong for valuable discussions.

The research of CV is supported in part by NSF grants PHY-9802709 and DMS 9709694.

References

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# Percolative Shunting on Electrified Surface

## I Introduction

The percolation theory is most useful in dealing with charge transport when the local electric conductivity has a large dispersion. Such a situation is inherent in surface discharge of electret under the action of humidity of the ambient atmosphere. It is just the surface discharge which is responsible for electret stability under the real operating conditions for electronic devices, whereas the charge transport through a bulk of dielectric occurs mainly when physical properties of electret materials are studied, especially, using various techniques of thermally stimulated discharge .

The basis for consideration is formed by the percolation model of electret charge relaxation originally proposed in . This model is based on the combined application of percolation theory - and the Kolmogorov model  for 2D nucleation kinetics. Such an approach has allowed to get a quantitative description for charge decay on the electrified surface under the action of electrically conducting external agent, primarily, the ambient air humidity.

## II Basic Concepts of Percolation Approach to Charge Relaxation in Electrets

The water adsorption gives rise to the conducting channels on the electrified surface that modifies significantly its electric properties. Since water is much more better electrical conductor than the electret material, these channels shunt the surface of the specimen. Such a physical situation cannot be described correctly in terms of the usual specific surface resistance of the electret material, because the uniformity of surface conductivity is perturbed strongly. When the surface fraction covered by the adsorbate reaches the percolation threshold, the conducting channels will form an infinite percolation cluster along which the excess charge flow off to be subsequently neutralized. At the instant an infinite cluster is arisen, the percolation transition occurs. This cluster shunts the entire surface of the specimen, so all the parts of electrified surface that are connected to it does not contribute to the surface potential of the electret $`U`$. Thus we can write: $`U1P`$, where $`P`$ is the percolation cluster density. The latter quantity fulfills the role of an order parameter in percolation problems, and gives the probability that a randomly located point of the surface belongs to an infinite cluster. The percolation cluster density depends on the fraction of the surface occupied by adsorbate $`\theta `$ at time $`t`$: $`P=P\left(\theta \right)`$, where $`\theta =\theta \left(t\right)`$. To find the adsorption kinetics we shall use the Kolmogorov theory , which has been developed for a treatment of the nucleus growth in steady-state reaction space of an arbitrary dimensionality. All initial assumptions of this theory are assumed to be satisfied for electret discharge process. For the case of 2D nucleus growth this means that: (i) the reaction space is unbounded, so that the mean area of incipient nuclei is infinitely small compared to the total area of electret surface; (ii) Poisson law holds for the nucleation process, so all the nucleation centers are generated uniformly on the electret surface in a random way at a finite rate of $`\alpha =\alpha \left(t\right)`$ for the expected number of arising centers per unit time and per unit area; (iii) all of the nuclei have the same convex shape so they are geometrically similar; (iv) the growth is uniform so at any stage of the growth process all the nuclei have the same rate of the growth, which is a function of time: $`\upsilon =\upsilon \left(t\right).`$

Under these assumptions we have the following kinetics for the growth of adsorbed phase for all time after electrization occurred at time $`t=\tau _0`$:

$$\theta \left(t\right)=1Q(\tau _0,t)\mathrm{exp}\left(\underset{\tau _0}{\overset{t}{}}𝑑\zeta \alpha \left(\zeta \right)S\left(R_2(\zeta ,t)\right)\right)$$
(1)
where

$$Q(\tau _0,t)\mathrm{exp}\left(\underset{0}{\overset{\tau _0}{}}𝑑\zeta \alpha \left(\zeta \right)S\left(R_1(\zeta ,\tau _0)+R_2(\tau _0,t)\right)\right)$$
(2)
The functional $`R(\zeta ,t)_\zeta ^t\upsilon (\eta )𝑑\eta `$ gives the radius at the time $`t`$ of the nucleus arisen at time $`\zeta `$; $`S=S\left(R\right)`$ is the area of an isolated nucleus of radius $`R`$; $`\alpha =\alpha \left(t\right)`$ is the nucleation rate. The relationship $`R=R(\zeta ,t)`$ specifies the geometrical features of adsorbate nucleus growth. The nucleus arisen after electrization has the radius $`R=R_2(\zeta ,t)`$; otherwise, the radius is $`R=R_1(\zeta ,t)`$ while the nucleus grows before electrization, and $`R=R_1(\zeta ,\tau _0)+R(\tau _0,t)`$ when its growth is going on thereafter. The function $`Q(\tau _0,t)`$, as given by equation (2), describes the growth of all the nuclei arisen before electrization which continue to grow at a later time. The value $`Q(\tau _0,t)`$ is equal to the fraction of electret surface remained clear of such nuclei at time $`t`$. Over a period of time from the preparation of the future electret material ($`t=0`$) until the electrization ($`t=\tau _0`$) the interaction with the ambient medium is taking place. After thermodynamic equilibrium has been established, the fraction of the surface occupied by the adsorbate will remain constant provided that the specimen is kept in controlled steady-state conditions. In this case $`Q(\tau _0,t)`$ may be replaced by the time-independent function $`Q\left(\tau _0\right)`$, which gives the fraction of the surface left free of adsorbate before the electrization. A large amount of new nucleation centers are generated in the course of electrization, so it is precisely these ones that greatly reinforce adsorption process, which is activated by the proper electric field of electret itself. A good agreement with the experimental data on the surface potential decay of teflon electrets has been achieved using such a simple representation for the nucleation rate: $`a\left(t\right)=\beta \delta \left(t\tau _0\right)+\alpha `$, where $`\beta `$ is the concentration of nucleation centers appeared in the course of electrization, $`\delta \left(t\right)`$ is Dirac pulse function, $`\alpha _0`$ is the constant rate of spontaneous nucleation, which is going on over the entire process of electret discharge. Thus, both instantaneous nucleation during electrization and the continuous one during subsequent storage (or, really, operation) of the electret are taken into account.

Thus, upon shifting in time by the interval $`\tau _0`$, the Equation (1) may be simplified as

$$\theta \left(t\right)=1Q\left(0\right)\mathrm{exp}\left(\underset{0}{\overset{t}{}}𝑑\zeta \alpha \left(\zeta \right)S\left(R_2(\zeta ,t)\right)\right)$$
(3)
Now electrization is assumed to be over at time $`t=0`$ so the discharge is started just thereafter. When the electret surface fills with adsorbate, a percolation cluster forms there. As soon as an infinite cluster appears, a percolation transition takes place so the surface potential of electret starts to decay. There are three different types of percolation transitions. The first one corresponds to the case when infinite cluster forms after a lapse of some time since electrization. Up to this moment the fraction of the surface covered by adsorbate is below the percolation threshold, so the surface potential of the electret remains constant and the greatest stability of the electret charge is thereby achieved. For percolation transition of the second type the infinite cluster arises just by the end of electrization, therefore the surface potential begin to decay at once, with no plateau on its time-dependence curve. In the case of percolation transition of the third type the infinite cluster has already existed during electrization, resulting in a catastrophic discharge of electret (percolation breakdown). The percolation transitions of all the above-mentioned kinds were observed experimentally .

## III Scaling of Surface Potential near Percolation Threshold

The distinctive feature of percolation cluster growth is that adsorption of conducting phase is activated by electric field: the polar molecules of water are attracted by the additional adsorption centers arising from the charges on electrified surface. Immediately after electrization dielectric is in highly non-equilibrium state, so the relaxation processes are going especially fast. As the electrified surface is getting covered by the network of conducting channels, the further discharge slows down since the appearance of new paths for current flow has been hampered. The curve of electret discharge has a saturation then: the surface potential of electret first falls off steeply, whereupon it stays on some stable level for a long time. Such a saturation of the surface potential occurs when the correlation length of percolation cluster becomes much shorter than the characteristic geometrical size of the electret, so that the backbone network of infinite cluster has sufficiently small cells.

The percolation nature of the surface discharge of electrets is confirmed by the good agreement between the experimental and theoretical values of the critical index of the correlation length. According to the scaling conception , - the correlation length is the only geometrical size that is intrinsic to percolation cluster near the percolation

threshold. Let us suppose that the correlation length $`\xi `$ at the saturation of surface potential is proportional to the characteristic size of electret $`D`$. This allows us to define the surface potential $`U_s`$ at the saturation point as $`U_s=U\left(t=t_s|\xi D\right)`$, where $`t_s`$ is the time when saturation is reached. Thus, the correlation length at the saturation point is equal, up to a constant factor $`\lambda `$, to electret size: $`D=\lambda \xi `$. Hence it follows that the larger is electret, the greater is its surface potential at saturation. Furthermore, the surface potential is uniquely determined by the percolation cluster density, which is given by the fraction of electret surface covered by adsorbate. So it is possible to find the relationship between $`\lambda \xi `$ and $`\theta `$ from experimental data for the discharge of electrets of various sizes. Such data have been obtained for teflon electrets exposed to 98%-humidity at room temperature over a period of three months. Teflon has been chosen as one of the best electret material. The results are shown in Fig. 1.

All the points have been plotted after abscissa conversion from the surface potential at saturation $`U_s`$ to the difference between the fraction of the surface covered by adsorbate $`\theta `$ and the percolation threshold $`\theta _c`$ for this quantity. ($`\theta _c=0.5`$ for the case of 2D continual percolation). The initial surface potential after electrization was equal to 300V for all the specimens, whereas its value at saturation has fallen within the range between 30V and 210V according to the electret size.

The correlation length near the percolation threshold obeys the following scaling law , :

$$\xi \left|\theta \theta _c\right|^\nu \text{ , }0<\theta \theta _c<<1$$
(4)
where $`\nu `$ is the critical index of the correlation length for 2D percolation. Thus, the value of this index can be found from the slope of the scaling curve $`\lambda \xi `$ vs $`\left(\theta \theta _c\right)`$ plotted in logarithmic scale. An appropriate procedure is illustrated in Fig. 1. The optimal approximation allows us to get the slope of the scaling asymptote in the region near a percolation threshold, where scaling behavior of Eq. (4) is valid. The critical index of the correlation length estimated in this way was $`\nu =1.4\pm 0.1`$, which is in good agreement with the known theoretical estimates for 2D percolation , , .

Scaling behavior of the surface potential near a percolation threshold is closely related to the peculiarities of adsorbate nucleus growth. In the present work the charge transport on electrified surface has been studied for the different laws of nucleation. The relationship between the local growth rate of conducting phase nuclei and the integral propagation velocity of the potential jump attendant on the formation of conducting channels on the electret surface has been cleared up. This potential jump travels as fast as the different points of electrified surface are getting electrically connected when adsorption is going on. It has been found that the integral velocity of potential jump propagation $`V`$ far exceeds the local growth rate of an isolated nucleus $`\upsilon `$: $`V=\left(2n1\right)\upsilon `$, where $`n`$ is the number of nucleation centers over a distance $`L`$ traveled by the potential jump, which can be written as $`L(t)=_0^tV(\eta )𝑑\eta `$. Further, the utmost distance that the potential jump can reach on the electrified teflon surface at high humidity has been measured. The data for the water adsorption on teflon have been analyzed by means of three principal adsorption isotherms: of Brunauer-Emmet-Teller, Langmuir, and Henry. It has been found that the growth rate of adsorbate nucleus is well approximated by the exponential law: $`\upsilon \left(t\right)=\upsilon _0\mathrm{exp}\left(t/\tau \right)`$, where $`\tau `$ is a relaxation time, and $`\upsilon _01/\left(2\tau \beta ^{1/2}\right)`$. For exponential relaxation of the growth rate the utmost distance $`L\left(\mathrm{}\right)`$ traveled by the potential jump over an infinitely long period of time is finite; whereas if the growth rate was constant or obeyed the hyperbolic decay, that propagation length would be infinitely large. Exponential relaxation of the growth rate has been also verified directly by the fact that experimental data for the utmost distances of potential jump propagation can be linearized in the co-ordinates: $`\left\{\mathrm{ln}\left(L\left(\mathrm{}\right)L\left(t\right)\right)\text{ vs }t\right\}`$. Thus, the found exponential law for the growth rate adequately describes the main features of the charge transport on electrified teflon surface.

## IV Conclusion

The charge transport on an electrified surface is of a percolative nature as a result of the adsorption of a conducting phase stimulated by the electric field. The percolation approach has allowed to get a quantitative description of the surface discharge of electrets, so it is possible now to predict the stability of electret devices under the real operating conditions.


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# Suprathreshold stochastic resonance: suppression of noise by strong periodic signals

## Abstract

We consider an overdamped Brownian motion in ”quartic” potential subjected to periodic driving. This system for the case of a weak periodic driving has been intensively studied during past decade within the context of stochastic resonance. We had demonstrated, that for the case of predominantly suprathreshold driving the noise in the output signal is strongly suppressed at certain frequency range: the signal-to-noise ratio demonstrates resonant behavior as function of frequency.

The switching dynamics of an overdamped brownian particle in a ”quartic” potential has been intensively studied in the past decade in the frame of stochastic resonance (SR) phenomenon . Stochastic resonance is a nonlinear noise-mediated cooperative phenomenon wherein the coherent response to a deterministic signal can be enhanced in the presence of an optimal amount of noise. It had been observed in a wide variety of electronic systems, such as, e.g., lasers , Schmitt triggers , tunnel diodes  and SQUIDs ,. It is known, that for a singlelevel threshold systems SR has been observed for the case of weak (underthreshold) driving  (although residual SR effects are known to occur for marginally suprathreshold signals ). In this case as well as in the case of suprathreshold SR in multilevel threshold systems , the manifestation of SR is resonant behavior of signal-to-noise ratio ($`SNR`$) or other relevant characteristics as function of noise intensity.

However, most of practical devices are operating in the predominantly suprathreshold regime, when the transition from one state to another one over potential barrier occurs deterministically and noise is the only disturbing factor leading to erroneous switching. As an example of such a situation we can refer to microwave hysteretic SQUID ,, whose dynamics is described by the model of Brownian motion in bistable potential subjected to strong periodic driving at the given frequency. Such SQUID represents a clear example of the device, by its very basic idea operating in strongly suprathreshold regime (its important characteristic is a function of amplitude of output signal versus the amplitude of input driving) and for which presence of noise leads to earlier transitions over potential barrier that results in error of the measured dc magnetic flux. For microwave hysteretic SQUID long standing problem is known: at which parameters it should operate in order to demonstrate maximal sensitivity. On one hand it is known, that with increase of pumping frequency the sensitivity of the SQUID should improve, on the other hand it is known that at frequencies higher than the cut-off frequency, the performance of the device should degrade. Some qualitative treatment of this problem has been done in the past , , but the question is still opened.

Few papers, where the case of strong periodic driving was considered both in classical ,  and quantum systems , were addressed to investigation of area of hysteretic loop and its resonant behavior as function of frequency of driving signal was demonstrated. But, to our knowledge, the investigation of signal-to-noise ratio as function of frequency was not performed for the case of strongly suprathreshold driving. This may be explained by the fact, that the most studies were restricted by adiabatic approximation, where frequency dependence of $`SNR`$ could not be investigated in detail or by linear response theory, where the driving amplitude was supposed to be small. Nevertheless, in the frame of linear response theory some weak resonant frequency dependence of signal-to-noise ratio was recently observed for a particular case of piecewise rectangular potential .

Recently we have shown using description via temporal characteristics, that in a dynamical system with noise subjected to a strong periodic driving, significant suppression of noise is possible in a certain frequency range .

The aim of the present paper is to consider fluctuational dynamics of a Brownian particle in a ”quartic” potential, study the signal-to-noise ratio and demonstrate that for the case of a strong (suprathreshold) periodic driving the $`SNR`$ has resonant behavior as function of frequency.

Consider a process of Brownian diffusion in a potential profile

$$U(x,t)=bx^4ax^2+xA\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Omega }t+\phi ),$$
(1)
where $`\phi `$ is initial phase. It is known that the probability density $`W(x,t)`$ of the Brownian particle in the overdamped limit (Markov process) satisfies the Fokker–Planck equation (FPE)

$`{\displaystyle \frac{W(x,t)}{t}}={\displaystyle \frac{G(x,t)}{x}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{B}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{}{x}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{du(x,t)}{dx}}W(x,t)\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{^2W(x,t)}{x^2}}\right\}.`$ (2)
Here $`G(x,t)`$ is the probability current, $`B=h/kT`$, $`h`$ is the viscosity (in computer simulations we put $`h=1`$), $`T`$ is the temperature, $`k`$ is the Boltzmann constant and $`u(x,t)=U(x,t)/kT`$ is the dimensionless potential profile. The initial and the boundary conditions have the following form:

$$W(x,0)=\delta (xx_0),G(\pm \mathrm{},t)=0.$$
(3)
In computer simulations we had chosen the following parameters of the potential: $`b=1`$, $`a=2`$. With such a choice the coordinates of minima equal $`x_{min}=\pm 1`$, the barrier height $`\mathrm{\Delta }U=1`$, the critical amplitude $`A_c`$ is around $`1.5`$ and we have chosen $`A=2`$ to be far enough from $`A_c`$. We note, that this is not the case ”just above the threshold level”, considered in , but indeed strong driving: the amplitude $`A=2`$ is far above the dynamic threshold. We also performed the analysis for $`A=3;4;5`$: the results are qualitatively the same, only $`SNR`$ rises accordingly.

The quantity of our interest is the $`SNR`$. In accordance with  we denote $`SNR`$ as:

$$SNR=\frac{1}{S_N(\mathrm{\Omega })}\underset{\mathrm{\Delta }\omega 0}{lim}\underset{\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Delta }\omega }{\overset{\mathrm{\Omega }+\mathrm{\Delta }\omega }{}}S(\omega )𝑑\omega ,$$
(4)
where

$$S(\omega )=\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}e^{i\omega \tau }K[\tau ]𝑑\tau $$
(5)
is the spectral density, $`S_N(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ is noisy pedestal at the driving frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`K[\tau ]`$ is the correlation function:

$$K[\tau ]=x(t+\tau )x(t),$$
(6)
where the inner brackets denote the ensemble average and outer brackets indicate the average over initial phase $`\phi `$.

In order to obtain the correlation function $`K[\tau ]`$ we solved the Eq. (2) numerically, using the Crank-Nicholson scheme.

In Fig. 1 the spectral density $`S(\omega )`$ is presented for $`kT=0.1`$ (the delta-spikes at 1-st and some higher harmonics are out of figure in order to enhance the noise part). One can see that the form of $`S(\omega )`$ significantly depends on driving frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, while the amplitude of the output signal is monotonically decreasing function of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. In order to study the resonant behavior of spectral density, let us plot the $`SNR`$ as function of driving frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. From Fig. 2 one can see, that $`SNR`$ as function of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ has strongly pronounced maximum. The location of this maximum at $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{\Omega }_{max}`$ approximately corresponds to the time scale matching condition: $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{max}\pi /\tau _{min}`$, where $`\tau _{min}`$ is the minimal transition time from one state to another one. The existence of optimal driving frequency may be explained in the following way. Let us consider the case of adiabatically slow driving. If noise is absent, the escape would occur only after the corresponding potential barrier would disappear. If we add some small amount of noise, the escape would occur earlier than in the deterministic case at some nonzero barrier height. If the driving frequency is increased, the potential barrier height will decrease faster and the escape will occur at lower barrier, that is more close to the deterministic case. In the case, when the driving frequency is higher than the cut-off frequency of the system, $`\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$ (where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$ has a dynamical sense: for a given amplitude of the signal the performance of the system significantly degrades above certain frequency), the particle would never escape over potential barrier in the absence of noise and will remain in the vicinity of initial potential minimum, since there is not enough time to reach the basin of attraction of another state. Therefore, there is some frequency range, where at the given small noise intensity the escape will occur over the smallest potential barrier and namely in this case noise has minimal effect on the system that results to the maximal $`SNR`$.

In the case when the driving frequency is higher than the cut-off frequency, $`\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$, adding some amount of noise will help the particle to move to another state and the conventional stochastic resonance may be observed (see the inset of Fig. 2 for $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$). Let us note, that we were not able to observe such intuitively obvious thing as increase of $`SNR`$ for $`kT0`$ in the case $`\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$ (in this case for $`kT=0`$ we will have small but nonzero oscillations near the initial potential minimum) due to divergence of the algorithm for $`kT<0.02`$ ($`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$) and the last three points, presented in the inset of Fig. 2, correspond to $`kT=0.1;0.05;0.02`$, respectively.

In conclusion we have shown that in the dynamical system with noise driven by a strong sinusoidal signal (predominantly suprathreshold driving) the influence of noise is significantly reduced in a certain frequency range: the signal-to-noise ratio is a resonant function of frequency of the driving signal. This effect is of real importance for applications since it may allow to operate a concrete device (like a SQUID or other electronic devices) in the regime of minimal noise-induced error.

For driving frequencies higher than the cut-off frequency the conventional (but suprathreshold) stochastic resonance has been observed.

Author wishes to thank Prof. M. Salerno for helpful discussions. This work has been supported by the MURST (Ministero dell’Universita’ e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica), by the INFM (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia) and partially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project N 00-02-16528, Project N 99-02-17544 and Project N 00-15-96620).


text:
# Bose-Einstein Condensation of Metastable Helium

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## Abstract

We have observed a Bose-Einstein condensate in a dilute gas of 4He in the $`2^3S_1`$ metastable state. We find a critical temperature of $`(4.7\pm 0.5)\mu `$K and a typical number of atoms at the threshold of $`8\times 10^6`$. The maximum number of atoms in our condensate is about $`5\times 10^5`$. An approximate value for the scattering length $`a=(16\pm 8)`$ nm is measured. The mean elastic collision rate is then estimated to be about $`2\times 10^4`$ s-1, indicating that we are deeply in the hydrodynamic regime. The typical decay time of the condensate is $`2`$ s, which places an upper bound on the rate constants for 2-body and 3-body inelastic collisions.

PACS numbers: 03.75.Fi, 05.30.Jp, 32.80.Pj

\]

Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of dilute atomic gases was first observed in alkali atoms in 1995 and then, a few years later in atomic hydrogen. Since then, the field has developed in a spectacular way both experimentally and theoretically . So far only condensates with atoms in their electronic ground state have been produced.

Several laboratories are currently involved in the search for BEC of atoms in an excited state, namely noble gases in an excited metastable state. Helium in its triplet metastable $`2^3S_1`$ state (4He) is of particular interest. The first advantage of 4He is its large internal energy (19.8 eV). It allows for a very efficient detection of the atom by ionization after collision with another atom or a surface, which can be of interest for atomic lithography . Second, helium is a relatively simple atom which allows for quasi-exact calculations that are useful in metrological applications. Third, mixtures of 3He and 4He can be used to study quantum degenerate mixtures of bosons and fermions. Finally, Penning collisions are expected to be inhibited for spin polarized atoms due to spin selection rules. This effect, first pointed out in , was confirmed by subsequent calculations .

The present article describes the observation of BEC of 4He atoms. Similar results have also been obtained at IOTA, Orsay . The two experiments differ by their detection methods. The Orsay group detects the atoms falling on a microchannel plate, whereas we use an optical absorption imaging of the atomic cloud on a CCD camera. The two experiments therefore give different and complementary information on the physics of BEC in 4He.

The first step of our experiment is the efficient loading of a magneto-optical trap (MOT). The experimental set-up is described in detail in . A discharge atomic source ensures a high flux of triplet metastable atoms of $`10^{14}`$ atoms/s.sr, with a mean velocity of about 1000 m/s. The atomic beam is collimated  and Zeeman slowed by laser light at 1083 nm ($`2^3S_1`$-$`2^3P_2`$ transition). A narrow frequency band master oscillator (DBR diode laser) injects a Yb-doped fiber amplifier with an output power of 500 mW. Using this set-up, it is possible to trap $`8\times 10^8`$ atoms in the MOT at a temperature of 1 mK.

4He atoms are confined at the center of a small ($`4\times 4\times 5`$ cm) quartz cell. All coils are external to the cell (see Fig.1). The coils $`Q_1`$ and $`Q_2`$ (144 turns and 7 cm diameter) combined with the coil $`C_3`$ (108 turns and 4 cm diameter) produce an anisotropic magnetic Ioffe-Pritchard trap. Two additional Helmholtz coils reduce the bias field, in order to increase the radial confinement of the trap. A current of 45 A in all the coils produces a 4.2 G bias field, radial gradients of 280 G/cm and an axial curvature of 200 G/cm2. These values correspond to trapping frequencies of 115 Hz in the axial and 1090 Hz in the radial directions. The current in the coils can be switched off in 200 $`\mu `$s.

The second step of the experiment is the loading of the magnetic trap. After switching off the MOT field, the cloud is further cooled down to about 300 $`\mu `$K during a 1 ms optical molasses phase. To increase the transfer efficiency from the molasses to the magnetic trap, the atoms are optically pumped by a circularly polarized laser pulse. $`3\times 10^8`$ atoms are loaded in the magnetic trap. The lifetime of the atomic cloud in the magnetic trap is about 35 seconds, and its temperature is 1.2 mK after compression and bias compensation.

The last step of the experiment consists of evaporative cooling performed by radio frequency (RF) induced spin flips. The frequency is ramped down from 160 MHz to around 12 MHz in 15 seconds. After evaporation, the trap is switched off and the cloud released from the trap is probed by absorption imaging on a CCD camera whose quantum efficiency is 1.5% at 1083 nm.

When the RF frequency of the evaporation is ramped down to a final frequency below 13 MHz, a narrow structure appears on the absorption image which we identify as a condensate. The strongest evidence for the presence of the condensate is the evolution of the shape of this structure when released from the trap in the time-of-flight (TOF) measurement. Its anisotropy increases as the expansion time is increased, and its ellipticity undergoes an inversion (see Fig.2 a). This observation is a consequence of the mean-field interaction between atoms in the condensate . The theoretical prediction containing no adjustable parameters agrees well with our measurements (see Fig.2 b).

The spatial distribution of the absorption pictures is fitted with the sum of two functions, one for the condensate and one for the thermal cloud (see insert in fig. 3). The function for the condensate is an integration along the z-axis of a paraboloidal distribution. It describes the equilibrium density profile of the condensate within the harmonic trap in the Thomas-Fermi limit . The function for the thermal cloud is a $`g_2`$ function valid for a bosonic gas close to the transition where the chemical potential $`\mu `$ is an adjustable parameter . From the fit, we extract the ratio between the number of atoms in the condensate, $`N_0`$, and the total number of atoms, $`N`$. Plotting $`N_0/N`$ versus the temperature $`T`$ (Fig.3) gives the value of the critical temperature $`T_c=4.7\pm 0.5\mu `$K, which is confirmed by a TOF measurement performed on a thermal cloud just above the transition.

The results presented until now are based only on measured sizes of the clouds and on relative numbers like $`N_0/N`$ which do not require absolute calibration of the optical detection. The procedure described previously for the measurement of ellipticity and critical temperature is not suitable for absolute measures of $`N`$ and $`N_0`$. So, we use a different procedure to calibrate the number of atoms at threshold. The current is switched off in two steps: first, in the Helmholtz coils, then, after a delay of 10 ms, in the 3 coils $`Q_1`$, $`Q_2`$ and $`C_3`$, whereas the current in all five coils was switched off simultaneously for the measurements above. Then, we take an absorption image with an exposure time $`T_{exp}=200\mu `$s after a TOF time of 5 ms. This procedure minimizes the effects of eddy currents of the Helmholtz coils which last several milliseconds, Zeeman shifting the atomic resonance with respect to the probe beam frequency . There are two other obvious sources of sensitivity losses. First, the width of the absorption lineshape is measured to be twice the natural linewidth, which we attribute to laser linewidth and power broadening. This reduces the absorption cross-section by a factor 2. Second, the probe beam propagates perpendicularly to the x-axis of the Ioffe-Pritchard trap (see Fig.1) along which atoms are polarized. It would therefore be necessary to take into account the populations of the different Zeeman sublevels, and the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients of the various Zeeman optical transitions excited by the probe beam. But any residual magnetic field redistributes the populations among Zeeman sublevels. Assuming equally populated sublevels gives an extra loss by a factor 9/5. Finally, there is another source of losses which is specific to 4He when optically detected and particularly important at the high densities obtained in our experiment. The metastable atoms have a huge Penning ionization cross-section in the presence of resonant light, so that losses can accumulate during the probe pulse at large densities. Unfortunately, probing at low intensity is no longer possible if $`T_{exp}`$ is made shorter because of the low efficiency of the CCD camera. This long exposure time also increases the acceleration of the atoms due to radiation pressure which pushes them out of resonance . In the present stage of the experiment, it is difficult to give a quantitative description of the combined effect of these phenomena. So, we prefer to wait an expansion time of 5 ms to sufficiently reduce the atomic density. Indeed, we observe that the measured number of atoms is an increasing function of the expansion time reaching a plateau after 5-6 ms. After the corrections mentioned above, the total number of atoms $`N_c`$ at the threshold is measured to be 5$`\times 10^6`$ atoms with an accuracy of about 50%.

$`N_c`$ can also be estimated from $`N_c=1.202(k_BT_c/\mathrm{}\overline{\omega })^3`$, where $`\overline{\omega }`$ is the geometrical average of the frequencies of the trap . We deduce $`N_c=8.2\times 10^6`$ atoms with an uncertainty of about 30% compatible with the previous value. Because it is easier to trace down the error on $`N_c`$ when derived from $`T_c`$, we arbitrarly choose this value of $`N_c`$ to estimate the scattering length $`a`$. Also, assuming that the transition occurs at a phase space density equal to $`n(0)\lambda _{dB}^3=2.612`$, where $`\lambda _{dB}`$ is the de Broglie wavelength, we can also derive the density at the center of the trap $`n(0)=(3.8\pm 0.7)\times 10^{13}`$ atoms/cm3 at the transition.

Within the Thomas-Fermi approximation, one can extract the chemical potential $`\mu `$ from the size of the condensate . As the optical detection around the transition has been calibrated, we can now use our previous relative measurements to deduce the absolute number of condensed atoms $`N_0`$ below the transition. Typical values of $`\mu =1.4\times 10^{29}`$J and $`N_0=(4\pm 1.5)\times 10^5`$ are obtained with condensates prepared at temperatures ranging from 1.2 $`\mu `$K to 3 $`\mu `$K. Finally an estimation of the scattering length $`a`$ can be given using $`a=\sigma /15N_0\times (2\mu /\mathrm{}\overline{\omega })^{5/2}`$, where $`\sigma =(\mathrm{}/m\overline{\omega })^{1/2}`$ is the characteristic size of the ground state of the trap. We find $`a=(16\pm 8)`$ nm which is compatible with the value given by recent theoretical works . The error is mostly due to the uncertainty on the number of atoms. Knowing the scattering length $`a`$, the density at the center of the trap $`n(0)`$ and the critical temperature $`T_c`$, we obtain a mean rate of elastic collisions $`\overline{\gamma }_{coll}2\times 10^4`$ s-1 near threshold, leading to $`\overline{\omega }/\overline{\gamma }_{coll}=0.17`$. We thus enter in the hydrodynamic regime, an interesting feature for a gas above $`T_c`$ .

Fig.4 shows the evolution of the number of atoms in the condensate versus the trapping time. The typical lifetime is about 2 s. In the present stage of the experiment, it is not possible to discriminate between 2-body or 3-body decay. However, assuming that only 2-body collisions lead to losses in the condensate, we can place an upper bound on the collision rate constant $`G`$ between spin polarized 4He atoms, which is predicted to be inhibited by a factor 104 compared with the rate constant for Penning ionization collisions between unpolarized atoms. The evolution equation of the number of atoms $`\dot{N}(t)=Gn^2(𝐫)\mathrm{d}^3\mathrm{r}`$, integrated on the whole condensate in the Thomas-Fermi approximation, gives the evolution of the number of atoms $`N_0`$ in the condensate. A fit leads to $`G(4.2\pm 0.6)\times 10^{14}`$ cm3/s, which corresponds to a reduction factor larger than $`2\times 10^3`$, much larger than the previously measured ones , in agreement with theoretical calculations .

If one assumes now that 3-body collisions are responsible for the decay of $`N_0`$, one can as well give an upper bound for the rate constant $`L`$ defined by $`\dot{N}(t)=Ln^3(𝐫)\mathrm{d}^3\mathrm{r}`$. Fitting our data gives $`L(2.8\pm 0.2)\times 10^{27}`$ cm6/s. This value can be compared to theoretical predictions : for example, our upper limit is compatible with , which finds $`L=3.9\mathrm{}a^4/2m=2\times 10^{27}`$ cm6/s.

In conclusion, this article shows the evidence for the formation of a BEC of helium atoms in the metastable state $`2^3S_1`$. Our results concerning the losses due to inelastic collisions show that the spin polarization does inhibit the Penning ionization collisions between 2 metastable helium atoms by more than 3 orders of magnitude, as theoretically predicted. We find a large scattering length, which results in very large rates of elastic collisions : the cold gas at threshold is in the hydrodynamic regime, which we plan to study in more details. We also plan to further exploit the original characteristics of this new born condensate of atoms in an excited state.

Acknowledgments: The authors wish to thank J. Dalibard, C. Salomon, D. Guéry-Odelin and Y. Castin for helpful discussions and careful reading of the manuscript, and F. Pavone and A. Sinatra-Castin for their contribution in the early stages of the experiment. We thank the IOTA goup in Orsay for communicating their preliminary results as soon as they were obtained, which was a great stimulation for our group achieving helium BEC 8 days later. Also, we thank M. Roux for the loan of the Hamamatsu CCD camera (C4880-30) with which the BEC was first detected in our group. C.J.B. acknowledges the support from the Schweizerische Studienstiftung.

a Permanent address: Institute of Opto-Electronics, Shanxi University, 36 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030006, China.

b Permanent address: Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, UMR 7538 du CNRS, Université Paris Nord, Avenue J.B. Clément, 93430 Villetaneuse, France.

c Present address : Universit$`\ddot{\mathrm{a}}`$t Hannover, Welfengarten 1, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.

d Permanent address : TIFR, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India.

Unité de Recherche de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure et de l’Université Pierre et Marie Curie, associée au CNRS (UMR 8552).