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# Quantum non-demolition measurement of nonlocal variables and its application in quantum authentication

## I Introduction

In the 1970’s, Braginsky, Thorme, Unruh, Caves and others introduced firstly the concept of quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement in which a measurement strategy is chosen that evades the undesirable effect of back action. This was to respond the problem caused by Heisenberg’s uncertainty relations. Using the fact that the quantum formalism describes physical quantities as non-commuting operators ( that is, as mathematical objects $`A,`$ $`B`$ such that $`ABBA`$), the Heisenberg inequalities state that the product of the dispersions of (the ‘uncertainty’ in) $`A`$ and $`B`$ has a lower bound: $`\mathrm{}A\mathrm{}B\frac{1}{2}\left|ABBA\right|`$. Therefore, for non-commuting operators, a very precise measurement of $`A`$, resulting in a very small dispersion $`\mathrm{}A,`$will be associated with a large value of $`\mathrm{}B`$. This measurement back action has far-reaching consequences from a practical point of view, since it may prevent the retrieval of the initial result in a series of repeated measurements. With the development of the technical quality of optical sources and detectors, and techniques of nonlinear optics, the emerging field of quantum optics seemed to be particularly well suited for implementing QND measurements.

The basic requirement of QND measurement is the availability of the QND variable which may be measured repeatedly giving predictable results for a system. If a variable $`A(t)`$ (in the interaction picture) satisfying $`[A(t),`$ $`A(t^{^{}})]=0`$, then the system in an eigenstate of $`A(t_0)`$ will remain in this eigenstate for all subsequent times although the eigenvalues may change. Such observable is called QND variable. Furthermore, this QND variable must commute with the interaction Hamiltonian coupling the detector and the meter or $`[\widehat{H}_{inter},\text{ }A(t)]`$ $`=0`$. The soul of the quantum non-demolition measurement is to measure QND variable in their eigenstates: if the system is already in eigenstate then repeated measurements will cause no demolition to it and give predictable result; if the system is not in the eigenstate, then after the measurement it is set to eigenstate and keep in this eigenstate in the following repeated measurements.

But until now, all QND observables considered are local. And it is well known that nonlocality and its most celebrated manifestation form — entanglement is so important and fancy that it becomes one of the footstones of the quantum mechanics. Myriads of attention has been attracted since it was first noted by Einstein-Podolsky-Rose (EPR) and Schrödinger. And the experimental prove of this nonlocality confirms the validity of quantum mechanics. Its famous embodiment, the EPR states $`\mathrm{\Phi }^\pm =\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|11\pm |00),`$ $`\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm =\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|10\pm |01`$, proposed by Bohm, was shown by Bell, which have stronger correlation than that allowed by any local hidden variable theory. Furthermore this kind of correlation of the quantum mechanics cannot be generated by local operations and classical communications (LQCC). Here local operations include unitary transformations, additions of ancilla, measurements and throwing away parts of the system, all performed locally by one party on his subsystem. Classical communication between parties is included because it allows for the creation of mixed states that are classically correlated but exhibit no quantum correlations. For multi-partite system, there is also entanglement, such as generalized GHZ states $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm (x_0,x_1,\mathrm{},x_{n1})`$, where $`x_i=\{0,1\}`$, which are much more complicated and less well understood even today. Recently it has been realized that quantum resources can be useful in information processing where quantum entanglement plays a key role in many such application as quantum teleportation, superdense coding, entanglement enhanced classical communication, quantum error correction, quantum key distribution, quantum computational speedups, quantum distributed computation, and entanglement enhanced communication complexity. Among these applications, the common difficulty is to measurement these orthogonal entangled bases such as $`n`$-particle GHZ states. So it may be very expedient if we can measure these entanglement states without demolition it.

In this article we generalize the QND variables to the nonlocal ones by proposing a novel QND measurement network of Bell states and multi-partite GHZ states. In section II, the logic network of Bell operator QND measurement is presented. In section III, the general logic network for the generalized GHZ states is shown. And in the last section, one of its potential applications in quantum authentication (QA) system of the Quantum Security Automatic Teller Machine (QSATM) is proposed.

## II QND Measurement of Bell Bases

We firstly introduce some basic definitions and notations.

The universal two-bit Controlled-not gate $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(\widehat{U})`$ maps Boolean values $`(x,\text{ }y)`$to $`(x,\text{ }xy),`$ where $`\widehat{U}=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right).`$ Let $`\widehat{H}`$ denotes Hadamard gate $`\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 1& 1\end{array}\right)`$, which transforms state $`|1(|0)`$ into $`\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|1+|0)(\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|1|0))`$. It can be realized by an optical half-wave plate(HWP) with its fast axis oriented at $`\frac{\pi }{8}`$ relative to the horizontal direction in quantum optics.

The $`n`$-partite generalized GHZ bases in the Hilbert space $`H_2^n`$could be written as $`2^{n1}`$ pairs of orthogonal states $`\{|\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm (x_0,x_1,\mathrm{},x_{n1})\}`$. Define the phase qubit represents the sign information between the pairs. And define part-parity bit represents the parity of the border upon parties. For example, if the two parties are $`|11`$ or $`|00`$, they have even parity, otherwise they have odd parity. It is obvious there are independent $`(n1)`$ parity qubits for $`n`$-partite GHZ bases such as part-parity of partite 1 and 2, of partite 2 and 3, and so on. In addition, we define global-parity qubit if both terms in a state contain even or odd number of $`|1`$. Not all states has global-parity qubit information.

Let $`a=\pm 1,`$ and $`a^{}=\pm 1`$ denote 2 possible outcomes of 2 possible measurements on the first qubits and similarly $`b=\pm 1`$ and $`b^{}=\pm 1`$ for the second qubit. And associates the first measurement the Pauli matrix $`\widehat{a}\widehat{\sigma }`$ with normalized 3-dim vectors $`\widehat{a},`$ and similarly for the other measurements. Then Bell operator $`B_2=`$ $`\widehat{a}\widehat{\sigma }\widehat{b}\widehat{\sigma }+`$ $`\widehat{a}\widehat{\sigma }\widehat{b}^{}\widehat{\sigma }+`$ $`\widehat{a}^{}\widehat{\sigma }\widehat{b}\widehat{\sigma }`$ $`\widehat{a}^{}\widehat{\sigma }\widehat{b}^{}\widehat{\sigma }`$, and similarly the $`n`$-particle Bell operators $`B_n=`$ $`B_{n1}\frac{1}{2}\left(\widehat{a}_n\widehat{\sigma }+\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\sigma }\right)+B_{n1}^{}\frac{1}{2}\left(\widehat{a}_n\widehat{\sigma }\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\sigma }\right),`$ whose eigenstates are Bell states and generalized GHZ states.\[N.H.\] Obviously these nonlocal operators $`B_n|\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Psi }|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ are constant and can be taken as the QND variables. If we can measure Bell states and generalized GHZ states without any destruction, then the interaction Hamiltonian$`\widehat{H}_{inter}`$ satisfies $`\widehat{H}_{inter}|\mathrm{\Psi }=|\mathrm{\Psi }.`$ Then $`[\widehat{H}_{inter},\text{ }B_n]`$ $`=0`$ , and any states can be measured predictably in the subsequent measurements.

Now consider the QND measurement of the Bell states, the logic network is shown in Fig. 1, where the ancillary qubits: ancilla 3 and ancilla 4 are initially set in state $`|0`$. The measurement process for the four Bell bases: $`\mathrm{\Phi }^\pm =\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|11\pm |00),`$ $`\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm =\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|10\pm |01)`$ can be divided into four steps.

> (1) The two particles 1 and 2 in Bell state to be measured come into two paths with controlled-not gate $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(\widehat{U}_1)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(\widehat{U}_2)`$ separately. Then particle 1 and 2 act as control bit in turn to manipulate the ancilla 3:

> $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(\widehat{U}_1)\mathrm{\Lambda }(\widehat{U}_2)(\mathrm{\Phi }_{12}^\pm |0_3)`$ (1)
> $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(\widehat{U}_2){\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(|11_{12}|1_3\pm |00_{12}|0_3)`$ (2)
> $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(|11_{12}\pm |00_{12})|0_3`$ (3)
> $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(\widehat{U}_1)\mathrm{\Lambda }(\widehat{U}_2)(\mathrm{\Psi }_{12}^\pm |0_3)`$ (4)
> $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(\widehat{U}_2){\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(|10_{12}|1_3\pm |01_{12}|0_3)`$ (5)
> $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(|10_{12}\pm |01_{12})|1_3`$ (6)

Seen from the equations above, states $`\mathrm{\Phi }^\pm `$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm `$ set ancilla 3 to state $`|0_3`$ and $`|1_3`$ respectively and keep themselves unchanged. We see that the information of the parity bit is extracted out by the ancilla 3 bit.

(2) Particle 1 and 2 are transformed by a pair of Hadamard gates $`\widehat{H}_1`$ and $`\widehat{H}_2`$ locally:

$$\widehat{H}_1\widehat{H}_2\left(\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{\Phi }^+\\ \mathrm{\Phi }^{}\\ \mathrm{\Psi }^+\\ \mathrm{\Psi }^{}\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{\Phi }^+\\ \mathrm{\Psi }^+\\ \mathrm{\Phi }^{}\\ \mathrm{\Psi }^{}\end{array}\right).$$
(7)
We can see the transformation is just a unitary transformation among the four bases. But it is very important for the information of the phase qubit is translated into the parity qubit by this transformation.

(3) As in step 1, the ancilla 4 pick out the parity qubit information translated from the phase qubit in step 2 by the controlled not gates. Then the four Bell bases are discriminated (see Table 1).

Table 1: The states of the ancillas corresponding to each Bell state

$`\mathrm{\Psi }_{12}`$ $`\mathrm{\Psi }^+`$ $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}`$ $`\mathrm{\Phi }^+`$ $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$    $`Ancilla`$ $`3`$ $`|1`$ $`|1`$ $`|0`$ $`|0`$  $`Ancilla`$ $`4`$ $`|0`$ $`|1`$ $`|0`$ $`|1`$

(4) Just as in step 2, after another pair of Hadamard gates , the final output state recovers to the initial Bell state. So this measurement is a quantum non-demolition process.

When a state $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{12}=a\mathrm{\Phi }^++b\mathrm{\Phi }^{}+c\mathrm{\Psi }^++d\mathrm{\Psi }^{},`$where $`a,b,c,dC`$ , is inputted into the logic network shown in Fig.1, the measurement process is just the same

$`(a\mathrm{\Phi }^++b\mathrm{\Phi }^{}+c\mathrm{\Psi }^++d\mathrm{\Psi }^{})|0_3|0_4`$ (8)
$`\stackrel{(1)}{}(a\mathrm{\Phi }^++b\mathrm{\Phi }^{})|0_3|0_4+(c\mathrm{\Psi }^++d\mathrm{\Psi }^{})|1_3|0_4`$ (9)
$`\stackrel{(2)}{}(a\mathrm{\Phi }^++b\mathrm{\Psi }^+)|0_3|0_4+(c\mathrm{\Phi }^{}d\mathrm{\Psi }^{})|1_3|0_4`$ (10)
$`\stackrel{(3)}{}a\mathrm{\Phi }^+|0_3|0_4+b\mathrm{\Psi }^+|0_3|1_4+c\mathrm{\Phi }^{}|1_3|0_4d\mathrm{\Psi }^{}|1_3|1_4`$ (11)
$`\stackrel{(4)}{}a\mathrm{\Phi }^+|0_3|0_4+b\mathrm{\Phi }^{}|0_3|1_4+c\mathrm{\Psi }^+|1_3|0_4+d\mathrm{\Psi }^{}|1_3|1_4.`$ (12)
From the states of the two ancillary qubits, we could know which Bell state has been measured out just as shown in Table 1.

Now, QND measurement of the Bell bases is completed. When we analyze the measurement process, we see that controlled-not gates are employed to extract the parity bit information. What is more critical is that Hadamard gates can translate the phase qubit information QND Measurement to parity. Since the Bell states include only one parity qubit and one phase qubit information, two ancillary qubits are enough. And it can be seen easily that in this measurement process, the information of the global phase of Bell state are erased for only $`\left|a\right|^2,`$ $`\left|b\right|^2,`$ $`\left|c\right|^2,`$ $`\left|d\right|^2`$ can be known as the measurement probability of each Bell states. This means that this phase operator incommutes with the Bell operator.

## III The generalization to N-Partite GHZ Bases

For a $`n`$-partite generalized GHZ base in the Hilbert space $`H_2^n`$, there are $`n1`$ part-parity qubits information which are between the border-upon partite, and one phase qubit information. Then $`n`$ ancillary qubits are needed. The key to this scheme is that controlled-not gates could extract parity qubit information and this qubit phase information could be translated into the holistic-parity information under Hadamard gates:

$`|\mathrm{\Phi }^\pm (x_0,x_1,\mathrm{},x_{n1})`$ (13)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{i=0}^{n1}\widehat{H}_i|\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm (x_0,x_1,\mathrm{},x_{n1})`$ (14)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{i=0}^{n1}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(|1+(1)^{x_i}|0)\pm \mathrm{\Pi }_{i=0}^{n1}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(|1(1)^{x_i}|0)`$ (15)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^n}}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{m=0}^{n1}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\{n_1,n_{2,}\mathrm{},n_m\}}(1)^{\mathrm{\Sigma }_{l=1}^mx_{n_l}}(1\pm (1)^m)|\{n_{1,}n_2,\mathrm{}n_m\},`$ (16)
where $`\{n_{1,}n_2,\mathrm{}n_m\}`$ is a subset of $`\{0,1,\mathrm{},n1\}`$ and $`|\{n_{1,}n_2,\mathrm{}n_m\}`$ denotes a $`n`$-partite state of which only the $`n_lth`$ $`(l=1,2,\mathrm{},m)`$ partite are $`|1`$.So it is easy to see that each term in $`|\mathrm{\Phi }^+(x_0,x_1,\mathrm{},x_{n1})`$ contains an even number of $`|1`$,while each term in $`|\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(x_0,x_1,\mathrm{},x_{n1})`$ contains an odd number of $`|1`$. That means the phase qubit information of $`|\mathrm{\Psi }^\pm (x_0,x_1,\mathrm{},x_{n1})`$ have been translated into the $`|\mathrm{\Phi }^\pm (x_0,x_1,\mathrm{},x_{n1})`$ global-parity information. So with $`n1`$ part-parity qubits information and one global-parity qubit information translated from the phase qubit, we could extract all the information encoded in any $`n`$-partite GHZ bases. Obviously $`n`$ ancillary qubits which are set in $`|0`$ at the beginning are needed. The process for quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement of $`n`$-partite GHZ bases is similar, and the logic network for GHZ states is shown in Fig. 2.

## IV Applications and Conclusion

Since entanglement is introduced and preserved in the QND measurement process, many novel applications, such as quantum authentication that involves both features of the nonlocality and QND measurement, can be exploited. Fig. 3 depicts a quantum authentication system in the Quantum Security Automatic Tell Machine (QSATM) which employs just a logic network of Bell states QND measurement. This authentication system can be used circularly. From the figure, we can see that one of the input of the network — particle $`2`$, and the ancilla, particle $`3`$ and $`4`$ are all kept in the QSATM. The other input, particle $`1`$, are stored in the QSATM credit card. Particle $`1`$ and $`2`$ are set in one of the four Bell states, particle $`3`$ and $`4`$ are reset to $`|0`$ every time before measurement. There are two bits $`3^{}`$ and $`4^{}`$ in the disposer which record the Bell state particle $`1`$ and $`2`$ originally in.

When a user inserts the credit card into the QSATM, the logic network works, then particle $`3`$ and $`4`$ are set to states which indicates which Bell state the output of particle $`1`$ and $`2`$ are in. If these states of particle $`3`$ and $`4`$ are the same as those recorded in bit $`3^{}`$ and $`4^{}`$, then this credit card is verified as legal, otherwise illegal. It is evident that there is only $`\frac{1}{4}`$ probability for illegal user to pass this verification process. Thus if $`n`$ pairs of Bell states are employed in this system, then the probability of any illegal user passing the checkout process is $`(\frac{1}{4})^n`$. When $`n`$ is large enough, this probability will approach $`0.`$

In practice, all the users whose authentication accuracy is higher than some definite value are considered to be legal. In this case, the new states of particle $`3`$ and $`4`$ are endowed to particle $`3^{}`$ and $`4^{}`$ which indicate the Bell state particle $`1`$ and $`2`$ are in now. It means that as long as the decoherence of these Bell states is not too serious, the system can be reset as particle $`1`$ and $`2`$ are set in a new Bell state again. As illegal user can destroy the state of particle $`2`$ and thus all the verification system. It is required that only those users who have the right classical passwords have the access to quantum verification system. But anyway, only those users who pass the quantum verification system are believed to be legal, so it is much more reliable than the classical system. It is guaranteed by the basic features of the quantum mechanics.

In conclusion, we have generalized the QND variables to the nonlocal ones by proposing quantum non-demolition measurement networks for Bell states and multi-particle GHZ bases with the help of controlled-not gates and Hadamard gates which may be implemented on account of the recent progress in the non-linear quantum optical. One of its applications in the quantum authentication is also proposed.

## V Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.


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# The identification of the optical/IR counterpart of the 29.5-s transient X–ray pulsar GS 1843+009Partially based on observations carried out at ESO, La Silla, Chile (65.H–0005)

## 1 Introduction

Be/X–ray binary systems (BeXBs) represent the majority of the known High Mass X–ray Binaries (HMXBs) hosting an accreting rotating magnetic neutron star (White et al. 1995; Coe 2000). Based on the displayed X–ray features, BeXBs can be divided into at least three subclasses: (i) bright transients which display giant X–ray outbursts up to L$`{}_{\mathrm{X}}{}^{}=10^{38}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Type II; Stella et al. 1986) unrelated to the orbital phase, with high spin–up rates, (ii) transients which display periodic outbursts of relatively high luminosity (L$`{}_{\mathrm{X}}{}^{}10^{36}`$ – $`10^{37}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$; Type I) generally occurring close to the periastron passage of the neutron star, and (iii) sources displaying no outbursts, but comparatively moderate variations (up to a factor of $``$ 10–100) and low–luminosity ($`10^{36}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$) pulsed persistent emission (Negueruela 1998). B–emission (Be) spectral–type stars are characterized by high rotational velocities (up to 70% of their break–up velocity), and by episodes of equatorial mass loss which may produce a ring of gas orbiting around the star at irregular time intervals. At optical wavelengths, Be stars are difficult to classify due to the presence of the circumstellar envelope responsible for the emission lines.

The optical counterparts of the Galactic X–ray transient sources suffer from high absorption columns and reddening, which hampers the possibility of detecting and classifying them. So far only about $``$20 optical counterparts of BeXBs have been discovered out of the $``$100 known X–ray pulsars (Negueruela 1998). A way around this problem is to observe the field of these X–ray sources in the IR; in fact, the bulk of the emission from matter around the Be peaks at IR wavelengths. Therefore, IR together with optical photometry make it easy to distinguish highly reddened but intrisically bright objects (i.e. late O – early B stars) from nearby (low/no reddening) bright late type stars (such as K or M stars). Over the last three years our group has carried out (mainly by using ESO telescopes) an intensive observational campaign aimed at unveiling the optical/IR counterparts of an X–ray source sample made up by either recently discovered X–ray pulsators or by well-known transient X–ray pulsars with unknown companion. The project, so far, has led us to the unambiguous discovery of the optical counterparts to $``$10 objects (e.g. GS 0834$``$43, Israel et al. 2000a; XTE J1946+274, Verrecchia et al. 2001; AX J1820.5$``$1434, Israel et al. 2000b). In some cases $`V`$ magnitudes in the 20–22 range and $`VR>2`$ have been measured in our sample of identified optical/IR counterparts.

The transient X–ray pulsar GS 1843+009 was discovered on 1988 April 3 by GINGA intruments during a galactic plane scan observation near the Scutum region (Makino et al. 1988a ; 1988b) and later confirmed through pointed observations carried out on 1998 April 19 and 20. Coherent pulsations at a period of $`P=29.5056\pm 0.0002`$ s (pulsed fraction $``$7%) were discovered in its X–ray flux, and a distance of at least 5 kpc was proposed (Koyama et al. 1990a ; 1990b ). The source was detected again during an outburst on 1997 March 3 by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on board CGRO (Wilson et al. (1997)). A new measurement of the pulse period, $`P=29.5631\pm 0.0003`$ s, allowed a period derivative to be inferred of $`\dot{P}=(3.65\pm 0.11)\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^8`$ s s-1.

A pointed observation carried out on 1997 March 5 by the RXTE Proportional Counter Array (PCA) found the source at a flux level of 60 mCrab (2–60 keV; Takeshima (1997)). On 1997 April 4 the BeppoSAX Narrow Field Instruments (NFIs) performed a pointed observation of GS 1843+009 (Piraino et al. (1998); 2000). By exploiting the spatial resolution of the BeppoSAX imaging instruments, the 90% uncertainty for the position of GS 1843+009 was constrained to be within a 30″ radius circular error region centered on $`\mathrm{RA}=18^\mathrm{h}45^\mathrm{m}34^\mathrm{s}\pm 2^\mathrm{s}`$, $`\mathrm{Dec}=0^{}52\stackrel{}{.}5\pm 0\stackrel{}{.}5`$ (equinox 2000; Santangelo et al. (1997)). On the same day, the source was also observed with the ROSAT High Resolution Imager (HRI) which inferred a position of $`\mathrm{RA}=18^\mathrm{h}45^\mathrm{m}36\stackrel{s}{.}9\pm 0.^\mathrm{s}6`$, $`\mathrm{Dec}=0^{}51^{}45^{\prime \prime }\pm 10^{\prime \prime }`$ (90% confidence level uncertainty, equinox 2000; Dennerl & Greiner (1997)).

## 2 X–ray position

The positions for GS 1843+009 inferred from the BeppoSAX and the ROSAT observations which were carried out within a few hours of each other, are only marginally consistent ($``$63″ distance each other). In order to reconcile this difference we re–analysed both observations. The ROSAT HRI position was extracted from the Brera Multiscale Wavelet (BMW) catalog obtained by means of a wavelet–based detection technique developed to analyse high energy astronomical images (Lazzati et al. 1999; Campana et al. 1999). Only one source, namely 1BMW 184536.8+005148, was found within the HRI field of view (475 s of effective exposure time). The position of the source, $`\mathrm{RA}=18^\mathrm{h}45^\mathrm{m}36\stackrel{s}{.}8`$, $`\mathrm{Dec}=0^{}51^{}47.5^{\prime \prime }`$ (90 % confidence error radius $`9^{\prime \prime }`$, equinox 2000), is nearly coincident to that inferred by Dennerl & Greiner (1997).

Although also for the BeppoSAX observation we obtained nearly the same position reported by Santangelo et al. (1997), we note that in this case the uncertainty radius at 90% cannot be set to 30″ due to the relatively poor aspect spacecraft solution during this observation (the STR\_CONF star traker flag in the house–keeping data $``$ 3) and, therefore, a more realistic value in the 50″–70″ range must be considered. In the following we will refer to the ROSAT HRI position obtained from the BMW catalog and by Dennerl & Greiner (1997) as the correct one.

## 3 Optical/IR observations

We observed the field including the ROSAT HRI error circle several times during 1997–2000 both in the optical and IR band (see Table 1). The field was first imaged at optical wavelengths ($`VRI`$ filters) on 1997 July 14 with the 1.0-m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope (JKT; La Palma) equipped with the TEK4 CCD (5$`\stackrel{}{.}`$6 $`\times `$ 5$`\stackrel{}{.}`$6 field of view and 0$`.^{\prime \prime }`$33/pixel resolution). A further set of $`VRI`$ images was obtained at the JKT on 1999 July 24 with the SITe2 CCD (10′$`\times `$ 10′ field of view and 0$`.^{\prime \prime }`$33/pixel resolution). In both cases Starlink’s CCDPACK (Draper 2000) was used to perform the bias subtraction and flat–field correction, while GAIA (Draper & Gray 2000) was employed for the photometry.

Optical images in the $`B`$ (600 s) and $`VRI`$ (300 s each) filters were taken on 2000 May 5 with the ESO 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla equipped with the Superb Seeing Imager – 2 (SUSI2; 5$`\stackrel{}{.}`$5 $`\times `$ 5$`\stackrel{}{.}`$5 field of view and 0$`.^{\prime \prime }`$16/pixel resolution). The data were reduced using standard ESO–MIDAS and IRAF procedures for bias subtraction and flat–field correction. Photometry for each stellar object in the image was derived with the DAOPHOT II program (Stetson 1987). Astrometry of the images was performed by using the USNO star catalog which provides an absolute positional accuracy of $``$0$`.^{\prime \prime }`$5 (Monet 1998). The GS 1843+009 field was further observed in the $`J`$ (30 s) and $`H`$ (30 s) filters on 2000 June 3 from the 1.1-m AZT–24 telescope at Campo Imperatore (Italy) equipped with the Supernova Watchdogging IR Camera (SWIRCAM; 4$`\stackrel{}{.}`$4 $`\times `$ 4$`\stackrel{}{.}`$4 field of view and 1$`.^{\prime \prime }`$04/pixel resolution). Data analysis procedures similar to those described above were applied. Within the X–ray positional uncertainty circle we detected only one highly reddened ($`VR=2.09`$) and relatively bright ($`H=13.2`$) IR object (see Fig. 1) as expected for a distant and instrinsically blue early–type star. Moreover the star is the only variable object in the error circle Table 2 lists the results of the optical and IR photometry for the proposed optical counterpart of GS 1843+009.

Spectroscopic observations of the candidate optical counterpart were obtained on 2000 June 30 with the 1.52 m “Cassini” telescope (Loiano Observatory) equipped with the Bologna Faint Objects Spectrometer and Camera (BFOSC; Bregoli et al. BFMFO87 (1987); Merighi et al. MMCMBO94 (1994); 12$`\stackrel{}{.}`$2 $`\times `$ 12$`\stackrel{}{.}`$2 field of view and 0$`.^{\prime \prime }`$58/pixel resolution). We performed low–resolution (15Å) spectroscopy for a total exposure time of 5 400 s (3$`\times `$ 1 800 s). After applying standard corrections, cosmic rays were removed from each spectrum and the sky–subtracted stellar spectra were obtained, corrected for atmospheric extinction. The signal to noise (S/N) ratio was extremely low and object counts were only detected above 5500Å. A strong emission line (equivalent width, EW, of –14$`\pm `$2Å and Full Width Half Maximum, FWHM, consistent with the instrumental resolution) was detected, its wavelength corresponding to that of H$`\alpha `$. This result strongly suggested that the optical source was associated with GS 1843+009. In order to achieve better statistics we further observed the candidate optical counterpart to GS 1843+009 on 2000 July 26 and 27 from the ESO 1.5-m Danish telescope (La Silla, Chile) equipped with the Danish Faint Object Spectrometer Camera (DFOSC; 15′ $`\times `$ 15′ field of view and 0$`.^{\prime \prime }`$4/pixel resolution). Five low–resolution (15Å) spectra were obtained for a total effective exposure time of 14 400 s. Reduction procedures similar to those described above were applied to each spectrum. The resulting summed spectrum (flux uncalibrated) is shown in Fig. 2. Also in this case the H$`\alpha `$ emission line was evident (EW of –14$`\pm `$1 Å), while no other emission lines were detected.

Finally on 2000 August 20 and 21 two medium–resolution spectra (total on–source integrations of 3 600 s and 1 800 s respectively) were taken with the Intermediate Dispersion Spectroscopic and Imaging System (ISIS) mounted on the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope (WHT), located at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, (La Palma, Spain). The blue arm was equipped with the R158B grating and the EEV#10 CCD, which gives a nominal dispersion of $``$1.6Å/pixel. The resolution at $``$6000Å, estimated from the FWHM of arc lines, is $``$6Å. The red arm was equipped with the R316R grating and the Tek4 CCD, which gives a nominal dispersion of $``$1.5Å/pixel (the resolution is $``$3.3Å at $``$8000Å).

The $`I`$–band spectrum of the optical counterpart to GS 1843+009 displays the wealth of emission lines typical of early–type Be stars, which is generally seen in Be/X-ray binary counterparts (Negueruela & Torrejón, 2001; see Fig. 3). The Paschen series appears strongly in emission from Pa11 down to Pa22 (though the last members of the series are difficult to measure due to increasing atmospheric contamination). Parameters of several emission lines are displayed in Table 3. Pa18 is clearly double–peaked, indicating blend with O i $`\lambda `$8446Å. The larger FWHMs and EWs of Pa15 and Pa16 indicate that they are also blended with the Ca ii $`\lambda \lambda `$ 8498, 8542 Å lines, though there is nothing in the parameters of Pa13 to make us suspect its blending with the third member of the Ca ii triplet, at $`\lambda `$8662Å. The N i band at $`\lambda \lambda `$ 8680 – 8686 Å, sometimes seen in emission in Be stars (Andrillat et al. 1988) could be on the red wing of Pa13, but the S/N ratio is not enough to ascertain it.

Apart from H$`\alpha `$, no other lines are observed in the blue part of the optical spectrum. The flux shortwards of $`\lambda 6000`$Å is too weak for any line to be detected. The O i $`\lambda \lambda `$ 7772 – 7775 Å band, which is sometimes seen in emission in Be stars, falls in the region affected by the dichroic. The lack of any spectral absorption features prevents us from an accurate spectral classification. However, the presence of strong emission in the Paschen series identifies the star as earlier than B2 (Andrillat et al. 1988), i.e., in the spectral range occupied by known Galactic Be/X–ray binary counterparts (Negueruela 1998).

Due to the difficulty in determining the local continuum, the values of EWs have large uncertainties, typically $`15`$%, but as high as 30% for Pa11 (uncertainties have been estimated by considering different continuum levels). The narrowness of all the unblended lines as well as their shape, clearly shows that this Be star is close to pole–on. Be stars with larger inclinations to the line–of–sight generally display double–peaked Paschen emission lines with $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_{\mathrm{peak}}>200\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, i.e., clearly separable at this resolution.

## 4 Discussion and Conclusion

The X–ray, optical and IR observations of the field of GS 1843+009 presented here led to the identification of the optical counterpart of this 29.5 s transient X–ray pulsar discovered in 1988. The measurement of the distance to GS 1843+009 based on the optical data is hampered by the uncertainties in the spectral classification.

However some information can be inferred based on our optical and IR photometric measurements. The intrinsic $`(VR)`$ color for GS 1843+009 is $`0.10.15`$ (assuming a main sequence or sub–giant star with spectral type in the B0–B2 range). Since the observed $`(VR)`$ is $`1.72.1`$ the reddening should amount to $`E_{VR}1.82.3`$, and assuming a standard reddening law (Fitzpatrick 1999) this converts to $`A_R5.67`$, $`A_V79`$ and $`E_{BV}2.32.9`$ (regardless of whether the reddening medium is uniformly distributed along the line of sight or is intrinsic to the source). However from the X–ray spectral fits (Piraino et al. 2000) a $`N_H`$ of 2–3 $`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 was derived, corresponding to an $`E_{BV}3.25`$ (Bohlin et al. 1978), which is not consistent with the above results. Considering the total Galaxy $`N_H`$ column in the direction of GS 1843+009, 1–2$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2, a value of $`E_{BV}2.73.2`$ was inferred. This result suggests that at least part of the inferred X–ray $`N_H`$ is local to the system and obscures the neutron star during outbursts and that the binary system is quite far from us. A good agreement with the $`V`$, $`R`$ and $`I`$ measurements is obtained for a B1IV–V star at a distance larger than 10 kpc (note that in the direction to GS 1843+009 the Galaxy edge is located at $`15`$ kpc) and an $`E_{BV}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2.8}`$. However, according to Hayakawa et al. (1977), the interstellar extinction to the direction of GS 1843+009 is somewhat larger than the average Galactic plane value, which might imply a smaller distance (in the 5–8 kpc range) to the source. We can reasonably discard the possibility of a luminosity class III which would imply an $`E_{BV}3.2`$ and an IR–deficiency. For a reference B1V–IV star ($`M_V3.5`$) at a distance of 10–15 kpc and based on the IR photometry we infer an excess $`1.5`$ and $`1.2`$ magnitudes in $`J`$ and $`H`$ filters, respectively, suggesting the presence of a circumstellar envelope. We also note that the proposed counterpart is the only object displaying flux variability in the field of GS 1843+009 ($`2\sigma `$ confidence level in the $`V`$ and $`I`$ band) as expected for Be/X–ray binaries, further suggesting the correctness of the identification.

Based on both photometric and spectroscopic findings we conclude that the proposed optical counterpart of GS 1843+009 is most likely a B0–2 V–IVe variable star at a distance larger than 10 kpc. A more accurate distance and spectral classification would require more detailed optical spectroscopic observations in the blue end of the spectrum with a larger telescope.

For a distance of 10–15 kpc and a 1–10 keV flux of $``$ 6 $`\times `$ 10-10 erg s-1 cm-2 as measured by BeppoSAX during the 1997 April outburst (Piraino et al. 2000) we obtain an X–ray luminosity of LX (1–10 keV) $``$ 5–20 $`\times `$ 1036 erg s-1. Such a luminosity is a typical value shown by X–ray pulsars in binary systems during Type I outbursts (Stella et al. 1986; Negueruela 1998) occurring close to the time of periastron passage and with a periodic recurrence at the orbital period of the system.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work is supported through CNAA, ASI and Ministero dell’Università e Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (MURST) grants. IN and GLI thank the service observing programme at the WHT in La Palma. AJN and DHM thank the service observing programme at the JKT in La Palma. During part of this work, IN was supported by an ESA external fellowship. The WHT and JKT are operated on the island of La Palma by the Royal Greenwich Observatory in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.


text:
# Random Walks on the Braid Group 𝐵₃ and Magnetic Translations in Hyperbolic Geometry

## 1 Introduction and basic definitions

This paper presents different results concerning random walks on the three–strand braid group $`B_3`$. Besides the relevance of this work at a purely algebraic level (see  for a review of knot theory), its usefulness in the understanding of topological problems in statistical physics is also undeniable. We will keep in mind the picture of entanglements of chain–like objects, like polymers  or vortex lines in super conductors . The tools involved in this work unexpectedly lead to the study of the quantum mechanics of a charged particle moving on the hyperbolic plane in a constant magnetic field, and allow a discrete interpretation of an exact result  giving the probability distribution of the area enclosed by a hyperbolic Brownian motion. This connection between $`B_3`$ and quantum mechanics in hyperbolic geometry is the main new result of this paper; it is established by proposition 2 and theorem 1. The mathematical ingredients of this theorem, such as group cohomology and central extensions of groups, as well as the concept of generalized magnetic translation operators of definition 3, are introduced in a general way, in order to show that this interpretation of a central extension as a magnetic field is a general result that can be adapted to other extensions of lattice groups. This paper focuses on the case of $`B_3`$, because of its physical importance; in particular, using the relation between $`B_3`$ and $`PSL(2,)`$ and between the corresponding $`C^{}`$–algebras enlightened by proposition 3, we obtain theorem 2 and theorem 3, which provide rigorous derivations of the return probability and the drift for $`B_3`$, results which were more intuitively given in . Here we use the more systematic method of studying the transition operator and the algebra it belongs to, which allows a possible generalization of these results to other Abelian extensions of hyperbolic groups.

Consider the 3D model of $`N`$ directed polymer chains, labelled by $`\stackrel{}{r}_i(t)=(x_i(t),y_i(t))`$, attached at one end (on the plane $`t=0`$), growing along the direction $`t>0`$ and fluctuating in the plane $`(x,y)`$. We assume periodic boundary condition, that is $`\{\stackrel{}{r}_i(T)\}=\{\stackrel{}{r}_{p(i)}(0)\})`$, $`p`$ being a permutation over $`N`$ elements. We are interested in the complexity of this randomly generated entanglement, which can play a crucial role in macroscopic physical properties, such as polymer elasticity. Each topological configuration can be exactly encoded by an element of $`B_N`$, that is a word whose letters are the generators of the group, associated to elementary moves as shown in figure 1. Looking at the projection onto the plane $`(t,x)`$, elementary moves correspond to positive/negative crossings. We restrict our study to the simplest non commutative case $`N=3`$, whose set of generators is $`S=\{\sigma _1,\sigma _2,\sigma _1^1,\sigma _2^1\}`$. A randomly generated configuration corresponds to an element $`w_n`$, random product of $`n`$ generators; in other terms we focus on the following Markov process

$$\begin{array}{cc}w_0=\mathrm{Id}\hfill & \\ w_n=w_{n1}\zeta _n\mathrm{for}n1\hfill & \end{array}$$
(1)
where $`\zeta _n`$ are i.i.d. random variables in $`S`$. Average over this random variable will be denoted by $`.`$. A more thorough study would require to establish a law $`n(T)`$, giving the time scaling of the number of elementary moves, which is not discussed here. We study the probability distribution of $`L(w_n)`$, the irreducible length in the metric of words, or in other terms the minimal number of generators necessary to build $`w_n`$. $`L(w_n)`$ is exactly the minimal number of crossings necessary to represent the entanglement, and can therefore be seen as an indicator of the braid complexity. In particular, if $`L(w_n)=0`$ the braid is trivial (or unlinked).

We now introduce $`B_3`$ in a more algebraic way, useful to study random processes on this group.

Definition 1. $`B_3`$ is defined by the set of generators $`S=\{\sigma _1,\sigma _2,\sigma _1^1,\sigma _2^1\}`$ together with the commutation relation

$$\sigma _1\sigma _2\sigma _1=\sigma _2\sigma _1\sigma _2$$
(2)
or equivalently by the generators $`S^{}=\{a,b,a^1,b^1\}`$ together with the relation

$$a^2=b^3$$
(3)
The equivalence of these (so-called Artin) presentations is explicit if one sets:

$$\begin{array}{c}a=\sigma _1\sigma _2\sigma _1\hfill \\ b=\sigma _1\sigma _2\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
It is known that $`B_3`$ is a central extension of $`PSL(2,)`$111the group of $`2\times 2`$ unimodular matrices of integer entries, factored by $`\pm \mathrm{Id}`$, i–e that $`B_3`$ factored by its center $`Z`$ is isomorphic to $`PSL(2,)`$. Let us recall that the center $`Z`$ of $`B_3`$, which is the subgroup of elements commuting with any element of $`B_3`$, is generated by $`a^2=b^3=\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$. $`\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$ is the usual notation for the generator of the center in Artin groups theory. For $`B_3`$, one has simply $`\mathrm{\Delta }=a`$. It is useful to introduce

$$i:\{\begin{array}{ccc}& & Z\\ n& & i(n)=\mathrm{\Delta }^{2n}\end{array}$$
(5)
which shows that $`Z`$ is isomorphic to $``$. We then denote by $`\pi `$ the canonical projection onto $`PSL(2,)`$ and by $`s`$ a cross–section of $`\pi `$, that is an application such that $`\pi s=\mathrm{id}`$. It is convenient to summarize these elements by writing the following exact sequence:

$$0\stackrel{i}{}B_3\stackrel{\pi }{}PSL(2,)1$$
(6)
Note that $`PSL(2,)`$ is a free product $`_2_3`$, $`\pi (a)`$ and $`\pi (b)`$ being the corresponding generators of order 2 and 3 respectively. The generators of the group $`B_3`$ can be represented by $`GL(2,[u^{\pm 1}])`$–matrices. To be more precise:

Definition 2. (see ) The Burau representation of $`B_3`$ is given by

$$\sigma _1=\left(\begin{array}{cc}u^2& 1\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right);\sigma _2=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ u^2& u^2\end{array}\right)$$
(7)
where $`u`$ is a free parameter. This representation is faithful.

We conveniently introduce an auxiliary group, $`PSL(2,)_u`$, built on generators (4) of this representation of $`B_3`$ normalized by the determinant:

$$a_u=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1/u\\ u& 0\end{array}\right);b_u=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 1& 1\end{array}\right)$$
(8)
This group is a “deformation” of $`PSL(2,)`$, which preserves all commutation relations. For $`u=1`$, one has $`PSL(2,)_u=PSL(2,)`$. For a more detailed discussion of braid groups the reader is referred to .

## 2 Random processes on $`B_3`$: magnetic random walk formalism

We now show that a free random walk on $`B_3`$ can be viewed as a random walk on $`PSL(2,)`$ with magnetic field (we will say a magnetic random walk). The key point is that $`B_3`$ is a central extension of $`PSL(2,)`$. We will use systematically the set of generators $`S^{}=\{a,a^1,b,b^1\}`$, to avoid technical complexity, keeping in mind that the formalism can be adapted to generators $`S=\{\sigma _1,\sigma _2,\sigma _1^1,\sigma _2^1\}`$ introduced previously. Results of physical interest will be given in terms of these generators $`S`$. First note that the Cayley graph222The graph with set $`B_3`$ of vertices, and set $`\{\{x,xs\}:xB_3,sS^{}\}`$ of edges of $`B_3`$ is three dimensional. As shown in Fig.2, the map $`\pi `$ can then be viewed as a projection from 3D to 2D; the vertical axis represents the “center” coordinate. Intuitively, we will show that this center term counts the magnetic flux through the random path.

Namely, if one inserts in each elementary cell of the hyperbolic lattice a unit ”magnetic flux” (see Fig.2) and denotes by $`f`$ the total flux through a closed path on $`PSL(2,)`$, then any word $`w_n^Z`$ corresponding to a walk ending in $`Z(B_3)`$ (note that $`\pi (w_n^Z)`$ is a closed path on $`PSL(2,)`$) can be written as

$$w_n^Z=\mathrm{\Delta }^{2f}$$

Hence the function $`p_n(f)`$ giving the joint probability to obtain a closed $`n`$–step loop on the graph $`PSL(2,)`$ carrying a flux $`f`$ is of great interest, especially because $`p_n(0)`$ is the probability to get a trivial braid (i.e. completely reducible word).

Let us establish more rigorously this relation between $`B_3`$ and what could be interpreted as a hyperbolic version of the Harper-Hofstadter problem . To introduce the usual setting of this problem, we define the transition operator, or discrete Laplace operator,

$$h=\frac{1}{4}(a+a^1+b+b^1)$$
(9)
viewed as an element of $`C^{}(B_3)`$333That is the algebra generated by the left regular representation of $`B_3`$ on $`l^2(B_3)`$. We use the following decomposition for any $`XC^{}(B_3)`$

$$X=\underset{wB_3}{}c_w(X)w$$
(10)
with $`c_w`$ and the elements $`w`$ of $`B_3`$ are identified with the operators acting on $`l^2(B_3)`$. Different quantities characterizing random walks on $`B_3`$ are obtained from $`h`$. One is the return probability

$$p_n(0)=c_{\mathrm{Id}}(h^n)\tau (h^n)$$
(11)
where Id denotes the identity operator. This scalar component $`\tau `$ of an operator is called a tracial state on $`C^{}(B_3)`$. Another quantity of interest is the drift

$$l_{B_3}=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{L^{B_3}(w_n)}{n}=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{n}\underset{wB_3}{}c_w(h^n)L^{B_3}(w)$$
(12)
Note that these quantities depend only on the algebraic structure of $`C^{}(B_3)`$; they are purely combinatorial objects which in particular do not depend on the representation of the algebra. We are therefore allowed to use a more convenient isomorphic algebra, what is the aim of the following construction. Following the definition of rotation algebras in , we build a $`C^{}`$–algebra $`R_\theta `$, generated by $`A_\theta ,B_\theta `$ defined formally by the following $``$–homomorphism

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_\theta :\{\begin{array}{cccc}a\hfill & \hfill & A_\theta \hfill & \\ b\hfill & \hfill & B_\theta \hfill & \\ \mathrm{\Delta }^2\hfill & \hfill & e^{i\theta }\hfill & \end{array}$$
(13)
The aim of the following is to construct explicitly a representation of $`R_\theta `$ on $`l^2(PSL(2,))`$, and to show that $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\theta (h)`$ is exactly the Hamiltonian of a particle moving on the graph $`PSL(2,)`$ in a magnetic field of elementary flux $`\theta `$. This point accounts more rigorously for the geometrical picture given above. In a more mathematical language, we use general results of group cohomology (see  for review). Namely, we use the following proposition:

Proposition 1. There exists an integer–valued map $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ satisfying

$$\mathrm{\Theta }(x,yz)+\mathrm{\Theta }(y,z)=\mathrm{\Theta }(xy,z)+\mathrm{\Theta }(x,y),$$
(14)
such that $`B_3`$ is isomorphic to the Cartesian product $`\times PSL(2,)`$ with the following multiplication

$$(m,x).(n,y)=(m+n+\mathrm{\Theta }(x,y),xy)$$
(15)
Proof. This is a direct application of a general theorem of classification of extensions with Abelian kernel (see ) to the decomposition (6) of $`B_3`$ . $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is an element of $`H^2(PSL(2,),)`$, the set of so–called group 2–cocycles, and is unique up to cohomology equivalence. Associativity of the product (15) is ensured by (14). $`\mathrm{}`$

We now trivially map $`\times PSL(2,)`$ into $`U(1)\times PSL(2,)`$ via $`(n,w)e^{in\theta }w`$. Now the identification

$$\begin{array}{ccc}A_\theta \hfill & \hfill & (0,\pi (a))\hfill \\ B_\theta \hfill & \hfill & (0,\pi (b))\hfill \end{array}$$
(16)
clarifies our point: $`B_3`$ (via $`R_\theta `$) is identified with $`U(1)\times PSL(2,)`$, which is a “magnetic” equivalent of $`PSL(2,)`$. Indeed the 2–cocycle $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the discrete analogue of a 2–form, or a magnetic field in physical terms. Cohomology equivalence is then interpreted as gauge invariance. We believe that this point, put forward in details in , is very important and that this magnetic interpretation of central extensions can be fruitfully generalized to other groups.

## 3 Quantum mechanics in hyperbolic geometry

We now come to the explicit construction of a representation of $`R_\theta `$ on $`l^2(PSL(2,))`$, showing in particular that $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\theta (h)`$ is exactly the Hamiltonian of a particle moving on the graph $`PSL(2,)`$ in a magnetic field of elementary flux $`\theta `$. Sunada has given in  a general definition of discrete magnetic Schrödinger operators (generalized Harper operators). We here wish to give a construction compatible with this definition, starting from the continuous problem.

### 3.1 Continuous case

We consider the quantum mechanics of a charged particle moving on the hyperbolic plane in a constant magnetic field $`B`$. This problem has been extensively studied in . Let us recall some results of . We denote by $``$ the upper half-plane of the complex variable $`z=x+iy(y>0)`$ endowed with a metric $`g`$ such that

$$ds^2=\frac{dx^2+dy^2}{y^2}$$
(17)
The Lagrangian of the particle, of mass $`1/2`$ and charge 1, reads

$$=\frac{\dot{x}^2+\dot{y}^2}{y^2}B\frac{\dot{x}}{y}$$
(18)
A thorough study of the problem shows that at a classical level, $`PSL(2,)`$ acts as dynamical symmetry: it changes $``$ by total derivative. We choose the following basis of $`𝔰𝔩(2,)`$, the Lie algebra of $`PSL(2,)`$:

$$j_0=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& \frac{1}{2}\\ \frac{1}{2}& 0\end{array}\right),j_1=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& \frac{1}{2}\\ \frac{1}{2}& 0\end{array}\right),j_2=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{2}& 0\\ 0& \frac{1}{2}\end{array}\right)$$
(19)
The corresponding constants of motion are obtained through Noether theorem. Following the canonical quantization procedure one gets

$$\begin{array}{ccc}J_0=p_x(x^2y^2+1)/2+xyp_yBy\hfill & & \\ J_1=p_x(y^2x^2+1)/2xyp_y+By\hfill & & \\ J_2=xp_x+yp_y\hfill & & \end{array}$$
(20)
where the momentum operators are given by

$$p_x=i\frac{}{x},p_y=i\frac{}{y}+\frac{i}{y}$$
(21)
These generators satisfy the canonical form of the $`SO(2,1)`$ (or $`SU(1,1)`$ for the covering group) algebra. This symmetry is of great interest since the Hamiltonian is straightforwardly expressed in terms of the Casimir (note that we use the standard convention for the $`SO(2,1)`$ norm) $`C=J^2=J_iJ^i=J_0^2J_1^2J_2^2`$:

$$H=\frac{B^2}{4}\frac{C}{4}$$
(22)
which allows to obtain the spectrum. One can explicitly build a standard basis $`|jm>`$ of the Hilbert space $``$ such that

$$\begin{array}{ccc}<jm|jm^{}>\hfill & =\hfill & \delta _{mm^{}}\hfill \\ C|jm>\hfill & =\hfill & j(j+1)|jm>\hfill \\ J_0|jm>\hfill & =\hfill & m|jm>\hfill \end{array}$$
(23)
One distinguishes a continuous and discrete part of the spectrum, depending on the value of $`j`$. In any case, one has

$$m=B+n,n$$
(24)
### 3.2 Discretization: $`B_3`$ generators as generalized magnetic translation operators

We now investigate further the $`PSL(2,)`$ symmetry of this problem, and in particular we wish to define generalized magnetic translation operators, the same way as magnetic translation operators are defined in Euclidean geometry (see  for review). We are looking for a representation of the symmetry group of the problem on the Hilbert space $``$ of wave functions. For sake of simplicity, we propose a definition in the case of the hyperbolic plane, keeping in mind that a more general formulation follows straightforwardly. The same construction can be performed in particular as soon as the symmetry group is a Lie group; then discretization requires a lattice subgroup of this Lie group.

Definition 3. We call generalized magnetic translation operator (GMTO), denoted by $`𝒪_\tau `$, the unitary operator corresponding to an isometry $`\tau `$ acting on a wave function $`\psi `$ as follows:

$$𝒪_\tau [\psi ](z)=\psi (\tau ^1z)$$
(25)
such that $`[𝒪_\tau ,H]=0`$.

The Wigner theorem (see ) shows that such a representation (projective unitary representation) exists up to a phase:

$$𝒪_{\tau \tau ^{}}=e^{i\mathrm{\Phi }(\tau ,\tau ^{})}𝒪_\tau 𝒪_\tau ^{}$$
(26)
In particular for a closed sequence of isometries $`\gamma ={\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\tau _i=\mathrm{Id}`$, the corresponding product of operators acts on a wave function $`\psi `$ as follows:

$$[\underset{i}{}𝒪_{\tau _i}](\psi )(z)=\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{\Phi }_\gamma )\psi (z)$$
(27)
Where $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\gamma `$ is the magnetic flux through the loop $`\gamma `$.

We obtain explicitly GMTO by exponentiating infinitesimal generators (20). Namely we consider the following diagram

$$\begin{array}{ccccccc}PSL(2,)& \stackrel{\mathrm{log}}{}& 𝔰𝔩(2,)& \stackrel{\varphi }{}& L()& \stackrel{\mathrm{exp}}{}& U()\\ x& & \alpha ^ij_i& & \alpha ^iJ_i& & e^{i\alpha ^iJ_i}\end{array}$$
(28)
where $`L()`$ is the set of linear operators on $``$ and $`U()`$ the group of unitary operators. Then

Proposition 2. The following homomorphism

$$\chi =\mathrm{exp}\varphi \mathrm{log}:PSL(2,)U()$$
(29)
defines a projective unitary representation of $`PSL(2,)`$.

Proof. The first ingredients are the usual tools employed to reduce representation problems for connected Lie groups to their Lie algebra: this uses the exponential map and the Campell-Hausdorff formula. Now at the algebra level, note that $`\varphi `$ maps $`𝔰𝔩(2,)`$ to a precise representation of the $`SU(1,1)`$ algebra in $`L()`$. Irreducible representations of $`SU(1,1)`$ have been classified in , and the one we consider here is explicitly defined in . In particular for $`B`$ non integer, it is a proper representation of the algebra, but a projective representation of the group. This comes from the fact that $`SU(1,1)`$ is multi-connected.$`\mathrm{}`$

We now discretize the problem, considering transformations on hyperbolic lattices of $``$: we study the representation of $`PSL(2,)_u`$ (which is a lattice subgroup of $`PSL(2,)`$) induced by $`\chi `$. Using the explicit form (8), we compute the operators associated to elementary steps on $`PSL(2,)_u`$:

$$\chi (a_u)=\mathrm{exp}(i\pi \alpha _u^iJ_i)\mathrm{and}\chi (b_u)=\mathrm{exp}(\frac{2i\pi }{3}\beta _u^iJ_i)$$
(30)
with $`\alpha _u=\frac{1}{2}(u+1/u,1/uu,0);\beta _u=(2/\sqrt{3},0,1/\sqrt{3})`$. Note that $`J`$ transforms naturally as a vector of $`SO(2,1)`$. This is due to the following identity:

$$[J^iu_i,J^iv_i]=iϵ_{ijk}J^iu_jv_k$$
(31)
which is just a generalization of the maybe more familiar relations between Euclidean rotations generators ($`SU(2)`$ case). $`\alpha _u`$ (resp. $`\beta _u`$) being of norm 1, $`\alpha _u^iJ_i`$ (resp. $`\beta _u^iJ_i`$) has the same spectrum as the compact generator $`J_0`$ given in (23), if one consider a basis obtained by a nonlinear rotation (depending on $`\alpha _u`$ or $`\beta _u`$) of the standard basis. Using the spectrum (24), this allows to compute the phase factors for the elementary loops of $`PSL(2,)_u`$, predicted by the Wigner theorem:

$$\chi (a_u)^2=\chi (b_u)^3=e^{2i\pi B}\mathrm{Id}$$
(32)
The key point is that this extra relation, introduced by the representation itself, restores the complete algebraic structure of $`B_3`$. The subgroup of $`U()`$ generated by $`\chi (a_u)`$ and $`\chi (b_u)`$ is then isomorphic to $`B_3`$. In other words, we claim that

Theorem 1. The homomorphism

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=\chi \pi :B_3U()$$
(33)
defines a representation of the braid group $`B_3`$.

Proof. It is known that any projective representation of a group is a proper representation of a covering group. Comparing (32) and (2) shows that in our case this covering group is $`B_3`$.$`\mathrm{}`$

Note that $`\pi `$ and therefore $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ depend implicitly on the Burau parameter $`u`$. If $`\theta =2\pi B`$, $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ coincides with $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\theta `$ introduced previously and defines by extension a representation of $`R_\theta `$ (rigorously, the action defined above is on $``$; we assume that this induces naturally an action on $`l^2(PSL(2,))`$). $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\theta (a)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\theta (b)`$ being by construction GMTO, $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\theta (h)`$ is the discrete Hamiltonian of the problem.

Remark. The 2–cocycle $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is not needed explicitly in this construction. It can nevertheless be obtained naturally as a holonomy factor as in .

## 4 Derivation of the drift and return probability within this formalism

The point is that the representation above (we now identify $`X`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\theta (X)`$), in agreement with proposition 2, allows to define a new decomposition in $`C^{}(B_3)`$ parametrized by $`PSL(2,)`$. We need to introduce an irreducible form on $`PSL(2,)`$, namely we write each element $`\gamma =P_\gamma (\pi (a),\pi (b))`$, where $`P_\gamma `$ is a polynomial of minimal order. Then

Proposition 3. The following decomposition holds in $`C^{}(B_3)`$

$$X=\underset{\gamma PSL(2,)}{}\underset{n}{}c_{n,\gamma }(X)e^{in\theta }P_\gamma (A_\theta ,B_\theta )$$
(34)
This decomposition naturally generates a map $`m_\theta :C^{}(B_3)C^{}(PSL(2,))`$ by setting

$$\begin{array}{ccc}m_\theta (X)& =& \underset{\gamma PSL(2,)}{}\underset{n}{}c_{n,\gamma }(X)e^{in\theta }\gamma \\ & =& \underset{\gamma PSL(2,)}{}\stackrel{~}{c}_\gamma (m_\theta (X))\gamma \end{array}$$
(35)
Note that this map is not a homomorphism, it is built for combinatorial purposes only. We denote by $`\mathrm{tr}`$ the tracial state on $`C^{}(PSL(2,))`$, that is the scalar component of an operator: $`\mathrm{tr}(Y)=\stackrel{~}{c}_{Id}(Y)`$. This parameterization leads, after some algebra, to the following:

$$p_n(f)=\frac{1}{2\pi }_\pi ^\pi \mathrm{tr}(m_\theta (h^n))e^{if\theta }𝑑\theta $$
(36)
We now use this framework to compute the desired quantities for a random walk on $`B_3`$. The main results were originally exposed in , with a more intuitive approach. We here propose a more rigorous proof relying on the connection between $`B_3`$ and $`PSL(2,)`$ established in theorem 1 and proposition 3. This new approach is also more general since it implies a better understanding of the transition operator $`h`$ and the algebra $`C^{}(B_3)`$, objects very useful in various contexts.

### 4.1 Return probability and hyperbolic area problem

Theorem 2. The joint probability distribution for a simple random walk on $`PSL(2,)`$ to return to the origin after $`n`$ steps enclosing an area $`f`$ is given by:

$$p_n(f)\frac{\lambda ^n}{n^2}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{f^2}{2n\sigma ^2}\right)$$
(37)
$`\lambda `$ and $`\sigma `$ depending on the system of generators. For $`S=\{\sigma _1,\sigma _2,\sigma _1^1,\sigma _2^1\}`$, $`\sigma _S=1/6`$ and $`\lambda _S=(1+2\sqrt{2})/4`$.

Proof. Defining the auxiliary operator

$$\stackrel{~}{h}_\theta =\frac{1}{4}(e^{i\theta /2}\pi (a)+e^{i\theta /2}\pi (a)^1+e^{i\theta /3}\pi (b)+e^{i\theta /3}\pi (b)^1)$$
(38)
which satisfies $`\mathrm{tr}(\stackrel{~}{h}_\theta ^n)=\mathrm{tr}(m_\theta (h^n))`$, allows to derive asymptotics of $`p_n(f)`$. We define

$$\stackrel{~}{c}_k^n(\theta )=\underset{\gamma _k,L(\gamma _k)=k}{}\stackrel{~}{c}_{\gamma _k}(\stackrel{~}{h}_\theta ^n)$$
(39)
which satisfies the following recursion

$`\stackrel{~}{c}_k^n(\theta )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma _{k1},L(\gamma _{k1})=k1}{}}\stackrel{~}{c}_{\gamma _{k1}}(m_\theta (h^n))g_1(\gamma _{k1})`$ (40)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma _k,L(\gamma _k)=k}{}}\stackrel{~}{c}_{\gamma _k}(m_\theta (h^n)g_0(\gamma _k)`$ (41)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma _{k+1},L(\gamma _{k+1})=k+1}{}}\stackrel{~}{c}_{\gamma _{k+1}}(m_\theta (h^n))g_1(\gamma _{k+1})`$ (42)
where $`g_i(\gamma )`$ is the factor corresponding to all possible steps $`x`$ such that $`L(\gamma x)=L(\gamma )+i`$. A careful counting of the different possible transitions (such a counting is allowed since we know exactly the irreducible form $`P_\gamma `$ for $`PSL(2,)`$, see ; only last generator of the irreducible form is important) gives

$$\{\begin{array}{ccc}\stackrel{~}{c}_k^{n+1}(\theta )& =& (\frac{\alpha }{2}\mathrm{cos}(\theta /2)+\frac{1\alpha }{2}\mathrm{cos}(\theta /3))\stackrel{~}{c}_{k1}^n(\theta )\\ & +& \frac{\alpha }{4}\mathrm{cos}(\theta /3)\stackrel{~}{c}_k^n(\theta )\\ & +& (\frac{1\alpha }{2}\mathrm{cos}(\theta /2)+\frac{\alpha }{4}\mathrm{cos}(\theta /3))\stackrel{~}{c}_{k+1}^n(\theta )k1\\ & & \\ \stackrel{~}{c}_0^{n+1}(\theta )& =& \frac{1\alpha }{2}\mathrm{cos}(\theta /2)\stackrel{~}{c}_1^n(\theta )+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{cos}(\theta /3)\stackrel{~}{c}_0^n(\theta )\end{array}$$
(43)
where $`\alpha `$ is a constant to determine, giving the ratio of random words whose irreducible form ends with $`b^{\pm 1}`$. For $`\theta =0`$ one recovers the master equation governing a random walk on $`PSL(2,)`$, studied throughout . This allows in particular to compute $`\alpha =3/5`$. We are interested in the asymptotics $`n1`$. In this regime, the solution is assumed to be of the form

$$\stackrel{~}{c}_k^n(\theta )=q_k^n\mu ^n(\theta )$$
(44)
This factorization is implicitly accounted for in : the process generating the phase of the coefficient $`\stackrel{~}{c}_{\gamma _k}(m_\theta (h^n))`$, described by $`\mu (\theta )`$ is independent of the word length $`k`$ in $`PSL(2,)`$ ($`q_k^n`$ is, up to normalization, the distribution function of a random walk on $`PSL(2,)`$, computed in ). The system (43) then gives asymptotically

$$\mu ^n(\theta )=\frac{1}{2^n}(\mathrm{cos}(\theta /2)+\mathrm{cos}(\theta /3))^n$$
(45)
and we have estimated in particular $`\stackrel{~}{c}_0^n(\theta )=\mathrm{tr}(m_\theta (h^n))`$. We then apply (36) to conclude the proof.$`\mathrm{}`$

Remark 2. We could have used instead of $`m_\theta `$ a $``$–homomorphism:

$$M_\theta :\{\begin{array}{cccc}A_\theta \hfill & \hfill & e^{i\theta /2}\pi (a)\hfill & \\ B_\theta \hfill & \hfill & e^{i\theta /3}\pi (b)\hfill & \end{array}$$
(46)
which gives $`M_\theta (h)=\stackrel{~}{h}_\theta `$. This formalism is equivalent for trace computations, but for other combinatorial matters it can be confusing. In particular the length function is easier to define using $`m_\theta `$.

Recall that $`f`$ counts the area enclosed by the random path; it is then interesting to compare this discrete model with the exact solution of the area problem in the continuous case, derived in . The probability distribution in this case reads:

$$p_t(A)\frac{\mathrm{exp}(A^2/2t)}{\mathrm{cosh}^2(\pi A/t)}$$
(47)
where $`A`$ is the hyperbolic area and $`t`$ the time. For long trajectories ($`A1`$), one can check that the Gaussian behavior (37) of our discrete model is recovered. For short trajectories ($`A1`$) one recovers the flat space limit, unreachable in our model because the length scale is fixed by the curvature. This asymptotic agreement between the continuous and discrete model is an important fact, though intuitively expectable. Indeed the definition of hyperbolic lattices is not as straightforward as in the Euclidean case (isometric lattices of $`^n`$ are exactly $`^n`$). In particular the elementary cell of a hyperbolic lattice (or fundamental domain) is neither necessarily compact nor of finite area (see ); therefore the agreement between the continuous an discrete approach of the area problem is not trivial, and supports the idea that $`PSL(2,)`$ is a “good” discretization of $``$.

### 4.2 The drift, or average topological complexity

Theorem 3. The drift of a simple random walk on $`B_3`$ is given by:

$$l_{B_3}=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{L^{B_3}(w_n)}{n}=\frac{1}{4}$$
(48)
Proof. We use (12) and the decomposition (34) to write

$$l_{B_3}=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{n}\underset{\gamma PSL(2,)}{}\underset{k}{}c_{k,\gamma }(h^n)L^{B_3}(e^{ik\theta }P_\gamma (A_\theta ,B_\theta ))$$
(49)
Using $`L^{PSL(2,)}(P_\gamma (A_\theta ,B_\theta ))L^{B_3}(e^{ik\theta }P_\gamma (A_\theta ,B_\theta ))L^{PSL(2,)}(P_\gamma (A_\theta ,B_\theta ))+|k|`$, we first show that

$$\frac{L(\pi (w_n))}{n}\frac{L^{B_3}(w_n)}{n}\frac{L(\pi (w_n))}{n}+\frac{1}{n}\underset{k}{}|k|c_{k,w_n}(h^n)$$
(50)
The last ingredient is the following inequality:

$$\underset{k}{}|k|c_{k,\gamma }(h^n)|\frac{d}{d\theta }\stackrel{~}{c}_\gamma (\stackrel{~}{h}_\theta )|.$$
(51)
Using (45), the following holds

$$\frac{L(\pi (w_n))}{n}\frac{L^{B_3}(w_n)}{n}\frac{L(\pi (w_n))}{n}+O\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}\right)$$
(52)
We use the result $`l_{PSL(2,)}=1/4`$ obtained in  for symmetric random walk on $`PSL(2,)`$ to conclude the proof.$`\mathrm{}`$

A more intuitive approach of this result is proposed in . The development carried out above shows that this result could be generalized to many other groups: if $`E`$ is an Abelian extension of a hyperbolic group $`G`$, then the drift on $`E`$ equals the drift on $`G`$. We here give this result without proof.

## 5 Conclusion and Remarks

To conclude, we wish to comment the new physical content of these results. So far the only topological invariant studied in the context of entanglements of fluctuating linear objects was the so-called winding number , which is known to be incomplete for more than 2 linear objects. We here propose a conceptually simple model (in particular fluctuations are not precisely taken into account), which describes exactly the underlying non-Abelian topology of the problem. The resulting behavior of the topological complexity, the irreducible braid length, differs strongly from the Abelian case. Indeed, for $`n`$ elementary moves, the winding number $`W`$ for our three strands problem would scale like $`\sqrt{W^2}\sqrt{n}`$ (compare with $`L(w_n)n`$), whereas the probability of $`W=0`$ would scale like $`n^{3/2}`$ (compare with $`p_n(0)\lambda ^n/n^2`$).

Beside these direct motivations of the physical model, this work allowed to study the link, through the example of $`B_3`$, between random walks on a discrete group and a projective unitary representation of this group in a Hilbert space of a quantum system in a magnetic field. This is in our case the hyperbolic counter part of the well–known Harper-Hofstadter problem in Euclidean geometry. We could in particular reformulate and asymptotically compare the distribution of the hyperbolic area enclosed by a random path, in the case of a lattice random walk and in the case of a continuous Brownian motion. This correspondence requires to define generalized magnetic translation operators, and in particular leads to a general algebraic set up for discrete problems with magnetic fields, which enabled us to rigorously prove different results concerning $`B_3`$ already obtained in . We hope that this extension of the problem to hyperbolic geometry is not restrictive and could be adapted to other spaces.

Acknowledgements

It is a pleasure to thank A. Comtet, P. Dehornoy and S. Nechaev for stimulating discussions and useful comments.