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# Dynamic structure factor of a superfluid Fermi gas

## I Introduction

The techniques of atom trapping and cooling which have led to the realization of Bose-Einstein condensation in alkali gases are currently being employed to cool also the fermionic isotopes 40K  and 6Li . Dilute gases of fermionic atoms with attractive inter-particle interactions are predicted to undergo a superfluid transition at low temperatures ($`T_{sup}T_F`$, where $`T_F`$ is the Fermi temperature). The simplest mechanism envisaged is a $`s`$-wave pairing  which can be obtained, compatibly with the Pauli principle, between atoms belonging to two different internal states. The realization of a two-component Fermi gas in the superfluid state may provide a new physical system to study. Its properties are expected to be different from those of superfluid 3He, which has a $`p`$-wave pairing and is not in the dilute regime, and from conventional charged superconductors which have an excitation spectrum dominated by the Coulomb interaction  and only weakly modified by the superfluid transition.

An important issue for future experiments is to identify a clear signature of the superfluid transition in an atomic Fermi gas. Contrary to the case of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates, for fermions the superfluid transition affects only slightly the density profile and the internal energy of the gas . A first idea is to measure the pair distribution function of the atoms, e.g. by using a laser probe beam . A second idea is to look at the dynamical properties, which are expected to be dramatically modified by the transition. Several proposals have been put forward in this direction, such as Cooper-pair breaking via a Raman transition , measurement of the moment of inertia of the cloud , and excitation of collective modes in a harmonic trap by modulation of the trap frequencies  or rotation of the axis of the trap .

In this work we suggest to identify the superfluid phase through the measurement of the bulk excitations of the gas, i.e. excitations with a wavelength smaller than the spatial extension of the atomic cloud. This is complementary to the proposals in  as it deals with high energy excitations in a quasi-homogeneous system at arbitrary temperature, and is not irrealistic from the experimental point of view, since efficient Bragg scattering techniques have already been successfully used to measure the excitation spectra of Bose condensates .

We obtain the excitation spectrum of the fluid in the dilute regime by employing the Random-Phase (or Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock-Gorkov) Approximation (RPA), which we derive explicitly for the two-component system of present interest by the technique of functional derivatives . We do not use here the usual static Bogolubov approximation  for two main reasons: (i) physically its excitation spectrum has a gap and therefore ignores the branch of phonon-like excitations (Bogolubov-Anderson phonon, ) expected on very general grounds to show up in homogeneous neutral superconductors with short range interactions , and (ii) the density-density response function obtained within this approximation shows an unphysically large response at small wavevectors and fails to satisfy the $`f`$-sum rule, which is a requirement deriving from the local particle conservation law.

We find that the RPA spectrum of a homogeneous two-component Fermi gas in the superfluid phase possesses the continuum of particle-hole excitations and a peak corresponding to the Bogoliubov-Anderson phonon; it satisfies the $`f`$-sum rule and includes naturally the Landau damping of the phonon due to the interplay with thermal excitations. We adapt the results obtained for the homogeneous system to describe harmonically confined gases by means of a local-density approximation, which predicts a broadening of the spectrum by taking into account the inhomogeneity of the density profile. We predict that the Bogoliubov-Anderson phonon, which is the main feature of the spectrum in the superfluid phase, would remain visible even in the trapped cloud.

The structure of this paper is as follows. In Sec. II we derive the density response function of the fluid in the RPA. In Sec. III we obtain the spectrum of density fluctuations first in the homogeneous case and then for an harmonically trapped gas. Finally, Sec. IV gives a summary of our results and offers some concluding remarks.

## II Random-Phase Approximation

We describe a two-component atomic Fermi gas by the following Hamiltonian:

$`\widehat{}\mu \widehat{𝒩}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =,}{}}{\displaystyle d^3r\widehat{\psi }_\alpha ^{}(𝐫)\left(\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}^2+V_{\text{ext},\alpha }(𝐫)+U(𝐫,t)\mu _\alpha \right)\widehat{\psi }_\alpha (𝐫)}`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\{\alpha ,\beta \}=,}{}}{\displaystyle d^3rd^3r^{}\widehat{\psi }_\alpha ^{}(𝐫)\widehat{\psi }_\beta ^{}(𝐫^{})v_{\alpha \beta }(𝐫𝐫^{})\widehat{\psi }_\beta (𝐫^{})\widehat{\psi }_\alpha (𝐫)}.`$ (2)
The fermionic field operators $`\widehat{\psi }_\alpha (𝐫)`$ satisfy the usual anticommutation relations; the interactions are considered only in $`s`$-wave between fermions in different internal states and are modeled by the inter-particle potential $`v_{\alpha \beta }(𝐫_1𝐫_2)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& v_{}(𝐫_1𝐫_2)\\ v_{}(𝐫_1𝐫_2)& 0\end{array}\right)`$, with $`v_{}(𝐫_1𝐫_2)=v_{}\delta (𝐫_1𝐫_2)_{r_{12}}(r_{12})`$. This model interaction potential, known as the Fermi pseudopotential, leads to a divergence-free BCS theory . For the sake of generality we have included the presence of the external confinement via the trapping potentials $`V_{\text{ext},\alpha }(𝐫)`$ and the possibility of having different numbers of atoms in the two components; however in the following we shall restrict to the derivation of the equations in the homogeneous system and in the symmetric case $`N_{}=N_{}=N/2`$, which is the most favourable for the formation of Cooper pairs . The effect of trapping potential present in a realistic experiment will be included later on with a local density approximation. The external perturbing field which is necessary to generate the total density response has been introduced as $`U(𝐫,t)`$. Physically $`U`$ represents the action of the probe applied in a real experiment; it may be a time-dependent perturbation applied to the magnetic trap , a probe laser beam  or a test particle . Here we have assumed that the same potential $`U`$ acts in the same way on both components, and we shall determine the perturbation $`\delta \rho (𝐫,t)`$ on the total density induced by the probe potential $`U(𝐫,t)`$, assuming that the gas is initially at thermal equilibrium with a temperature $`T`$. We restrict to the linear response regime, where the density perturbation is a linear functional of the probe potential $`U`$ expressed through the density-density response function $`\chi (𝐫_1,t_1,𝐫_2,t_2)`$, a function of two position vectors $`𝐫_{1,2}`$ and of two time variables $`t_{1,2}`$:

$$\delta \rho (𝐫_1,t_1)=d^3r_2𝑑t_2\chi (𝐫_1,t_1,𝐫_2,t_2)U(𝐫_2,t_2).$$
(3)
In this section we explain how to calculate this response function in the Hartree-Fock-Gorkov approximation. We obtain general equations valid for an arbitrary trapping potential $`V_{\text{ext}}(𝐫)`$. We then solve these equations explicitly for a spatially homogeneous gas at thermal equilibrium, where $`\chi `$ is a function of $`𝐫_1𝐫_2`$ and $`t_1t_2`$ only.

To proceed with the derivation of the response function $`\chi `$, we follow the imaginary time Green’s function technique of the book of Kadanoff and Baym . One first defines the two by two matrix of (normal and anomalous) Green’s functions in imaginary times

$$G(1,2)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}G_{}(1,2)& G_{}(1,2)\\ G_{}(1,2)& G_{}(1,2)\end{array}\right)\mathrm{T}\widehat{\mathrm{\Psi }}(1)\widehat{\mathrm{\Psi }}^{}(2)$$
(4)
where T is the time-ordering operator, $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Psi }}(1)=\left(\begin{array}{c}\widehat{\psi }_{}(1)\\ \widehat{\psi }_{}^{}(1)\end{array}\right)`$, $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Psi }}^{}(2)=(\widehat{\psi }_{}^{}(2),\widehat{\psi }_{}(2))`$, $`\mathrm{}`$ indicates the average over the state of the system in the presence of the perturbing field $`U`$ and $`(1,2)`$ stands for $`(𝐫_1,i\tau _1,𝐫_2,i\tau _2)`$, where $`\tau _1`$ and $`\tau _2`$ are real quantities. For more details on the imaginary time technique, we refer to reference . We simply note that the various functions considered here can be obtained for real times by analytic continuation of their imaginary time values. From the equation of motion for the field operator in imaginary times one derives  the generalized Dyson equation for $`G`$:

$$G(1,2)=G_0(1,2)+𝑑\overline{3}𝑑\overline{4}G_0(1,\overline{3})\mathrm{\Sigma }(\overline{3},\overline{4})G(\overline{4},2)+𝑑\overline{3}G_0(1,\overline{3})W(\overline{3})G(\overline{3},2),$$
(5)
where the $`2\times 2`$ matrix $`G_0(1,2)`$ is the solution of the equations of motion in absence of the interactions, $`W(1)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}U(1)& 0\\ 0& U(1)\end{array}\right)`$ is the $`2\times 2`$ matrix of external field and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1,2)`$ is the $`2\times 2`$ matrix of self-energies. Since we want to describe a dilute system, we work in the mean-field Hartree-Fock-Gorkov symmetry breaking approximation, where the self-energy reads

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_{HG}(1,2)=\delta (1,2)v_{}\left(\begin{array}{cc}\widehat{\psi }_{}^{}(1)\widehat{\psi }_{}(1)& 0\\ 0& \widehat{\psi }_{}^{}(1)\widehat{\psi }_{}(1)\end{array}\right)+v_{}(1,2)\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& G_{}(1,2)\\ G_{}(1,2)& 0\end{array}\right).$$
(6)
Here we have used the notations $`\delta (1,2)=\delta (\stackrel{}{r}_1\stackrel{}{r}_2)\delta (\tau _1\tau _2)/i`$ and $`v_{}(1,2)=v_{}(𝐫_1,𝐫_2)\delta (\tau _1\tau _2)/i`$. We remark that the Fock contribution is zero since the interaction takes place only between particles with opposite spins and $`\psi _{}^{}\psi _{}=0`$ in the considered state of the system, hence the vanishing diagonal in the last term of Eq. (6).

Following a standard approach , we then obtain the density response matrix in RPA by taking the functional derivative of the Green’s function with respect to the external field $`U`$: we define the generalized response matrix as the two by two matrix $`L(1,2,3)=\sigma _3\delta G(1,2)/\delta U(3)`$, where $`\sigma _3`$ is the third Pauli matrix $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right)`$. The matrix giving the physical response is obtained from the limit $`L(1,2)L(1,1^+,2)`$. The density-density response function $`\chi `$ is simply the trace over the two spin components of the response matrix:

$$\chi (1,2)=\text{Tr}L(1,2)=L_{}(1,2)+L_{}(1,2).$$
(7)
The equation for the density response in the Random-Phase Approximation is obtained by the functional derivative of the Dyson equation, Eq. (5), where the approximation (6) for the self energy has been employed. This yields:

$$L(1,2)=L^0(1,2)+\frac{v_{}}{2}𝑑\overline{3}L^0(1,\overline{3})\chi (\overline{3},2)𝑑\overline{3}𝑑\overline{4}\stackrel{~}{G}(1,\overline{3})M(\overline{3},\overline{4},2)\stackrel{~}{G}(\overline{4},1)v_{}(\overline{3},\overline{4}).$$
(8)
Here we have introduced the $`2\times 2`$ matrices $`\stackrel{~}{G}(1,2)=\sigma _3G(1,2)`$, $`L^0(1,2)=\stackrel{~}{G}(1,2)\stackrel{~}{G}(2,1)`$, and $`M(1,2,3)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& L_{}(1,2,3)\\ L_{}(1,2,3)& 0\end{array}\right)`$. Physically $`L^0(1,2)`$ is the response matrix of the gas in the static Bogoliubov approximation, so that the reference system of the RPA is not the ideal gas but the Bogoliubov gas of quasiparticles.

It is possible to display the diagrammatic structure of Eq. (8) by separating out the “proper” part $`\overline{L}(1,2)`$ of the density response. We have therefore an equation which sums the bubble diagrams,

$$L(1,2)=\overline{L}(1,2)+\frac{1}{2}v_{}𝑑\overline{3}\overline{L}(1,\overline{3})\chi (\overline{3},2),$$
(9)
and an equation which defines the bubble as a sum of all the ladder diagrams,

$$\overline{L}(1,2)=L^0(1,2)𝑑\overline{3}𝑑\overline{4}\stackrel{~}{G}(1,\overline{3})v_{}(\overline{3},\overline{4})\overline{M}(\overline{3},\overline{4},2)\stackrel{~}{G}(\overline{4},1).$$
(10)
Here $`\overline{M}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& \overline{L}_{}\\ \overline{L}_{}& 0\end{array}\right)`$.

We now specialize the previous equations to the case of a spatially homogeneous gas and to the dilute limit $`\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ_F`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the gap and $`ϵ_F`$ is the Fermi energy. All the response matrices depend then only on the relative spatial coordinates $`𝐫=𝐫_1𝐫_2`$ and the relative time coordinate $`t=t_1t_2`$ and we introduce their double Fourier transforms with respect to $`𝐫`$ and $`t`$, e.g.

$$\overline{L}(𝐪,\omega )=d^3r𝑑t\overline{L}(𝐫_1=𝐫,t_1=t,𝐫_2=\mathrm{𝟎},t_2=0)e^{i(𝐪𝐫\omega t)}.$$
(11)
The following equation is obtained for $`\overline{L}(𝐪,\omega )`$ from the solution of Eq. (10) together with the regularization of the contact potential:

$$\overline{L}(𝐪,\omega )=A(𝐪,\omega )+v_{}\frac{4[C(𝐪,\omega )]^2}{1+v_{}B_{\text{reg}}(𝐪,\omega )},$$
(12)
where $`A(𝐪,\omega )`$, $`B_{\text{reg}}(𝐪,\omega )`$ and $`C(𝐪,\omega )`$ are complex functions of the frequency to be evaluated numerically. We remark that the assumption $`\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ_F`$ has considerably simplified the treatment by allowing to introduce only three basic functions ($`A`$, $`B`$ and $`C`$) in place of six required by the exact treatment . The general expression $`R(𝐪,\omega )`$, where $`R`$ stands for $`A`$, $`B`$ or $`C`$ and $`r`$ stands for $`a`$, $`b`$, $`c`$, is given by

$`R(𝐪,\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}r_L(𝐤,𝐪)(f(E_+)f(E_{}))\left[\frac{1}{\mathrm{}\omega +E_+E_{}+i\eta }\alpha \frac{1}{\mathrm{}\omega (E_+E_{})+i\eta }\right]}`$ (13)
$`+r_B(𝐤,𝐪)(1f(E_+)f(E_{}))\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}\omega (E_++E_{})+i\eta }}\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}\omega +E_++E_{}+i\eta }}\right]`$ (14)
where the “Landau” contributions $`r_L(𝐤,𝐪)`$ are given by

$`a_L(𝐤,𝐪)`$ $`=`$ $`(1+(\xi _+\xi _{}\mathrm{\Delta }^2)/E_+E_{})/4`$ (15)
$`b_L(𝐤,𝐪)`$ $`=`$ $`(1(\xi _+\xi _{}+\mathrm{\Delta }^2)/E_+E_{})/4`$ (16)
$`c_L(𝐤,𝐪)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/E_+1/E_{})/8`$ (17)
and where the “Beliaev” contributions $`r_B(𝐤,𝐪)`$ are given by

$`a_B(𝐤,𝐪)`$ $`=`$ $`(1(\xi _+\xi _{}\mathrm{\Delta }^2)/E_+E_{})/4`$ (18)
$`b_B(𝐤,𝐪)`$ $`=`$ $`(1+(\xi _+\xi _{}+\mathrm{\Delta }^2)/E_+E_{})/4`$ (19)
$`c_B(𝐤,𝐪)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1/E_++1/E_{})/8`$ (20)
for $`A(𝐪,\omega )`$, $`B(𝐪,\omega )`$ and $`C(𝐪,\omega )`$ respectively. The function $`B(𝐪,\omega )`$ as defined in Eq. (14) presents an ultraviolet divergence originating from the choice of a contact interaction potential. This divergence is removed in a systematic way by the use of the pseudopotential, which amounts here simply to subtracting the most diverging contribution in the form $`1/(2\xi _𝐤)`$:

$$B_{\text{reg}}(𝐪,\omega )=B(𝐪,\omega )\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}𝒫\left(\frac{1}{2\xi _k}\right)$$
(21)
where $`𝒫`$ represents the principal value . We have used the notations $`\xi _\pm =\mathrm{}^2(𝐤\pm 𝐪/2)^2/2m+v_{}n/2\mu `$ where $`n`$ is the total equilibrium density of particles, $`E_\pm =(\xi _\pm ^2+\mathrm{\Delta }^2)^{1/2}`$ and $`f(E)=1/(\mathrm{exp}(\beta E)+1)`$ is the Fermi distribution function at temperature $`T`$ with $`\beta =1/(k_BT)`$. The parameter $`\alpha `$ equals 1 for $`A(𝐪,\omega )`$ and $`B(𝐪,\omega )`$, while $`\alpha `$ equals $``$1 for $`C(𝐪,\omega )`$, and $`\eta `$ is a positive infinitesimal.

The final expression for the double Fourier transform of the density-density response function in RPA is obtained from Eq. (9) as:

$$\chi (𝐪,\omega )=\frac{2\overline{L}(𝐪,\omega )}{1v_{}\overline{L}(𝐪,\omega )}.$$
(22)
This can be contrasted with the density-density response function in the static Bogoliubov approximation, which leads to $`\chi (𝐪,\omega )=2A(𝐪,\omega )`$ .

## III The spectrum of density fluctuations

### A Homogeneous system

Before displaying the fully numerical solution of Eqs. (12) and (22), we analyze some limiting cases. At temperatures higher than the BCS transition temperature we have $`B(𝐪,\omega )=0`$, $`C(𝐪,\omega )=0`$ and $`A(𝐪,\omega )=\chi _0(𝐪,\omega )`$, where $`\chi _0(𝐪,\omega )`$ is the well-known Lindhard function for the response of a ideal Fermi gas (see for example ). The RPA equation (12) reduces to the usual expression $`\chi =2\chi _0/(1v_{}\chi _0)`$, the factor two being due to the two spin components of the gas. In the case of repulsive interactions (i.e. $`v_{}>0`$) the equation shows a pole corresponding to the zero sound, while no well-defined collective excitation is stable in the case of attractive interactions.

At zero temperature, in the limit of small $`𝐪`$ and $`\omega `$ it is possible to estimate analytically the expression for the density response function; to lowest order in $`𝐪`$ we obtain

$$\chi (𝐪,\omega )=\frac{c_B^2q^2𝒩(ϵ_F)}{(\omega +i\eta )^2c_B^2q^2(1+2k_Fa_{}/\pi )},$$
(23)
where $`c_B=v_F/\sqrt{3}`$ is the sound velocity predicted by Bogoliubov, $`𝒩(ϵ_F)=mk_F/\pi ^2\mathrm{}^2`$ is the density of states at the Fermi level and $`a_{}`$ is the scattering length such that $`v_{}=4\pi \mathrm{}^2a_{}/m`$. The pole yields a phonon-like excitation, corresponding to the Bogoliubov-Anderson sound for this system. Eq. (23) holds approximately until the phonon is stable, that is before it meets the continuum of quasiparticle-quasihole excitations, which has a threshold energy of $`2\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Evidently the RPA expression is valid in the dilute limit $`k_F|a_{}|1`$.

It is easily checked that in the long-wavelenght limit the Bogoliubov-Anderson sound exhausts the $`f`$-sum rule $`𝑑\omega \omega \mathrm{Im}\chi (𝐪,\omega )=\pi nq^2/m`$, where $`n`$ is the total density of the gas. A more general proof can be obtained by noticing that the RPA, being equivalent to the time-dependent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory, automatically satisfies the continuity equation and hence the $`f`$-sum rule. On the contrary, the static Bogoliubov approximation results to be bad in the limit $`q0`$: from Eq. (14) we estimate that $`A(q0,\omega )\omega ^{3/2}`$ in the high frequency limit, yielding an infinite contribution to the first moment integral.

We now turn to the presentation of numerical results. Rather than plotting the complex quantity $`\chi (𝐪,\omega )`$ we have chosen to represent the spectrum of total density fluctuations of wavevector $`𝐪`$, given by the dynamic structure factor $`S(𝐪,\omega )`$. On an experimental point of view the dynamic structure factor can be accessed via the rate of the scattering events of a probe particle by the gas leading to a momentum exchange $`\mathrm{}𝐪`$ and to an energy exchange $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ between the probe particle and the gas; on a theoretical point of view the dynamic structure factor of the gas is related to Im$`\chi (𝐪,\omega )`$ by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem :

$$S(𝐪,\omega )=(2\mathrm{}/n)(1\mathrm{exp}(\beta \mathrm{}\omega ))^1\mathrm{Im}\chi (𝐪,\omega ).$$
(24)
Figure 1 shows the spectrum of a homogeneous superfluid at zero temperature as resulting from the full RPA calculation, compared to the predictions of the static Bogoliubov approximation: it is evident that for small $`q`$ ($`\mathrm{}q<2\mathrm{\Delta }/c_B`$) the Bogoliubov approximation yields an unphysically large response (Fig. 1 (a)). For larger $`q`$ the Bogoliubov-Anderson phonon falls in the continuum of quasi-particle quasi-hole excitations, and the two approximations yield almost the same result (Fig. 1 (b)), which is also close to the ideal-gas solution.

### B Harmonically trapped system

We turn now to the situation where the particles are subject to an external harmonic confinement. We assume that the confining potential has the same action on both spin components, this is indeed the case in a laser induced trap. For simplicity we further assume that the resulting trapping potential is isotropic so that

$$V_{\text{ext},}(r)=V_{\text{ext},}(r)=\frac{1}{2}m\mathrm{\Omega }^2r^2.$$
(25)
We consider bulk excitations of the harmonically confined cloud induced by a probe potential $`U(𝐫,t)`$ of wavevector $`𝐪`$ and frequency $`\omega `$. We characterize the density response of the gas by the dynamic structure factor calculated in the local-density approximation:

$$S_{LDA}(𝐪,\omega )=\frac{2\mathrm{}}{1e^{\beta \mathrm{}\omega }}d^3r\mathrm{Im}\chi (𝐪,\omega ;\mu (r),\mathrm{\Delta }(r)),$$
(26)
where $`\chi `$ is the density response function derived in the previous section for the homogeneous system. This local-density approximation is valid for $`q1/R`$, where $`R`$ is the radius of the cloud, since it does not take into account surface modes  and in-gap single-particle excitations . The same approach has already described successfully an experiment on trapped Bose-Einstein condensates, where the experiment has directly measured the function $`\mathrm{Im}\chi (𝐪,\omega )[S(𝐪,\omega )S(𝐪,\omega )]`$ .

The position-dependent chemical potential and gap in Eq. (26) are defined as $`\mu (r)=\mu V_{\text{ext}}(r)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(r)=\mathrm{\Delta }[n(r)]`$. The chemical potential $`\mu `$ of each spin component is determined by the normalization condition $`N=d^3rn(r)`$ where $`N`$ is the total number of particles in the gas. The equilibrium total density profile $`n(r)`$ and the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }(r)`$ are obtained first by numerical solution of the BCS equations in the homogeneous system

$$n=2\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}\left\{|u_𝐤|^2f(E_𝐤)+|v_𝐤|^2[1f(E_𝐤)]\right\},$$
(27)
$$\frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}\left\{\frac{12f(E_𝐤)}{2E_𝐤}𝒫\left(\frac{1}{2\xi _𝐤}\right)\right\}=\frac{1}{v_{}},$$
(28)
and then by employing the Thomas-Fermi approximation (TFA)  to take into account the inhomogeneity due to the external confinement.

The main effect of the external confinement is a broadening of the spectrum, which is due to the inhomogeneous distribution of the density in the trap. This is illustrated already by a simple analytic expression for the dynamic structure factor at zero temperature in the low $`q`$ limit: integrating the imaginary part of Eq.(23) over space yields to lowest order in $`k_F|a_{}|`$

$`S_{LDA}^{\text{phonon}}(𝐪,\omega )=2{\displaystyle d^3rA_q[n(r)]\delta (\omega \omega _q[n(r)])}=12\sqrt{3}\mathrm{\Omega }^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{\overline{\omega }}{\overline{q}}}\right)^3\sqrt{2\overline{\mu }3\left({\displaystyle \frac{\overline{\omega }}{\overline{q}}}\right)^2}.`$ (29)
Here, $`A_q[n]=mk_Fc_Bq/2\pi \mathrm{}`$, $`\omega _q=c_Bq`$ and we have adopted the rescaled units $`\overline{\omega }=\omega /\mathrm{\Omega }`$, $`\overline{q}=\mathrm{}q/\sqrt{m\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ and $`\overline{\mu }=\mu /\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }`$. For the density profile we have taken the TFA expression $`n(r)=(2m(\mu V_{\text{ext}}(r))/\mathrm{}^2)^{3/2}/3\pi ^2`$, which neglects the Hartree mean field effect but turns out to be a good approximation in the dilute limit .

The numerical results at finite temperature and wavevector, presented in Fig. 2, show in the low temperature spectrum a peak corresponding to the Bogoliubov-Anderson phonon and include a high-frequency tail due to the contribution of multi-particle excitations. With increasing temperature, the asymmetric feature due to the Bogoliubov-Anderson phonon becomes less marked and disappears at $`T\mathrm{\Delta }/k_B`$, when quasi-particle quasi-hole pairs are easily excited by thermal fluctuations.

## IV Conclusion

In this paper, we have derived for a two-component spin-polarized Fermi gas a generalized Random-Phase Approximation to describe the excitation spectrum in the superfluid phase. We have shown that, contrary to the case of bosonic systems, the predictions of this theory – valid in the limit $`k_F|a_{}|1`$ – are essentially different from those of the “static” Bogoliubov theory, which instead yields an unphysically large signal at small wavevectors, due to the lack of local particle conservation.

The possible experiments that have motivated this theoretical work are light scattering  or scattering of test particles  by a two-component Fermi gas stored in a dipole trap. The outcome of this type of experiments is described by the dynamic structure factor. We have therefore employed the results of the homogeneous system to predict in a local density approximation the dynamic structure factor of a harmonically trapped superfluid at finite temperature, and we have shown that the Bogoliubov-Anderson phonon – main feature of the superfluid phase in the spectrum of the homogeneous gas – would appear also in the response of the trapped system, as an asymmetric peak. We have investigated the effects of the temperature on the shape of the response, showing that the Bogoliubov-Anderson phonon should remain visible up to a temperature $`T\mathrm{\Delta }/k_B`$. The observation of the Bogoliubov-Anderson phonon in the response of the gas to a probe beam may therefore provide a way to detect the presence of the superfluid phase in the experiments on alkali Fermi gases.

Our general RPA equations are also suitable for a full description of the inhomogeneous system without local density approximation, thus allowing in principle to take into account the discrete nature of the eigenmodes of the trapped gas. This would complete the static Bogoliubov treatment already performed in .

###### Acknowledgements.

A.M. thanks Professor M. P. Tosi for useful discussions and Professor A. Griffin for drawing her attention to Ref. . Supports from Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel and INFM are acknowledged. Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel is a unité de recherche de l’Ecole normale supérieure et de l’université Pierre et Marie Curie, associée au CNRS.


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# Massive zero-metal stars: Energy production and mixing

## 1 Introduction

The evolution of zero-metal stars in the mass range $`20`$$`100M_{\mathrm{}}`$ , i.e., massive Population III stars (Pop-III for short), has been studied since the pioneering work of Ezer et al. (1971) who followed the evolution of stars in the mass range $`5`$$`100M_{\mathrm{}}`$ from the pre-main sequence contraction phase until the exhaustion of hydrogen on the main sequence. This opened the field for many studies that were mainly concerned with later evolutionary stages (Cary, 1974; Castellani, 1983; El Eid et al., 1983; Ober et al., 1983; Klapp, 1983, 1984). Motivated by the still ongoing debate about the initial mass function of Pop-III stars, Marigo et al. (2001) present the most comprehensive study of zero-metal evolutionary models ($`0.7`$$`100M_{\mathrm{}}`$) starting from the ZAMS until the AGB in the case of low- and intermediate-mass stars, or to the onset of carbon burning in massive stars.

In earlier studies the authors were forced to make numerous assumptions about equilibria between the chemical species involved. The most recent studies by Marigo et al. (2001), however, incorporate nuclear networks without making any assumptions about equilibria. Nevertheless, even these recent state-of-the-art studies rely on some simplifications that are certainly fulfilled during the evolution of *normal* stars but are questionable in the case of massive zero-metal stars.

It is the aim of this letter to show that the following two assumptions widely used, namely

1. $`\beta `$-decay negligible against proton-capture
2. instantaneous mixing across convective regions

are not met during the evolution of massive Pop-III stars and that proper modeling may alter the evolution of these objects.

## 2 Nuclear Network

It was first noted by Ezer (1961) that Pop-III stars more massive than about $`20M_{\mathrm{}}`$ are supplied by a different mode of energy generation. Due to the lack of the elements C, N and O the CNO-cycle cannot generate the luminosity needed to halt contraction. This raises the temperature to the point where the $`3\alpha `$-reaction produces enough carbon to initiate the CNO-cycle. As a result, the CNO-cycle operates at a much higher temperature, typically at $`10^8\mathrm{K}`$. Since the energy generation in the CNO-cycle exhibits a strong temperature dependence the central temperatures of the more massive models up to $`100M_{\mathrm{}}`$ do not exceed $`T_\mathrm{c}=\mathrm{1.3\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{K}`$ (see e.g., El Eid et al., 1983; Marigo et al., 2001). At these temperatures, the CNO-cycle turn-over rate is governed by the beta-decay half-lives (Ezer et al., 1971).

This finding has one important consequence for modeling stellar evolution: one has to include the elements 13N and 15O (mono-cycle), 17F (bi-cycle) and 18F (tri-cycle) explicitely in time-dependent network calculations. In addition, for temperatures exceeding $`10^8\mathrm{K}`$ the proton capture 13N(p,$`\gamma `$)14O (followed by 14O($`\beta ^+`$,$`\nu `$)14N) supersedes the 13N($`\beta ^+`$,$`\nu `$)13C rate. Contrary to the findings of Klapp (1983) our calculations show a non-negligible effect on the energy generation for $`T>10^8\mathrm{K}`$.

In order to estimate the described effects, we have performed time-dependent network calculations at constant temperature. Our reference calculation includes 15 chemical species: 1H, 4He, 12C, 13C, 13N, 14N, 15N, 14O, 15O, 16O, 17O, 18O, 17F, 18F and 19F with initial abundances of $`X_\mathrm{H}=0.77`$, $`X_{\mathrm{He}}=0.23`$ and $`X_{\mathrm{other}}=10^{15}`$, and the following reaction chains:

* $`3\alpha `$-process
* CNO tri-cycle
* 13N(p,$`\gamma `$)14O and 14O($`\beta ^+`$,$`\nu `$)14N .

Reaction rates are taken from *NACRE*111http://pntpm.ulb.ac.be/Nacre/ (see Angulo et al., 1999). The calculations are performed utilizing the DAE solver *LIMEX* that is maintained by Ehrig et al. (1998).

Our results can be viewed in Fig. 1 where we have plotted the energy generation per $`\rho X_\mathrm{H}^2`$ against the time in years for the two cases $`T=\mathrm{1.0\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{K}`$ (see Fig. 1a) and $`T=\mathrm{1.3\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{K}`$ (see Fig. 1b). Neglecting the beta-decay half-lives (dashed curves) has an impact on the energy generation of $`10\%`$ for $`\mathrm{1.0\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{K}`$ and $`65\%`$ for $`\mathrm{1.3\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{K}`$. Whereas the proton capture on 13N alters the energy generation at $`\mathrm{1.0\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{K}`$ only slightly ($`<1\%`$), it has a $`30\%`$ effect at $`\mathrm{1.3\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{K}`$ (dotted-dashed curve). It is worth noting that the energy generation is only marginally ($`<1\%`$) effected by both the second (named 17ON) and the third cycle (named 19FO). These cycles need only be included if one is interested in the relative abundances of the elements O and F. At constant temperature, the energy production *never* attains a constant value due to the ongoing feeding of freshly produced carbon via the $`3\alpha `$-process.

## 3 Mixing

Massive stars contain large convective cores in which mixing of chemical species occurs due to the turbulent convective motion. In *normal* stars, this process is very rapid compared to the slow changes of the chemical composition produced by nuclear reactions. Under these circumstances one can safely assume that the composition in a convective region always remains homogeneous, i.e., elements are instantaneously mixed over the convective region. The following arguments are put forward to show that the turn-over time of the CNO-cycle at the high temperatures of massive Pop-III stars can be comparable to the timescale of turbulent mixing – or even shorter.

### 3.1 Mixing timescale

We show that the mixing timescale, $`\tau _{\mathrm{conv}}`$, is of the order of 10 days in the case of both normal and zero-metal stars. An estimate of this timescale is easily derived from the standard mixing length theory (MLT, Böhm-Vitense, 1958) and the formulas we present resemble those given in Kippenhahn (1990, chap. 7). Let us assume a standard composition of $`X_\mathrm{H}=0.77`$ and $`X_{\mathrm{He}}=0.23`$, i.e., $`\mu =0.58`$, and opacity due to electron scattering $`\kappa =0.2(1+X_\mathrm{H})`$, i.e., $`\kappa =0.35\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{g}^1`$. Even in the case of hot Pop-III stars, neglecting radiation pressure does not change this order of magnitude estimate and it suffices to assume a monoatomic ideal gas: $`\delta =1`$, $`c_\mathrm{P}=5/2\mu `$. The mixing timescale is approximately given by the pressure scale height $`H_\mathrm{P}`$ divided by the velocity of convective motion $`v_{\mathrm{conv}}`$. With this:

$$\tau _{\mathrm{conv}}10^8\left(\frac{r}{R_{\mathrm{}}}\right)^2\left(\frac{M_{\mathrm{}}}{m}\right)\sqrt{\frac{T}{10^8\mathrm{K}}}\left(\frac{10^4}{\sqrt{_\mathrm{e}}}\right)\mathrm{s}$$
(1)
where $`r`$, $`T`$ and $`m`$ are the radius, temperature and mass, respectively, at one particular locus in a star. The quantity $`_\mathrm{e}`$ is the difference between the actual temperature gradient, $``$, and $`_\mathrm{e}`$ which describes the variation of $`T`$ in a mass element during its motion. Introducing two dimensionless variables:

$`U`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{2\hspace{0.17em}10}^{11}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m}{M_{\mathrm{}}}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{T}{10^8\mathrm{K}}}\right)^{3/2}\times `$ (2)
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{100\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3}{\rho }}\right)^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{R_{\mathrm{}}}{r}}\right)^2\text{,}`$
$`W`$ $`=`$ $`_{\mathrm{rad}}_{\mathrm{ad}}\text{,}`$ (3)
and provided that $`U(_\mathrm{e})^{1/2}W`$ (see below) the cubic equation of MLT can be simplified yielding

$$\sqrt{_\mathrm{e}}\left(\frac{8}{9}UW\right)^{1/3}\text{.}$$
(4)
For an estimate of $`\tau _{\mathrm{conv}}`$ at the *center* of a star the first two equations can be even further reduced, since $`m=4/3\pi \rho _\mathrm{c}r^3`$:

$`\tau _{\mathrm{conv}}`$ $``$ $`10^6\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{\mathrm{}}}{m}}\right)^{1/3}\left({\displaystyle \frac{100\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3}{\rho _\mathrm{c}}}\right)^{2/3}\left({\displaystyle \frac{T_\mathrm{c}}{10^8\mathrm{K}}}\right)^{1/2}`$ (5)
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{7\hspace{0.17em}10}^4}{\sqrt{_\mathrm{e}}}}\right)\text{s}`$
and

$$U\mathrm{4\hspace{0.17em}10}^{10}\left(\frac{m}{M_{\mathrm{}}}\right)^{1/3}\left(\frac{100\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3}{\rho _\mathrm{c}}\right)^{4/3}\left(\frac{T_\mathrm{c}}{10^8\mathrm{K}}\right)^{3/2}$$
(6)
For a typical example, consider a $`20M_{\mathrm{}}`$ Pop-III star. There we have $`T_\mathrm{c}10^8\mathrm{K}`$, $`\rho _\mathrm{c}100\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$. Let us choose a mass coordinate: $`m=1M_{\mathrm{}}`$, hence $`U\mathrm{4\hspace{0.17em}10}^{10}`$ from Eq. (6). For reasonable values of $`W`$, $`W1\mathrm{}100`$ it follows that $`(_\mathrm{e})^{1/2}\mathrm{7\hspace{0.17em}10}^4`$. Note that the assumption $`U(_\mathrm{e})^{1/2}W`$ is fulfilled. With Eq. (5) we finally arrive at

$$\tau _{\mathrm{conv}}10\mathrm{days}\text{.}$$
(7)
For a star containing metals the central temperature is by a factor of three smaller but as normal stars are less compact also the density goes down by a factor of ten. Thus $`\tau _{\mathrm{conv}}`$ changes by a factor of two or so. Similar results are obtained at other loci of the convective core and for stellar masses in the range $`20`$$`100M_{\mathrm{}}`$.

### 3.2 Nuclear timescale

A characteristic timescale for nuclear reactions in massive stars is the turn-over time of the CNO-cycle. This time is primarily given by the slowest reaction of the cycle which is 14N(p,$`\gamma `$)15O. Even in the high temperature regime ($`T=\mathrm{1.3\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{K}`$) where proton-captures become comparable to $`\beta `$-decays this estimate holds within a factor of two. Hence,

$$\tau _{\mathrm{nuc}}\tau _{\mathrm{n14pg}}=\frac{A_\mathrm{H}}{X_\mathrm{H}\rho \lambda _{\mathrm{n14pg}}(T)}\text{,}$$
(8)
where $`A_\mathrm{H}`$, $`X_\mathrm{H}`$ and $`\rho `$ are the atomic mass of hydrogen, the mass abundance of hydrogen and the density, respectively (see Clayton, 1983). The reaction rate $`\lambda _{\mathrm{n14pg}}(T)`$ measured in \[$`\mathrm{cm}^3\mathrm{Mol}^1\mathrm{s}^1`$\] is only a function of temperature. Taking this reaction rate again from *NACRE* (see Angulo et al., 1999):

$`\lambda _{\mathrm{n14pg}}(T)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{4.83\hspace{0.17em}10}^7T_9^{2/3}\times `$ (9)
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left(15.231T_9^{1/3}\left({\displaystyle \frac{T_9}{0.8}}\right)^2\right)`$
$`\times (12.00T_9+3.41T_9^22.43T_9^3)`$
$`+`$ $`\mathrm{2.36\hspace{0.17em}10}^3T_9^{3/2}\mathrm{exp}(3.010T_9^1)`$
$`+`$ $`\mathrm{6.72\hspace{0.17em}10}^3T_9^{0.380}\mathrm{exp}(9.530T_9^1)\text{,}`$
the nuclear timescale is easily calculated for a given set of density $`\rho `$ and temperature $`T`$. To explore the parameter space we plot lines of constant time $`\tau _{\mathrm{nuc}}`$ in a $`\rho T`$ diagram (see Fig. 2). The dashed line marks the typical timescale of convective mixing. Thus, the region *above (below)* this line is characterized by *slow (fast)* mixing compared to the nuclear timescale. The assumption of instantaneous mixing is only justified in the lower region where mixing is fast. It can be nicely seen that all *normal* stars lie in the lower region but that massive Pop-III stars lie in the upper region where the assumption of instantaneous mixing does not hold.

## 4 Conclusions

Performing time-dependent nuclear network calculations at constant temperature we show that in the case of massive Pop-III stars ($`20M_{\mathrm{}}`$) neglecting the $`\beta `$-decay against proton-capture leads to a considerable error in the energy generation rate. In addition, the reaction 13N(p,$`\gamma `$)14O cannot be omitted for temperatures exceeding $`10^8\mathrm{K}`$.

Moreover, the nuclear timescale of massive Pop-III stars can be very short (order of hours) compared to the timescale of convective mixing which is of the order of 10 days. Therefore, instantaneous mixing which is well justified in normal stars may introduce large errors in evolutionary calculations of zero-metal stars.

Contrary to normal stars massive Pop-III stars have not forgotten their nuclear history since equilibrium abundances between chemical species are never attained. Hence, evolutionary calculation must start on the pre-main sequence well before the onset of nuclear reactions.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank W. J. Duschl for helpful discussions and for improving the manuscript. We are particularly grateful to R. Ehrig for providing and supporting LIMEX. Part of this work was supported by the German *Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG* (SFB 439 Galaxies in the young universe).


text:
# The Glueball sector of two-flavor Color Superconductivity

## I Introduction

Quark matter at very high density is expected to behave as a color superconductor . Recent work had lead to a renewed interest on the subject . This phase is characterized by its gap energy ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$) associated to quark-quark pairing. In such a phase, the color symmetry is spontaneously broken and a hierarchy of scales, for given chemical potential, is generated. Indicating with $`g_s`$, the underlying coupling constant, the relevant scales are: the chemical potential $`\mu `$ itself, the dynamically generated gluon mass $`m_{gluon}g_s\mu `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Since for high $`\mu `$ the coupling constant $`g_s`$ (evaluated at a fixed scale $`\mu `$) is $`1`$, we have:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }m_{gluon}\mu .$$
(1)
The low-energy effective Lagrangian describing the in medium fermions and the broken sector of the $`SU_c(3)`$ color groups for the 2 flavor color superconductor (2SC) has been constructed in Ref. . The 3 flavor case (CFL) has been developed in . The effective theories describing the electroweak interactions for the low-energy excitations in the 2SC and CFL case can be found in . In Reference  it has been shown that the confining scale of the unbroken $`SU_c(2)`$ color subgroup is lighter than the superconductive gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. This is a consequence of the high dielectric constant $`ϵ`$ of the 2SC medium . The unbroken $`SU_c(2)`$ theory is still confining and the light glueball like particles are expected to be light with respect to $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and hence play a relevant role at low energies.

In this paper we generalize the effective Lagrangian for 2 flavor by properly taking into account the confined degrees of freedom associated with the low energy unbroken $`SU_c(2)`$ gauge interactions. We estimate the two photon decay process of the light glueballs using the saturation of the electromagnetic trace anomaly at the effective Lagrangian level. The glueball decay was found to be crucial in our model for powering Gamma Ray Bursts  (involving a 2SC layer at the surface of Quark Stars). It led to establish a link between QCD at high matter density and Gamma Ray Bursts observables (energy and duration) extracting vital information about the QCD phase diagram. In particular a value for the critical temperature (of the order of $`15`$ MeV) above which color superconductivity cannot exist has been determined for densities few times nuclear matter density .

In Section II we briefly review, while setting our conventions, the low-energy effective Lagrangian for the 2SC phase of QCD . The latter describes the, in medium, fermions and the broken $`SU_c(3)`$ gluon sector. In Section III we construct the effective Lagrangian describing the light glueballs associated with the unbroken $`SU_c(2)`$ color subgroup by using the information inherent to the trace anomaly and the medium effects related to a non-vanishing dielectric constant . In IV we estimate the, in medium, glueball to two photon decay process which is relevant to our model of Gamma Ray Bursts Ref. . We conclude in V.

## II 2SC Effective Lagrangian review

QCD with 2 flavor has gauge symmetry $`SU_c(3)`$ and global symmetry

$$SU_L(2)\times SU_R(2)\times U_V(1).$$
(2)
At high matter density a color superconductive phase sets in and the associated diquark condensates leaves invariant the following symmetry group:

$$\left[SU_c(2)\right]\times SU_L(2)\times SU_R(2)\times \stackrel{~}{U}_V(1),$$
(3)
where $`\left[SU_c(2)\right]`$ is the unbroken part of the gauge group. The $`\stackrel{~}{U}_V(1)`$ generator $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ is the following linear combination of the previous $`U_V(1)`$ generator $`B=\frac{1}{3}\mathrm{diag}(1,1,1)`$ and the broken diagonal generator of the $`SU_c(3)`$ gauge group $`T^8=\frac{1}{2\sqrt{3}}\mathrm{diag}(1,1,2)`$:

$$\stackrel{~}{B}=B\frac{2\sqrt{3}}{3}T^8.$$
(4)
The quarks with color $`1`$ and $`2`$ are neutral under $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ and consequently the condensate too ($`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ is $`\sqrt{2}\stackrel{~}{S}`$ of Ref. ). The superconductive phase for $`N_f=2`$ possesses the same global symmetry group of the confined Wigner-Weyl phase . In Reference , it was shown that the low-energy spectrum, at finite density, displays the correct quantum numbers to saturate the ’t Hooft global anomalies . It was also observed that QCD at finite density can be envisioned, from a global symmetry and anomaly point of view, as a chiral gauge theory . In Reference  it was then seen, by using a variety of field theoretical tools, that global anomaly matching conditions hold for any cold but dense gauge theory.

Massless excitations are protected by the aforementioned constraints and dominate physical processes. The low-energy theorems governing their interactions can be usefully encoded in effective Lagrangians (like for cold and dilute QCD ). It is possible to order the effective Lagrangian terms describing the Golstone boson self interactions in number of derivatives. The resulting theory for dilute QCD is named Chiral Perturbation Theory . Unfortunately this well defined scheme is not sufficient for a complete description of hadron dynamics since new massive hadronic resonances appear at relatively low energies. For instance, the $`\sigma `$ or the vector $`\rho `$ and new effective Lagrangian models of the type described in  are needed.

The dynamics of the Godstone bosons can be efficiently encoded in a non-linear realization framework. Here, see , the relevant coset space is $`G/H`$ with $`G=SU_c(3)\times U_V(1)`$ and $`H=SU_c(2)\times \stackrel{~}{U}_V(1)`$ is parameterized by:

$$𝒱=\mathrm{exp}(i\xi ^iX^i),$$
(5)
where $`\{X^i\}`$ $`i=1,\mathrm{},5`$ belong to the coset space $`G/H`$ and are taken to be $`X^i=T^{i+3}`$ for $`i=1,\mathrm{},4`$ while

$$X^5=B+\frac{\sqrt{3}}{3}T^8=\mathrm{diag}(\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2},0).$$
(6)
$`T^a`$ are the standard generators of $`SU(3)`$. The coordinates

$$\xi ^i=\frac{\mathrm{\Pi }^i}{f}i=1,2,3,4,\xi ^5=\frac{\mathrm{\Pi }^5}{\stackrel{~}{f}},$$
(7)
via $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ describe the Goldstone bosons. The vevs $`f`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{f}`$ are expected, when considering asymptotically high densities , to be proportional to $`\mu `$.

$`𝒱`$ transforms non linearly:

$`𝒱(\xi )u_Vg𝒱(\xi )h^{}(\xi ,g,u)h_{\stackrel{~}{V}}^{}(\xi ,g,u),`$ (8)
with $`u_VU_V(1)`$, $`gSU_c(3)`$, $`h(\xi ,g,u)SU_c(2)`$ and $`h_{\stackrel{~}{V}}(\xi ,g,u)\stackrel{~}{U}_V(1)`$.

It is convenient to define:

$$\omega _\mu =i𝒱^{}D_\mu 𝒱\mathrm{with}D_\mu 𝒱=(_\mu ig_sG_\mu )𝒱,$$
(9)
with gluon fields $`G_\mu =G_\mu ^mT^m`$ while $`\omega `$ transforms as:

$`\omega _\mu `$ $`h(\xi ,g,u)\omega _\mu h^{}(\xi ,g,u)+ih(\xi ,g,u){}_{\mu }{}^{}h_{}^{}(\xi ,g,u)`$ (10)
$`+`$ $`ih_{\stackrel{~}{V}}(\xi ,g,u)_\mu h_{\stackrel{~}{V}}^{}(\xi ,g,u).`$ (11)
Following  we decompose $`\omega _\mu `$ into

$$\omega _\mu ^{}=2S^a\mathrm{Tr}\left[S^a\omega _\mu \right]\mathrm{and}\omega _\mu ^{}=2X^i\mathrm{Tr}\left[X^i\omega _\mu \right],$$
(12)
where $`S^a`$ are the unbroken generators of $`H`$ with $`S^{1,2,3}=T^{1,2,3}`$, $`S^4=\stackrel{~}{B}/\sqrt{2}`$. Summation over repeated indices is assumed.

To be able to include the fermions in the picture we define:

$$\stackrel{~}{\psi }=𝒱^{}\psi ,$$
(13)
transforming as $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }h_{\stackrel{~}{V}}(\xi ,g,u)h(\xi ,g,u)\stackrel{~}{\psi }`$ and $`\psi `$ possesses an ordinary quark transformations (as Dirac spinor).

The simplest non-linearly realized effective Lagrangian describing in medium fermions, the five gluons and their self interactions, up to two derivatives and quadratic in the fermion fields is:

$`=`$ $`f^2a_1\mathrm{Tr}\left[\omega _0^{}\omega _0^{}\alpha _1\stackrel{}{\omega }^{}\stackrel{}{\omega }^{}\right]`$ (14)
$`+`$ $`f^2a_2\left[\mathrm{Tr}\left[\omega _0^{}\right]\mathrm{Tr}\left[\omega _0^{}\right]\alpha _2\mathrm{Tr}\left[\stackrel{}{\omega }^{}\right]\mathrm{Tr}\left[\stackrel{}{\omega }^{}\right]\right]`$ (15)
$`+`$ $`b_1\overline{\stackrel{~}{\psi }}i\left[\gamma ^0(_0i\omega _0^{})+\beta _1\stackrel{}{\gamma }\left(\stackrel{}{}i\stackrel{}{\omega }^{}\right)\right]\stackrel{~}{\psi }`$ (16)
$`+`$ $`b_2\overline{\stackrel{~}{\psi }}\left[\gamma ^0\omega _0^{}+\beta _2\stackrel{}{\gamma }\stackrel{}{\omega }^{}\right]\stackrel{~}{\psi }`$ (17)
$`+`$ $`m_M\overline{\stackrel{~}{\psi }^C}\gamma ^5(iT^2)\stackrel{~}{\psi }+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.,`$ (18)
where $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }^C=i\gamma ^2\stackrel{~}{\psi }^{}`$, $`i,j=1,2`$ are flavor indices and

$$T^2=S^2=\frac{1}{2}\left(\begin{array}{cc}\sigma ^2\hfill & 0\hfill \\ 0\hfill & 0\hfill \end{array}\right),$$
(19)
$`a_1,a_2,b_1`$ and $`b_2`$ are real coefficients while $`m_M`$ is complex. The breaking of Lorentz invariance, following  to the $`O(3)`$ subgroup has been taken into account by providing different coefficients to the temporal and spatial indices of the Lagrangian, and it is encoded in the coefficients $`\alpha `$s and $`\beta `$s. For simplicity, the flavor indices are omitted. From the last two terms, representing a Majorana mass term for the quarks, we deduce that the massless degrees of freedom are the $`\psi _{a=3,i}`$ which possess the correct quantum numbers to match the ’t Hooft anomaly conditions . The generalization to the electroweak processes relevant for the cooling history of compact stars has been investigated in .

The Lagrangian in Eq. (18) together with the one describing the relevant $`SU_c(2)`$ degree of freedom which we are about to construct will be used elsewhere to derive the 2SC equation of state.

## III $`SU_c(2)`$ Glueball Effective Lagrangian

The $`SU_c(2)`$ gauge symmetry does not break spontaneously and it is expected to confine. If the new confining scale is lighter than the superconductive quark-quark gap the associated confined degrees of freedom (light glueballs) can play, together with the true massless quarks, as shown in  a relevant role for the physics of Quark Stars featuring a 2SC superconductive surface layer.

One would expect that below the scale $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, the heavy degrees of freedom decouple and the low-energy theory is simply an $`SU_c(2)`$ Yang Mills theory (together with the ungapped quarks); with the new running coupling constant matched with the original $`SU_c(3)`$ at the scale $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. However this is a misleading argument. Indeed QCD at high chemical potential develops multiple scales making it difficult to define a simple matching procedure.

Since the ungapped fermions are neutral with respect to the $`SU_c(2)`$ \- together with the diquarks built out of the quarks carrying non trivial charge under $`SU_c(2)`$ \- it would seem natural for the medium to be transparent with respect to the associated gluons. However, according to the findings in , the medium does still lead to partial $`SU_c(2)`$ screening. In other words the medium is polarizable, i.e., acquires a dielectric constant $`ϵ`$ different from unity (in fact $`ϵ1`$ in the 2SC case ) leading to an effectively reduced gauge coupling constant.

In general, a medium possesses a dielectric constant and a magnetic permeability $`\lambda 1`$. (Here, we note, that in the approximations of  $`\lambda `$ is still unity.) By assuming locality the $`SU_c(2)`$ effective action takes the form :

$$S_{eff}=d^4x\left[\frac{ϵ}{2}\stackrel{}{E}^a\stackrel{}{E}^a\frac{1}{2\lambda }\stackrel{}{B}^a\stackrel{}{B}^a\right]$$
(20)
with $`a=1,2,3`$ and $`E_i^aF_{0i}^a`$ and $`B_i^a\frac{1}{2}ϵ_{ijk}F_{jk}^a`$. Here one assumes an expansion in powers of the fields and derivatives. The gluon speed in this regime is $`v=1/\sqrt{ϵ\lambda }`$.

In Reference  the $`ϵ`$ and $`\lambda `$ were obtained studying the polarization tensor at asymptotically high densities of the $`SU_c(2)`$ gluons and by finally expanding it in powers of the momenta in order to get a local effective action. Their results are:

$$ϵ=1+\frac{g_s^2\mu ^2}{18\pi ^2\mathrm{\Delta }^2},\lambda =1.$$
(21)
Now, at asymptotically high densities, the gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is exponentially suppressed compared to the chemical potential $`\mu `$ . Indeed $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu g_s^5e^{c/g_s}`$ with $`c=3\pi ^2/\sqrt{2}`$, while $`g_s`$ is the $`SU_c(3)`$ coupling constant evaluated at $`\mu `$. Equation (21) than suggests that a 2SC color superconductor can have a large positive dielectric constant. This implies that the Coulomb potential between $`SU_c(2)`$ color charges is reduced in the 2SC medium. The fact that the medium easily polarizes can be intuitively understood by recalling that Cooper pairs have a typical size of the order of $`1/\mathrm{\Delta }`$. There seems to be no effect on the magnetic permeability and in the asymptotic high chemical potential regime.

Clearly Eq. (21) is relevant to understand what happens to the low-energy $`SU_c(2)`$ gluons. Unfortunately, although formally correct and valuable, the perturbative results are very limited when considering phenomenological applications since, according to , the results are quantitatively valid only for $`\mu 10^8`$ MeV. Besides, the theory is believed to still confine and hence $`SU_c(2)`$ glueballs like particles are expected to emerge. These particles are light with respect to $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and are shown to play a relevant role in Quark Stars featuring a superconductive 2SC surface layer . So, the low-energy $`SU_c(2)`$ theory should be well represented by the effective Lagrangian describing its hadronic low lying states: the light glueballs. This Lagrangian has to be added to the one of Eq. (18)  and will be derived below.

A straightforward way to tackle the problem is to build the $`SU_c(2)`$ energy stress tensor $`\theta ^{\mu \nu }`$ whose trace is related to a dilatation anomaly. We consider the theory at scales lower than the gap.

The first step is to rescale the coordinates and the $`SU_c(2)`$ fields as follows:

$`\widehat{x}^0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{x^0}{\sqrt{\lambda ϵ}}},\widehat{g}=g_s\left({\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{ϵ}}\right)^{\frac{1}{4}}`$ (22)
$`\widehat{A}_0^a`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda ^{\frac{1}{4}}ϵ^{\frac{3}{4}}A_0^a,\widehat{A}_i^a=\lambda ^{\frac{1}{4}}ϵ^{\frac{1}{4}}A_i^a.`$ (23)
In the limit $`\lambda 1`$ we recover the rescaling used in . Here we consider a more general rescaling, by not assuming $`\lambda =1`$, since for not too large chemical potentials there is no guarantee that a small magnetic permeability might not arise. If this were the case than note that the coupling constant is sensitive to the ratio $`\lambda /ϵ`$ which is nevertheless much less than one (according to the perturbative regime calculations).

Using the rescaled variables, the $`SU_c(2)`$ action becomes:

$$S_{SU(2)}=\frac{1}{2}d^4\widehat{x}\mathrm{Tr}\left[\widehat{F}_{\mu \nu }\widehat{F}^{\mu \nu }\right],$$
(25)
and $`\widehat{F}_{\mu ,\nu }=\widehat{}_\mu \widehat{A}_\nu \widehat{}_\nu \widehat{A}_\mu +i\widehat{g}[\widehat{A}_\mu ,\widehat{A}_\nu ]`$ with $`\widehat{A}_\mu =\widehat{A}_\mu ^aT^a`$ and $`a=1,2,3`$.

The low-energy effective 3 gluon dynamics in the color superconductor medium (with non-vanishing dielectric constant and magnetic permeability) is similar to the in vacuum theory. The expansion parameter is:

$$\widehat{\alpha }=\frac{\widehat{g}^2}{4\pi }=\frac{g_s^2}{4\pi }\sqrt{\frac{\lambda }{ϵ}}.$$
(26)
Notice that $`g_s`$ is the $`SU_c(3)`$ coupling constant evaluated at the scale $`\mu `$ while we now, following Ref. , interpret $`\widehat{g}`$ as the $`SU_c(2)`$ coupling at $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. The matching of the scales is encoded in $`\sqrt{\lambda /ϵ}`$. Below $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ we use the action of Eq. (25) to investigate the $`SU_c(2)`$ properties.

Now we are ready to construct the glueball effective potential valid to all orders in the loop expansion. This was achieved in Ref.  (in the vacuum case), by using the information of the full, rather than just the one loop, beta function appearing in the trace anomaly saturation procedure. The explicit dependence on the full beta function of the theory allowed  to investigate theories with large number of flavors, relative to the number of colors, with nearby infrared fix points.

The, in medium, anomaly-induced effective potential is based on the trace anomaly arising from the rescaled theory written in Eq. (25):

$$\widehat{\theta }_\mu ^\mu =\frac{\beta (\widehat{g})}{2\widehat{g}}\widehat{F}_a^{\mu \nu }\widehat{F}_{\mu \nu ;a}\frac{2b}{v}H,$$
(27)
with $`a=1,2,3`$ and we have defined $`\beta (\widehat{g})=b\widehat{g}^3/16\pi ^2`$. At one loop $`b=\frac{11}{3}N_c`$ with $`N_c=2`$ the color number. $`H`$ is the composite field describing, upon quantization, the scalar glueball  in medium and possesses mass-scale dimensions 4. The specific velocity dependence is introduced to properly account for the velocity factors.

The general nonderivative effective potential saturating the trace anomaly is a solution of :

$$\widehat{\theta }_\mu ^\mu =4H\frac{\delta \widehat{V}}{\delta H}4\widehat{V},$$
(28)
and is

$$\widehat{V}=\frac{b}{2v}H\mathrm{log}\left[\frac{H}{\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^4}\right],$$
(29)
where $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ is some intrinsic scale associated with the theory.

To the potential $`\widehat{V}`$ one has still the freedom to add a non derivative term proportional to $`H`$. Since this term does not affect any of our conclusions it can be safely omitted. It is worth mentioning that a similar type of potential was derived in  when breaking the $`𝒩=1`$ Super Yang-Mills theory to ordinary Yang-Mills at the effective Lagrangian level.

In order to estimate $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ we consider the following one loop relation:

$`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{8\pi ^2}{b_0\widehat{g}^2(\mathrm{\Delta })}}\right]`$ (30)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{8\pi ^2}{b_0g_s^2(\mu )}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ(\mu /\mathrm{\Delta })}{\lambda (\mu /\mathrm{\Delta })}}}\right]`$ (31)
$``$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2\sqrt{2}\pi }{11}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mu }{g_s(\mu )\mathrm{\Delta }}}\right],`$ (32)
with $`b_0=22/3`$ for $`SU_c(2)`$ and in the last step we considered the asymptotic solution of Ref. , for convenience reported in Eq. (21).

By using $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}300`$ MeV, $`\mu 500`$ MeV and a gap value of about $`30`$ MeV (roughly $`2`$ times  the superconductive critical temperature $`15`$ MeV estimated in ) one gets $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}1`$ MeV. We recall that this estimate relies on the one loop running and a reasonable value of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$ while we used the phenomenological value for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ . This small value of $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ reinforces the need for the 2-color glueball effective Lagrangian as a crucial ingredient of the low-energy effective action. Our estimate is consistent with the one presented in  while further constraining $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ values.

The glueballs are light (with respect to the gap) and might barely interact with the ungapped fermions. They are stable with respect to the strong interactions unlike ordinary glueballs.

The potential in Eq. (29) can be considered a zeroth order model  for a Yang-Mills theory, in medium, in which the glueballs are the associated hadronic particles. The potential has a minimum at

$$H=\frac{\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^4}{e},$$
(33)
at which point

$$\widehat{V}=\frac{b}{2ve}\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^4.$$
(34)
From Eq. (27) this is seen to correspond to a magnetic-type condensation of the glueball field $`H`$. The negative sign of $`\widehat{V}`$ is consistent with the bag model  in which a “bubble” with $`\widehat{V}=0`$ is stabilized against collapse by the zero point motion of the particles within. For the zero density case a number of phenomenological questions have been discussed using toy models based on Eq. (29) .

To be able to deduce further dynamical properties one needs a kinetic term which does not affect the trace anomaly. A viable two derivative trace invariant term (in the rescaled coordinates) is :

$$\widehat{}_{kin}=v\frac{c}{2}\sqrt{b}H^{\frac{3}{2}}\widehat{}_\mu H\widehat{}^\mu H.$$
(35)
Here $`c`$ is a positive dimensionless constant and the factor $`\sqrt{b}`$ has been conveniently introduced. The previous 2-derivative term has scale dimensions four and hence does not affect the trace anomaly equation. The complete simplest light glueball action in the unrescaled coordinates for the, in medium, Yang-Mill theory is:

$`S_{Gball}={\displaystyle }`$ $`d^4x`$ $`\{{\displaystyle \frac{c}{2}}\sqrt{b}H^{\frac{3}{2}}[^0H^0Hv^2^iH^iH]`$ (37)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{b}{2}}H\mathrm{log}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{H}{\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^4}}\right]\}.`$
Hence the glueballs move with the same velocity as the underlying gluons in the 2SC color superconductor.

We define the mass-dimension one glueball field $`h`$ via:

$$H=He^{\frac{h}{F_h}}.$$
(38)
By requiring a canonically normalized kinetic term for $`h`$ one finds:

$$F_h^2=\frac{c}{\sqrt{2}}\sqrt{2bH}.$$
(39)
The glueball mass term is (obtained by expanding the Lagrangian up to the second order in $`h`$):

$$M_h^2=\frac{\sqrt{b}}{2c}\sqrt{H}=\frac{\sqrt{b}}{2c\sqrt{e}}\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^2,$$
(40)
which is clearly of the order of $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ (estimated in the MeV range from Eq. (32)) since $`c`$ is a positive constant of order unity. At large $`N_c`$ and for zero matter density Yang-Mills theories one has $`\widehat{\theta }_\mu ^\mu 𝒪\left(N_c^2\right)`$ while $`M_h^2𝒪\left(N_c^0\right)`$ which fixes $`c𝒪\left(N_c\right)`$ and hence $`F_h^2𝒪\left(N_c^2\right)`$. Clearly, for large $`N_c`$ the glueball self interactions are suppressed. However for theories at finite matter densities $`N_c`$ cannot be changed at will. Indeed a 2SC superconductive phase is very sensitive to the actual number of colors and flavors. Lattice results for $`SU_c(2)`$ Yang-Mills theory  might be used to constraint the coefficients of the effective Lagrangian which can then be used for extracting dynamical results.

This completes the effective action for the $`SU_c(2)`$ glue-ball in medium.

## IV $`h\gamma \gamma `$ process in the 2SC medium

Once created, the light $`SU_c(2)`$ glueballs are stable against strong interactions but not with respect to electromagnetic processes. Indeed, in analogy to the case of the $`\pi ^0`$ decay into two photons at zero and high matter density for the 3 flavor color superconductive case (CFL) , the glueballs couple to two photons via virtual quark loops. More specifically, the $`\pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ process is a direct consequence of the gauging of the global anomalies which are seen to hold at finite matter density , and the explicit electromagnetic gauging is provided, for the CFL case, in . On the other side the two-photon coupling of any object which dominates the energy-momentum tensor at low energies is based on the electromagnetic trace anomaly . This has been formulated at zero density by constructing a suitable effective Lagrangian  describing the ordinary glueball decay into two photons. Mimicking the zero density case we modify the trace-anomaly induced potential term as follows:

$$V=\frac{1}{4}\left[\left(2bH+\stackrel{~}{H}_{em}\right)\mathrm{log}\left[\frac{H}{\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^4}\right]\right],$$
(41)
where

$$\stackrel{~}{H}_{em}=\frac{\stackrel{~}{e}^2}{24\pi ^2}\left[\underset{quarks}{}\stackrel{~}{Q}_{quarks}^2\right]\stackrel{~}{F}_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{F}^{\mu \nu },$$
(42)
is the electromagnetic contribution to the trace anomaly, with $`\stackrel{~}{F}_{\mu \nu }=_\mu \stackrel{~}{A}_\nu _\nu \stackrel{~}{A}_\mu `$. Here $`\stackrel{~}{A}_\mu `$ is the in medium photon field corresponding to the following massless linear combination of the old photon and the eighth gluon :

$$\stackrel{~}{A}_\mu =\mathrm{cos}\theta _QA_\mu \mathrm{sin}\theta _QG_\mu ^8,$$
(43)
with $`\mathrm{tan}\theta _Q=e/(\sqrt{3}g_s)`$. The new electric constant is related to the in vacuum one via:

$$\stackrel{~}{e}=e\mathrm{cos}\theta _Q.$$
(44)
$`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$ is the new electric charge operator associated with the field $`\stackrel{~}{A}_\mu `$:

$$\stackrel{~}{Q}=\tau ^3\times \text{1}+\frac{\stackrel{~}{B}L}{2}=Q\times \text{1}\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\text{1}\times T^8,$$
(45)
where $`L=0`$ is the lepton number, $`\tau ^3`$ the standard Pauli’s matrix, $`Q`$ the quark matrix, the new baryon number $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ is defined in Eq. (4) and following the notation of Ref.  we have $`\mathrm{flavor}_{2\times 2}\times \mathrm{color}_{3\times 3}`$. The quarks that acquires a mass term (i.e. the ones in the color direction one and two) have half integer charges under $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$ while the massless quarks (the ones in direction three of color) have the ordinary proton and neutron charges in units of $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$. Hence:

$`{\displaystyle \underset{quarks}{}}\stackrel{~}{Q}_{quarks}^2`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{Tr}\left[\stackrel{~}{Q}^2\right]=N_c\mathrm{Tr}Q^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}=2,`$ (46)
with $`N_c=3`$ the underlying number of colors. Differently from the $`\pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ case, a part from a modified electron coupling, one also finds an electromagnetic trace anomaly coefficient which differs from the in vacuum case (corresponding to the first term in Eq. (46)). This, once again, shows the special role played by the chiral anomalies.

The relevant Lagrangian term is:

$$_{h\gamma \gamma }=\frac{\stackrel{~}{e}^2}{48\pi ^2}\frac{M_h}{\sqrt{2bH}}\left[\underset{quarks}{}\stackrel{~}{Q}_{quarks}^2\right]h\stackrel{~}{F}_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{F}^{\mu \nu },$$
(47)
leading to the following decay width of the glueballs into two photons in medium:

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }\left[h\gamma \gamma \right]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha ^2}{576\pi ^3}}\mathrm{cos}\theta _Q^4\left[{\displaystyle \underset{quarks}{}}\stackrel{~}{Q}_{quarks}^2\right]^2{\displaystyle \frac{M_h^5}{2bH}}`$ (48)
$``$ $`1.2\times 10^2\mathrm{cos}\theta _Q^4\left[{\displaystyle \frac{M_h}{1\mathrm{MeV}}}\right]^5\mathrm{eV},`$ (49)
where $`\alpha =e^2/4\pi 1/137`$. For illustration purposes we consider a glueball mass of the order of $`1`$ MeV which leads to a decay time $`\tau 5.5\times 10^{14}s`$. We used $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _Q1`$ since $`\theta _Q2.5^{}`$ when assuming for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$ and the chemical potential the values adopted in the previous section. While we are aware of the possible contribution from other hadrons to the saturation of the electromagnetic trace anomaly, here we assume it to be dominated by the $`SU_c(2)`$ glueballs. In any case, it is hard to imagine the photon decay process to be completely switched-off.

## V Conclusion

We constructed the, in medium, effective Lagrangian describing the light glueballs associated with the unbroken and still confining $`SU_c(2)`$ color subgroup. This Lagrangian has to be added to the one presented in  and constitutes a key ingredient for understanding the non perturbative physics of 2 flavor color superconductivity. We have shown that the light glueballs are unstable to photon decay and estimated the, in medium, two photon decay rate.

This work shows that a consistent portion of the glue ($`3/8`$ or $`37.5\%`$) filling the 2SC medium is very rapidly and efficiently converted into electromagnetic radiation. The relevance of the above in Quark Stars has been demonstrated in . In particular we showed that, if 2SC develops at the surface of such stars (at the very early stage of their cooling history), glueball formation and subsequent two-photon decay process provide the fuel to power Gamma Ray Bursts. We discovered a plausible link between Color Superconductivity and Gamma Ray Bursts with important consequences to astrophysics and QCD .

###### Acknowledgements.

It is a pleasure for us to thank Joseph Schechter for interesting discussions and encouragement.


text:
# NON EXISTENCE OF COMPLEX STRUCTURES ON FILIFORM LIE ALGEBRAS

## 1 Preliminaries

The study of invariant complex structures on real connected Lie Groups is reduced to the study of linear operators $`J`$ on the corresponding Lie algebra which satisfies the Nijenhuis condition and $`J^2=Id`$. When the Lie algebra is even dimensional, real and reductive, the existence of such structures follows from the work of Morimoto . On the other hand, there exist solvable and nilpotent Lie algebras which are not provided with a complex structure. Some recent works present classifications of nilpotent or solvable Lie algebras with complex structures in small dimension (dimension four for the solvable case  and six for the nilpotent case ). As every six dimensional nilpotent Lie algebra does not admit complex structure, we are conducted to determine the classes of nilpotent Lie algebra which are not provided with such a structure.

Let $`G`$ be a real Lie group and $`𝔤`$ its Lie algebra.

###### Definition 1

An invariant complex structure on $`G`$ is an endomorphism $`J`$ of $`𝔤`$ such that

(1) $`J^2=Id`$

(2) $`[JX,JY]=[X,Y]+J[JX,Y]+J[X,J(Y)],`$ $`X,Y𝔤`$

(The second condition is called the Nijenhuis condition of integrability).

For simplify, we will say that $`J`$ is an invariant complex structure over the Lie algebra $`𝔤`$.

The underlying real vector space $`V`$ to the Lie algebra $`𝔤`$ can be provided with a complex vector space structure by putting

$$\left(a+ib\right).v=a.v+b.J(v)$$

$`vV,a,b.`$ We note by $`V_J`$ this complex vector space. We have

$$dim_{}V_J=\frac{1}{2}dim_{}V=\frac{1}{2}dim_{}𝔤.$$

###### Definition 2

The complex structure $`J`$ is called bi-invariant if it satisfies

(3) $`[J,adX]=0`$ , $`X𝔤`$.

Let us remark that (3) implies (2).

If $`J`$ is bi-invariant, then $`V_J`$ is a complex Lie algebra, noted $`𝔤_J`$, because in this case we have

$$[\left(a+ib\right)X,\left(c+id\right)Y]=\left(a+ib\right)\left(c+id\right)[X,Y]$$

## 2 Decomposition associated to a complex structure

Let $`J`$ be an invariant complex structure on the real Lie algebra $`𝔤`$. We can extend the endomorphism $`J`$ in a natural way on the complexification $`𝔤_{}=𝔤_{}`$ of $`𝔤`$. It induces on $`𝔤_{}`$ a direct vectorial sum

$$𝔤_{}=𝔤_{}^i𝔤_{}^i$$

where

$$𝔤_{}^{\epsilon i}=\{X𝔤_{}/J(X)=\epsilon iX\},\epsilon =\pm 1$$

The Nijenhuis condition (2) implies that $`𝔤_{}^{\epsilon i}`$ is a complex subalgebra of $`𝔤_{}`$. If $`\sigma `$ denotes the conjugation on $`𝔤_{}`$ given by $`\sigma \left(X+iY\right)=XiY`$, then

$$𝔤_{}^i=\sigma (𝔤_{}^i).$$

###### Proposition 1

Let $`𝔤`$ be a $`2n`$-dimensional real Lie algebra. It is provided with an invariant complex structure if and only if the complexification $`𝔤_{}`$ admits a decomposition

$$𝔤_{}=𝔥\sigma (𝔥)$$

where $`𝔥`$ is a $`n`$-dimensional complex subalgebra of $`𝔤_{}`$.

If $`J`$ is bi-invariant, condition (3) implies that $`𝔤_{}^{\epsilon i}`$ is an ideal of $`𝔤_{}`$. In fact, if $`X𝔤_{}^{\epsilon i}`$ and $`Y𝔤_{}^{\epsilon i}`$ we have

$$J[X,Y]=[JX,Y]=\epsilon i[X,Y]=[X,JY]=\epsilon i[X,Y]$$

Then

$$[X,Y]=0.$$

###### Proposition 2

Let $`𝔤`$ be an $`2n`$-dimensional real Lie algebra. Then $`𝔤`$ admits a bi-invariant complex structure if and only if the complexification $`𝔤_{}`$ is a direct sum of ideals $`I`$ and $`\sigma \left(I\right)`$ :

$$𝔤_{}=I\sigma (I)$$

Of course every $`n`$-dimensional complex Lie algebra $`𝔥`$ comes from an $`2n`$-dimensional real Lie algebra endowed with a bi-invariant complex structure.

## 3 Bi-invariant complex structures

### 3.1 Nilpotent case

Let $`𝔤`$ be a $`2n`$-dimensional real nilpotent Lie algebra with a bi-invariant complex structure. Then $`𝔤_{}=I\sigma (I)`$ where $`I`$ is a $`n`$-dimensional complex ideal of $`𝔤_{}`$. This describes entirely the structure of the complexifications $`𝔤_{}`$ of the real Lie algebras $`𝔤`$ provided with bi-invariant complex structure.

Let $`c(𝔫)`$ the characteristic sequence of the complex nilpotent algebra $`𝔫`$ (). It is defined by

$$\begin{array}{cc}c(𝔫)=\hfill & Max\{c(X)X𝔫[𝔫,𝔫]\}\hfill \end{array}$$

where $`c(X)=(c_1(X),\mathrm{},c_k(X),1)`$ is the sequence of similitude invariants of the nilpotent operator $`adX`$. We deduce that

$$c\left(𝔤_{}\right)=(c_1,c_1,c_2,c_2,\mathrm{},1,1)$$

As the Jordan normal form of the nilpotent operators $`adX`$ does not depend of the field of scalars, we have

###### Proposition 3

If $`𝔤`$ is an $`2n`$-dimensional real nilpotent Lie algebra which admits a bi-invariant complex structure, then its characteristic sequence is of type

$$(c_1,c_1,c_2,c_2,\mathrm{},c_j,c_j,\mathrm{},1,1).$$

A nilpotent Lie algebra is called of maximal class (or filiform in Vergne’s terminology ,) if the descending sequence of derived ideals $`𝒞^i𝔤`$ satisfies :

$$\begin{array}{c}dim𝒞^1𝔤=dim𝔤2\hfill \\ dim𝒞^i𝔤=dim𝔤i1i2\hfill \end{array}$$

###### Corollary 1

There is no bi-invariant complex structure over a filiform Lie algebra.

In fact, the characteristic sequence of a filiform Lie algebra is $`(2n1,1).`$ Thus, by proposition 3, a filiform Lie algebra cannot admit a bi-invariant complex structure.

Let be $`\left\{U_j\right\}`$ and $`\left\{V_j\right\}`$ the basis of the complex ideals $`I`$ and $`\sigma (I)`$. Respect to $`𝔤`$, we can write $`U_l=X_liY_l`$, $`V_l=X_l+iY_l`$, where $`\{X_1,\mathrm{},X_n,Y,\mathrm{},Y_n\}`$ is a real basis of $`𝔤`$. As $`[U_l,V_l]=0`$, we obtain

$$[X_liY_l,X_k+iY_k]=[X_l,X_k]+[Y_l,Y_k]+i\left([X_l,Y_k][Y_l,X_k]\right)=0$$

Thus

$$\begin{array}{cc}[X_l,X_k]=[Y_l,Y_k]\hfill & \\ [X_l,Y_k]=[Y_l,X_k]\hfill & k=1,\mathrm{},n;l=1,\mathrm{},n.\hfill \end{array}$$

Likewise $`[U_l,U_k]I`$ and $`[V_l,V_k]\sigma \left(I\right)`$ imply

$$\begin{array}{c}[X_l,X_k][Y_l,Y_k]\{X_1,\mathrm{},X_k\}\hfill \\ [X_l,Y_k]+[Y_l,Y_k]\{Y_1,\mathrm{},Y_k\}\hfill \end{array}$$

Suppose that $`I`$ admits a real basis. In this case we have

$$\begin{array}{ccc}[X_l,X_k]=_{j=1}^nC_{lk}^jX_j\hfill & ,\hfill & [Y_l,Y_k]=_{j=1}^nC_{lk}^jY_j\hfill \\ [X_l,Y_k]=_{j=1}^nD_{lk}^jY_j\hfill & ,\hfill & [Y_l,X_k]=_{j=1}^nD_{lk}^jY_j\hfill \end{array}$$

with $`C_{lk}^j`$ and $`D_{lk}^j`$ in $``$. Let be $`𝔤_0=\{X_1,\mathrm{},X_n\}`$ and $`𝔤_1=\{Y_1,\mathrm{},Y_n\}`$. Then the previous relations show that $`𝔤=𝔤_0𝔤_1`$, and

$$\{\begin{array}{c}[𝔤_0,𝔤_0]𝔤_0\hfill \\ [𝔤_1,𝔤_1]𝔤_0\hfill \\ [𝔤_0,𝔤_1]𝔤_1\hfill \end{array}$$

which gives a structure of $`_2`$-graded Lie algebra on $`𝔤.`$

### 3.2 On the classification of nilpotent Lie algebras with bi-invariant complex structures

If $`𝔤`$ is a $`2n`$-dimensional real nilpotent Lie algebra with a bi-invariant complex structure, then $`𝔤_{}=I\sigma (I)`$. Then the classification of associated complexification $`𝔤_{}`$ corresponds to the classification of complex nilpotent Lie algebra $`I`$. By this time, this classification is known only up to dimension 7, and for special classes up to dimension 8. To obtain a general list of these algebras is therefore a hopeless pretention. From  we can extract the list for the 6-dimensional case. From  we can present the classification of complexifications $`𝔤_{}`$ of real nilpotent Lie algebras with bi-invariant complex structure up the dimension 14. Here we will present briefly the classification in the real case up dimension 8.

Dimension 2 : $`𝔤_2^1`$ is abelian.

Dimension 4 : $`𝔤_4^1`$ is abelian.

In fact $`𝔤_{}=I\sigma (I)`$ and $`I`$ is an abelian ideal.

Dimension 6 : - $`𝔤_6^1`$ is abelian.

\- $`𝔤_6^2`$ : $`\{\begin{array}{c}[X_2,X_3]=[Y_2,Y_3]=X_1\hfill \\ [X_2,Y_3]=[Y_2,X_3]=Y_1\hfill \end{array}`$

###### Remark 1

1. The complexification of $`𝔤_6^2`$ is isomorphic to $`𝔥_3𝔥_3`$ where $`𝔥_3`$ is the $`3`$-dimensional Heisenberg Lie algebra.

2. Let us note that the real nilpotent Lie algebra $`𝔥_3𝔥_3`$ doesn’t have a bi-invariant complex structure. In fact if $`\{X_1,X_2,X_3,X_4,X_5,X_6\}`$ is a basis of $`𝔥_3𝔥_3`$ with brackets

$$[X_1,X_2]=X_3,[X_4,X_5]=X_6,$$

then every isomorphism $`J`$ which commutes with $`adX`$ for every $`X`$ satisfies $`J\left(X_3\right)=\alpha X_3`$ and $`J\left(X_6\right)=\beta X_6`$. As $`J^2=Id`$, we will have $`\alpha ^2=\beta ^2=1`$ and $`\alpha ,\beta `$.

3. The Lie algebra $`𝔤_6^2`$ is $`2`$-step nilpotent and it is a Lie algebra of type $`H`$ (see ).

Dimension 8 : - $`𝔤_8^1`$ is abelian.

\- $`𝔤_8^2=𝔤_6^2𝔤_2^1`$

\- $`𝔤_8^3:\{\begin{array}{ccc}[X_2,X_4]=X_1\hfill & ;\hfill & [Y_2,Y_4]=X_1\hfill \\ [X_2,Y_4]=+Y_1\hfill & ;\hfill & [Y_2,X_4]=+Y_1\hfill \\ [X_3,X_4]=X_2\hfill & ;\hfill & [Y_3,Y_4]=X_2\hfill \\ [X_3,Y_4]=Y_2\hfill & ;\hfill & [Y_3,X_4]=Y_2\hfill \end{array}`$

\- $`𝔤_8^4:\{\begin{array}{ccc}[X_2,X_3]=X_1\hfill & ;\hfill & [Y_2,Y_3]=X_1\hfill \\ [X_2,Y_3]=Y_1\hfill & ;\hfill & [Y_2,X_3]=Y_1\hfill \\ [X_2,X_4]=Y_1\hfill & ;\hfill & [Y_2,Y_4]=Y_1\hfill \\ [X_2,Y_4]=X_1\hfill & ;\hfill & [Y_2,X_4]=X_1\hfill \end{array}`$

### 3.3 On the classification of solvable Lie algebras with bi-invariant complex structures

As known, there is, up an isomorphism, only one $`2`$-dimensional non nilpotent solvable Lie algebra, denoted by $`𝔯_2^2`$ and defined by $`[X_1,X_2]=X_1`$ over the basis $`\{X_1,X_2\}`$ . This Lie algebra does not admit a bi-invariant complex structure. Thus, a non abelian solvable Lie algebra admitting it is at least four dimensional.

If we want classify all the $`4`$-dimensional solvable Lie algebras admitting bi-invariant complex structures we can use the Dozias’classification, which can be found in  (see also ).

From this classification, we can affirm :

###### Theorem 1

: Every $`4`$-dimensional real solvable Lie algebras which admits a bi-invariant complex structure is isomorphic to one of the following :

\- $`𝔯_4^1=𝔤_4^1`$ the abelian Lie algebra.

\- $`𝔯_4^2=\{\begin{array}{c}[X_1,X_3]=X_3\\ [X_1,X_4]=X_4\\ [X_2,X_3]=X_4\\ [X_2,X_4]=X_3\end{array}`$

In the last case, any bi-invariant complexe structures satisfy

$`J(X_1)`$ $`=`$ $`aX_1+bX_2,`$
$`J(X_2)`$ $`=`$ $`bX_1+aX_2`$
$`J(X_3)`$ $`=`$ $`aX_3+bX_4,`$
$`J(X_4)`$ $`=`$ $`bX_3+aX_4.`$
Its complexification $`𝔯_4^2`$ is isomorphic to $`𝔯_2^2\times 𝔯_2^2.`$ Let us note that the real Lie algebra $`𝔯_2^2\times 𝔯_2^2`$ which has the same complexification as $`𝔯_4^2`$ is not provided with a bi-invariant complex structure.

## 4 Non Existence of invariant complex structures over nilpotent Lie algebras of maximal class

In section 3, we have given the definition of nilpotent Lie algebras of maximal class (or filiform Lie algebra).The simplest example is given by the following $`n`$-dimensional Lie algebra, denoted $`L_n`$ :

$$[X_1,X_i]=X_{i+1},i=2,\mathrm{},n1$$

where the nondefined brackets are zero or obtained by antisymmetry.

Let $`𝔫`$ be a $`n`$-dimensional filiform Lie algebra. Then there exists a basis $`\{X_1,X_2,\mathrm{},X_n\}`$ which is adapted to the flag

$$𝔤𝒞^1𝔤𝒞^2𝔤\mathrm{}𝒞^{n1}𝔤=\left\{0\right\}$$

with $`dim𝒞^1𝔤=n2`$ , $`dim\frac{𝒞^i𝔤}{𝒞^{i1}𝔤}`$ =1, $`i1`$, and which satisfies :

$$\{\begin{array}{c}[X_1,X_i]=X_{i+1},i=2,\mathrm{},n1\hfill \\ [X_i,X_j]=_{ki+j}C_{ij}^kX_k\hfill \end{array}$$

The change of basis $`Y_1=X_1`$, $`Y_i=tX_i`$, $`i2`$, $`t0`$, shows that this Lie algebra is isomorphic to the following :

$$\{\begin{array}{c}[X_1,X_i]=X_{i+1},i=2,\mathrm{},n1\hfill \\ [X_i,X_j]=tC_{ij}^kX_k\hfill \end{array}$$

### 4.1 Invariant complex structures and filiform Lie algebras

###### Proposition 4

The real nilpotent filiform Lie algebra $`L_{2n}`$ does not admit an invariant complex structure.

Proof . Let $`T`$ be a linear isomorphism of the real vector space $`L_{2n}`$ satisfying the Nijenhuis condition :

$$[T(X),T(Y)]=[X,Y]+T[X,T(Y)]+T[T(X),Y]$$

where $`[,]`$ is the bracket of $`L_{2n}`$. Consider the basis $`\{X_1,\mathrm{},X_{2n}\}`$ of $`L_{2n}`$ satisfying :

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}[X_1,X_i]=X_{i+1},\hfill & i=2,\mathrm{},2n1\hfill \\ [X_i,X_j]=0,\hfill & i,j1.\hfill \end{array}$$

We have

$`[T(X_{2n1}),T(X_{2n})]`$ $`=`$ $`[X_{2n1},X_{2n}]+T[X_{2n1},T(X_{2n})]+T[T(X_{2n1}),X_{2n}]`$
$`=`$ $`T[X_{2n1},T(X_{2n})]`$
As

$$[X_{2n1},X_1]=X_{2n}$$

we obtain

$$[T(X_{2n1}),T(X_{2n})]=T[X_{2n1},T(X_{2n})]=aT(X_{2n})$$

where

$$T(X_{2n})=aX_1+\underset{i2}{}a_iX_i.$$

The nilpotency of $`L_{2n}`$ implies that the constant $`a`$ which appears as an eigenvalue of $`ad`$($`T(X_{2n1}))`$ is zero. Then

$$[T(X_{2n1}),T(X_{2n})]=0.$$

This implies that

$$[T(X_i),T(X_{2n})]=T[X_i,T(X_{2n})]=0$$

for $`i=2,\mathrm{},2n.`$ If $`T(X_{2n})Z(L_{2n})=\{X_{2n}\},`$ then $`T(X_i)=_{j2}a_{ij}X_j`$ for $`j=2,\mathrm{},2n.`$ As $`T`$ is non singular, necessarily we have

$$T(X_1)=a_{11}X_1+\underset{i2}{}a_{i1}X_i$$

with $`a_{11}0.`$ The condition $`T^2=Id`$ implies $`a_{11}^2=1.`$ As $`a_{11}`$, this constitutes a contradiction. Thus $`T(X_{2n})Z(L_{2n})=\{X_{2n}\},`$ and it follows that $`T(X_{2n})=\alpha X_{2n}.`$ As above, we can conclude $`\alpha ^2=1.`$ This case is also excluded and the proposition is proved.

We will show that the non existence of invariant complexe structure on the model filiform $`L_{2n}`$ is always true in any deformation of this algebra.

###### Theorem 2

There does not exist invariant complex structure over a real filiform Lie algebra.

Proof. Let $`𝔤`$ be a $`2n`$-dimensional real filiform Lie algebra and let $`𝔤_{}`$ be its complexification. If there a complex structure $`J`$ on $`𝔤`$, then $`𝔤_{}`$ admits the following decomposition

$$𝔤_{}=𝔤_1\sigma (𝔤_1)$$

where $`𝔤_1`$ is a $`n`$-dimensional sub-algebra of$`𝔤_{}`$ and $`\sigma `$ the conjugated automorphism. As the Lie algebra $`𝔤_{}`$ is filiform, there is an adapted basis $`\{X_1,..,X_{2n}\}`$ satisfying

$$()\{\begin{array}{c}[X_1,X_i]=X_{i+1},2i2n1\hfill \\ [X_2,X_3]=_{k5}C_{23}^kX_k\hfill \\ 𝒞^i(𝔤)=\{X_{i+2},\mathrm{},X_n\}\hfill \end{array}$$

In particular we have

$$dim\frac{𝔤_{}}{𝒞^1(𝔤_{})}=2,dim\frac{𝒞^i(𝔤_{})}{𝒞^{i+1}(𝔤_{})}=1,i1$$

The ordered sequence of the dimension of Jordan blocks of the nilpotent operator $`adX_1`$ is $`(n1,1)`$. Such a vector is called characteristic vector.

###### Lemma 1

Every characteristic vector can be written as $`Y=\alpha X_1+U`$ where $`U`$ is in the complex vector space generated by $`\{X_2,\mathrm{},X_{2n}\}`$ and $`\alpha 0.`$

It follows that the set of characteristic vectors of $`𝔤_{}`$ is the open set $`𝔤_{}\{X_2,..,X_{2n}\}.`$

###### Lemma 2

Either $`𝔤_1`$ or $`\sigma (𝔤_1)`$ contains a characteristic vector of $`𝔤_{}.`$

Observe that otherwise we would have $`𝔤_1`${$`X_2,..,X_{2n}\}`$ and $`\sigma (𝔤_1)`${$`X_2,..,X_{2n}\}`$, which contradicts the previous decomposition.

Thus $`𝔤_1`$ or $`\sigma (𝔤_1)`$ is a $`n`$dimensional complex filiform Lie algebra. But if $`Y`$ $`𝔤_1`$ is a characteristic vector of $`𝔤_1`$, then $`\sigma (Y)`$ is a characteristic vector of $`\sigma (𝔤_1)`$ with the same characteristic sequence. Then every $`2n`$dimensional filiform Lie algebra appears as a direct vectorial sum of two $`n`$-dimensional filiform Lie algebras. We shall prove that it is impossible. More precisely we have

###### Proposition 5

Let $`n3`$. Then no $`2n`$dimensional complex filiform Lie algebra is a vectorial direct sum of two $`n`$dimension filiform sub-algebras.

Proof. Let $`𝔤_{}`$ be a filiform Lie algebra of dimension $`2n`$ such that $`𝔤_{}=𝔤_1𝔤_2.`$From the previous lemma, one of them for example $`𝔤_1`$, contains a characteristic vector. Let be $`X_1`$ this vector an $`\{X_1,X_2,..,X_{2n}\}`$ the corresponding basis. This implies that $`𝔤_1\{X_2,..,X_{2n}\}=𝔤_1\{X_{n+1},..,X_{2n}\}.`$ But $`𝔤_2`$ cannot contain characteristic vector of $`𝔤,`$ if not $`𝔤_2\{X_2,..,X_{2n}\}=𝔤_2\{X_{n+1},..,X_{2n}\}`$ and this is at variance with $`𝔤_{}=𝔤_1𝔤_2`$. Then $`𝔤_2\{X_2,..,X_{2n}\}.`$ But from the brackets in $`()`$ this is impossible as soon as $`n>2.`$

The four dimensional case can be treated directly. Up to isomorphism, there exists only one 4 dimensional filiform Lie algebra, $`L_4`$, for which we have proven the nonexistence of invariant complex structures. Note that, respect to the basis used in $`()`$, this algebra admits the decomposition $`L_4=𝔤_{}=𝔤_1𝔤_2`$,where $`𝔤_1`$ and $`𝔤_2`$ are the abelian subalgebras generated respectively by $`\{X_1,X_4\}`$ and $`\{X_2,X_3\}`$.

### 4.2 Consequence.

Let $`J`$ be an invariant complex structure on a Lie algebra $`𝔤.`$ Let us note by $`\mu `$ the law (the bracket) of $`𝔤`$ and let us consider the Chevalley cohomology of $`𝔤.`$ The coboundary operator is denoted by $`\delta _\mu .`$

###### Proposition 6

We have

$$\delta _\mu J=\mu _J$$

where $`\mu _J`$ is the law of Lie algebra, isomorphic to $`\mu `$, defined by

$$\mu _J(X,Y)=J^1(\mu (J(X),J(Y)).$$

In fact the Nijenhuis condition is written as:

$$\mu (JX,JY)=\mu (X,Y)+J\mu (JX,Y)+J\mu (X,J(Y))$$

Then

$$J^1\mu (JX,JY)=J^1\mu (X,Y)+\mu (JX,Y)+\mu (X,J(Y))$$

that is, as $`J^2=Id`$

$`J^1\mu (JX,JY)`$ $`=`$ $`J\mu (X,Y)+\mu (JX,Y)+\mu (X,J(Y))`$
$`=`$ $`\delta _\mu J(X,Y)`$
###### Corollary 2

If $`𝔤`$ is a filiform Lie algebra,then there does not exist 2-coboundaries for the Chevalley cohomology such that

$$\delta _\mu (J)=\mu _J$$

where $`J^2=Id`$