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# References

Generalizations of quantum mechanics are difficult. One idea which has often been exploited is to make the Schrödinger equation non-linear (see for example ). Another approach is to extend the quantum phase space from the usual complex projective space to an arbitrary Kahler manifold. Yet another avenue is to enlarge complex quantum mechanics by changing the coefficients on the Hilbert space to quaternions  or octonions . In this article a more radical approach to this question is investigated. What is proposed is a modification of the kinematics and dynamics, the very symplectic and Riemannian structure of geometric complex quantum mechanics.

Any search for generalizations of quantum mechanics has to have a well defined motivation. One possible general starting point is provided by the observation that the evolution of fundamental physical theories, characterized by appearance of new dimensionful parameters (new constants of nature), can be mathematically understood from the point of view of deformation theory . In particular, relativity theory, quantum mechanics and quantum field theory can be understood mathematically as deformations of unstable structures 333An algebraic structure is termed stable (or rigid) for a class of deformations if any deformation in this class leads to an equivalent (isomorphic) structure.. An example of an unstable algebraic structure is non-relativistic classical mechanics. By deforming an unstable structure, such as classical non-relativistic mechanics, via dimensionful deformation parameters, the speed of light $`c`$ and the Planck constant $`\mathrm{}`$, one obtains new stable structures - special relativity and quantum mechanics. Likewise, relativistic quantum mechanics (quantum field theory) can be obtained through a double ($`c`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$) deformation. It is natural to expect that there is a further deformation via one more dimensionful constant, the Planck length $`l_P`$. The resulting structure could be expected to form a stable structural basis for a quantum theory of gravity.

A closely related idea has appeared in open string field theory, as originally formulated by Witten . There, the deformation parameters are $`\alpha ^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$. The classical open string field theory lagrangian is based on the use of the string field (which involves an expansion to all orders in $`\alpha ^{}`$) and a star product which is defined in terms of the world-sheet path integral, also involving $`\alpha ^{}`$. The full quantum string field theory is thus, in principle, an example of a one-parameter ($`\alpha ^{}`$) deformation of quantum mechanics444Similarly, one can also intuit that string theory calls for a generalization of quantum mechanics from the existence of the minimal length uncertainty relations in the framework of perturbative string theory ..

In this letter we lay the basis for a generalized quantum mechanics based on the classical Nambu dynamics  of Euler’s asymmetric top. This Nambu quantum mechanics, naturally possesses besides Planck constant, new deformation parameters. One of its defining experimental signatures is a nonlinear time evolution generated by Jacobian elliptic functions, as compared to the standard exponential time evolution of standard quantum mechanics. The new deformation parameters are given by the moduli of the elliptic functions. In the limit when these are set to zero, the usual geometric formulation of quantum mechanics, based on the Kahler structure of the space of rays in a complex Hilbert space, is recovered. We point out various features of and issues raised by this extended quantum mechanics, including its nonstandard geometric aspects. Our approach sheds a new light on the problem of quantization of Nambu dynamics and is natural from the point of view of string theory.

We begin with a brief recapitulation of the geometric formulation of quantum mechanics as originally formulated by Kibble  (for reviews of this approach consult ). This geometric setting will be a springboard for our attempt to go behond standard quantum mechanics. The basic observation is that pure states of a quantum mechanical system correspond to rays in a complex linear Hilbert space $``$. The latter can also be seen as a real vector space with a complex structure $`J`$. So the Hermitian inner product of two states $`<\psi |`$ and $`|\varphi >`$ in $``$ can be split into its real and imaginary parts :

$$<\psi |\varphi >=g(\psi ,\varphi )+i\omega (\psi ,\varphi )=\delta _{ij}\psi _i\varphi _j+iϵ_{ij}\psi _i\varphi _j.$$
(1)
with $`i,j`$=1,2, labelling the real and imaginary components of $`\psi `$ and $`\varphi `$ . The metric $`g`$ is the scalar product and the antisymmetric $`\omega `$ is a symplectic 2-form, they are related through $`J`$ as $`g(\psi ,\varphi )=\omega (\psi ,J\varphi )`$. The triple $`(g,\omega ,J)`$ makes $``$ a Kahler space. Thus the curved space of rays of $``$, called the projective Hilbert space $`𝒫`$, is the $`quantum`$ phase space and has the complex geometry of a Kahler manifold. Pure states of the quantum system are represented as points of the manifold $`𝒫`$, which is endowed with natural symplectic and Riemannian structures. This symplectic structure encodes the symplectic structure that survives in the classical limit. One notes that the Riemannian structure, with which the complex Kahler structure is said to be compatible, is absent in the classical phase space and is in fact a key ingredient of geometric quantum theory as it encodes the information about pure quantum mechanical properties, such as the measurement process and Heisenberg’s uncertainty relations. Up to numerical factors, Planck constant is given by the inverse of the constant holomorphic sectional curvature of $`𝒫`$. Observables $`A=<\widehat{A}>`$, defined as the expectation value of a hermitian linear operator $`\widehat{A}`$, correspond to real valued differentiable functions on $`𝒫`$. The derivative of such a Kahlerian function A vanishes at an “eigenstate” with the value of A at such a point being the corresponding “eigenvalue”. The evolution of states (the Schrödinger equation) represents a symplectic flow generated by a Hamiltonian.

More explicitly, let us consider a pure state $`\psi =_ae_a\psi _a`$, where the $`\psi _a`$ are the generalized Fourier components of $`\psi `$ in an orthonormal eigenbasis $`\{e_a\}`$ of the Hamiltonian $`H`$ of a given system. Also, setting for convenience Planck constant equal to 1, we let $`q^a=\sqrt{2}Re\psi _a`$ and $`p_a=\sqrt{2}Im\psi _a`$ with the $`(q^a+ip_a)`$ providing the homegeneous coordinates for $`𝒫`$. The natural symplectic structure on $`𝒫`$ is then given by the closed, nondegenerate 2-form $`\omega ^{(2)}=dp_adq^a`$, $`d\omega ^{(2)}=0`$. The Poisson bracket is defined as usual: $`\{f,g\}=\frac{f}{p_a}\frac{g}{q^a}\frac{f}{q^a}\frac{g}{p_a}\omega ^{AB}\frac{f}{x^A}\frac{g}{x^B},`$ where $`\omega ^{AB}`$ is the inverse of the symplectic 2-form and the $`x^A=(p_a,q^a)`$ form a set of canonical coordinates. As to the Schrödinger equation, with $`h=<\widehat{H}>`$, it now takes the form of Hamilton’s equations:

$$\frac{dp_a}{dt}=\{h,p_a\},\frac{dq^a}{dt}=\{h,q^a\}.$$
(2)
Here $`h=\frac{1}{2}_a[(p^a)^2+(q_a)^2]\omega _i`$, and $`\omega _i`$ denote eigenvalues of the given Hamiltonian $`H`$. Thus for a general quantum system in the specific basis $`\{e_a\}`$ , the Hamiltonian $`h`$ describes an infinite set of abstract free harmonic oscillators! Thus we have the alternative view of quantum mechanics as a rather familiar classical Hamiltonian system, albeit one on a (generally infinite-dimensional) nonlinear, projective Hilbert space . The Schrödinger equation follows from the variation of the action $`S=(p_adq^ahdt)`$. The time evolution is, of course, exponential: $`(q_a+ip_a)(t)=\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _at)(q_a+ip_a)(0)`$. In general, an arbitrary observable $`O`$ will evolve according to

$$\frac{dO}{dt}=\{h,O\}.$$
(3)
It also turns out that the expectation values of commutators of operators acting on the Hilbert space $``$ are the Poisson brackets of the corresponding Kahlerian functions in the geometric formulation!

The normalization of the wave function $`\psi ^{}\psi =1`$, known as the Born rule (imposed by introducing a Lagrange multiplier into the above action) becomes, $`\frac{1}{2}_a[(p^a)^2+(q_a)^2]=1`$. Moreover the points $`\psi `$ and $`e^{i\alpha }\psi `$ are to be identified. Thus, if we take our Hilbert space to be one of finite (e.g. for a spin system) complex dimension $`n+1`$, namely $`=C^{n+1}`$, the above kinematic constraint says that the quantum phase space of rays in $``$ is the complex projective $`CP(n)`$. The latter is thus the base space of the complex Hopf bundle $`S^{2n+1}`$ over $`CP(n)`$ (which can be realized as the coset space of $`U(n+1)/U(1)\times U(n)`$) with a U(1) fiber, the group of complex phases in quantum mechanics. The Riemannian metric on $`𝒫`$ is given by the natural Kahler metric. For $`𝒫`$ = $`CP(n)`$, it is the well-known Fubini-Study metric, $`ds_{12}^2=(1|<\psi _1|\psi _2>|^2)`$. For example, the Heisenberg uncertainty relations arise from such a metric of the state manifold whose local properties also lead to a generalized energy-time uncertainty relation .

Finally, given a curve $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ in the projective Hilbert space $`𝒫`$, the geometric (Berry) phase  is given by

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }𝑑p_adq^a,$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ has as its boundary $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Its expression as a symplectic area enclosed by $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ shows that it results solely from the geometry of the Hermitian inner product and is independent of the Hamiltonian and the equation of motion provided that the latter is first order in time.

In the foregoing it is clear from the perspective of geometric quantum mechanics that the process of quantization is superfluous. One takes quantum theory as given. Quantum theory is in fact mathematically equivalent to a special type of classical Hamiltonian phase-space dynamics, albeit with a key difference; namely the underlying phase-space is not the finite dimensional symplectic phase space of classical mechanics, but rather the (infinite dimensional) quantum mechanical Kahler state space itself, naturally endowed with a compatible Riemannian metric. This formulation points to specific ways of extending quantum mechanics. This is achieved by tempering with either the kinematics, or the dynamics and quantum phase space of standard geometric quantum mechanics or indeed with all of these elements simultaneously. Next we choose to substitute the dynamics of the above systems of non interacting harmonic oscillators by a system of free Nambu tops and explore the ensuing implications.

We begin then by summing up the corresponding geometrical characteristics of the classical Nambu mechanics . In this letter we make use specifically of a Nambu system of order 3, namely a Hamiltonian system defined with respect to a ternary bracket. Thus the fundamental analog of the symplectic 2-form of usual Hamiltonian dynamics is a closed non-degenerate 3-form

$$\omega ^{(3)}=dM_1dM_2dM_3,$$
(5)
and the action given as an integral of the corresponding Poincare-Cartan 2-form

$$S=M_1𝑑M_2dM_3H_1dH_2dt.$$
(6)
This form of the action shows that initial and final states in this type of Nambu dynamics are described by loops rather then points, because the integrand of the action is a two form, rather a one form, as in the usual Hamiltonian dynamics. The fact that loops appear in the phase space of triple Nambu mechanics thus points out to a possible application to string theory.

The equations of motion - Nambu equations - follow from $`\delta S=0`$:

$$\frac{dF}{dt}=\{H_1,H_2,F\}$$
(7)
where $`F`$ is a function of $`M_1,M_2,M_3`$ and the Nambu-Poisson bracket $`\{F,G,H\}`$ is defined as

$$\{F,G,H\}=ϵ^{ijk}_{M_i}F_{M_j}H_{M_k}G.$$
(8)
The Nambu bracket generates volume preserving diffeomorphisms on the phase space of the Nambu dynamics and the Liouville theorem is obeyed. The Poisson bracket is evidently a natural “contraction” of the Nambu bracket. The latter satisfies the following three key conditions: skew-symmetry, the Leibniz rule and the Fundamental Identity , the counterpart of the Jacobi identity obeyed by Poisson brackets:

1. Skew-symmetry

$$\{A_1,A_2,A_3\}=(1)^{ϵ(p)}\{A_{p(1)},A_{p(2)},A_{p(3)}\},$$
(9)
where $`p(i)`$ is the permutation of indices and $`ϵ(p)`$ is the parity of the permutation,
2. Derivation (the Leibniz rule)

$$\{A_1A_2,A_3,A_4\}=A_1\{A_2,A_3,A_4\}+\{A_1,A_3,A_4\}A_2,$$
(10)
3. Fundamental Identity

$`\{\{A_1,A_2,A_3\},A_4,A_5\}+\{A_3,\{A_1,A_2,A_4\},A_5\}`$
$`+\{A_3,A_4,\{A_1,A_2,A_5\}\}=\{A_1,A_2,\{A_3,A_4,A_5\}\}.`$ (11)

We should mention that there exists an algebraic n-ary generalization of the Nambu bracket associated with a Nambu-Poisson manifold . However in such a scheme, the associated fundamental identity is too restrictive in that the Nambu dynamics on a $`n`$-dimensional manifold is then determined by $`(n1)`$ conserved Hamiltonian functions. This too large a number of integrals of motion is clearly most unsuitable for our specific generalization of geometric quantum dynamics where $`n`$ is finite only for, say, spin systems but is generically infinite.

Now, we observe that, just as the simple harmonic oscillator is the prototype classical and quantum system of the standard Hamiltonian mechanics, the Euler asymmetric top is the prototypical representative of Nambu’s ternary mechanics. The time evolution of the Euler top in Nambu mechanics is described by two Hamiltonian functions given by the total energy and a Casimir invariant, the square of the angular momentum. These two conserved quantities are: $`H_1=\frac{1}{2}_{i=1}^3\frac{1}{I_i}(M_i)^2`$ and $`H_2=\frac{1}{2}_{i=1}^3(M_i)^2`$, where $`I_i`$ denote the principal moments of inertia. It is easy to see that the Nambu equations of motion give the equations written in $`\text{IR}^3`$ for the asymmetric Euler top, a rigid body fixed in the center of mass:

$$\frac{dM_1}{dt}=(\frac{1}{I_3}\frac{1}{I_2})M_2M_3,\frac{dM_2}{dt}=(\frac{1}{I_1}\frac{1}{I_3})M_3M_1,\frac{dM_3}{dt}=(\frac{1}{I_2}\frac{1}{I_1})M_1M_2,$$
(12)
where we take $`I_3>I_2>I_1`$ . These equations have been reincarnated during recent decades in the celebrated Nahm equations  for the $`SU(2)`$ self-dual Yang-Mills field of relevance to theories of extended objects such as monopoles and membranes. Specifically the Euler equations for the asymmetric top naturally describe geodesic flows on a triaxial ellipsoid and can be solved in terms of Jacobi elliptic function . For later comparison, we elaborate briefly on this last point. The equations for the asymmetric top are closely linked to the SO(3) algebra, the group SO(3) being that of proper orthogonal transformations in $`\text{IR}^3`$. $`\text{IR}^3`$ can then be identified with the SO(3) Lie algebra since the latter is isomorphic to that of vectors in $`\text{IR}^3`$. It was shown  that the left invariant metric tensor on SO(3), compatible with the top motion is given by $`g(X,Y)=\frac{1}{2}K(𝐈X,Y)`$ where $`K`$ is the appropriate Killing form, $`𝐈`$ is the moment of inertia operator and $`X`$ and $`Y`$ are tangent vectors to SO(3). Then, in an SO(3) eigenbasis of $`𝐈`$ the above top equations are the geodesics of the given left-invariant Riemannian metric of the group SO(3), on a reduced phase space to be identified as a 2-sphere. Thus in terms of the components of angular velocity $`𝛀`$, Eq(12) also reads

$$\frac{d\mathrm{\Omega }^i}{dt}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{jk}^i\mathrm{\Omega }^j\mathrm{\Omega }^k=0,$$
(13)
where the Christoffel symbols are $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{jk}^i=\frac{1}{2}ϵ_{jki}(1\frac{I_jI_k}{I_i})`$. Indeed by being so embedded in SO(3) the Euler top equations of motion become a Hamiltonian flow on the (co-)adjoint orbits of the action of SO(3) which are 2-spheres, $`S^2`$. As a Hamiltonian system on $`\text{IR}^3`$, the time evolution of any observable $`G`$ is given through a Lie-Poisson bracket $`\{G,H_1\}`$ :

$$\frac{dG}{dt}=\{G,H_1\}=ϵ_{ijk}M_i\frac{H_1}{M_j}\frac{G}{M_k}.$$
(14)
In fact its very form readily motivates the definition of the triple Nambu bracket if one has another conserved quantity quadratic in the $`M_i`$’s as is the case of $`H_2`$ for the top. However, due to the existence of another integral of motion, $`H_2`$, which is an invariant level surface, a 2-sphere, this bracket is degenerate. This 2-sphere is then the reduced phase space on which the Lie-Poisson bracket is restricted and then nondegenerate. The top equations can be written in the canonical Hamiltonian form, using Darboux theorem  by introducing two canonical variables $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ such that

$$M_1=\sqrt{H_2\beta ^2}\mathrm{sin}\alpha ,M_2=\sqrt{H_2\beta ^2}\mathrm{cos}\alpha ,M_3=\beta .$$
(15)
The top equations have then the canonical form

$$\frac{d\alpha }{dt}=\frac{H}{\beta },\frac{d\beta }{dt}=\frac{H}{\alpha },$$
(16)
where the Hamiltonian $`H`$ reads as follows

$$H=\frac{1}{2}(\frac{\mathrm{sin}\alpha ^2}{I_1}+\frac{\mathrm{cos}\alpha ^2}{I_2})(H_2\beta ^2)+\frac{\beta ^2}{I_3}.$$
(17)
The symplectic structure is given by $`d\alpha d\beta `$.

Returning to the dynamics of the Euler top, we underscore the case of the symmetric (or Lagrange) top ($`I_1=I_2`$) for which $`M_3=const`$. In that case one obtains effectively a simple harmonic oscillator with the characteristic frequency $`(\frac{1}{I_1}\frac{1}{I_3})M_3`$. Also in this limit the Jacobi elliptic functions become ordinary trigonometric functions. We mention in passing that there exists an obvious generalization of this system in the case of an n-ary Nambu bracket ($`n>3`$), generated by $`(n1)`$ quadratic Nambu Hamiltonians. The resulting generalization of the Euler top can be solved in terms of automorphic functions on a Riemann surface of genus $`(n1)`$, given the results of .

Now we are set to state our proposed generalization of the geometric formulation of quantum mechanics. We call it for short - Nambu quantum mechanics.

The key to our scheme is the embedding of the standard quantum mechanics represented as a Hamiltonian system describing a collection of (N+1) abstract harmonic oscillators into a Nambu Hamiltonian system describing an abstract collection of (N+1) Euler tops. The exponential evolution from standard quantum mechanics is then immediately generalized into a time evolution described by the Jacobi elliptic functions and the geometric formulation of quantum mechanics is naturally generalized into a larger geometric structure, possessing extra deformation parameters, one per top used - the modulus of the Jacobi elliptic functions which is the measure of the asymmetry of a top.

We consider a phase space described by real functions of $`(3N+3)`$ variables or (N+1) Nambu triplets, $`m_1^a,m_2^a,m_3^a`$ (a = 1,2,..N+1). The fundamental equations of motion for a general observable $`O(m_1^a,m_2^a,m_3^a)`$ are assumed to be of the Nambu type

$$\frac{dO}{dt}=\{h_1,h_2,O\},$$
(18)
where the Nambu bracket $`\{F,G,H\}`$ is defined as above $`\{F,G,H\}=ϵ^{ijk}_{m_i^a}F_{m_j^a}H_{m_k^a}G`$. The summation over $`a`$ is understood. The generalized Schrödinger equation (the Nambu-Schrödinger equation) is given by the Nambu-Hamilton equation $`\frac{dm_i^a}{dt}=\{h_1,h_2,m_i^a\}`$, where the two Hamiltonians are $`h_1=\frac{1}{2}_a_{i=1}^3\alpha _i^a(m_i^a)^2`$ and $`h_2=\frac{1}{2}_a_{i=1}^3(m_i^a)^2`$. These equations follow from the variation of $`S=m_1^a𝑑m_2^adm_3^ah_1dh_2dt`$. Namely, the Nambu-Schrödinger equations describe a collection of (N+1) (which could be infinite) free abstract Euler tops :

$$\frac{dm_1^a}{dt}=(\alpha _3^a\alpha _2^a)m_2^am_3^a,\frac{dm_2^a}{dt}=(\alpha _1^a\alpha _3^a)m_3^am_1^a,\frac{dm_3^a}{dt}=(\alpha _2^a\alpha _1^a)m_1^am_2^a.$$
(19)
As is well known, these equations can be integrated in closed form in terms of Jacobi elliptic functions $`sn,cn,dn`$:

$$m_1^a(t)=K_1^asn(c(tt_0)),m_2^a(t)=K_2^acn(c(tt_0)),m_3^a(t)=K_3^adn(c(tt_0)),$$
(20)
where the modulus $`k`$ of the Jacobi elliptic functions is given by

$$k^2=\frac{\alpha _1\alpha _2}{\alpha _2\alpha _3}\frac{2h_1\alpha _3h_2}{h_2\alpha _12h_1}.$$
(21)
Note that in the Lagrange or symmetric top limit when for example $`\alpha _1^a=\alpha _2^a`$ the Jacobi elliptic function reduce to the trigonometric functions $`sn\mathrm{sin}`$, $`cn\mathrm{cos}`$ and $`dn1`$. To be more precise we display the simple asymptotics of the Jacobi functions :

$`snu`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{sin}u{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}k^2(u\mathrm{sin}u\mathrm{cos}u)\mathrm{cos}u+O(k^4)`$ (22)
$`cnu`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}u+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}k^2(u\mathrm{sin}u\mathrm{cos}u)\mathrm{sin}u+O(k^4)`$ (23)
$`dnu`$ $`=`$ $`1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}k^2\mathrm{sin}^2u+O(k^4),`$ (24)
where in our case $`u=c(tt_0)`$. In the $`\alpha _1^a=\alpha _2^a`$ limit the Euler top equations describe a (generally infinite) collection of harmonic oscillators and the time evolution is exponential. Also $`m_3^a=const`$ and $`m_1^a`$ and $`m_2^a`$ can be identified with the real and imaginary parts of the usual wave function, as described above ($`m_1^a=q^a`$, $`m_2^a=p^a`$). This motivates the general expression for what we call the Nambu wave function

$$\mathrm{\Psi }^a=\underset{i}{}m_i^ae_i$$
(25)
where $`e_i`$ are the usual quaternions imaginary units such that $`e_ie_j=\delta _{ij}+ϵ_{ijk}e_k`$. The quaternion conjugate Nambu wave function is $`_im_i^a\overline{e}_i=\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}^a`$. The inner product reads

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\mathrm{\Phi }=\delta _{ij}\mathrm{\Psi }_i\mathrm{\Phi }_jϵ_{ijk}e_k\mathrm{\Psi }_i\mathrm{\Phi }_j=\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Psi }}\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Phi }}\stackrel{}{e}(\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Psi }}\times \stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Phi }})$$
(26)
where in complete correspondence with Eq.(1), the quaternionic real part is the scalar vector product and the imaginary part is the antisymmetric vector product. The second term in the above equation is the quaternionic counterpart of the symplectic 2-form. It is at the basis of the 3-form, characteristic of Nambu’s original mechanics . Due to the non-linear nature of the Nambu-Schrödinger equation the superposition principle apparently no longer holds for $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ (See however ref.).

It is also useful to introduce the following two $`3\times 3`$ matrices $`L_{rs}^a=L_{sr}^a`$ ($`L_{rr}^a=0`$, $`L_{12}^a=m_3^a`$, $`L_{13}^a=m_2^a`$, $`L_{23}^a=m_1^a`$), and $`J_{rs}^a`$ ($`J_{rr}^a=\alpha _r^a`$). Then the Nambu-Schrödinger equation can be written in the following Lax form

$$\frac{dL}{dt}=[L,(JL+LJ)].$$
(27)
These equations are integrable (in complete analogy with the Euler top equations). From the corresponding Lax equations, one can deduce an infinite number of conservation laws .

Notice that the analogs of the commutators of the Nambu quantum mechanics are precisely given in terms of the classical Nambu bracket! Thus this formulation circumvents some of the well known problems encountered in the quantization of the Nambu dynamics .

Given this abstract structure of the Nambu-Schrödinger quantum mechanics, it is natural to write down an appropriate operator version. The operator form of the Nambu-Schrödinger equations we suggest reads as follows

$$\frac{dm_1^a}{dt}=m_2^am_3^am_3^am_2^a,$$
(28)
$$\frac{dm_2^a}{dt}=m_3^am_1^am_1^am_3^a,$$
(29)
$$\frac{dm_3^a}{dt}=m_1^am_2^am_2^am_1^a,$$
(30)
where the Hamiltonian is denoted by $``$. Similarly, for an operator $`W`$ the eigenvalue problem can defined by the equations

$$Wm_2^am_3^aWm_3^am_2^a=wm_1^a,$$
(31)
$$Wm_3^am_1^aWm_1^am_3^a=wm_2^a,$$
(32)
$$Wm_1^am_2^aWm_2^am_1^a=wm_3^a.$$
(33)
Equations of this type appear in the theory of multidimensional determinants .

It is interesting to note that the Nambu-Heisenberg commutator

$$[P,Q,R,]PQRPRQ+QRPQPR+RPQRQP=i\mathrm{}_N$$
(34)
can have both finite and infinite dimension Hilbert space realizations . This Nambu-Heisenberg relation suggests the following cubic form of the Nambu-Heisenberg uncertainty principle $`\mathrm{\Delta }P\mathrm{\Delta }Q\mathrm{\Delta }R\mathrm{}_N`$, which is similar to the suggested generalization of the space-time uncertainty relation in M-theory . Notice though, that it is not clear that a Hilbert space formulation of the Nambu quantum mechanics is physically appropriate, mainly because of the lack of the superposition principle. Perhaps one should expect an appearance of the 2-Hilbert space structure 555It has been argued in  as well in  that background independent formulation of quantum gravity might call for an algebraic structure larger than the category of Hilbert spaces, in which Hilbert spaces of different dimensionality naturally appear..

Now we discuss the basics of the geometry of the Nambu quantum mechanics. While Nambu mechanics can be locally embedded as a constrained system in the canonical Hamiltonian phase space framework, we shall take it as a stand alone new mechanics. Here tailored to our very purpose is the formulation of  for a system made up with n Nambu triplets. It closely parallels the characteristics of Hamiltonian systems though there are some key differences. Referring to  for the details, it is worth gathering the key features of that formulation. The counterpart of standard symplectic phase space is the 3n dimensional non symplectic Nambu manifold $`M^{3n}`$ where a nondegenerate closed 3-form takes the place of the symplectic 2-form. A $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$ mapping $`F`$ : $`M^{3n}N^{3n}`$ is a canonical transformation if it leaves the 3-form invariant. In particular, the Nambu equations of motion realize a phase flow through two Hamiltonian functions $`h_1`$ and $`h_2`$ with the time evolution of the system being a unfolding of successive 3-form preserving canonical transformations. In such a Nambu system, a Poisson bracket of 2-forms closing on an SO(3) algebra is the counterpart of the Poisson bracket of 1-forms or vector fields of usual Hamilton dynamics. On the other hand the triple brackets for functions F, G, H has a non-associative structure as observed by  and . There is a Nambu-Darboux theorem whereby at every point P in $`M^{3n}`$ there is a coordinate chart (U, $`\varphi )`$ in which $`\omega ^3`$ has the Darboux form $`\omega ^{(3)}=_{i=0}dx_{3i+1}dx_{3i+2}dx_{3i+3}`$ (i=0,1,…n-1).

It is specially noteworthy that the normalization of the Nambu wave function or Born rule $`_a\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }^a}\mathrm{\Psi }^a=const`$ does not have to be imposed. It is in fact automatically conserved and given by the value of $`h_2`$ ! Thus the usual normalization condition for wave functions follows from the dynamical set-up and is strongly indicative (after appropriate normalization) of a probabilistic or stochastic interpretation for the generalized Nambu quantum mechanics. On the other hand, the fact that the superposition principle may fail suggests that the concept of measurement and the standard statistical interpretation has to be reevaluated. The condition

$$C=\underset{a}{}[(m_1^a)^2+(m_2^a)^2+(m_3^a)^2],$$
(35)
where $`C`$ is a constant, defines the space of states of the Nambu quantum mechanics together with the requirement that the points in this space of states are identified under the action of $`SO(3)`$. In other words, $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and $`U\mathrm{\Psi }U^{}`$, where $`U`$ is an $`SO(3)`$ matrix, are identified as physical states. Thus there is a non-abelian $`SO(3)`$ phase, which generalizes the usual $`U(1)`$ phase of quantum mechanics. (It is a fascinating possibility that the usual $`U(1)`$ phase could emerge dynamically from the non-abelian $`SO(3)`$ phase.) More precisely, the normalization condition as in the U(1) phase case of quantum mechanics, gives rise to the structure of a SO(3) principal fibre bundle of spheres over spheres, namely $`S^{3n+2}S^{3n1}`$ . We call these Nambu bundles and readily check that these bundles sit between the complex Hopf bundles $`S^{2n+1}CP^n`$ of quantum mechanics and the quaternionic Hopf bundles $`S^{4n+3}HP^n`$ of quaternionic quantum mechanics, $`HP^n`$ being the n-dimensional (4n real) quaternionic projective space. Namely that, for a given n, the complex line bundles are embedded as they should within the Nambu bundles, which are themselves embedded in turn in the quaternionic line bundles. In this sense Nambu quantum mechanics as formulated here is intermediate between complex and quaternionic quantum mechanics. The three quantum phase spaces are nested within one another as $`CP(n)S^{3n1}HP(n)`$. The Nambu manifold, a (3n-1)-sphere is generally neither symplectic nor complex. It is endowed with an invariant closed nondegenerate 3-form which descends from a closed 4-form, characteristic of $`HP^n`$ and giving the latter a quaternionic Kahler structure. The metric of the ”round” sphere $`S^{3n1}`$ is the extension of the Fubini-Study metric of the complex quantum mechanics.

$$ds_{12}^2=(1|<\mathrm{\Psi }_1|\mathrm{\Psi }_2>|^2).$$
(36)
Finally, given the basic equations of the Nambu quantum mechanics, we see that there exists a geometric phase generalizing the usual Berry phase. The generalized geometric phase, which should be independent of the equation of motion of first order in time, is given in terms of the Nambu wave function,

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}𝑑\mathrm{\Psi }.$$
(37)
Clearly, many fundamental questions have yet to be answered about the above Nambu quantum mechanics, the foremost one being its physical interpretation. Thus the bundle structure endowed with a closed nondegenerate 3-form suggests the formulation of a) some generalized Poisson structure and b) hypercomplex structure for the Nambu manifold, something intermediate between complex and quaternionic structure. The existence of some kind of hypercomplex structure may yet provide a nonlinear superposition principle, if any exist. This hope is not out of reach as the classical Euler top is completely integrable with a very apparent Lax structure. The fact that a generalized Born rule is built in through the second Hamiltonian supports our view that geometrizing Nambu mechanics is a natural step since it is $`already`$ quantized, that we are in the presence of a stochastic dynamical system where the phase space $`S^{3n1}`$ is also a probability space. A n-sphere probability space was considered in  in a spinorial generalization on quantum mechanics. Moreover, being the prototype Blaschke manifold , the round hyperspheres $`S^n`$ share with the projective (Blaschke) spaces ($`RP^n`$, $`CP^n`$, $`HP^n`$, $`CaP^2`$) the defining property that their geodesics exhibit the most regular behavior. It is known  that this regular geodesic structure is at the basis of the generalized energy-time uncertainty relation.

One of the fundamental questions to be answered concerns the nature and properties of the “observables” of Nambu quantum mechanics. We know that they must be a rather restricted class of functions over the Nambu manifold since in the symmetric top limit where standard quantum mechanics is recovered, they must coincide with the Kahler functions. The latter are in one to one correspondence with observable hermitian operators. Obviously the technology of the operatorial formalism for our scheme has to be developed further and applied to simple physical systems . Similarly, the physical meaning of the generalized uncertainty relations should be understood. Another question is whether there exists a Weyl-Wigner-Moyal-like deformation quantization  formulation of geometric Nambu quantum mechanics? We hope to address some of these issues in future work.

Finally, we believe that the correct arena for the application of our formalism is to be found in string theory. In particular, in references  and  it has been argued that the structure of the Nambu bracket appears quite naturally in the problem of a covariant formulation of Matrix theory  based on the analogy with the eleven-dimensional membrane . One of the obstacles in this approach was rooted in the quantization problem of the Nambu bracket. (Similarly the quantization of the topological open membrane is closely related to the problem of the quantization of the triple Nambu bracket .) As pointed out in this article, our geometric formulation of the Nambu bracket allows for an identification of the classical Nambu bracket with the quantum Nambu bracket provided one works on the configuration space of the Nambu quantum mechanics. Thus, we believe a stage is set for an application of the Nambu bracket to Matrix theory.

Acknowledgments: We thank V. Balasubramanian, L. N. Chang, M. di Ventri, M. Gunaydin, T. Hubsch, F. Larsen, T. Mizutani, N. Okamura, B. Schmittmann, A. Sen, J. Slawny, U. Tauber, T. Takeuchi, and Royce Zia for useful discussions. D.M. thanks to H. Awata, M. Li and T. Yoneya as well as B. Pioline for many discussions on Nambu dynamics.


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# Novel dynamical effects and persistent memory in phase separated manganites

## Abstract

The time dependent response of the magnetic and transport properties of Fe-doped phase separated (PS) manganite La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 is reported. The nontrivial coexistence of ferromagnetic (FM) and non FM regions induces a slow dynamics which leads to time relaxation and cooling rate dependence within the PS regime. This dynamics influences drastically on physical properties. On one hand, metallic like behavior, assumed to be a fingerprint of percolation, can be also observed before the FM phase percolates as a result of dynamical contributions. On the other one, two novel effects for the manganites are reported, namely the rejuvenation of the resistivity after ageing, and a persistent memory of low magnetic fields ($`<`$ 1 T), imprinted in the amount of the FM phase. As a distinctive fact, this memory can be recovered through transport measurements.

Phase separation (PS), namely the simultaneous presence of submicrometer ferromagnetic (FM) and charge ordered (CO) regions, is emerging as the most important issue in the physics of the manganese-oxide-based compounds.  The PS scenario appears as particularly favorable for the existence of out-of equilibrium features. The competition between the coexisting phases opens the possibility for the appearance of locally metastable states, giving rise to interesting time dependent effects, as cooling rate dependence,  relaxation,  giant $`1/f`$ noise,  two level fluctuations,  non equilibrium fluctuations,  noise  and relaxor ferroelectric like behavior.  The similarity between PS manganites and glassy systems, coming from the frustration of the FM and the CO states at the phases boundary was also suggested.

Most of the relaxation experiments were performed after the induction of metastable states by, for instance, application of magnetic fields $`H`$ after zero field cooling,  removal of $`H`$ after field cooling,  x-ray ilumination,  electron beam irradiation,  etc. Such external perturbation can also be an abrupt change of the temperature, as observed in the prototypical PS compounds La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3 ($`y=0.35`$) and La0.5Ca0.5MnO3.  The extremely slow relaxation observed in all the mentioned works opens an interesting question not previously addressed about the path followed towards equilibrium in the PS state of manganites.

In this work we present a detailed study of time dependent effects in the PS compound La0.5Ca0.5Mn0.95 Fe0.05O3 (LCMFO). The parent compound La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 exhibits PS with the temperature of charge ordering $`T_{co}`$ lower than that of the ferromagnetic order $`T_C`$.  From a microscopic point of view, the inclusion of Fe in the Mn site of La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 yields the same overwhelming effect on the CO state as Cr doping does on other half doped manganites as Nd0.5Ca0.5MnO3  and Pr0.5Ca0.5MnO3,  a feature ascribed to the presence of a random field quenched by the impurities.  But, unlike what happens with Cr doping, Fe doping also disrupts the double exchange interaction due to its filled eg orbitals. Moreover, Fe-O-Mn superexchange interactions are likely to be antiferromagnetic . All these facts are reflected by the decrease of $`T_C`$ as a function of Fe doping.

We use transport and magnetization measurements to study the dynamic of the coexisting phases, which is observed close below T$`{}_{C}{}^{}`$ 90 K. We found cooling rate dependence and slow relaxation effects in the temperature range between TC and 50 K, indicating the enlargement of the FM phase as the PS state evolves with time. Within this scenario, our main results are two novel effects. One, the rejuvenation in the resistivity curve when cooling is resumed after ageing, which resembles the behavior of glassy systems  and disorder ferromagnets.  The other is the effect produced by the application of a low $`H<`$ 1 T while ageing which, instead of inducing metastable states, can drive the system towards its zero field equilibrium point. As this process is irreversible, the effects of $`H`$ on the resistivity remain even after it is removed, and the system keeps memory of the magnetic history, acting as a magnetic field recorder.

Polycrystalline samples of LCMFO were synthesized by the sol-gel technique, their average grain size was around 0.5 microns. DC resistivity was measured using the four probe technique, magnetization was measured using a commercial SQUID magnetometer. Figure 1 displays magnetization $`M`$ and resistivity $`\rho `$ as a function of temperature on cooling. $`M`$(T) increases continuously between 100 and 50 K, reaching a low temperature plateau which reveals a mostly FM state. $`M`$ vs $`H`$ loops at 5 K show a saturation magnetization of $``$ 3 $`\mu _B`$/Mn at 5 T. An insulator to metal transition is suggested at T$`{}_{p}{}^{}`$ 80 K. Both $`T_p`$ and the resistivity below $`T_D`$ 85 K were found to be very sensitive to the cooling rate $`v_c`$ (inset Fig. 1). The dependence of the peak resistivity with $`v_c`$ reassures that this cooling rate effect is not an experimental artifact.

We studied the time relaxation of $`\rho `$ at several $`T<T_D`$ using $`v_c`$=0.2 K/min as the cooling rate to approach and depart from the values at which $`T`$ was stabilized for one hour (Fig. 2). The relaxations are characterized by the decrease of $`\rho `$ following a logarithmic time dependence, and are as high as an 18% in one hour at 73.8 K. A related behavior (inset of Fig. 2) was observed in the relaxation of $`M`$. Both relaxations are consistent with the isothermal growth of FM regions embedded in a non FM host.

A noticeable fact is that, when the cooling process is resumed with $`v_c`$= 0.2 K/min after relaxation, $`\rho `$ merges smoothly with the curve obtained at that $`v_c`$ without $`T`$ stabilization steps. This effect is similar to that found in the dissipation of some disordered ferromagnets and spin glasses,  and has been named rejuvenation. Another striking feature is that the slope of the $`\rho (T)`$ curve in this range is highly dependent on the previous history of the sample. For instance, while $`\rho /T>0`$ is found when cooling continuously, suggesting metallic behavior, a typical insulator response is obtained if, after one hour ageing, cooling is resumed (Fig. 2).

This last result is opposite to that expected from a static vision of transport properties in PS systems, in which the change from metallic-like to insulator-like behavior is driven by a decrease in the amount of the metallic fraction. This fact points to the existence of dynamical contributions to the resistivity in the continuously cooling procedure. To get a better description of this behavior we have studied the time dependence of the resistivity slope $`\rho /T`$ by performing small thermal cycles ($`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ 0.6 K) around a fixed $`T`$ value while the system is relaxing (Fig. 3). After a sudden initial change from positive to negative, the slope $`\rho /T`$ increases smoothly and slowly (see Fig. 3 inset) as the system evolves. The obtained ageing behavior of $`\rho /T`$ is now consistent with the static image for transport, the negative slope indicating that percolation of the FM phase has not been achieved close below $`T_p`$. As in this $`T`$ range the state of the system is characterized by the slow enlargement of the FM regions against the non FM host, the approach to equilibrium drives the system towards the percolation threshold, increasing the resistivity slope. The metallic-like behavior of the continuously cooling curve is then to be ascribed to the existence of non-static contributions to $`\rho /T`$ arising from the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of the coexisting phases. As the approach to equilibrium becomes slower as time goes by, it is not possible to reach it within laboratory times, so at this point we can not give conclusive statements about the nature of the equilibrium state (homogeneous FM or PS). However, as the system evolves by increasing the FM phase, an external $`H`$ may assist in the path towards equilibrium. Following this idea, we have studied the effect of low $`H`$ applied for a short time while the system is relaxing after zero field cooling the sample to a T close below $`T_p`$.

Fig. 4-a displays $`\rho `$ as a function of elapsed time upon the application of several $`H`$ values at $`T`$= 72 K, showing jumps when the field was applied and removed. The sudden decrease of $`\rho `$ when the field is turned on can be ascribed to two independent mechanisms, one originated in the alignment of spins and domains, and the other due to the enlargement of the FM phase driven by $`H`$.  It is worth noting the hysteretic behavior of $`\rho `$ after application and removal of $`H`$, indicating that the system keeps memory of the magnetic history imprinted in its zero field resistivity.

The slow relaxation of the persistent resistivity value observed after $`H`$ was removed indicates that, depending on the strength of the field, the FM phase may still be growing against the non-FM one (Fig. 4-a inset). Upon increasing $`H`$, we found a $`T`$-dependent threshold $`H_{th}`$ value above which the ulterior relaxation of $`\rho `$ after the field is turned off reverses its sign: after $`H>H_{th}`$ is applied and removed $`\rho `$ slowly increases (instead of decreasing) indicating that the system is evolving by diminishing the amount of the FM phase (Fig. 4-a inset). This fact signs unambiguously that the equilibrium state is of PS nature, characterized by the FM fraction $`f_0(T)`$. The application of $`H_{th}`$ while ageing drives the system towards its zero field equilibrium point, having an effect which is equivalent to a long relaxation process. The equilibrium points depicted in Fig. 2 provide a demonstration of the magnitude of the dynamical effects. By applying a $`H>H_{th}`$ the amount of the FM phase overcomes the equilibrium volume, leading to a subsequent decrease of the FM fraction.

In what follows we discuss the overall results. At TC an inhomogeneous FM state appears, consisting in the coexistence of isolated FM clusters of definite size within a non-FM host. At $`T_D`$= 85 K the FM regions start to grow against the host material with the equilibrium size of the clusters increasing as $`T`$ is lowered. The process followed by the clusters to reach their equilibrium size can be thought as a stepwise movement of the phase boundaries through energy barriers. Before the FM clusters reach the percolation threshold, the temperature and rate dependent resistivity $`\rho (T,v_c)`$ can be modeled as a series circuit, i.e.

$$\rho (T,v_c)=n(T,v_c)\rho _F(T)+[1n(T,v_c)]\rho _{nF}(T)$$
(1)
where $`\rho _F(T)`$ and $`\rho _{nF}(T)`$ are the resistivities of the FM and non-FM constitutive media respectively and $`n(T,v_c)`$ is a measure of the relative fraction $`f(T,v_c)`$ of the FM phase. As the system is rather close to the percolation limit, $`n(T,v_c)`$ can be a cumbersome functional of $`f(T,v_c)f_c`$, (where $`f_c`$ is the percolation threshold), but is always a monotonous increasing function of $`f(T,v_c)`$, and can be obtained from conduction models through binary alloys. Within this frame, the slope of the resistivity curve has two components. On one hand, a static contribution given by $`n(T,v_c)\frac{\rho _F}{T}+(1n(T,v_c))\frac{\rho _{nF}}{T}`$ which is typically less than zero in the non-percolative regime. On the other hand, a ”dynamical” term defined as $`\frac{n(T,v_c)}{T}(\rho _F\rho _{nF})`$ related to the change of the size of the FM clusters as $`T`$ is varied. This term gives a positive contribution to $`\rho /T`$ in the whole range in which $`f(T,v_c)`$ increases as $`T`$ is lowered. As the system is cooling down at a rate $`v_c`$, the appearance of energy barriers at the clusters surface below $`T_D`$ prevent their free growth, and the FM fraction $`f(T,v_c)`$ no longer follows its equilibrium value $`f_0(T)`$, larger differences corresponding to higher $`v_c`$ values. This fact accounts (Eq. 1) for the overall increase of $`\rho `$ as $`v_c`$ is increased (Fig. 1, inset). Close below $`T_D`$, $`f(T,v_c)`$ increases slower than $`f_0(T)`$, yielding a low dynamical contribution, i.e., larger(negative) slopes are achieved with higher $`v_c`$. As the difference between $`f_0(T)`$ and $`f(T,v_c)`$ becomes larger, the rate at which the FM clusters grow increases, and the dynamical contribution approaches the static one. Both terms are of the same magnitude at $`T_p`$, and below, the dynamical contribution is even larger than the static one. A positive slope resembling ”metallic-like” behavior is then obtained below $`T_p`$, although the FM clusters do not percolate.

The history-dependent $`\rho /T`$ obtained after a relaxation process (Figs. 2 and 3) is consistent with this scenario. By ageing at a given temperature $`f(T,v_c)`$ slowly approaches its equilibrium value $`f_0(T)`$ and the growth dynamics becomes partially frozen. When cooling is resumed a small dynamical contribution is obtained, compared with that of the non-stop process, because of the ”clamping” of the interface. The main contribution to $`\rho /T`$ after ageing comes then from the static part, giving rise to the ”insulator like” response. On further cooling, the frozen-in state is released, the system falls again in the dynamical regime mainly determined by $`v_c`$, and the resistivity curves (with and without ageing) merge into a single one.

This dynamical process produces ageing and rejuvenation effects which bear similarities with those found in glassy systems.  Slow relaxations following stretched exponential or logarithmic dependences were accounted for with models based on a hierarchical constrained dynamics,  in which the system evolves through a hierarchy of energy barriers, constrained to accomplish determined requisites after a process at time $`t`$ can proceed. In our case the existence of a hierarchy of energy barriers is revealed by the response of the system to $`H`$ while ageing at a fixed $`T`$ showed in Fig. 4-a. When $`H`$ is applied all the barriers of height $`<H`$ are overcome, yielding the sudden growth of the FM phase. As $`H`$ is increased, higher barriers are crossed, giving rise to further enlargement effect. In this context, once all the energy barriers of height up to some applied $`H_{MAX}`$ were overcome, the subsequent application of a $`H<H_{MAX}`$ should have no immediate effect on the relative fractions of the coexisting phases. This picture is confirmed by the results shown in Fig 4-b. As can be seen, once $`H_{MAX}=0.6`$ T has determined the relative phase fractions, ulterior application of $`H<0.6`$ T produces only domain alignment, without inducing additional changes on the amount of the coexisting phases. Then, after the system was driven to a ”close to equilibrium state” by some $`H_{MAX}`$, the process can not be reversed and the system keeps memory of the largest $`H`$ applied in its magnetic history.

The above described scenario seems to be characteristic of the low TC PS systems. We have obtained very similar data in other samples of LCMFO with slight different Fe doping and in La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3 ($`y=0.30`$), a PS compound with rather different hole doping but similar PS characteristics.

Summarizing, we have presented robust evidence of the importance of the coexisting phase dynamics in the behavior of the PS manganites. When dynamical effects are present the amount and spatial distribution of the FM phase (percolative or not) can not be directly inferred from metallic or insulator behavior. The rejuvenation found in the resistivity curve after ageing and the persistent memory after the application of a low $`H`$ are novel features in the physics of manganites. The possibility to record an external magnetic field as a sizeable and persistent change of the resistivity is a distinctive fact of the memory effect, and opens a route for applications. Memory effects in manganites have been previously reported,  related to the field induction of metastable states. In our case, instead, the low field carries the system closer to its zero field equilibrium state. Since both, the ”virgin” state and the ”H-enlarged” state are, in general, out of equilibrium, the memory could be erased after a very long time, but the effect is protected by the very slow dynamics displayed by the system.

Project partially financed by CONICET, Fundación Antorchas and Balseiro.


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# Remarks on the BRST Cohomology of Supersymmetric Gauge Theories

## 1 Introduction

One of the most attractive properties of supersymmetric quantum field theories is their softer ultraviolet behavior. Supersymmetry has allowed to establish several nonrenormalization theorems , which have provided examples of gauge theories with vanishing beta function to all orders of perturbation theory.

Recently, a criterion of general applicability for the ultraviolet finiteness has been proven . The result allows to give a purely cohomological algebraic characterization of the ultraviolet behavior of gauge field theories, including the supersymmetric models as well. Moreover, it also covers the case of theories whose beta function receives only one-loop contribution, as it happens for the $`N=2`$ supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions.

The aforementioned criterion makes use of the set of descent equations stemming from the Wess-Zumino consistency condition. In the case of supersymmetric theories it turns out that these equations take a peculiar form, leading to a system of nonstandard equations which highly constrains the possible invariant counterterms and anomalies allowed by the gauge invariance and by the global supersymmetry. These equations have been proven to be very useful in the algebraic proof of the ultraviolet finiteness properties of both $`N=2`$  and $`N=4`$ supersymmetric gauge theories .

It is worth mentioning that, unlike the nonsupersymmetric case, where systematic procedures are available in order to solve the descent equations , in the supersymmetric case the task is considerably more difficult, even when a superspace formulation is available .

The aim of this letter is to pursue the investigation of the structure of the descent equations for supersymmetric gauge theories, by providing a systematic framework to solve them.

The paper is organized as follows. In Sect.2 a short review of the quantization of the supersymmetric gauge theories is given. In Sect.3 the supersymmetric descent equations are discussed and a way to solve them is presented. In Sect.4 the example of the $`N=1`$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills in four dimensions is worked out.

## 2 Algebraic structure of supersymmetric gauge theories

A brief account of the quantization of the supersymmetric gauge theories in the Wess-Zumino gauge is given here, following the procedure outlined in refs.. Let us start by considering a supersymmetric gauge theory described by the classical action $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{inv}}(\mathrm{\Phi })`$, where $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ denotes collectively the gauge and matter fields. In the following we shall refer to renormalizable gauge theories in four dimensions, the generalization to other dimensions being straightforward.

In the absence of central charges and adopting the Wess-Zumino gauge, the supersymmetry algebra has the typical form

$`\{Q_\alpha ^i,\overline{Q}_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^j\}`$ $`=`$ $`2i\delta ^{ij}\sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^\mu _\mu +(\mathrm{gauge}\mathrm{transf}.)+(\mathrm{eqs}.\mathrm{of}\mathrm{motion}),`$
$`\{Q_\alpha ^i,Q_\beta ^j\}`$ $`=`$ $`\{\overline{Q}_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^i,\overline{Q}_{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}^j\}=(\mathrm{gauge}\mathrm{transf}.)+(\mathrm{eqs}.\mathrm{of}\mathrm{motion})`$ (1)
where $`Q_\alpha ^i,\overline{Q}_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^j`$ are the supersymmetric charges, with $`\alpha ,\stackrel{.}{\alpha }=1,2`$ being the spinor indices and $`i,j=1,\mathrm{},N`$ labelling the number of supersymmetries.

The action $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{inv}}(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ is left invariant by the charges $`Q_\alpha ^i,\overline{Q}_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^j`$. It is also required to be invariant under gauge transformations, which give rise to the nilpotent BRST operator $`s`$ when the local gauge parameter is replaced by the Faddeev-Popov ghost. In order to properly quantize the theory, one has to introduce the gauge-fixing and the antifield terms in the action. The standard procedure in order to take into account both BRST and supersymmetry invariance, is to collect them into a unique generalized BRST operator $`Q`$ . In addition to the Faddeev-Popov ghost, the introduction of constant ghosts $`\epsilon _i^\alpha ,\overline{\epsilon }_j^{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}`$ corresponding to global supersymmetry is required. The resulting generalized operator $`Q`$ is found to be

$$Q=s+\epsilon _i^\alpha Q_\alpha ^i+\overline{\epsilon }_j^{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}\overline{Q}_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^j.$$
(2)
The action $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{inv}}(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ is invariant under the $`Q`$-transformations which, due to the algebra $`\left(\text{1}\right)`$, turn out to be nilpotent only up equations of motion and space-time translations, namely

$$Q^2=\epsilon ^\mu _\mu +(\mathrm{eqs}.\mathrm{of}\mathrm{motion}),$$
(3)
with $`\epsilon ^\mu =`$ $`2i\epsilon _i^\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^\mu \overline{\epsilon }_i^{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}.`$

Hence, the complete classical action $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is given by

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{inv}}(\mathrm{\Phi })+\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{gf}}(\mathrm{\Phi },\pi ,c,\overline{c})+\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{ext}}(\mathrm{\Phi },\mathrm{\Phi }^{},c,c^{}),$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{gf}}(\mathrm{\Phi },\pi ,c,\overline{c})`$ is the gauge-fixing action depending on the gauge and matter fields $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, the Lagrange multiplier $`\pi ,`$the Faddeev-Popov ghost $`c`$ and antighost $`\overline{c}`$. The term $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{ext}}(\mathrm{\Phi },\mathrm{\Phi }^{},c,c^{})`$ denotes the antifields action, which is constructed by coupling the nonlinear $`Q`$-transformations to external fields $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$ and $`c^{}`$ associated respectively to $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`c`$, i.e.

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{ext}}(\mathrm{\Phi },\mathrm{\Phi }^{},c,c^{})=d^4x\left(\underset{\mathrm{\Phi }}{}\mathrm{\Phi }^{}Q\mathrm{\Phi }+c^{}Qc+(\mathrm{terms}\mathrm{quadratic}\mathrm{in}\mathrm{\Phi }^{},c^{})\right).$$
(5)
As is well known, the terms quadratic in the external fields $`(\mathrm{\Phi }^{},c^{})`$ are needed in order to account for the on-shell nilpotency of the generalized operator $`Q`$ . The invariance of the action $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{inv}}(\mathrm{\Phi })`$under $`Q`$ may be now translated into the classical Slavnov-Taylor identity, whose typical form is

$$𝒮(\mathrm{\Sigma })=\epsilon ^\mu \mathrm{\Delta }_\mu ^{\mathrm{cl}},$$
(6)
with

$$𝒮(\mathrm{\Sigma })=d^4x\left(\underset{\mathrm{\Phi }}{}\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }^{}}\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }}+\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta c^{}}\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta c}+Q\overline{c}\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \overline{c}}+Q\pi \frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \pi }\right).$$
(7)
It is worth underlining that the breaking term $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\mu ^{\mathrm{cl}}`$ is a classical breaking, as it turns out to be linear in the quantum fields. As such, it will not be affected at the quantum level .

Introducing the so called linearized Slavnov-Taylor operator $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }=d^4x\left(\underset{\mathrm{\Phi }}{}\left(\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }^{}}\frac{\delta }{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }}+\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }}\frac{\delta }{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }^{}}\right)+\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta c^{}}\frac{\delta }{\delta c}+\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta c}\frac{\delta }{\delta c^{}}+Q\overline{c}\frac{\delta }{\delta \overline{c}}+Q\pi \frac{\delta }{\delta \pi }\right),$$
(8)
it follows that

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{\Sigma }=\epsilon ^\mu _\mu ,$$
(9)
meaning that $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is nilpotent only modulo a total derivative. Of course, this property follows from the supersymmetric structure of the theory. Moreover, the operator $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is strictly nilpotent when acting on the space of the integrated local functionals of the fields, antifields and their derivatives. This is precisely the functional space to which all invariant counterterms and anomalies belong.

## 3 The supersymmetric descent equations

In order to discuss the structure of the supersymmetric descent equations, let us begin by considering the Wess-Zumino consistency condition for the invariant counterterms which can be freely added to any order of the perturbation theory, namely

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }d^4x\mathrm{\Omega }^0=0,$$
(10)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }^0`$ has the same quantum numbers of the classical Lagrangian, i.e. it is a local polynomial of dimension four and vanishing Faddeev-Popov charge. The integrated consistency condition $`\left(\text{10}\right)`$ can be translated at the local level as

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }^0=^\mu \mathrm{\Omega }_\mu ^1,$$
(11)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mu ^1`$is a local polynomial of Faddeev-Popov charge 1 and dimension 3. Applying now the operator $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ to both sides of $`\left(\text{11}\right)`$ and making use of eq.$`\left(\text{9}\right)`$, one obtains the condition

$$^\mu \left(_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }_\mu ^1\epsilon _\mu \mathrm{\Omega }^0\right)=0,$$
(12)
which, due to the algebraic Poincaré Lemma , implies

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }_\mu ^1=\epsilon _\mu \mathrm{\Omega }^0+^\nu \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\nu \mu ]}^2,$$
(13)
for some local polynomial $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\nu \mu ]}^2`$ antisymmetric in the Lorentz indices $`\mu ,\nu `$ and with Faddeev-Popov charge 2. This procedure can be easily iterated, yielding the following set of descent equations

$`_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }^0`$ $`=`$ $`^\mu \mathrm{\Omega }_\mu ^1,`$
$`_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }_\mu ^1`$ $`=`$ $`^\nu \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\nu \mu ]}^2+\epsilon _\mu \mathrm{\Omega }^0,`$
$`_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu ]}^2`$ $`=`$ $`^\rho \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\rho \mu \nu ]}^3+\epsilon _\mu \mathrm{\Omega }_\nu ^1\epsilon _\nu \mathrm{\Omega }_\mu ^1,`$
$`_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho ]}^3`$ $`=`$ $`^\sigma \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\sigma \mu \nu \rho ]}^4+\epsilon _\mu \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\nu \rho ]}^2+\epsilon _\rho \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu ]}^2+\epsilon _\nu \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\rho \mu ]}^2,`$
$`_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4`$ $`=`$ $`\epsilon _\mu \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\nu \rho \sigma ]}^3\epsilon _\sigma \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho ]}^3+\epsilon _\rho \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\sigma \mu \nu ]}^3\epsilon _\nu \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\rho \sigma \mu ]}^3.`$ (14)
It should be observed that these equations are of an unusual type, as the cocycles with lower Faddeev-Popov charge appear in the equations of those with higher Faddeev-Popov charge, turning the system $`\left(\text{14}\right)`$ highly nontrivial. We also remark that the last equation for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4`$ is not homogeneous, a property which strongly constrains the possible solutions. Eqs.$`\left(\text{14}\right)`$ immediately generalize to possible anomalies and to cocycles with arbitrary Faddeev-Popov charge. To some extent, the system $`\left(\text{14}\right)`$ displays a certain similarity with the descent equations in $`N=1`$ superspace . Actually, it is possible to solve the eqs.$`\left(\text{14}\right)`$ in a rather direct way by making use of the supersymmetric structure of the theory. This goal is achieved by introducing an operator $`𝒲_\mu `$ which, together with the linearized Slavnov-Taylor operator $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, gives rise to the algebra

$$\{𝒲_\mu ,_\mathrm{\Sigma }\}=_\mu ,\{𝒲_\mu ,𝒲_\nu \}=0.$$

The operator $`𝒲_\mu `$ has been introduced first in the case of topological field theories , and subsequently in the case of extended supersymmetry . In the next section the explicit form of $`𝒲_\mu `$ for the case of $`N=1`$ gauge theories will be given.

Once the operator $`𝒲_\mu `$ has been introduced, it can be used as a climbing operator for the descent equations $`\left(\text{14}\right).`$ It turns out in fact that, provided an explicit form for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4`$ is available, a solution of the system is obtained by repeated applications of $`𝒲_\mu `$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4`$, according to

$`\mathrm{\Omega }^0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4!}}𝒲^\mu 𝒲^\nu 𝒲^\rho 𝒲^\sigma \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\sigma \rho \nu \mu ]}^4,`$
$`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mu ^1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3!}}𝒲^\nu 𝒲^\rho 𝒲^\sigma \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\sigma \rho \nu \mu ]}^4,`$
$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu ]}^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2!}}𝒲^\rho 𝒲^\sigma \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\sigma \rho \mu \nu ]}^4,`$
$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho ]}^3`$ $`=`$ $`𝒲^\sigma \mathrm{\Omega }_{[\sigma \mu \nu \rho ]}^4.`$ (15)
We are left thus with the characterization of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4.`$ This point can be faced by introducing a new operator $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$defined as

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }=_\mathrm{\Sigma }\epsilon ^\mu 𝒲_\mu .$$
(16)
Unlike $`_\mathrm{\Sigma },`$ the new operator $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ has the remarkable property of being strictly nilpotent, i.e.

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{\Sigma }=0,\{𝒲_\mu ,_\mathrm{\Sigma }\}=_\mu .$$

In particular, thanks to $`\left(\text{15}\right)`$, the last equation for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4`$ in $`\left(\text{14}\right)`$ can be cast in the form of a homogeneous equation

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4=0.$$
(17)
This means that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4`$ can be obtained from the knowledge of the cohomology of the nilpotent operator $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, for which standard techniques are available . This gives us a systematic framework for solving the descent equations in the supersymmetric case.

## 4 The example of $`N=1`$ super Yang-Mills theory

The $`N=1`$ super Yang-Mills action $`S^{\mathrm{N}=1}`$ in the Wess-Zumino gauge is given by

$$S^{\mathrm{N}=1}=\frac{1}{g^2}\mathrm{Tr}d^4x\left(\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }i\lambda ^\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}^\mu D_\mu \overline{\lambda }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}+\frac{1}{2}𝒟^2\right),$$
(18)
where $`F_{\mu \nu }=_\mu A_\nu _\nu A_\mu +[A_\mu ,A_\nu ]`$is the field strength, $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ and $`\overline{\lambda }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}`$ are two-component spinors and $`𝒟`$ is an auxiliary scalar field, introduced for the off-shellness closure of the supersymmetric algebra.

The action $`S^{\mathrm{N}=1}`$ is invariant under both BRST and supersymmetry transformations. Following the general procedure, we shall collect the BRST differential $`s`$ and the supersymmetry generators $`(Q_\alpha ,\overline{Q}_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }})`$ into an extended operator $`Q`$

$$Q=s+\epsilon ^\alpha Q_\alpha +\overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}\overline{Q}_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }},$$
(19)
where $`\epsilon ^\alpha `$and $`\overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}`$ are global ghosts. The operator $`Q`$ acts on the fields as

$`QA_\mu =D_\mu c+\epsilon ^\alpha \sigma _{\mu \alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}\overline{\lambda }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}+\lambda ^\alpha \sigma _{\mu \alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}\overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }},`$
$`Q\lambda ^\beta =\{c,\lambda ^\beta \}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\epsilon ^\alpha \left(\sigma ^{\mu \nu }\right)_\alpha ^\beta F_{\mu \nu }\epsilon ^\beta 𝒟,`$
$`Q\overline{\lambda }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}=\{c,\overline{\lambda }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}\}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(\overline{\sigma }^{\mu \nu }\right)_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}\overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}F_{\mu \nu }+\overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}𝒟,`$
$`Q𝒟=[c,𝒟]i\epsilon ^\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}^\mu D_\mu \overline{\lambda }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}+iD_\mu \lambda ^\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}^\mu \overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }},`$
$`Qc=c^2+2i\epsilon ^\alpha \sigma _{\mu \alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}\overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}A^\mu .`$ (20)
For the complete gauge-fixed action $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ we have

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }=S^{\mathrm{N}=1}+S_{\mathrm{gf}}+S_{\mathrm{ext}},$$
(21)
where $`S_{\mathrm{gf}}`$ is the gauge-fixing term in the Landau gauge and $`S_{\mathrm{ext}}`$ contains the coupling of the non-linear transformations $`Q\mathrm{\Phi }_i`$ to the antifields $`\mathrm{\Phi }_i^{}=(A_\mu ^{}`$, $`c^{}`$, $`\lambda ^\alpha `$, $`\overline{\lambda }_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^{}`$, $`𝒟^{})`$. They are given by

$`S_{\mathrm{gf}}=\mathrm{Tr}{\displaystyle d^4xQ\left(\overline{c}A\right)},`$
$`S_{\mathrm{ext}}=\mathrm{Tr}{\displaystyle d^4x\left(A_\mu ^{}QA^\mu +c^{}Qc+\lambda ^\alpha Q\lambda _\alpha +\overline{\lambda }_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^{}Q\overline{\lambda }^{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}+𝒟^{}Q𝒟\right)},`$ (22)
with $`Q\overline{c}=b`$ and $`Qb=2i\epsilon ^\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}^\mu \overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}_\mu \overline{c}`$.

As usual, $`\overline{c},b`$ denote the antighost and the Lagrange multiplier. The operator $`Q`$ turns out to be nilpotent only up to space-time translations

$$Q^2=2i\epsilon ^\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}^\mu \overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}_\mu .$$
(23)
The complete action $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ satisfies the following Slavnov-Taylor identity

$$𝒮(\mathrm{\Sigma })=2i\epsilon ^\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}^\mu \overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}\mathrm{\Delta }_\mu ^{\mathrm{cl}},$$
(24)
where

$$𝒮(\mathrm{\Sigma })=\mathrm{Tr}d^4x\left(\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }_i^{}}\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }_i}+b\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \overline{c}}2i\epsilon ^\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}^\mu \overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}_\mu \overline{c}\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta b}\right)$$
(25)
and the classical breaking $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\mu ^{\mathrm{cl}}`$ is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_\mu ^{\mathrm{cl}}=\mathrm{Tr}d^4x\left(A^\nu _\mu A_\nu +\frac{}{}c^{}_\mu c+\lambda ^\alpha _\mu \lambda _\alpha +\overline{\lambda }_{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}^{}_\mu \overline{\lambda }^{\stackrel{.}{\alpha }}𝒟^{}_\mu 𝒟\right).$$
(26)
From eq.$`\left(\text{24}\right)`$ and $`\left(\text{25}\right)`$ it follows that the linearized operator $`B_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ defined as

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }=\mathrm{Tr}d^4x\left(\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }_i^{}}\frac{\delta }{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }_i}+\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Sigma }}{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }_i}\frac{\delta }{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }_i^{}}+b\frac{\delta }{\delta \overline{c}}2i\epsilon ^\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}^\mu \overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}_\mu \overline{c}\frac{\delta }{\delta b}\right)$$
(27)
is nilpotent modulo a total space-time derivative, namely

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{\Sigma }=\epsilon ^\alpha d_\alpha ,$$
(28)
with the operator $`d_\alpha `$ given by

$$d_\alpha =2i\sigma _{\alpha \stackrel{.}{\beta }}^\mu \overline{\epsilon }^{\stackrel{.}{\beta }}_\mu .$$
(29)
The integrated cohomology of $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is characterized by a consistency condition of the kind $`\left(\text{10}\right)`$ which, in the present case, can be written as

$`_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }^0`$ $`=`$ $`d_\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }^{1\alpha },`$
$`_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }^{1\alpha }`$ $`=`$ $`d_\beta \mathrm{\Omega }^{2[\beta \alpha ]}+\epsilon ^\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }^0,`$
$`_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }^{2[\beta \alpha ]}`$ $`=`$ $`\epsilon ^\beta \mathrm{\Omega }^{1\alpha }\epsilon ^\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }^{1\beta }.`$ (30)
It should be noted that the presence of the operator $`d_\alpha `$ in the first equation of $`\left(\text{30}\right)`$ is due to the supersymmetric character of the theory, following by observing that in the nonsupersymmetric case the pure Yang-Mills Lagrangian Tr$`\left(F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }\right)`$ is pointwise invariant.

Defining now the climbing operator $`𝒲_\alpha `$

$$𝒲_\alpha =[\frac{}{\epsilon ^\alpha },B_\mathrm{\Sigma }],$$
(31)
it is easily verified that

$`\{𝒲_\alpha ,B_\mathrm{\Sigma }\}=d_\alpha ,\{𝒲_\alpha ,𝒲_\beta \}=0.`$ (32)
As discussed in the previous section, the next step is the introduction of the operator $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }=_\mathrm{\Sigma }\epsilon ^\alpha 𝒲_\alpha .$$
(33)
Accordingly, the last equation of $`\left(\text{30}\right)`$ reads

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Omega }^{2[\beta \alpha ]}=0.$$
(34)
Furthermore, up to trivial exact cocycles, $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{2[\beta \alpha ]}`$ is found to be

$$\mathrm{\Omega }^{2[\beta \alpha ]}=\epsilon ^{\beta \alpha }\mathrm{Tr}\lambda ^\gamma \lambda _\gamma .$$
(35)
The higher cocycles are obtained by applying repeatedly the operator $`𝒲_\alpha `$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{2[\beta \alpha ]}`$

$`\mathrm{\Omega }^0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}𝒲_\alpha 𝒲_\beta \mathrm{\Omega }^{2[\beta \alpha ]},`$
$`\mathrm{\Omega }^{1\alpha }`$ $`=`$ $`𝒲_\beta \mathrm{\Omega }^{2[\beta \alpha ]}.`$ (36)
Acting now with $`/g`$ on both sides of the Slavnov-Taylor identity $`\left(\text{24}\right)`$ and observing that the linear breaking term $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\mu ^{\mathrm{cl}}`$ does not depend on the coupling constant $`g`$, we get the condition

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{g}=0,$$
(37)
which shows that $`\mathrm{\Sigma }/g`$ is invariant under the action of $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. In fact $`\mathrm{\Sigma }/g`$ identifies the cohomology of $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ in sector of the integrated polynomials with dimension four and ghost number zero, belonging to the same cohomology class of $`d^4x\mathrm{\Omega }^0.`$

From eqs.$`\left(\text{36}\right),`$ the usefulness of the operator $`𝒲_\mu `$ becomes now apparent. In particular, it allows to establish the following relation

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{g}=\frac{1}{4g^3}\epsilon ^{\alpha \beta }𝒲_\alpha 𝒲_\beta \mathrm{Tr}d^4x\lambda ^\gamma \lambda _\gamma .$$
(38)
Equation $`\left(\text{38}\right)`$ implies that the origin of the action of $`N=1`$ super Yang-Mills can be traced back to the gauge invariant local polynomial $`\mathrm{Tr}d^4x\lambda ^\gamma \lambda _\gamma .`$This relationship has recently been pointed out in .

The construction of the nilpotent operator $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ of equation $`\left(\text{16}\right)`$ is easily generalized to the cases of $`N=2`$ and $`N=4`$ gauge theories, so that the analogue of the equation $`\left(\text{38}\right)`$ can be worked out from the knowledge of its cohomology, a representative of which has been given in .

## 5 Conclusion

The structure of the descent equations for supersymmetric gauge theories has been discussed. Due to the supersymmetry algebra $`\left(\text{1}\right),`$ these equations are of an unusual type, a property which makes their analysis rather cumbersome. However, it has been shown that a suitable climbing operator $`𝒲_\mu `$ can be introduced by making use of the proper supersymmetric algebra. Provided the solution $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4`$ of the last equation of the system $`\left(\text{14}\right)`$ is available, a solution of the whole system is obtained by repeated applications of $`𝒲_\mu `$ on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4`$. Concerning the characterization of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{[\mu \nu \rho \sigma ]}^4`$, we have been able to prove that it belongs to the cohomology of the nilpotent operator to $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ of eq.$`\left(\text{16}\right).`$ As a consequence, it can be determined by standard cohomolgy arguments , providing thus a systematic framework for analysing the supersymmetric version of the descent equations.

## Acknowledgements

The Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico CNPq-Brazil, the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Faperj), the SR2-UERJ and the MIUR (Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca) are acknowledged for the financial support.

M. Picariello is grateful to the Theoretical Physics Department of UERJ for kind hospitality.


text:
# A new solution to the solar neutrino deficit

## I Introduction

In recent years, the progress in the field of solar neutrino physics has been remarkable. This progress culminated when the SNO collaboration conclusively demonstrated the presence of a non-electron neutrino component in the flux of solar neutrinos .

The SNO experiment measured the flux of the 8B solar neutrinos using three different reactions: (i) the charged current (CC) process $`\nu _e+dp+p+e^{}`$, (ii) the elastic scattering (ES) process $`\nu _x(\overline{\nu }_x)+e^{}\nu _x(\overline{\nu }_x)+e^{}`$, and (iii) the neutral current (NC) process $`\nu _x(\overline{\nu }_x)+dp+n+\nu _x(\overline{\nu }_x)`$. A high statistics ES measurement, in the same energy range, had also been previously carried out by the Super-Kamiokande (SK) experiment . While the CC process selects only electron neutrinos, the other two processes are sensitive to neutrinos *as well as antineutrinos* of all active flavors.

The results of the measurements are as follows :***$`R_{\mathrm{SNO}}^{\mathrm{NC1}}`$ was found assuming undistorted 8B neutrino energy spectrum, while $`R_{\mathrm{SNO}}^{\mathrm{NC2}}`$ was found when this assumption was relaxed.

$`R_{\mathrm{SNO}}^{\mathrm{CC}}`$ $`=`$ $`1.76\pm 0.11\times 10^6\text{cm}^2\text{s}^1,`$ (1)
$`R_{\mathrm{SNO}}^{\mathrm{ES}}`$ $`=`$ $`2.39\pm 0.27\times 10^6\text{cm}^2\text{s}^1,`$ (2)
$`R_{\mathrm{SK}}^{\mathrm{ES}}`$ $`=`$ $`2.35\pm 0.08\times 10^6\text{cm}^2\text{s}^1,`$ (3)
$`R_{\mathrm{SNO}}^{\mathrm{NC1}}`$ $`=`$ $`5.09\pm 0.63\times 10^6\text{cm}^2\text{s}^1,`$ (4)
$`R_{\mathrm{SNO}}^{\mathrm{NC2}}`$ $`=`$ $`6.42\pm 1.67\times 10^6\text{cm}^2\text{s}^1.`$ (5)
They are impossible to reconcile assuming the incident flux consists entirely of electron neutrinos , and hence some other particles must be contributing to the ES and NC event rates. Chronologically, the first detector to observe events caused by these other particles was SK, but it was not possible to separate these events from the $`\nu _e`$-induced events until the SNO CC data became available. One can therefore say that the SNO measurement has effectively reclassified SuperKamiokande as an appearance experiment.

The interpretation of the SNO results, however, is not unambiguous. While the “excess” NC and ES events are most often ascribed to muon (and tau) neutrinos, they can be also caused by muon (and tau) *anti*neutrinos. The antineutrinos in question must be of the muon or tau types, since electron antineutrinos would be easily identified through the reaction $`\overline{\nu }_e+pn+e^+`$ . Both $`\nu _{\mu ,\tau }`$ and $`\overline{\nu }_{\mu ,\tau }`$ scatter on electrons and deuterium nuclei through their neutral current (NC) interactions, with similar cross sections. At $`E_\nu 10`$ MeV,

$`{\displaystyle _{T_{\mathrm{min}}}^{T_{\mathrm{max}}}}𝑑T_e{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma (\overline{\nu }_{\mu ,\tau }e^{})}{dT_e}}/{\displaystyle _{T_{\mathrm{min}}}^{T_{\mathrm{max}}}}𝑑T_e{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma (\nu _{\mu ,\tau }e^{})}{dT_e}}0.8,`$ (6)
where the integral over the electron recoil energy $`T_e`$ ranges from $`T_{\mathrm{min}}=5`$ MeV to $`T_{\mathrm{max}}=E_\nu /(1+m_e/2E_\nu )`$ MeV. Similarly, using the latest available calculations of the $`\nu _x(\overline{\nu }_x)+dp+n+\nu _x(\overline{\nu }_x)`$ cross sections  and integrating over the undistorted 8B reaction spectrum, $`f(E_\nu )`$, , one finds

$`{\displaystyle 𝑑E_\nu f(E_\nu )\sigma (\overline{\nu }_{\mu ,\tau }d)/𝑑E_\nu f(E_\nu )\sigma (\nu _{\mu ,\tau }d)}0.95.`$ (7)
Assuming the $`\nu _e\nu _{\mu ,\tau }`$ conversion mode, Eqs. (1-4) imply that the electron neutrino survival probability is $`P_{ee}0.35\pm 0.04`$ ($`P_{ee}0.27\pm 0.06`$ if Eqs. (1-3,5) are used). If instead the $`\nu _e\overline{\nu }_{\mu ,\tau }`$ mode is assumed, the same data imply a somewhat higher flux of all active neutrinos, namely, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{tot}}=5.25\pm 0.66`$ cm-2 s-1 if one uses Eqs. (1-4) or $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{tot}}=6.64\pm 1.75`$ cm-2 s-1 if one uses Eqs. (1-3,5). The corresponding survival probabilities are $`P_{ee}0.34\pm 0.05`$ or $`P_{ee}0.27\pm 0.07`$. Thus, both conversion modes are capable of accounting for the measured event rates. Moreover, both yield the total flux that is consistent with the Standard Solar Model (SSM), which predicts $`5.05_{0.8}^{+1.0}\times 10^6`$ cm-2 s-1  or $`5.93\pm 0.89\times 10^6`$ cm-2 s-1 , depending on the input value of the S17 parameter used. Therefore, in interpreting the experimental data both possibilities should be considered.

The $`\nu _e\nu _{\mu ,\tau }`$ conversion is predicted in the flavor oscillation scenario, while $`\nu _e\overline{\nu }_{\mu ,\tau }`$ is predicted in the neutrino spin-flavor flip (SFF) scenario . The flavor oscillation scenario has been extensively studied over the years. The goal of this paper is to reexamine the SFF scenario and to point out the existence of a new solution.

In the SFF scenario, the neutrino is postulated to couple to the electromagnetic field through a magnetic moment, $`\mu `$, interaction. A neutrino propagating in the solar magnetic field undergoes a spin rotation, and, if it is a Majorana fermion, becomes an antineutrino, in the process also changing its flavor.

Majorana fermions are most naturally described using the two-component Weyl spinor notation. The coupling in question is given by a Lagrangian term

$`_{EM}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mu _{ab}(\nu ^\alpha )_a(\sigma ^{\mu \nu })_\alpha ^\beta (\nu _\beta )_bF_{\mu \nu }+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.,`$ (8)
where $`(\sigma ^{\mu \nu })_\alpha ^\beta (\sigma _{\alpha \dot{\alpha }}^\mu \overline{\sigma }^{\dot{\alpha }\beta \nu }\sigma _{\alpha \dot{\alpha }}^\nu \overline{\sigma }^{\dot{\alpha }\beta \mu })/2`$, $`\sigma _{\alpha \dot{\alpha }}^\mu (1,\stackrel{}{\sigma })`$, $`\overline{\sigma }^{\dot{\alpha }\beta \nu }(1,\stackrel{}{\sigma })`$. $`\mu `$ and $`\nu `$ are Lorentz indices, $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are Weyl spinor indices, and $`a`$ and $`b`$ are the flavor indices. Since the spinors anticommute, the $`a=b`$ terms in Eq. (8) vanish identically, and hence Majorana neutrinos cannot have magnetic moments. They can, however, have *transition* ($`ab`$) moments which lead to a simultaneous spin and flavor change. This provides a natural scenario for $`\nu _e\overline{\nu }_{\mu ,\tau }`$ transitions without also producing $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ states. Flavor mixing, if present, must be small to avoid a significant secondary $`\overline{\nu }_{\mu ,\tau }\overline{\nu }_e`$ conversion. Regarding the naturalness of this assumption we note that out of the three mixing angles in the leptonic sector the one measured with atmospheric neutrinos is large and the one measured by reactor experiments is small, so that a priori there is no natural value for the third angle.

In general, the evolution of the neutrino state is governed by a $`6\times 6`$ Hamiltonian matrix. For simplicity, we consider a $`4\times 4`$ case. In the basis $`(\nu _e,\nu _\mu ,\overline{\nu }_e,\overline{\nu }_\mu )`$, the Hamiltonian is

$`H=\left(\begin{array}{cc}H_\nu & (B_xiB_y)M^{}\\ (B_x+iB_y)M& H_{\overline{\nu }}\end{array}\right),`$ (11)
where $`B_{x,y}`$ are the transverse components of the magnetic field and the $`2\times 2`$ submatrices are given by

$`M`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& \mu _{e\mu }\\ \mu _{e\mu }& 0\end{array}\right),`$ (14)
$`H_\nu `$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{cos}2\theta +A_e& \mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{sin}2\theta \\ \mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{sin}2\theta & \mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{cos}2\theta +A_\mu \end{array}\right),`$ (17)
$`H_{\overline{\nu }}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{cos}2\theta A_e& \mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{sin}2\theta \\ \mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{sin}2\theta & \mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{cos}2\theta A_\mu \end{array}\right).`$ (20)
Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }m^2/4E_\nu `$, $`A_e\sqrt{2}G_F(n_en_n/2)`$ and $`A_\mu \sqrt{2}G_F(n_n/2)`$. $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$ is the neutrino mass-squared splitting, $`E_\nu `$ is its energy, and $`n_e`$ and $`n_n`$ are the electron and neutron number densities.

As will be described later, to obtain a significant $`\nu _e\overline{\nu }_{\mu ,\tau }`$ conversion in the Sun requires $`\mu _{e\mu }(10^{12}10^{10})\mu _B`$ ($`\mu _Be/2m_e`$ is the Bohr magneton). The transition moment values in this range are below the direct laboratory bounds derived from the analyses of the $`\nu +e\nu +e`$  and $`\overline{\nu }+e\overline{\nu }+e`$  scattering data. Stronger bounds on the transition moment have been claimed from the analysis of various astrophysical processes, most notably from the study of the red giant populations in globular clusters . The idea is that a sufficiently large transition moment would provide an additional cooling mechanism and change the red giant core mass at helium flash beyond what is observationally allowed. The bound stated in  is $`3\times 10^{12}\mu _B`$. Recently, there has been some disagreement between the stellar models and also a systematic shift to longer distances for clusters , and it would be very interesting to see an updated bound.

The compilation of various bounds on the size of the transition moment and the corresponding references can be found in .

## II Magnetic field in the Convective Zone

The neutrino spin-flavor flip can occur either in the convective zone (CZ) $`(0.71R_{}r<R_{})`$ or in the radiative zone (RZ) deeper in the solar interior. The two possibilities are physically quite different and require separate treatments. First, we consider the CZ case.

While the magnetic field in the inner part of the CZ cannot yet be measured directly, its basic properties can be inferred from the field at the solar surface, and it is widely believed that large scale field structures exist at some depth in the CZ . Recent magnetohydrodynamic dynamo models argue that the field generation occurs in the shear layer near the bottom of the CZ. These models predict field values as large as 100 kG , which significantly exceeds the turbulent equipartition value of $`B\rho ^{1/6}L_{}^{1/3}r^{2/3}10^4`$ G This estimate is obtained by estimating the convective energy flux as $`L_{}4\pi r^2v\rho v^2/2`$, where $`v`$ is the turbulent velocity, and assuming equipartition $`\rho v^2/2B^2/8\pi `$.. The helioseismological data provide an upper limit of 300 kG on the magnitude of this field .

The field strength necessary for significant $`\nu _e\overline{\nu }_{\mu ,\tau }`$ conversion can be estimated as $`\mu _{e\mu }B\mathrm{\Delta }l1`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }l`$ is the thickness of the magnetic field. One finds

$$(\mu _{e\mu }/\mu _B)(B/1\text{ kG})(\mathrm{\Delta }l/0.1R_{})5\times 10^{10},$$
(21)
so that for $`\mu _{e\mu }10^{11}\mu _B`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }l0.1R_{}`$ the value $`B50`$ kG is required. Although the surface field, which reaches several kG in sunspots, is too weak to affect the evolution of the solar neutrinos, the field near the bottom of the CZ might have the right strength (provided $`\mu _{e\mu }10^{11}\mu _B`$). This observation, and the natural expectation that the field in the interior of the CZ changes with the solar cycle, were the reasons the convective zone SFF were originally suggested as an explanation for an apparent anticorrelation between the Homestake event rate and the number of sunspots .

Over time, however, a paradigm shift has occurred. The idea of using this mechanism to explain variations of the neutrino rates was abandoned, especially in view of the SK data, which showed no seasonal or yearly variation, except for a hint of the expected $`1/r^2`$ flux modulation. Instead, recent analyses  assume that the magnetic field in the CZ is somehow time independent, an assumption that we find untenable. The presence of a strong constant magnetic field inside the CZ would, on the one hand, almost certainly be revealed at the surface by convective mixing and, on the other hand, cause an asymmetry in the solar cycle. The strong toroidal field that is believed to exist in the overshoot layer, where convective mixing is small and the shear is large, should also be variable because it is generated from a variable radial field. It is therefore implausible that the SFF process in the CZ could cause a $`70`$% depletion of the 8B neutrino flux, while producing no observable variations at SK during more than four years. This time span covers about half of the solar cycle, with an average sunspot number $`10`$ in 1996, and $`120`$ in 2000 .

In addition to the year-to-year variations, one also expects characteristic semiannual variations , for the following reason. The field on the surface of the Sun changes direction across the solar equator and vanishes at the equator (where indeed no sunspots are observed). The transition region, where the field is small, has the size $`7\times 10^9`$ cm . The orbit of the Earth makes a $`7^{}`$ angle with the plane of the solar equator and, since 95% of the 8B neutrinos are produced in the region $`r<0.09R_{}`$ , a significant fraction (88%) of them passes through the transition region when the Earth crosses the plane of the solar equator. On the other hand, in March and September, when the Earth is farthest from the solar equatorial plane, this fraction is as low as 1%. Thus, large semiannual variations are expected at Super-Kamiokande and are not observed .

We therefore regard the absence of variations in the SK data as strong evidence against SFF in the CZ.

## III Relic field in the RZ

We now turn to the possibility that the SFF process could occur in the radiative zone of the Sun. Unlike the convective zone, the radiative zone is not continuously mixed and rotates as a solid body. Therefore, it could in principle support a “frozen” magnetic field configuration.

The properties of magnetic fields in the solar interior were investigated by Cowling , and by Bahcall and Ulrich . These authors consider poloidal magnetic fields. We have redone the calculation  using a modern solar model (BP2000), and, more importantly, assuming that the field is toroidal. A strong poloidal field would penetrate the convective zone and would either dissipate over the solar lifetime, or be observable. We also assumed axisymmetry, which is physically plausible. Large asymmetry would lead to observable 27-day variations of the neutrino rate due to solar rotation.

For an axisymmetric toroidal field, the magnetic diffusion equation (describing Ohmic decay) was solved numerically. The eigenmodes are of the form $`B=e^{t/\tau _{l,n}}F_{l,n}(r)P_l^1(\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta })`$, where $`l=1,2,..`$, $`n=1,2,..`$, $`P_l^1(\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta })`$ is the associated Legendre polynomial and $`F(r)`$ is determined numerically. The $`l=1`$, $`n=1`$ mode has the longest lifetime, $`\tau _{1,1}=24`$ Gyr; its radial profile is shown in Fig. 1. For higher modes, $`\tau _{2,1}=13`$ Gyr, $`\tau _{1,2}=10`$ Gyr, … For comparison, the solar age is thought to be 4.6 Gyr . Therefore, a toroidal field of complex spatial structure can exist in the RZ of the Sun.

Observations provide upper bounds on the allowed strength of this field . Neutrino fluxes and helioseismological measurements of the sound speed both give $`B10^2`$ MG. Possible residual (non-rotational) oblateness and helioseismological measurements of the frequency splittings provide stronger bounds, $`B7`$ MG .

We next consider the neutrino evolution in the presence of this relic field and show that with appropriate parameter choice there exists a fit to all available solar neutrino data.

For simplicity, we assume no flavor mixing and that only the longest living eigenmode is present. This is sufficient to demonstrate the existence of the solution. The neutrino evolution equations then reduce to a pair of coupled equations,

$`i_l\psi _e`$ $`=`$ $`(A_e(r)\mathrm{\Delta })\psi _e+\mu _{e\mu }B_{}(l)\psi _{\overline{\mu }},`$ (22)
$`i_l\psi _{\overline{\mu }}`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _{e\mu }B_{}(l)\psi _e+(\mathrm{\Delta }A_\mu (r))\psi _{\overline{\mu }}.`$ (23)
Here $`l`$ is the distance along the neutrino trajectory and $`B_{}`$ is the transverse component of the magnetic field. There are two free parameters, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$ and the product of the neutrino magnetic moment $`\mu _{e\mu }`$ and the normalization of the magnetic field $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$. For definitiveness, we set $`\mu _{e\mu }=10^{11}`$ $`\mu _B`$. Later we will address the possibility of having different values of $`\mu _{e\mu }`$.

Fig. 2 shows the survival probability $`P_{ee}`$ for electron neutrinos produced in the center of the Sun, as a function of $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2/E_\nu `$. The probability was obtained by solving the evolution equations (22) numerically on a grid of points.

The behavior of $`P_{ee}`$ can be given a simple analytical interpretation. The situation is completely analogous to the classical case of the small angle MSW effect . The SFF process takes place in a thin layer around $`r_{\mathrm{res}}`$ given by the condition $`A_e(r_{\mathrm{res}})+A_\mu (r_{\mathrm{res}})=2\mathrm{\Delta }`$. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2/E_\nu 10^5`$ eV2/MeV, the resonance never occurs and therefore $`P_{ee}1`$. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2/E_\nu 4\times 10^8`$ eV2/MeV, the resonance occurs close to the edge of the RZ where the field is small and hence once again $`P_{ee}1`$ (or outside in the CZ, in which case $`P_{ee}`$ varies with time). In the intermediate region, the conversion efficiency depends on the value of $`\mu _{e\mu }B_{}`$ at $`r=r_{\mathrm{res}}`$: for $`\mu _{e\mu }B_{}`$ $`0.7\times 10^{11}`$ MG$`\times \mu _B`$ the conversion is adiabatic and $`P_{ee}0`$.

Notice that for this description it is crucial that everywhere except in the thin resonance layer the off-diagonal term $`\mu _{e\mu }B_{}`$ is much smaller than the diagonal splitting $`(A_e(r)+A_\mu (r))/2\mathrm{\Delta }`$. This allows one to ignore the fact that the off-diagonal coupling varies along the neutrino trajectory and use a small angle MSW formula for the level crossing probability

$$P_c=\mathrm{exp}\left(\pi \frac{2(\mu _{e\mu }B_{}(l))^2}{|d(A_e+A_\mu )/dl|}|_{l=l_{_{\mathrm{res}}}}\right).$$
(24)
The complications related to the large angle MSW effect  are likewise avoided. The neutrino survival probability is given by $`P_{ee}=(1+(12P_c)\mathrm{cos}2\theta _{})/2`$, where $`\mathrm{cos}2\theta _{}=(2\mathrm{\Delta }A_eA_\mu )[(2\mathrm{\Delta }A_eA_\mu )^2+(2\mu _{e\mu }B_{})^2]^{1/2}`$ is computed at the production point.

We performed a fit to all available solar neutrino data. In our computations, we used the fluxes of the pp, 7Be, 8B, 13N, 15O, and pep neutrinos, as predicted by the BP2000 solar model . The data to be fitted include the average rates of the GALLEX/GNO  and SAGE  experiments,

$`R_{\mathrm{GA}}=74.7\pm 5.1\mathrm{SNU},`$ (25)
the rate of the Homestake experiment ,

$`R_{\mathrm{CHL}}=2.56\pm 0.23\mathrm{SNU},`$ (26)
the CC and NC rates of the SNO experiment as given in Eqs. (1,4), and the rate and the energy spectrum of the SK experiment .

For a given production point in the solar core, the neutrino survival probability is determined according to Eqs. (22). To obtain the total flux of the neutrinos of a given energy, one needs to integrate over the neutrino production regions. The problem is technically quite nontrivial, because of the 3-dimensional structure of the field and because only the field component transverse to the neutrino trajectory enters the evolution equations.Fortunately, in the case of the lowest field eigenmode a considerable simplification occurs because of the $`\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Theta }`$ dependence of the field on the polar angle. Still, a 2-dimensional numerical integration is required. The correct integration is absolutely essential for computing the converted fraction of the low energy pp neutrinos, which have a broad production region and for which the resonance occurs close to, and even inside, that region.

Fig. 3 shows regions of the parameter space where the event rates predicted for various experiments agree with the corresponding measured rates. The dashed lines delineate the bands where agreement is reached with a particular experiment. The intersection region, where a good fit to all rates is obtained, is characterized by $`0.45`$ MG$`B_{\mathrm{max}}0.55`$ MG and $`1.5\times 10^6`$ eV$`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Delta }m^23\times 10^6`$ eV2. It represents our new solution to the solar neutrino deficit.

As an illustration, we list below our predictions for the point $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2=2.5\times 10^6`$ eV2 and $`B_{\mathrm{max}}=0.5`$ MG. We find that for this point the 8B flux is suppressed by a factor of 0.34, the pp flux – by a factor of 0.86, and the 7Be flux – by a factor of 0.36. The 7Be suppression factor implies the effective Borexino flux suppression of $`0.44`$, which is below $`0.65_{0.12}^{+0.14}`$ expected for the LMA solution . The predicted rates are $`80.6\pm 2.6`$ SNU for the Ga experiments and $`2.69\pm 0.31`$ SNU for the Cl experiment. The corresponding $`\chi ^2`$ for the rates fit is 3.4 for 4 d.o.f.

In Fig. 4 we show the survival probability for a neutrino produced in the center of the Sun as a function of the neutrino energy, taking $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2=2.5\times 10^6`$ eV2. The three curves correspond to three different normalizations of the magnetic field eigenmode, $`B_{\mathrm{max}}=0.45,0.5,0.55`$ MG. We caution the reader that the flux of the pp neutrinos cannot be easily read off from this plot, since, as already mentioned, to compute it one has to appropriately integrate over the production region.

The survival probability is not strictly constant for high energy 8B neutrinos, however, its variation with energy is rather small. The recoil electron energy spectrum expected at SK is shown in Fig. 5. The value of the $`\chi ^2`$ is 24 for 19 d. o. f. The spectrum becomes flatter as one increases $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$.

It is worth stressing that the value of the field that gives a good fit trivially scales with the value of the transition moment according to $`B_{\mathrm{max}}^{}=B_{\mathrm{max}}\times 10^{11}\mu _B/\mu _{e\mu }`$. In particular, if one chooses $`\mu _{e\mu }=3\times 10^{12}\mu _B`$ in order to satisfy the astrophysical bound given in , one can choose $`B_{\mathrm{max}}^{}1.52`$ MG, which is still perfectly acceptable, as shown in . No property of the field, such as its lifetime, etc., is affected by such a rescaling.

Our scenario may be convincingly tested (and perhaps excluded) by the KamLAND experiment, should it establish flavor oscillations with the LMA parameters, or by the Borexino experiment, should it observe large day-night variations, as predicted for the LOW solution (SFF predicts no variation).

There are three potential sources of time variations in our scenario. First, the effect of the time varying CZ field can be shown to be negligibly small, assuming $`B_{CZ}100`$ kG and $`B_{RZ}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$ in the range of the fit. Second, if the field is not axially symmetric, one expects 27-day variations. Third, if, in addition to $`l=1`$ modes, the $`l=2`$ modes ($`P_2^1(\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta })\mathrm{sin}2\mathrm{\Theta }`$) are also present, the flux may exhibit annual variations, for the same reason that semiannual variations are expected for the CZ SFF. These variations have extrema in March and September, and hence are distinguishable from the variations due to the eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit. Calculations show that for the points in the allowed region a relative change in the SK rate is $`\delta R/R2\delta B/B`$. Hence, even if the $`l=2`$ and $`l=1`$ modes have comparable amplitudes, the rate variation is expected to be of the order of a few percent, in contrast to SFF in the CZ, in which case it is expected to be much larger. The current data provide a weak upper bound on the strength of the $`l=2`$ modes. Both the 27-day and the annual variations described above constitute smoking gun signatures of the RZ SFF mechanism.

In summary, our scenario provides a fit to all available solar neutrino data, is compatible with all existing constraints, and may be tested in the very near future.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank John Bahcall, Sarbani Basu, Axel Brandenburg, Gia Dvali, and Cecilia Lunardini for useful discussions. A. F. was supported by the W. M. Keck Foundation.