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# Probing the interactions of charmed mesons with nuclei in 𝑝̄ induced reactions 11footnote 1supported by DFG, RFFI and Forschungzentrum Jülich.

## 1 Introduction

In the last decade the dynamics of charm quark degrees of freedom have gained sizeable interest especially in the context of a phase transition to the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) where charmed meson states should no longer be formed due to color screening QM96 ; QM97 ; QM99 ; Satz ; Satz2 . However, the suppression of the $`c\overline{c}`$ vector mesons in the high density phase of nucleus-nucleus collisions might also be attributed to inelastic comover scattering (cf. Cass95 ; Cass99 ; Vogt99 ; Seattle98  and Refs. therein) if the corresponding charmonium-hadron cross sections are in the order of a few $`mb`$ Haglin ; Ko . Also the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }N`$ cross section is not known sufficiently well Bernd  since the photoproduction data suggest a value of 3–4 $`mb`$ Huefner , while the charmonium absorption on nucleons (at high relative momentum) in $`p+A`$ and $`A+A`$ reactions is conventionally fitted by 6–7 $`mb`$ Seattle98 ; Dimo97  which might relate to the cross section of a pre-resonance charmonium state with nucleons before the actual hadronic state is formed. Present estimates for the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$ formation times range from 0.3 – 0.5 fm/c Huefner , but additional data from $`\overline{p}`$ induced reactions on nuclei, where charmonium can be formed on resonance with moderate momenta relative to the target nucleons, should help to pin down the present uncertainties Seth . Such studies might be performed experimentally at the HESR, which is presently proposed as a future facility at GSI GSIfut .

In a previous study we have explored the perspectives of charmed meson - nucleon scattering in the $`\overline{p}d`$ reaction Cass00  where the charmonium is produced on resonance with the proton in the deuteron and may scatter with the spectator neutron. Another possibility is also the reaction $`\pi ^+dJ/\psi pp`$ as discussed by Brodsky and Miller in Ref. Brodsky . Here we investigate $`\overline{p}A`$ reactions and study the production of the resonances $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770),\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ in various nuclei, their propagation and decay to $`D,\overline{D},D^{},\overline{D}^{},D_s,\overline{D}_s`$ in the medium and vacuum, respectively. Furthermore, the elastic and inelastic interactions of the open charm mesons in the medium are followed up in the Multiple Scattering Monte Carlo (MSMC) approach to study the dominant medium effects as a function of the target mass $`A`$.

Our work is organized as follows: In Section 2 we will briefly describe the MSMC approach and evaluate the formation cross sections for the resonances $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770),\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ on protons and nuclei. The fractional decay of these resonances to open charm mesons in the medium and vacuum, respectively, is calculated in Section 3 whereas the dynamics of the open charm mesons is described and studied in Section 4. Section 5 concludes this paper with a summary and discussion of open problems.

## 2 Resonance production and decay in $`\overline{p}p`$ and $`\overline{p}A`$ reactions

We here examine the possibility to measure the in-medium life time (or total width) of the resonances $`V=(\mathrm{\Psi }(3770),\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$) produced in $`\overline{p}A`$ reactions. Before doing so one has to determine first the resonance properties in vacuum, i.e. their production in $`\overline{p}p`$ reactions. To this aim we describe the vector meson spectral function by a Breit-Wigner distribution

$$A_V(M^2)=N_V\frac{M\mathrm{\Gamma }_{tot}^V(M)}{(M^2M_V^2\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Pi }_V(M))^2+M^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_{tot}^2(M)},$$
(1)
where $`M_V`$ denotes the vacuum pole mass, $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Pi }_V`$ is the vector meson self energy in the medium - which vanished in the vacuum - and $`N_V1/\pi `$ (for small width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{tot}`$) is a normalization factor that ensures $`𝑑M^2A(M^2)=1`$. The total width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{tot}`$ is separated into vacuum and medium contributions as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{tot}(M)=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{vac}(M)+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{coll}(M),$$
(2)
where

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{vac}(M)=\underset{c}{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_c(M)$$
(3)
with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c(M)`$ denoting the partial width to the decay channels $`cD\overline{D},D\overline{D}^{},D^{}\overline{D},D^{}\overline{D}^{},D_s\overline{D}_s,D_s^{}\overline{D}_s,D_s\overline{D}_s^{},D_s^{}\overline{D}_s^{}`$, respectively. The in-medium collisional width is determined from the imaginary part of the forward vector-meson nucleon scattering amplitude as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{coll}=\frac{4\pi }{M}\mathrm{}f_V(0)\rho _A,$$
(4)
where $`\rho _A`$ denotes the nuclear density. Furthermore, $`\mathrm{}f_V(0)`$ is determined via the optical theorem by the total vector-meson nucleon cross section $`\sigma _{VN}`$ that will be specified below. The real part of the vector meson self energy $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Pi }_V(M)`$ in the medium might be calculated by dispersion relations, however, QCD sum rules for $`c\overline{c}`$ vector states suggest that the ’mass shift’ $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Pi }/(2M_V)`$ at normal nuclear matter density is only in the order of a few MeV Klingl  due to a small coupling of the $`c,\overline{c}`$ quarks to the nuclear medium. We thus will assume $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Pi }_V`$ = 0 throughout the following study.

### 2.1 Vacuum properties

Whereas the pole masses of the vector mesons $`M_V`$ are approximately known e.g. from $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation Bai  this does not hold for the total widths and especially branching ratios. To this end we have to model the vacuum decays, that enter the spectral function (1) via (3), using available information from the PDG PDG . In each channel $`c`$ the relative decay to mesons $`m_1`$ and $`m_2`$ is described by a matrix element (squared) and phase space, i.e.

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_c|_c|^2p_c^3,$$
(5)
where $`p_c`$ is the meson momentum in the rest frame of the resonance. In case of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ only the lowest channel to $`D\overline{D}`$ contributes such that the matrix element in (5) can be fixed by the total width at half maximum which we take as $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{FWHM}=`$ 25 MeV PDG . For the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ we adopt $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{FWHM}=`$ 50 MeV and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{FWHM}=`$ 80 MeV, respectively PDG . The branching ratios for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ show a strong anomaly favoring the decays to channels with vector mesons $`D^{}`$. The PDG PDG  quotes $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^0\overline{D}^0)/\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^0\overline{D}^0+c.c.)=0.05\pm 0.03`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^0\overline{D}^0)/\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^0\overline{D}^0+c.c.)=32\pm 12`$, where the phase space factor $`p_c^3`$ already has been divided out. The origin for such a large variation in the matrix elements is not known so far. We use the actual numbers (within the range of uncertainty)

$$\frac{_{D\overline{D}}^2}{_{D^{}\overline{D}}^2}=0.08;\frac{_{D^{}\overline{D}^{}}^2}{_{D^{}\overline{D}}^2}=22;$$

$$\frac{_{D\overline{D}}^2}{_{D_s\overline{D}_s}^2}=3;\frac{_{D_s\overline{D}_s^{}}^2}{_{D_s\overline{D}_s}^2}=12.5;\frac{_{D_s^{}\overline{D}_s^{}}^2}{_{D_s\overline{D}_s^{}}^2}=22,$$
(6)
that provide a reasonable description to the $`e^+e^{}`$ formation data from Ref. Bai . The resulting spectral function $`S(M)=2MA(M)`$ for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ (with a pole mass of 4.08 GeV) is shown in Fig. 1 (upper part) in terms of the thick solid line as well as the mass dependent branching ratios for the different channels $`c`$ (including the phase-space factor $`p_c^3`$). It is clearly seen that for the ratios (6) the $`D^{}\overline{D}^{}`$ decay opens up at $`M`$ 4.03 GeV and dominates the spectral function for higher masses. Furthermore, the decays to $`D_s,D_s^{}`$ are strongly suppressed such that this resonance does not qualify for the production of $`(s\overline{c})`$ or $`(c\overline{s})`$ mesons.

Apart from the total width of 80 $`\pm 25`$ MeV the properties of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ are not well known experimentally. For the decay channels we thus adopt a ’counting rule’ for high energy open charm production that results from PYTHIA calculations (cf. Fig. 1 in Ref. Cass01 ), i.e.

$$\frac{_{D\overline{D}}^2}{_{D^{}\overline{D}}^2}=\frac{1}{3};\frac{_{D^{}\overline{D}^{}}^2}{_{D^{}\overline{D}}^2}=3;\frac{_{D\overline{D}}^2}{_{D_s\overline{D}_s}^2}=3;$$

$$\frac{_{D_s\overline{D}_s^{}}^2}{_{D_s\overline{D}_s}^2}=3;\frac{_{D_s^{}\overline{D}_s^{}}^2}{_{D_s\overline{D}_s^{}}^2}=3.$$
(7)
This is presently nothing but an educated guess (at low energies) and must be controlled by future data. The resulting spectral function $`S(M)=2MA(M)`$ for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ is shown in Fig. 1 (lower part) in terms of the thick solid line as well as the mass dependent branching ratios for the different channels $`c`$. It is clearly seen that for the ratios (7) the $`D^{}\overline{D}^{}`$ decay still dominates the spectral function, however, the decays to $`D_s,D_s^{}`$ are no longer so strongly suppressed as in case of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$.

The production of the vector mesons in $`\overline{p}p`$ then can be described by Breit-Wigner resonance formation on the basis of the spectral function $`A(M^2)`$ (1) - employing the proper kinematics - provided that the branching of $`\overline{p}pV`$ is known,

$$\sigma _V(M)=\frac{3}{4}Br_{p\overline{p}V}4MA_V(M)\mathrm{\Gamma }_V^{tot}(M)\frac{\pi ^2}{k^2},$$
(8)
where the factor 3/4 stems from the ratio of spin factors and $`k`$ denotes the momentum of the $`p`$ (or $`\overline{p}`$) in the cms. In fact, the branching ratio is rather uncertain for the cases of interest here. Following our previous work Cass00  we adopt $`Br(p\overline{p}\mathrm{\Psi }(3770))2\times 10^4`$ which is very similar to the branching of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(2S)`$ state. Due to a lack of detailed knowledge we assume this branching ratio also to hold for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$. The resulting cross sections for the mesons $`V`$ in $`\overline{p}p`$ reactions are displayed in Fig. 2 (upper part) as a function of the antiproton kinetic energy $`T_{\overline{p}}`$ in the laboratory reflecting the resonance structure (1) and the kinematics from (8).

### 2.2 $`\overline{p}A`$ reactions

In order to simulate events for the reaction $`\overline{p}AV`$ we use the Multiple Scattering Monte Carlo (MSMC) approach. An earlier version of this approach – denoted as Intra-Nuclear Cascade (INC) model – has been applied to the analysis of $`\eta `$ and $`\omega `$ production in $`\overline{p}A`$ and $`pA`$ interactions in Refs. Golub92 ; Golub93 ; Golub96 ; Golub97 . The production of the hidden charm vector resonances on nuclei then can be evaluated within the MSMC by propagating the antiproton in the nucleus and folding the elementary $`\overline{p}pV`$ production cross section with the local momentum distribution at the annihilation point. We have calculated the latter quantity in the local Thomas-Fermi approximation.

The numerical results for the formation cross sections of the resonances $`V`$ on $`{}_{}{}^{12}C`$ are shown in the lower part of Fig. 2 as a function of $`T_{\overline{p}}`$ indicating that the resonance formation is further smeared out by Fermi motion and the maximum in the cross section becomes reduced inspite of the larger $`\overline{p}`$ annihilation cross section on $`{}_{}{}^{12}C`$. The suppression factor in the maximum of the cross section - per elementary reaction - is of the order (see Ref. Farrar )

$$S.F.\frac{\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }_Rm_N}{(k_FM_R)},$$
(9)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R,M_R`$ denote the vacuum width and mass of the produced meson, whereas $`k_F`$ is the target Fermi momentum. This leads to factors of $``$ 0.075, 0.14 and 0.21 for $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770),\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ per $`p\overline{p}`$ reaction, respectively. On the other hand, the production on nuclei roughly scales with the target proton number as $`Z^{0.6}`$ (see below) such that the cross section for $`{}_{}{}^{12}C`$ in the maximum for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ is roughly the same as in $`\overline{p}p`$ annihilation, while it is lower for the narrower resonances $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$.

Necessary parameters for a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of rescattering are the elastic and inelastic $`VN`$ scattering cross sections and slope parameters $`b`$ for the differential cross sections $`d\sigma _{el}/dt`$, which are approximated by

$$\frac{d\sigma _{el}}{dt}\mathrm{exp}(bt),$$
(10)
where $`t`$ is the momentum transfer squared. These parameters as well as the masses of the rescattered particles determine the momentum and angular distributions of the particles in the final state. As in our previous study Cass00  we use $`b`$= 1 GeV<sup>-2</sup> for $`D,\overline{D}+N`$ and $`VN`$ scattering as an educated guess. Furthermore, the inelastic cross sections of the vector mesons with nucleons have to be specified. Since the relative momenta in the $`VN`$ system for rescattering are in the order of a few GeV one might use high energy geometric cross sections for the dissociation to open charm mesons. For all the three resonances studied here we adopt an inelastic cross section of 11 $`mb`$ as well as $`\sigma _{el}=1mb`$. The inelastic cross section of 11 $`mb`$ is larger by about a factor of 2 in comparison to the $`J/\mathrm{\Psi },\mathrm{\Psi }(2S)`$ cross sections (see introduction) due to the larger size of the higher lying resonances.

As mentioned above, the resonances $`V`$ are propagated without any mean-field potential. This approximation should be well fulfilled since the expected potentials are only in the order of a few MeV Klingl  while the energy of vector mesons in the lab. frame is a couple of GeV. Furthermore, due to the high mass of the resonances we neglect any intrinsic formation time $`\tau _F`$ for the resonances.

The resonances are propagated with their actual mass $`M`$ \- selected by MC according to the spectral function (1) - with velocity $`p_V/E_V`$ and decay in time according to the differential equation

$$\frac{dP_V}{dt}=\frac{1}{\gamma }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{tot}^V(M)P_V(t)$$
(11)
with the total width (2), while $`\gamma `$ denotes the Lorentz $`\gamma `$-factor. Their decay to $`D\overline{D},D\overline{D}^{},D^{}\overline{D},D^{}\overline{D}^{},D_s\overline{D}_s,`$ $`D_s^{}\overline{D}_s,`$ $`D_s\overline{D}_s^{},`$ $`D_s^{}\overline{D}_s^{}`$ is, furthermore, selected by Monte-Carlo according to the mass differential branching ratios displayed in Fig. 1.

Due to the rather moderate collision rates involved (for $`\sigma _{VN}^{tot}`$ $`12mb`$) the life time of the vector mesons $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770),\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ is not reduced sizeably in the nuclear medium relative to the vacuum (assuming the open charm mesons not to change their properties in the medium). This reduction then amounts to about 15% for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770),`$ to $``$ 8% for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ and to $``$ 5 % for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$, respectively. On the other hand, the $`D,\overline{D}`$ mesons might change their effective mass in the nuclear medium as advocated in Refs. Alex99 ; Sibirtsev ; Haya . Especially for dropping $`D,\overline{D}`$ effective masses in the medium the decay width of the vector mesons becomes enhanced at finite density $`\rho _A`$. This effect is most pronounced for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ since its pole mass is close to the $`D,\overline{D}`$ threshold of $``$ 3.73 GeV. A drop of the $`D,\overline{D}`$ meson masses both by 50 MeV at density $`\rho _0`$ would imply an increase of the decay width by about a factor of 2.5 according to phase space. Thus in-medium modifications of the open charm mesons might alter the life time of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ more effectively than collisional broadening. However, in-
medium potentials are most pronounced at low momenta and decrease in size with increasing momentum. Thus it is very questionable if $`D,\overline{D}`$ mesons will have sizeable potentials for relative momenta of 3–5 GeV/c with respect to the nucleus at rest. Thus, in the following, we do not speculate any further on such medium mass modifications of $`D,\overline{D}`$ mesons at high relative momentum and continue our calculations for vacuum properties of the open charm system.

The open charm mesons from the decaying vector mesons have a light quark $`q=(u,d)`$ or strange $`s`$ quark content apart from the $`\overline{c}`$ or $`c`$ quark. In the constituent quark model we get $`D^+=(c\overline{d})`$, $`D^{}=(\overline{c}d)`$, $`\overline{D}^0=(\overline{c}u)`$, $`D^0=(c\overline{u})`$, $`D_s^+=(c\overline{s})`$, $`D_s^{}=(\overline{c}s)`$ and the same composition for the related vector states. Now light quark exchanges with nucleons ($`(uud)`$ or $`(udd)`$) have different strength as it is well established experimentally from $`K^+p`$ and $`K^{}p`$ reactions. Whereas the $`K^+(u\overline{s})`$ scatters only elastically with nucleons at low momentum - since the $`\overline{s}`$ cannot be exchanged with a light quark of a nucleon - the $`K^{}(s\overline{u})`$ cross section is dominated by resonant $`s`$-quark transfer leading to strange baryons such as $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ or $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ hyperons. Similar relations are expected to hold for the $`D,\overline{D}`$ mesons, where especially the light quark contribution should give much larger cross section on nucleons than the $`c\overline{c}`$ vector resonances. This analogy is based on $`SU(4)_{flavor}`$ symmetry Lin  which, however, might be broken substantially in view of the different geometrical sizes of $`K`$\- and $`D`$-mesons. At present this is an open question, which has to be settled by experiment.

For our calculations we adopt the following cross sections - taken as constants in the momentum regime of interest -

$$\sigma _{DN}^{el}=\sigma _{\overline{D}N}^{el}=10mb;$$

$$\sigma _{\overline{D}N}^{inel}0;\sigma _{DN}^{inel}=10mb;$$

$$\sigma _{D_sN}^{el}=\sigma _{D_sN}^{el}=3mb;$$

$$\sigma _{D_s^+N}^{inel}3mb;\sigma _{D_s^{}N}^{inel}=10mb.$$
(12)
Here the inelastic cross sections of $`D`$-mesons refer to $`c`$-quark exchange reactions with nucleons. Furthermore, charge exchange reactions like $`D^+nD^0p`$ or $`D^{}p\overline{D}^0n`$ are incorporated with a constant cross section $`\sigma _{qexc.}`$ = 12 $`mb`$. For our exploratory study we assume the same cross sections for the related open charm vector mesons $`D^{},\overline{D}^{}`$ etc.

## 3 Resonance production in $`\overline{p}A`$ reactions

Within the model described in Section 2 we are now in the position to calculate the cross section of the $`c\overline{c}`$ resonances in $`\overline{p}A`$ reactions for all targets of interest and can obtain the information about in-medium resonance decays (for densities $`\rho _A0.03fm^3`$) or vacuum decays, respectively. In this respect we show in Fig. 3 the calculated cross section for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ at $`T_{lab}`$ = 5.7 GeV for the targets $`{}_{}{}^{12}C`$, $`{}_{}{}^{64}Cu`$, $`{}_{}{}^{108}Ag`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{207}Pb`$ as a function of target mass $`A`$. The solid line represents the power law

$$\sigma _\mathrm{\Psi }A^\alpha $$
(13)
with $`\alpha `$ = 0.55, which nicely describes the total $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ yield. The coefficient $`\alpha `$ is less than 2/3 - as expected from the total $`\overline{p}`$ annihilation cross section - due to fact that only reactions with protons can lead to uncharged resonances and the Fermi smearing is more effective in heavy than in light nuclei. The fraction of $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$, that decay to $`D\overline{D}`$ inside the nucleus (D ins) is only a few % in case of the $`{}_{}{}^{12}C`$ target, however, reaches about 50% for the $`Pb`$ target. Thus for a heavy target the in-medium properties of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ may well be studied experimentally by dilepton spectroscopy exploiting the dilepton branching of $`7\times 10^4`$ of this resonance. However, as mentioned above, a collisional broadening of its spectral function by $``$ 15 % is not expected to provide a clear signal relative to its vacuum decay unless the experimental mass resolution is in the order of 1-2 MeV.

Apart from the resonant production of open charm mesons they may also be produced directly as $`(c\overline{q})`$ and ($`\overline{c}q`$) pairs in $`\overline{p}N`$ annihilation. This channel strongly dominates in annihilation reactions on neutrons in the nucleus since the charmonium production is forbidden by charge conservation at low energy above threshold. At higher invariant energies a pion might balance the charge in the $`\mathrm{\Psi }+\pi `$ final channel. For our estimates we have employed the Regge-model analysis of Ref. Kaidalov  for the elementary $`\overline{p}ND,\overline{D}`$ cross section as also used by Sibirtsev et al. in Refs. Alex99 ; Sibirtsev . The resulting cross section of nonresonant open charm production is shown in Fig. 3 as a function of the target mass $`A`$ in terms of the dashed line (D nonr) and demonstrates that the nonresonant cross section is about the same at this energy as the resonant production channel via $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ production and decay. Thus, in-medium modifications of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ will be hard to detect experimentally via the $`D\overline{D}`$ invariant mass spectrum (see below).

In analogy to Fig. 3 we show in Figs. 4 and 5 the calculated cross section for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ at $`T_{lab}`$ = 6.8 GeV and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ at $`T_{lab}`$ = 7.7 GeV for the targets $`{}_{}{}^{12}C`$, $`{}_{}{}^{64}Cu`$, $`{}_{}{}^{108}Ag`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{207}Pb`$ as a function of target mass $`A`$. Due to the shorter life times of these resonances the fraction of in-medium resonance decays increases up to 65 % and 75%, respectively, for a $`Pb`$-target. However, for the rescattering cross sections involved (cf. Section 2) the life times in the medium are shortened only by 8% and 5%, respectively. This very moderate change of the spectral functions due to in-medium interactions will be hard to see by dilepton spectroscopy except for setups with excellent invariant mass resolution.

For the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ the nonresonant $`D,\overline{D}`$ cross section (upper dashed line; D nonr) becomes larger than the resonant cross section (solid line) due to the higher invariant energy $`\sqrt{s}`$ involved in the elementary reactions at $`T_{lab}`$ = 6.8 GeV. Furthermore, the resonant decays to $`D_s,\overline{D}_s`$ are suppressed by almost 3 orders of magnitude in case of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ which is not favorable for studying $`D_s,\overline{D}_s`$ propagation in the nuclear medium. For the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ an even larger nonresonant contribution is expected which we do not attempt to estimate explicitly since no educated guess for the additional channels $`\overline{D}D\pi +X`$ is available. However, the perspectives for $`D_s,\overline{D}_s`$ dynamics become more promising due to larger branching ratios which are a consequence of the higher invariant energy above the threshold and a more favorable matrix element. Especially for the heaviest targets almost 50% of the $`D_s,\overline{D}_s`$ mesons from $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ decay appear inside the nucleus such that rescattering effects can be explored. Such rescattering phenomena can also be tested for nonresonant $`D_s,\overline{D}_s`$ production channels; however, their cross section is (at present) hard to estimate as mentioned before.

## 4 Open charm propagation and rescattering

The open charm mesons produced by resonance decay or nonresonant channels may rescatter in the nuclear medium either elastically or inelastically. In case of inelastic reaction channels there may be charge exchange reactions such as $`D^+nD^0p`$ or $`\overline{D}^{}p\overline{D}^0n`$ or charm flavor exchange reactions $`DN\mathrm{\Lambda }_c\pi `$ or $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_c\pi `$ in analogy to the strangeness exchange reactions $`\overline{K}N\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi `$ or $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\pi `$. Whereas charge exchange reactions - induced by ($`u,d`$) quark exchange - do not change the ratio $`D/\overline{D}`$ in nuclei, the charm exchange reaction leads to a loss of $`c`$ quarks in the mesonic sector and thus to a decrease of the $`D/\overline{D}`$ ratio with the target mass number $`A`$.

In order to obtain some idea about the momenta of open charm mesons in the laboratory we display in Fig. 6 the momentum distribution of $`D`$ and $`\overline{D}`$ mesons - after full rescattering \- for $`\overline{p}+Pb`$ at $`T_{lab}`$ = 5.7 GeV. At this energy the resonance contribution stems from the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$; its ’outside’ decay contribution is shown in Fig. 6 by the hatched area, which extends from 2.2 GeV/c to about 4.2 GeV/c. The ’inside’ resonance contribution (denoted by $`\overline{\mathrm{D}}`$r and Dr, respectively) is seen to be broadened significantly by elastic scattering and charge exchange reactions showing also a sizeable net absorption of $`D`$ mesons in case of the $`Pb`$ target of $``$ 30%. On the other hand, the $`D,\overline{D}`$ mesons from nonresonant production channels signal larger in-medium rescattering effects which is seen by comparison to the total $`D`$ (solid line) and $`\overline{D}`$ (dashed line) momentum spectra. The latter phenomenon is due to the fact that rescattering of open charm mesons in case of nonresonant production channels may proceed earlier than in case of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)D\overline{D}`$ channel since the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ on average is propagating for a couple of fm/c before its decay.

In order to quantify the observable consequences from $`D,\overline{D}`$ rescattering and absorption we have made a cut on the laboratory momenta $`P_D,P_{\overline{D}}2.2`$ GeV/c to exclude the vacuum decays of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ and to reduce the fraction of unscattered $`D,\overline{D}`$ events. The calculated cross sections for resonant (l.h.s.) and nonresonant (r.h.s.) production channels are shown in Fig. 7 (upper part) for $`D`$ and $`\overline{D}`$ mesons, respectively, as a function of the target mass $`A`$ at $`T_{lab}`$ = 5.7 GeV. Even for the low momentum cut the cross sections are in the order of 50 – 100 $`nb`$ for heavy targets, which should be feasible at the HESR with a $`\overline{p}`$ luminosity of $``$ 2$`\times `$ 10<sup>32</sup>. The resulting ratio $`D`$ to $`\overline{D}`$ mesons is displayed in the lower part of Fig. 7 for resonant (l.h.s.) and nonresonant (r.h.s.) productions separately. The constant line (=1) results trivially when including charge exchange reactions, however, discarding $`c`$-quark exchange reactions. As noted above, the $`D`$-meson absorption is larger in the nonresonant case and may reach 40% for the $`Pb`$-target within the cross sections specified in Sec. 2. Vice versa, experimental data on this ratio (employing the same low momentum cut) as a function of mass $`A`$ will allow to set stringent bounds on the size of the $`c`$-quark exchange cross section in the nuclear medium.

Without explicit representation we note that the perspectives of measuring $`D,\overline{D}`$ rescattering in heavy nuclei from the resonance decay of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ are similar to the previous case discussed above and also close to the results for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ (see below). Since the chances to measure additionally the rescattering effects of $`D_s^+,D_s^{}`$ mesons are very low in view of the small partial decay width for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ (cf. Fig. 1) we directly continue with a discussion of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ formation and decay at $`T_{lab}`$ = 7.7 GeV.

In this case (for $`\overline{p}+Pb`$) the momentum distribution of the $`D,\overline{D},D_s^+,D_s^{}`$ mesons becomes very broad and extends from $`0`$ to $``$ 7 GeV/c (cf. Fig. 8) where the ’outside’ $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ decays (solid lines; $`D,\overline{D}`$ outside, $`D_s^+,D_s^{}`$ outside) give open charm mesons essentially above $``$ 2 GeV/c. Thus rescattering events of the $`D`$-mesons are dominantly found for momenta less than 2 GeV/c which, unfortunately, are only a low fraction of the total open charm yield. Furthermore, the number of $`D_s^+,D_s^{}`$ events in this low momentum range is down by more than 2 orders of magnitude relative to the $`D,\overline{D}`$ mesons. However, apart from the resonant production of charm meson pairs there will be an additional contribution from nonresonant $`D,\overline{D},D_s^+,D_s^{}`$ mesons which will enhance the cross section also for low momenta, respectively. It is hard to provide reliable estimates for the nonresonant contribution, but in view of Fig. 4 for $`T_{lab}`$ = 6.8 GeV this contribution might be higher by a factor 2–4 than the resonance contribution.

As shown in Fig. 9 the cross sections for $`D,\overline{D}`$ mesons at $`T_{lab}`$ = 7.7 GeV are above 50 $`nb`$ for heavy targets (l.h.s, upper part) – even when including a low momentum cut of 2 GeV/c – showing a sizeable difference due to the absorption of $`D,D^{}`$ mesons in the nucleus. The perspectives for $`D_s^+,D_s^{}`$ mesons are less promising (r.h.s, upper part). Here only cross sections of $``$ 0.1 $`nb`$ should be expected for a $`Pb`$ target which might be enhanced due to nonresonant channels by a factor 2–4 (as estimated above). However, the relative absorption of $`D,D^{}`$ mesons – as measured by the ratio to $`\overline{D},\overline{D}^{}`$ mesons – increases with target mass by up to 35% for $`A`$=207 (l.h.s., lower part) for the cross sections specified in Sect. 2. This decrease in the $`D/\overline{D}`$ ratio is roughly the same for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ decays as for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$ decays (Fig. 7) inspite of the shorter lifetime of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$. This is partly due to the different cut in momentum and the fact, that the average momentum of the produced $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ in the laboratory is higher. The ratio of $`D_s^{}/D_s^+`$ versus target mass $`A`$ (r.h.s.; lower part) also shows a decrease due to the different cross sections for $`c`$ and $`s`$ quark exchanges with the nucleons of the target. The vertical lines in Fig. 9 show the statistical error bars in this ratio for the low momentum cut of 2 GeV/c that reflect the low number of $`D_s^{},D_s^+`$ mesons in this momentum range as obtained from the Monte Carlo simulations. In principle, provided that sufficient statistics are obtained experimentally, it is possible to determine the relative strength of $`(u,d)`$, $`s`$ and $`c`$ quark exchanges with nucleons from the mass dependence of the further ratios $`D/D_s^+`$ and $`D/D_s^{}`$. We only point out this possibility without presenting explicit figures for these ratios since the statistics for $`D_s^\pm `$ is very small and the cross sections employed are rather uncertain so far.

## 5 Summary

In this study we have explored the perspectives of measuring the dynamics of hidden charm vector mesons and open charm mesons in nuclei in antiproton induced reactions on nuclei. Such experimental studies will be possible at the high-energy antiproton storage ring HESR proposed for the future GSI facility GSIfut . The Multiple Scattering Monte Carlo (MSMC) calculations performed have been based on the resonance production concept with resonance properties from the PDG PDG  or related estimates from high energy open charm branching ratios. We note, that these resonance properties are in line with $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770),\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ production from $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation Bai , however, the detailed branching ratios for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ (cf. Fig. 1) are still quite uncertain. Thus our estimated uncertainty in the cross sections is in the order of a factor 2–3, which should be kept in mind when planning experiments along this line. We stress that the total branching ratios to $`\overline{p}p`$ should be measured first with high accuracy. Deviations from our calculations for hidden charm vector mesons in $`\overline{p}p`$ reactions than directly carry over to the cross sections on nuclei (Fig. 2). Nevertheless, even for a light nucleus such as $`{}_{}{}^{12}C`$ cross sections from 70 – 150 $`nb`$ should be expected at the proper resonance energies (Fig. 2). Our calculations suggest that the total yield of these vector mesons scales as $`A^{0.55}`$ with target mass $`A`$ (Fig. 3). For a heavy nucleus like $`Pb`$ the fraction of ’inside’ decays to dileptons or $`D,\overline{D}`$ reaches $``$ 50% for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$, $``$ 65 % for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4040)`$ and $``$ 75% for the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(3770)`$, which is sufficient to address the question of in-medium properties of these resonances. However, for the rescattering cross sections adopted in Sect. 2, the in-medium modifications of their spectral functions is rather moderate, i.e. 15%, 8% and 5% change in width, respectively, such that a mass resolution for dilepton pairs in the order of a few MeV will be necessary. This will be also the case for in-medium mass shifts of these vector mesons which are estimated to be in the order of a few MeV, only Klingl .

We have, furthermore, explored the perspectives of measuring the interactions of open charm mesons in nuclei that are produced by resonant vector meson decays or nonresonant channels, respectively. For the cross sections specified in (12) the effects of $`D,\overline{D}`$ rescattering and $`D`$-meson absorption in heavy nuclei can clearly be identified when imposing a low momentum cut in the laboratory of 2–2.2 GeV/c at $`T_{lab}`$ = 5.7 or 7.7 GeV, respectively. This low momentum cut excludes events with $`D\overline{D}`$ decays in vacuum or $`D,\overline{D}`$ mesons that did not rescatter in the target nucleus. The cross sections for such type of events with $`D`$ or $`\overline{D}`$ mesons of low momenta are in the order of 50 $`nb`$ for a heavy target like $`Pb`$. Such cross sections are high enough to perform successful experiments with an antiproton luminosity of 2$`\times `$ 10<sup>32</sup> as envisaged for the HESR GSIfut . Experimentally, the ratio of $`D/\overline{D}`$ (at low momenta) as a function of target mass $`A`$ allows to set stringent constraints on the $`D`$-meson absorption – or $`c`$-quark transfer – cross section at nuclear density $`\rho _0`$. Furthermore, at $`T_{lab}`$ 7.7 GeV the production cross section of $`D_s^+,D_s^{}`$ mesons should become appreciable and be in the order of 20 $`nb`$ for a $`Pb`$ target when including only the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ decays. Approximately 50% of these ($`c\overline{s}`$) and ($`\overline{c}s`$) mesons should rescatter in a target of mass $`A`$ 200 such that $`c`$ and $`s`$-quark exchange reactions with nucleons can be measured by studying the mass dependence of $`D_s^{}/D_s^+`$ as well as $`D/D_s^{}`$ and $`D/D_s^+`$ at low momenta. However, to exclude events from $`\mathrm{\Psi }(4160)`$ vacuum decays as well as events with unscattered open charm mesons a severe cut on low momenta ($`2`$ GeV) should be performed. In this momentum range the cross section for $`D_s^{},D_s^+`$ drops to $``$ 0.1 $`nb`$ even for a $`Pb`$ target. It will thus be very hard to measure the various particle ratios as a function of mass $`A`$ with good statistics.

## Acknowledgements

We are grateful to A. B. Kaidalov and A. Sibirtsev for helpful discussions and valuable suggestions. Furthermore, we like to thank E. L. Bratkovskaya and U. Wiedner for critical comments and a careful reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by DFG under grant No. 436 RUS 113/600 and RFFI.


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# Regular obstructed categories and TQFT

## I Introduction

In the generalized histories approach  to quantum theory the whole universe is represented by a class of ’histories’. In this approach the standard Hamiltonian time-evolution is replaced by a partial semigroup called a ’temporal support’. A possible realization of such program can be described in terms of cobordism manifolds and corresponding categories . The temporal support arises naturally as a cobordism $`M`$, where the boundary $`M`$ of $`M`$ is a disjoint sum of the ’incoming’ boundary manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ and the ’outgoing’ one $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_1`$. This means that the cobordism $`M`$ represents certain quantum process transforming $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ into $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_1`$. In other words, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_1`$ is a time consequence of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$. Obviously, we have two opposite possibilities to declare which boundary is the initial one.

Let $`N`$ be a cobordism with the ’outgoing’ boundary of $`M`$ as its ’incoming boundary’ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_2`$ as the ’outgoing boundary’. Then there is a cobordism $`NM`$ whose incoming boundary is $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$, and the outgoing one is $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_3`$. In this case we say that these two cobordisms are glued along $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_1`$. Such gluing of cobordisms up to diffeomorphisms define a partial semigroup operation. One can consider cobordism with several incoming and outgoing boundary manifolds. The class of possible histories can be represented by gluing of cobordisms in several different ways. Hence there is the corresponding coherence problem for such description.

Let $`Cob`$ be a category of cobordisms, where the boundary $`M`$ of $`MCob`$ is a disjoint sum of the ’incoming’ boundary manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ and the ’outgoing’ one $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_1`$. There is also the cylinder cobordism $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\times [0,1]`$ such that $`(\mathrm{\Sigma }\times [0,1])=\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$. The class of boundary components is denoted by $`Cob_0`$. According to Atiyah , Baez and Dolan , the TQFT is a functor $``$ from the category $`Cob`$ to the category $`Vect`$ of a finite-dimensional vector spaces. This means that $``$ sends every manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }Cob_0`$ into vector space $`(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ such that

$$\begin{array}{ccc}(\mathrm{\Sigma }^{})=((\mathrm{\Sigma }))^{},& (\mathrm{\Sigma }_0\mathrm{\Sigma }_1)=(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)(\mathrm{\Sigma }_1),& (\mathrm{})=I,\end{array}$$
(1)
and a cobordism $`M(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,\mathrm{\Sigma }_1)`$ to a mapping $`\mathrm{\Phi }(M)lin_I(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,\mathrm{\Sigma }_1)`$ such that $`(\mathrm{\Sigma }\times [0,1])=id_\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, where $`I`$ is a field, and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ is the same manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ but with the opposite orientation. Kerler  found examples of categories formed by some classes of cobordism manifolds preserving some operations like the disjoint sum or surgery. It was discussed by Baez and Dolan  that it is not easy to describe such categories in a coherent way. Crane  applied the category theory to an algebraic structure of the quantum gravity.

The idea of regularity as generalized inverse was firstly introduced by by von Neumann  and applied by Penrose for matrices . Let $``$ be a ring. If for an element $`a`$ there is an element $`a^{}`$ such that

$$\begin{array}{cc}aa^{}a=a,& a^{}aa^{}=a^{},\end{array}$$
(2)
then $`a`$ is said to be regular and $`a^{}`$ is called a generalized inverse of $`a`$. Generalizing transition from inverses to regularity is a widely used method of abstract extension of various algebraic structures. The intensive study of such regularity and related directions was developed in many different fields, e.g. generalized inverses theory , semigroup theory , and , supermanifold theory , Yang-Baxter equation in endomorphism semigroup and braided almost bialgebras , weak bialgebras, week Hopf algebras , category theory .

In this paper we are going to study certain class of categories which can be useful for the study of quantum histories with non-reversible time, quantum, gravity and field theory. The regularity concept for linear mappings and morphisms in categories are studied. Higher order regularity conditions are described. Commutative diagrams are replaced by ‘semicommutative’ ones. The distinction between commutative and ‘semicommutative’ cases is measured by a non-zero obstruction proportional to the difference of some self-mappings $`e^{\left(n\right)}`$ from the identity. This allows to ’regulaarize’ the notion of categories, functors and related algebraic structures. It is interesting that this procedure is unique up to an equivalence defined by invertible morphisms. Our regularity concept is nontrivial for equivalence classes of noninvertible morphisms. The regular version of TQFT is a natural application of the presented here formalism. In this case the n-regularity means that a time evolution is nonreversible, although repeated after n steps, but up to a classes of obstructions. Our considerations are based on the concepts of generalized inverse , and semisupermanifolds .

The paper is organized as follows. In the Section II we consider linear mappings without requirement of ‘invertibility’. If $`f:XY`$ is a linear mapping, then Instead of the inverse mapping $`f^1:YX`$ we use less restricted ‘regular’ $`f^{}`$ one by extending ‘invertibility’ to ‘regularity’ according to the following relations

$$ff^{}f=f,f^{}ff^{}=f^{}.$$
(3)
We also propose some higher regularity conditions. In Section III the higher regularity notion is extended to morphisms of categories. Commutative diagrams are replaced by semicommutative ones. The concept of regular cocycles of morphisms in an category is described. An existence theorem for these cocycles is given. The corresponding generalization of certain categorical structures as tensor operation, algebras and coalgebras etc… to our higher regularity case is given in the Section IV. Regular equivalence classes of cobordism manifolds and the corresponding structures are considered in the Section V. An $`n`$-regular TQFT is introduced as an $`n`$-regular obstructed category represented some special classes of cobordisms called ’interactions’. Our study is not complete, it is only a proposal for new algebraic structures related to topological quantum theories.

## II Generalized invertibility and regularity

Let $`X`$ and $`Y`$ be two linear spaces over a field $`k`$. We use the following notation. Denote by $`id_X`$ and $`id_Y`$ the identity mappings $`id_X:XX`$ and $`id_Y:YY`$. If $`f:XY`$is a linear mapping, then the image of $`f`$ is denoted by $`Imf`$, and the kernel by $`Kerf`$.

We are going to study here some generalizations of the standard concept of invertibility properties of mappings. Our considerations are based on the article of Nashed . Let $`f:XY`$ be a linear mapping. If $`ff_r^1=id_Y`$ for some $`f_r^1:YX`$, then $`f`$ is called a retraction, and $`f_r^1`$ is the right inverse. Similarly, if $`f_l^1f=id_X`$, then it is called a coretraction, $`f_l^1`$ is the left inverse of $`f`$. A mapping $`f^1`$ is called an inverse of f if and only if it is both, right and left inverse of $`f`$.

This standard concept of inverses is in many cases to strong to be fulfilled. To obtain more weak conditions one has to introduced the following ‘regularity’ conditions

$$ff_{in}^{}f=f,$$
(4)
where $`f_{in}^{}:YX`$ is called an inner inverse, and such $`f`$ is called regular. Similar “reflexive regularity” conditions

$$f_{out}^{}ff_{out}^{}=f_{out}^{}$$
(5)
defines an outer inverse $`f_{out}^{}`$. Notice that in general $`f_{in}^{}f_{out}^{}f^1`$ or it can be that $`f^1`$ does not exist at all.

###### Definition 1.

A mapping $`f`$ satisfying one of the condition (4) or (5) is said to be regular or 2-regular. A generalized inverse of a mapping $`f`$ is a mapping $`f^{}`$ which is both inner and outer inverse $`f^{}=f_{in}^{}=f_{out}^{}`$.

###### Lemma 2.

If $`f_{in}^{}`$ is an inner inverse of $`f`$, then a generalized inverse $`f^{}`$ exists, but need not be unique.

Proof: If $`f_{in}^{}`$ is an inner inverse, then

$$f^{}=f_{in}^{}ff_{in}^{}$$
(6)
is always both inner and outer inverse i. e. generalized inverse. It follows from (6) that both regularity conditions (4) and (5) hold.

$`\mathrm{}`$

###### Definition 3.

Let us define two operators $`𝒫_f:YY`$ and $`𝒫_f^{}:XX`$ by relations

$$𝒫_f:=ff^{},𝒫_f^{}:=f^{}f,$$
(7)
###### Lemma 4.

These operators satisfy

$$\begin{array}{cc}𝒫_f𝒫_f=𝒫_f,\hfill & 𝒫_ff=f𝒫_f^{}=f\hfill \\ 𝒫_f^{}𝒫_f^{}=𝒫_f^{},\hfill & 𝒫_f^{}f^{}=f^{}𝒫_f=f^{}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(8)
$`\mathrm{}`$

###### Lemma 5.

If $`f^{}`$ is the generalized inverse of the mapping $`f`$, then the following properties are obvious

$$\begin{array}{cc}Imf=Im(ff^{}),\hfill & Ker(ff^{})=Kerf^{},\hfill \\ Im(f^{}f)=Imf^{},\hfill & Ker(f^{}f)=Kerf.\hfill \end{array}$$
(9)
In addition there are two decompositions

$$\begin{array}{cc}X=Imf^{}Kerf,\hfill & Y=ImfKerf^{},\hfill \end{array}$$
(10)
The restriction $`f_{Imf^{}}:Imf^{}Imf`$ is one to one mapping, and operators $`P_f,P_f^{}`$ are projectors of $`Y,X`$ onto $`Imf,Imf^{}`$, respectively.

$`\mathrm{}`$

###### Theorem 6.

Let $`f:XY`$ be a linear mapping. If $`P`$ and $`Q`$ are projectors corresponding to the following two decompositions

$$\begin{array}{cc}X=MKerf,\hfill & Y=ImfN,\hfill \end{array}$$
(11)
respectively, then exist unique generalized inverse of $`f`$, and

$$f^{}:=i\stackrel{~}{f}^1Q,$$
(12)
where $`\stackrel{~}{f}:=f_M`$, and $`i:MX`$.

$`\mathrm{}`$
Here we try to construct higher analogs of generalized inverses and regularity conditions (4)–(5). Let us consider two mappings $`f:XY`$ and $`f^{}:YX`$ and introduce two additional mappings $`f^{}:XY`$ and $`f^{}:YX`$. We propose here the following higher regularity condition

$$\begin{array}{c}ff^{}f^{}f^{}f=f,\hfill \end{array}$$
(13)
This equation define a 4-regularity condition. By cyclic permutations we obtain

$$\begin{array}{c}f^{}f^{}f^{}ff^{}=f^{},\hfill \\ f^{}f^{}ff^{}f^{}=f^{},\hfill \\ f^{}ff^{}f^{}f^{}=f^{}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(14)
By recursive considerations we can propose the following formula of $`n`$-regularity

$$\begin{array}{c}\underset{n+1}{\underset{}{ff^{}f^{}\mathrm{}f^{\stackrel{n=2k1}{\stackrel{}{\mathrm{}}}}f}}=f,\hfill \end{array}$$
(15)
where $`n=2k`$, $`k=1,2,\mathrm{}`$ and their cyclic permutations. Observe that for a not unique $`\stackrel{2k1}{\stackrel{}{\mathrm{}}}`$-operation the following formula

$`\left(gf\right)^{\stackrel{2k1}{\stackrel{}{\mathrm{}}}}`$ $`=f^{\stackrel{2k1}{\stackrel{}{\mathrm{}}}}g^{\stackrel{2k1}{\stackrel{}{\mathrm{}}}}.`$ (16)
leads to a difficulty. If the above operation is defined up to an equivalence, then the difficulty can be overcomes. We can introduce ‘higher projector’ by the relation

$$𝒫_f^{\left(n\right)}=ff^{}f^{}\mathrm{}f^{\stackrel{2k1}{\stackrel{}{\mathrm{}}}},n=2k.$$
(17)
###### Lemma 7.

It is easy to check the following properties

$`𝒫_f^{\left(n\right)}f`$ $`=f.`$ (18)
and $`𝒫_f^{\left(n\right)}𝒫_f^{\left(n\right)}=𝒫_f^{\left(n\right)},n=2k`$.

$`\mathrm{}`$
For a given $`n=2k`$ all $`f^{},f^{},\mathrm{}f^{\stackrel{n1}{\stackrel{}{\mathrm{}}}}`$ are different, and, for instance, $`\left(f^{}\right)^{}f^{}`$. The existence of analogous conditions for odd $`n`$ is a problem.

###### Theorem 8.

Let $`f:XY`$ be a linear mapping. If $`P`$, and $`Q`$ are projectors corresponding to the following two decompositions

$$\begin{array}{cc}X=MKerf,\hfill & Y=ImfN,\hfill \end{array}$$
(19)
respectively, and

$$\begin{array}{cc}f^{}_{Imf}=f^{}_{Imf},\hfill & \end{array}$$
(20)
then the 4-regularity condition of $`f`$ can reduced to the two 2-regularity conditions

$$\begin{array}{cc}ff^{}f=f,\hfill & f^{}f^{}f^{}=f^{}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(21)
$`\mathrm{}`$

## III Semicommutative diagrams and regular obstructed categories

In the previous section we considered mappings and regularity properties for two given spaces $`X`$ and $`Y`$, because we studied various types of inverses. Now we will extend these consideration to any number of spaces and introduce semicommutative diagrams (firstly introduced in ).

A directed graph $``$ is a pair $`\{_0,_1\}`$ and a pair of functions

$$_0\begin{array}{c}s\\ \\ t\end{array}_1$$
(22)
where elements of $`_0`$ are said to be objects, elements of $`_1`$ are said to be arrows or morphisms, $`sf`$ is said to be a domain (or source) of $`f`$, and $`tf`$ is a codomain (or target) of $`f_1`$. If $`sf=X_o`$, and $`tf=Y_0`$, then we use the following notation $`X\stackrel{f}{}Y`$ and

$$\begin{array}{c}(X,Y):=\{f_1:sf=X,tf=Y\}.\end{array}$$
(23)
We denote by $`End(X)`$ the collection of all morphisms defined on $`X`$ into itself, i. e. $`End(X):=(X,X)`$, $`X_0`$.

Two arrows $`f,g_1`$ such that $`tf=sg`$ are said to be composable. If in addition $`sf=X`$, $`sg=tf=Y`$, and $`tg=Z`$, then we use the notation $`X\stackrel{f}{}Y\stackrel{g}{}Z`$. In this case a composition $`gf`$ of two arrows $`f:XY`$ and $`g:YZ`$ can be defined as an arrow $`X\stackrel{gf}{}Z`$. The associativity means that $`h\left(gf\right)=\left(hg\right)f=hgf`$. An identity $`{}_{}{}^{}id^{}`$ in $``$ is an inclusion $`X_0id_XEnd(X)`$ such that

$$\begin{array}{c}fid_X=id_Yf=f.\end{array}$$
(24)
for every $`X,Y_1`$, and $`X\stackrel{f}{}Y`$.

A directed graph $``$ equipped with associative composition of composable arrows and identity satisfying some natural axioms is said to be a category . If $``$ is a category, then right cancellative morphisms are epimorphisms which satisfy $`g_1f=g_2f`$ $`g_1=g_2`$, where $`g_{1,.2}:YZ`$ and left cancellative morphisms are monomorphisms which satisfy $`fh_1=fh_2`$ $`h_1=h_2`$, where $`h_{1,.2}:ZX`$. A morphisms $`X\stackrel{f}{}Y`$ is invertible means that there is a morphisms $`Y\stackrel{g}{}X`$ such that $`fg=id_Y`$ and $`gf=id_X`$. Instead of such invertibility we can use the regularity condition (4), i.e. $`fgf=f`$, where $`g`$ plays the role of an inner inverse .

Usually, for three objects $`X,Y,Z`$ and three morphisms $`f:XY`$ and $`g:YZ`$ and $`h:ZX`$ one can have the ‘invertible’ triangle commutative diagram $`hgf=id_X`$. Its regular extension has the form

$$fhgf=f.$$
(25)
Such a diagram

can be called a semicommutative diagram. By cyclic permutations of (25) we obtain

$$\begin{array}{c}hgfh=h,\hfill \\ gfhg=g.\hfill \end{array}$$
(26)
These formulae define the concept of 3-regularity.

###### Definition 9.

A mapping $`f:XY`$ satisfying conditions (25) and (26) is said to be 3-regular. The mapping $`h:ZX`$ is called the first 3-inversion and the mapping $`g:YZ`$ the second one.

The above concept can be expanded to any number of objects and morphisms.

###### Definition 10.

Let $`=(_0,_1)`$ be a directed graph. An n-regular cocycle $`(X,f)`$ in $``$, $`n=1,2,\mathrm{}`$, is a sequence of composable arrows in $``$

$$\begin{array}{c}X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}\mathrm{}\stackrel{f_{n1}}{}X_n\stackrel{f_n}{}X_1,\end{array}$$
(27)
such that

$$\begin{array}{c}f_1f_n\mathrm{}f_2f_1=f_1,\\ f_2f_1\mathrm{}f_3f_2=f_2,\\ \\ f_nf_{n1}\mathrm{}f_1f_n=f_n,\end{array}$$
(28)
and

$$\begin{array}{c}e_{X_1}^{\left(n\right)}:=f_n\mathrm{}f_2f_1End(X_1),\\ e_{X_2}^{\left(n\right)}:=f_1\mathrm{}f_3f_2End(X_2),\\ \\ e_{X_n}^{\left(n\right)}:=f_{n1}\mathrm{}f_1f_nEnd(X_n).\end{array}$$
(29)
###### Definition 11.

Let $`(X,f)`$ be an n-regular cocycle in $``$, then the correspondence $`e_X^{(n)}:X_i_0e_{X_i}^{(n)}End(X_i)`$, $`i=1,2,\mathrm{},n`$, is called an $`n`$-regular cocycle obstruction structure on $`(X,f)`$ in $``$.

###### Lemma 12.

We have the following relations

$$\begin{array}{ccc}f_ie_{X_i}^{\left(n\right)}=f_i,& e_{X_{i+1}}^{(i)}f_i=f_i,& e_{X_i}^{\left(n\right)}e_{X_i}^{\left(n\right)}=e_{X_i}^{\left(n\right)}.\end{array}$$
(30)
for $`i=1,2,\mathrm{},n(\text{mod}n)`$.

Proof: The lemma simply follows from relations (28) and (29). $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Definition 13.

An $`n`$-regular obstructed category is a directed graph $``$ with an associative composition and such that every object is a component of an n-regular cocycle.

###### Example 1.

If all obstruction are equal to the identity $`e_{X_i}^{\left(n\right)}=id_{X_i}`$, and

$$\begin{array}{c}f_n\mathrm{}f_2f_1=id_{X_1},\\ f_1\mathrm{}f_3f_2=id_{X_2},\\ \\ f_{n1}\mathrm{}f_1f_n=id_{X_n}.\end{array}$$
(31)
then the sequence (27) is trivially n-regular. Observe that the trivial $`2`$-regularity is just the usual invertibility, hence every grupoid $`G`$ is a trivially $`2`$-regular obstructed category. We are interested with obstructed categories equipped with some obstruction different from the identity.

###### Definition 14.

The minimum number $`n=n_{obstr}`$ such that $`e_X^{(n)}id_X`$ is called the obstruction degree.

###### Example 2.

Every inverse semigroup $`S`$ is a nontrivial $`2`$-regular obstructed category. It has only one object, morphisms are the elements of $`S`$.

###### Theorem 15.

Let $``$ be a category, and

$$\begin{array}{c}X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}\mathrm{}\stackrel{f_{n1}}{}X_n\stackrel{f_n}{}X_1\end{array}$$
(32)
be a sequence of morphisms of category $``$. Assume that there is a sequence

$$\begin{array}{c}Y_1\stackrel{\stackrel{~}{f}_1}{}Y_2\stackrel{\stackrel{~}{f}_2}{}\mathrm{}\stackrel{\stackrel{~}{f}_{n1}}{}Y_n\stackrel{\stackrel{~}{f}_n}{}Y_1,\end{array}$$
(33)
where $`Y_i`$ is a subobject of $`X_i`$ such that there is a collection of mappings $`\pi _i:X_iY_i`$ and $`\iota :Y_iX_i`$ satisfying the condition $`\pi _i\iota _i=id_{Y_i}`$ for $`i=1,2,\mathrm{},n`$. If in addition

$$\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{f}_n\mathrm{}\stackrel{~}{f}_2\stackrel{~}{f}_1=id_{Y_1},\hfill \\ \stackrel{~}{f}_1\mathrm{}\stackrel{~}{f}_3\stackrel{~}{f}_2=id_{Y_2},\hfill \\ \mathrm{}\hfill \\ \stackrel{~}{f}_{n1}\mathrm{}\stackrel{~}{f}_1\stackrel{~}{f}_n=id_{Y_n},\hfill \end{array}$$
(34)
and

$$\begin{array}{c}f_i:=\iota _{i+1}\stackrel{~}{f}_i\pi _i\end{array}$$
(35)
then the sequence (62) is an $`n`$-regular cocycle.

Proof: The corresponding obstruction structure is given by

$$\begin{array}{c}e_{X_i}^{(n)}=\iota _i\pi _i\hfill \end{array}$$
(36)
If $`xKerf_1`$, then the theorem is trivial, if $`xX_iKerf_1`$, then we obtain

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill (f_1f_n\mathrm{}f_2f_1)(x)& =\iota _2\stackrel{~}{f}_1\pi _1\iota _1\stackrel{~}{f}_n\mathrm{}\stackrel{~}{f}_2\stackrel{~}{f}_1\pi _1(x)\hfill \\ & =\iota _2\stackrel{~}{f}_1\pi _1=f_1(x),\hfill \end{array}$$

where the condition (34) and (35) has been used. We can calculate all cyclic permutations in an similar way. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Example 3.

There is an $`n`$-regular obstructed category $`=(_0,_1)`$, where $`_0=\{X_i:i=1,\mathrm{},n(\text{mod}n)\}`$ and $`_1=\{f_i:i=1,\mathrm{},n(\text{mod}n)\}`$ are described in the above theorem.

###### Definition 16.

Let $`(X,f),(Y,g)`$ be two $`n`$-regular cocycles in $``$. An $`n`$-regular cocycle morphism $`\alpha :(X,f)(Y,g)`$ is a sequence of morphisms $`\alpha :=(\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _n)`$ such that the diagram

$$\begin{array}{cccccccccc}& X_1& \stackrel{f_1}{}& X_2& \stackrel{f_2}{}\mathrm{}\stackrel{f_{n1}}{}& X_n& \stackrel{f_n}{}& X_1& & \\ & \alpha _1& & \alpha _2& & \alpha _n& & \alpha _1& & \\ & Y_1& \stackrel{g_1}{}& Y_2& \stackrel{g_2}{}\mathrm{}\stackrel{g_{n1}}{}& Y_n& \stackrel{g_n}{}& Y_1& & \end{array}$$
(37)
is commutative. If every component $`\alpha _i`$ of $`\alpha `$ is invertible, then $`\alpha `$ is said to be an n-regular cocycle equivalence.

It is obvious that the n-regular cocycle equivalence is an equivalence relation.

###### Definition 17.

Let $``$ be an $`n`$-regular obstructed category. A collection of all equivalence classes of n-regular cocycles in $``$ and corresponding $`n`$-regular cocycle morphisms is denoted by $`\mathrm{}eg^{(n)}()`$ and is said to be an $`n`$-regularization of $``$.

## IV Regularization of functors and related structures

We are going to introduce the concept of n-regular functors, natural transformations, involution, duality, and so on. All our definitions of are in general case the same like in the usual category theory , but the preservation of the identity $`id_X`$, is replaced by the requirement of preservation of obstructions $`e_X^{\left(n\right)}`$ up to the n-regular cocycle equivalence.

It is known that for two usual categories $``$ and $`𝔇`$ a functor $`:𝔇`$ is defined as a pair of mappings $`(_0,_1)`$, where $`_0`$ sends objects of $``$ into objects of $`𝔇`$, and $`_1`$ sends morphisms of $``$ into morphisms of $`𝔇`$

$$\begin{array}{c}_1(fg)=_1(f)_1(g),_1id_X=id_{_0X}.\end{array}$$
(38)
for $`X_0`$, $`X𝒟_0`$.

Let $``$ and $`𝔇`$ be two $`n`$-regular obstructed categories. We postulate that all definitions are formulated on every n-regular cocycle $`(X,f)`$ in $``$ up to the n-regular cocycle equivalence, and $`i=1,2,\mathrm{}`$(mod n).

###### Definition 19.

An or $`n`$-regular cocycle functor $`^{(n)}:𝔇`$ is a pair of mappings $`(_0^{(n)},_1^{(n)})`$, where $`_0^{(n)}`$ sends objects of $``$ into objects of $`𝔇`$, and $`_1^{(n)}`$ sends morphisms of $``$ into morphisms of $`𝔇`$ such that

$$\begin{array}{c}_1^{(n)}(f_if_{i+1})=_1^{(n)}(f_i)_1^{(n)}(f_{i+1}),_1^{\left(n\right)}\left(e_{X_i}^{\left(n\right)}\right)=e_{_0(X_i)}^{(n)},\hfill \end{array}$$
(39)
where $`X_0`$.

###### Lemma 20.

Let $``$ and $`𝔇`$ be $`n`$-regular obstructed categories, and let

$$\begin{array}{c}X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}\mathrm{}\stackrel{f_{n1}}{}X_n\stackrel{f_n}{}X_1\end{array}$$
(40)
be an $`n`$-regular cocycle in $``$. If $`^{\left(n\right)}:𝔇`$ is $`n`$-regular cocycle functor, then

$$\begin{array}{c}^{(n)}(f_i)e_{X_i}^{(n)}=^{(n)}(f_i).\end{array}$$
(41)
Proof: It is a simple calculation

$$^{(n)}(f_i)=^{(n)}\left(fe_{X_i}^{(n)}\right)=^{(n)}\left(f\right)^{(n)}\left(e_{X_i}^{(n)}\right)=^{(n)}(f_i)e_{_0X_i}^{(n)}.$$
(42)
$`\mathrm{}`$
Multifuncors can be regularized in a similar way.

Let $`^{(n)}`$ and $`𝒢^{(n)}`$ be two $`n`$–regular cocycle morphisms of the category $``$ into the category $`𝔇`$.

###### Definition 21.

An $`n`$-regular natural transformation $`s:^{(n)}𝒢^{(n)}`$ of $`^{(n)}`$ into $`𝒢^{(n)}`$ is a collection of functors $`s=\{s_{X_i}:_0(X_i)𝒢_0(X_i)\}`$ such that

$$s_{X_{i+1}}_1^{(n)}(f_i)=𝒢_1^{(n)}(f_i)s_{X_i},$$
(43)
for $`f_i:X_iX_{i+1}`$.

###### Definition 22.

An $`n`$-regular obstructed monoidal category $`(,I)`$ can be defined as usual, but we must remember that instead of the identity $`id_Xid_Y=id_{XY}`$ we have an obstruction structure $`e_X^{(n)}=\{e_{X_i}^{\left(n\right)}End(X_i);n=1,2,\mathrm{}\}`$ satisfying the condition

$$e_{X_iY_i}^{(n)}=e_{X_i}^{(n)}e_{Y_i}^{(n)}$$
(44)
for every two n-regular cocycles $`(X,f)`$ and $`(Y,f^{})`$.

Let $``$ be an $`n`$-regular obstructed monoidal category. We introduce an $``$-operation in $``$ as a function which send every object $`X_i`$ into object $`X_i^{}`$ called the dual of $`X`$,

$$\begin{array}{c}X_i^{}=X_i,(X_iY_i)^{}=X_i^{}Y_i^{},\end{array}$$
(45)
reverse all arrows

$$\begin{array}{c}(fg)^{}=g^{}f^{}.\end{array}$$
(46)
The category $``$ equipped with such $``$-operation is called an $`n`$-regular obstructed monoidal category with duals.

###### Lemma 23.

Let $``$ be an n-regular obstructed monoidal category with duals. If $`(X,f)`$ is an $`n`$-regular cocycle in $``$, then there is a corresponding $`n`$-regular cocycle $`(X^{},f^{})`$ in $`^{}`$, called the dual of $`(X,f)`$.

Proof: If we reverse all arrows in $`(X,f)`$ and replace all objects by the corresponding duals, then we obtain $`(X^{},f^{})`$, where

$$\begin{array}{c}X_1^{}\stackrel{f_n^{}}{}X_n^{}\stackrel{f_{n1}^{}}{}\mathrm{}\stackrel{f_2^{}}{}X_2^{}\stackrel{f_1^{}}{}X_1^{}\end{array}$$
(47)
is a sequence such that

$$\begin{array}{cc}f_1^{}f_n^{}\mathrm{}f_2^{}f_1^{}=f_1^{},& e_{X_1^{}}^{\left(n\right)}:=f_n^{}\mathrm{}f_2^{}f_1^{}.\end{array}$$
(48)
where $`f_i^{}:X_{i+1}^{}X_i^{}`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},n`$, and $`X_{n+1}^{}X_1^{}`$ is the dual. We have corresponding relations for all cyclic permutations. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Definition 24.

An n-regular pairing $`g_{}`$ in an n-regular obstructed monoidal category $``$ can be defined in an analogy to the usual case as a collection of mappings

$$g_{}=\{g_{X_i}|_{X_i}:X_i^{}X_iI\}$$
(49)
satisfying some natural consistency conditions and in addition the following regularity relations

$$\begin{array}{c}g_{X_{i+1}}(f_i^{}f_i)=g_{X_i},\end{array}$$
(50)
and

$$\begin{array}{c}e_{X_i^{}}^{(n)}X_i^{}X_i_{X_i}=X_i^{}e_{X_i}^{(n)}X_i_{X_i},\hfill \end{array}$$
(51)
where $`(X,f)`$ is a regular $`n`$-cocycle in $``$, and let $`(X^{},f^{})`$ is the corresponding duals.

It is known that an associative algebra in an ordinary category is an object $`𝒜`$ of this category such that there is an multiplication $`m:𝒜𝒜𝒜`$ which is also a morphism of this category satisfying some axioms like the associativity, the existence of the unity.

###### Definition 25.

Let $``$ be an $`n`$-regular obstructed monoidal category. An $`n`$-regular cocycle algebra $`𝒜`$ in the category $``$ is an object of this category equipped with an associative multiplication $`m:𝒜𝒜𝒜`$ such that

$$m(e_A^{(n)}e_A^{(n)})=e_A^{(n)}m.$$
(52)
Obviously such multiplication not need to be unique.

One can define an $`n`$-regular cocycle coalgebra or bialgebra in a similar way. A comultiplication $`\mathrm{}:𝒜𝒜𝒜`$ can be regularized according to the relation

$$\mathrm{}e_𝒜^{(n)}=(e_𝒜^{(n)}e_𝒜^{(n)})\mathrm{}.$$
(53)
###### Definition 26.

Let $`𝒜`$ be an $`n`$-regular cocycle algebra. If $`𝒜`$ is also regular coalgebra such that $`\mathrm{\Delta }\left(ab\right)=\mathrm{\Delta }\left(a\right)\mathrm{\Delta }\left(b\right)`$, then it is said to be an $`n`$-regular cocycle almost bialgebra.

If $`𝒜`$ is an $`n`$-regular cocycle algebra, then we denote by $`hom_m(𝒜,𝒜)`$ the set of morphisms $`shom_𝒞(𝒜,𝒜)`$ satisfying the condition

$$sm=m(ss).$$
(54)
Let $`𝒜`$ be an $`n`$-regular cocycle almost bialgebra. We define the convolution product

$$st:=m(st)\mathrm{},$$
(55)
where $`s,thom_m(𝒜,𝒜)`$. If $`𝒜`$ is a regular $`n`$-cocycle almost bialgebra, then the convolution product is regular.

###### Definition 27.

An $`2`$-regular cocycle almost bialgebra $``$ equipped with an element $`Shom_m(,)`$ such that

$$\begin{array}{cc}Sid_{}S=S,& id_{}Sid_{}=id_{}.\end{array}$$
(56)
is said to be an $`2`$-regular cocycle almost Hopf algebra $``$.

The above definition is a regular analogy of week Hopf algebras considered in . Similar algebras has been also considered in .

###### Lemma 28.

If $`𝒜`$ is an $`n`$-regular cocycle algebra, then there is an $`n`$-regular cocycle coalgebra $`𝒜^{}`$ such that

$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{}(\xi ),x_1x_2=\xi ,m(x_1x_2),\hfill \end{array}$$
(57)
where $`x_1,x_2𝒜,\xi 𝒜^{}`$.

Proof: Let us apply the regularity condition (52) to the above duality condition (57). Then the lemma follows from relations (44), (53), and (51). $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Lemma 29.

Let $`𝒜`$ be an $`n`$-regular cocycle almost bialgebra. Then the dual $`𝒜^{}`$ is also $`n`$-regular cocycle almost bialgebra

$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{}(\xi ),x_1x_2=\xi ,m(x_1x_2),\hfill \\ \widehat{m}(\xi \zeta ),x_1x_2=\xi \zeta ,\widehat{\mathrm{}}x.\hfill \end{array}$$
(58)
$`\mathrm{}`$
Let $`𝒜`$ be an $`n`$-regular cocycle algebra. Then we can define a left $`n`$-regular cocycle $`𝒜`$-module as an object equipped with a $`𝒜`$–module action $`\rho _M:𝒜MM`$ such that

$$\begin{array}{c}\rho _M(mid_M)=\rho _M(id_𝒜\rho _M),\hfill \\ \rho _M(e_𝒜^{(n)}e_M^{(n)})=e_M^{(n)}\rho _M.\hfill \end{array}$$
(59)
If $`𝒜`$ is an $`n`$-regular cocycle coalgebra, then one can define an n-regular cocycle comodule $`M`$ in a similar way. For a coaction $`\delta _M:𝒜𝒜M`$ of $`𝒜`$ on $`M`$ we have the following regularity condition

$$\delta _M(e_𝒜^{(n)}e_M^{(n)})=e_M^{(n)}\varrho _M,$$
(60)
###### Remark 1.

Observe that we have the following duality between $`𝒜`$-module action $`\rho _M:𝒜MM`$ and $`𝒜^{}`$-comodule coactions $`\delta _M^{}:𝒜^{}M^{}𝒜^{}`$

$$\begin{array}{c}\delta _M^{}(\xi ),ax=\xi ,\varrho _M(ax),\hfill \end{array}$$
(61)
where $`a𝒜,xM,\xi 𝒜^{}`$.

## V Regular cobordisms and TQFT

Let $`Cob`$ be a directed graph of cobordisms whose objects $`Cob_0`$ are $`d`$-dimensional compact smooth and oriented manifolds without boundary and whose arrows are classes of cobordism manifolds with boundaries. We would like to discuss the corresponding $`n`$-regular cocycles and their meaning. For this goal we use here a parametrization such that the boundary $`M`$ is a multiconnected space, a disjoint sum of the ’incoming’ boundary manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{in}`$ and the ’outgoing’ one $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{out}`$. We call them ’physical’. The empty boundary component is also admissible. Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,\mathrm{\Sigma }_1Cob_0`$, then the disjoint sum is denoted by $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0\mathrm{\Sigma }_1`$. For a manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }Cob_0`$ there is the corresponding manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ with the opposite orientation.

We wish to represent quantum processes of certain physical system by cobordism manifolds $`M`$ with the ’incoming’ boundary manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ (an ’input’),and the ’outgoing’ one $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$, (an ’output’). The ’incoming’ boundary manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ represents an initial conditions of the system, the ’outgoing’ boundary represents the final configuration, and the cobordism manifolds represent possible interaction of the system. Note that the same cobordism manifold $`M`$ but with different boundary parametrization represent different physical processes!

###### Definition 30.

An ’interaction’ is a triple $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_0}{}^{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}^{}`$, where the ’incoming’ boundary manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ is multiconnected space with $`m`$ components and the ’outgoing’ one $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_1`$ is equipped with $`n`$ components, and $``$ is a class of cobordism manifolds up to parametrization preserving diffeomorfisms, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,\mathrm{\Sigma }_1Cob_0,Cob_1`$.

###### Definition 31.

The ’opposite interaction’ of $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_0}{}^{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}^{}`$ is the ’interaction’ $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}{}^{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_0}^{op}`$ with reversed boundary parametrization, i. e. the ’incoming’ boundary of $``$ is the ’outgoing’ boundary of $`^{op}`$ and vice versa,.

###### Example 4.

A ’collapsion’ of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }Cob_0`$ is an arbitrary ’interaction’ of the forms $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{}^{}_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$, this means the ’incoming’ boundary is $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and the ’outgoing’ boundary is empty. The corresponding ’expansion’ of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is the opposite of the collapsion.

###### Definition 32.

Let us denote by $`ob=(ob_0,ob_1)`$ a directed graph whose objects are $`ob_0Cob_0`$ and arrows $`ob_1`$ are ’interactions’. A composition of two ’interactions’ $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}{}^{}_{1\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}^{}`$ and $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}{}^{}_{2\mathrm{\Sigma }_3}^{}`$ is an ’interaction’ $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}{}^{}(_{1\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}_2)_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_3}^{}`$, where $`_{1\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}_2`$ is a result of gluing $`_1`$ and $`_2`$ along $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_2`$.

The trivial gluing along the empty boundary component is also admissible. For instance we can glue a ’collapsion’ of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and the corresponding ’expansion’ in the trivial way. In this way we obtain an ’interaction’ $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{}^{}(^{op})_{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^{}`$. If we glue the ’expansion’ of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and the ’collapsion’ of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ along $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, then we obtain a class of manifolds with empty boundaries.

###### Example 5.

Classes of two dimensional surfaces with holes provide examples of string interactions.

We wish to built the temporal support semigroup as an arbitrary sequence

$$\begin{array}{c}X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}\mathrm{}\stackrel{f_{n1}}{}X_n\end{array}$$
(62)
of objects and arrows of a directed graph $``$ indexed by a discrete time. We wish to represent an ’interaction’ $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}{}^{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}^{}`$ as an arrow $`X_1\stackrel{f}{}X_2`$ of $``$. Obviously composable arrows $`X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}X_3`$ should represent the gluing $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}{}^{}(_{1\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}_2)_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_3}^{}`$. Two ’interactions’ $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}{}^{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}^{}`$ and $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1^{}}{}^{}_{}^{}{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2^{}}{}^{}`$ should be represented by the same arrow $`X_1\stackrel{f}{}X_2`$ if and only if both ’interactions’ are ’parallel (simultaneous) in the time’.

Let us assume that the directed graph $``$ is an n-regular monoidal category with duals. Let $`X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}\mathrm{}\stackrel{f_{n1}}{}X_n`$ be an n-regular cocycle. If there is an equivalence $``$ in $`ob`$ such that objects of the n-regular cocycle represent equivalence classes of $``$ and arrows represent time consequnces, then we say that we have an n-regular TQFT.

What means here the n-regularity? It is natural to assume that the opposite $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}{}^{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}^{op}`$ of $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}{}^{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}^{}`$ should be representing by a reversed arrow $`X_1\stackrel{f}{}X_2`$. The trivial 2-regularity is clear, it means that the time is reversible. We postulate that the time is directed and always run further, never back, never stop. In other words, ’our time’ is not reversible in general, but it can be n-regular, where the regularity is nontrivial.

###### Example 6.

Let us consider for instance the 2-regular ’interactions’. Let

$${}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}{}^{}_{1\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}^{}\text{and}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}_{2\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}$$

be two interactions, then $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}{}^{}(_{1\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}_2)_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}^{}`$ and $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}{}^{}(_{2\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}_1)_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}^{}`$ can be represented as arrows $`X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}X_1`$, and $`X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2`$, respectively. Interactions $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}{}^{}_{1\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}^{}_{2\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}_{1\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}`$ and $`{}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}{}^{}_{2\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}^{}_{1\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}_{2\mathrm{\Sigma }_1}`$ should be represented by $`X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2`$, and $`X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}X_1\stackrel{f_1}{}X_2\stackrel{f_2}{}X_1`$, respectively. Now the 2-regularity conditions are clear.

Observe that the regularity concept can be useful for the construction of quantum theory of the whole universe with nonreversible time evolution. In fact the nontrivial n-regularity conditions mean that all processes always go further, never back, never stop, but are cyclically repeating after n-steps up to an equivalence.

Acknowledgments. One of the authors (S.D.) would like to thank Jerzy Lukierski for kind hospitality at the University of Wroclaw, where this work was begun, to Andrzej Borowiec, Andrzej Frydryszak, and Cezary Juszczak for valuable help during his stay in Wroclaw, also he is thankful to Friedemann Brandt, Dimitry Leites, Volodymyr Lyubashenko for fruitful discussions at the NATO ARW in Kiev and Fang Li for useful correspondence and rare reprints.

The paper is partially supported by the Polish KBN Grant No 5P03B05620.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Hadrons are excitations of the QCD vacuum. There are many different species and masses of them. Their excitation spectra resemble, to some extent, to level schemes of atoms. The latter ones are known to be modified by external fields: The Stark and Zeeman effects manifest themselves as shifts of spectral lines. By analogy, one might expect a similar behavior of hadrons in strongly interacting matter. In a first approximation, hadrons should experience mass shifts, but considerable broadenings or strong modifications (e.g. mixing) of the spectral strengths are conceivable, too. A verification and understanding of such in-medium modifications of hadrons would allow to contribute to the ”mystery of particle masses”.

This topic was essentially triggered by the Brown-Rho scaling hypothesis  according to which the masses of the light vector mesons ($`V=\rho ,\omega ,\varphi `$) behave as $`m_V^2\overline{q}q`$, where $`\overline{q}q`$ is the chiral condensate. In such a way fundamental and non-perturbative QCD quantities can be accessible. This idea influenced strongly the HADES project which aims at measuring the density and temperature dependence of $`\overline{q}q`$ via vector meson ”spectral lines”. A strong impact on the field had QCD sum rules à la Shifman, Vainshtein, Zakharov  which, indeed, correlate condensates (and moments of the parton distributions in hadrons) and the pole masses of hadrons.

The purpose of the present contribution is two-fold. First, we revisit the QCD sum rule approach to estimate the change of the vector meson pole mass parameter at finite baryon density $`n`$ and temperature $`T`$. Second, we present dynamical calculations, basing on hydrodynamics (fire ball model) and transport calculations (BUU) to elucidate the prospects to verify in the starting experiments at HADES the predicted in-medium modifications of vector mesons.

## 2 QCD sum rules revisited

The basic object is the retarded current-current correlation function

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }^R(q;\mu _N,T)=id^4x\mathrm{e}^{iqx}\mathrm{\Theta }(x^0)[J_\mu (x),J_\nu (0)]_{\mu _N,T},$$
(1)
with conserved vector currents $`J_\mu ^{\rho (\omega ),\varphi }=\frac{1}{2}(\overline{u}\gamma _\mu u\overline{d}\gamma _\mu d)`$, $`\overline{s}\gamma _\mu s`$ carrying the quantum numbers of the $`\rho `$, $`\omega `$ and $`\varphi `$ meson, respectively, but expressed by quark fields. $`\mathrm{}_{\mu _N,T}`$ means grand canonical averaging with respect to chemical potential $`\mu _N`$ and temperature $`T`$. Here we focus on vector mesons at rest and constrain ourselves on the longitudinal part $`\mathrm{\Pi }_L^R`$ of the correlator $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mu \nu }^R`$.

The sum rule approach rests on a comparison of two different evaluations of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_L^R`$. One can use (i) the analyticity properties to note a dispersion relation

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_L^R(q^0;\mu _N,T)=\frac{1}{\pi }_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑s\frac{\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Pi }_L^R(s;\mu _N,T)}{s(q_0+iϵ)^2}+\mathrm{},$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{}`$ indicate subtractions, and (ii) the Operator Product Expansion at large $`Q^2q_0^2>0`$

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_L^R(Q^2)=C_0\mathrm{ln}Q^2+\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{C_n}{Q^{2n}},$$
(3)
where $`C_N`$ are quantities containing Wilson coefficients and condensates and moments of parton distributions. Defining the spectral density $`\rho _{\mathrm{had}}(s;\mu _N,T)=\frac{1}{\pi }\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Pi }_L^R(s;\mu _N,T)`$ and performing a Borel transformation one arrives at the QCD sum rule (QSR)

$$_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑s\rho _{\mathrm{had}}(s)\text{e}^{s/M^2}=M^2\left(C_0+\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{C_n}{(n1)!M^{2n}}\right),$$
(4)
where $`M`$ is the Borel mass. Assuming that the r.h.s. is calculable from first principles one can use the QSR (i) either as consistency check of hadronic models for $`\rho _{\mathrm{had}}(s)`$ (cf. ), or (ii) as one equation for a physically relevant parameter in a simple parameterization of $`\rho _{\mathrm{had}}(s)`$, or (iii) as constraint for a few parameters entering models of $`\rho _{\mathrm{had}}(s)`$ (e.g. to find a width-mass relation , or to interrelate various parameters with the chiral gap ).

We follow here the possibility (ii) as exercised by many previous authors like in . Inspired by the experimental results on the cross sections of the reactions $`e^+e^{}n\pi ,K^+K^{}`$, which is intimately related to $`\rho _{\mathrm{had}}`$ and which exhibits one low-lying distinctive resonance (either $`\rho `$ or $`\omega `$ or $`\varphi `$) followed by a flat continuum, one parameterizes

$$\rho _{\mathrm{had}}^V(s;T,n)=F_V\delta (sm_V^2)+C_0\mathrm{\Theta }(ss_0^V)+(\rho _{\mathrm{scatt}}^{V,\pi }+\rho _{\mathrm{scatt}}^{V,N})\delta (s),$$
(5)
where $`m_V`$ is the wanted pole mass parameter, $`s_0^V`$ stands for the continuum threshold, and $`\rho _{\mathrm{scatt}}^{V,\pi (N)}`$ denote the forward scattering amplitudes or Landau damping terms, which read for the $`\rho `$ meson $`\rho _{\mathrm{scatt}}^{\rho ,N}=(48\pi ^2)^1_{4M_N^2}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\omega ^2\widehat{n}_F\sqrt{14M_N^2/\omega ^2}\left[2+4M_N^2/\omega ^2\right]`$, $`\rho _{\mathrm{scatt}}^{\rho ,\pi }=(24\pi ^2)^1_{4m_\pi ^2}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\omega ^2\widehat{n}_B`$ $`\sqrt{14m_\pi ^2/\omega ^2}\left[2+4m_\pi ^2/\omega ^2\right]`$ with $`\widehat{n}_F=[\mathrm{e}^{(\omega 2\mu _N)/2T}+1]^1`$, $`\widehat{n}_B=[\mathrm{e}^{\omega /2T}1]^1`$, while for the $`\omega `$ meson, $`\rho _{\mathrm{scatt}}^{\omega ,\pi }=0`$ due to symmetry, and $`\rho _{\mathrm{scatt}}^{\omega ,N}=9\rho _{\mathrm{scatt}}^{\rho ,N}`$ due to the different isospin structure of the $`\rho `$ and $`\omega `$ mesons ; for the $`\varphi `$ meson the Landau damping for the pion and nucleon gas is negligible .

Truncating the r.h.s of eq. (4) the sum rule might be cast in the form

$$m_V^2=M^2\frac{C_0\left(1[1+\frac{s_0^V}{M^2}]\mathrm{e}^{s_0^V/M^2}\right)C_2M^4C_3M^6}{C_0\left(1\mathrm{e}^{s_0^V/M^2}\right)+C_1M^2+C_2M^4+\frac{1}{2}C_3M^6(\rho _{\mathrm{scatt}}^{V,N}+\rho _{\mathrm{scatt}}^{V,\pi })M^2},$$
(6)
where the coefficients up to mass dimension 6 have been calculated by many authors in the low-temperature or low-density approximation. In the low-$`T`$ and low-$`n_N`$ approximation our result is

$`C_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8\pi ^2}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s(\mu ^2)}{\pi }}\right),C_1={\displaystyle \frac{3m_q^2}{4\pi ^2}},`$ (7)
$`C_2`$ $`=`$ $`q_2+g_2+a_2,C_3=q_4+a_4,`$ (8)
$`q_2`$ $`=`$ $`m_q\overline{u}u_0+2M_N\sigma _NYI_1^N+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}m_\pi ^2\xi ^{\rho (\omega )}I_1^\pi `$ (9)
$`g_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{24}}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{\pi }}G^2_0{\displaystyle \frac{4}{27}}M_NM_N^0I_1^N{\displaystyle \frac{1}{18}}m_\pi ^2I_1^\pi `$ (10)
$`q_4`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{112}{81}}\pi \alpha _s\kappa _0\overline{u}u_0^2\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _N}{\kappa _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{4M_N\sigma _N}{m_q(\overline{u}u_0)}}YI_1^N{\displaystyle \frac{36}{7f_\pi ^2}}\xi ^\rho I_1^\pi \right]`$ (11)
$`a_2`$ $`=`$ $`M_N^2A_{2,N}^{u+d}I_1^N+{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}A_{2,N}^{u+d}I_2^N+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}m_\pi ^2A_{2,\pi }^{u+d}I_1^\pi +A_{2,\pi }^{u+d}I_2^\pi `$ (12)
$`a_4`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{5}{3}}M_N^4A_{4,N}^{u+d}I_1^N{\displaystyle \frac{20}{3}}M_N^2A_{4,N}^{u+d}I_2^N{\displaystyle \frac{16}{3}}A_{4,N}^{u+d}I_3^N`$ (13)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{5}{4}}m_\pi ^4A_{4,\pi }^{u+d}I_1^\pi 5m_\pi ^2A_{4,\pi }^{u+d}I_2^\pi 4A_{4,\pi }^{u+d}I_3^\pi ,`$
where $`\xi ^{\rho (\omega )}=1`$, $`Y=1`$ for $`\rho `$ ($`\omega `$) mesons, and elsewhere $`\xi ^{\mathrm{}}=0`$. The sequence of replacements $`m_qm_s`$, $`\overline{u}u_0\overline{s}s_0`$ $`Yym_s/m_q`$, and $`A_{n,(N,\pi )}^{u+d}A_{n,(N,\pi )}^s`$ holds for the $`\varphi `$ meson. The above integrals are $`I_n^N=d^3k[(2\pi )^3E_k]^1k^{2n2}n_F,`$ $`I_n^\pi =d^3p[(2\pi )^3E_p]^1p^{2n2}n_B,`$ where $`n_B=[\mathrm{e}^{E_p/T}1]^1`$ and $`n_F=[\mathrm{e}^{(E_k\mu _N)/T}+1]^1`$ are thermal Boson and Fermion distributions, and $`\mu _N`$ is the chemical potential related to the nucleon density $`n_N`$.

Specific for our approach is the treatment of the four-quark condensate for which we extend the widely used ground state saturation assumption for the in-medium four-quark condensate at $`T=0`$ in the following way

$$(\overline{q}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5\lambda ^aq)^2_{\mu _N}=(\overline{q}\gamma _\mu \lambda ^aq)^2_{\mu _N}=\frac{16}{9}\kappa (n_N)\overline{q}q_{\mu _N}^2,$$
(14)
where the density dependent factor $`\kappa (n_N)`$ is introduced to control a deviation from the exact ground state saturation. As pointed out in  $`\kappa (n_N)`$ reflects the contribution from the scalar low-energy excitations of the ground state and seems to be weekly dependent on $`n_N`$, so that one can use $`\kappa (n_N)=const`$ as first approximation. In this case the density dependence of the four-quark condensate appears only via the density dependence of the quark condensate squared. In linear density approximation it is given by $`\overline{q}q_{\mu _N}^2=\overline{q}q_0^2+\overline{q}q_0N|\overline{q}q|N\frac{n_N}{M_N}.`$ We go beyond this approximation and include here a possible linear density dependence of $`\kappa (n_N)`$, keeping in mind that still $`\kappa (n_N)=\kappa _0`$ at $`n_N=0`$ in accordance with the vacuum case. In leading order our extended ansatz results in an additional density dependence parameterized by a constant factor $`\kappa _N`$. Our parameterization of the four-quark condensate at $`T=0`$ has then the form

$$(\overline{q}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5\lambda ^aq)^2_{\mu _N}=\frac{16}{9}\overline{q}q_0^2\kappa _0\left(1+\frac{\kappa _N}{\kappa _0}\frac{N|\overline{q}q|N}{\overline{q}q_0}\frac{n_N}{M_N}\right).$$
(15)
The limit $`\kappa _N=\kappa _0=2.36`$ is used in , while the parameterization $`\kappa _N=1.4`$ and $`\kappa _0=3.3`$ with $`\overline{q}q_0=(230\text{MeV})^3`$ corresponds to the choice in . Below we vary the poorly known parameter $`\kappa _N`$ to estimate the contributions of the four-quark condensates to the QSR. The needed ansatz for the nucleon matrix element of the scalar four-quark condensate can be extracted from the direct comparison of our parameterization in eq. (15) and the general expression for the condensates via the matrix elements (the latter ones to be taken at $`T=0`$) as $`N|(\overline{q}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5\lambda ^aq)^2|N=\frac{32}{9}\overline{q}q_0N|\overline{q}q|N\kappa _N.`$ Since this matrix element does not depend on particle momenta and temperature it can be employed also for evaluating the four-quark condensates in the general case with $`T0`$ and $`\mu _N0`$.

The remaining parameters are specified by $`\alpha _s=0.38`$, $`m_q=0.0055`$ GeV, $`m_s=0.130`$ GeV, $`f_\pi =0.093`$ GeV, $`M_N=0.938`$ GeV, $`M_N^0=0.770`$ GeV, $`\sigma _N=0.045`$ GeV, $`y=0.22`$, $`m_\pi =0.138`$ GeV, $`\overline{u}u_0=\overline{d}d_0=(0.245\mathrm{GeV})^3`$, $`\overline{s}s_0=0.8\overline{u}u_0`$, $`\frac{\alpha _s}{\pi }G^2_0=(0.33\mathrm{GeV})^4`$, $`A_{2,N}^{u+d}=1.02`$, $`A_{4,N}^{u+d}=0.12`$, $`A_{2,\pi }^{u+d}=0.97`$, $`A_{4,\pi }^{u+d}=0.255`$, $`A_{2,N}^s=0.1`$, $`A_{4,N}^s=0.004`$, $`A_{2,\pi }^s=0.08`$, $`A_{4,\pi }^s=0.008`$.

The density and temperature dependence of the chiral condensates $`\overline{u}u`$ and $`\overline{s}s`$ and of the gluon condensate $`G^2`$ are exhibited in fig. 1. Note the linear density dependence and the nearly independence of the temperature.

The parameter $`s_0^V`$ in eq. (6) is fixed by requiring maximum flatness of $`m_V(M)`$ within a suitably chosen Borel window $`M_{\mathrm{min}}\mathrm{}M_{\mathrm{max}}`$ determined by the ”10% + 50%” rule . If we follow  and choose $`\kappa _N/\kappa _0=0.42`$ and use $`\kappa _0`$ to adjust the vacuum values of $`m_V`$ to the physical values, we get the results displayed in fig. 2. Due to some cancellations of the coefficients entering the $`\rho `$ meson sum rule, the dropping mass parameter is determined by the four-quark condensate. For the $`\omega `$ meson the Landau damping is dominating . The dropping $`\varphi `$ meson mass parameter reflects directly the strange chiral condensate; a smaller value of $`y`$ diminishes strongly the mass shift.

It turns out that the actual $`\rho `$ and $`\omega `$ mass shifts depend on the poorly known parameter $`\kappa _N`$ which parameterizes the density dependence of the four-quark condensate. In contrast to the above ratio $`\kappa _N/\kappa _0=0.42`$ claimed in , the groundstate saturation hypothesis requires $`\kappa _N/\kappa _0=1`$. This gives a stronger dropping $`m_\rho `$. For the $`\omega `$ meson the rising $`m_\omega `$, advocated in , is changed into a drop, as seen in fig. 3. Thus, even within the present simple pole approximation, the qualitative behavior of the $`\omega `$ meson remains unsettled.

## 3 Estimates of dilepton spectra in heavy-ion collisions

Up to now we focused on the behavior of $`m_V`$ within the QSR approach in zero-width approximation. The width-mass relation derived in  is consistent with dropping $`\rho `$ mass as long as the width is constrained to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }<600`$ MeV. However, a unique prediction of the in-medium modification of the width and the mass separately seems not be possible within the QSR approach. Rather, one has to resort to hadronic models which predict a considerable in-medium broadening. To elucidate the consequences of these in-medium changes together we use the following parameterization of the emission rate of hadron matter

$$\frac{dN}{d^4xd^4Q}=\underset{V}{}\frac{2d_V}{(2\pi )^3}\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{uQ}{T}\right\}\frac{1}{\pi }\frac{(m_V\mathrm{\Gamma }_V^{\mathrm{tot}})(M\mathrm{\Gamma }_{Ve^+e^{}})}{(M^2m_V^2)^2+(m_V\mathrm{\Gamma }_V^{\mathrm{tot}})^2},$$
(16)
where $`Q`$ is the four-momentum vector of the lepton pair with invariant mass $`M`$, $`u`$ denotes the four-velocity of matter, and $`d_V`$ stands for the degeneracy factor of the vector meson $`V`$. The corresponding invariant mass spectrum is displayed in fig. 4 for $`T=70`$ MeV, where we assume that all vector mesons experience the overall broadening $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_V^{\mathrm{tot}}=b\mathrm{\Gamma }_V^{\mathrm{tot},0}`$ with $`b=3`$. As seen in fig. 4, the $`\rho `$ meson is smeared out to such a degree that no distinct peak is visible. The $`\omega `$ and $`\varphi `$ can be identified as they are still sufficiently narrow. It is the double differential spectrum $`dN/d^4xdMdM_{}`$ which allows access to the $`\rho `$ peak. As seen in the right panel of fig. 4, for fixed $`M_{}=1.3`$ GeV there is a pronounced $`\rho `$ peak with the $`\omega `$ sitting on top. As known for a long time, such double differential spectra are sensitive also to the flow of matter. This is highlighted by a comparison of two flow velocities, $`v=0`$ (lower curve in left panel of fig. 4) and 0.3 (upper curve). The full invariant mass spectra are insensitive to flow effects.

### 3.1 Hydrodynamics

In  we have studied, within a scenario of an expanding fire ball, the resulting dilepton spectra. Instead of solving the hydrodynamical flow equations in full detail we have used a schematic expansion dynamics governed by $`R(t)=R_i+v_rt`$ with $`v_r=0.3`$, entropy conservation, $`s/n=const`$, and baryon conservation ($`N=330`$). The final (freeze-out) parameters are from an analysis of hadron multiplicities at SIS energies  $`n_f=0.3n_0`$, $`T_f=50`$ MeV. Assuming an initial density $`n_i=3n_0`$, as suggested by BUU calculations, one gets $`T_i=90`$ MeV for the initial temperature on the isentropic line. Keeping the above assumed in-medium broadening by a factor $`b=3`$ and using the $`\rho `$ meson mass shift of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_\rho =300`$ MeV (a maximum value with respect to the above QSR studies) one gets the dilepton spectra exhibited in fig. 5. According to the above QSR results for $`\kappa _N2`$ we employ here no mass shift of the $`\omega `$ meson. While in the invariant mass spectrum again no $`\rho `$ peak is visible, the double-differential spectrum with $`M_{}=0.9`$ GeV shows clearly the shifted peak.

In  also such scenarios are studied in detail, where the density depend broadening and mass shifts are incorporated. These studies support the need to measure double-differential cross sections to have access to the $`\rho `$ peak.

### 3.2 BUU calculations

The above hydrodynamical calculations are based on local thermal and chemical equilibrium. These stringent assumptions are not longer needed in transport model calculations. We employ here a BUU code to calculate the dilepton spectra for central collisions Au(1 AGeV) + Au. The results are displayed in fig. 6 for $`b=3`$ and either no mass shift (left column) or a $`\rho `$ mass shift of 150 MeV (right column). We have included the dileptons from $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ annihilations via the intermediate $`\rho `$ meson, decays of $`\rho `$ mesons from baryon resonance decays, $`pn`$ bremsstrahlung, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\eta `$ Dalitz decays and $`\omega `$ decays. In contrast to the above hydrodynamical calculations the $`\rho `$ and $`\omega `$ mesons are not allowed to undergo equilibration in the BUU code, but rather are propagated in mean field approximation along their original trajectories. The present BUU calculations confirm the results of the hydrodynamical model: Only when selecting a suitable $`M_{}`$ bin one gets access to the $`\rho `$ peak. However, even in case of no mass shift, due to phase space weighting the $`\rho `$ peak seems shifted (see left column in fig. 6). The role of the phase space weight is highlighted in the right column of fig. 6, where the $`\rho `$ peak appears down-shifted by somewhat more than 150 MeV.

In addition, the BUU calculations show that the Dalitz and bremsstrahlung yields do not disturb the wanted $`\rho `$ signal.

Various estimates demonstrate that the $`\omega `$ meson, even for some broadening, remains visible as distinctive sharp peak. Therefore, also small shifts should be visible. Here, however, a subtle interplay of $`\omega `$ decays in medium and after freeze-out occur. To elucidate the chances to verify possible in-medium $`\omega `$ modifications we have assumed $`m_\omega =m_\omega ^0\delta m_\omega (n/n_0)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\omega =\mathrm{\Gamma }_\omega ^0\delta \mathrm{\Gamma }_\omega (n/n_0)`$ with $`\delta m_\omega =70`$ MeV and $`\delta \mathrm{\Gamma }_\omega =50`$ MeV and obtain the results exhibited in fig. 7. One can see clearly a double-peak structure from vacuum decays and in-medium decays. As expected, selecting low-$`Q_{}`$ dileptons the vacuum contribution is strongly reduced since the parent $`\omega `$ is nearly at rest. The smearing of the $`\omega `$ due to the density dependence can mimic a peak structure at the vacuum $`\rho `$ position.

## 4 Summary

In summary we have revisited the QCD sum rule approach to the in-medium behavior of the light vector mesons in zero-width approximation. Due to cancellations the $`\rho `$ meson mass shift depends on the four-quark condensate, but is always decreasing with increasing density. The large Landau damping and the uncertain four-quark condensate do not allow a definite statement on the $`\omega `$ meson mass; for the ground state saturation the mass drops. The actual mass shift of the $`\varphi `$ meson depends sensitively on the uncertain strangeness fraction in the nucleon; the $`\varphi `$ mass is directly related to the strange chiral condensate.

Our hydrodynamical fire ball calculations show that a double-differential cross section needs to be measured to get access to the $`\rho `$ peak in case of strong in-medium broadening. This is supported by transport calculations relying on a BUU code. To amplify a possible in-medium $`\omega `$ shift the selection of low-momentum pairs is very helpful.