text:
# Galactic Models and White Dwarf Populations

## 1 Introduction

Since the very beginning of modern astronomy the distribution of stars over the night sky has been regarded as an evidence of the distribution in space of stellar objects, i.e., in the current terminology, as the result of the distribution of the Galactic stellar components. However, only in relatively recent times such an evidence has been used as an input for detailed investigations aiming to reconstruct the spatial distribution of the various stellar populations forming our Galaxy. Here one may recall the “classic” star counts models by Gilmore & Reid (1983, G&R, see also e.g. Reid & Majewski, 1993 and Basilio et al. 1996) and by Bahcall & Soneira (1984, B&S, see also e.g. Gould, Bahcall & Maoz, 1993) as based on the assumption of suitable spatial density distributions for the various Galactic components and on the observational luminosity function and colour-magnitude diagram for each stellar population.

In a recent paper (Castellani et al. 2001; Paper I) we revisited the argument, showing that the predictions of similar Galactic models can reach a reasonable agreement even with very deep investigations, as recently obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). As in the G&R and B&S works, that paper followed a semi-empirical approach, adopting, as model inputs, observational constraints on the distribution of magnitudes and colours of the various stellar populations. However, investigations of simple stellar populations in stellar clusters have already repeatedly shown the good agreement between observed and predicted CM diagrams (see, e.g., Brocato et al. 2000). This discloses that the distribution of stars, for the evolutionary phases later than MS, closely follows current predictions as based on theoretical evolutionary lifetimes, independently of any assumption about the star Initial Mass Function (IMF). In the meantime, every adopted luminosity distribution of MS stars can be easily interpreted in terms of a corresponding suitable behavior of the IMF. Thus, each empirical assumption about the CM distribution of stellar populations can be easily transferred into suitable assumptions about their original chemical composition, IMF and age, without consequences on the Galactic model.

The use of an evolutionary input presents several advantages. One can investigate the effects of varying the adopted evolutionary parameters, constraining ages, chemical composition or IMF of the Galactic populations. Relevant steps in such a direction have been recently presented by several authors: Ng (1994), Ng et al. (1997) and Fan (1999) based their simulations on population synthesis models assuming a suitable star formation history, whereas Haywood, Robin & Créze (1997) (see also Robin & Créze 1986 and Haywood 1994) based their models on the synthesis of both the evolution of stellar population and the dynamical evolution of the vertical structure of the disc.

However, and perhaps more interestingly, for each given IMF, chemical composition and age, a theoretical isochrone gives rather firm constraints on the relative abundance of stars in all the evolutionary phases, from the MS till the final structures, either as post-supernova objects or as cooling white dwarfs. In this paper we will rely on a similar approach, transferring our Galactic models into the quoted theoretical scenario, to derive theoretical predictions concerning the Galactic distribution of white dwarf populations.

## 2 The Galactic model

As in Paper I, we will distribute the stars according to the spatial density distribution of B&S and G&R Galactic models, but now relying on suitable assumptions on the evolutionary status and on the initial mass function (IMF) of the various Galactic populations to reproduce the luminosity functions used as an (observational) input in Paper I. Our model includes three components: spheroid, disc and thick disc. The need for an extended “thick disc” population, as formed by stars with spatial and kinematic properties intermediate between disc and spheroid, was firstly suggested by Gilmore & Reid (1983) and further supported by detailed analysis taking into account the velocity distribution of local stars (see e.g. Ojha et al. 1996, Wyse & Gilmore 1995, Norris & Ryan 1991, Casertano, Ratnatunga & Bahcall 1990). However the thick disc structural parameters (density law, local density etc.) are still debated (see e.g. Reid & Majewski 1993, Yamagata & Yoshii 1992, Ojha et al. 1996, Ruphy et al. 1996, Mendez & Guzman 1998, Buser et al. 1999, Reylé & Robin 2001).

Predicted results are obtained by randomly generating star masses according to the adopted IMF (see Sec. 2.3) and by using stellar models to derive luminosities in the selected bands for each given value of the stellar mass and age. Spheroid stars are assumed to be almost coeval and thus they are reproduced by populating a suitable isochrone, while for both thick disc and disc stars, one has to take into account prolonged episodes of star formation. Thus, for these two last components, star masses and ages are both randomly generated, the mass distribution reproducing the selected IMF, while a flat age distribution is adopted within the range assumed for each population.

In the following subsection we will shortly describe the main theoretical ingredients of our model producing the distribution of the observed nuclear burning luminous structures. The corresponding predictions for WDs will be presented and discussed in sections 3 and 4.

### 2.1 Evolutionary tracks

The code relies on a set of homogeneous evolutionary computations covering both the H and He burning phase for stars with original masses in the range 0.1$`÷`$7 M. Very low MS tracks are from evolutionary calculations by Cassisi et al. (2000), which are already shown to be in good agreement with recent theoretical calculations, as well as with HST observations of faint MS in Galactic Globulars (see e.g. Cassisi et al. 2000) and with recent data by Monet et al. (1992) and Dahn et al. (1995) for subdwarfs stars in the solar neighborhood (see e.g. Paper I). Colour transformations are from Allard et al. (1997) model atmospheres. However, as discussed in Baraffe et al. (1995) and in Brocato et al. (1998), theoretical models do not satisfactory reproduce the observed distribution of very low mass (VLM) stars at solar metallicity. Even if such a disagreement does not affect the WD predictions we will deal with, to present a model as reliable as possible, for stars with M$``$ 0.6 M and solar metallicity we used the empirical V-(V-I) data by Monet et al. (1992) and Dahn et al. (1995) and the observational LF by Wielen, Jahreiss & Kruger (1983). For M$`>`$0.6M we use the Cassisi et al. (1998) and the Castellani, Degl’Innocenti & Marconi (1999) evolutionary tracks up to the end of the AGB, which are in excellent agreement with recent results from the Hipparcos satellite for nearby stars (Kovalevsky 1998) and open clusters (see e.g. Castellani, Degl’Innocenti & Prada Moroni 2001, Petroni 1999) and with observational data of globular clusters at different metallicities (see e.g. Cassisi et al. 1999, Brocato et al. 2000). The adopted colour transformations are from Castelli et al. (1997).

### 2.2 IMF

Several authors (see e.g. Scalo 1998, Kroupa 2000) discussed in details local star counts in order to infer the underlying IMF. While the most of authors agree on a Salpeter IMF for M$``$ 0.5 M (see e.g. Massey et al. 1995, Kroupa 2001a) the IMF behaviour for lower masses is still uncertain (see e.g. Scalo 1998, Kroupa 2001a, Reylé & Robin 2001). The uncertainty on the IMF for low mass stars reflects the observational errors on the local luminosity function (LF) at low luminosity for disc and spheroid stars (see e.g. Gould, Flynn & Bahcall 1998, Paper I, for a discussion). Moreover, some authors (Scalo 1998, Kroupa 2001b, Eisenhauer 2001) suggest that the IMF could vary with time and with environment, an hypothesis which is rejected by other researchers (see e.g. Gilmore 2001).

In our model we assume the “average Galactic field IMF” proposed by Kroupa (2001b) for the three Galactic components, that is dN/dM $``$ M with :
$`\alpha =1.3(\pm 0.5)`$ for 0.08 $``$ m/M$`{}_{}{}^{}<0.5`$
$`\alpha =2.3(\pm 0.3)`$ for 0.50 $``$ m/M
As a whole, with the adopted IMF and evolutionary tracks, theoretical luminosity functions appear in agreement with the observed ones within their observational uncertainties.

### 2.3 Spheroid

As usually, we adopt for the spheroid the de Vaucouleurs density law. The assumed Galactocentric distance is Ro=8 Kpc and the axis ratio for the spheroid is 0.8 (see Robin, Reylé & Créze 2000, for a discussion). Following Gilmore & Reid (1983, see also e.g. Basilio et al. 1996) we adopt the halo/disc density ratio of 0.125%). A theoretical isochrone of 12 Gyr (Z=0.0002, Y=0.23), populated by using the Kroupa (2001a) IMF, is assumed. The chosen theoretical approach is spontaneously producing predictions about the occurrence of stars in the various evolutionary phases. As an example, Fig. 1 shows the predicted CM diagram on a selected area of 1 square degree at the North Galactic Pole (NGP) with the contribution by subgiant (SGB) and red giant (RGB) stars. The only one HB star predicted in that field is not plotted, since no firm theoretical constraints exist for its colour.

### 2.4 Disc

The adopted disc density law is the widely used double exponential in the Galactocentric distance on the Galaxy plane and in height over the plane, with scale length and scale height of 3500 pc and 325 pc, respectively (Reid & Majewski 1993, Basilio et al. 1996). We assume a constant star formation rate (SFR) from 50 Myr to 9 Gyr to populate evolutionary tracks with Z=0.02 Y=0.27.

### 2.5 Thick disc

The thick disc density law can be reasonably modeled either by a double exponential or by a density law close to sech2(z). Star counts are unable to distinguish between these two hypotheses (Reylé & Robin 2001) and the thick disc structure is generally described as a double exponential, with horizontal and vertical scales approximately in the ranges r0$``$2.5$`÷`$4.0 Kpc, z0$``$600$`÷`$1600 pc, respectively. The scale length and height and the thick disc/disc density ratio suggested by Gilmore & Reid (1983) (see also e.g. Basilio et al. 1996) and adopted in this paper are 3500 pc, 1300 pc and 2%, respectively. Following Gilmore, Wyse & Jones (1995) and Norris (1999) we choose for the thick disc a metallicity of $``$Z=0.006 and a SFR centered at $``$ 10 Gyr with a spread of few Gyr.

### 2.6 Reddening/obscuration

We adopt for intermediate-to-high Galactic latitudes ($`|\mathrm{b}|`$10) the E(B-V) reddening maps by Burnstein & Heiles (1982). The visual extinction AV=3.12 E(B-V) and the reddening in the infrared colours are from Bessell & Brett (1988, see also Clementini et al. 1995). A reddening scale height of 100 pc is adopted (see e.g. Mendez & van Altena, 1998).

## 3 The white dwarf population

According to the discussion given in Paper I, the Galactic model presented in the previous section appears able to reasonably account for available star counts, even down to very faint magnitudes (V$`27`$). By relying on this model one can easily predict the expected abundance of WDs, since each star evolved beyond the AGB phase and less massive than the lower mass limit for supernovae (Mup) is assumed to be a WD. However, to predict the CM location of white dwarfs one needs further theoretical ingredients, as given by: i) a WD mass - progenitor mass relation ii) theoretical WD models giving luminosity and temperature of a WD as a function of mass and age and iii) suitable colour transformations. The WD cooling age (that is the time spent on the cooling curve) is simply given by the difference between the age associated to the star and the age of the WD progenitor at the end of the AGB. For T$`{}_{eff}{}^{}<4000^\mathrm{o}`$K we adopt the colour relations by Saumon & Jacobson (1999), which include a detailed treatment of collision induced absorption of H2, whereas for higher temperature, the results of Bergeron, Wesemael & Beauchamp (1995) were used. As an example Fig. 2 shows theoretical WDs isochrones.

We notice that in our model we include only WDs with hydrogen atmosphere (DA WDs) which are shown to be the most numerous. However, the last two bins of the observed disc WD LF by Legget, Ruiz & Bergeron (1998, see Fig. 7) are populated by a relevant number of non-DA WDs. As well known, it is still not clear if this phenomenon is due to a chemical evolution of the WD outer layers or to the relevant differences in the cooling times between DA and non-DA. Thus, given the present uncertainty in the theoretical scenario we prefer, as first step, do not include non-DA WDs.

The theoretical prediction of WD populations is affected by several uncertainties. First of all, theoretical models are not settled yet, as shown by the somewhat large differences among recent models in the literature (Wood 1995, Benvenuto & Althaus 1999, Hansen 1999, Salaris et al. 2000, Chabrier et al. 2000, Castellani, Prada Moroni & Straniero 2001). To investigate the dependence of the WD distribution on the adopted cooling sequences, Fig. 3 shows predicted results with two different sets of theoretical WD models, as given by Chabrier et al. (2000) and Salaris et al. (2000), which are the only models cooling down until an age of the order of the age of the Universe for a suitable range of masses.

Figure 3 compares the magnitude distribution for spheroid, disc and thick disc WDs for the two sets of WD tracks; luckily enough, one finds that the differences are within the statistical uncertainties.

Another cause of uncertainty is the adopted relation between the WD mass and the progenitor mass. As well known, this indetermination is connected to the uncertainties in the final evolution of AGB stars, particularly during the thermal pulses and at the onset of the super-winds, and to the still present debate about the predicted extension of the convective core during central burning phases (see e.g. Dominguez et al. 1999). For the spheroid we adopt the theoretical relation by Dominguez et al. (1999), where the final WD mass is given by the helium core mass at the first thermal pulse, as obtained by assuming a standard extension of the convective core. For disc and thick disc one has the alternative choice between the semi-empirical relation by Weidemann (2000), as inferred from the comparison between observations of young open cluster and theoretical models and the exponential one by Wood (1992), based on the Planetary Nebula Nuclei mass distribution. Comparison between the predicted WD magnitude distribution, as given in Fig. 4, under the two alternative hypothesis, again discloses relatively small differences. Thus, we made the choice of using the theoretical relation by Weidemann (2000).

### 3.1 The population parameters

Before presenting more detailed predictions, and to give light on the possible variations of the adopted theoretical scenario, let us give a short discussion on the influence of the input parameters concerning the stellar population. As a first point the predicted halo WD population obviously depends on the assumption on the halo age. Figure 5 shows the predicted luminosity function at four different ages: 6, 8, 10 and 13.5 Gyrs. As well known (see e.g. Brocato et al. 1999), for a given age, the bulk of the WD distribution is close but not precisely at the faint end of the cooling isochrone. The larger is the age the fainter is the bulk of the WD population. This is a well understood feature: the increase of the time spent in the cooling sequence implies a progressive decrease of WD luminosity. Figure 5 shows the related theoretical predictions.

Furthermore, the distribution of WD populations significantly depends on the adopted IMF. The number of WDs is obviously affected only by IMF variations for masses which could evolve into WDs in a time shorter than the estimated age of the Universe. Figure 6 shows the effect on the distribution of a variation of the IMF for masses greater than 0.6 M.

As range of variation we assume the uncertainty on the Salpeter exponential, as evaluated by Kroupa (2001a); see Sec. 2.2. As expected, a steeper IMF ($`\alpha `$=2.6) depopulates the WD stars. This behaviour can be easily understood as a consequence of the decrease of the number of stars in the mass range able to produce WDs.

## 4 Results

As a first test of the model, Fig. 7 compares the predicted local WD luminosity function with recent observations by Liebert, Dahn & Monet (1988) and Leggett et al. (1998); the agreement appears good, even if it is not perfect. We remind that the only normalization adopted in our model is the one of hydrogen-burning stars in the solar neighborhood. Thus, the density distribution of WDs naturally arises from the model and the plotted WD luminosity function is just the output of our code without any additional normalization. To reproduce the local white dwarfs luminosity function, we restricted our calculations to distances from the Sun up to 200 pc, as obtainable from Table 2 of Legget et al. (1998). The histogram of Fig.7 does not include thick disc white dwarfs because we checked that, due to the very small distance from the Sun, their contribution is negligible. Comparisons between theoretical and observed WD LFs has been presented by Legget et al. themselves by adopting WD evolutionary sequences by Wood (1995). Their fit appears similar to our results. We remind that our LF directly arises from a Galactic model built with a given spatial distribution and defined parameters, so that we do not apply any normalization to the WD LF itself. On the contrary, the Legget et al. LF is obtained only from WD isochrones (without any assumption on the WD spatial distribution) and then it is normalized to the observational data. A detailed analysis of disc WD LFs has been presented by Hansen (1999) by using his WD isochrones. The author reproduced very well the LF profile showing the well known influence of the disc age on the cutoff region, even in this case no assumptions have been made on the Galactic spatial distributions. Also Hansen found that the inclusion of a given percentage of non-DA WDs can smooth the LF profile. It is thus possible that we could reach an even better agreement with observations by slightly changing the assumed disc age or by including non-DA WDs. Moreover even a variation of the model parameters can slightly modify the results, however a deep analysis of this problem is out of the purposes of the present paper.

By relying on the obtained agreement between theoretical and observational WD LFs, in this section will present the predictions by our model for three fields in different directions of the Galaxy.

Future comparisons with observations will be fundamental to infer firmer constraints on the parameters assumed in the model whose values is not definitively established yet.

The $`(VI,V)`$ colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) for the field stars at the North Galactic Pole, at the Galactic coordinates $`l=0^{}`$, $`b=50^{}`$ and $`l=0^{}`$, $`b=30^{}`$ are shown in Fig. 8; the extension of each field is 0.5 square degrees. The CMDs are extended down to magnitude $`V=38`$ to display the strong presence of spheroid WDs at extremely low luminosities.

As discussed above, our model is able to predict various colour indices for star counts. As an example, Fig. 9 shows the $`(VR,V)`$ CMD for the same field of the middle panel of Fig. 8.

The small panels in Fig. 8 show the CMDs obtained for a field of about 6.6 arcmin2 of extension, that is the area generally covered by Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations (see e.g. King et al. 1998). As expected, at the NGP only a negligible number of stars is present in such a small field. Star counts increases moving from higher to lower latitudes, nevertheless disc population is still absent at intermediate latitude ($`b=50^{}`$), beginning to appear only at lower latitude ($`b=30^{}`$), where there’s not yet evidence of disc WDs.

As well known, at high Galactic latitude the various Galactic components are expected to contribute to the total CMD with different colours. While the bluer colours are dominated by spheroid stars and the redder object belongs to the disc population, the intermediate colours are dominated by thick disc stars. As a consequence, the whole sample of stars in the CMD appears rather uniformly spreaded, without the “double peaked” feature usually predicted by the two-components models, due to the separation in colour between the disc and the spheroid population.

We are now in the position to explore the role played by the Galactic WDs on the star counts. Figure 10 shows the predicted contribution of each Galaxy component to the $`V`$-magnitude distribution of the sample at the intermediate latitude $`b=50^{}`$.

An important finding of our prediction is that observations down to $`V=28`$ include almost the whole disc population and disc WDs. However, only a few percent of thick disc and spheroid WDs are observable to this luminosities; in fact Fig. 10 shows that the thick disc WD distribution appears centered at $`V30`$, while the spheroid distribution is centered at $`V31`$, with a tail reaching faint luminosities down to $`V36`$.

Figure 11 (upper panel) shows the predicted ($`VI`$)-colour distributions of the Galaxy components in the apparent magnitude range $`19<V<27`$. The bottom panel is just an enlargement of the figure displaying the behaviour of the WD populations.

The whole WD population takes place at colours bluer then $`VI1.5`$. Inspection of this figure reveals that there are regions of the CMDs in which the contribution of white dwarfs to the star counts seems to be distinguishable from other Galaxy stars. In particular, at sufficiently blue colours, i.e. $`VI0.5`$, and not too high luminosity ($`V16`$), the sample should be constituted exclusively by WDs.

## 5 Conclusions

We presented a Galactic model able to reproduce star counts and synthetic colour-magnitude diagrams of field stars from the main sequence to the white dwarf evolutionary phase for various photometric bands and Galactic coordinates. The main goal is the introduction of disc/thick disc and spheroid WD population in an evolutionary consistent way. To this aim we relied on suitable WD mass-progenitor mass relations, theoretical WD models and colour transformations. As a result, we find that the predicted local WD luminosity function appears in good agreement with recent observational estimates. Predictions for CMDs and star counts for the various components in different fields of the Galaxy are shown. Luckily enough, we find that the WD population is barely sensitive to a change of theoretical WD models or to a variation of the adopted relation between the WD mass and the progenitor mass while, as expected, the results are significantly affected by the variation of the initial mass function IMF for masses which could evolve into WDs in a time shorter than the estimated age of the Universe.

## Acknowledgments

We warmly thank M. Salaris for making available to us the Salaris et al. (2000) WD evolutionary tracks. The partial support by MURST within the “Stellar Observables of Cosmological Relevance” project is acknowledged by the authors.


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# Bound states in bottomless potentials

## Abstract

We consider classical and quantum dynamics on potentials that are asymptotically unbounded from below. By explicit construction we find that quantum bound states can exist in certain bottomless potentials. The classical dynamics in these potentials is novel. Only a set of zero measure of classical trajectories can escape to infinity. All other trajectories get trapped as they get further out into the asymptotic region.

Certain potentials that do not have any local minima and are unbounded from below in the asymptotic region can still exhibit stable classical orbits. Specifically, consider a particle in two spatial dimensions with position $`𝐱(t)=(x(t),y(t))`$ and Lagrangian

$$L=\frac{1}{2}m𝐯^2V(𝐱)$$
(1)
where

$$V(𝐱)=\frac{k_x}{2}x^2\frac{k_y}{2}y^2+\frac{c}{2}x^2y^2$$
(2)
with $`k_x`$, $`k_y`$ and $`c`$ being positive parameters. The only extremum of the potential is at $`𝐱=0`$ and this is a saddle point. The positive eigenvalue at the saddle point is along the $`x`$ direction and the negative eigenvalue is along the $`y`$ direction. The potential goes to $`\mathrm{}`$ for $`x^2<k_y/c`$ and $`y^2\mathrm{}`$. Hence the potential is “bottomless”. Yet it is not hard to show that there exist classical orbits that are bounded and stable. These solutions are of the form:

$$x(t)=A\mathrm{cos}(\omega t),y(t)=0$$
(3)
where $`\omega ^2=k_x/m`$ and $`A`$ lies in specific bands determined by solutions of the Mathieu equation SalVac02 .

The existence of classically bounded and stable orbits on a bottomless potential motivates us to consider the possibility of quantum bound states on a bottomless potential. Several potentials that are unbounded from below have already been considered in the quantum mechanics literature. These include the famous example of the Coulomb potential. Note, however, that the Coulomb potential is bottomless because there is a singular point where the potential goes to $`\mathrm{}`$. In contrast, the potentials we will consider (eg. in eq. (2)) go to $`\mathrm{}`$ in the asymptotic region and are otherwise non-singular. Furthermore, we know that the $`l=0`$ wavefunctions of the hydrogen atom have discontinuous first derivative at the origin, while the wavefunctions with non-zero angular momentum vanish at the origin due to the centrifugal barrier. In our case, the wavefunction will be analytical throughout and its existence cannot be attributed to a centrifugal barrier.

The idea of the construction is quite simple. We write the two dimensional Schrodinger equation in the form:

$$V(𝐱)=E\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}[^2F(F)^2]$$
(4)
in standard notation and with $`F(𝐱)`$ defined via

$$\psi =e^F$$
(5)
where $`\psi (𝐱)`$ is the wavefunction.

We would like a solution to eq. (4) for a bottomless potential and a discretely normalizable wavefunction. To accomplish this, we choose

$$F=c+\alpha x^2+\beta y^2+\gamma x^2y^2$$
(6)
where $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$, and $`\gamma `$ are real positive numbers to ensure that $`\psi `$ is normalizable, and $`\mathrm{exp}(c)`$ is the normalization constant. Inserting this choice of $`F`$ in eq. (4) gives:

$`V(𝐱)`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{m}}[(2\alpha ^2\gamma )x^2+(2\beta ^2\gamma )y^2`$ (7)
$`+`$ $`4(\alpha +\beta )\gamma x^2y^2+2\gamma ^2(x^2+y^2)x^2y^2]`$
where

$$ϵE\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{m}(\alpha +\beta ).$$
(8)
If we fix the zero of the potential to be at the origin, this gives the energy eigenvalue of the state. Now if we choose $`\gamma >2\alpha ^2`$ and/or $`\gamma >2\beta ^2`$, the potential is bottomless along the $`x`$ axis and/or $`y`$ axis respectively. This shows an explicit example of a bottomless potential in which there is at least one bound state. There are many other possibilities that can easily be constructed in a similar way.

There are some features of the solution that are worth pointing out. It is easily seen that the state is not an angular momentum ($`L_z=i\mathrm{}(x_yy_x)`$) eigenstate. However the expectation value of the angular momentum operator vanishes. A peculiar feature of the potential is that it depends on the mass of the particle since the mass $`m`$ cannot be absorbed by rescaling the parameters $`\alpha `$, $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$. An interesting feature of the wavefunction is that it has the same sign everywhere i.e. it has no nodes. Therefore it must be the ground state wavefunction.

One intuitive way to understand the existence of a bound state is to examine the potential along one of the “escape” directions. For example, consider the potential in eq. (7) along the $`y`$ axis. In this direction ($`x=0`$), the potential is falling off and getting deeper in proportion to $`y^2`$. However, the width along the $`x`$ direction is also decreasing in proportion to $`1/\sqrt{y^4}y^2`$. Hence, if we consider the $`x`$ dependence of the wavefunction for large values of $`y`$, it corresponds to a harmonic oscillator with angular frequency proportional to $`y^2`$. Therefore the energy “cost” due to the squeezing in the $`x`$ direction grows as $`y^2`$ and can be larger than the energy “gain” due to rolling in the $`y`$ direction. This argument is basically saying that if there is a hole in a two dimensional potential, quantum particles may not be able to escape through the hole if it is sufficiently narrow.

The quantum behaviour is in contrast to the classical particle which can always escape by rolling along the $`y`$ axis. However, if a particle starts rolling in the $`y`$ direction but with $`x0`$, it will oscillate in the $`x`$ direction as it is rolling in the $`y`$ direction. For large values of $`y`$ and small values of $`x`$, the equations of motion are:

$$\ddot{x}\nu ^2y^4x,\ddot{y}2\nu ^2(x^2y^2\delta ^2)y$$
(9)
where

$$\nu \frac{2\mathrm{}}{m},\delta \frac{\sqrt{\gamma 2\beta ^2}}{2\gamma }.$$
(10)
Hence, the sign of the force in the $`y`$ direction tends to drive the particle toward the asymptotic region only while the particle lies in the region $`xy<\delta `$. While the particle lies outside the hyperbola (i.e. when $`xy>\delta `$), it experiences a restoring force which tends to bring the particle closer to the origin. If the particle is initially inside the hyperbola, it rolls down to larger and larger values of $`y`$, and eventually the particle orbit will increasingly lie outside the hyperbola. Then the particle will perform oscillations in both the $`x`$ and $`y`$ directions at some large value of $`y`$. This argument can be formalized by writing:

$$y(t)=Y+f(t)$$
(11)
where $`Y>0`$ is a large constant value. We assume that $`f(t)Y`$ and that $`x(t)`$ remains small. Then we can do a linearized analysis in $`f(t)`$ and obtain:

$$\ddot{x}\nu ^2Y^4x,\ddot{f}2\nu ^2(x^2Y^2\delta ^2)Y$$
(12)
Then $`x(t)=A\mathrm{cos}(\nu Y^2t)`$ and the $`f(t)`$ equation can also be easily integrated. Periodic solutions for $`f(t)`$ will be obtained when the average of the right-hand side of the $`f`$ equation vanishes. This happens when $`A^2Y^2=2\delta ^2`$ and the solution is:

$$f(t)=\frac{\delta ^2}{2Y^3}(\mathrm{cos}(2\nu Yt)1)$$
(13)
where we have also imposed the initial conditions $`f(0)=0`$, $`\dot{f}(0)=0`$. Hence periodic solutions do appear to leading order in the linearized approximation. A particle that starts rolling but is off-axis will eventually get caught in a periodic or quasi-periodic orbit and will not escape.

If the above arguments are correct, it implies two interesting corollaries. The first is that the potential in eq. (7) does not have any continuum states since the arguments apply to all states and no state would be able to escape to infinity. In principle, one could modify the potential by cutting it off at some large value – that is, by setting $`V(𝐱)=V_{max}`$ in regions where the original potential (eq. (7)) exceeds $`V_{max}`$. The new potential would be bounded from above and continuum states would then exist. The second corollary of the above argument is that the potential in eq. (2) does not have any bound state solutions. This is because the energy gain along the escape path is still proportional to $`y^2`$ but the energy cost due to the squeezing only grows like $`\sqrt{y^2}=y`$.

If we include dissipative forces, then all classical particles will escape to infinity since this is the lowest point on the potential. Dissipative effects in the quantum problem can, however, only bring the particle into its ground state. This is just as in the Coulomb case where classically the atom can collapse due to emission of electromagnetic radiation but quantum mechanically it can only settle into its ground state.

Generally speaking, bottomless potentials in the field theory context are thought to be sick. Our construction here raises the possibility that some field theories with bottomless potentials may nonetheless have reasonable interpretations.

###### Acknowledgements.

I am grateful to Craig Copi and Harsh Mathur for discussions. This work was supported by DOE grant number DEFG0295ER40898 at CWRU.


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# Approximate BPS States

## Abstract

We consider dimensionally reduced three-dimensional supersymmetric Yang–Mills-Chern–Simons theory. Although the $`𝒩=1`$ supersymmetry of this theory does not allow true massive Bogomol’nyi–Prasad–Sommerfield (BPS) states, we find approximate BPS states which have non-zero masses that are almost independent of the Yang–Mills coupling constant and which are a reflection of the massless BPS states of the underlying $`𝒩=1`$ super Yang–Mills theory. The masses of these states at large Yang–Mills coupling are exactly at the $`n`$-particle continuum thresholds. This leads to a relation between their masses at zero and large Yang–Mills coupling.

preprint:   UMN-D-02-1 hep-th/0203162
Bogomol’nyi–Prasad–Sommerfield (BPS) states play an important role in modern quantum field theory for a variety of reasons. In particular, their property of having masses which are independent of the coupling is a very useful tool, because it allows the evaluation of the spectrum in the nonperturbative region where it is otherwise difficult if not impossible to solve the theory. BPS saturated states arise because the supersymmetry protects the masses of states which are destroyed by a linear combination of the supercharges while forcing these masses to be equal to the central charge in appropriate units. It is well known that one must have at least $`𝒩=2`$ supersymmetry to have a non-zero central charge and therefore massive BPS saturated states. Many of the more interesting field theories, at least from the phenomenological point of view, only have $`𝒩=1`$ supersymmetry, and this magical property of BPS states is of no help in calculating the massive spectrum in the nonperturbative regime.

We will show by explicit demonstration that it is possible to find approximate BPS states in theories with $`𝒩=1`$ supersymmetry. These are states with masses that are to a very good approximation independent of the coupling but are not true BPS states. We will show that the origin of these states is the presence of massless BPS states in the closely related $`𝒩=1`$ supersymmetric Yang–Mills (SYM) theories. These theories have BPS saturated states that are massless and are destroyed by one of the supercharges.

For this demonstration we consider dimensionally reduced SYM-Chern–Simons theory. This theory has the advantage that the partons are given a bare mass without breaking the supersymmetry, which makes the theory particularly suitable for numerical studies. However, such theories are also interesting in their own right. A Chern–Simons (CS) theory can be used to study many interesting phenomena, such as  the quantum Hall effect, Landau levels, non-trivial topological structures, vortices, and anyons. According to Witten , it is possible that string field theory is essentially a non-commutative CS theory. This idea led to a conjecture by Susskind  that relates string theory to the fractional quantum Hall effect. The SYM-CS theories are particularly remarkable. As is well known, there is a finite anomaly that shifts the CS coupling . Moreover, Witten  has conjectured that this theory spontaneously breaks supersymmetry for some values of the CS coupling.

In this Letter we briefly discuss SYM-CS theory in 2+1 dimensions but then dimensionally reduce it to two dimensions by requiring all of the fields to be independent of the transverse coordinate. This reduction eliminates many of the most interesting aspects of CS theory, including the quantization of the CS coupling, but does preserve the fact that the CS term simulates a mass for the theory. The effective mass leads to QCD-like properties for the theory, which are discussed in .

The numerical method we use to solve the SYM-CS theory is supersymmetric discrete light-cone quantization (SDLCQ). This method can be used to solve any theory with enough supersymmetry to be finite. By use of ordinary discrete light-cone quantization (DLCQ)  we can construct a finite dimensional representation of the superalgebra . From this representation of the superalgebra, we construct a finite-dimensional Hamiltonian which we diagonalize numerically. Unlike direct discretization of the Hamiltonian, this construction automatically preserves supersymmetry exactly. We repeat the construction for larger and larger representations and extrapolate the solution to the continuum. We have already used this method to solve (1+1) and (2+1)-dimensional SYM theories  ***For additional references to this work, see . as well as the dimensionally reduced SYM-CS theory .

To understand the properties of dimensionally reduced SYM-CS theory we will need to review earlier results of similarly reduced SYM theory. This $`𝒩=1`$ SYM theory in 1+1 dimensions is a stringy theory, in the sense that the low-mass states are dominated by Fock states with many constituents. As the size of the discrete superalgebra representation is increased, states with lower masses and more constituents appear . In addition, this theory has a well-defined number of massless BPS states.

We begin by considering $`𝒩=1`$ supersymmetric CS theory in 2+1 dimensions. The Lagrangian of this theory is

$``$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{Tr}({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }+i\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\gamma _\mu D^\mu \mathrm{\Psi }+2\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\mathrm{\Psi }`$ (2)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa }{2}}ϵ^{\mu \nu \lambda }[A_\mu _\nu A_\lambda +{\displaystyle \frac{2i}{3}}gA_\mu A_\nu A_\lambda ]),`$
where $`\kappa `$ is the CS coupling. The two components of the spinor $`\mathrm{\Psi }=2^{1/4}(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\psi }{\chi })`$ are in the adjoint representation, and we will work in the large-$`N_c`$ limit. The field strength and the covariant derivative are $`F_{\mu \nu }=_\mu A_\nu _\nu A_\mu +ig[A_\mu ,A_\nu ]`$ and $`D_\mu =_\mu +ig[A_\mu ,]`$, respectively. Supersymmetric variations of the fields lead to the supercharge components

$`Q^{}`$ $`=`$ $`i2^{3/4}{\displaystyle d^2x\psi \left(^+A^{}^{}A^++ig[A^+,A^{}]\right)},`$ (3)
$`Q^+`$ $`=`$ $`i2^{5/4}{\displaystyle d^2x\psi \left(^+A^2^2A^++ig[A^+,A^2]\right)}.`$ (4)
The supercharge fulfills the supersymmetry algebra

$$\{Q^\pm ,Q^\pm \}=2\sqrt{2}P^\pm ,\{Q^+,Q^{}\}=4P^{}.$$
(5)
In order to express the supercharge in terms of the physical degrees of freedom, we use constraints which are obtained from the equations of motion to eliminate the non-dynamical fields $`\chi `$ and $`A^{}`$. In light-cone gauge, $`A^+=0`$, we reduce the theory dimensionally to two dimensions by setting $`\varphi =A_2`$ and $`_20`$ for all fields. This yields, from Eq. (3),

$$Q^{}=2^{3/4}g𝑑x^{}\left(i[\varphi ,_{}\varphi ]+2\psi \psi \frac{\kappa }{g}_{}\varphi \right)\frac{1}{_{}}\psi .$$
(6)
To discretize the theory we impose periodic boundary conditions on the boson and fermion fields alike and obtain expansions of the fields $`\varphi _{ij}`$ and $`\psi _{ij}`$ in terms of discrete momentum modes $`A_{ij}(n)`$ and $`B_{ij}(n)`$, respectively. The positive integers $`n`$ correspond to discrete longitudinal momenta $`k^+=n\pi /L=nP^+/K`$, where $`L`$ is a longitudinal length scale, $`P^+`$ is the total momentum, and $`K`$ is a positive integer that determines the resolution.In DLCQ, $`K`$ is known as the harmonic resolution . The positivity of $`n`$ guarantees that the number of partons in a Fock state is bounded by $`K`$. The discrete version of the CS part of the supercharge is

$$Q_{\mathrm{CS}}^{}=\left(\frac{2^{1/4}\sqrt{L}}{\sqrt{\pi }}\right)\kappa \underset{n}{}\frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}\left[A^{}(n)B(n)+B^{}(n)A(n)\right].$$
(7)
The continuum limit is the limit where $`K\mathrm{}`$.

Of the two contributions to the supercharge, $`Q_{\mathrm{SYM}}^{}`$ and $`Q_{\mathrm{CS}}^{}`$, the former is imaginary and the latter real. Thus the usual eigenvalue problem

$`2P^+P^{}|\phi `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{2}P^+(Q^{})^2|\phi `$ (8)
$`=`$ $`\sqrt{2}P^+(gQ_{\mathrm{SYM}}^{}+\kappa Q_{\mathrm{CS}}^{})^2|\phi =M_n^2|\phi `$ (9)
has to be solved by using fully complex methods to retrieve the mass eigenvalues $`M_n`$.

We retain the $`Z_2`$-symmetry associated with the orientation of the large-$`N_c`$ string of partons in a state . It gives a sign when the color indices are permuted

$$Z_2:A_{ij}(k)A_{ji}(k),B_{ij}(k)B_{ji}(k).$$
(10)
We reduce the numerical effort by using this symmetry to block diagonalize the Hamiltonian matrix. Eigenstates will be labeled by the $`Z_2`$ sector in which they appear.

It is interesting to note that the pure SYM supercharge is purely imaginary. Consequently, the lowest finite-dimensional representation of the superalgebra is four-dimensional, and there must be an exact four-fold mass degeneracy. On the other hand, the full SYM-CS supercharge is complex, and the lowest complex representation of the superalgebra is two-dimensional. Therefore the exact degeneracy only has to be two-fold, which is what we find in our numerical results.

We have converted the mass eigenvalue problem, Eq. (8), to a matrix eigenvalue problem by introducing a discrete basis where the longitudinal momentum operator $`P^+`$ is diagonal. To obtain the spectrum of the SYM-CS theory, we diagonalize the Hamiltonian $`P^{}=(gQ_{\mathrm{SYM}}^{}+\kappa Q_{\mathrm{CS}}^{})^2/\sqrt{2}`$. In the construction we drop the longitudinal zero-momentum modes. For some discussion of dynamical and constrained zero modes, see the review  and previous work .

The low-energy spectrum can be fit to $`M^2=M_{\mathrm{}}^2+b(1/K)`$. For a detailed discussion of these fits to the present theory, see Ref. . The CS term in this theory effectively generates a mass proportional to the CS coupling. Therefore, we expect that the low-mass states will only have a few partons, reminiscent of QCD. This is interesting and important because it stands in stark contrast to $`𝒩=1`$ SYM theory, which is very stringy and has a large number of low-mass states with a large number of partons.

From the structure of the Hamiltonian $`P^{}=(gQ_{\mathrm{SYM}}^{}+\kappa Q_{\mathrm{CS}}^{})^2/\sqrt{2}`$ we expect that as a function of $`g`$ and $`\kappa `$ the spectrum of this theory will grow quadratically in both variables. Recall that $`Q_{\mathrm{SYM}}^{}`$ is the supercharge of the $`𝒩=1`$ SYM theory of adjoint fermions and adjoint bosons, which was studied extensively in , and $`Q_{\mathrm{CS}}^{}`$ is the contribution of the CS interaction to the supercharge, given in Eq. (7). At fixed $`g`$ as a function of $`\kappa `$ the spectrum behaves exactly as expected . In Fig. 1, we see that at fixed $`\kappa `$ the masses of most of the states also grow quadratically in $`g`$. There are, however, a number of states which behave very differently, and it is on these states that we will focus our attention.

First we need a detailed understanding of the spectrum at $`g=0`$, because we will see that the theory has a new duality which relates the spectrum at $`g=0`$ to that at $`g=\mathrm{}`$ at fixed $`\kappa `$. The Hamiltonian at $`g=0`$ is the square of the CS supercharge, which is simply the Hamiltonian of free fermions and bosons with mass $`\kappa \sqrt{N_c}`$. In DLCQ the free $`n`$-particle spectrum at resolution $`K`$ is given by

$$M_n^2(K)=K\kappa ^2N_c\left(\underset{i=1}{\overset{n1}{}}\frac{1}{n_i}+\frac{1}{K_{i=1}^{n1}n_i}\right).$$
(11)
For example, at $`K=3`$ the two-parton state has a mass squared of $`M^2=4.5`$ in units of $`\kappa ^2N_c`$, while at $`K=4`$ there are two two-parton states with eigenvalues $`M^2=4.0`$ and $`M^2=5.33`$ in the same units. These states represent a discrete approximations of the two-particle continuum, which has its threshold at $`M^2=4`$ for even $`K`$ and at $`M^2=4/(11/K^2)`$ for K odd. The threshold for the $`n`$-particle continuum is at $`M^2=n^2`$. It is exactly reproduced at $`K=nm`$, with $`m`$ a positive integer, and approaches this value in the continuum limit otherwise.

We will focus on the states whose energy remains almost constant with increasing $`g\sqrt{N_c}`$. These are the states that we classify as approximate BPS states. They cannot, of course, be true BPS states because the theory under consideration has an $`𝒩=1`$ supersymmetry and can have only massless BPS states. Rather, these states are a reflection of the massless BPS states that we found in the pure SYM theory in two dimensions .They are also present in the (2+1)-dimensional SYM theory .

In the region where $`\kappa /g`$ is small, we can understand the connection of these states to the massless BPS states of pure SYM by doing simple perturbation theory about the SYM theory. We re-write the eigenvalue equation (8) by taking out a factor of $`g^2`$ to obtain

$$\left(Q_{\mathrm{SYM}}^{}+\frac{\kappa }{g}Q_{\mathrm{CS}}^{}\right)^2|\varphi _n=_n|\varphi _n.$$
(12)
We take $`(Q_{\mathrm{SYM}}^{})^2`$ to be the unperturbed Hamiltonian and look for perturbations of the BPS states $`|\psi _n`$ of the pure SYM theory. Without loss of generality, we assume that they are bosons. §§§There is a set of massless BPS fermions as well. The massless BPS states are approximate eigenstates of the number operator with “eigenvalues” $`n=2`$ to $`K`$, and we use $`n`$ to label the $`(K1)`$-fold degenerate bound states.This is true to the numerical accuracy of this calculation, but we have reason to believe that there may be small additional corrections. Of course, the zeroth order energy in the perturbation expansion vanishes. The important point is that the first-order corrections in the degenerate BPS subspace are determined by the matrix elements $`\psi _n|\{Q_{\mathrm{SYM}}^{},Q_{\mathrm{CS}}^{}\}|\psi _m`$, and they vanish as well. From this we see that the leading order correction to the energy is of order $`(\kappa /g)^2`$, and therefore the perturbative expansion for $`_n`$ can be written as

$$g^2N_c_n=\kappa ^2N_c_n^{(2)}+𝒪\left(\frac{N_c\kappa ^3}{g}\right).$$
(13)
Thus the masses of these states are approximately independent of $`g`$ for small $`\kappa /g`$. This is exactly what we see in Fig. 1. In particular, the detailed plots of the lowest states show a $`1/g`$ convergence of the mass towards the asymptotic value $`_n^{(2)}=n^2`$.

We return now to the new duality that these states exhibit. In the numerical calculations we find that $`_n^{(2)}`$ is independent of the resolution $`K`$. Therefore, at large $`g^2N_c`$ these states are exact threshold bound states, again independent of the resolution. The unperturbed massless BPS states $`|\psi _n`$ of the pure SYM theory are, to a good approximation, diagonal in particle number and have $`n`$ partons. Therefore, it might not seem surprising that at $`g^2N_c\mathrm{}`$ the “BPS-like” states are threshold bound states. They are, however, threshold bound states with a special twist. Consider for example the simplest case with harmonic resolution $`K=3`$. The discrete two-particle threshold is at $`M^2=4.5`$ in units of $`\kappa ^2N_c`$. However, at $`g^2N_c\mathrm{}`$ the “BPS-like” bound-state mass squared is $`M^2=4.0`$. This is the true threshold, and not the discrete threshold for resolution $`K=3`$ where the calculation was performed. Therefore, at resolution $`K=3`$ and $`g^2N_c\mathrm{}`$ this bound state is below the discrete threshold. From a detailed inspection of the mass matrix we find that mixing between the dominant two-particle content and a very small three-particle content is essential for this to occur. The existence of this small three-particle content is a consequence of a theorem proven in Ref. , which states that a pure $`n`$-parton state cannot exist in two-dimensional supersymmetric field theories. For even values of the resolution, the discrete threshold is the correct threshold, and these “BPS-like” states are exact threshold bound states. For odd resolution, the discrete threshold approaches the correct threshold as we increase the resolution. The general statement of the new duality is that it relates the masses of these approximate BPS states at $`g^2N_c=0`$ and at $`\mathrm{}`$ by

$$\underset{K\mathrm{}}{lim}_n(g^2N_c=0)=\underset{g\sqrt{N_c}\mathrm{}}{lim}_n(g^2N_c).$$
(14)
To summarize, we have found that while $`𝒩=1`$ supersymmetric theories cannot have true massive BPS states they can have approximate BPS states whose masses are nearly independent of the Yang–Mills couplings. The existence of these states holds out the prospect of allowing one to extrapolate part of the massive spectrum of an $`𝒩=1`$ supersymmetric theory into the strong-coupling regime in phenomenologically interesting theories.

We found this result in an analysis of dimensionally reduced SYM-CS theory using the numerical method of SDLCQ. In SDLCQ we constructed finite dimensional representations of the superalgebra and therefore a finite dimensional Hamiltonian which we solved numerically. The SYM-CS theory is particularly interesting because the CS coupling gives masses to the partons of this theory without breaking the supersymmetry. This leads to a theory with QCD-like properties, which is discussed in detail in Ref. .

These approximate BPS states occur because $`𝒩=1`$ SYM theory has a set of massless BPS states. Using ordinary perturbation theory, we showed that at small $`\kappa /g`$ these approximate BPS bound states are a reflection of the massless BPS bound states of the SYM theory. Finally, we found that in the limit of infinite coupling $`g`$ these states are threshold bound states which in turn leads to a duality relation of the spectrum at $`g^2N_c=0`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$.

Since these BPS states are also present in the (2+1)-dimensional SYM theory, we expect to see their reflection in the (2+1)-dimensional CS theory. A study of this theory is underway.

This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy. The authors would like to thank Oleg Lunin for helpful conversations. S.S.P. would like to acknowledge the Aspen Center for Physics where some of this work was done.