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# Steps Toward Determination of the Size and Structure of the Broad-Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei. XVI. A Thirteen-Year Study of Spectral Variability in NGC 5548

## 1 Introduction

The nature of the broad-line region (BLR) is arguably one of the major remaining mysteries in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Whereas the supermassive black hole/accretion-disk paradigm has become increasingly more secure, there is still no consensus about the origin of the broad emission lines that are prominent features of the UV/optical spectra of these sources. This is not to say that progress has not been made. Years of spectroscopic study have uncovered a rich phenomenology (see Sulentic, Marziani, & Dultzin-Hacyan 2000 for a recent review).

Of particular importance has been the recognition that the emission-line fluxes vary in response to continuum variations, with a small time delay (days to weeks for Seyfert galaxies) due to light travel-time effects within the BLR. Well before these time delays were first accurately measured, this led to the seminal paper on “reverberation mapping” (Blandford & McKee 1982), a tomographic method of determining the structure and kinematics of the BLR. While the full potential of reverberation mapping has yet to be realized, use of this technique has provided BLR sizes in approximately three dozen AGNs (see compilations by Wandel, Peterson, & Malkan 1999 and Kaspi et al. 2000). Even more importantly, measurement of the emission-line time delays (or “lags”), combined with measurements of the line width, have led to estimates of the masses of the central black holes.

In late 1988, we began a program of spectroscopic monitoring of optical variations in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. This activity was organized by an informal consortium called the “International AGN Watch” (Alloin et al. 1994; Peterson 1999). Initially, the optical monitoring program was undertaken in support of an ultraviolet monitoring campaign carried out with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE ; Clavel et al. 1991 \[the first paper in the same series as this work, and hereafter referred to as Paper I\]). The resulting optical data set (Peterson et al. 1991, hereafter Paper II) proved to be so rich that it was decided to continue this program. Since that time, a number of additional contributions to this series (Peterson et al. 1992 \[Paper III\]; Peterson et al. 1994 \[Paper VII\]; Korista et al. 1995 \[Paper VIII\]; and Peterson et al. 1999 \[Paper XV\]) have described our continuing optical monitoring program. A complete summary of the work on NGC 5548 by this consortium appears in Table 1. Reviews of the progress of this program are also available (e.g., Peterson 1993, 2001; Netzer & Peterson 1997).

This paper represents the final installment of our 13-year program of optical monitoring of NGC 5548. As is customary for the papers in this series, we will focus primarily on the data and the salient results of cross-correlation analysis of the continuum and emission-line light curves. Further in-depth analysis will be left to subsequent papers. In § 2, we describe the observations, data reduction, and intercalibration procedures that we have used to construct a homogeneous data base of optical continuum and H$`\beta `$ emission-line fluxes. In § 3, we describe the time-series analysis that we have undertaken to determine the time scale for response of H$`\beta `$ to continuum variations. In § 4, we discuss some of the implications of our study. Our results are summarized in § 5. We also note that some of the data presented here have already appeared in other contexts, specifically as part of a short but intensive monitoring program carried out in 1998 June (Dietrich et al. 2001) and as part of a long-term photometric monitoring campaign (Doroshenko et al. 2001).

## 2 Observations and Data Analysis

### 2.1 Spectroscopic Observations

Here we analyze spectroscopic observations made between 1995 November 22 (Julian Date = JD2450044) and 2001 September 21 (JD2452174); UT dates are used throughout this paper. During this six-year period, a total of 543 individual spectra were obtained, as summarized in Table 2. Column (1) gives a code for each data set; these are the same codes that have been used throughout the NGC 5548 monitoring project. A more complete log of observations, as has been published in our previous papers on NGC 5548, can be found at the International AGN Watch site on the World-Wide Web111The light curves and complete logs of observation are available in tabular form at URL http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/$``$agnwatch/. All publicly available International AGN Watch data can be accessed at this site, which also includes complete references to published AGN Watch papers..

The data obtained during Year 8 of this program (see Table 1) were previously published in Paper XV. Here we completely reanalyze the data from Year 8 because 46 additional spectra from set “F” have become available to us since Paper XV was published222We also note in passing that we have included in the AGN Watch archive five additional set “H” spectra from Years 3 and 4 (details are provided on the AGN Watch website), although these data have not been incorporated into the light curves that are currently available..

The spectroscopic images were processed by individual observers in standard fashion for CCD frames, including bias subtraction, flat-field correction, wavelength calibration, and flux calibration based on standard-star observations. The flux calibration is then refined by scaling each spectrum to a constant value of the \[O iii\] $`\lambda 5007`$ narrow-line flux, as we have done in each previous paper in this series. All spectra are gray-scaled in flux (i.e., adjusted by a constant multiplicative factor) to a constant flux of $`F(\text{[O }\text{iii}\text{}\lambda 5007)=5.58\times 10^{13}`$ ergs s-1 cm-2. This absolute flux was determined from spectra made under photometric conditions during the first year of this program (Paper II). Scaling is accomplished automatically by use of the van Groningen & Wanders (1992) spectral scaling software, as described in Paper XV.

After flux scaling, measurements of each of the spectra are made. The continuum flux at $`5100`$ Å (in the rest frame of NGC 5548, $`z=0.0167`$) is determined by averaging the flux in the 5185–5195 Å bandpass (in the observed frame). The H$`\beta `$ emission-line flux is measured by assuming a linear underlying continuum between $`4790`$ Å and $`5170`$ Å, and integrating the flux above this continuum between 4795 Å and 5018 Å (all wavelengths in the observed frame). The long-wavelength cutoff of this integration band misses some of the H$`\beta `$ flux underneath \[O iii\] $`\lambda 4959`$, but avoids the need to estimate the Fe ii contribution to this feature and still gives a good representation of the H$`\beta `$ variability. We also note that no attempt has been made to correct for contamination of the line measurement by the narrow-line component of H$`\beta `$, which is of course expected to be constant.

Even after scaling all of the spectra to a common value of the \[O iii\] $`\lambda 5007`$ flux, there are systematic differences between the light curves produced from data obtained at different telescopes. As in our previous papers, we correct for the small offsets between the light curves from different sources in a simple, but effective, fashion. We attribute these small relative offsets to aperture effects (Peterson et al. 1995), although the procedure we use also corrects for other unidentified systematic differences between data sets. We define a point-source correction factor $`\phi `$ by the equation

$$F(\mathrm{H}\beta )_{\mathrm{true}}=\phi F(\mathrm{H}\beta )_{\mathrm{observed}}.$$
(1)
This factor accounts for the fact that different apertures result in different amounts of light loss for the point-spread function (which describes the surface-brightness distribution of both the broad lines and the AGN continuum source) and the partially extended narrow-line region.

After correcting for aperture effects on the point-spread function to narrow-line ratio, we also correct for the different amounts of starlight admitted by different apertures. An extended source correction $`G`$ is thus defined as

$$F_\lambda (5100\mathrm{\AA })_{\mathrm{true}}=\phi F_\lambda (5100\mathrm{\AA })_{\mathrm{observed}}G.$$
(2)
Intercalibration of the individual data sets is then accomplished by comparing pairs of nearly simultaneous observations from different data sets to determine for each data set the values of the constants $`\phi `$ and $`G`$ that are needed to adjust the emission-line and continuum fluxes to a common scale. Furthermore, the formal uncertainties in $`\phi `$ and $`G`$ reflect the uncertainties in the individual data sets, so we can determine the nominal uncertainties for each data set if we assume that the errors add in quadrature.

As in our previous work, the data are adjusted relative to data set “A” because these data are fairly extensive, overlap well with most of the other data sets, and were obtained through a reasonably large aperture (5$`^{\prime \prime }.`$0 $`\times `$ 7$`^{\prime \prime }.`$5). As in Paper XV, fractional uncertainties of $`\sigma _{\mathrm{cont}}/F_\lambda (5100`$ Å) $`0.020`$ and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{line}}/F(\mathrm{H}\beta )0.020`$ for the continuum and H$`\beta `$ line, respectively, are adopted for the similar, large-aperture, high-quality data sets “A” and “H,” based on the differences between closely spaced observations within these sets (see also Peterson et al. 1998a). For the other data sets, it was possible to estimate the mean uncertainties in the measurements by comparing them to measurements from other sets for which the uncertainties are known and by assuming that the uncertainties for each set add in quadrature.

The intercalibration constants we use for each data set are given in Table 3, and these constants are used with equations (1) and (2) to adjust the spectral measurements. We note that there were a few cases in which the intercalibration constants had to be evaluated on a year-to-year basis to effect an acceptable intercalibration with the rest of the data.

### 2.2 Photometric Observations

In addition to the spectroscopic observations, numerous $`V`$-band photometric observations of NGC 5548 were made. The sources of these observations are summarized in Table 4 and a more complete log of observations is available on the AGN Watch website. Many of the observations used in this analysis were also included in a study by Doroshenko et al. (2001).

In order to effect an intercalibration with the spectroscopic light curve, we compared closely spaced pairs of spectroscopic and photometric observations and performed a least-squares fit to the equation

$$F_\lambda (5100\mathrm{\AA })=a+bF_V,$$
(3)
where the magnitude $`V2.5\mathrm{log}F_V`$. This fit was based on pairs of observations obtained within one day of each other. The raw $`V`$-band fluxes were adjusted using eq. (3) to the $`F_\lambda (5100\mathrm{\AA })`$ scale defined by the spectrophotometry.

### 2.3 The Merged Light Curves

A complete continuum light curve was assembled by merging the spectrophotometric and $`V`$-band photometric light curves described above. The final light curves for the optical continuum and H$`\beta `$ fluxes were then constructed by computing a weighted average of points separated in time by less than 0.1 day. The final light curves for Years 8 through 13 are given in Table 5. It is important to note that all measurements are in the observer’s frame and are uncorrected for Galactic extinction. Also, the continuum flux includes a contribution from the host galaxy, which we estimate to be $`3.4\times 10^{15}`$ ergs s-1 cm-2 Å-1 (Romanishin et al. 1995), and the emission-line flux includes the narrow-line component, which we estimate to be $`8.2\times 10^{14}`$ ergs s-1 cm-2 (Wanders & Peterson 1996); both of these values are in the observer’s reference frame.

## 3 Variability Analysis

The data given in Table 5 can be combined with our previously published light curves (Papers II, III, VII, VIII, and XV), yielding homogeneous light curves that cover a span of 4756 days. The combined data are shown in Figure 1. These light curves are comprised of 1530 continuum measurements and 1248 line measurements. In this section, we will summarize the basic characteristics of the thirteen-year homogeneous data base.

### 3.1 Characteristics of the Data Base

In Tables 6 and 7, we provide a summary of the basic characteristics of the continuum and H$`\beta `$ emission-line light curves, respectively, as shown in Figure 1. Column (1) indicates the subset considered, with time ranges as defined in Table 1. The number of observations in each subset is given in column (2), and columns (3) and (4) give the average and median intervals, respectively, between successive observations. The mean and root-mean-square (rms) fluxes, $`F_\lambda `$(5100 Å) in Table 6 and $`F`$(H$`\beta `$) in Table 7, are shown in column (5). Two standard measures of variability, $`F_{\mathrm{var}}`$ and $`R_{\mathrm{max}}`$, are given in columns (6) and (7), respectively. The parameter $`F_{\mathrm{var}}`$ is the rms fractional variability, corrected for measurement error, as defined by Rodríguez-Pascual et al. (1997), and $`R_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is simply the ratio of maximum to minimum flux. Both of these parameters are affected by contamination of the measured quantities by constant-flux components, namely the underlying host galaxy in the case of the continuum, and the narrow H$`\beta `$ emission component in the case of the line. If we use the values for the host- galaxy contribution and the narrow-line H$`\beta `$ flux given in the last section, the values of $`F_{\mathrm{var}}`$ increase to 0.380 and 0.242 for the continuum and H$`\beta `$ line, respectively, and the values of $`R_{\mathrm{max}}`$ increase to $`9.44\pm 1.41`$ and $`6.26\pm 0.62`$, respectively. It is notable that the optical nonstellar continuum in NGC 5548 has varied by an order of magnitude over this 13-year monitoring program.

### 3.2 Time-Series Analysis

As in Paper XV and previous papers, we compute the time delay between continuum variations and the H$`\beta `$ response by cross-correlation of the continuum and emission-line light curves. We perform the cross-correlation analysis in two ways, using the interpolation cross-correlation function (ICCF) method of Gaskell & Sparke (1986) and Gaskell & Peterson (1987), and the discrete correlation function (DCF) method of Edelson & Krolik (1988). In both cases, we use the implementation described by White & Peterson (1994).

The results of the cross-correlation analysis are shown in Figure 2 and summarized in Table 8. The entries in Table 8 give the subset used in the analysis (column 1), the centroid $`\tau _{\mathrm{cent}}`$ of the ICCF (column 2), the peak $`\tau _{\mathrm{peak}}`$ of the ICCF (column 3), and $`r_{\mathrm{max}}`$, the value of the ICCF at $`\tau _{\mathrm{peak}}`$. The value of $`\tau _{\mathrm{cent}}`$ is computed using only those points near the principal peak with values exceeding 0.8$`r_{\mathrm{max}}`$. The uncertainties quoted for $`\tau _{\mathrm{cent}}`$ and $`\tau _{\mathrm{peak}}`$ have been computed using the model-independent FR/RSS Monte-Carlo method described by Peterson et al. (1998b).

## 4 Discussion

It was noted in Paper XV that statistically significant year-to-year changes in the H$`\beta `$ lag have occurred, and that these changes are correlated with the mean continuum flux. The additional data described here confirm this result and allow us to investigate it further. In Figure 4, we plot $`\tau _{\mathrm{cent}}`$ as a function of the mean starlight-corrected continuum flux for each year $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{opt}}=F_\lambda (5100\mathrm{\AA })F_{\mathrm{gal}}`$, where $`F_{\mathrm{gal}}`$ is our best estimate of the host-galaxy starlight contribution through our standard aperture, $`3.4\times 10^{15}`$ ergs s-1 cm-2 Å-1 at 5100 Å (Romanishin et al. 1995); $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{opt}}`$ is thus the mean nonstellar flux from the AGN component only. We add to this a measurement from an earlier monitoring campaign at Wise Observatory (Netzer et al. 1990), adjusted as described in Paper XV. The best-fit power-law relationship between the continuum flux and time lag is $`\tau _{\mathrm{cent}}\overline{F}_{\mathrm{opt}}^{0.95}`$, nearly a linear relationship.

This result can be compared with a simple theoretical prediction. Photoionization equilibrium models for the BLR are characterized by (a) the shape of the ionizing continuum incident upon the BLR gas, and (b) an ionization parameter $`U`$, which is the ratio of ionizing photon density to particle density at the cloud inner face,

$$U=\frac{Q(\mathrm{H})}{4\pi r^2n_\mathrm{H}c},$$
(4)
where $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$ is the rate at which ionizing photons are produced by the continuum source, $`r`$ is the separation between the BLR gas and the continuum source, and $`n_\mathrm{H}`$ is the BLR particle density. Since the luminosity in ionizing photons $`L_{\mathrm{ion}}`$ is proportional to $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$, we expect that $`r^2L_{\mathrm{ion}}/Un_\mathrm{H}`$. Essentially, as $`L_{\mathrm{ion}}`$ varies, we expect that the response in a particular emission line will be greatest at some particular value of the product $`Un_\mathrm{H}`$, which will thus lead to $`rL_{\mathrm{ion}}^{1/2}`$ for any given line; in other words, the response of a particular line to a continuum variation ought to be dominated by gas in which the change in emissivity is greatest. In Figure 3, we show a test of this naive prediction based on fitting a $`rL^{1/2}`$ (i.e., $`\tau _{\mathrm{cent}}\overline{F}_{\mathrm{opt}}^{1/2}`$) power law to these data. The resulting fit is quite poor.

The simple model above makes the implicit assumption that the continuum does not change shape as it varies. This allows us to use $`L_{\mathrm{opt}}`$ as a surrogate for $`L_{\mathrm{ion}}`$, which cannot be measured directly. However, a flux at an ultraviolet wavelength closer to the Lyman edge at 912 Å would obviously provide a better surrogate for $`L_{\mathrm{ion}}`$ than $`L_{\mathrm{opt}}`$, and such data do exist in archival form, mostly from our previous UV monitoring experiments (Papers I and VIII) on NGC 5548. We have therefore recovered the NEWSIPS-extracted IUE spectra of NGC 5548 obtained since late 1989 from the IUE Final Archive in order to effect a direct comparison of the UV and optical amplitude of continuum variability. We measured the UV continuum flux $`F_{\mathrm{UV}}F_\lambda (\text{1350\hspace{0.17em}Å)}`$ by averaging the flux in the observed wavelength range 1370–1380 Å for all IUE SWP spectra obtained within one day of optical continuum measurements. All optical fluxes within one day of a UV continuum measurement were used to form a weighted average optical flux. This procedure yielded 83 pairs of UV/optical continuum measurements. We then fitted a power-law function $`F_{\mathrm{opt}}F_{\mathrm{UV}}^\alpha `$ to these data, as shown in Figure 4, yielding a best-fit slope $`\alpha =0.56`$. Combining this with the above relationship between $`\tau _{\mathrm{cent}}`$ and the optical continuum yields $`\tau _{\mathrm{cent}}F_{\mathrm{UV}}^{0.53}`$, which is consistent with the simple model. We note that there is no statistically significant time delay between the UV and optical continuum variations (Peterson et al. 1998b, and previous papers in this series).

Thus, the apparently linear correlation between the variations in the optical continuum and those in the H$`\beta `$ emission line is attributable to similar relationships between the UV and optical continuum variations on the one hand and the UV continuum and H$`\beta `$ emission-line variations on the other. This probably accounts for the apparent absence of scatter (relative to, say, Ly$`\alpha `$ or C iv$`\lambda 1549`$) in comparisons of the optical continuum and H$`\beta `$ fluxes of AGNs (e.g., Yee 1980; Peterson 1997).

It is interesting that our observational result agrees with the naive theory once we account for the change in the shape of the continuum between the UV and optical, but that naive theory supposes that the shape of the ionizing continuum remains unchanged. Either the shape of the continuum between the UV and extreme ultraviolet still remains constant, or the H$`\beta `$ line is surprisingly insensitive to the shape of the continuum.

It should be pointed out that our result differs from the BLR radius–luminosity relationship found by Kaspi et al. (2000), namely $`rL^{0.7}`$. The Kaspi et al. result describes how the BLR radius varies from object-to-object as a function of the mean optical luminosity of the source. The relationship discussed here describes how the BLR radius in an individual object changes as the luminosity of the central source varies with time.

## 5 Summary

We have presented an additional five years (1997–2001) of optical spectroscopic and photometric observations of the continuum and H$`\beta `$ emission-line variations in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. We have also added significantly to the previously published data from 1996, warranting a complete recalibration of the data for that particular year. The new data expand our temporal coverage of variations in this AGN to a total of 1530 continuum and 1248 H$`\beta `$ measurements obtained over a 4756-day span, beginning in 1988 December and terminating in 2001 December. During this period, the nonstellar optical continuum in NGC 5548 varied by approximately an order of magnitude in flux.

Analysis of the time delay between continuum variations and H$`\beta `$ response allows us to confirm our earlier finding (Paper XV) that the H$`\beta `$ lag varies with the mean continuum flux, ranging from a low value of $`6`$ days in 2000 to a high value of $`26`$ days in 1998–1999. We find consistency with the simple photoionization equilibrium prediction $`\tau _{\mathrm{cent}}L_{\mathrm{UV}}^{1/2}`$.

We are grateful to the Directors and Telescope Allocation Committees of our various observatories for their support of this project. Individual investigators have benefited from the support from a number of grants, including the following: National Science Foundation grants AST–9420080 (Ohio State University) and AST–9987938 (University of California, Berkeley); NASA grants NAG5-8397 (Ohio State University) and NAG5-3234 (University of Florida); US Civilian Research and Development Foundation Award No. UP1–2116 (Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and Ohio State University); Russian Basic Research Foundation Grants N97-02-17625 and N00-02-16272a (Sternberg Astronomical Institute and Special Astrophysical Observatory); INTAS grant N96-0328 and CONACyT research grants G28586-E, 28499-E, and 32106-E (INAOE), and Sonderforschungsbereich grants SFB 328 D and SFB 439. We thank the referee, Dr. M. Goad, for suggestions that led to an improved presentation.


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# Minimal 3-3-1 model, lepton mixing and muonium-antimuonium conversion

## I Introduction

The minimal 3-3-1 viceframp  model is an alternative to the standard model (SM) of the electro-weak interactions that, among other noteworthy features, presents an interesting leptonic phenomenology due to the presence of bileptons. The charged currents involving the vector bileptons $`V^\pm `$ and $`U^{\pm \pm }`$ allow for a number of rare processes, among them is the muonium-antimuonium($`M\overline{M}`$) conversion.

Presently, there are two sources of experimental constraints claiming an extension of the minimal model. One of them stems from the recent experimental results that corroborate the neutrino oscillation hypothesis SNO ; K2K ; KamLAND ; BahcallConcha .

In this regards, it was shown in Ref. joshi  that the model disposes of a potential that leads to a type II seesaw mechanism when we consider terms that break explicitly the lepton number. This means that the model leads naturally to small neutrino mass, as usually required by the neutrino oscillation hypothesis. However small neutrino mass is not the whole issue in neutrino physics once neutrino oscillation requires neutrino mixing. It was shown in Ref. gusso  that the minimal model is unable of generating the pattern of neutrino mixing required by solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillationgusso .

The other source of constraints on the model comes from the limits imposed on the $`M\overline{M}`$ conversion. In Ref. muoexp , it was posed that such a constraint implies a lower bound on the doubly charged vector bilepton in the minimal 3-3-1 model, $`M_{U^{++}}850`$ GeV, which is in clear contradiction to the predicted upper bound required by self-consistency of the model, namely, $`M_{U^{++}}600`$ GeV mu++limit .

As we have two different sources of constraints implying that for the minimal 3-3-1 model to be viable it has to be extended, and both involve its leptonic sector, it seems interesting to look for extensions that could lead to the desired pattern of neutrino mixing and simultaneously get rid of the $`M\overline{M}`$ bounds. This is the aim of this work, and we shall carry on this proposal dealing with the leptonic mixing.

This work is organized as follows. In section II we present the leptonic sector of the minimal 3-3-1 model, highlighting the aspects that are relevant to our analysis. In section III, we show how it is possible to simultaneously be consistent with neutrino data and circumvent the bound imposed by the non-observation of $`M\overline{M}`$ conversion setting an appropriate mixing in the leptonic sector. We also present the texture of the leptonic mass matrices that would lead to such a mixing and suggest a suitable way in which this scenario can be realized, addressing its phenomenological situation. We finally conclude in section IV.

## II Leptonic sector of the minimal 3-3-1 model

Before addressing the main point of our investigation, it is worthwhile to review how the lepton masses are generated in the minimal 3-3-1 model. The Yukawa interactions that lead to these masses are given by,

$`_l^Y`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G_{ab}}{2}}\overline{(\mathrm{\Psi }_{aL})^c}S^{}\mathrm{\Psi }_{b_L}+{\displaystyle \frac{F_{ab}}{2}}F_{ab}ϵ^{ijk}\overline{(\mathrm{\Psi }_{iaL})^c}\mathrm{\Psi }_{jbL}\eta _k^{}`$ (1)
$`+\text{H.c},`$
where $`a,b`$ label the different families and $`i,j,k=1,2,3`$ label the elements of each multiplet, with $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{aL}=(\nu _a,e_a,e_a^c)_L^T`$, $`\eta =(\eta ^0,\eta _1^{},\eta _2^+)^T`$ and the sextet $`S`$,

$`S=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\sigma _1^0& h_1^{}& s_2^+\\ h_1^{}& H_1^{}& \sigma _2^0\\ h_2^+& \sigma _2^0& H_2^{++}\end{array}\right).`$ (5)
In general non-diagonal matrices $`M_l`$ and $`M_\nu `$ can be diagonalized as follows,

$`M_l^D=V_{eL}^{}M_lV_{eR},M_\nu ^D=V_\nu ^{}M_\nu V_\nu ,`$ (6)
where $`M_{l,\nu }`$ is the mass matrix in the interaction basis, and $`M_{l,\nu }^D`$ is the mass matrix in the mass basis. The matrices $`V`$ transform the lepton fields from the interaction eigenstates into mass eigenstates and, in principle, they are different for left-handed and right-handed fields. These diagonalization matrices combine themselves in the charged current of the model which, after the 3-3-1 breaking to the $`SU(3)_cU(1)_{EM}`$, is given by (omitting family indices):

$`_l^{CC}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g}{\sqrt{2}}}\overline{e_L}\gamma ^\mu O^W\nu _LW_\mu ^{}{\displaystyle \frac{g}{\sqrt{2}}}\overline{(e_R)^c}O^V\gamma ^\mu \nu _LV_\mu ^{}`$ (7)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{g}{\sqrt{2}}}\overline{(e_R)^c}O^U\gamma ^\mu e_LU_\mu ^{}+\text{H.c.},`$
where $`O^W=V_{eL}^TV_\nu `$, $`O^V=V_{eR}^TV_\nu `$, and $`O^U=V_{eR}^TV_{eL}`$ are the mixing matrices. While the experimental data concerning neutrino oscillation give information on the possible values for the elements of $`O^W`$, we have no such information on the elements of $`O^V`$ and $`O^U`$. We also note that since the right handed mixing matrix $`V_{eR}`$ enters into the charged current interactions through bilepton-lepton coupling, the leptonic mixing results more complex than we would expect in simple extensions of the SM.

The mixing matrices appearing in this work are all of the Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (MNS) typeMNS  and we will be considering the simplest case of a zero CP violating phase, since this phase is irrelevant throughout our analysis. This implies that these matrices are real, and the hermitian conjugate of the matrices involved are simply their transpose. We then adopt the following parameterization for these matrices $`O^{W,V,U}`$,

$`\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}c_{12}c_{13}& & s_{12}c_{13}& & s_{13}\\ s_{12}c_{23}c_{12}s_{13}s_{23}& & c_{12}c_{23}s_{12}s_{13}s_{23}& & c_{13}s_{23}\\ s_{12}s_{23}c_{12}s_{13}c_{23}& & c_{12}s_{23}s_{12}s_{13}c_{23}& & c_{13}c_{23}\end{array}\right),`$ (11)
(12)
where, as usual, $`s_{ij}`$ and $`c_{ij}`$ denote sines and cosines of their arguments $`\theta _{ij}`$. This parameterization will be used in section III when we discuss the appropriate pattern for lepton mixing which would allow us to get rid of the $`M\overline{M}`$ bound, and still be consistent with neutrino physics.

## III Could $`M\overline{M}`$ conversion be absent in 3-3-1 model?

As we saw in section II the leptonic sector of the 3-3-1 model presents three mixing matrices $`O^W`$, $`O^V`$, and $`O^U`$. It is opportune to observe that these mixing matrices are not completely independent of each other, since they involve products of the lepton diagonalization matrices $`V_\nu `$, $`V_{eL}`$, and $`V_{eR}`$. In the case of a diagonal charged lepton basis $`V_{eL}`$ and $`V_{eR}`$ are also diagonal, leading to a diagonal mixing matrix for the interactions among $`U^{\pm \pm }`$ and the leptons. Hence, as we want to find a way of overcoming the $`M\overline{M}`$ bound by fixing an appropriate form for the matrix $`O^U`$, we must consider the leptonic sector in a non-diagonal charged lepton basis. Then, our first task is to determine the three matrices $`V_\nu `$, $`V_{eL}`$ and $`V_{eR}`$. The data from neutrino physics provide certain knowledge about the mixing matrix $`O^W`$. From it we can infer $`V_\nu `$ and $`V_{eL}`$. However we do not dispose of sufficient data to determine $`V_{eR}`$ and this gives us some room to make a key assumption in this work, namely, imposing that $`V_{eR}`$ mimics $`V_{eL}`$. The reason behind such an assumption is that it realizes our proposal of circumventing the $`M\overline{M}`$ bounds in the 3-3-1 model in a neat way, as we expose next. We then finish this section by commenting about the phenomenological status of this scenario.

Let us first determine the pattern of $`O^W`$. The recent analysis of atmospheric neutrino still favors $`\nu _\mu \nu _\tau `$ oscillation with an almost maximal mixing $`0.92<\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _{atm}1.0`$ at 90 % C.L. atmospheric . We also have that the oscillation among $`\nu _e\nu _\mu `$ is almost settled as the explanation for the solar neutrino problem. Here the recent results allow $`0.25\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _{sun}0.40`$ and $`0.6\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _{sun}0.75`$ (90 % C.L.) solar . Since the CHOOZ experiment failed to see the disappearance of $`\overline{\nu }_e`$, we also have $`0\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _{chz}<0.1`$ (90 % C.L.) chooz . For our proposal, we can fix the angles $`\theta _{atm}`$ ($`\theta _{23}`$) and $`\theta _{chz}`$ ( $`\theta _{13}`$), which is straightforwardly done by taking the best fit for $`\theta _{atm}=45^{}`$, while $`\theta _{chz}=0^{}`$, in agreement with the above presented results. The angle involved in the solar neutrino oscillation ($`\theta _{12}`$) is the one that allows for a certain range of values, and it can be kept as a free parameter in our investigation. We are left then with the so called maximal mixing pattern for $`O^W`$,

$`O^W=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c& s& 0\\ \frac{s}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{c}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\\ \frac{s}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{c}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\end{array}\right),`$ (16)
where we have used the short form $`\mathrm{sin}\theta _{sun}=s`$ and $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _{sun}=c`$.

A non-diagonal charged lepton mass basis means that both, $`V_{eL}`$ and $`V_\nu `$, are non trivial. The only way of separating Eq. (16) in these two matrices is to have maximal mixing between $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ coming from the charged lepton sector and the mixing in the $`\nu _e`$ to $`\nu _\mu `$ oscillation coming from the neutrino sector. In order to disentangle the contributions of the distinct diagonalization matrices to $`O^W`$ given by Eq. (16), we dissociate it as:

$`O^W`$ $`=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c& s& 0\\ \frac{s}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{c}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\\ \frac{s}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{c}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\end{array}\right)`$ (27)
$`=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\\ 0& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\end{array}\right)\times \left(\begin{array}{ccc}c& s& 0\\ s& c& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right),`$
which is the only way of doing it since otherwise we would inevitably get a large $`\theta _{chz}`$. From this matrix equation we can easily recognize the contribution from the charged lepton sector (remembering that $`O^W=V_{eL}^TV_\nu `$),

$`V_{eL}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\\ 0& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\end{array}\right),`$ (31)
and the contribution from the neutrino sector,

$`V_\nu =\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c& s& 0\\ s& c& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right).`$ (35)
In this way the neutrino sector gets responsible for the mixing related to the solar neutrino oscillation, and the charged lepton sector to the maximal mixing related to the atmospheric neutrino oscillation.

Let us take $`O^V=V_{eR}^TV_\nu `$ and dissociate it as the product of three rotation matrices:

$`O^V`$ $`=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& c_{23}& s_{23}\\ 0& s_{23}& c_{23}\end{array}\right)\times \left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{13}& 0& s_{13}\\ 0& 1& 0\\ s_{13}& 0& c_{13}\end{array}\right)`$ (46)
$`\times \left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{12}& s_{12}& 0\\ s_{12}& c_{12}& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right).`$
It is easy to recognize the last matrix at the right hand side of Eq. (46) as the neutrino mixing matrix given in Eq. (35). In this way let us take the usual notation $`c_{12}=c`$ and $`s_{12}=s`$. The other two matrices must form the $`V_{eR}`$ mixing matrix,

$`V_{eR}^T`$ $`=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& c_{23}& s_{23}\\ 0& s_{23}& c_{23}\end{array}\right)\times \left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{13}& 0& s_{13}\\ 0& 1& 0\\ s_{13}& 0& c_{13}\end{array}\right)`$ (57)
$`=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c_{13}& 0& s_{13}\\ s_{23}s_{13}& c_{23}& s_{23}c_{13}\\ c_{23}s_{13}& s_{23}& c_{23}c_{13}\end{array}\right).`$
Since there is no information about the angles in the matrix $`V_{eR}`$ we can, for convenience, assume that the charged current mediated by $`V^\pm `$ does not contrast with the physics experimentally established by the charged current mediated by $`W^\pm `$. For that reason we adopt in Eq. (57) $`\theta _{13}=0`$, and $`\theta _{23}`$ maximal. This choice accomplishes the goal of delivering the 3-3-1 model out of the $`M\overline{M}`$ bound if we require that the maximal angle be negative, that is, $`\theta _{23}=45^{}`$. With these assumptions we get

$`V_{eR}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\\ 0& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\end{array}\right).`$ (61)
The matrices in Eqs. (31), (35), and (61) determine the leptonic mixing in the 3-3-1 model. $`O^W`$ is given by Eq. (16) and the other two are

$`O^U=V_{eR}^TV_{eL}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\\ 0& 1& 0\end{array}\right),`$ (65)
$`O^V=V_{eL}^TV_\nu =\left(\begin{array}{ccc}c& s& 0\\ \frac{s}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{c}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\\ \frac{s}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{c}{\sqrt{2}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\end{array}\right).`$ (69)
The $`M\overline{M}`$ conversion is proportional to the product of $`O_{ee}^U`$ and $`O_{\mu \mu }^U`$. According to the pattern of leptonic mixing given above we have $`O_{\mu \mu }^U=0`$, which completely eliminates the $`M\overline{M}`$ conversion from the 3-3-1 model at tree level and, consequently, the bound on the vector bilepton mass.

Finally, once we have the pattern of leptonic mixing, it is imperative to establish the textures of the lepton mass matrices that lead to such a pattern. With $`V_\nu `$, $`V_{eR}`$ and $`V_{eL}`$ given by Eqs. (31), (35) and (61), respectively, we are able to obtain the textures of the neutrino and charged lepton mass matrices through Eq. (6).

Taking $`M_\nu ^D=diag(m_1,m_2,m_3)`$, the mixing $`V_\nu `$ given in Eq. (35) leads to the following texture for the neutrino mass matrix:

$`M_\nu `$ $`=V_\nu M_\nu ^DV_\nu ^T`$ (73)
$`=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}m_1c^2+m_2s^2& & \left(m_2m_1\right)cs& & 0\\ \left(m_2m_1\right)cs& & m_1s^2+m_2c^2& & 0\\ 0& & 0& & m_3\end{array}\right).`$
similarly, taking $`M_l^D=diag(m_e,m_\mu ,m_\tau )`$, the mixing matrices $`V_{eL}`$ and $`V_{eR}`$ given by the respective Eqs. (31) and (61), lead to the following texture for the charged lepton mass matrix,

$`M_l`$ $`=V_{eL}M_l^DV_{eR}^{}`$ (77)
$`=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}m_e& & 0& & 0\\ 0& & \left(m_\mu m_\tau \right)/2& & \left(m_\mu +m_\tau \right)/2\\ 0& & \left(m_\mu +m_\tau \right)/2& & \left(m_\mu m_\tau \right)/2\end{array}\right).`$
Extensions of the minimal 3-3-1 model that realize our proposal must recover the above textures.

In order to assure the feasibility of this proposal, let us implement an illustrative scenario which leads to the pattern of lepton mixing presented in (73) and (LABEL:clepmass2). Let us first focus on the matrix $`M_l`$ in (LABEL:clepmass2). Perceive that its unique non-diagonal element different from zero is anti-symmetric. This can be obtained by the scalar triplet $`\eta `$ once its Yukawa interaction in (1) gives rise to anti-symmetric entries. The diagonal elements can be generated by the sextet $`S`$. Then the Yukawa interactions in (1), with specific choice of the Yukawa couplings $`G_{ab}`$ and $`F_{ab}`$, can generate the matrix $`M_l`$ in (LABEL:clepmass2).

It is the generation of $`M_\nu `$ given in (73) that requires extension of the minimal model. As we are considering only an illustrative scenario, one immediate possibility of extension is the inclusion of a second sextet, $`S^{}`$, with the Yukawa interaction

$`_\nu ^Y={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}G_{ab}^{}\overline{(\mathrm{\Psi }_{aL})^c}S^{}\mathrm{\Psi }_{b_L}.`$ (79)
This extension in conjunction with the type II seesaw mechanism developed in Ref. joshi , and appropriated choice of the Yukawa couplings, $`G_{ab}^{}`$, can generate the pattern of $`M_\nu `$ given in (73).

We finish this section discussing features potentially restrictive for our proposal due to the form of $`O^U`$ in (69), since not only rare decays are possible, but also the coupling of the doubly charged vector bilepton to fermions is maximal (equal to $`g/\sqrt{2}`$) in some cases, leading to possibly serious constraints on its mass. For this reason we discuss now the possible phenomenological constraints on the proposed extension to the minimal model.

The phenomenology of vector bileptons is well studied in Ref. cuypers , and here we just update the main results relevant for this work. First, the rare decay involving the doubly charged vector bilepton, from the form of $`O^U`$ in Eq. (69), is the one which mixes the muon and tau, $`\tau ^+\mu ^{}e^+e^{}`$. This decay roughly gives (assuming $`g0.1`$ as for the analysis of $`M\overline{M}`$) $`M_{U^{++}}0.16`$ TeV, representing no threat to the model consistency. Because $`O_{ee}^U=1`$ we can also have contributions to the Bhabha scattering. However, in the realm of the 3-3-1 model we have to consider the contribution of the $`Z^{}`$ as well. The contributions of $`U^{++}`$ and the $`Z^{}`$ have negative interference terms that blurs the possible effects of the bilepton, implying that no limits on its mass can be extracted from the experimental data. Finally, another possible source of constraint on $`U^{++}`$ mass would be the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, $`(g2)_\mu `$. However, due to the uncertainties related to the hadronic contribution, the deviation from the SM prediction is not enough to put any severe constraint on the vector bilepton mass. In this sense, the bound imposed by consistency of the model remains valid in our suggested scenario.

## IV Concluding Remarks

In this work we focused on the possibility of the leptonic mixing to help finding a way out to avoid the $`M\overline{M}`$ bound on $`M_{U^{++}}`$. By assuming that right-handed and left-handed charged leptons both present maximal mixing, we arrived at a pattern of leptonic mixing which accommodates the recent experimental result in neutrino physics and eliminates the contribution of the bileptons to the $`M\overline{M}`$ conversionremark . Of course we have no knowledge of the actual values for the angles in the right-handed charged lepton mixing matrix, but the specific choice we made represents a possible conciliation of minimal 3-3-1 model with both, neutrino physics and the bound posed by $`M\overline{M}`$ conversion.

For completeness we presented the texture for neutrino and charged lepton mass matrices in accordance with the pattern of leptonic mixing used in solving the $`M\overline{M}`$ problem. It serves as a sort of guide to build extensions of the model capable of recovering our pattern of mixing. Finally we suggested a simple scenario that could realize our proposal. It is suitable to remark that the inconsistency raised by the $`M\overline{M}`$ bound in 3-3-1 model may be pointing the need of considering charged leptons a non-diagonal basis.

Acknowledgments. The authors would like to thank Vicente Pleitez for the critical reading of the manuscript and for useful suggestions. This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)(AG,PSRS) and by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (CASP)


text:
# Production of excited electrons at TESLA and CLIC based 𝑒𝛾 colliders

## I Introduction

In order to explain the fundamental aspects of the standard model (SM) such as the number of fermion generations and fermion mass spectrum compositeness models are expected to be a good candidate. The replication of three fermionic generations of known quarks and leptons implies composite structures made up of more fundamental constituents. The existence of such quark and lepton substructure leads one to expect a rich spectrum of new particles with unusual quantum numbers. A possible signal of excited states of quarks and leptons as predicted by composite models  would supply convincing evidence for a new substructure of matter. All composite models of fermions have an underlying substructure which is characterized by a scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. In such models, the known light fermions would be the ground state spectrum of the excited fermions.

In order to have an agreement between the precise measurements of electron and muon $`g2`$ and theoretical predictions for chiral couplings, the compositeness scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is expected to be less than 10 TeV . The absence of electron and muon electric dipole moments implies the chiral properties of the excited leptons. A right- handed excited lepton should couple to only left- handed components of the corresponding lepton. Excited leptons may be classified by $`SU(2)\times U(1)`$ quantum numbers and they are assumed to be both left- and right-handed weak isodoublets.

Experimental lower limits for the excited electron mass are given as $`m_{}>200`$ GeV in , and $`m_{}>306`$ GeV in . The higher limits are derived from indirect effects due to $`e^{}`$ exchange in the t-channel and depend on transition magnetic coupling between $`e`$ and $`e^{}`$. Relatively small limits ($`m_{\mu ^{},\tau ^{}}>94.2`$ GeV) for excited muon ($`\mu ^{}`$) and excited tau ($`\tau ^{}`$) are given by the LEP L3 experiment .

Excited leptons have been studied at $`\gamma \gamma `$ and $`e\gamma `$ colliders , $`e^+e^{}`$ colliders ,, and hadron colliders .

In this work, resonant production of excited electron in the s-channel and its subsequent decay modes $`e^{}e\gamma `$, $`e^{}\nu W`$, $`e^{}eZ`$ are considered. In addition, we include the contributions coming from the excited electron in the t-channel. In order to probe excited electrons, we examine the potential of TESLA and CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ colliders with the main parameters given in Table I. The production cross section and decays of excited electrons are calculated using an effective Lagrangian which depends on a compsiteness scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and on free parameters $`f`$ and $`f^{}`$.

## II Effective Lagrangian

The Lagrangian describing the transition between ordinary and excited leptons should respect to chiral symmetry in order to protect the light leptons from acquiring radiatively a large anomalous magnetic moment. The excited leptons ($`l^{}`$) can couple to leptons ($`l`$) and electroweak gauge bosons through the $`SU(2)\times U(1)`$ invariant effective interaction Lagrangian

$$L=\frac{1}{2\mathrm{\Lambda }}\overline{l}^{}\sigma _{\mu \nu }\left(gf\frac{\tau }{2}W_{\mu \nu }+g^{}f^{}\frac{Y}{2}B_{\mu \nu }\right)l_L+\text{H.c.}$$
(1)
where the $`W_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`B_{\mu \nu }`$ represent the field strength tensors of SU(2) and U(1) gauge fields. The $`\tau `$ and $`Y`$ are the corresponding gauge group generators; $`g`$ and $`g^{}`$ are gauge coupling constants. The parameters $`f`$ and $`f^{}`$ associated to the gauge groups SU(2) and U(1) depend on compositeness dynamics and they describe the effective changes from the SM coupling constants $`g`$ and $`g^{}`$. In the physical basis the Lagrangian (1) can be rewritten in more explicit form

$$L=\frac{g_e}{2\mathrm{\Lambda }}\left[(ff^{})N_{\mu \nu }\underset{l=e,\nu }{}\overline{l}^{}\sigma ^{\mu \nu }l_L+f\underset{l,l^{}=e,\nu }{}\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mu \nu }^{\overline{l}^{},l}\overline{l}^{}\sigma ^{\mu \nu }l_L^{}\right]+\text{H.c.}$$
(2)
where the first term in the paranthesis is a purely diagonal $`U(1)`$ term and vanishes for the coupling $`f=f^{}.`$ It contains only triple vertices with

$$N_{\mu \nu }=_\mu A_\nu \mathrm{tan}\theta _W_\mu Z_\nu .$$
(3)
The second term in (2) is a non-abelian part which involves triple as well as quartic terms with

$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mu \nu }^{\overline{\nu }^{},\nu }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{cos}\theta _W\mathrm{sin}\theta _W}}_\mu Z_\nu i{\displaystyle \frac{g_e}{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W}}W_\mu ^+W_\nu ^{}`$ (4)
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mu \nu }^{\overline{e}^{},e}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(2_\mu A_\nu +{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W}{\mathrm{cos}\theta _W\mathrm{sin}\theta _W}}_\mu Z_\nu i{\displaystyle \frac{g_e}{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W}}W_\mu ^+W_\nu ^{}\right)`$ (5)
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mu \nu }^{\overline{\nu }^{},e}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{\mathrm{sin}\theta _W}}\left(_\mu W_\nu ^+ig_eW_\mu ^+(A_\nu +\mathrm{cot}\theta _WZ_\nu )\right)`$ (6)
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mu \nu }^{\overline{e}^{},\nu }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{\mathrm{sin}\theta _W}}\left(_\mu W_\nu ^{}+ig_eW_\mu ^{}(A_\nu +\mathrm{cot}\theta _WZ_\nu )\right).`$ (7)
From Eq. (2), the vertex factor for excited lepton ($`l^{}`$) interacting with lepton ($`l`$) and gauge bosons ($`V=\gamma ,Z,W`$) can be obtained as follows

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mu ^{V\overline{l}^{}l}=\frac{g_e}{2\mathrm{\Lambda }}q^\nu \sigma _{\mu \nu }(1\gamma _5)f_V$$
(8)
where $`q`$ is the gauge boson momentum. The couplings $`f_V`$ are defined by

$`f_\gamma `$ $`=`$ $`Q_ff^{}+I_{3L}(ff^{})`$ (9)
$`f_W`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f}{\sqrt{2}\mathrm{sin}\theta _W}}`$ (10)
$`f_Z`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{Q_f\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _Wf^{}+I_{3L}(\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _Wf+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _Wf^{})}{\mathrm{cos}\theta _W\mathrm{sin}\theta _W}}`$ (11)
where $`Q_f`$ and $`I_{3L}`$ are the charge of excited lepton and the weak isospin, respectively; and $`\theta _W`$ is the weak mixing angle.

## III Decay Widths

Decay widths of excited electrons in the individual channels $`e^{}e\gamma `$, $`e^{}eZ`$, and $`e^{}\nu W`$ are given by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(e^{}e\gamma )=\frac{\alpha }{4}\frac{m_{}^3}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}f_\gamma ^2$$
(12)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(e^{}eZ)=\frac{\alpha }{4}\frac{m_{}^3}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}f_Z^2(1\frac{m_Z^2}{m_{}^2})^2(1+\frac{m_Z^2}{2m_{}^2})$$
(13)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(e^{}\nu W)=\frac{\alpha }{4}\frac{m_{}^3}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}f_W^2(1\frac{m_W^2}{m_{}^2})^2(1+\frac{m_W^2}{2m_{}^2}).$$
(14)
For $`m_{}m_{Z,W}`$, total decay width of excited electron is given by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{tot}\frac{\alpha }{4}\frac{m_{}^3}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}\text{}\left[f_\gamma ^2+f_W^2+f_Z^2\right]$$
(15)
The branching ratios for the excited electron decay channels are described as follows

$$BR=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(e^{}lV)}{_V\mathrm{\Gamma }(e^{}lV)}.$$
(16)
where $`l`$ is electron or neutrino. We choose the parameters either $`f=f^{}`$ or $`f=f^{}`$ in our calculations in order to reduce the number of free parameters. For the case $`f=f^{}`$ ($`f=f^{}`$) the coupling of the photon to excited neutrinos (electrons) vanishes. We display the decay widths and branching ratios for excited electrons in Fig. 1. The decay widths of excited electrons, for the accessible mass range, could be comparable with the detector resolution at TESLA and CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ colliders. As can be seen from Fig. 1 an excited electron decays into a W boson and a neutrino dominantly, and the branching ratios are insensitive to higher excited electron mass when compared to $`m_W`$ or $`m_Z`$. We obtain the limiting values for the branching ratios at large $`m_{}`$ as 0.28, 0.60 and 0.11 for the coupling $`f=f^{}=1`$ at photon, W and Z channel, respectively. In the case $`f=f^{}=1`$, the branching ratio for W channel does not change while it increases to the value $`0.39`$ for Z channel.

## IV Cross Sections

Excited electrons can be produced directly via the subprocess $`e\gamma e^{}lV`$ ($`V=\gamma ,Z,W`$) and indirectly via t-channel exchange diagram. The Feynman diagrams for $`e\gamma e\gamma (eZ)`$ and $`\gamma e\nu W`$ processes in electron-photon collisions are shown in Fig. 2 and 3.

For an immediate estimation, the cross section for the signal can be well approximated with the Breit Wigner formula

$`\widehat{\sigma }_{BW}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{8\pi ^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_i\mathrm{\Gamma }_f}{m_{}s\mathrm{\Gamma }_{tot}}}f_\gamma (x)`$ (17)
for the narrow decay widths where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_f`$ are the initial and final state decay widths, respectively. Here, $`x=\widehat{s}/s`$ where $`\sqrt{\widehat{s}}`$ being the center of mass energy of the subprocess. In order to obtain the total cross sections for the signal and background, without the narrow width approximation, we use the following formula

$`\sigma ={\displaystyle _{x_{\mathrm{min}}}^{0.83}}𝑑xf_\gamma (x)\widehat{\sigma }(\widehat{s}).`$ (18)
where $`\widehat{\sigma }(\widehat{s})`$ is obtained from the well- known matrix element calculation from the Feynman diagrams given in Figs. 2 and 3. Here, $`x_{\mathrm{min}}=m_{}^2/s`$. The high energy photon spectrum $`f_\gamma (x)`$ obtained from the Compton backscattering is given by

$`f_\gamma (x)=\left\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{N}\left[1x+\frac{1}{1x}\left[1\frac{4x}{x_0}\left(1\frac{x}{x_0\left(1x\right)}\right)\right]\right]& ,0<x<x_{\mathrm{max}}\\ 0& ,x>x_{\mathrm{max}}\end{array}\right\}`$ (21)
where $`x_0=4.82`$, $`x_{max}=x_0/(1+x_0)`$ and N=1.84 . The production cross section of excited electron in three modes, taking $`f=f^{}=1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$=$`m_{}`$, are given in Fig. 4 and 5 for TESLA and CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ colliders at the center of mass energies of $`\sqrt{s}=911`$ GeV and $`\sqrt{s}=2733`$ GeV, respectively. From Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, we get the following information; the $`\nu W`$ channel gives higher cross section than the others however there is an ambiguity with the neutrino in this channel. Therefore, the photon channel gives a more promising result because of its simple kinematics. Excited electrons can be produced copiously at TESLA and CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ colliders. The cross sections and the numbers of signal events are shown in Table II and III. For the signal and background processes we apply a cut $`p_T^{e,\gamma }>10`$ GeV for experimental identification of final state particles. The backgrounds to the W and Z decay channels in the hadronic final states are fairly large. The backgrounds to the photonic final states are relatively small in comparasion with the W channels.

In order to get one particle inclusive cross sections for the production of a particle of transverse momentum $`p_T`$ and rapidity $`y`$, we use the following standard procedure. The differential cross section for the process $`e\gamma eZ`$ with respect to the transverse momentum $`p_T`$ of outgoing electron is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma }{dp_T}}=2p_T{\displaystyle _y^{}^{y^+}}𝑑yf_{\gamma /e}(x){\displaystyle \frac{xs}{s2p_TE_ae^y}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\widehat{\sigma }}{d\widehat{t}}}`$ (22)
with

$`x={\displaystyle \frac{2p_TE_be^y+m_Z^2}{s2p_TE_ae^y}}`$ (23)
and

$`y^\pm =\mathrm{log}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{0.83sm_Z^2}{4p_TE_b}}\pm \sqrt{\left({\displaystyle \frac{0.83sm_Z^2}{4p_TE_b}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{0.83E_a}{E_b}}}\right]`$ (24)
where $`E_a`$ and $`E_b`$ are the incoming particle energies. $`\widehat{s}`$ and $`\widehat{t}`$ are the Lorentz invariant Mandelstam variables.

The $`p_T`$ distribution of $`W`$ boson in $`e\gamma `$ collision at rapidity $`y`$ for the process $`e\gamma \nu W`$ is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma }{dp_T}}=2p_T{\displaystyle _y^{}^{y^+}}𝑑yf_\gamma (x){\displaystyle \frac{xs}{s2m_TE_ae^y}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\widehat{\sigma }}{d\widehat{t}}}`$ (25)
with

$`x={\displaystyle \frac{2m_TE_be^ym_W^2}{s2m_TE_ae^y}}`$ (26)
and

$`y^\pm =\mathrm{log}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{0.83s+m_W^2}{4m_TE_b}}\pm \sqrt{\left({\displaystyle \frac{0.83s+m_W^2}{4m_TE_b}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{0.83E_a}{E_b}}}\right]`$ (27)
where $`m_T=\sqrt{m_W^2+p_T^2}`$ is the definition for the transverse mass of $`W`$ boson.

The production of a photon in $`e\gamma `$ collision at rapidity $`y`$ and transverse momentum $`p_T`$ for the process $`e\gamma e\gamma `$ can be found by replacing $`m_W=0`$ in (21).

In the Eqs. (20) and (21), we have calculated the differential cross sections $`d\widehat{\sigma }/d\widehat{t}`$ for the signal and background processes taking into account the interferences between the SM and excited electrons contributions.

For both signal and background, the behavior of $`p_T`$ spectrum of final state photon, $`W`$ boson and electron in three modes are shown in Figures 6-8 for various values of parameters $`f=f^{}`$ at TESLA based $`e\gamma `$ collider with $`\sqrt{s}=911`$ GeV. At CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ collider with $`\sqrt{s}=2733`$ GeV, we can easily scale the cross sections according to Figs. 4 and 5. For signal process $`e\gamma e^{}e\gamma `$, transverse momentum $`p_T`$ distribution of photon or electron is peaked around the half of the mass value of excited electron. For the process $`e\gamma e^{}\nu W`$(eZ), $`p_T`$ distribution of W boson (electron) shows a peak around $`m_{}/2m_V^2/2m_{}`$. Here $`m_V`$ denotes W boson (or Z boson) mass. This signal peak moves to a greater (smaller) $`p_T`$ value when the excited electron mass increased (decreased). For the parameters $`f=f^{}1`$ one can conclude that the $`p_T`$ distribution changes simply with $`f^2`$. The backgrounds decrease smoothly when the transverse momentum of final state particles increase.

In order to estimate the number of events for the signal and background in a chosen $`p_T`$ window, we integrate the transverse momentum distribution around the half of each excited electron mass point ($`m_{}/2m_V^2/2m_{}`$) in the interval of transverse momentum resolution $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_T`$. Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_T`$ is approximated as $`10`$ GeV for $`m_{}=500`$ GeV and $`20`$ GeV for $`m_{}=1500`$ GeV for a generic detector. In order to calculate signal significance, we use the integrated luminosity for TESLA and CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ colliders with $`L=9.4\times 10^4`$ pb-1 and $`L=9\times 10^4`$ pb-1, respectively .

In order to quantify the potential of TESLA and CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ colliders to search for excited electron, we define the statistical significance (SS)

$`SS`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\left|\sigma _{total}\sigma _{back}\right|}{\sqrt{\sigma _{back}}}}\sqrt{L}.`$ (28)
where $`\sigma _{total}`$ and $`\sigma _{back}`$ is the total cross sections for signal+background and background inside chosen $`p_T`$ window, respectively. We calculate the value of SS for different couplings assuming $`f=f^{}`$ and requiring the condition $`SS>5`$ for the signal observability. We find from the Tables IV-VII that the excited electrons can be observed down to coupling $`f0.05`$ at TESLA and $`f0.1`$ at CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ colliders.

In the final states containing W or Z boson we should consider the subsequent decay modes of the weak bosons. For leptonic decay the branching ratios are $`BR(Wl\nu )10.56\%`$ and $`BR(Zl^+l^{})3.37\%`$. However hadronic decay modes have larger branchings as $`BR(WHadrons)68.5\%`$ and $`BR(ZHadrons)69.89\%`$ . We should multiply the cross sections for $`22`$ processes by the branching ratios for subsequent decays of W or Z boson in the weak decay channels of excited electron. Here we do not consider the invisible decay modes. The direct production of excited electrons at $`e\gamma `$ collider will give the signal in the final state a) electron+photon or b) lepton+$`p_T^{miss}`$ or c) 2jet+$`p_T^{miss}`$ or d) electron+2lepton or e)electron+$`p_T^{miss}`$ or f) electron+ 2jet. For the observation of more clear signal we may choose the leptonic channels.

## V Results and Discussions

Excited electrons can be produced directly with a large cross section (even in the three decay modes) at high energy TESLA and CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ colliders. For an observation, we require the condition $`SS>5`$ per year at $`e\gamma `$ colliders with the integrated luminosity of $`O(10^5pb^1)`$. With the couplings $`f=f^{}=1`$ we can reach the excited electron mass up to the kinematical limits of collider energies. For smaller values of the parameters $`f`$ and $`f^{}`$, the cross sections are lowered simply by $`f^2`$. If excited electrons with a lower parameters exist, we will need high resolution detectors.

In this study, we have taken into account that the excited electrons interact with the Standard Model particles through the effective Lagrangian (1). This may be a conservative assumption because it is possible for excited fermions couple to ordinary quarks and leptons via contact interactions originating from the strong constituents dynamics. In this case, the decay widhts can be enhanced .

In conclusion, we have presented the results of excited electron production with subsequent decays into three decay channels. The excited electrons can be produced at TESLA and CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ colliders up to kinematical limit at each channel due to the smooth photon energy spectrum. We find that excited electron with mass $`500(750)`$ GeV can be probed down to the coupling $`f=f^{}0.05`$ at TESLA based $`e\gamma `$ colliders. At a CLIC based $`e\gamma `$ collider ($`\sqrt{s}=2733`$ GeV), the excited electron can be probed down to the couplings $`f=f^{}0.1`$.


text:
# CERN-TH/02-198hep-th/0208151 Non-Collapsing Membrane Instantons in Higher Dimensions

## 1. Introduction

Some years ago, we introduced the notion of the self-duality for supermembrane in $`4+1`$-dimensions and in the light-cone gauge. The corresponding self-duality (s-d) equations proved to be an integrable system with an infinite number of conservation laws and particular solutions were found  which were collapsing configurations of membrane instantons to point-like or string-like objects. Similar covariant self-duality equations have been introduced before for $`2+1`$-dimensions  and later generalized to $`6+1`$ dimensions in .

These objects, represent world-volume instantons of the supermembrane. In the light cone gauge, the world-volume time and the target time are identical, so these configurations are space-time membrane instantons and they provide quantum mechanical tunnelling through the membrane self-interaction potential moving with velocities bigger than light. Thus, they can travel infinite distances in finite time.

Their equations of motion, which are Nahm’s type equations for the area-preserving diffeomorphism group of the membrane, lead for axially symmetric configurations to continuous Toda equations relating thus the membrane instantons with the self-dual Einstein metrics with isometries .

The basic ingredients for the study of covariant membrane instantons in higher than ($`4+1`$)-dimensions, were contained in the pioneering paper of ref , however this work was until recently overlooked. The authors in  introduced higher dimensional self-duality equations for the light-cone membranes as well as in the case of the quantized Poisson (i.e. Moyal) bracket. The detailed properties of the octonionic light-cone membrane instantons where studied in , where the invariance of the seven dimensional equations under the exceptional group $`G_2`$ was exploited. The invariance under this group has as a consequence one remaining supersymmetry consistent with the membrane background. In three dimensions there are eight remaining supersymmetries .

In a parallel development, octonionic self-duality for seven and eight dimensional gravity was proposed  and explicit seven and eight gravitational instantons which generalize four-dimensional ones (satisfying first order equations) were found . These higher dimensional gravitational instantons where among the first few explicitly known self-dual metrics with exceptional holonomies $`G_2`$ and Spin(7) which were also lifted in 10 and 11-dimensional supergravity. Recently, exceptional holonomy higher dimensional instantons were studied for their rôle in string and M-theory and an important activity around this subject has been created .

In this letter, we introduce the complexified self-duality equations of the membrane in seven dimensions and represent them as generalized Nahm equations. We show that the extra dimensions manifest themselves in the solutions through the appearance of an non-zero conserved charge which prevents the collapse of the membrane. We integrate completely the three-dimensional complex Nahm’s equations for $`S^2`$ and $`T^2`$ topologies, assuming factorization of time. We find periodic non-collapsing instantons. Starting from infinite size they contract, with increasing angular velocity, to a minimum size and then they bounce back to infinity in finite time.

## 2. The Self-Duality Membrane equations in seven Dimensions.

Choosing fixed values for the 8th and 9th membrane coordinates, the seven-dimensional self-duality equations  become

$$\dot{X}_i=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Psi }_{ijk}\{X_j,X_k\}$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{ijk}`$ is the completely antisymmetric tensor that defines the multiplications of octonions . The Gauss law results automatically by making use of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{ijk}`$ cyclic symmetry

$`\{\dot{X}_i,X_i\}=0`$ (2)
The Euclidean equations of motion are obtained as follows

$`\ddot{X}_i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{\Psi }_{ijk}\left(\{\dot{X}_j,X_k\}+\{X_j,\dot{X}_k\}\right)`$ (3)
$`=`$ $`\{X_k,\{X_i,X_k\}\}`$ (4)
where use has been made of the identity

$`\mathrm{\Psi }_{ijk}\mathrm{\Psi }_{lmk}=\delta _{il}\delta _{jm}\delta _{im}\delta _{jl}+\varphi _{ijlm}`$ (5)
and of the cyclic property of the symbol $`\varphi _{ijlm}`$ .

At this point we would like to make a general remark on the nature of the motion described by (1). These equations describe the time evolution of the membrane instanton in flat space-times. If the coordinates $`X_i,(i=1,\mathrm{},7)`$ are periodic functions of the membrane parameters $`\sigma _{1,2}`$, then integrating both sides of the equations we find that all membrane instantons have their center of mass pinched in a fixed point of space. This implies spontaneous symmetry breaking of translational invariance. If some of the flat space dimensions are compactified, then the center of mass moves with the velocity determined by the cross products of the winding numbers of the membrane in the compactified dimensions. The cross product is defined through the tensor $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{ijk}`$ .

In what follows, we proceed to the complexification of the self-duality equations. We embed the seven dimensional space $`R^7`$ into $`C^3\times R`$ in a very specific way which depends on the particular definition of the octonionic structure constants used in ref  which assume the following multiplication table

$`\mathrm{\Psi }_{ijk}=\{\begin{array}{ccccccc}1& 2& 4& 3& 6& 5& 7\\ 2& 4& 3& 6& 5& 7& 1\\ 3& 6& 5& 7& 1& 2& 4\end{array}`$ (9)
Thus, if we define

$`z_1=X_1+iX_4,z_2=X_2+iX_5,z_3=X_3+iX_6,a_0=X_7`$
then the self-duality equations become

$`D_tz_I={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}ϵ_{IJK}\{z_J^{},z_K^{}\},`$ $`D_ta_0={\displaystyle \frac{ı}{2}}\{z_I,z_I^{}\}`$ (10)
where $`I,J,K`$ take the values $`1,2,3`$, whereas $`D_t`$ is the ‘covariant’ derivative

$`D_t`$ $`=`$ $`_ti\{a_0,\}`$ (11)
These strikingly simple equations of self-duality, break the $`G_2`$ invariance down to $`SU(3)`$. The $`SU(3)`$ invariance comes from the unique cross product existing in $`C^3`$ which is a remnant of the octonionic cross product in seven dimensions. One consequence is that, the three dimensional world-volume manifolds described by (10) are $`SU(3)`$ special lagrangian sub-manifolds of $`C^3`$ .

In the next section, we will consider the factorization of time and the restriction to three complex dimensions of the above first order equations. Before that, we would like to observe that it is possible to generalize the connection of the three dimensional self-duality equations with the continuous Toda equations. This is possible if we consider axially symmetric solutions of the above system. Indeed, the axially symmetric Ansatz,

$`z_1=R(\sigma _2,t)\mathrm{cos}\sigma _1,z_2=R(\sigma _2,t)\mathrm{sin}\sigma _1,z_3=z(\sigma _2,t)`$ (12)
where, $`R,z`$ complex functions, implies $`\dot{a}_0=0`$ for all times and thus $`a_0`$ can be fixed to zero by an area preserving transformation. For the equations (10) we obtain

$`\dot{R}=R^{}z_{\sigma _2}^{},`$ $`\dot{z}=R^{}R_{\sigma _2}^{}.`$ (13)
and the index $`\sigma _2`$ refers to the derivative with respect to $`\sigma _2`$. This system of equations has as integrability condition the following non-linear equation which extends the continuous Toda equation to three complex dimensions.

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{R^{}}}_t^2R{\displaystyle \frac{1}{R^2}}_tR_tR^{}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_{\sigma _2}^2R^2`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (14)
This equation maybe relevant for the higher dimensional self-dual gravity. Setting in (14) $`R^2=e^\mathrm{\Psi }`$ we obtain the form

$`\ddot{\mathrm{\Psi }}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\dot{\mathrm{\Psi }}\dot{\mathrm{\Psi }}^{})\dot{\mathrm{\Psi }}+e^{\frac{1}{2}(\dot{\mathrm{\Psi }}\dot{\mathrm{\Psi }}^{})}_{\sigma _2}^2e^\mathrm{\Psi }=0`$ (15)
In the real three dimensional case , we have $`R^{}=R`$ and $`z=z^{}`$, while the continuous Toda equation for $`\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Psi }^{}`$ reads ,

$`_t^2\mathrm{\Psi }+_{\sigma _2}^2e^\psi `$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (16)
In the next section, among other things we find the complete solution of the above (13) system or of the generalized continuous Toda equation (14) restricting the functions $`R,z`$ so that $`R(\sigma _2,t)=\mathrm{sin}\sigma _2\zeta (t)`$, $`z(\sigma _2,t)=\mathrm{cos}\sigma _2\zeta _3(t)`$.

## 3. Membrane instantons in three complex dimensions

As we show below, it is possible to extend the known three dimensional instanton solutions into six dimensions where, apart from the radial expansion of the instanton, we observe rotational motion in all of the three planes $`(X_1,X_4),(X_2,X_5),(X_3,X_6)`$ of the six-dimensional space (which we choose to call them I,II,III complex planes).

We assume factorization of time which will lead to a coherent motion of all the membrane points. These solutions are analogous (but for Euclidean time) to the real time solutions of second order equations of motion for toroidal and spherical membranes recently studied in

$`z_i`$ $`=`$ $`\zeta _i(t)f_i(\sigma _1,\sigma _2)`$ (17)
where $`f_i`$ are three complex functions on the surface. First we observe that the Poisson bracket $`\{z_i,z_i^{}\}=0`$, if the functions $`f_i,f_i^{}`$ are functions of the same combination $`\sigma _1,\sigma _2`$. From the equation for $`a_0`$ we find $`\dot{a}_0=0`$ and therefore by an appropriate area preserving transformation we may fix $`a_0`$ to be zero. So we are left with the three complex Nahm’s equations for $`z_i`$. We shall examine in detail two topologies, -spherical ($`S^2`$) and toroidal ($`T^2`$).

Up to now only three-dimensional solutions of the self duality equations are known . In order to factorize the time dependence we choose for the case of $`S^2`$ the three functions $`f_i`$ to be

$`f_1=\mathrm{cos}\varphi \mathrm{sin}\theta ,f_2=\mathrm{sin}\varphi \mathrm{sin}\theta ,f_3=\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ (18)
The three functions for the algebra $`SU(2)`$ under Poisson bracket satisfy

$`\{f_i,f_j\}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ_{ijk}f_k,i,j,k=1,2,3`$ (19)
For the three complex functions of time, we find the complex Euler equations 111For the seven dimensional system in another context, see also .

$`\dot{\zeta }_i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}ϵ_{ijk}^2\zeta _j^{}\zeta _k^{}`$ (20)
In the case of $`T^2`$ we choose the following three functions

$`f_i`$ $`=`$ $`e^{ı\stackrel{}{n_i}\stackrel{}{\sigma }},i=1,2,3,`$ (21)
$`\stackrel{}{n_i}`$ $`=`$ $`(n_{i1},n_{i2})Z^2`$ (22)
Now we observe that the factorization of time is implemented for any three $`\stackrel{}{n}_i`$’s such that

$`\stackrel{}{n}_1+\stackrel{}{n}_2+\stackrel{}{n}_3=\stackrel{}{0}`$ (23)
In this case, we obtain for the corresponding $`\zeta _i(t)`$

$`\dot{\zeta }_i`$ $`=`$ $`n{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}ϵ_{ijk}^2\zeta _j^{}\zeta _k^{}`$ (24)
where $`n=n_{11}n_{22}n_{12}n_{21}Z`$.

In both cases ($`S^2`$ and $`T^2`$) the equations for the time evolution are essentially the same. The $`T^2`$ case is obtained from the equations of $`S^2`$ if we make the replacement $`tnt`$ for $`n`$ integer. Therefore we only need to investigate the equation (20) which in component form is written

$`\dot{\zeta }_1=\zeta _2^{}\zeta _3^{},\dot{\zeta }_2=\zeta _3^{}\zeta _1^{},\dot{\zeta }_3=\zeta _1^{}\zeta _2^{}`$ (25)
There is an obvious symmetry of the above system

$`\zeta _k`$ $``$ $`e^{ıq_k}\zeta _k,`$ (26)
where $`q_k,k=1,2,3`$ are real and $`q_1+q_2+q_2=0`$. This invariance leads to the conservation of the three charges

$`Q_i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{ı}{2}}\left(\dot{\zeta }_i\zeta _i^{}\dot{\zeta }_i^{}\zeta _i\right),i=1,2,3`$ (27)
On the other hand, the equations of motion (25) imply that all three charges $`Q_i`$ are equal to

$`Q_iQ`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{ı}{2}}\left(\zeta _1\zeta _2\zeta _3\zeta _1^{}\zeta _2^{}\zeta _3^{}\right)`$ (28)
There are two additional constants of motion in analogy with the Euler equations for the rigid body,

$`c_{ij}`$ $`=`$ $`|\zeta _i|^2|\zeta _j|^2`$ (29)
where $`c_{ij}`$ are constants. In polar coordinates

$`\zeta _k`$ $`=`$ $`r_ke^{ı\varphi _k}`$ (30)
we obtain

$`Q`$ $`=`$ $`r_1r_2r_3\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _1+\varphi _2+\varphi _3)`$ (31)
$`\dot{\varphi }_k`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{Q}{r_k^2}}`$ (32)
$`c_{ij}`$ $`=`$ $`r_i^2r_j^2`$ (33)
Theen, equations (25) reduce to

$`\dot{r}_i`$ $`=`$ $`r_jr_k\mathrm{cos}\varphi ,`$ (34)
where $`\varphi =\varphi _1+\varphi _2+\varphi _3`$. For simplicity we define $`s_1=r_1^2`$. We further combine (34) with (31) to obtain the following differential equation

$`\dot{s}_1`$ $`=`$ $`2\sqrt{s_1s_2s_3Q^2}`$ (35)
After substitutions, the differential equation obtains a unique form in the right-hand side for all $`s_i`$ which is

$`\dot{s}^2`$ $`=`$ $`4\left[s(sa)(sb)Q^2\right]`$ (36)
where $`s_1=s`$ $`s_2=sa`$, $`s_3=sb`$, where $`a=c_{12},b=c_{12}+c_{23}`$.

If we define a new function of time $`𝒰(t)=s(t)\frac{a+b}{3}`$, the differential equation becomes

$`\dot{𝒰}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}`$ $`=`$ $`4𝒰^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3}}g_2𝒰g_3`$ (37)
which is recognized as the standard form of the Weierstrass equation with solution the (doubly periodic) Weierstrass function $`𝒰(t)=𝒫(t;g_2,g_3)`$, with

$`g_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}(a^2+b^2ab)`$ (38)
$`g_3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4}{27}}(2b^3+2a^33a^2b3ab^2)+4Q^2`$ (39)
Before we proceed to the analysis of the solution, we would like to point out that there is an isomorphism between the membrane and the matrix model solutions with factorization of time for the spherical and toroidal topologies. This implies that the above solutions have isomorphic matrix model instanton solutions similar to those examined recently in ref.

## 4. Analysis of the non-collapsing instanton solutions

The equation of motion (36) for the membrane radii ($`r_1^2s`$, $`r_2^2=sa`$ and $`r_3^2=sb`$), is analogous to the motion of a particle in a potential $`V`$. This is indeed the motion of any point of the Euclidean membrane:

$`\dot{s}^2V(s,Q)=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}4}[s(sa)(sb)Q^2]`$ (40)
where $`a,b`$ are positive constants. Without loss of generality we may choose $`a>b>0`$. The left hand side of the equation (40) is always positive, thus the permitted regions for the variable $`s`$ are such that $`V(s,Q)`$ is also positive. These regions depend on the values of $`Q`$. There is a limiting position of the qubic curve when $`Q^2=0`$ ( $`V(s,0)V_0(s)`$). This is the upper curve shown in figure (1) and the three real roots are $`s_1=a`$, $`s_2=b`$ and $`s_3=0`$. For all other values of $`Q^2`$ the curve is below the limiting one and whenever there are three real roots, they are $`b>s_3>0`$ $`s_2<b,s_1>a`$ respectively. $`V(s,Q)`$ possesses extrema at the values

$`s_{max/min}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\left(a+b\sqrt{a^2+b^2ab}\right)`$ (41)
There is a critical value $`Q^2=Q_c^2`$ for which the $`V(s,Q)`$ has a double root which is the $`s_{max}`$. $`Q_c`$ is determined as follows

$`Q_c^2`$ $`=`$ $`V_0(s_{max})`$ (42)
In this case we calculate the maximum root to be

$`s_1^c`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(a+b+2\sqrt{a^2+b^2ab}\right)`$ (43)
The physical region is this case is beyond $`s_1^c`$.

When $`Q^2>Q_c^2`$ there are two complex conjugate roots (the maximum of $`V`$ is below the real axis) the physical region is $`s>s_1`$ where $`s_1`$ is the real root. The three cases described above are presented in figure (1).

In what follows, we proceed in the detailed description of the dynamics of the membrane instanton in the three cases discussed above ($`Q=0`$, $`Q0`$, $`Q=Q_c`$).

$``$ When $`Q=0`$ it is possible to redefine the time-independent phases (32) to zero values and the self-duality equation reduces to the ones of the three dimensional case . Because of the conservation laws we only need the equation for $`s=r_1^2`$ which reads

$`\dot{s}`$ $`=`$ $`2\sqrt{s(sa)(sb)}`$ (44)
We distinguish the following cases :

* $`a=b=0`$. The solution is a spherical membrane with the radius varied with time as

$`r`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{r_0}{1+r_0(tt_0)}}`$ (45)
There is a critical value $`t_c=t_01/r_0`$ where $`r\mathrm{}`$, whilst for $`t\mathrm{}`$ the radius shrinks to zero.
* $`a=0,b0`$. The equation becomes $`\dot{s}=2s\sqrt{sb}`$ and the solution obtained is

$`r`$ $`=`$ $`r_0{\displaystyle \frac{1+\frac{\sqrt{b}}{r_0}\mathrm{tan}\{\sqrt{b}(tt_0)\}}{1\frac{r_0}{\sqrt{b}}\mathrm{tan}\{\sqrt{b}(tt_0)\}}}`$ (46)
At $`t_c=\frac{1}{\sqrt{b}}\mathrm{tan}^1\frac{\sqrt{b}}{r_0}`$ the membrane has an infinite radius. On the contrary, when $`t_{in}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{b}}\mathrm{tan}^1\frac{\sqrt{b}}{r_0}`$ the configuration collapses to a string.
* $`a>b>0`$. This is the most general four-dimensional case. The s-d equation reads

$$\dot{s}=2\sqrt{s(sa)(sb)}$$

In order to write it in a more familiar form, we make the transformations $`x=\frac{\sqrt{a}}{r},k^2=\frac{b}{a}<1`$, with $`r>a`$ and therefore $`x<\frac{1}{\sqrt{a}}`$. Then, separating variables we have

$`t`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{a}}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{sin}\varphi }}{\displaystyle \frac{dx}{\sqrt{(1x^2)(1k^2x^2)}}},{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}<\varphi <{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}`$ (47)
The right-hand side is the elliptic integral  $`(\varphi ,k)`$, and the radius $`r`$ is given

$`r`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{a}}{sn\sqrt{a}t}}`$ (48)
Here, we assumed as initial condition $`t=0`$ and $`r_0=r(t=0)=\mathrm{}`$. The positivity of $`r`$ restricts the $`t`$-range in a half period of the elliptic $`sn`$. The real period is the complete elliptic integral, i.e., when the upper limit of (47) is equal to unity, $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi =1`$,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{T}{2}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{a}}}{\displaystyle _0^1}{\displaystyle \frac{dx}{\sqrt{(1x^2)(1k^2x^2)}}}`$ (49)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{a}}}K(k^2={\displaystyle \frac{b}{a}})`$
With the above initial conditions, at $`t=0`$ the volume of the ellipsoidal membrane is infinite, whereas at time $`t=\frac{T}{4}`$ reaches a minimum value with $`r_{min}=\frac{\sqrt{a}}{sn\sqrt{a}\frac{T}{4}}`$ and the membrane collapses to an elliptic disc.

It is worth mentioning that in three dimensions, assuming simple factorization of time, we do not find non-collapsing membranes. On the other hand we find all possible collapsed configurations for the membrane, that is, points, strings and discs.

$``$ Now we consider the case $`Q0`$. This case differentiates from the $`Q=0`$ case because it exists only in dimensions higher than three ( see eq.32).

As we shall see, a remarkable fact is that the dynamics of the membrane in higher dimensions is encoded in the higher dimensional angular momentum $`Q`$ which, from the point of view of three dimensions, it behaves like a charge.

In the case of spherical topology, there are three different geometries, spherical, ellipsoidal with axial symmetry, and anisotropic ellipsoidal ones. These three cases correspond to the degeneracy of the roots of the polynomial in the right-hand side of equation (36).

If the degeneracy $`g`$ is $`g=3`$, we have the spherically symmetric membrane which from any initial condition it approaches the radius equal to the largest real root of the equation (36) in finite time and it goes back to infinity.

If $`g=2`$, we have the axially symmetric ellipsoid which from an initial configuration it decreases its volume until a limiting one which is determined also by the largest real root. The same also happens to the anisotropic ellipsoidal membrane. The general solution in terms of elliptic Jacobi functions or Weierstrass function of the equation (37), can be found in a similar way with the case $`Q^2=0`$ in eq (44)

$`{\displaystyle \frac{ds}{\sqrt{s(sa)(sb)Q^2}}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{dx}{\sqrt{x(xe_{13})(xe_{23})}}},`$ (50)
where $`x=se_3`$ and $`e_{ij}=e_ie_j`$.

If the topology is toroidal, the radii $`r_{1,2,3}`$ of the torus $`T^3`$ inside which the $`T^2`$ toroidal membrane is embedded, at any moment of time they are equal to $`\sqrt{s},\sqrt{sb},\sqrt{sa}`$ respectively. We note that in this case there are no non-degenerate solutions below four dimensions.

In the following, we discuss the $`Q0`$ spherical case ($`a=b=0`$). Integrating the equation we find the solution in terms of the incomplete beta function

$`t`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{6Q^{1/3}}}Beta({\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{r^6}};{\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}},{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})`$ (51)
We assume here the following initial conditions: At $`t=0`$ the spherical membrane has infinite volume and in finite time $`T=\frac{1}{6Q^{1/3}}Beta(\frac{1}{6},\frac{1}{2})`$ contracts at the minimum permitted radius $`r_0=Q^{1/3}`$ and goes back to infinity. From the angular velocity equation (32), at $`t=0`$ or infinite radius, the angular velocity is zero and contracting it develops at the limiting time $`T`$ angular velocity $`\omega _T=\dot{\varphi }=Q^{1/3}`$.

The ellipsoidal cases follow similar pattern and we parametrize the solution in terms of the Weierstrass function :

$`s(t)`$ $`=`$ $`𝒫(t;g_2,g_3)+{\displaystyle \frac{a+b}{3}}`$ (52)
where $`g_{2,3}`$ are functions of $`a,b`$ given by (38,39) above.

Due to the non-zero angular momentum the brane obtains a minimum size given by the radii squared, $`s_1,s_1a,s_1b`$ where as discussed in the beginning of this section, $`s_1`$ stands for the largest root of $`V(s,Q)`$. At this minimum size, there are limiting angular velocities given by

$`\omega _1={\displaystyle \frac{Q}{s_1}},\omega _2={\displaystyle \frac{Q}{s_1a}},\omega _3={\displaystyle \frac{Q}{s_1b}}.`$ (53)
In the solution (37) we assume initial conditions $`s(0)=\mathrm{}`$ and $`s_1`$ is given by $`s_1=𝒫(\frac{T}{2};g_2,g_3)+\frac{a+b}{3}`$, where $`T`$ is the real period of the Weierstrass function. In the special case of $`Q=Q^c`$, we have a simple algebraic solution (similar to the $`Q=0`$ case), and $`s_1=s_1^c`$ with $`s_1^c`$ given by (43).

## 5. Conclusions

Breaking the $`G_2`$ invariance of the octonionic self-duality equations for the membrane in seven dimensions down to $`SU(3)`$, we found explicit solutions of non-collapsing rotating membrane instantons which they have periodic motion starting at some initial moment from infinite size, shrinking down to a finite one in a half period and then bouncing back to infinity. The rôle of these instantons for the quantum mechanical vacuum of the membrane depends on the period which is the inverse temperature in membrane plasma of finite temperature. In the case of infinite period (zero temperature) the membrane instantons collapse to point-, string- and disc-like objects which represent the vacua of the quantum mechanical membrane. Since up to now it is not known how to quantize the supermembrane, we hope that the information we provided in this work is a step towards this direction.

The authors would like to thank CERN-TH Group for kind hospitality. GKL acknowledges partial support by European Union (contract ref. HPRN-CT-2000-00152).