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# Caustics in Tachyon Matter and Other Born-Infeld Scalars

## 1 Introduction

In this paper we investigate generic solutions of scalar Born-Infeld field theories of the form

$$S=d^DxV(T)\sqrt{1+\alpha ^{}_\mu T^\mu T},$$
(1)
where $`T(x^\mu )`$ is a (dimensionless) scalar field and $`V(T)`$ is its potential. The dimensional parameter $`\alpha ^{}`$ has units of $`mass^2`$. In string theory $`M_s=l_S^1=1/\sqrt{\alpha ^{}}`$ are the fundamental string mass and length scales. For the remainder of the paper we will work in units where $`\alpha ^{}=1`$.

Although this problem has merit by itself, especially as a BI generalization of the sigma model approach to the effective string theory action , the reason to explore this theory now is related to the rolling tachyon and its application to cosmology. Recently Sen conjectured  that the qualitative dynamics of a string theory tachyon field in a background of an unstable D-brane system could be approximated with the effective action (1) with $`V(T)e^T`$.

However, string theory tachyon calculations are reliable only in the approximation where derivatives $`^\mu T`$ are truncated beyond the quadratic order . For instance, the 4D effective field theory action of the tachyon field $`T`$ on a D$`3`$-brane, computed in bosonic theory around the top of the potential, up to higher derivative terms, is given by

$$S_B=\tau _3d^4x\sqrt{g}\left(\alpha ^{}e^T_\mu T^\mu T+(1+T)e^T\right)+O(_\mu ^\mu T),$$
(2)
where $`\tau _3`$ is the brane tension. It is far from clear that the model (1) describes actual tachyon dynamics. Still, this relatively simple formulation of tachyon dynamics (1) triggered significant interest in the investigation of the role of tachyons in cosmology  and in the field theory of tachyons . . Even before the recent works on tachyon cosmology, a model known as “k-inflation” , based on the action (1), had been considered in cosmology in the search for interesting equation of states. Note that the BI model (1) with a constant potential $`V=1`$ and a time-like derivative of the tachyon field ($`_\mu T^\mu T<0`$) is equivalent to the Chaplygin gas model that was proposed as a model for both dark matter and dark energy in the present Universe .

In what follows we will continue to call the scalar field $`T`$ a tachyon field, bearing in mind that the connection of this field to the actual string theory tachyon is uncertain and that it might also have application to a broad potential pool of other theories.

Our investigation combines both analytic approximations and “heavy duty” field theory lattice simulations , which we adopt here for the theory (1). We found that for BI scalars with runaway potentials $`V(T)`$, i.e. potentials for which $`T\mathrm{}`$ over time, the most interesting features of the inhomogeneous solutions of the equations of motion are the formation of caustics and the folding of the hypersurface $`T(t,\stackrel{}{x})`$.

In section 2 we consider the equation of motion for the tachyon field in Minkowskii spacetime in $`1+1`$ dimensions. In this simple situation we are able to clearly show our main results. (In later sections we will show that these same results apply to $`3+1`$ dimensions and an expanding universe.) First we consider an exponential potential $`V(T)e^T`$, and we assume some initial inhomogeneous realization of the tachyon field $`T(x)`$. In cosmology this is usually a realization of a random Gaussian field. For theories where $`\alpha ^{}`$ is a fundamental scale, consistency of the effective field theory action approach requires that the gradients (in fundamental units) not be large, $`_xT<1`$. Assuming initial spatial gradients are not large, we argue analytically and confirm numerically that after a quick, transient regime, the equation of motion reduces to a simple first order Hamilton-Jacobi equation that describes the propagation of free massive wave fronts. We then show that this same approximation holds for a wide class of runaway potentials.

In section 3 we solve this Hamilton-Jacobi equation exactly using the method of characteristics and find that the solution quickly develops caustics. We suggest a couple of geometrical techniques to view the time evolution of $`T`$ during this process. We also solve the original equation of motion numerically for a realization of a Gaussian field and show the formation of caustics from the regions of small spatial gradients, in agreement with the results of our approximation.

In section 4 we extend the results on caustics in the $`T(t,\stackrel{}{x})`$ field to $`3+1`$ dimensions. The qualitative results are unchanged.

In section 5 we discuss the cosmological implications of our results. The cosmological applications of a tachyon field $`T`$ with an exponential potential are two-fold. First, a time dependent field $`T`$ with a sufficiently rapidly decreasing potential ($`T^2V(T)0`$ at $`T\mathrm{}`$) has a pressureless “cold dark matter” equation of state in the late time asymptotics $`t1`$ with its energy density decreasing as $`\epsilon a^3`$, where $`a(t)`$ is the scale factor of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmological model of the Universe . If the energy density of the rolling tachyon becomes dominant, it could be a dark matter candidate. Second, the tachyon appears in various models of brane inflation. In models with unstable $`D`$-branes or annihilating $`D`$ and $`\overline{D}`$ branes where the unstable tachyon mode has a ground state at $`T\mathrm{}`$, ironically, it is exactly the above property of the tachyon that poses a problem. Indeed, the energy density of the pressureless tachyon almost always ends up dominating .

A consistent investigation of the tachyon field in cosmology must include spatial inhomogeneities. The tachyon potential has a maximum with negative curvature. As it rolls from this maximum inhomogeneities will be generated from its vacuum fluctuations, as in the theory of spontaneous symmetry breaking (tachyonic preheating) .

The evolution of linear fluctuations of a rolling tachyon in an expanding universe was considered in . As would be expected, tachyon fluctuations coupled with small metric fluctuations grow with time due to gravitational instability, just like usual pressureless matter. However, the linear stage of tachyon fluctuations very quickly changes to a strongly non-linear stage. In the usual cold dark matter scenario cosmologists understand well the non-linear bottom-up evolution of gravitational instability. In particular, the theory of non-linear structure formation includes caustics and multi-streaming of collisionless dark matter particles. (For CDM, however, early small scale caustic formation is a transient phenomenon). Many qualitative aspects of this theory can be understood even without expansion of the universe in the much simpler model of media of cold collisionless particles with a smooth initial potential velocity field . We shall address a similar problem for the tachyon model (1).

Thus, to pursue tachyon cosmology further, we have to understand the non-linear evolution of inhomogeneities, i.e. the generic solution of (1). In section 5 we write down the equation of motion for the tachyon field in an expanding universe and recall the results of  regarding linear growth of tachyon fluctuations. We develop an analysis of non-linear inhomogeneities of the tachyon in an expanding universe. Again, the equation for the tachyon field is reduced to the covariant form of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. We argue that the fully non-linear evolution of tachyon dark matter leads to the formation of caustics and multi-valued regions beyond them, similar to what we derived in the simpler case of sections 2-4 without expansion of the universe.

In section 6 we discuss the issue of how to physically interpret the development of caustics. Formally, caustics border the regions where the solution becomes multi-valued. The physical interpretation of multi-valued solutions and caustics depends on the scalar field theory specified by the potential $`V(T)`$ and the dimensions of space-time. Second order and higher derivatives blow up on caustics. Therefore the action (1), which is supposed to work in the approximation of truncation of high order derivatives , is no longer a valid approximation to string theory tachyon dynamics once caustics have formed. It is unclear how to work with multi-valued solutions $`T`$ in the four dimensional theory derived for a single-valued effective field $`T`$.

Also, the interaction of the scalar BI field with other fields (like the dilaton or gauge fields in the tachyon case) may be important at caustics. We discuss some of the issues involved in making such an interpretation, but we do not intend to resolve the question here.

## 2 Inhomogeneous Non-Linear Tachyon Field in $`1+1`$ Flat Spacetime

The field equation derived from (1) is

$$_\mu ^\mu T\frac{_\mu _\nu T}{1+_\alpha T^\alpha T}^\mu T^\nu T\frac{V_{,T}}{V}=0,$$
(3)
where $`_\mu `$ is a covariant derivative with respect to the metric $`g_{\mu \nu }`$. The energy momentum tensor of tachyon matter is

$$T_{\mu \nu }=\frac{V}{\sqrt{1+_\alpha T^\alpha T}}_\mu T_\nu Tg_{\mu \nu }V\sqrt{1+_\alpha T^\alpha T}.$$
(4)
For the rest of this section we will consider a tachyon field in $`1+1`$ dimensional Minkowskii space. We will discuss generalizations of our results to higher dimensions and expanding universes in later sections.

### 2.1 The Equation of Motion

Specializing to $`1+1`$ dimensional flat space, equation (3) becomes

$$\ddot{T}=\left(1+T^2\right)^1\left[\left(1\dot{T}^2+T^2\right)\left(T^{\prime \prime }\frac{V_{,T}}{V}\right)+2T^{}\dot{T}\dot{T}^{}T^2T^{\prime \prime }\right],$$
(5)
where dots and primes indicate time and space derivatives respectively.

First we consider an exponential potential

$$V(T)=V_0e^{T/T_0},$$
(6)
but later we also will discuss other potentials $`V(T)`$. We can without loss of generality set $`T_0=1`$ by appropriate rescalings of spacetime coordinates, which will be measured in units of $`T_0`$.

### 2.2 The Free Streaming Approximation for the Exponential Potential

For a homogeneous field with $`T^{}=0`$ equation (5) can be solved exactly to give

$`T`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{ln}\left(\mathrm{cosh}(tt_{})\right)+T_{}`$ (7)
$`\dot{T}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{tanh}(tt_{}),`$ (8)
where $`t_{}`$ and $`T_{}`$ give the time at which $`\dot{T}=0`$ and the value of $`T`$ at that time respectively. Asymptotically $`\dot{T}`$ approaches $`12e^{2t}+O(e^{4t})`$ and $`T(t)t+e^{2t}+O(e^{4t})`$.

For an inhomogeneous field the situation seems at first glance to be much more complicated. Indeed, equation (5) is a non-linear partial differential equation. However, we can give some general arguments for how the field should behave and then check our conclusions numerically. Let us assume that the gradients are not large, $`T^{},T^{\prime \prime }<1`$. Solving equation (5) numerically, we found that the field rapidly approached the state $`1\dot{T}^2+T^2=0`$. This means that $`T(t,x)`$ is very close (exponentially in fact) to some auxiliary field that we denote as $`S(t,x)`$ and that satisfies the equation

$$\dot{S}^2S^2=1.$$
(9)
Because this combination will appear many times in the analysis that follows we will define the operator $`P(T)1\dot{T}^2+T^2`$. Thus, equation (5) has an attractor $`P(T)=0`$. (Note that if we multiply equation (5) by $`P(T)`$, then $`S`$ will be a partial solution of the resulting equation.)

One way to get a feeling for why the complicated equation (5) reduces to the very simple form (9) is the following. Let us rewrite (5) without the last two terms in its r.h.s., and dropping $`T^2`$ in the factor $`(1+T^2)`$. We have

$$\ddot{T}=\left(1\dot{T}^2+T^2\right)(T^{\prime \prime }+1).$$
(10)
Assuming $`T^{\prime \prime }>1`$, this equation rapidly approaches the state $`P(T)=0`$. Indeed, if initially $`P(T)=\left(1\dot{T}^2+T^2\right)>0`$, then $`\ddot{T}>0`$ and $`\dot{T}`$ increases, which results in $`P(T)`$ asymptotically approaching zero from above. If initially $`P(T)<0`$ , then $`\ddot{T}<0`$, and $`P(T)`$ asymptotically approaches zero from below.

We did not pursue an investigation of precisely how small the initial values of $`T^{}`$ and $`T^{\prime \prime }`$ need to be for this approximation to be valid; we just assume that in dimensional units $`T^{}<l_s^2`$, $`T^{\prime \prime }<l_s^3`$. However, by using effective field theory we are implicitly assuming that scales of inhomogeneities are greater than $`l_s`$, so these inequalities must hold. Also, for realistic scenarios of tachyon fields in cosmology they are definitely small. Indeed, initially $`T^{}\frac{l_s}{L}\frac{T_i}{T_0}1`$, where $`L`$ is the scale of cosmological ingomogeneities, which is always expected to be larger than $`l_s`$.

For applications of the action (1) other than string theory, however, one might imagine that $`\alpha ^{}M_s^2`$ and thus the initial gradients could in principle be large. We note, however, that for any initial configuration $`T(x)`$ for which there are minima there will always be some neighbourhood around each minimum for which our approximation is valid. Of course the gradients are also small around the maxima of the field configuration, but as we will see later it is in regions around the minima where most interesting effects – caustics – develop.

We have numerically tested a variety of initial conditions and found that for $`T^{}<1`$ the field rapidly asymptotes to $`P=0`$ everywhere. For configurations with large gradients we have found that $`P`$ rapidly approaches $`0`$ in the neighbourhood of the extrema of the initial configuration.

### 2.3 The Free Streaming Approximation for Other Potentials $`V(T)`$

The form (9) describes the large value asymptotic solution of equation (5) without any trace of the potential $`V(T)=V_0e^{T/T_0}`$. Therefore it is natural to ask whether this asymptotic solution may work for other potentials. To this end we consider runaway potentials $`V(T)`$ where asymptotically $`T\mathrm{}`$. Such runaway potentials include $`V(T)=e^{T^2}`$ and $`V(T)=1/T^2`$, which appear in the literature on cosmological tachyon matter . 111However, below we will see that $`V(T)=T^2`$ is the borderline case for the free streaming approximation in an expanding Universe in $`3+1`$ dimensions. We checked numerically that solutions of equation (5) with these potentials have large value asymptotics of $`T`$ that are described by the equation (9). We conjecture that the solutions of all theories (1) with non-constant potentials $`V(T)`$ that admit runaway evolution of the scalar field $`T`$ can be approximated by the solutions of the free wave propagation equation (9). Another words, the solution of (9) is an attractor of the equation (5).

If the potential $`V(T)`$ admits only finite valued evolution of the scalar field $`T`$, the solution (9) may or may not appear as an intermediate asymptotic, depending on the form of the potential $`V(T)`$. Certanly, if the potential $`V(T)`$ has a minimum at $`TT_0`$, the Hamilton-Jacobi asymptotic solution does not work.

It is interesting to consider the marginal case $`V(T)=1`$. This case corresponds to the classical scalar BI theory. Consider a toy model where $`T`$ describes transversal oscillations of a light $`3+1`$ dimensional brane embedded in five dimensional space-time. This case is essentially different from the action (1) with an exponential potential because the term $`V_{,T}`$ vanishes in the equation of motion. Indeed, the equation of motion of the scalar BI actions with constant $`V`$ admit plane wave solutions and their (multi-valued) superpositions. By proper coordinate transformation, the equation of motion can be reduced to a free scalar field wave equation that can be solved analytically, see e.g. . In general, this wave equation has solutions with caustics and multi-valued regions beyond caustics (similar to that, say, in classical wave optics). We used some of the analytic solutions in  to check our numerical code for the general equation (5). 222Any reader who is interested in the numerical solution for this particular case $`V=1`$ can find movies illustrating two and more waves scattering at \<http://cita.utoronto.ca/$``$felder/borninfeld\>. Conservations laws evident in the scattering reflect the large symmetry of the theory with $`V=1`$.

## 3 Exact Solutions in the Free Streaming Approximation

The advantage of reducing equation (5) to the simple form (9) is that the latter can be treated analytically. 333An independent derivation of this analytic solution was discovered by . We return to the notation $`T`$ for the scalar field, assuming it is decribed now by the equation (9). The analytic solution corresponds to free relativistic massive wave propagation along characteristics. It also admits a simple geometric interpretation of how to construct “wave front” hypersurfaces $`T(t,x)`$ at any time $`t`$ directly from the initial conditions, without step-by-step integration of the wave equation. The most important feature of the free wave propagation, however, is the formation of caustics, where higher order gradients of the scalar field such as $`T^{\prime \prime }`$ blow up.

### 3.1 The Solution in Characteristics

In this section we will derive the analytic solution of equation (9) for the field $`T(t,x)`$ using the method of characteristics. This equation has the form of a Hamilton-Jacobi equation for the action field $`S`$, which can be viewed as a hypersurface in the three dimensional auxiliary space $`(T,t,x)`$. The initial value is given by the hypersurface $`T(t_0,q)`$, where $`t_0`$ is the initial time and $`q`$ is the initial spatial coordinate, $`x(t_0)=q`$. The parameter $`q`$ is often called the Lagrangian coordinate, while $`x`$ is called the Eulerian coordinate. We will set $`t_0=0`$.

Equation (9) can be viewed as a description of the free streaming of massive particles of mass $`M_s`$. The characteristics $`x(t,q)`$ in this case are trajectories of individual particles marked by their initial positions $`q`$. The vectors that are orthogonal to the family of hypersurfaces $`S(t,x)`$ are tangential to the family of characteristics $`x=x(t,q)`$.

Expressing this particle viewpoint mathematically, the method of characteristics gives us solutions along a family of curves parametrized by two variables, $`q`$ – which defines which curve we are on, and $`s`$ – an affine parameter along each curve. For initial conditions we set $`x(q,0)=q`$, $`t(q,0)=0`$, and $`T(q,0)=T_i(q)`$. We then have the characteristic equations

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dx}{ds}}(q,s)=P_{,T^{}}=2T^{}`$ ; $`x(q,0)=q`$ (11)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dt}{ds}}(q,s)=P_{,\dot{T}}=2\dot{T}`$ ; $`t(q,0)=0`$ (12)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dT}{ds}}(q,s)=T^{}P_{,T^{}}+\dot{T}P_{,\dot{T}}=2T^22\dot{T}^2`$ ; $`T(q,0)=T_i(q)`$ (13)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dT^{}}{ds}}(q,s)=P_{,x}T^{}P_{,T}=0`$ ; $`T^{}(q,0)=T_{i,q}`$ (14)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\dot{T}}{ds}}(q,s)=P_{,t}\dot{T}P_{,T}=0`$ ; $`\dot{T}(q,0)=\pm \sqrt{1+T_{i,q}^2}.`$ (15)
There are two roots for the initial conditions equation for $`\dot{T}`$ because the original differential equation is expressed in terms of squares and has two branches. The asymptotic behavior of the tachyon field corresponds to $`\dot{T}>0`$, so from here on we will only consider that root.

The equations for $`T^{}`$ and $`\dot{T}`$ trivially give

$`T^{}(q,s)`$ $`=`$ $`T_{i,q}`$ (16)
$`\dot{T}(q,s)`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{1+T_{i,q}^2}.`$ (17)
Plugging these solutions into the equations for $`x`$, $`t`$, and $`T`$ gives

$`x(q,s)`$ $`=`$ $`q+2sT_{,q}`$ (18)
$`t(q,s)`$ $`=`$ $`2s\sqrt{1+T_{i,q}^2}`$ (19)
$`T(q,s)`$ $`=`$ $`T_{i,q}2s.`$ (20)
Although these equations can not be solved in the general case to eliminate both $`q`$ and $`s`$, it is a simple matter to eliminate the affine parameter $`s`$, which gives a parametric solution for the field $`T(x(q,t),t)`$

$`x(q,t)`$ $`=`$ $`q{\displaystyle \frac{T_{i,q}}{\sqrt{1+T_{i,q}^2}}}t`$ (21)
$`T(q,t)`$ $`=`$ $`T_i(q)+{\displaystyle \frac{t}{\sqrt{1+T_{i,q}^2}}}.`$ (22)
The last two equations are the main analytic results of this section.

Figures 1 and 2 illustrate how these formulas work for a particular initial profile of $`T_i(q)`$. Note in particular that at the moment when different characteristic curves intersect the field solution becomes multi-valued. Figure 3 shows deformation and folding of the initial profile $`T_i(q)`$ of the realization of one dimensional random gaussian field. We will have much more to say about this effect.

Note that from equation (16) we see that the gradients of the field along each characteristic always remain the same as they are at $`t=0`$,

$$T^{}(x)=T_{i,q},$$
(23)
only spread out over a different region of space, $`qx(t,q)`$. (In the particle picture each free streaming particle maintains its initial velocity $`\dot{T}=\dot{T}_i=\sqrt{1+T_{i,q}^2}`$.) Since not too large gradients is the condition for equation (9) to be a good approximation to the equation of motion, this result suggests that if this approximation holds at some time $`t`$ it will continue to hold for all time. This argument offers an intuitive explanation for the results of our numerical simulations, namely that this asymptotic regime remains stable.

### 3.2 Geometrical Interpretations

The solution (21), (22) represents a mapping of the initial field to the field at any time $`t`$

$$T_i(q)T(x,t;q).$$
(24)
Here we suggest two simple geometric constructions for the hypersurface $`T(x,t;q)`$ at any time $`t`$.

The first construction allows us to draw the deformation of the hypersurface $`T`$ without calculating any intermediate steps. Suppose $`T_i(q)`$ is that hypersurface at the initial moment $`t=0`$. Consider a circle of radius equal to the time of interest $`t`$ and insert this circle above the curve $`T_i(q)`$, making it tangent to this curve at the point $`q`$ (without intersection), as illustrated in Fig. 4.

At the point of contact the slope of the circle is equal to the derivative $`T_{i,q}`$. It is then a simple matter to calculate that the coordinates of the center of the circle will be the Eulerian coordinate $`x(q,t)`$ and the field value $`T(x,t)`$, as given by equations (21)-(22). If we insert circles of the same radius $`t`$ at all $`q`$ tangential to $`T_{i,q}`$ at each point $`q`$, and then draw a curve through the centers of these circles, we will get the new profile of the field $`T(x,t)`$ at any given time. Evidently, $`T(x,t)`$ is flattening around the maxima of the field of $`T_{i,q}`$ and sharpening around its minima. At some moment $`t_c`$ there will be a situation where a circle of radius $`t_c`$ is touching the curve $`T_{i,q}`$ not in one, but in two points, $`q_1`$ and $`q_2`$. This corresponds to caustic formation. For larger $`t`$ this construction will decribe the folding of $`T(x,t)`$ with cusps, as in Figure 3.

Notice that for homogeneous initial conditions $`T_i(q)=const`$, this construction with the circles of radius $`t`$ just gives the overall linear growth $`T=t`$.

Another, complementary geometrical construction is based on drawing the characteristics in $`(t,x)`$ coordinates. From each point of the initial profile $`T_i(q)`$ draw a straight line with slope $`\frac{\sqrt{1+T_{i,q}^2}}{T_{i,q}}`$, as illustrated in Fig. 5. The gradient $`T^{}(x)`$ is propagated unaltered along each of these characteristics, while the field value along each line evolves according to equation (22).

### 3.3 Caustics and Beyond

In this section we use the results obtained above to derive the behavior of a BI scalar with a runaway potential, i.e. one for which equation (9) is the correct asymptotic. Consider an initial profile $`T_i(q)`$. The solution (21)-(22) tells us that for each point $`q`$ the corresponding $`x`$ value will evolve linearly, as will the corresponding value of $`T`$. Unless $`T_{i,q}`$ is the same everywhere these $`x`$ values will move at different rates and there will eventually be different values of $`q`$, and thus of $`T`$, corresponding to the same value of $`x`$. In other words the field will become multi-valued. Another way of describing this behavior is to note that the characteristic curves along which our solutions are defined will in general intersect 444If $`T^{\prime \prime }<0`$ throughout all space then no characteristics will ever cross, but this is not a physically realistic condition.. Figure 1 shows the characteristic curves in the $`(x,t)`$ plane for a toy model initial configuration $`T_i(q)=exp\left(q^2\right)`$. Figure 5 shows the propagation of characteristics for a realization of a random Gaussian field.

Since the evolution of $`T`$ is defined along each of these curves, the regions where they intersect are regions where this solution is multi-valued. Figure 2 shows the evolution of the field configuration for the case of Figure 1. Correspondingly, Figure 3 shows it for the initial conditions of Figure 5. In the terminology of wave front propagation, the front $`T(t,x)`$ deforms, and at some points it develops folding and then multi-valued regions.

The caustics are the stable singularities of the mapping (24). For our case we can extend the theory of caustic formation . To see how they develop consider the second derivative of the field $`T`$, calculated from equations (21-22)

$$T^{\prime \prime }(t,x)=\frac{T^{}(t,x)}{q}|_t\frac{q}{x}|_t=\frac{T_{i,qq}}{1\frac{T_{i,qq}}{(1+T_{i,q})^{3/2}}t},$$
(25)
where in the last step we have used the fact that $`T^{}(x)=T_{i,q}`$. At the moment of time $`t_c`$ and at the critical point $`q_c`$ where the denominator of this equations vanishes, the second derivative blows up, and a caustic forms. For a given value of $`q`$ this occurs at

$$t_c=\frac{(1+T_{,q}(q_c))^{3/2}}{T_{,qq}(q_c)}.$$
(26)
Obviously, the caustics first form at the maximum of the combination $`\frac{T_{,qq}}{(1+T_{,q})^{3/2}}`$. From Figure 5 it is easy to see that typically the position of this maximum is well correlated with the position of the minimum of the initial field profile $`T_i(q)`$.

For a random gaussian field the typical time of caustic formation can be calculated in terms of the spectrum (r.m.s. values) of the gaussian field. For simplicity, if $`L`$ is the typical length of small scale inhomogeneities, then we can estimate $`t_cL^2/T_i`$. The statistics of the caustics are defined by the statistics of the field $`\frac{T_{i,qq}}{(1+T_{i,q})^{3/2}}T_{i,qq}`$. The number density of caustics per cubic volume will be roughly proportional to $`O(10^2)L^3`$.

It is interesting to note the character of the scalar field folding for the potential $`V=1`$, where the action (1) describes a light brane in extra dimensions. In this model the free streaming approximation does not work. However, the field equation does admit multi-valued solutions  as well as caustics. In this case a multi-valued field is simply the result of a poor choice of parametrization. For example a scalar field representing the position of a brane in a higher dimension might appear to be multi-valued if the brane folds over in an S shape. A different slicing of the extra dimension, however, will remove this problem. In the general case of runaway potentials we are considering here, however, the folding is more serious than that because the field actually crosses itself at points.

Solutions with intersecting characteristic curves – orbit crossing – are common in cosmology with collisionless matter. We will discuss this in section 5.

## 4 The Tachyon Field in Flat $`3+1`$ Dimensions

Although we have been discussing the 1D case for simplicity the same basic results hold in $`3+1`$ dimensions, the case relevant for cosmology. In fact all of the results in this section hold for an arbitrary number of dimension. In flat spacetime the equation of motion (3) reads

$`\ddot{T}\left(1+(\stackrel{}{}T)^2\right)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(1\dot{T}^2+(\stackrel{}{}T)^2\right)\left(\stackrel{}{}^2T{\displaystyle \frac{V_{,T}}{V}}\right)+`$ (27)
$`+`$ $`2(_j\dot{T})(^jT)\dot{T}(_j_kT)(^jT)(^kT),`$ (28)
where dots indicates time derivatives and $`j`$ and $`k`$ are spatial indices, $`(\stackrel{}{}T)^2=_jT^jT`$. (We reserve the subscript $`i`$ for the initial configuration of the field $`T`$.)

Again, for runaway potentials the solution to equation (27) rapidly approaches an asymptotic regime where it can be described by the Hamilton-Jacobi equation

$$\dot{T}^2\stackrel{}{}T^2=1,$$
(29)
which describes free streaming of the field $`T(t,\stackrel{}{x})`$.

Solving this equation with the method of characteristics gives essentially the same answer that we got before, only with the Lagrangian parameter $`q`$ now replaced with a vector $`\stackrel{}{q}`$

$`\stackrel{}{x}(\stackrel{}{q},t)`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{}{q}{\displaystyle \frac{_\stackrel{}{q}T_i}{\sqrt{1+|_\stackrel{}{q}T_i|^2}}}t`$ (30)
$`T(\stackrel{}{q},t)`$ $`=`$ $`T_i(\stackrel{}{q})+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{1+|_\stackrel{}{q}T_i|^2}}}t.`$ (31)
As in the 1D case, the position and field value of each initial point move linearly with a velocity that depends on the initial gradient at that point. Thus different characteristic curves will once again intersect. However, the mapping

$$T_i(\stackrel{}{q})T(\stackrel{}{x},t;\stackrel{}{q})$$
(32)
has a more rich structures of caustics, which form a network of two-dimensional structures . The geometrical construction we used above to get the hypersurface $`T(\stackrel{}{x},t;\stackrel{}{q})`$ without step-by-step integration can be generalized to higher dimensions. In this case we have to insert an $`D`$ dimensional hypersphere of radius $`t`$, where $`D`$ is the number of spatial dimensions. We place the hypersphere so that it touches the initial $`D`$ dimensional hypersurface $`T_i(\stackrel{}{q})`$ tangentially at each point $`\stackrel{}{q}`$. (This process is easiest to picture for $`D=2`$.) The hypersurface $`T(\stackrel{}{x},t;\stackrel{}{q})`$ then will be an envelope of all centers of the inserted hyperspheres. The caustics will first form when there is a hypersphere of radius $`t_c`$ that simultaneously touches two points, $`\stackrel{}{q}_1`$ and $`\stackrel{}{q}_2`$. In this case the equation (30) has two roots. However, for $`D>1`$ there will be situations where the hypersphere touches three or more points $`\stackrel{}{q}`$. This corresponds to the merging of caustics and the formation of a network.

Let us calculate the second derivatives of the field $`T`$, $`_j_kT`$. In $`3+1`$ dimensions these derivatives form a three dimensional tensor. At each point it can be diagonalized. Let $`(\lambda _1,\lambda _2,\lambda _3)`$ be the eigenvalues of the tensor $`_j_kT`$. We also assume the ordering $`\lambda _1>\lambda _2>\lambda _3`$. The fields $`\lambda _j(\stackrel{}{x},t;\stackrel{}{q})`$ evolve from their initial values $`\lambda _{0j}(\stackrel{}{q})`$. One can show that the eigenvalues propagating along the characteristics change with time as

$$\lambda _j(\stackrel{}{x},t;\stackrel{}{q})=\frac{\lambda _{0j}}{1\frac{\lambda _{0j}}{(1+T_{i,q})^{3/2}}t}.$$
(33)
At any given point $`\stackrel{}{q}_c`$ a caustic will form at the time

$$t_c=\frac{(1+T_{i,q})^{3/2}}{\lambda _{01}(\stackrel{}{q}_c)}.$$
(34)
The caustics thus first form at the maximum of the combination $`\frac{\lambda _{01}}{(1+T_{i,q})^{3/2}}`$. For a random three dimensional random gaussian field the typical time of caustic formation can be calculated in terms of its r.m.s. values. The statistics of the caustics are defined by the field $`\lambda _{01}(\stackrel{}{q})`$, which is a non-gaussian random field.

In some aspects our results are relativistic generalizations of the non-relativistic problem of caustic formation .

## 5 The Tachyon Field in an Expanding Universe

In this section we will discuss why consideration of the tachyon (or any other scalar) in cosmology must include consideration of inhomogeneous solutions, and we will show that for the tachyon field those solutions lead to the formation of caustics and multi-valued regions. First we will recall some basic results for the background solution with tachyon matter and for linear gravitational instability in an expanding universe with this tachyon background . Next we will extend this analysis to the non-linear regime of gravitational instability.

### 5.1 Cosmological Background of the Rolling Tachyon

The equation for a time-dependent homogeneous rolling tachyon in an expanding universe with a scale factor $`a(t)`$ follows from (3)

$$\frac{\ddot{T}}{1\dot{T}^2}+3\frac{\dot{a}}{a}\dot{T}+\frac{V_{,T}}{V}=0.$$
(35)
When rolling tachyon matter dominates in an expanding universe, the equation for the evolution of the scale factor is

$$\frac{\dot{a}^2}{a^2}=\frac{8\pi G}{3}\frac{V(T)}{\sqrt{1\dot{T}^2}}.$$
(36)
For the exponential potential of interest $`V=V_0e^{T/T_0}`$, the homogeneous background asymptotic solution of equation (35) in an expanding universe for $`tT_0`$ is

$$T(t)=t+\frac{T_0}{4}\left(\frac{a}{a_0}\right)^6e^{2t/T_0}.$$
(37)
This solution is valid for arbitrary $`a(t)`$, not just when the tachyon dominates. For this solution, the energy density redshifts like ordinary matter

$$\epsilon =\frac{V(T)}{\sqrt{1\dot{T}^2}}=V_0\left(\frac{a_0}{a}\right)^3,$$
(38)
while the pressure vanishes

$$p=V(T)\sqrt{1\dot{T}^2}=\left(\frac{a}{a_0}\right)^3\frac{V^2}{V_0}0.$$
(39)
When the tachyon dominates $`a(t)=a_0t^{2/3}`$.

Now we consider the case of a general potential $`V(T)`$. Let us write down $`T(t)=t+\theta (t),|\theta |t`$ (note that $`\dot{\theta }<0`$). To first order in $`\theta `$, Eq. (35) reduces to

$$\frac{\ddot{\theta }}{\dot{\theta }}=2\frac{V^{}}{V}|_{T=t}+6\frac{\dot{a}}{a}.$$
(40)
This equation can be integrated and we obtain

$$\dot{\theta }=\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{a}{a_0}\right)^6\frac{V^2}{V_0^2}|_{T=t},1\dot{T}^2=2\dot{\theta },$$
(41)
so the same expressions (38) and (39) follow for $`\epsilon `$ and $`p`$ (with the potential $`V(T)`$ estimated at $`T=t`$). Now, the condition $`|\theta |t`$ requires $`a^3V0`$ as $`t\mathrm{}`$. If the tachyon itself dominates expansion of the Universe, this condition reduces to $`T^2V(T)0`$ at $`T\mathrm{}`$. Thus, for this wide class of potentials the tachyon behaves like dust-like matter at late times.

### 5.2  Linear Fluctuations in Tachyon Matter

Next we consider small inhomogeneous perturbations of the tachyon field $`\delta T(t,\stackrel{}{x})`$ around the time-dependent background solution $`T(t)`$ of equation (35):

$$T(t,\stackrel{}{x})=T(t)+\delta T(t,\stackrel{}{x}).$$
(42)
Small scalar metric perturbations around a FRW background can be written in the longitudinal gauge as

$$ds^2=\left(1+2\mathrm{\Phi }\right)dt^2+\left(12\mathrm{\Phi }\right)a^2\left(t\right)d\stackrel{}{x}^2.$$
(43)
Solving the linearized Einstein equations and linearized tachyon equation of motion, we find  the time evolution of the fluctuations $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`\delta T`$

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(t,\stackrel{}{x})=const,\delta T(t,\stackrel{}{x})=\mathrm{\Phi }(\stackrel{}{x})t.$$
(44)
Linear metric fluctuations are constant, as in the cold dark matter scenario. However, the fluctuations in the tachyon field grow. The tachyon fluctuations are unstable due to the effects of gravitational instability in an expanding universe.

The linear approximation for the rolling tachyon/gravity system works only during a short time interval (of the order of tens of $`T_0`$). Indeed, let us inspect the energy density of tachyon matter in the model with the exponential potential not assuming it to be homogeneous and using the perturbed space-time metric (43):

$$\epsilon =\frac{V_0e^{T/T_0}}{\sqrt{1(12\mathrm{\Phi })\dot{T}^2+a^2(_\stackrel{}{x}T)^2}}.$$
(45)
For fluctuations of $`\delta T`$, we have $`\delta T\mathrm{\Phi }(\stackrel{}{x})t`$ where $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\stackrel{}{x})`$ describes the initial spatial profile of fluctuations. The full tachyon field including fluctuations is $`T(t,\stackrel{}{x})=t+(T_0/4)(a/a_0)^6e^{2t/T_0}+\mathrm{\Phi }(\stackrel{}{x})t`$. The numerator of the expression (45) vanishes as $`e^{t/T_0}`$, while the denominator evolves as $`(a/a_0)^6e^{2t/T_0}+a^2t^2(_\stackrel{}{x}\mathrm{\Phi })^2`$. The linear approximation works during a very short time interval while $`\left(_\stackrel{}{x}\mathrm{\Phi }\right)^2<e^{2t/T_0}`$. When this inequality breaks, linear analysis becomes insufficient. For cosmological fluctuations $`\mathrm{\Phi }10^5`$, the linear theory for $`\delta T`$ is valid during a time interval of order of $`10T_0`$.

### 5.3 Non-linear Tachyon Inhomogeneities

One can try to use a quasi-linear ansatz for inhomogeneities of $`T(t,\stackrel{}{x})`$. Non-vanishing energy density (45) for the rolling tachyon with the numerator $`Ve^{t/T_0}`$ is achievable only if the denominator vanishes as $`e^{t/T_0}`$, too. We therefore suggest the following ansatz for the inhomogeneous tachyon field

$$T(t,\stackrel{}{x})=t+U(\stackrel{}{x},t)+f(\stackrel{}{x},t)\left(\frac{a}{a_0}\right)^6e^{2t/T_0},$$
(46)
where $`f(\stackrel{}{x},t)`$ and $`U(\stackrel{}{x},t)`$ are two as yet undetermined functions. In the homogeneous case $`f(\stackrel{}{x},t)=const`$. We assume that in the inhomogeneous case $`f(\stackrel{}{x},t)`$ remains sub-exponential.

Notice that the form (46) corresponds to a standard procedure for obtaining the non-relativistic Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Indeed, the effective 4-velocity of tachyon matter is defined as

$$u_\mu =\frac{_\mu T}{(_\alpha T^\alpha T)^{1/2}}$$
(47)
In the quasi-linear approximation, where the 3-velocity of tachyon matter is small compared to the speed of light $`c=1`$, so that $`u^0=u_01`$ for $`t\mathrm{}`$, we have

$$u_\mu _\mu T.$$
(48)
The most interesting part of the expression (46) is the term containing the function $`U(\stackrel{}{x},t)`$, which survives in late time asymptotics. To see the effect of this term, we substitute the form (46) in the Einstein equations. We further assume that the gravitational potential is still linear (as in the usual theory of gravitational instability with ordinary matter), while inhomogeneities in tachyon field are not. Then from the Einstein equations, where we keep the gravitational potential linearized, we derive

$$\dot{U}\frac{1}{2a^2}(_\stackrel{}{x}U)^2=\mathrm{\Phi }.$$
(49)
This equation is supplemented by the Poisson equation for the gravitational potential,

$$_\stackrel{}{x}^2\mathrm{\Phi }=4\pi Ga^2(\epsilon (t,\stackrel{}{x})\overline{\epsilon }(t)),$$
(50)
which, however, we will not use here. In the linear regime this equation gives us back the right linear expression $`\delta T=U=\mathrm{\Phi }t`$. Eq. (49) is similar to the cosmic Bernoulli equation for dust-like matter with $`U`$ being a (minus) scalar velocity potential for the effective 3-velocity of tachyon matter.

It is easy to recognize that Eq. (49) comes from the covariant form of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation

$$g^{\mu \nu }_\mu S_\nu S=1.$$
(51)
Indeed, for the metric (43) we have $`g^{00}=(12\mathrm{\Phi })`$, $`g^{ij}=\frac{1}{a^2}(1+2\mathrm{\Phi })\delta ^{ij}`$. Substituting these in (51), we get

$$(12\mathrm{\Phi })\left(\frac{S}{t}\right)^2\frac{1}{a^2}(1+2\mathrm{\Phi })\left(_\stackrel{}{x}S\right)^2=1.$$
(52)
For a linear gravitational potential $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ we have

$$\dot{S}^2\frac{1}{a^2}(_\stackrel{}{x}S)^2=1+2\mathrm{\Phi }.$$
(53)
The form (46) for $`S`$, $`St+U`$, immediately leads to equation (49) for $`U`$.

This suggest that we can go even further beyond the quasi-linear ansatz (46) to a fully non-linear, covariant free streaming approximation (51). Equation (53) describes free wave front propagation in a gravitational field described by the gravitational potential $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. Equation (51) describes this propagation in a general curved space time. The common feature of the wave front propagation in all these settings is the formation of caustics, which occurs similarly to how we described it in the previous sections.

In application to tachyon cosmology, we can continue to use the geometrical techniques we developed for flat spacetime. However, in the cosmological problem the initial hypersurface of $`T(\stackrel{}{q})`$ is defined by the linear stage of gravitational instability and is given by the initial profile of the scalar metric perturbations, $`T(\stackrel{}{q})=\mathrm{\Phi }(\stackrel{}{q})t_0`$, where $`t_0`$ is some initial time moment. Therefore the timing of appearance and statistics of caustics are defined by the scales, amplitude and statistics of the initial metric perturbations $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\stackrel{}{q})`$, as in the problem of gravitational clustering in the standard cold dark matter scenario. We expect caustics in the tachyon matter to form around the moment of equilibrium $`z_{eq}`$ between radiation and matter, when inhomogeneities start growing in the matter dominated regime. The density of caustics will be defined by the minimal scale of the cosmological fluctuations, say, $`1`$ mm (in present day scales).

Caustics in the theory of cosmological gravitational instability are common for models with cold collisionless matter. In the theory of the large scale structure of the universe they are described by the famous Zel’dovich approximation . The theory of caustics in pressureless media has been well developed  and includes many dynamical and statistical aspects  and geometrical techniques for constructing the mapping $`qx(q,t)`$ . The principal difference, however, is that for media of particles the physics is well defined beyond the caustics, while here we are dealing with a non-linear scalar field whose action is ill-defined in the multi-valued regime. Another important difference is that caustics in media correspond to infinite values of mass density, while it is not clear whether the energy density $`\epsilon `$ will be singular at caustics in the case of a BI scalar field.

## 6 Conclusion

We considered field theory with the action (1). At first glance the equation of motion for the evolution of the non-linear inhomogeneous field $`T(t,\stackrel{}{x})`$ looks very complicated. Remarkably, we found that in flat spacetime for several examples of runaway potentials $`V(T)`$ with the ground state at infinity, generic solutions of the theory (1) very quickly approach an asymptotic form $`T(t,\stackrel{}{x})S(t,\stackrel{}{x})`$, which obeys the Hamilton-Jacobi equation

$$\dot{S}^2(\stackrel{}{}_\stackrel{}{x}S)^2=1.$$
(54)
Considering an example of the theory (1) in an expanding universe with small metric perturbations, we found that in this more complicated case the equation of the tachyon is again very well approximated by the solution of the covariantly generalized Hamilton-Jacobi equation

$$g^{\mu \nu }\frac{S}{x^\mu }\frac{S}{x^\nu }=1.$$
(55)
We conjecture that the solution $`S`$ of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation (55) is an attractor for the equation of motions of the theory (1) with a runaway potentail $`V(T)`$. It will be interesting to check if this conjecture can be extended to other non-trivial geometries $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ and how it depends on $`V(T)`$.

Another question we would like to address is the character of convergency of the solution of the actual tachyon equation to the approximated function $`S`$ which obeys (55). Generalizing the convergence of the homogeneous runaway tachyon solution, we may suggest the asymptotic expansion

$$T=S+f_1e^S+f_2e^{2S}+\mathrm{},$$
(56)
where $`f_1,f_2,\mathrm{}`$ are non-exponential functions of $`t`$ and $`x`$. The functions $`f_1,f_2,\mathrm{}`$ can be important, when we address the issue about the value of energy density at caustics.

The most important finding of our study is that generic solutions of theory (1) with a runaway potential contain caustics and multi-valued regions of $`T`$. The interpretation of the multi-valued field $`T`$ may depend on the potential $`V(T)`$ and the dimensionality $`D`$ of the theory. However, the meaning of the multi-valued solutions in an effective four dimensional theory with a runaway potential is not clear to us.

The model (1) can be used as an approximation to the string theory tachyon when higher order derivatives can be neglected

$$S=d^4x\sqrt{g}V(T)\sqrt{1+\alpha ^{}_\mu T^\mu T}+O(_\mu ^\mu T).$$
(57)
We found, however, that the generic solution of the equations where we keep only low order gradients is not consistent because at the caustics second and higher derivatives blow up. Therefore the simple theory (1) does not work for the string theory tachyon. As a result, at this point, we can say little about cosmological applications of the tachyon.

The situation is different for the theory (57) with the potential $`V(T)`$ which has a ground state at finite $`T`$. In this case caustics may not develop. However, in this case, as was shown in , the tachyon field model (1) describes neither non-relativistic cold dark matter nor dark energy in the present Universe.

Another aspect that should be included in a comprehensive analysis of the tachyon is its interaction with the dilaton field, gauge fields and others . It will be interesting to see if the interaction is especially important on caustics or if the backreaction of such interactions may even affect their formation.

## Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Andrei Frolov, Renata Kallosh, Andrei Linde and Sergei Shandarin for discussions and comments. We thank Richard Easther for discussions and for help with our numerical simulations. We thank NATO Linkage Grant 975389 for support. G.F. was supported by PREA, L.K. was supported by NSERC and CIAR. The work of A.S. in Russia was partially supported by RFBR, grants No 02-02-16817 and 00-15-96699, and by the RAS Research Program “Quantum Macrophysics”. A.S. thanks CITA for hospitality during his visit.


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# Teleparallel Equivalent of Non-Abelian Kaluza-Klein Theory

## I Introduction

In ordinary Kaluza-Klein theories okk , the geometrical approach of general relativity is adopted as the paradigm for the description of all other interactions of nature. In the original Kaluza-Klein theory, for example, gravitational and electromagnetic fields are described by a Hilbert-Einstein lagrangian in a five-dimensional spacetime. In the case of the non-abelian gauge theory, the unification with gravitation, a possibility first raised up in the sixties paper11 , was achieved by extending the usual four-dimensional spacetime to a ($`4+D`$)-dimensional spacetime paper13 ; paper12 ; paper15 ; paper14 , with $`D`$ the dimension of the compact part of spacetime. According to this construction, the isometries of the $`D`$-dimensional compact sub-manifold yield the non-abelian gauge transformations.

On the other hand, it is widely known that, at least macroscopically, general relativity is equivalent to a gauge theory h  for the translation group hn , provided a specific choice of parameters be made hs . In this theory, known as the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, the fundamental field is the Weitzenböck connection, a connection presenting torsion, but no curvature. Differently from general relativity, in which gravitation is attributed to curvature, teleparallel gravity attributes gravitation to torsion. Furthermore, whereas in general relativity curvature is used to geometrize the gravitational interaction, in teleparallel gravity torsion plays the role of a gravitational force paper10 . This agrees with the fact that in any gauge theory, the classical interaction is always described by a force equation.

Now, the equivalence alluded to above opens new perspectives for the study of unified theories. In fact, instead of using the geometrical description of general relativity, we can adopt the gauge description as the basic paradigm, and in this way construct what we call the teleparallel equivalent of Kaluza-Klein models. According to this approach, both gravitational and non-abelian gauge fields turn out to be described by a gauge-type lagrangian. This means that, instead of obtaining the Yang-Mills construction from geometry, as is usually done in ordinary Kaluza-Klein models, in the teleparallel Kaluza-Klein the geometry (that is, gravitation) is obtained from a generalized gauge model. By following this approach, a teleparallel equivalent of the abelian Kaluza-Klein theory has already been constructed tkk .

By adopting the gauge description as the basic paradigm, the purpose of this paper will be to use the equivalence between general relativity and teleparallel gravity to construct the teleparallel equivalent of a non-abelian Kaluza-Klein theory. In other words, instead of extending spacetime to higher dimensions, it is the internal (fiber) space that will be extended to ($`4+D`$) dimensions, spacetime being kept always four-dimensional. Similarly to the ordinary non-abelian Kaluza-Klein model, the gauge transformations will be obtained from the isometries of the fiber space. This construction will be achieved through the following steps. In Sec. II, from the analysis of the dynamics of a particle submitted to both gravitational and Yang-Mills type fields, the unified gauge potentials and field strengths are defined. In Sec. III the corresponding gauge transformations are obtained from the isometries of the fiber space, and in Sec. IV, the unified gauge lagrangian is constructed. The coupling of matter fields with the unified gauge potential is studied in Sec. V, where the explicit dependence of all dynamical variables on the internal coordinates is examined. Finally, in Sec. VI, the basic properties of the model are discussed. In particular, it is pointed out that the teleparallel Kaluza-Klein model defines a natural length-scale for the compact $`D`$-dimensional sub-manifold of the fiber space, which is found to be of the order of the Planck length.

## II Particle Dynamics and Unified Gauge Potentials

In what follows, the greek alphabet $`\mu ,\nu ,\rho ,\mathrm{}=0,\mathrm{},3`$ will be used to denote indices related to spacetime. According to the gauge construction, at each point of spacetime there is a fiber space, which in our case will be a ($`4+D`$)-dimensional space given by the direct product $`M^4B^D`$, where $`M^4`$ is the tangent Minkowski space, and $`B^D`$ is the group manifold associated to a Yang-Mills symmetry. The first part of the latin alphabet $`a,b,c,\mathrm{}=0,\mathrm{},3`$ will be used to denote indices related to the Minkowski (or external) part of the fiber, whereas the second part of the latin alphabet $`m,n,\mathrm{}=5,\mathrm{},4+D`$ will be used to denote indices related to the Yang-Mills (or internal) part of the fiber. The second part of the latin capital alphabet will be used to denote the whole set of indices of the internal space, which runs through the values $`M,N,\mathrm{}=0,\mathrm{},3,5,\mathrm{}4+D`$. The metric of the $`(4+D)`$-dimensional internal space $`M^4B^D`$ is

$$\gamma _{MN}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\eta _{ab}& 0\\ 0& \gamma _{mn}\end{array}\right),$$
(1)
where $`\eta _{ab}`$ is the metric of $`M^4`$, which is chosen to be $`\eta _{ab}=\mathrm{diag}(+1,1,1,1)`$, and $`\gamma _{mn}`$ is the metric of the $`D`$-dimensional space $`B^D`$. In general, $`B^D`$ is a (compact) curved riemannian space, with $`\gamma _{mn}=\gamma _{mn}(x^m)`$ a function of the coordinates $`x^m`$ of $`B^D`$.

As already said, gravitation will enter as a gauge theory for the translation group, whose action will take place in the Minkowski space $`M^4`$. As the dimension of the translation group is the same as that of the Minkowski space, the first part of the latin alphabet $`a,b,c,\mathrm{}=0,\mathrm{},3`$ will also be used to denote the indices related to the translation group. The intermediary latin alphabet $`i,j,k=5,\mathrm{},4+I`$ will be used to denote indices related to the Yang-Mills gauge group, with $`I`$ denoting the number of generators of the associated Lie algebra. The latin capital letters $`A,B,C,\mathrm{}=0,\mathrm{},3,5,\mathrm{},4+I`$ will be used to denote the whole set of indices related to the group generators. Notice that the dimension $`4+D`$ of the fiber does not need to coincide with the dimension $`4+I`$ of the gauge group.

We denote by $`A^a_\mu `$ the gauge potential related to translations, and by $`A^i_\mu `$ the Yang-Mills type gauge potentials. According to the gauge description of interactions, the action integral describing a particle of mass $`m`$ and gauge charge $`q_i`$, under the influence of both a gravitational and a gauge field is

$$S=_a^b\left[mcd\sigma \frac{1}{c}\left(mA^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}u_{a}^{}+gA^i{}_{\mu }{}^{}q_{i}^{}\right)dx^\mu \right],$$
(2)
where $`d\sigma =(\eta _{ab}dx^adx^b)^{1/2}`$ is the Minkowski invariant interval, $`u_a=dx_a/d\sigma `$ is the tangent space four-velocity, and $`q_i`$ is the Noether charge related to the internal gauge transformation drechsler . Notice that the mass $`m`$ appears as the gravitational coupling constant, whereas the gauge coupling constant is denoted by $`g`$. Notice furthermore that we are assuming the weak equivalence principle, and equating the inertial and gravitational masses.

The equation of motion following from the action (2) is

$`e^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{du_a}{ds}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{c^2}}F^a{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}u_{a}^{}u^\nu +{\displaystyle \frac{g}{mc^2}}(_\mu A^i{}_{\nu }{}^{}_\nu A^i{}_{\mu }{}^{})q_iu^\nu `$ (3)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g}{mc^2}}A^i{}_{\mu }{}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{dq_i}{ds}},`$
where

$$F^a{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}=_\mu A^a{}_{\nu }{}^{}_\nu A^a_\mu $$
(4)
is the gravitational field strength, $`ds=(g_{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu )^{1/2}`$ is the spacetime invariant interval, $`u^\nu =dx^\nu /ds`$ is the spacetime four-velocity, and $`e^a_\mu `$ is the tetrad field

$$e^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}=_\mu x^a+c^2A^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}.$$
(5)
We remark that, whereas the Minkowski indices $`a,b,c,\mathrm{}`$ are raised and lowered with the Minkowski metric $`\eta _{ab}`$, the spacetime indices $`\mu ,\nu ,\rho ,\mathrm{}`$ are raised and lowered with the riemannian metric

$$g_{\mu \nu }=\eta _{ab}e^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}e_{}^{b}{}_{\nu }{}^{},$$
(6)
which is used to write the spacetime invariant interval $`ds`$.

Considering now that the gauge charge $`q_i`$ satisfies the Wong equation wong

$$\frac{dq_i}{ds}+\frac{g}{\mathrm{}c}f_{ijk}A^j{}_{\mu }{}^{}q_{}^{k}u^\mu =0,$$
(7)
with $`f_{ijk}`$ the structure constants of the gauge group, the equation of motion (3) can be rewritten in the form

$$e^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}\frac{du_a}{ds}=\frac{1}{c^2}F^a{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}u_{a}^{}u^\nu +\frac{g}{mc^2}F^i{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}q_{i}^{}u^\nu ,$$
(8)
where

$$F^i{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}=_\mu A^i{}_{\nu }{}^{}_\nu A^i{}_{\mu }{}^{}+\frac{g}{\mathrm{}c}f^i{}_{jk}{}^{}A_{}^{j}{}_{\mu }{}^{}A_{}^{k}_\nu $$
(9)
is the gauge field strength. In the absence of Yang-Mills field, the equation of motion (8) can be shown to reduce to the geodesic equation of general relativity paper10 .

The gauge structure of teleparallel gravity allows the definition of a unified gauge potential $`𝒜^A_\mu `$, which is assumed to have the same dimension of the gravitational potential $`A^a_\mu `$. Consequently, the internal gauge potential $`A^i_\mu `$ must appear multiplied by an appropriate dimensional factor, which we write in the form

$$𝒜^A{}_{\mu }{}^{}(A^a{}_{\mu }{}^{},\stackrel{~}{A}^i{}_{\mu }{}^{})=(A^a{}_{\mu }{}^{},\frac{g}{\kappa }A^i{}_{\mu }{}^{}),$$
(10)
where $`\kappa `$ is a parameter to be determined later. Consequently, if we define a generalized ($`4+I`$) Noether charge $`p_A=mcu_A`$, with

$$u_A(u_a,\stackrel{~}{u}_i)=(u_a,\frac{\kappa }{m}q_i)$$
(11)
a generalized ($`4+I`$) “velocity”, the action (2) can be rewritten in the form

$$S=_a^b\left[mcd\sigma \frac{1}{c^2}𝒜^A{}_{\mu }{}^{}p_{A}^{}dx^\mu \right].$$
(12)
In the same way, we can define now a generalized field strength,

$$^A{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}(F^a{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{},\stackrel{~}{F}^i{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{})=(F^a{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{},\frac{g}{\kappa }F^i{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}).$$
(13)
With these definitions, the equation of motion (8) assumes the form

$$e^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}\frac{du_a}{ds}=c^2^A{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}u_{A}^{}u^\nu .$$
(14)
This is the unified — gravitational plus Yang-Mills — analog of the electromagnetic Lorentz force. Its solution determines the trajectory of the particle under the influence of both gravitational and Yang-Mills fields.

## III Generalized Gauge Transformations

A point in the ($`4+D`$)-dimensional internal space $`M^4B^D`$ will be denoted by $`x^M=(x^a,x^m)`$, where $`x^a`$ are the coordinates of $`M^4`$, and $`x^m`$ the coordinates of $`B^D`$. A local transformation of these coordinates, which leaves the metric $`\gamma _{MN}`$ invariant, can be written in the form

$$\delta x^M=\delta \alpha ^AK_Ax^M,$$
(15)
where $`\delta \alpha ^A=\delta \alpha ^A(x^\mu )`$ are the infinitesimal parameters, whose components are written in the form

$$\delta \alpha ^A(x^\mu )(\delta \alpha ^a,\delta \stackrel{~}{\alpha }^i)=(\delta \alpha ^a,\frac{g}{\kappa c^2}\delta \alpha ^i),$$
(16)
and $`K_A`$ represent the generators of the transformations. These generators have the form

$$K_A=K^N{}_{A}{}^{}_{N}^{},$$
(17)
where the coefficients $`K^N_A`$ are the Killing vectors weinberg  associated with the infinitesimal isometries of the internal space $`M^4B^D`$. They form a set of $`4+I`$ linearly independent vectors for this space okk , and are given by

$$K^N{}_{A}{}^{}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\delta ^b_a& 0\\ 0& K^n_i\end{array}\right),$$
(18)
with $`\delta ^b_a`$ the Killing vectors of $`M^4`$, and $`K^n_i`$ the Killing vectors of $`B^D`$. The generators are, consequently,

$$K_a=\delta ^b{}_{a}{}^{}_{b}^{}=P_a,$$
(19)
which are the isometry generators of $`M^4`$, and

$$K_i=K^n{}_{i}{}^{}_{n}^{},$$
(20)
which are the isometry generators of $`B^D`$. The coordinate transformations, therefore, are given by

$$\delta x^a=\delta \alpha ^a,$$
(21)
and

$$\delta x^n=\frac{g}{\kappa c^2}\delta \alpha ^iK^n{}_{i}{}^{}\frac{g}{\kappa c^2}\delta \xi ^n,$$
(22)
with $`\delta \xi ^n=\delta \alpha ^iK^n_i`$ the transformation parameter in the Killing basis.

The generators $`K_A`$ obey the algebra

$$[K_A,K_B]=f^C{}_{AB}{}^{}K_{C}^{},$$
(23)
where $`f^A_{BC}`$ are the (dimensional) structure constants, whose components are

$$f^A{}_{BC}{}^{}=\{\begin{array}{cc}f^a{}_{bc}{}^{}=0,\mathrm{for}\hfill & A,B,C=a,b,c\hfill \\ \stackrel{~}{f}^i{}_{jk}{}^{}\chi f^i{}_{jk}{}^{},\mathrm{for}\hfill & A,B,C=i,j,k.\hfill \end{array}$$
(24)
The constant

$$\chi =\kappa \frac{c}{\mathrm{}},$$
(25)
was introduced for dimensional reasons, and in such a way to yield correct forms for the field strengths and gauge transformations. We have thus the following commutation relations:

$$[K_a,K_b]=0,$$
(26)
and

$$[K_i,K_j]=\chi f^k{}_{ij}{}^{}K_{k}^{}.$$
(27)
The generalized derivative, covariant under the transformation (15), is

$$𝒟_\mu =_\mu +c^2𝒜^A{}_{\mu }{}^{}K_{A}^{}.$$
(28)
In fact, as a simple computation shows, its commutator gives rise to the generalized field strength,

$$[𝒟_\mu ,𝒟_\nu ]=c^2^A{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}K_{A}^{},$$
(29)
where

$$^A{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}=_\mu 𝒜^A{}_{\nu }{}^{}_\nu 𝒜^A{}_{\mu }{}^{}+c^2f^A{}_{BC}{}^{}𝒜_{}^{B}{}_{\mu }{}^{}𝒜_{}^{C}{}_{\nu }{}^{}.$$
(30)
Using the appropriate definitions, this expression is easily seen to yield the correct expressions for the gravitational and the Yang-Mills field strengths. We notice in passing that the tetrad field is given by the covariant derivative of $`x^a`$, the coordinates of the non-compact part $`M^4`$ of the fiber space:

$$e^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}=𝒟_\mu x^a.$$

This means that this part of the fiber space presents the soldering property livro .

Now, from the covariance of $`𝒟_\mu `$ under the isometric transformation (15), we obtain the gauge transformation of the generalized potential:

$$\delta 𝒜^A{}_{\mu }{}^{}=c^2𝒟_\mu \delta \alpha ^Ac^2_\mu \delta \alpha ^Af^A{}_{BC}{}^{}𝒜_{}^{B}{}_{\mu }{}^{}\delta \alpha ^C.$$
(31)
For $`A=a`$, the usual transformation law for the (abelian) gravitational gauge potential is obtained:

$$\delta A^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}=c^2_\mu \delta \alpha ^a.$$
(32)
For $`A=i`$, it gives

$$\delta A^i{}_{\mu }{}^{}=𝒟_\mu \delta \alpha ^i_\mu \delta \alpha ^i\frac{g}{\mathrm{}c}f^i{}_{jk}{}^{}A_{}^{j}{}_{\mu }{}^{}\delta \alpha ^k,$$
(33)
which is the usual non-abelian gauge transformation. When $`\delta \alpha ^a=0`$, therefore, the coordinate transformation (15) leads to a pure gauge transformation.

## IV Gauge Lagrangian and Field Equations

Considering the generalized field strength $`^A_{\mu \nu }`$, we can write the unified lagrangian density for the gauge field as

$$=\frac{e}{16\pi G}(\frac{1}{4}^A{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}_{}^{B}{}_{\theta \rho }{}^{}g_{}^{\mu \theta }N_{AB}{}_{}{}^{\nu \rho }),$$
(34)
where $`e=det(e^a{}_{\mu }{}^{})`$. The algebraic indices $`A,B,C,\mathrm{}`$ are raised and lowered with the Cartan-Killing metric

$$\eta _{AB}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\eta _{ab}& 0\\ 0& \eta _{ij}\end{array}\right),$$
(35)
whose components related to the translation group coincide with the lorentzian metric $`\eta _{ab}`$ of the Minkowski tangent space. The explicit form of the components of $`N_{AB}^{\nu \rho }`$ are

$$N_{ab}{}_{}{}^{\nu \rho }=𝔸\eta _{ab}e_c{}_{}{}^{\nu }e_{}^{c\rho }+𝔹e_a{}_{}{}^{\rho }e_{b}^{}{}_{}{}^{\nu }+e_a{}_{}{}^{\nu }e_{b}^{}{}_{}{}^{\rho },$$
(36)
with $`𝔸`$, $`𝔹`$, $``$ arbitrary parameters hs , which gives the lagrangian of the gravitational sector, and

$$N_{ij}{}_{}{}^{\nu \rho }=\eta _{ij}e_c{}_{}{}^{\nu }e_{}^{c\rho },$$
(37)
which gives the lagrangian of the gauge sector. The difference in the form of $`N_{AB}^{\nu \rho }`$ for the different sectors of the theory is directly related to the fact that, due to the presence of a tetrad field in the gravitational sector, the algebraic and spacetime indices of this sector are of the same type, and consequently there are additional ways of contracting the indices. Since there are no tetrads relating the algebraic and the spacetime indices in the gauge sector, only the usual contraction is present. For the specific choice of the parameters,

$$𝔸=\frac{𝔹}{2}=\frac{}{4}=1,$$

teleparallel gravity yields the so called teleparallel equivalent of general relativity. In this case, the lagrangian (34) becomes

$$=\frac{c^4e}{16\pi G}S^{\rho \mu \nu }T_{\rho \mu \nu }+\frac{\kappa ^2g^2}{16\pi G}\eta _{ij}\left[\frac{e}{4}F^i{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}F_{}^{j\mu \nu }\right],$$
(38)
where

$$T_{\rho \mu \nu }=c^2e_{a\rho }F^a{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho \nu \mu }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho \mu \nu }$$

is the torsion of the Weitzenböck connection $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^\rho {}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}=e^\rho {}_{a}{}^{}_{\nu }^{}e^a_\mu `$, and $`S^{\rho \mu \nu }`$ is the tensor

$`S^{\rho \mu \nu }={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(T^{\rho \mu \nu }`$ $`+`$ $`T^{\mu \rho \nu }T^{\nu \rho \mu })`$ (39)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(g^{\rho \nu }T_\theta {}_{}{}^{\mu \theta }g^{\rho \mu }T_\theta {}_{}{}^{\nu \theta }).`$
To obtain the correct form of the gauge lagrangian, two conditions must be imposed on the second term of Eq. (38). The first one is that paper14

$$\kappa ^2=\frac{g^2}{16\pi G}\frac{g^2}{𝒢^2}.$$
(40)
The constant $`\kappa `$, therefore, is simply the relation between the gauge coupling constant $`g`$ and the gravitational coupling constant $`𝒢`$. The second condition concerns the relative signs between the gravitational and the Yang-Mills lagrangians. In order to get the appropriate sign, it is necessary that

$$\eta _{ij}=\delta _{ij}.$$
(41)
Therefore, the Cartan-Killing metric (35) of the unified gauge group becomes

$$\eta _{AB}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\eta _{ab}& 0\\ 0& \delta _{ij}\end{array}\right).$$
(42)
With these conditions, we obtain

$$_\mathrm{G}+_{\mathrm{YM}}=\frac{c^4e}{16\pi G}S^{\rho \mu \nu }T_{\rho \mu \nu }\frac{e}{4}F^i{}_{\mu \nu }{}^{}F_{i}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu \nu }.$$
(43)
As is well known, up to a divergence, the first term of this lagrangian is the teleparallel equivalent of the Einstein-Hilbert lagrangian of general relativity paper10 . The second term, on the other hand, is the usual gauge lagrangian in the presence of gravitation.

It is interesting to notice that, when the Cartan-Killing metric related to the (external) translation group $`T_4`$ is chosen to be $`\eta _{ab}=\mathrm{diag}(+1,1,1,1)`$, the corresponding Cartan-Killing metric related to the (internal) Yang-Mills group $`G_{\mathrm{YM}}`$ has necessarily the form $`\eta _{ij}=\delta _{ij}`$. If we had chosen the other possible convention for $`\eta _{ab}`$, that is, $`\eta _{ab}=\mathrm{diag}(1,+1,+1,+1)`$, the consistency condition would require that $`\eta _{ij}=+\delta _{ij}`$. Therefore, the teleparallel Kaluza-Klein construction imposes a constraint between the Cartan-Killing metric convention adopted for the translation gauge group, and consequently for the Minkowski tangent space — see the comment just after Eq. (35) — and that adopted for the Yang-Mills gauge group.

Performing a functional variation of $``$ in relation to the components $`A^a_\tau `$, and using the definition of the Weitzenböck connection $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^\rho _{\mu \nu }`$, we obtain the gravitational field equation

$$_\sigma (eS_\lambda {}_{}{}^{\tau \sigma })\frac{4\pi G}{c^4}et^\tau {}_{\lambda }{}^{}=\frac{4\pi G}{c^4}e\mathrm{\Theta }^\tau {}_{\lambda }{}^{},$$
(44)
where

$$et^\tau {}_{\lambda }{}^{}=\frac{c^4e}{4\pi G}\mathrm{\Gamma }^\mu {}_{\nu \lambda }{}^{}S_{\mu }^{}{}_{}{}^{\tau \nu }\delta ^\tau {}_{\lambda }{}^{}_{\mathrm{G}}^{}$$
(45)
stands for the teleparallel canonical energy-momentum pseudo-tensor of the gravitational field prl . The source of the field equation (44) is the energy-momentum tensor of the Yang-Mills field in the presence of gravitation, which is defined by

$$e\mathrm{\Theta }^\tau {}_{\lambda }{}^{}c^2e^a{}_{\lambda }{}^{}\frac{\delta _{\mathrm{YM}}}{\delta A^a_\tau }=e^a{}_{\lambda }{}^{}\frac{\delta _{\mathrm{YM}}}{\delta e^a_\tau }.$$
(46)
Finally, variation of $``$ with respect to the components $`A^i_\mu `$ yields the Yang-Mills equation in the presence of gravitation,

$$_\mu (eF^{i\mu \nu })\frac{ge}{\mathrm{}c}j^{i\nu }=0,$$

where

$$j^{i\nu }=f^i{}_{jk}{}^{}A_{}^{j}{}_{\mu }{}^{}F_{}^{k\mu \nu }$$

stands for the (pseudo) current of the Yang-Mills field ramond . We mention in passing that the teleparallel field equation (44) is an equation written in terms of the Weitzenböck connection only. It can alternatively be written in terms of the Levi-Civita connection, in which case it reduces to the general relativity Einstein’s equation. The teleparallel field equation (44), however, has the advantage of presenting the same formal structure of the Yang-Mills equation.

## V Matter Fields

The geometrical structure underlying every gauge theory exists independently of the presence or not of gauge fields. For example, in the teleparallel Kaluza-Klein theory, the non-compact four-dimensional part of the fiber, which is given by the tangent Minkowski space, is a geometrical structure that is always present independently of the presence or not of a gravitational gauge field. The same is true of the $`D`$-dimensional compact part of the fiber in relation to the corresponding Yang-Mills gauge field. It should be noticed that the fiber space of teleparallel Kaluza-Klein theories corresponds to the ground state spacetime of ordinary Kaluza-Klein theories. In these theories, the transition from a higher-dimensional theory to the effective four-dimensional theory is made with the help of an harmonic expansion around the ground state, whose excitations represent the field variables of the model. As a consequence, an infinite spectrum of particles is obtained. In particular, the lowest order excitations have vanishing mass, giving rise to the massless sector of the emerging gauge theory.

On the other hand, in the teleparallel Kaluza-Klein theories, all dynamical variables are function of the four-dimensional spacetime points. Furthermore, the action functional and the field equations are written in the four-dimensional spacetime, and not in the higher-dimensional fiber space. This means that no dimensional reduction is necessary, no harmonic expansion around the ground state has to be performed, and consequently the field variables of the model cannot be represented by excitations. In fact, like in any other gauge theory, the basic fields are represented by gauge potentials given a priori, which are the basic ingredients for the construction of gauge theories.

Now, comes the question on how the dynamical variables of the theory depend on the coordinates $`x^M`$ of the fiber space. Concerning the coordinates $`x^a`$ of the non-compact four-dimensional part ($`M^4`$) of the fiber, as this space is soldered to spacetime, and as all dynamical variables are functions of the spacetime coordinates $`x^\mu `$, the dependence of these variables on $`x^a`$ has necessarily to be through the argument of the dynamical variables. Concerning the coordinates $`x^m`$ of the compact $`D`$-dimensional part ($`B^D`$) of the fiber, as a change in $`x^m`$ must correspond to a change, not in the argument, but in the components of the field variable, the dependence of any dynamical variable on $`x^m`$ will be analogous to the dependence on the gauge parameter in a gauge theory. This is a direct consequence of the fact that the isometry transformations of $`B^D`$ are ultimately equivalent to internal gauge transformations. Accordingly, the dependence of the matter field $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ on the coordinates $`x^m`$ can be written in the form

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(x^m)=\mathrm{exp}\left[i\chi \beta _nx^n\right]\psi ,$$
(47)
where $`\chi `$ is defined in Eq. (25), and $`\beta _n`$ are parameters related to the geometry of the compact manifold $`B^D`$. In addition, as a change in $`x^m`$ is related to a gauge transformation, $`\beta _n`$ must necessarily assume values in the Lie algebra of the gauge group. In other words, $`\beta _n=\beta _n{}_{}{}^{j}𝒯_{j}^{}`$, with $`𝒯_j`$ a matrix representation of the Lie algebra generators. In fact, according to Eq. (47), the action of the (derivative) isometry generators $`K^n{}_{i}{}^{}_{n}^{}`$, turns out to be equivalent to the action of the (multiplicative) matrix generators $`i\chi K^n{}_{i}{}^{}\beta _{n}^{}`$. This means that it is possible to relate $`i\chi K^n{}_{i}{}^{}\beta _{n}^{}`$ to another realization of the generators of the gauge group. As already said, this possibility is a direct consequence of the fact that the (internal) gauge transformations are obtained as the isometries of $`B^D`$.

Let us explore better this point. Under the coordinate transformation (15), a matter field $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ changes according to

$$\delta \mathrm{\Psi }=\delta \alpha ^AK_A\mathrm{\Psi }\delta \alpha ^a_a\mathrm{\Psi }+\frac{g}{\kappa c^2}\delta \alpha ^iK^n{}_{i}{}^{}_{n}^{}\mathrm{\Psi }.$$
(48)
By using Eq. (47), we see that

$$_n\mathrm{\Psi }=i\chi \beta _n\mathrm{\Psi }=i\frac{\kappa c}{\mathrm{}}\beta _n\mathrm{\Psi },$$
(49)
where use has been made of Eq. (25). Substituting into the transformation (48), it becomes

$$\delta \mathrm{\Psi }=\delta \alpha ^a_a\mathrm{\Psi }+\frac{ig}{\mathrm{}c}\delta \alpha ^iK^n{}_{i}{}^{}\beta _{n}^{}\mathrm{\Psi }.$$
(50)
On the other hand, we have already seen that $`K_i=K^n{}_{i}{}^{}_{n}^{}`$ satisfy the commutation relations (27), that is

$$[K^n{}_{i}{}^{}_{n}^{},K^m{}_{j}{}^{}_{m}^{}]\mathrm{\Psi }=\chi f^k{}_{ij}{}^{}K_{}^{n}{}_{k}{}^{}_{n}^{}\mathrm{\Psi }.$$

As the Killing vectors $`K^n_i`$ depend on $`x^m`$ in the same manner as $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ does, it is an easy task to verify that

$$[iK^n{}_{i}{}^{}\beta _{n}^{},iK^m{}_{j}{}^{}\beta _{m}^{}]\mathrm{\Psi }=f^k{}_{ij}{}^{}iK^n{}_{k}{}^{}\beta _{n}^{}\mathrm{\Psi }.$$
(51)
This means that

$$T_i=iK^n{}_{i}{}^{}\beta _{n}^{}iK^n{}_{i}{}^{}\beta _{n}^{}{}_{}{}^{j}𝒯_{j}^{}$$
(52)
can be identified as another realization of the (anti-hermitian) Lie algebra generators. With this identification, the transformation (50) acquires the form

$$\delta \mathrm{\Psi }=\delta \alpha ^aP_a\mathrm{\Psi }+\frac{g}{\mathrm{}c}\delta \alpha ^iT_i\mathrm{\Psi },$$
(53)
which is in fact a gauge transformation of matter fields.

The covariant derivative of $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is defined by

$$𝒟_\mu \mathrm{\Psi }=_\mu \mathrm{\Psi }+𝒜^A{}_{\mu }{}^{}\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Psi }}{\delta \alpha ^A}.$$
(54)
Substituting the transformation (31), and using the appropriate identifications, it becomes

$$𝒟_\mu \mathrm{\Psi }=e^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}_{a}^{}\mathrm{\Psi }+\frac{g}{\mathrm{}c}A^i{}_{\mu }{}^{}T_{i}^{}\mathrm{\Psi },$$
(55)
which is the usual expression of the gauge covariant derivative in the presence of gravitation. Defining $`A^i{}_{\mu }{}^{}=A^i{}_{a}{}^{}e_{}^{a}_\mu `$, it can be rewritten in the form

$$𝒟_\mu \mathrm{\Psi }=e^a{}_{\mu }{}^{}𝒟_{a}^{}\mathrm{\Psi },$$
(56)
where $`𝒟_a\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is the gauge covariant derivative in Minkowski spacetime.

## VI Final Remarks

Replacing the general relativity paradigm by a gauge paradigm, and making use of the teleparallel description of gravitation, which corresponds to a gauge theory for the translation group, we have succeeded in constructing a teleparallel version of the non-abelian Kaluza-Klein theory. In other words, we have succeeded in unifying, in the Kaluza-Klein sense, teleparallel gravitation with Yang-Mills type theories. The resulting model turns out to be a gauge theory for the group $`T_4G_{\mathrm{YM}}`$, with the fiber space given by $`M^4B^D`$, where $`M^4`$ is the Minkowski tangent spacetime, and $`B^D`$ is the manifold associated to the Yang-Mills gauge group $`G_{\mathrm{YM}}`$. In this model, the translational gauge transformation arises as the isometries of the non-compact four-dimensional part of the fiber, which is always a Minkowski spacetime $`M^4`$, whereas the non-abelian gauge transformations arise as the isometries of the compact $`D`$-dimensional part of the fiber, which is the part related to the internal gauge symmetry.

As in the abelian case tkk , the teleparallel equivalent of the non-abelian Kaluza-Klein model turns out to be much more natural than ordinary’s Kaluza-Klein. In fact, in the teleparallel model both gravitational and Yang-Mills type fields are described by a gauge theory, with the Yang-Mills field-strength appearing as extra gauge-components of torsion, the field strength of teleparallel gravity. This means that the gravitational and the Yang-Mills field-strengths are different components of a unique tensor. Another interesting point concerns the relation between geometry and gauge theories. According to ordinary Kaluza-Klein models, gauge theories emerge from higher-dimensional geometric theories as a consequence of the dimensional reduction process. According to the teleparallel Kaluza-Klein approach, however, gauge theories are the natural structures to be introduced, the four-dimensional geometry (gravitation) emerging from the non-compact sector of the fiber space. In fact, only this sector presents the soldering property livro , and can consequently give rise to a tetrad field, which is the responsible for the geometrical structure (either metric or teleparallel) induced in spacetime. Furthermore, as the gauge theories are introduced in their original form — they do not come from geometry — the unification, though not trivial, turns out to be much more natural and easier to be performed.

An important characteristic of the ordinary non-abelian Kaluza-Klein model is that the metric (1) is not a solution of the higher-dimensional Einstein equations as these equations cannot have solutions of the form $`M^4B^D`$. This is related to the fact that the $`D`$-dimensional internal space is in general curved, leading then to difficulties for defining the ground state (vacuum) of the higher-dimensional gravitational field. These models, therefore, require an initial non-compact $`(4+D)`$-dimensional spacetime, and a subsequent compactification scheme for the $`D`$ extra dimensions. One way of solving this problem is to introduce extra matter fields in the form of a higher-dimensional energy-momentum tensor, so that an spontaneous compactification of the extra dimensions is achieved cremmer . Another solution was that provided by Freund and Rubin freru  in eleven-dimensional supergravity, where not only there is compactification, but the space naturally separates in $`(4+7)`$ dimensions. On the other hand, since in the teleparallel Kaluza-Klein model the gauge theories are not obtained from the geometry, but introduced in their original forms, the fiber space of these theories can be assumed to present a compact sub-manifold $`B^D`$ from the very beginning. In other words, the compactification problem does not exist for these theories. In addition, as both the action and the field equations are always written in the four-dimensional spacetime, and not in the higher-dimensional fiber space, no dimensional reduction is necessary, and consequently no expansion of the dynamical variables in terms of the complete set of harmonics of $`B^D`$ has to be performed. As a consequence, the infinite spectrum of new particles is absent, strongly reducing the redundancy present in ordinary Kaluza-Klein theories. A similar achievement has already been obtained by a modified Kaluza-Klein theory in which the internal coordinates are replaced by generators of a non-commutative algebra madore . In this model, no truncation to eliminate extraneous modes is necessary as only a finite number of them is present.

Finally, as a last remark, let us take the internal coordinate transformation (22), and substitute on it the value of $`\kappa `$, given by Eq. (40). As $`B^D`$ is compact, this transformation can be written in the form

$$\delta x^n=\rho \delta \theta ^n,$$
(57)
where

$$\rho =l_P\left(\frac{G\mathrm{}}{c^3}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}},$$
(58)
is the length-scale associated to the compact internal sub-manifold, and

$$\delta \theta ^n=\left(\frac{16\pi }{\mathrm{}c}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\delta \xi ^n$$
(59)
is the angular coordinate associated to $`x^m`$. We see in this way that the teleparallel Kaluza-Klein model defines a natural length-scale for the compact part of the fiber space, given by the Planck length. In the specific case of the ordinary abelian Kaluza-Klein theory, the radius of the fifth dimension can only be inferred from the value of the elementary electric charge. Since the teleparallel model yields a natural length-scale, we can reverse the argument and use this length to calculate the elementary electric charge. Furthermore, as is well known, a length of the order of the Planck length, like the $`\rho `$ above, through the application of the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rule to the periodic motion in the fifth dimension, gives the correct value for the elementary electric charge.

## Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank FAPESP-Brazil, CAPES-Brazil and CNPq-Brazil for financial support.


text:
# Gapless Phase in the 𝑋𝑌𝑍 Spin-1/2 Chain in a Magnetic Field and the Quantum ANNNI Chain

\[

## Abstract

We study the $`XYZ`$ spin-1/2 chain placed in a magnetic field pointing along the $`x`$-axis. We use bosonization and a renormalization group analysis to show that the model has a non-trivial fixed point at a certain value of the $`XY`$ anisotropy $`a`$ and the magnetic field $`h`$. Hence, there is a line of critical points in the plane $`(a,h)`$ on which the system is gapless, even though the Hamiltonian has no continuous symmetry. The quantum critical line separates a gapped commensurate phase from a gapped incommensurate phase. Our study explains why the floating phase of the axial next-nearest neighbor Ising (ANNNI) chain in a transverse magnetic field is only a line, as shown by recent numerical studies.

\]

One-dimensional quantum spin systems have been studied extensively ever since the isotropic spin-1/2 chain was solved exactly by Bethe. Baxter later used the Bethe ansatz to solve the fully anisotropic ($`XYZ`$) spin-1/2 chain in the absence of a magnetic field ; the problem has not been analytically solved in the presence of a magnetic field. Experimentally, quantum spin chains and ladders are known to exhibit a wide range of unusual properties, including both gapless phases with a power-law decay of the two-spin correlations and gapped phases with an exponential decay . There are also two-dimensional classical statistical mechanics systems (such as the axial next-nearest neighbor Ising (ANNNI) model) whose finite temperature properties can be understood by studying an equivalent quantum spin-1/2 chain in a magnetic field. The ANNNI model has been studied by several techniques, and it was believed for a long time to have a floating phase of finite width in which the system is gapless . However, a recent large-scale numerical study has shown that the width of this phase seems to be zero within numerical errors .

Amongst the powerful analytical methods now available for studying quantum spin-1/2 chains is the technique of bosonization . Recently, the $`XXZ`$ chain in a magnetic field  and the quantum ANNNI model  have been studied using bosonization. In this work, we will study the fully anisotropic $`XYZ`$ model in a magnetic field pointing along the $`x`$-axis. For small values of the $`XY`$ anisotropy $`a`$ and the magnetic field $`h`$, we will show that there is a non-trivial fixed point (FP) of the renormalization group (RG) in the $`(a,h)`$ plane; the system is gapless on a quantum critical line of points which flow to this FP. The floating phase of the ANNNI model will be shown to be a special case of our results corresponding to $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$. The gapless line is somewhat unusual because the $`XY`$ anisotropy and the magnetic field both break the continuous symmetry of rotations in the $`xy`$ plane. We will provide a physical understanding of this line by going to the classical (large $`S`$) limit of the model.

We consider the Hamiltonian defined on a chain of sites

$`H={\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}[`$ $`(1+a)S_n^xS_{n+1}^x+(1a)S_n^yS_{n+1}^y`$ (2)
$`+\mathrm{\Delta }S_n^zS_{n+1}^zhS_n^x].`$
We will assume that the $`XY`$ anisotropy $`a`$ and the $`zz`$ coupling $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ satisfy $`1a,\mathrm{\Delta }1`$. We can assume without loss of generality that the magnetic field strength $`h0`$. For $`a=h=0`$, the model is symmetric under rotations in the $`xy`$ plane and is gapless. The low-energy and long-wavelength modes of the system are described by the bosonic Hamiltonian

$$H_0=\frac{v}{2}𝑑x[(_x\theta )^2+(_x\varphi )^2],$$
(3)
where $`v`$ is the velocity of the low-energy excitations (which have the dispersion $`\omega =v|k|`$); $`v`$ is a function of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. (The continuous space variable $`x`$ and the site label $`n`$ are related through $`x=nd`$, where $`d`$ is the lattice spacing). The bosonic theory contains another parameter called $`K`$ which is related to $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ by

$$K=\frac{\pi }{\pi +2\mathrm{sin}^1(\mathrm{\Delta })}.$$
(4)
$`K`$ takes the values $`1`$ and $`1/2`$ for $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$ (which describes noninteracting spinless fermions) and $`1`$ (the isotropic antiferromagnet) respectively; as $`\mathrm{\Delta }1`$, $`K\mathrm{}`$. We thus have $`1/2K<\mathrm{}`$.

The spin-density operators can be written as

$`S_n^z`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{K}}}_x\varphi +(1)^nc_1\mathrm{cos}(2\sqrt{\pi K}\varphi ),`$ (5)
$`S_n^x`$ $`=`$ $`[c_2\mathrm{cos}(2\sqrt{\pi K}\varphi )+(1)^nc_3]\mathrm{cos}(\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{K}}}\theta ),`$ (6)
where the $`c_i`$ are constants given in Ref. 10. The $`XY`$ anisotropy term is given by

$$S_n^xS_{n+1}^xS_n^yS_{n+1}^y=c_4\mathrm{cos}(2\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{K}}\theta ),$$
(7)
where $`c_4`$ is another constant.

For convenience, let us define the three operators

$`𝒪_1`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}(2\sqrt{\pi K}\varphi )\mathrm{cos}(\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{K}}}\theta ),`$ (8)
$`𝒪_2`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}(2\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{K}}}\theta ),\mathrm{and}𝒪_3=\mathrm{cos}(4\sqrt{\pi K}\varphi ).`$ (9)
Their scaling dimensions are given by $`K+1/4K`$, $`1/K`$ and $`4K`$ respectively. Using Eqs. (6-7), the terms corresponding to $`a`$ and $`h`$ in Eq. (2) can be written as

$$H_a+H_h=𝑑x[ac_4𝒪_2hc_2𝒪_1],$$
(10)
where we have dropped rapidly varying terms proportional to $`(1)^n`$ since they will average to zero in the continuum limit. (We will henceforth absorb the factors $`c_4`$ ($`c_2`$) in the definitions of $`a`$ ($`h`$)). We will now study how the parameters $`a`$ and $`h`$ flow under RG.

The operators in Eqs. (9) are related to each other through the operator product expansion; the RG equations for their coefficients will therefore be coupled to each other . In our model, this can be derived as follows. Given two operators $`A_1=\mathrm{exp}(i\alpha _1\varphi +i\beta _1\theta )`$ and $`A_2=\mathrm{exp}(i\alpha _2\varphi +i\beta _2\theta )`$, we write the fields $`\varphi `$ and $`\theta `$ as the sum of slow fields (with wave numbers $`|k|<\mathrm{\Lambda }e^{dl}`$) and fast fields (with wave numbers $`\mathrm{\Lambda }e^{dl}<|k|<\mathrm{\Lambda }`$), where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the momentum cut-off of the theory, and $`dl`$ is the change in the logarithm of the length scale. Integrating out the fast fields shows that the product of $`A_1`$ and $`A_2`$ at the same space-time point gives a third operator $`A_3=e^{i(\alpha _1+\alpha _2)\varphi +i(\beta _1+\beta _2)\theta }`$ with a prefactor which can be schematically written as

$$A_1A_2e^{(\alpha _1\alpha _2+\beta _1\beta _2)dl/2\pi }A_3.$$
(11)
If $`\lambda _i(l)`$ denote the coeffients of the operators $`A_i`$ in an effective Hamiltonian, then the RG expression for $`d\lambda _3/dl`$ will contain the term $`(\alpha _1\alpha _2+\beta _1\beta _2)\lambda _1\lambda _2/2\pi `$. Using this, we find that if the three operators in (9) have coefficients $`h`$, $`a`$ and $`b`$ respectively, then the RG equations are

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dh}{dl}}`$ $`=`$ $`(2K{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4K}})h{\displaystyle \frac{1}{K}}ah4Kbh,`$ (12)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{da}{dl}}`$ $`=`$ $`(2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{K}})a(2K{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2K}})h^2,`$ (13)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{db}{dl}}`$ $`=`$ $`(24K)b+(2K{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2K}})h^2,`$ (14)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dK}{dl}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{a^2}{4}}K^2b^2,`$ (15)
where we have absorbed some factors involving $`v`$ in the variables $`a`$, $`b`$ and $`h`$. (We will ignore the RG equation for $`v`$ here). It will turn out that $`K`$ renormalizes very little in the regime of RG flows that we will be concerned with. Eqs. (15) have appeared earlier in the context of some other problems . However, the last two terms in the expression for $`dh/dl`$ were not presented in Ref. 8; these two terms turn out to be crucial for what follows. Note that Eqs. (15) are invariant under the duality transformation $`K1/4K`$ and $`ab`$.

Let us now consider the fixed points of Eqs. (15). For any value of $`K=K^{}`$, a trivial FP is $`(a^{},b^{},h^{})=(0,0,0)`$. Remarkably, it turns out that there is a non-trivial FP for any value of $`K^{}`$ lying in the range $`1/2<K^{}<1+\sqrt{3}/2`$; we will henceforth restrict our attention to this range of values. (The upper bound on $`K^{}`$ comes from the condition $`2K^{}1/4K^{}>0`$). The non-trivial FP is given by

$`h^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2K^{}(2K^{}1/4K^{})}}{(2K^{}+1)}},`$ (16)
$`a^{}`$ $`=`$ $`(K^{}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})h^2,\mathrm{and}b^{}={\displaystyle \frac{a^{}}{2K^{}}}.`$ (17)
The system is gapless at this FP as well as at all points which flow to this FP. One might object that Eqs. (15) can only be trusted if $`a`$, $`b`$ and $`h`$ are not too large, otherwise one should go to higher orders. We note that the FP approaches the origin as $`K^{}1+\sqrt{3}/21.866`$; this corresponds to the $`zz`$ coupling $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\mathrm{sin}[\pi (\sqrt{3}3/2)]0.666`$. Thus the RG equations can certainly be trusted for $`K^{}`$ close to $`1.866`$. For $`K^{}=1`$, the FP is at $`(a^{},b^{},h^{})=(1/4,1/8,1/\sqrt{6})`$.

We have numerically studied the RG flows given by Eqs. (15) for various starting values of $`(K,a,b,h)`$. Since the Hamiltonian in (2) does not contain the operator $`𝒪_3`$, we set $`b=0`$ initially. We take $`a`$ and $`h`$ to be very small initially, and see which set of values flows to a non-trivial FP. For instance, starting with $`K=1`$, $`b=0`$, and $`a,h`$ very small, we find that there is a line of points which flow to a FP at $`(K^{},a^{},b^{},h^{})=(1.020,0.246,0.122,0.404)`$. This line in the $`(a,h)`$ plane is shown in Fig. 1. We see that $`K`$ changes very little during this flow; if we start with a larger value of $`K`$ initially, then it changes even less as we go to the non-trivial FP. It is therefore not a bad approximation to ignore the flow of $`K`$ completely.

We can characterize the set of points $`(a,h)`$ lying close to the origin which flow to the non-trivial FP. Numerically, we find that there is a unique flow line in the $`(a,h)`$ plane for each starting value of $`K`$ and $`b=0`$, provided that $`a,h`$ are very small initially. This means that $`a(l)`$ and $`h(l)`$ given by Eqs. (15) must follow the same line regardless of the starting values of $`a,h`$. From Eqs. (15), we see that if $`h<<a^{1/2}`$, then $`h(l)h(0)\mathrm{exp}(2K1/4K)l`$ while $`a(l)\mathrm{exp}(21/K)l`$. Hence $`h`$ must initially scale with $`a`$ as

$$ha^{(2K1/4K)/(21/K)},$$
(18)
as we have numerically verified for $`K=1`$. However, Eq. (18) is only true if $`(2K1/4K)/(21/K)>1/2`$, i.e., if $`K<(1+\sqrt{2})/2=1.207`$. For $`K1.207`$ (i.e., $`\mathrm{\Delta }0.266`$), the initial scaling form is given by $`ha^{1/2}`$.

We now examine the stability of small perturbations away from the fixed points. The trivial FP at the origin has two unstable directions ($`a`$ and $`h`$), one stable direction ($`b`$) and one marginal direction ($`K`$). The non-trivial FP has two stable directions, one unstable direction and a marginal direction (which corresponds to changing $`K^{}`$ and simultaneously $`a^{}`$, $`b^{}`$ and $`h^{}`$ to maintain the relations in Eqs. (17)). The presence of two stable directions implies that there is a two-dimensional surface of points (in the space of parameters $`(a,b,h)`$) which flows to this FP; the system is gapless on that surface. A perturbation in the unstable direction produces a gap in the spectrum. For instance, at the FP $`(K^{},a^{},b^{},h^{})=(1,1/4,1/8,1/\sqrt{6})`$, the four RG eigenvalues are given by $`1.273`$ (unstable), $`0`$ (marginal), and $`1.152\pm 1.067i`$ (both stable). The positive eigenvalue corresponds to an unstable direction given by $`(\delta K,\delta a,\delta b,\delta h)=\delta a(0.113,1,0.092,0.239)`$. A small perturbation of size $`\delta a`$ in that direction will produce a gap in the spectrum which scales as $`\mathrm{\Delta }E|\delta a|^{1/1.273}=|\delta a|^{0.786}`$; the correlation length is then given by $`\xi v/\mathrm{\Delta }E|\delta a|^{0.786}`$.

Fig. 1 shows that the set of points which do not flow to the non-trivial FP belong to either region A or region B. These regions can be reached from the non-trivial FP by moving in the unstable direction, with $`\delta a>0`$ for region A, and $`\delta a<0`$ for region B. In region A, the points flow to $`a=\mathrm{}`$; this corresponds to a gapped phase which is commensurate since the magnetic field $`h`$ asymptotically flows to zero. In region B, both $`a`$ and $`h`$ flow to $`\mathrm{}`$; this is a gapped incommensurate phase. The line separating the two regions is a commensurate-incommensurate transition line. An order parameter which distinguishes between regions A and B is the staggered magnetization in the $`y`$ direction, defined as

$$m_y=[\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}(1)^n<S_0^yS_n^y>]^{1/2}.$$
(19)
This is zero in the commensurate phase A. In the incommensurate phase B, it is non-zero, and its scaling with the perturbation $`\delta a`$ can be found as follows . At $`a=h=0`$, the leading term in the long-distance equal-time correlation function of $`S^y`$ is given by

$$<S_0^yS_n^y>\frac{(1)^n}{|n|^{1/2K}}.$$
(20)
Hence the scaling dimension of $`S_n^y`$ is $`1/4K`$. In a gapped incommensurate phase in which the correlation length is much larger than the lattice spacing, $`m_y`$ will therefore scale with the gap as $`m_y(\mathrm{\Delta }E)^{1/4K}`$. If we assume that the scaling dimension of $`S_n^y`$ at the non-trivial FP remains close to $`1/4K`$, then the numerical result quoted in the previous paragraph for $`K=1`$ implies that $`m_y|\delta a|^{0.196}`$ for $`\delta a`$ small and negative.

We will now apply our results to the one-dimensional spin-1/2 quantum ANNNI model , with nearest neighbor ferromagnetic and next-nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic Ising interactions and a transverse magnetic field. The Hamiltonian is given by

$$H_A=\underset{i}{}[2J_1S_i^xS_{i+1}^x+J_2S_i^xS_{i+2}^x+\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{2}S_i^y],$$
(21)
where $`J_1,J_2>0`$; we can assume without loss of generality that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }0`$. The quantum Hamiltonian in (21) is related to the transfer matrix of the two-dimensional classical ANNNI model; the finite temperature critical points of the latter are related to the ground state quantum critical points of (21), with the temperature $`T`$ being related to the magnetic field $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Earlier studies showed that the model has a floating phase of finite width which is gapless and incommensurate . A recent bosonization study reached the same conclusions . However, a more recent numerical study involving very large two-dimensional classical systems at finite temperature concluded that the floating phase seems to have zero width . We can now understand this as follows. Consider a Hamiltonian which is dual to (21) for spin-1/2; this will turn out to be a special case of our earlier model. The dual Hamiltonian is given by

$$H_D=\underset{n}{}[J_2T_n^xT_{n+1}^x+\mathrm{\Gamma }T_n^yT_{n+1}^yJ_1T_n^x],$$
(22)
where $`T_n^\alpha `$ are the spin-1/2 operators dual to $`S_i^\alpha `$. Let us scale this Hamiltonian by a factor to make $`J_2+\mathrm{\Gamma }=2`$. Then this has the same form as in Eq. (2), with $`J_2=1+a`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1a`$, $`J_1=h`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$. Hence it follows that the quantum ANNNI model has a line of points in the $`(J_2\mathrm{\Gamma },J_1)`$ plane on which the system is gapless. (From Eq. (18), we see that the shape of this line is given by $`J_1(J_2\mathrm{\Gamma })^{3/4}`$ as $`J_10`$). This line can be identified with the floating phase. Our results for the width of the floating agree completely with those obtained for the two-dimensional classical ANNNI model in Ref. 5. We should point out, however, that Ref. 5 shows the phase transition to be of the Kosterlitz-Thouless type (with $`\xi `$ diverging exponentially) from the high-temperature side (i.e., from region B in Fig. 1), and is of the commensurate-incommensurate type (with $`\xi `$ diverging as a power-law) from the low-temperature side (region A in Fig. 1). Our analysis indicates that it should be of the commensurate-incommensurate type from both sides. This discrepancy remains to be resolved. One comment to be made here is that Ref. 5 has studied two values of $`J_2/J_1`$ ($`0.6`$ and $`0.8`$) which are not large; our RG results may be expected to be valid if $`a,h`$ are small, i.e., if $`J_2/J_1`$ is large.

Finally, we would like to provide a physical picture of the gapless line in the $`(a,h)`$ plane by looking at the classical limit of Eq. (2). Consider the Hamiltonian

$`H_S={\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}[`$ $`(1+a)S_n^xS_{n+1}^x+(1a)S_n^yS_{n+1}^y`$ (24)
$`+\mathrm{\Delta }S_n^zS_{n+1}^zhSS_n^x],`$
where the spins satisfy $`𝐒_n^2=S(S+1)`$, and we are interested in the classical limit $`S\mathrm{}`$ . Let us assume that the $`zz`$ coupling is smaller in magnitude than the $`xx`$ and $`yy`$ couplings. Then the classical ground state of (24) is given by a configuration in which all the spins lie in the $`xy`$ plane, with the spins on odd and even numbered sites pointing respectively at an angle of $`\alpha _1`$ and $`\alpha _2`$ to the $`x`$-axis. The ground state energy per site is

$`e(\alpha _1,\alpha _2)=S^2[`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{h}{2}}(\mathrm{cos}\alpha _1+\mathrm{cos}\alpha _2)`$ (26)
$`+\mathrm{cos}(\alpha _1+\alpha _2)+a\mathrm{cos}(\alpha _1\alpha _2)].`$
Minimizing this with respect to $`\alpha _1`$ and $`\alpha _2`$, we discover that there is a special line given by $`h^2=16a`$ on which all solutions of the equation

$$h\mathrm{cos}(\frac{\alpha _1+\alpha _2}{2})=4a\mathrm{cos}(\frac{\alpha _1\alpha _2}{2}),$$
(27)
give the same ground state energy per site, $`e_0=(1+a)S^2`$. The solutions of Eq. (27) range from $`\alpha _1=\alpha _2=\mathrm{cos}^1(4a/h)`$ to $`\alpha _1=\pi ,\alpha _2=0`$ (or vice versa); in the ground state phase diagram of the ANNNI model, these two configurations correspond to the paramagnetic incommensurate phase and the antiphase respectively . Classically, we see that the line $`h^2=16a`$ separates these two phases; we therefore identify this line with the floating phase . The fact that there is a one-parameter set of ground states (characterized by, say, the value of $`\alpha _1`$ in the solution of (27)) which are all degenerate for $`h^2=16a`$ means that there is a gapless mode in the excitations; we can derive this explicitly by going to the next order in a $`1/S`$ expansion. Hence the model is gapless on that line. This provides some understanding of why one may expect such a gapless line in the spin-1/2 model also. Note however that the bosonization analysis gives the scaling form in (18) for $`h`$ versus $`a`$; this agrees with the classical form only if $`\mathrm{\Delta }0.266`$.

To summarize, we have shown that the $`XYZ`$ spin-1/2 chain in a magnetic field exhibits a gapless phase on a particular line. It may be interesting to use numerical techniques like the density-matrix renormalization group method  to study various ground state properties of this model, in particular the behavior of order parameters such as the one defined in Eq. (19). The RG equations studied in this paper appear in other strongly correlated systems, such as the problem of two spinless Tomonaga-Luttinger chains with both one- and two-particle interchain hoppings , and one-dimensional conductors with spin-anisotropic electron interactions . The gapless phase may therefore also appear in other systems.

D.S. would like to thank P. Fulde for hospitality in the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Dresden, during the course of this work. We thank R. Narayanan for useful comments.