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# Discrete curves in ℂP¹ and the Toda lattice.

## 1 Introduction

In this paper we investigate flows on discrete curves in $`^2`$, $`\mathrm{P}^1`$, and $``$. By a discrete curve $`\gamma `$ in $`K`$ we mean a map $`\gamma :K`$. A flow on $`\gamma `$ is a smooth variation of $`\gamma `$. The description of these curves is mainly motivated by the picture of discrete curves in $`\mathrm{P}^1`$, in other words we imagine curves in $`^2`$ as curves in $`\mathrm{P}^1`$, which are lifted to homogeneous coordinates; and curves in $``$, as curves in $`\mathrm{P}^1`$, which do not hit infinity. In particular this view allows us to find a novel interpretation of the wellknown one dimensional Toda lattice hierarchy in terms of flows on discrete curves. The Toda lattice hierarchy is a set of equations, including the Toda equation:

$$\ddot{q}_k=e^{q_{k+1}q_k}e^{q_kq_{k1}}.$$

The Toda equation is sometimes also called first flow equation of the Toda lattice hierarchy, it was discovered by Toda in 1967 (\[Tod89\]). A good overview about the vast literature about the Toda lattice can be found in (\[FT86, Sur02\]). The paper is organized as follows.

In section 2 we define discrete curves in $`^2`$ and $`\mathrm{P}^1.`$ A discrete analog of the Schwartzian derivative in terms of cross-ratios of four neighboring points will be defined. A zero curvature or Lax representation for flows on that discrete curves will be given.

In section 3 we will restrict ourselves to the case of so-called discrete (conformal) arc length parametrized curves. In 3.1 we define certain flows on arc length parametrized curves which in the turn induce flows for the cross-ratios of that curve. It will be shown that for these flows the cross-ratios give solutions to equations of the Volterra hierarchy.

In 3.2 the arc length parametrized curves in $`^2`$ viewed as curves in $`\mathrm{P}^1`$ in homogeneous coordinates will be reduced to curves in $``$, by assuming that the second coordinate does not vanish. We call this reduction Euclidean reduction. It will be shown that if one starts with a flow on a discrete arc length parametrized curve in $`^2`$, such that the corresponding cross-ratios are solutions to the second flow of the Volterra hierarchy, which is also called the discrete KdV flow, then the corresponding curve obtained by Euclidean reduction satisfies a discrete version of the mKdV flow. This gives a discrete version of a geometrical interpretation of the Miura transformation.

In 3.3 a nice geometrical interpretation of Bäcklund transformations of arc length parametrized discrete curves in $`^2`$ will be given. In the turn a time discrete version of the Volterra equation, which is the first flow equation of the Volterra hierarchy, is derived.

In section 4 determinants of two and three neighboring points of a discrete curve in $`^2`$ will be identified with the Flaschka-Manakov variables of the Toda lattice. The Toda flows define flow directions for curves in $`^2.`$

In 5 the flows on the discrete curves in $`^2`$ given by Toda lattice hierarchy will be further investigated. In particular in 5.1 the flows corresponding to the ”first” three flows will be given explicitly.

In 5.2 we derive several geometrical features of these flows. In particular in 5.2.1 we will look at flows on curves which are compatible with the known reduction \[Sur02\] of the Toda lattice hierarchy to the Volterra lattice hierarchy by setting the Flaschka-Manakov variable $`p_k=0.`$ This reduction is different from from the reduction in 3.1, where among others $`g_k=\mathrm{exp}((q_kq_{k+1})/2)=const`$. Nevertheless the cross ratios of such curves evolve again with equations of the Volterra hierachy. Hence there exist two geometrically motivated reductions of the Toda lattice hierachy to the Volterra hierarchy. The case $`p_k=0`$ and $`g_k=const`$ lies in the intersection of both reductions, it belongs to the trivial solutions of the Toda lattice hierachy equations. The corresponding class of curves, which are invariant under this trivial flow are quadrics, as will be shown in that subsection.

In the subsection 5.2.2 we will again look for a class of curves, which is invariant (up to euclidian motion and tangential flow) under a certain Toda flow. This time we find that in the Euclidian reduction socalled discrete planar elastic curves are invariant under the discrete mKdV flow.

## 2 Flows on discrete curves

### 2.1 Flows on discrete curves in $`^2`$

Let $`c:\mathrm{P}^1`$, $`kc_k`$ be a discrete curve in the complex projective space. We assume $`c`$ is immersed, i.e. $`c_{k1},c_k`$ and $`c_{k+1}`$ are pairwise disjoined. By introducing homogeneous coordinates, we can lift $`c`$ to a map

$`\gamma :`$ $``$ $`^2`$
$`k`$ $``$ $`\gamma _k=\left(\begin{array}{c}x_k\\ y_k\end{array}\right)`$ (2.3)
with $`c_k=x_ky_k^1`$. Obviously $`\gamma `$ is not uniquely defined: For $`\lambda :^{}`$, $`\lambda _k\gamma _k`$ is also a valid lift.

Define:

$`g_k`$ $`=`$ $`det(\gamma _k,\gamma _{k+1})=x_ky_{k+1}y_kx_{k+1}`$ (2.4)
$`u_k`$ $`=`$ $`det(\gamma _{k1},\gamma _{k+1})`$ (2.5)
The following lemma can be straightforwardly obtained by using the above definitions (2.5):

###### Lemma 1

$$\gamma _{k+1}=\frac{1}{g_{k1}}(u_k\gamma _kg_k\gamma _{k1}).$$

If the variables $`u_k`$ and $`g_k`$ and initial points $`\gamma _0`$ and $`\gamma _1`$ are given, then lemma 1 is a recursive definition of a discrete curve. This may look as an odd way to define a discrete curve; nevertheless later on the power of this definition will become more apparent. In particular the variables $`u_k`$ and $`g_k`$ will be related to the Flaschka-Manakov \[Fla74a, Fla74b, Man74\] variables of the one dimensional Toda lattice.

Note that after choosing an initial $`\gamma _0`$ it is always possible (c is immersed) to find $`\gamma _k`$ such that:

$$g_k=1$$
(2.6)
for all $`k`$. We will call discrete curves $`\gamma `$ with property (2.6) conformal arc length parametrized. Hence the variables $`g_k`$ measure the deviation from arc length parameterization.

###### Definition 1

The cross-ratio of four points $`a,b,c,d^2`$ is defined by

$$cr(a,b,c,d)=\frac{det(a,b)}{det(b,c)}\frac{det(c,d)}{det(d,a)}.$$

Let us denote the cross-ratio of four neighboring points of $`\gamma `$ by $`Q`$:

$$Q_k:=cr(\gamma _{k1},\gamma _k,\gamma _{k+2},\gamma _{k+1})=\frac{g_{k1}g_{k+1}}{u_ku_{k+1}}.$$
(2.7)
Now $`det(\gamma _k,\frac{\gamma _{k+1}\gamma _{k1}}{g_k+g_{k1}})=1`$. This means that $`\gamma _k`$ and $`\frac{\gamma _{k+1}\gamma _{k1}}{g_k+g_{k1}}`$ are linearly independent. Hence an arbitrary flow on (or variation of) $`\gamma `$ can be written in the following way:

$$\frac{d}{dt}\gamma _k=\dot{\gamma }_k=\alpha _k\gamma _k+\frac{\beta _k}{u_k}(\gamma _{k+1}\gamma _{k1})\alpha _k,\beta _k.$$
(2.8)
The variables $`\alpha _k,\beta _k`$ are arbitrary, for convenience we sometimes use the normalized variable:

$$\widehat{\beta }_k=\beta _k(g_{k+1}+g_{k1}).$$
(2.9)
###### Lemma 2

A flow on the discrete curve $`\gamma `$ given by (2.8) generates the following flow on the variables $`g_k`$:

$$\dot{g}_k=g_k(\alpha _{k+1}+\alpha _k)+\beta _{k+1}\beta _k.$$
(2.10)
Proof Differentiate $`g_k`$ in (2.5):

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \dot{g}_k& =& det(\dot{\gamma }_k,\gamma _{k+1})+det(\gamma _k,\dot{\gamma }_{k+1})\hfill \\ & =& det(\alpha _k\gamma _k+\frac{\beta _k}{u_k}(\gamma _{k+1}\gamma _{k1}),\gamma _{k+1})\hfill \\ & & +det(\gamma _k,\alpha _{k+1}\gamma _{k+1}+\frac{\beta _{k+1}}{u_{k+1}}(\gamma _{k+2}\gamma _k))\hfill \\ & =& g_k\alpha \beta _k+g_k\alpha _{k+1}+\beta _{k+1}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(2.11)
If the flow is arc length preserving, i.e. in particular $`\dot{g}_k=0`$ f.a. $`k`$ then there exists an obvious trivial solution for (2.10): Choosing $`\beta 0`$ induces $`\alpha _{k+1}=\alpha _k`$. This flow corresponds to the freedom of the initial choice of $`\gamma _0`$ and has no effect on the corresponding curve $`c`$ in $`\mathrm{P}^1`$. Note also that in this case (2.10) is a linear equation. So one can always add any two flows solving it.

###### Lemma 3

A flow on the discrete curve $`\gamma `$ given by (2.8) generates the following flow on the variables $`u_k`$:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \dot{u}_k& =& u_k(\alpha _{k1}+\alpha _{k+1})\hfill \\ & +& \beta _{k1}\frac{g_k}{u_{k1}g_{k1}}(g_{k2}+g_{k1})\beta _{k+1}\frac{g_{k1}}{u_{k+1}g_k}(g_k+g_{k+1})\hfill \\ & +& u_k(\frac{1}{g_k}\beta _{k+1}\frac{1}{g_{k1}}\beta _{k1})\hfill \end{array}$$
(2.12)
or equivalently

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \frac{\dot{u}_k}{u_k}& =& \alpha _{k1}+\alpha _{k+1}\hfill \\ & & +\beta _{k1}\frac{Q_{k1}}{g_{k2}g_{k1}}(g_{k2}+g_{k1})\beta _{k+1}\frac{Q_k}{g_kg_{k+1}}(g_k+g_{k+1})\hfill \\ & & +\frac{1}{g_k}\beta _{k+1}\frac{1}{g_{k1}}\beta _{k1}\hfill \end{array}$$
(2.13)
Proof

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \dot{u}_k& =& det(\dot{\gamma }_{k1},\gamma _{k+1})+det(\gamma _{k1},\dot{\gamma }_{k+1})\hfill \\ & =& \alpha _{k1}u_k+g_k\frac{\beta _{k1}}{u_{k1}}\frac{\beta _{k1}}{u_{k1}}det(\gamma _{k2},\gamma _{k+1})\hfill \\ & & +\alpha _{k+1}u_kg_{k1}\frac{\beta _{k+1}}{u_{k+1}}+\frac{\beta _{k+1}}{u_{k+1}}det(\gamma _{k1},\gamma _{k+2})\hfill \end{array}$$
(2.14)
Using lemma 1 one gets

$$det(\gamma _{k1},\gamma _{k+2})=\frac{1}{g_k}u_ku_{k+1}\frac{g_{k+1}g_{k1}}{g_k}$$

which gives the result.

###### Lemma 4

A flow on the discrete curve $`\gamma `$ given by (2.8) generates the following flow on the cross-ratios $`Q_k`$:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \frac{\dot{Q}_k}{Q_k}& =& (Q_k1)(\beta _{k+1}(\frac{1}{g_{k+1}}+\frac{1}{g_k})\beta _k(\frac{1}{g_k}+\frac{1}{g_{k1}}))\hfill \\ & & +Q_{k+1}\beta _{k+2}(\frac{1}{g_{k+2}}+\frac{1}{g_{k+1}})\hfill \\ & & Q_{k1}\beta _{k1}(\frac{1}{g_{k1}}+\frac{1}{g_{k2}})\hfill \end{array}$$
(2.15)
Proof Using the definition of the cross-ratio (2.7) and lemmas 2.13 and 2.10 the assertion follows immediately.

### 2.2 Flows on discrete curves in $`\mathrm{P}^1`$

###### Lemma 5

A flow on the discrete curve $`\gamma `$ given by (2.8) generates the following flow on the non-lifted curve $`c`$ in $`\mathrm{P}^1`$ whenever $`c`$ does not hit $`\mathrm{}`$:

$$\dot{c}_k=\beta _k\frac{g_k+g_{k1}}{2g_kg_{k1}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}\frac{(c_{k+1}c_k)(c_kc_{k1})}{c_{k+1}c_{k1}}.$$
(2.16)
Equation (2.16) can be written in the form

$$\dot{c}_k=\frac{\beta _k}{M^h(g_k,g_{k+1})}M^h(c_{k+1}c_k,c_kc_{k1})$$

where $`M^h`$ denotes the harmonic mean. In general the flow of the non-lifted curve will depend on the chosen lift, since the $`g_k`$ depend on the choice. Note however, that the $`\alpha _k`$ do not contribute to the evolution of the non-lifted curve $`c`$.

Proof For a given lift $`\gamma =\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{x_k}{y_k}\right)`$ the non-lifted curve may be reconstructed by $`c_k=x_k/y_k`$ whenever $`y_k0`$ which means that the curve does not hit $`\mathrm{}`$. Now insert this and the definitions of $`g`$ and $`u`$ in both sides of equation (2.16).

### 2.3 Zero Curvature representation

Define:

$$F_k=\left(\begin{array}{c}\gamma _k^T\hfill \\ \gamma _{k1}^T\hfill \end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}x_k\hfill & y_k\hfill \\ x_{k1}\hfill & y_{k1}\hfill \end{array}\right).$$
(2.17)
Note that if the curve $`\gamma `$ is conformal arc length parametrized (2.6) then $`F_kSL(2,)`$ for all $`k`$.

###### Proposition 2.1

Let $`\alpha _k,\beta _k`$ be arbitrary and $`g_k`$,$`u_k`$ be as defined in (2.5). Then

$$F_{k+1}=L_kF_k\dot{F}_k=V_kF_k$$

with

$$L_k=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{g_{k1}}u_k& \frac{g_k}{g_{k1}}\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)V_k=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\alpha _k+\frac{1}{g_{k1}}\beta _k& (1+\frac{g_k}{g_{k1}})\frac{\beta _k}{u_k}\\ (1+\frac{g_{k2}}{g_{k1}})\frac{\beta _{k1}}{u_{k1}}& \alpha _{k1}\frac{1}{g_{k1}}\beta _{k1}\end{array}\right).$$
(2.18)
The compatibility equation

$$\dot{L}_k=V_{k+1}L_kL_kV_k$$
(2.19)
is satisfied for all $`\alpha _k,\beta _k`$.

The compatibility equation 2.19 is also called zero curvature equation.

Proof The construction of $`L_k`$ is obvious with lemma 1. The construction of $`V_k`$ follows also quite straightforwardly from lemma 1 and the definition of the flow on $`\gamma `$ in (2.8). The compatibility equation (2.19) holds by construction. The flows on $`g_k`$ and $`u_k`$ were constructed by using a well defined flow on $`\gamma `$ for which in particular $`\frac{d}{dt}(L_k\gamma _k)=V_{k+1}\gamma _{k+1}`$ (which gives (2.19)). Nevertheless (2.19) can also easily be checked directly.

## 3 Conformal arc length parametrized curves

### 3.1 Conformal arc length parametrized curves in $`^2`$

Let $`c`$ be a discrete curve in $`\mathrm{P}^1`$. Up Möbius transformations (or up to the choice of $`c_0`$, $`c_1`$, and $`c_2`$) $`c`$ is completely determined by the cross-ratios $`Q_k`$. If one scales all $`Q_k`$ with a non-vanishing factor $`\lambda `$ one gets—again up to Möbius transformations—a new discrete curve $`c(\lambda )`$. We call the family of all such curves the associated family of $`c=c(1)`$.

As mentioned in the beginning, one has a choice when lifting a discrete curve from $`\mathrm{P}^1`$ to $`^2`$. This choice can be fixed by prescribing the determinants of successive points. A natural coice is here to set $`g1`$ which we called conformal arc length parametrization and we will discuss this choice here. However, in section 4 we will see, that other normalizations are likewise meaningfull.

We will now investigate flows on $`\gamma `$ that preserve the conformal arc length. The condition for this is, that $`\dot{g}_k=0`$, which implies by equation 2.10

$$\alpha _{k+1}+\alpha _k=\beta _{k+1}\beta _k$$
(3.20)
for $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ from equation (2.8).

Recall that the conformal arc length condition leaves us with an initial choice of $`\gamma _k`$ and that this freedom corresponds to a trivial flow with $`\beta 0`$ and $`\alpha _{k+1}=\alpha _k`$. This flow is a first example of a (conformal) arc length preserving flow. It does not change the curve $`c`$ in $`CP^1`$ though, since only the $`\beta _k`$ contribute to the evolution of the non-lifted curve.

If we choose $`\beta 1/2`$ and $`\alpha 0`$. We get for the curve

$$\dot{\gamma }_k=\frac{1}{2u_k}(\gamma _{k+1}\gamma _{k1}).$$
(3.21)
This is what we will call the conformal tangential flow. Then $`\dot{u}_k=\frac{1}{u_{k1}}\frac{1}{u_{k+1}}`$ and $`Q`$ will solve the famous Volterra model \[FT86, Sur02\]:

$$\dot{Q}_k=Q_k(Q_{k+1}Q_{k1}).$$
(3.22)
If we want this equation for the whole associated family of $`\gamma `$ we must scale time by $`\lambda `$:

$$\lambda \dot{Q}_k(\lambda )=Q_k(\lambda )(Q_{k+1}(\lambda )Q_{k1}(\lambda ))$$

One obtains the next higher flow of the Volterra hierarchy \[Sur02\] when one chooses $`\beta _k=1/2(Q_{k1}+Q_k+1)`$. This implies

$$\dot{Q}_k=Q_k(Q_{k+1}(Q_{k+2}+Q_{k+1}+Q_k)Q_{k1}(Q_k+Q_{k1}+Q_{k2})).$$
(3.23)
Conjecture

Let

$$\beta _{k+1}^{\text{new}}\beta _k^{\text{new}}:=\frac{\dot{Q}_k^{\text{old}}}{Q_k^{\text{old}}}.$$
(3.24)
Given flows $`\frac{\dot{Q}_k}{Q_k}`$ this defines the variables $`\beta _k^{\text{new}}`$ up to a constant. Now observe that starting with the flow $`\frac{\dot{Q}_k}{Q_k}=0`$ gives $`\beta _k=a_1`$, where $`a_1`$ is an arbitrary constant. Inserting these $`\beta _k`$ into the flow equation (2.15) in the reduced case $`g_k=1`$ gives in the turn a new flow equation

$$\frac{\dot{Q}_k}{Q_k}=a_1(Q_{k+1}Q_{k1}),$$

which is (up to the constant $`a_1`$) the Volterra equation. Now inserting this Volterra equation into equation (3.24) gives new $`\beta _k`$ as

$$\beta _k:=a_1(Q_k+Q_{k1})+a_2$$

which in the turn give the following flows on the cross-ratios:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{Q}_k}{Q_k}}`$ $`=`$ $`a_1\left((Q_k1)(Q_{k+1}Q_{k1})\right)`$
$`+`$ $`a_1\left(Q_{k+1}(Q_{k+2}+Q_{k+1})Q_{k1}(Q_{k1}+Q_{k2})\right)`$
$`+`$ $`a_2(Q_{k+1}Q_{k1}).`$
This is (up the constant $`a_1`$) the next higher flow in the Volterra hierarchy plus a Volterra term if $`a_20`$.

We conjecture that all higher flows of the Volterra hierarchy can be obtained in this way. There are strong indications that this holds also in the continuous case \[Pin\]. A proof of this conjecture would be beyond the scope of this article, we postpone this to a later publication.

To make contact with the classical results we will now derive the $`2\times 2`$-Lax representation of the Volterra model for our tangential flow:

Define the gauge matrix

$$E_k:=\underset{i=0}{\overset{k1}{}}u_i\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& u_k\end{array}\right)$$
(3.25)
and set

$$\stackrel{~}{L}_k:=E_{k+1}^1L_kE_k=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ Q_k& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(3.26)
This gauge of $`L_k`$ implies the following change for $`V_k`$:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \stackrel{~}{V}_k& :=& E_k^1V_kE_k+E_k^1\dot{E}_k\hfill \\ & =& \left(\begin{array}{cc}1+Q_{k1}& 1\\ Q_{k1}& Q_k\end{array}\right)+\left(\begin{array}{cc}Q_1\frac{1}{2}& 0\\ 0& Q_1\frac{1}{2}\end{array}\right).\hfill \end{array}$$
(3.27)
The second matrix summand may be omitted since it is constant. If we now transpose the system, reverse the direction of the $`k`$-labeling and introduce the spectral parameter $`\lambda `$ as mentioned above we end with the two matrices:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill L^\mathrm{v}(\lambda )& =& \left(\begin{array}{cc}1& \lambda Q_k\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)\hfill \\ \hfill V^\mathrm{v}(\lambda )& =& \left(\begin{array}{cc}1+\lambda Q_{k+1}& \lambda Q_{k+1}\\ 1& \lambda Q_k\end{array}\right)\hfill \end{array}$$
(3.28)
with the compatibility condition $`\lambda \dot{L}_k^\mathrm{v}(\lambda )=V_k^\mathrm{v}(\lambda )L_k^\mathrm{v}(\lambda )L_k^\mathrm{v}(\lambda )V_{k1}^\mathrm{v}(\lambda )`$. This is up to the change $`\lambda \lambda ^2`$ and a gauge transformation with

$$\stackrel{~}{E}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\lambda ^{1/2}& 0\\ 0& \lambda ^{1/2}\end{array}\right)$$

the known form of the Volterra Lax-pair \[Sur02\].

### 3.2 Euclidean reduction

Let $`c`$ be a discrete curve in $``$ and set $`S_k:=c_{k+1}c_k`$. If $`|S_k|=1`$ holds we call $`c`$ arc length parametrized.

Remember, that a flow on $`c`$ can be described via lemma 5 For an arc length parameterized curve $`c`$ the curvature $`\kappa `$ is defined as follows:

$$\kappa _k=2\mathrm{tan}\frac{\mathrm{}(S_{k1},S_k)}{2}.$$
(3.29)
$`\kappa `$ can be computed in the following way:

$$\kappa _k=2i\frac{1\frac{S_k}{S_{k1}}}{1+\frac{S_k}{S_{k1}}}$$
(3.30)
In the arc length parametrized case we can write

$$M^h(c_{k+1}c_k,c_kc_{k1})=2\frac{S_{k1}S_k}{S_{k1}+S_k}=\frac{S_{k1}+S_k}{1+S_{k1},S_k}$$

since

$$2\frac{S_{k1}S_k}{S_{k1}+S_k},S_{k1}=Re(2\frac{S_{k1}S_k}{S_{k1}+S_k}\overline{S}_{k1})=1=\frac{S_{k1}+S_k}{1+S_{k1},S_k},S_{k1}$$

and the same for the scalar product with $`S_k`$.

Let us compute how the discrete curvature evolves: Write

$$\dot{S}_k=i\mu _kS_k$$
(3.31)
and since then $`\frac{d}{dt}\frac{S_k}{S_{k1}}=(\mu _k\mu _{k1})i\frac{S_k}{S_{k1}}`$ we get

$$\dot{\kappa }=2i\left(\frac{d}{dt}\frac{S_k}{S_{k1}}\right)\frac{2}{(1+\frac{S_k}{S_{k1}})^2}=(\mu _k\mu _{k1})(1+\frac{\kappa _k^2}{4})$$
(3.32)
On the other hand using equations (3.31) and (3.30) one can calculate $`\mu _k`$ to be

$$\mu _k=\frac{1}{2}\left(\beta _{k+1}\kappa _{k+1}\beta _k\kappa _k\right)i\left(\beta _{k+1}+\beta _k\right)$$
(3.33)
In the case $`\beta =2`$ this implies for the evolution of the discrete curvature $`\kappa `$

$$\frac{\dot{\kappa }_k}{1+\frac{\kappa _k^2}{4}}=\kappa _{k+1}\kappa _{k1}$$
(3.34)
and as the flow on the discrete curve we get the well known tangential flow \[DS99, BS99\]:

$$\dot{c}=\frac{S_{}+S}{1+S_{},S}.$$

Now let us rewrite $`Q`$ to get an interpretation for the choice of $`\beta `$ that gives the second Volterra flow $`\beta _k=(Q_{k1}+Q_k+1)/2`$:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill Q_k& =& \frac{S_{k1}S_{k+1}}{(S_{k1}+S_k)(S_k+S_{k+1})}=((1+\frac{S_k}{S_{k1}})(\frac{S_k}{S_{k+1}}+1))^1\hfill \\ & =& ((1+\frac{2i\kappa _k}{2i+\kappa _k})(1+\frac{2i+\kappa _{k+1}}{2i\kappa _{k+1}}))^1=\frac{1}{16}(2i+\kappa _k)(2i\kappa _{k+1})\hfill \\ & =& \frac{1}{16}(2i(\kappa _{k+1}\kappa _k)+(\kappa _k\kappa _{k+1})+4).\hfill \end{array}$$

With this on hand we can calculate

$$\mu _k=\frac{11}{32}(\kappa _{k+1}+\kappa _k)+\frac{1}{64}\left((\frac{\kappa _{k+1}^2}{4}+1)(\kappa _{k+2}+\kappa _k)+(\frac{\kappa _k^2}{4}+1)(\kappa _{k+1}+\kappa _{k1})\right)$$

which leaves us with

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \frac{\dot{\kappa }_k}{1+\frac{\kappa _k^2}{4}}& =& \frac{11}{32}(\kappa _{k+1}\kappa _{k1})+\hfill \\ & & \frac{1}{64}\left((\frac{\kappa _{k+1}^2}{4}+1)(\kappa _{k+2}+\kappa _k)(\frac{\kappa _{k1}^2}{4}+1)(\kappa _k+\kappa _{k2})\right)\hfill \end{array}$$
(3.35)
for the evolution of the discrete curvature $`\kappa `$. This is—up to a tangential flow part which can be removed by adjusting the constant term in the choice of $`\beta `$—a discretization of the mKdV equation:

$$\dot{\kappa }=\kappa ^{\prime \prime \prime }+\frac{3}{2}\kappa ^2\kappa ^{}.$$
(3.36)
Therefore we will call the flow that comes from the second Volterra flow discrete mKdV flow:

$$\dot{c}=\frac{1}{32}((\kappa _k\kappa _{k1}+\kappa _{k+1}\kappa _k)+2i(\kappa _{k+1}\kappa _{k1})+1)M^h(S_{k1},S_k)$$
(3.37)
###### Lemma 6

The discrete tangential flow and the discrete mKdV flow both preserve the discrete arc length parameterization.

Proof We calculate $`S_k,\dot{S}_k`$ for a general flow:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill S_k,\dot{S}_k& =& Re(\overline{S}_k(\beta _{k+1}M^h(S_k,S_{k+1})\beta _kM^h(S_{k1},S_k)))\hfill \\ & =& 2Re\left(\frac{\beta _{k+1}}{1+\frac{S_k}{S_{k+1}}}\frac{\beta _k}{1+\frac{S_k}{S_{k1}}}\right)=2Re(\beta _{k+1}(1+i\kappa _{k+1})\beta _k(1i\kappa _k)).\hfill \end{array}$$

So the condition for a flow of the form $`\dot{c}=\beta M^h(S_{k1},S_k)`$ to preserve the discrete arc length is

$$Re(\beta _{k+1}\beta _k)=Im(\kappa _{k+1}\beta _{k+1}+\kappa _k\beta _k).$$
(3.38)
for the tangential flow this clearly holds. In the case of the mKdV flow it is an easy exercise to show equation (3.38).

In section 5.2.2 we will see that the discrete mKdV flow is connected to so called discrete elastic curves.

### 3.3 Discrete flows

As in the previous section let $`\gamma `$ be the lift of a immersed discrete curve in $`\mathrm{P}^1`$ into $`^2`$ satisfying the normalization (3.20).

###### Lemma 7

Given an initial $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_0`$ and a complex parameter $`\mu `$ there is an unique map $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }:^2`$ satisfying normalization (3.20) and

$$\mu =cr(\gamma _k,\gamma _{k+1},\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1},\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k).$$
(3.39)
We will call $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$ a Bäcklund transform of $`\gamma `$.

Proof Solving equation (3.39) for $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1}`$ gives that $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1}`$ is a Möbius transform of $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k`$.

###### Lemma 8

If $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$ is a Bäcklund transform of $`\gamma `$ with parameter $`\mu `$ then

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \stackrel{~}{Q}_k& =& Q_k\frac{s_k}{s_{k+1}},\hfill \\ \hfill (1\mu )Q_k& =& \frac{s_{k+1}}{(1s_k)(s_{k+1}1)}\hfill \end{array}$$
(3.40)
with $`s_k=cr(\gamma _{k1},\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k,\gamma _{k+1},\gamma _k)`$.

Proof Due to the properties of the cross-ratio (a useful table of the identities can be found in \[HJHP99\]) we have

$`1\mu `$ $`=`$ $`cr(\gamma _k,\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1},\gamma _{k+1},\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k)={\displaystyle \frac{det(\gamma _k,\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1})}{det(\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1},\gamma _{k+1})}}{\displaystyle \frac{det(\gamma _{k+1},\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k)}{det(\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k,\gamma _k)}}`$
$`Q_k`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{det(\gamma _{k1},\gamma _k)}{det(\gamma _k,\gamma _{k+2})}}{\displaystyle \frac{det(\gamma _{k+2},\gamma _{k+1})}{det(\gamma _{k+1},\gamma _{k1})}}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1s_k}}`$ $`=`$ $`cr(\gamma _{k1},\gamma _k,\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k,\gamma _{k+1})={\displaystyle \frac{det(\gamma _{k1},\gamma _k)}{det(\gamma _k,\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k)}}{\displaystyle \frac{det(\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k,\gamma _{k+1})}{det(\gamma _{k+1},\gamma _{k1})}}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{s_{k+1}}{s_{k+1}1}}`$ $`=`$ $`cr(\gamma _k,\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1},\gamma _{k+1},\gamma _{k+2})={\displaystyle \frac{det(\gamma _k,\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1})}{det(\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1},\gamma _{k+1})}}{\displaystyle \frac{det(\gamma _{k+1},\gamma _{k+2})}{det(\gamma _{k+2},\gamma _k)}}.`$
Multiplying the first two and the second two equations proves the second statement. If we set $`\stackrel{~}{s}_k=cr(\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k1},\gamma _k,\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1},\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k)`$ we see that $`\frac{s_k}{\stackrel{~}{s}_k}=1`$ and therefore

$$(1\mu )\stackrel{~}{Q}_k=\frac{\stackrel{~}{s}_{k+1}}{(1\stackrel{~}{s}_k)(\stackrel{~}{s}_{k+1}1)}=\frac{\frac{1}{s_{k+1}}}{(1\frac{1}{s_k})(\frac{1}{s_{k+1}}1)}=\frac{s_k}{(1s_k)(s_{k+1}1)}$$

which proves the first statement.

If $`c`$ is a periodic curve with period $`N`$, we can ask for $`\stackrel{~}{c}`$ to be periodic too. Since the map sending $`c_0`$ to $`c_N`$ is a Möbius transformation it has at least one but in general two fix-points. These special choices of initial points give two Bäcklund transforms that can be viewed as past and future in a discrete time evolution.

We will now show, that this Bäcklund transformation can serve as a discretization of the tangential flow since the evolution on the $`Q`$’s are a discrete version of the Volterra model.

The discretization of the Volterra model first appeared in Tsujimoto, e. al. 1993.We will refer to the version stated in \[Sur02\]. There it is given in the form

$`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_k=\alpha _k{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _{k+1}}{\beta _k}}`$ (3.41)
$`\beta _kh\alpha _k={\displaystyle \frac{\beta _{k1}}{\beta _{k1}h\alpha _{k1}}}`$ (3.42)
with $`h`$ being the discretization constant.

###### Theorem 9

Let $`\stackrel{~}{Q}`$ be a Bäcklund transform of $`Q`$ with parameter $`\mu `$. The map sending $`Q_k`$ to $`\stackrel{~}{Q}_{k+1}`$ is the discrete time Volterra model (3.41) with $`\alpha _k=Q_k`$, $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_k=\stackrel{~}{Q}_{k+1}`$, $`\frac{\beta _k}{h}=\frac{Q_k}{s_{k+1}}`$ and $`h=\mu 1`$.

Proof With the settings from the theorem we have

$$\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_k=\stackrel{~}{Q}_{k+1}=Q_{k+1}\frac{s_{k+1}}{s_{k+2}}=Q_k\frac{Q_{k+1}s_{k+1}}{s_{k+2}Q_k}=\alpha _k\frac{\beta _{k+1}}{\beta _k}$$

and on the other hand

$$\beta _khQ_k=(\mu 1)Q_k(\frac{1}{s_{k+1}}1)=\frac{1}{1s_k}$$

and

$$\frac{\beta _{k1}}{\beta _{k1}hQ_{k1}}=\frac{\frac{hQ_{k1}}{s_k}}{hQ_{k1}(\frac{1}{s_k}1)}=\frac{1}{1s_k}.$$

This proves the theorem.

The continued Bäcklund transformations give rise to maps $`\gamma :^2\mathrm{P}^1`$ that can be viewed as discrete conformal maps—especially in the case when $`\mu `$ is real negative (which is quite far from the tangential flow, that is approximated with $`\mu 1`$) \[BP96, BP99, HJMNP01\].

On the other hand in case or real $`\mu `$ the transformation is not restricted to the plane: Four points with real cross-ratio always lie on a circle. Thus the map that sends $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_k`$ to $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_{k+1}`$ is well defined in any dimension. Maps from $`^2`$ to $`^3`$ with cross-ratio -1 for all elementary quadrilaterals<sup>3</sup><sup>3</sup>3More general one can demand $`cr=\frac{\alpha _n}{\beta _m}`$—see Chapter \[BP96\]. serve as discretization of isothermic surfaces and have been investigated in \[BP96\].

## 4 Flows on discrete curves and the Toda lattice

###### Definition 4.1

Let $`\lambda `$ be arbitrary. Define

$`p_k`$ $`:=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{g_kg_{k1}}}u_k\lambda `$ (4.43)
$`e^{\frac{q_{k+1}+q_k}{2}}`$ $`:=`$ $`g_k`$ (4.44)
Clearly the above definitions are not unique. $`p_k`$ and $`g_k^2`$ will be identified with the Flaschka-Manakov variables of the Toda lattice hierarchy \[Fla74a, Fla74b, Man74\]. $`\lambda `$ will be the corresponding spectral parameter.

With the above definitions at hand we are now able to state the following correspondence with the Toda lattice hierarchy.

###### Theorem 4.2

Denote

$$V_k:=\left(\begin{array}{cc}v_k^{11}& v_k^{12}\\ v_k^{21}& v_k^{22}\end{array}\right).$$

Define

$$\alpha _k:=v_k^{11}+\frac{v_k^{12}u_k}{g_{k1}+g_k}\beta _k:=\frac{v_k^{12}g_{k1}u_k}{g_{k1}+g_k}.$$
(4.45)
By (2.8) and with definition (4.45), $`\alpha _k`$ and $`\beta _k`$ define a certain flow on discrete curves in $`^2`$. Let $`V_k`$ be a Lax representation matrix corresponding to the n-th Toda flow in the notations as in \[FT86\]. Then the Lax matrices $`V_k`$ of the discrete curve flow in (2.18) together with the definitions (4.45) are identical to the above $`V_k.`$ Hence the compatibility equation (2.19) for a flow on discrete curves in $`^2`$ corresponding to the definitions (4.45), is the compatibility equation of the n-th Toda flow.

Proof Setting

$`g_{k1}^1u_k^1(g_{k1}+g_k)\beta _k`$ $`\stackrel{!}{=}`$ $`v_k^{12}`$ (4.46)
$`g_{k1}^1u_{k1}^1(g_{k2}+g_{k1})\beta _{k1}`$ $`\stackrel{!}{=}`$ $`v_k^{21}`$ (4.47)
results in the constraint

$$v_k^{12}\stackrel{!}{=}v_{k+1}^{21}\frac{g_k}{g_{k1}}$$

But this constraint is just the 22-component of the compatibility equation (2.19) for general $`V_k`$ and the Toda $`L_k`$, hence it is satisfied by all $`V_k`$ of the Toda hierarchy. Hence the variables $`\beta _k`$ are well defined. Likewise the second constraint obtained by setting

$`\alpha _k+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{g_{k1}}}\beta _k`$ $`\stackrel{!}{=}`$ $`v_k^{11}`$ (4.48)
$`\alpha _{k1}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{g_{k1}}}\beta _{k1}`$ $`\stackrel{!}{=}`$ $`v_k^{22}`$ (4.49)
together with the 22-component gives the 21 component of (2.19). Hence the variables $`\alpha _k`$ are well defined. The 11- and 12-component are giving the Toda field equations.

###### Remark 4.3

The above matrices can be regauged into the matrices $`\widehat{L}_k=\mathrm{\Omega }_{k+1}L_k\mathrm{\Omega }_k^1`$ and $`\widehat{V}_k=\mathrm{\Omega }_kV_k\mathrm{\Omega }_k^1+\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}_k\mathrm{\Omega }_k^1`$ with

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_k=\left(\begin{array}{cc}e^{\frac{q_k}{2}}& 0\\ 0& e^{\frac{q_{k1}}{2}}\end{array}\right).$$

$`\widehat{L}_k`$ and $`\widehat{V}_k`$ are then the 2 by 2 matrix representation of the usual Flaschka-Manakov matrices \[Sur02\]. One has $`trV_k=tr\widehat{V}_k\frac{1}{2}(\dot{q}_k+\dot{q}_{k1})`$ On the other hand by the definition of the matrices $`V_k`$ in proposition 2.5 one has

$$\frac{\dot{g}_k}{g_k}=\frac{1}{2}(\dot{q}_k\dot{q}_{k+1})=\mathrm{tr}V_{k+1}.$$
(4.50)
hence

$$\dot{q}_k=tr\widehat{V}_{k+1}.$$
(4.51)
## 5 The first three Toda lattice hierachy flows and reductions of them

### 5.1 The first three Toda flows

The flow directions for a discrete curve $`\gamma `$ is given by a specific choice of the variables $`\alpha _k`$, $`\beta _k`$ (compare with (2.8)). In the following we will choose $`\alpha _k`$, $`\beta _k`$ in such a way that the corresponding evolution for the determinants $`g_k`$, and $`u_k`$ (2.5) is the evolution of the canonical variables of the toda lattice hierachy. In this section we will look at the flow directions given by the “first” three flows of the Toda lattice hierachy.

###### Proposition 5.1 (First flow)

Using (2.8) define the following flow directions for $`\gamma `$:

$`\alpha _k^{TL1}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(p_k+\lambda ){\displaystyle \frac{g_{k1}g_k}{g_{k1}+g_k}}={\displaystyle \frac{u_k}{2g_{k1}g_k}}{\displaystyle \frac{g_{k1}g_k}{g_{k1}+g_k}}`$ (5.52)
$`\beta _k^{TL1}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g_{k1}g_k(p_k+\lambda )}{g_{k1}+g_k}}={\displaystyle \frac{u_k}{g_{k1}+g_k}}.`$ (5.53)
The induced flow on the determinants $`g_k`$ and $`u_k`$ (2.5) is with definitions (4.43), (4.44) given by the first Toda lattice flow.

Proof In accordance with theorem 4.2 we obtain the following compatibility matrices:

$`L_k`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}g_k(p_k+\lambda )& \frac{g_k}{g_{k1}}\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$ (5.56)
$`V_k`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{2}(p_k+\lambda )& g_{k1}^1\\ g_{k1}^1& \frac{1}{2}(p_{k1}+\lambda )\end{array}\right)`$ (5.59)
These matrices are wellknown \[FT86\] and give the Toda lattice equations, which are called the first flow of the Toda lattice hierachy:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{g}_k}{g_k}}`$ $`=`$ $`trV_{k+1}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(p_kp_{k+1})`$ (5.60)
$`\dot{p}_k`$ $`=`$ $`g_k^2g_{k1}^2.`$ (5.61)
###### Remark 5.2

Due to remark 4.51 the variables $`\dot{q}_k`$ evolve with $`\dot{q}_k=p_k+\lambda .`$ Hence

$$\ddot{q}_k=g_k^2g_{k1}^2$$

which is the wellknown Toda lattice equation.

Analogously the flows for the next two higher flows \[Sur02\] can be determined:

###### Proposition 5.3 (second flow)

Define

$`\alpha _k^{TL2}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(p_k^2\lambda ^2){\displaystyle \frac{g_{k1}g_k}{g_{k1}+g_k}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(g_k^22g_{k1}^2+g_{k2}^2)`$ (5.62)
$`\beta _k^{TL2}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g_{k1}g_k(p_k^2\lambda ^2)}{g_{k1}+g_k}}.`$ (5.63)
The induced flow on $`g_k`$ and $`p_k`$ (2.5) is with definitions (4.43), (4.44) given by the second flow of the Toda lattice hierachy \[Sur02\]:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{g}_k}{g_k}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(p_{k+1}^2p_k^2+g_{k+1}^2g_{k1}^2)`$ (5.64)
$`\dot{p}_k`$ $`=`$ $`g_k^2(p_{k+1}+p_k)g_{k1}^2(p_k+p_{k1})`$ (5.65)
###### Remark 5.4

$`\dot{q}_k=g_k^2+g_{k1}^2+p_k^2\lambda ^2.`$

###### Proposition 5.5 (third flow)

Define

$`\alpha _k^{TL3}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{g_{k1}g_k}{g_{k1}+g_k}}(p_k^3+\lambda ^32(p_k+\lambda )g_k^1g_{k1}^1)`$ (5.67)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_k^2(2p_k+p_{k+1})+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_{k1}^2(p_{k1}+2p_k)`$
$`\beta _k^{TL3}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g_{k1}g_k(p_k+\lambda )}{g_{k1}+g_k}}(g_{k1}^2+g_k^2+p_k^2\lambda p_k+\lambda ^2).`$ (5.68)
The induced flow on $`g_k`$ and $`p_k`$ (2.5) is with definitions (4.43), (4.44) given by the third flow of the Toda lattice hierachy \[Sur02\]:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{g}_k}{g_k}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[(p_{k+1}^3+p_{k+2}g_{k+1}^2+2p_{k+1}g_{k+1}^2+p_{k+1}g_k^2)`$
$`(p_k^3+p_{k1}g_{k1}^2+p_kg_k^2+2p_kg_{k1}^2)]`$
$`\dot{p}_k`$ $`=`$ $`g_k^2(p_{k+1}^2+p_k^2+p_{k+1}p_k+g_{k+1}^2+g_k^2)`$ (5.70)
$`g_{k1}^2(p_k^2+p_{k1}^2+p_kp_{k1}+g_{k1}^2+g_{k2}^2)`$
###### Remark 5.6

$`\dot{q}_k=g_k^2(2p_k+p_{k+1})+g_{k1}^2(p_{k1}+2p_k)+p_k^3+\lambda ^3.`$

### 5.2 Towards geometrical interpretations of the Toda lattice

In the following we look at the reduction $`p_k=0`$ and determine the geometric shape of curves, which are invariant under the trivial Toda and the discrete KdV flow.

#### 5.2.1 Reduction $`p_k=0`$ and invariant curves under the trivial Toda flow

In the previous section one reduced the discrete curves in $`^2`$ to socalled arclength parametrized curves, by setting $`g_k=1`$ for all $`k.`$ It was conjectured that for that reduction there exist certain flow directions (3.24) which let the cross-ratios evolve according to flows in the Volterra hierachy.

On the other hand it is a fact \[Sur02\] that the Toda lattice hierachy reduces to the Volterra hierachy for flows with an even enumeration number if $`p_k=0`$. Indeed, looking at the above equations one sees easily that if $`p_k=0`$ then the evolution of the $`g_k^2`$ in equation 5.64 is given by the Volterra equation. In the same manner the third flow admits no reduction but the fourth flow would again give an equation for the $`g_k^2`$ which can be identified with a discrete version of the KdV equation \[Sur02\]. We observe that for the case $`p_k=0`$ the cross-ratio is given by

$$Q_k=\lambda g_k^2.$$

Hence as a direct consequence

###### Proposition 5.7

If $`\lambda =1`$, $`p_k=0`$ then the flow of the cross-ratios $`Q_k`$, as given by the flow of the 2n’th Toda lattice hierachy via theorem 4.2 satisfies the equations of the n’th Volterra hierachy.

As can be seen by looking at the above Toda lattice hierachy equations, the reduction $`g_k=const`$ is generally not compatible with the equations. It is compatible if $`p_k=const`$ (and especially $`p_k=0`$, which can allways be achieved by a change of $`\lambda `$), which gives the trivial evolution $`\dot{g}_k=0,\dot{p}_k=0`$ for all flows of the Toda hierachy. Hence the two reductions $`\dot{g}_k=0`$ and $`p_k=0`$ with their corresponding Volterra hierachy flows, seem to be in some kind of duality, where only the trivial reduction $`g_k=constp_k=const`$ $``$ $`u_k=const`$ $``$ $`g_k=const`$ seems to lie in the intersection of the two pictures. We were interested in what kind of curves belong to this most trivial solution of the Toda flows. The following proposition shows that if the variables $`u_k=u`$ and $`g_k=g`$ are constants, then $`\gamma `$ lies on a quadric, or in other words in this case $`\gamma `$ defines a discrete quadric in $`^2.`$

###### Proposition 5.8

a) Let $`\gamma _0`$, $`\gamma _1`$ be fixed initial conditions for a discrete curve $`\gamma :^2`$ with

$`M\gamma _0,\gamma _0`$ $`=`$ $`1`$ (5.71)
$`M\gamma _1,\gamma _1`$ $`=`$ $`1`$ (5.72)
$`M\gamma _0,\gamma _1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{u}{2g}},`$ (5.73)
where $`\gamma ,\gamma =x^2+y^2`$ is the naive complexification of the real scalar product to $`^2`$ and $`M`$ is a symmetric 2 by 2 matrix; $`g=det(\gamma _0,\gamma _1)0`$ and $`u`$ is a free parameter. Then $`M`$ is uniquely defined by conditions LABEL:def:dc:initial1 and $`detM=\frac{1}{g^2}(1\frac{u^2}{g^2})`$.

b)Define a discrete curve with the above initial conditions recursively by:

$$\gamma _{k+2}:=\frac{u}{g}\gamma _{k+1}\gamma _k$$

then

$`M\gamma _k,\gamma _{k+1}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{u}{2g}}`$ (5.75)
$`M\gamma _k,\gamma _k`$ $`=`$ $`1\text{for all}k.`$ (5.76)
Proof

a) After a lengthy calculation M can be derived from the conditions (LABEL:def:dc:initial1) as

$$M=\frac{1}{g^2}\left(\begin{array}{cc}y_0^2+y_1^22y_0y_1\frac{u}{2g}& (x_0y_1+y_0x_1)\frac{u}{2g}(x_0y_0+x_1y_1)\\ (x_0y_1+y_0x_1)\frac{u}{2g}(x_0y_0+x_1y_1)& x_0^2+x_1^22x_0x_1\frac{u}{2g}\end{array}\right)$$
(5.77)
b) $`M\gamma _2,\gamma _1=\frac{u}{g}M\gamma _1,\gamma _1M\gamma _0,\gamma _1=\frac{u}{g}1\frac{u}{2g}`$, hence by induction $`M\gamma _k,\gamma _{k+1}=\frac{u}{2g}`$ for all $`k`$. From this it follows that

$$M\gamma _2,\gamma _2=\frac{u^2}{g^2}M\gamma _1,\gamma _1+M\gamma _0,\gamma _02\frac{u}{g}M\gamma _1,\gamma _0=1$$

and hence by induction $`M\gamma _k,\gamma _k=1`$ for all $`k`$.

Looking at the variables $`\alpha _k`$, $`\beta _k`$ corresponding to the first three Toda flows (e.g.(5.53)) the case $`p_k=constg_k=const`$ gives the following evolution on the curves:

$$\dot{\gamma }_k=const(\gamma _{k+1}\gamma _{k1})$$
(5.78)
where the constant $`const`$ varies corresponding to the considered Toda flow.

###### Proposition 5.9

A flow direction as in 5.78 along a discrete quadric $`\gamma `$ (as defined in proposition 5.8) is tangent to the (smooth) quadric on which the points of $`\gamma `$ lie.

Proof We have to show that if $`\dot{\gamma }_k=\frac{d}{dt}\gamma _k=\rho (\gamma _{k+1}\gamma _{k1})`$ then

$$\frac{d}{dt}|_0<M\gamma _k(t),\gamma _k(t)>=0\text{and}\frac{d}{dt}|_0M\gamma _k(t),\gamma _{k+1}(t)=0.$$

Now

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}|_0M\gamma _k(t),\gamma _k(t)`$ $`=`$ $`M\dot{\gamma }_k,\gamma _k+M\gamma _k,\dot{\gamma }_k`$
$`=`$ $`2\rho (M\gamma _{k+1},\gamma _kM\gamma _{k1},\gamma _k)`$
$`=`$ $`2\rho ({\displaystyle \frac{u}{2g}}{\displaystyle \frac{u}{2g}})`$
Using lemma 1 the proof for the second assertion works analogously.

By the above, a class of curves (namely quadrics) was sorted out by looking at trivial solutions to the Toda lattice equations. The movement of these curves under the corresponding Toda flow (tangent to the quadric) was very geometrical and simple.

In the next section a similar construction will be done. Here it will be shown in the euclidian reduction (3.2), that discrete curves which evolve under the discrete mKdV flow simply by a translation, define socalled discrete elastic curves.

#### 5.2.2 Invariant curves under the discrete mKdV flow: Discrete generalized elastic curves

Let $`c`$ be a discrete arc length parametrized curve in $``$ as discussed in section 3.2.

###### Definition 2

A discrete regular arc length parametrized curve $`c:\{0,\mathrm{},N\}`$ $``$ is called *planar elastic curve* if it is an critical point to the functional

$$\underset{j=1}{\overset{N1}{}}\mathrm{log}(1+\frac{\kappa _j}{4})$$
(5.79)
The admissible variations preserve the arc length, $`c_Nc_0`$ and the tangents at the end points.

It can be shown \[BHS\] that the curvature of a discrete elastic curve obeys the following equation:

$$\kappa _{k+1}=2a\frac{\kappa _k}{1+\frac{\kappa _k^2}{4}}\kappa _{k1}.$$
(5.80)
for some real constant $`a`$.

We now want to know, which class of curves is invariant under the discrete mKdV flow (up to euclidean motion and some tangential flow). It will turn out that that discrete elastic curves are a special case in that class.

Since discrete arc length parametrized curves are determined by their curvature (3.29) up to euclidean motion, it is sufficient to impose the constraint that the curvature must not change up to the changes made by the tangential flow (3.34). In other words: we ask for solutions $`\kappa `$ for which (3.34) is a multiple of (3.35):

$$(a\frac{11}{32})(\kappa _{k+1}\kappa _{k1})=\frac{1}{64}\left((\frac{\kappa _{k+1}^2}{4}+1)(\kappa _{k+2}+\kappa _k)(\frac{\kappa _{k1}^2}{4}+1)(\kappa _k+\kappa _{k2})\right)$$
(5.81)
One can “integrate” this equation twice and get the following lemma:

###### Lemma 10

The curvature of a discrete curve, that evolves up to some tangential flow by Euclidean motion under the mKdV flow satisfies

$$\kappa _{k+1}=\frac{2a\kappa _k}{1+\kappa _k^2}\kappa _{k1}+b+c_k$$
(5.82)
for some constants $`a`$ and $`b`$ and a function $`c`$ with $`c_{k+1}=c_k`$.

Proof Nothing left to show.

In the case $`b=0`$ and $`c0`$ this gives the equation for planar elastic curves (5.80). Figure 1 shows three closed discrete generalized elastic curves.

## 6 Conclusion

In this paper we introduced a novel view onto the one dimensional Toda lattice hierarchy in terms of flows on discrete curves. In particular this view allowed us to give a geometric meaning to the trivial Toda flow and the mKdV flow which are special flows within the Toda lattice hierarchy. This was achieved by classifying that class of curves, which is invariant under the corresponding flow. It would be interesting to investigate discrete curves that belong to other Toda flows in this sense. In fact we view our exposition rather as a starting point for a more thorough investigation of this subject.

If one finds a meaningful symplectic structure on the space of curves $`\gamma `$, then by the novel view onto the Toda lattice hierarchy this may lead to a symplectic structure for the “vertex operators” $`F_n`$. We are currently working on that issue.

The theory of discrete curves is in close connection to the theory of discrete surfaces. In addition it was already known to Darboux \[Dol97\] that certain invariants on surfaces admitting a conjugate net parametrization satisfy the two dimensional Toda lattice equation. It is an interesting question to see whether our approach can be transferred to discrete surfaces and the two dimensional Toda lattice hierarchy \[UT84\].

It would be interesting to see, whether our approach could also be applied to generalized Toda Systems \[Kos79\]. We haven’t thought about that yet.

## Acknowledgements

We like to thank Ulrich Pinkall for deep and interesting discussions and many inspiring ideas. We like to thank Yuri Suris and Leon Takhtajan for helpful hints.


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# RELATIVISTIC CRYSTALLINE SYMMETRY BREAKING AND ANYONIC STATES IN MAGNETOELECTRIC SUPERCONDUCTORSMEIPIC - 2, Topic#: 04_Rub

## 1 \- Quantized Hall effect, high-Tc superconductivity and anyons theory

In this chapter, we very briefly recall the quantized Hall effect and the link with both the high-Tc superconductivity theory and the anyons theory . It is well-known that applying a magnetic field in the orthogonal direction of a conducting layer crossed over by an electric current, then an electric field orthogonal both to the longitudinal electric current and the magnetic field appears. That is the so-called classical Hall effect. In addition, a magneto-resistivity (or magneto-conductivity) effect changes, in particularly, values of the longitudinal resistivity.

Then, currents and electric fields are no longer proportionnal but are related together by a two-dimensional antisymetric resistivity tensor depending on the applied magnetic field intensity $`B`$. Each diagonal coefficient equals the longitudinal resistance, whereas the non-diagonal coefficients are precisely plus or minus the so-called Hall resistance $`R_H=B/(nec)`$, where $`n`$ is the surface density of electric charges. The latter is linearly depending on the filling factor $`\nu =n/n_B`$. This previous relation links the Hall resistance to the number of filled so-called Landau levels in a bounded conducting layer. These levels are defined by the stationary eigenfunctions of a one-particle Schrödinger equation in a two-dimensional space with a magnetic interaction. It is a harmonic oscillator-like equation with eigenvalues $`E_N=\mathrm{}\omega _C(N+1/2)`$, where $`\omega _C`$ is the cyclotron frequency ($`N`$). The boundary conditions make each Landau level highly degenerate with a $`n_B`$ surface density of degeneracies.

So, a linear variation of the Hall resistance would have been experimentally observed, but as K. Von Klitzing and al.  have shown in 1980, the Hall resistance is quantized and the evolution with the magnetic intensity presents plateaus for integer values of $`\nu `$. More, on the plateaus and when the temperature goes to zero, the longitudinal resistance tends also towards zero. The system becomes non-dissipative and permanent longitudinal currents appear.

In 1982, D.C. Tsui and al.  observed the fractional quantized Hall effect for rational values of $`\nu 1`$ ($`\nu =p/q`$ with $`q`$ odd), meaning that only the first Landau level is excited and that electron-electron correlations produce condensation in a lower energy level. Such results have been explained in 1983 by B. B. Laughlin  considering a model of free fermions in a plane, interacting with a very particular gauge potential (the “anyonic” vector potential) not a priori electromagnetic. The main caracteristic of this potential is the existence of singularities in the plane at each locations of the fermions. Solving the corresponding Hamiltonian leads to the so-called Laughlin function, which points out strong correlations at a finite distance depending on the gauge potential intensity. Moreover, the computation of the total energy of the system effectively shows singularities (“cusps”) for rational values (with an odd denominator) of $`\nu `$.

One can display this model in considering excited fractional electric charges $`e/q`$, i.e. each cyclotron orbit contains into its associated circle, an odd number $`q`$ of singularities (or electrons) of the gauge potential; The latter being viewed as effective magnetic singular flux tubes. The electric charge is shared by $`q`$ of these flux tubes. It is from these considerations that the anyons theory and the anyonic superconductivity are built. Indeed, the gauge choice made by Laughlin, generates a non-trivial Aharonov-Böhm phase when each electron moves on its cyclotron orbit. In particularly, it follows that the permutation or exchange operator has no longer the eigenvalues $`\pm 1`$ only, but more generally, unitary complex numbers. That is the main property of anyons together with the P and T violations.

Actually, the litterature about anyons theory and its mathematical formalisms and tools, is highly increased. The basic mathematical tool of all of these formalisms, is to take into account the so-called Chern-Simon (CS) Lagrangian term . The latter breaks, as expected, the P and T symmetries and is associated to the singularities of the gauge fields. It is necessary to point out a common confusion about the CS term. It is absolutely not the CS term in a 2+1 dimension space (it doesn’t exist !), but the one of a curvature field in the 3+1 Minkowski space ! After integrating on a 2+1 dimensional hypersurface, bounded by the plane of the conducting layer, we obtain the “CS term” of the two-dimensional anyons theory. Moreover, the 3+1 CS term is $`{}_{}{}^{}F.F`$, where $`F`$ is the Faraday tensor and $`{}_{}{}^{}F`$ its Hodge dual. Hence, in this paper, we consider anyons theory in 3+1 dimensions and then the restriction onto the conducting layer.

Generally, this term is added up in order to consider monopoles such as the Dirac one. Let us recall that the Dirac monopole is associated with a singular gauge potential. Hence people have made models of anyons considering interaction between free electrons and magnetic monopoles. As S. Mandelstam showed , this leads to a confinement of the Fermi gas and may generate superconductor states. Anyway, statistical calculus based on the equivalence between anyons gas and free electrons embeded in a static magnetic field, show that the anyons gas generates a Meissner effect. That is the main reason, with the existence of permanent currents in the quantized Hall effect, for using anyons theory in order to explain high-Tc superconductivity in two dimensions.

## 2 \- Toroidal moments and broken relativistic crystalline symmetries

Electric and magnetic crystals are characterized by their magnetic groups which are subgroups of the so-called Shubnikov group $`O(3)1^{}`$ (the time inversion is indicated by the “  ” symbol). Among the 122 magnetic groups, only 106 are compatible with the existence of a linear or quadratic magnetoelectric effect.

In the present paper, we consider relativistic symmetry group theory in crystals . Therefore, we need, first, an extension from the Shubnikov group $`O(3)1^{}`$ to the group $`O(1,3)`$ in the Minkowski space, and second and more particularly, transformations of $`O(1,3)`$ leaving invariant polarization and magnetization vectors, and generating a subgroup of the normalizer $`N(G)`$ of $`G`$ in $`O(1,3)`$. This subgroup $`G^{}`$ may not be identified with the magnetic group if $`G`$ leaves invariant a particular non-vanishing velocity vector. If such a vector exists and $`G^{}G`$, one strictly speaks about the relativistic crystalline symmetry $`G^{}`$. Only 31 magnetic groups are compatible with the existence of a relativistic crystalline symmetry.

The invariant non-vanishing velocity vectors can be linked with toroidal moments from the point of view of magnetic symmetries, as it has been already shown in previous papers (see  for instance). The toroidal moments $`𝐓`$ are polar tensors which change sign under time inversion, like velocity vectors or current vectors of electric charges. There are refered to the order parameter in toroidal phase transitions, and involved, in particularly, in the superdiamagnetism of superconductors or dielectric diamagnetic bodies containing densely packed atoms (agregates) .

In such systems, in the presence of spontaneous currents, there may exist states for which the configuration of the associated currents has a tore-shaped solenoid with a winding and so a toroidal moment. For a system with a dipolar toroidal moment density $`\stackrel{}{T}`$, the current density equals

$$\stackrel{}{j}=curl(curl(\stackrel{}{T})).$$
(1)
We can remark on Figure 1 below

that this kind of configuration of currents can be generated from a solenoidal one. The creation or the closure to a tore-shaped solenoid from the latter, can be obtained adiabatically, applying for instance, a homogeneous external magnetic field slowly rotating at a more lower frequency than the cyclotron one. But we present another possibility in connection with the breaking of the relativistic crystalline symmetries. Before, it is absolutly necessary to understand that the groups $`G^{}`$ are strongly depending on the orientations of the polarization and/or magnetization vectors.

Thus, if for example the system passes from the polarization vector $`\stackrel{}{P}=\stackrel{}{0}`$ to $`\stackrel{}{P}\stackrel{}{0}`$, it involves a breaking, by group conjugaison, of the relativistic crystalline symmetry. Moreover, this conjugaison can be associated to a change of Galilean frame, from an initialy fixed one to an “effective” moving one, in such a way that the initial $`G^{}`$ group is kept in the latter.

Then, phenomenologically, we can consider for instance, the following classical physical system: a relativistic crystalline group $`G_0^{}`$ of an elementary polarized cell of a given crystal, with an electron not in interaction with this magnetic cell in the initial state. We also assume that this electron has initially a Galilean motion with, for instance, a velocity $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ parallel to the invariant axis of $`G_0^{}`$ (it is necessary to assume that this group is not invariant by smooth translations in order to have only one such axis). Then, the electron interacts with the cell, inducing (by a local magnetoelectric influence effect, by an exchange interaction for instance or in fact whatever is the interaction !) a change of the electric or magnetic polarization which breaks the initial relativistic crystalline symmetry group. During the interaction, the resulting symmetry group is $`G_i^{}`$ in the fixed laboratory frame. The transformation from one symmetry to the other is realized, by group conjugaison, with an element $`S`$ of $`N(G)`$. It means that we pass with $`S`$ from one frame to another in which the motion of the electron is kept, i.e. Galilean. In some way, we can speak of a kind of “inverse kineto-magnetoelectric effect”, since usually the crystal moves whereas it is motionless in that present case.

Thus, the motion of the electron in the laboratory frame is determined by $`S`$ , i.e. at most a rotation around the invariant axis and a boost along the same one. From the latter characteristics of the electron motion and those of $`S`$, the electron will get a solenoidal motion around the invariant axis, and if the electron is polarized, the Thomas precession of its spin along the trajectory would lead to a toroidal configuration of spin currents . Moreover, if the electron has a fast solenoidal motion before the interaction with the cell, then with the condition that the interaction is adiabatic, one will obtain, by the latter process, a slow solenoidal motion of the mean position of the electron, and so a tore-shaped motion during the interaction. Let us recall also that a non trivial Berry phase can occur in this process with two main consequences: an effective Yang-Mills field associated to an anomaly such as a monopole and an anyonic statistic in cases of collective motions .

Then, to finish with this description, we present the list of magnetic groups compatible with such process of creation of toroidal moments  (let us remark that among the 16 compatible groups tabulated in , only 12 are associated to a non-trivial $`O(2)`$ action of the normalizer; that is why four of them, namely the groups 2, 3, 4, 6, are not indicated in the list below):

$$\begin{array}{c}1,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}2}^{},m,m^{},\overline{1}^{},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}2}^{}/m,\overline{3}^{},\hfill \\ \\ 2/m^{},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}4}/m^{},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}6}/m^{},\overline{4}^{},\overline{6}^{},\hfill \end{array}$$

(for $`m`$ and $`2^{}`$ we have two TM’s oriented in an opposite direction; each one corresponding to possible sublattices). All the corresponding normalizers $`N(G)`$ contain, as a subgroup, the group of rotations in the plane: $`O(2)`$, in order to have the precession phenomena. To finish this chapter, let us give a supplementary important remark. The electromagnetic and the “anyonic” potential 4-vectors $`𝐀`$ are toroidal moment densities, since they satisfy both the relation (1) in a 3+1 dimensional anyons theory restricted in a 2+1 space, i.e. the fields do not depend on the perpendicular coordinate. Then in fact, the problem is to work out a non-electromagnetic potential vector in magnetoelectric materials associated to each charge carrier. We will see, as a consequence, that CS terms appear and so anyonic statistics.

## 3 \- The relativistic effective Lagrangian

In this chapter, we derive a density of free enthalpy, or rather a relativistic Lagrangian density, since first, we are not interest in thermal properties, and second, because our aim is to obtain a usable “microscopic” Lagrangian in anyons theory. Essentially for simplicity of notations and to avoid discussions about meaning of a lot of particular tensorial coefficients, we will consider a system in a “nearly empty” space since the reasoning we make, will be easily extended in matter without fundamental modifications. The system we consider, is made of a free carrier and only one polarized elementary magnetic cell freely moving in space. In fact, we consider a kind of local crystal field theory.

In some way, the carrier with the cell is a polarized carrier, meaning that the particle gets a covariant (invariant under application of a boost and/or a rotation) tensorial property such as the following scalar product ($`\alpha =0,1,2,3`$ and Einstein convention):

$$𝐯.𝐮=v^\alpha u_\alpha =cste,$$
(2)
where $`𝐮`$ is the velocity 4-vector of the carrier (or of the mean position of the carrier in case of an adiabatic process) and $`𝐯`$ is a particular 4-vector associated to the magnetic cell. For instance, $`𝐯`$ can be the invariant velocity vector of the magnetic symmetry of the cell, or its magnetic or electric polarization vectors. We assume that the interactions between the polarization vectors of the cell and the carrier are only depending on the relative carrier-cell position. As a fondamental result of the necessary covariance of the relativistic symmetry, any kind of interaction is equivalent to a change of Galilean frame and this is related to the deep meaning of the concept of ”polarized carriers”. Here, we have a carrier polarized by a cell (!) not only by a spin.

Then, the breaking occurs and the two 4-vectors $`𝐮`$ and $`𝐯`$ are transformed by a Lorentz transformation $`𝐋N(G)`$, i.e. we observe in the laboratory frame the primed vectors $`𝐮^{}=𝐋.𝐮`$ and $`𝐯^{}=𝐋.𝐯`$. Now, deriving relation (2) with respect to the laboratory frame time, we obtain:

$$\dot{𝐯}.𝐮+𝐯.\dot{𝐮}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},$$

where the dot indicates the time derivation. Decomposing $`\dot{𝐮}`$ in a colinear and an orthogonal part to $`𝐯`$, we deduce ($`𝐚\times 𝐛=(a_\alpha b_\beta a_\beta b_\alpha )E_{\alpha ,\beta }`$ where $`E_{\alpha ,\beta }`$ is the matrix with 1 on row $`\alpha `$ and column $`\beta `$ and zero everywhere else):

$$\dot{𝐮}=(\dot{𝐯}.𝐮)𝐯+\dot{𝐮}_1=(𝐯\times \dot{𝐯}).𝐮+\dot{𝐮}_1.$$

It can be shown that $`\dot{𝐮}_1`$ is only due to different interactions which don’t break the symmetry . So, we cancel it out from the latter expression.

This little computation leads us to write:

$$\dot{𝐮}^{}=(\dot{𝐋}𝐋^1\mathrm{𝐋𝐯}\times 𝐋\dot{𝐯}).𝐮^{}𝐅_{eff.}.𝐮^{}.$$

This equation is not but the least, a kind of generalized Thomas precession equation  which can be associated, in this particular system, to an effective Faraday tensor $`𝐅_{eff.}`$ being only a function of the relative cell-carrier position $`\stackrel{}{r}`$ and time, and having not an electromagnetic origin ! But, as a great surprise, the computation of $`𝐅_{eff.}`$ shows, first, that its effective electric field is vanishing, and second, its effective magnetic field is such that ($`𝐯(\gamma ,\gamma \stackrel{}{v}),\gamma =(1\stackrel{}{v}^2)^{1/2}`$; $`\theta `$ being a function of $`t`$ and $`\stackrel{}{r}`$):

$$\stackrel{}{B}_{eff.}=\frac{m}{e}\frac{\gamma ^2}{(1+\gamma )}\stackrel{}{v}\dot{\stackrel{}{v}}\theta \stackrel{}{v}(\stackrel{}{j}_e.\stackrel{}{})\stackrel{}{v}.$$
(3)
We think that it may be possible to interpret this field as the effective magnetic field of the flux tubes leading to the Aharanov–Böhm phase in the anyons theory. We can also notice from the last term in (3) that $`\stackrel{}{B}_{eff.}`$ is a kind of vectorial Lifshitz invariant. From this expression, it follows also that $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ can’t be the invariant velocity vector since the breaking doesn’t affect its direction. So $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ is, up to a suitable scalar or pseudoscalar factor, one of the two polarization vectors of the magnetic cell. Thus, if for instance $`m^{}`$ is the magnetic symmetry, since the two latter vectors are in the plane of the symmetry, then $`\stackrel{}{B}_{eff.}`$ is in the orthogonal direction. We have also to notice, as a consequence of the model, that there is such an effective magnetic field (and so a toroidal moment) associated to each charge carrier.

At this step, unfortunately, we need very sophisticated mathematical tools such as exterior differentiation $`d`$, co-differentiation $`\delta `$, exact, co-exact and harmonic differential n-forms, coming from the de Rham cohomology theory of differential manifolds (see  for instance).

The fundamental consequence of the previous relation is that the total Faraday tensor $`𝐅_{Tot.}=𝐅+𝐅_{eff.}`$ is no longer a closed form, i.e. $`d𝐅_{Tot.}0`$ ($`div\stackrel{}{B}_{eff.}0`$) because of the time $`t`$ and the vector position $`\stackrel{}{r}`$ dependencies. It follows from the Hodge duality principle that we can define $`d𝐅_{Tot.}`$ ($`\delta 𝐅_{Tot.}`$) as a current of an “effective” magnetic (electric) charge: $`d𝐅_{Tot.}={}_{}{}^{}𝐣_{m}^{}`$ ($`\delta 𝐅_{Tot.}=𝐣_e`$). Let us remark that the currents are not primed, because they are currents in the laboratory frame, or equivalently, they have zero divergences in contradistinction with the primed currents. Moreover, it means also that the electric charge-matter interaction is equivalent to an electric charge-magnetic charge interaction.

Hence, if the Lagrangian density for the “electromagnetic” Faraday tensor $`𝐅`$ is (with Heaviside’s units):

$$\frac{1}{4}𝐅.𝐅𝐀.𝐣,$$

we obtain for $`𝐅_{Tot.}`$ an other Lagrangian density $``$ such that:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}𝐅_{Tot.}.𝐅_{Tot.}𝐀_e.𝐣_e`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa }{4}}^{}𝐅_{Tot.}.𝐅_{Tot.}\kappa 𝐀_m.𝐣_m,`$ (4)
where $`\kappa `$ is a constant, $`{}_{}{}^{}𝐅_{Tot.}^{}`$ the Hodge dual of $`𝐅_{Tot.}`$, and $`𝐀_e`$ and $`𝐀_m`$ are respectively the potential 4-vectors associated to the exact part of $`𝐅_{Tot.}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{}𝐅_{Tot.}^{}`$. As for the currents, the $`𝐀`$’s are not primed. Let us remark that the harmonic parts have no contributions to the dynamic of the charges, since they differentiations and co-differentiations are vanishing, but they have one in the energy and consequently in the Lagrangian density. These parts are associated to the so-called instantons which are fields generated by the breaking and going away from the breaking area, carrying out a part of the energy. Nevertheless, in the case of more than one electric charge, this field will interact with the others and can not be neglected.

Thus, the total potential 4-vector $`𝐀`$, interacting with a one-charge current, will be the sum of the potentials of all the closed parts of the total corresponding Faraday tensor, for which the Poincaré’s lemma can be applied (indeed, from this lemma, in a suitable open subset not containing the interaction area, it always exists a potential since there is no more closed part inside). In fact, because $`𝐅_{Tot.}`$ is not only electromagnetic and

$$\begin{array}{c}\delta 𝐅_{Tot.}=𝐣_ecurl(curl(\stackrel{}{A}_e))\stackrel{def.}{}\stackrel{}{j}_{𝐀_e}\hfill \\ d𝐅_{Tot.}={}_{}{}^{}𝐣_{m}^{}curl(curl(\stackrel{}{A}_m))\stackrel{def.}{}\stackrel{}{j}_{𝐀_m},\hfill \end{array}$$

then $`\stackrel{}{A}_e`$ and $`\stackrel{}{A}_m`$ are toroidal moment densities: $`\stackrel{}{A}_{e,m}\stackrel{}{T}_{e,m}`$. Moreover, $`{}_{}{}^{}𝐅_{Tot.}^{}.𝐅_{Tot.}`$ is the expected Chern-Simon term of anyons theory and the harmonic part of $`𝐅_{Tot.}`$ will correspond to the famous singular potential of this theory, i.e. to magnetic monopoles. Consequently, at a macroscopic level, we must add in the free enthalpy, terms such as ($`E`$: electric field, $`H`$: magnetic field, $`J`$: current, $`T`$: dipolar toroidal moment):

$$\begin{array}{c}\gamma _{i,j}E^iJ_{e,m}^j,\mu _{i,j}H^iJ_{e,m}^j,\hfill \\ \\ \rho _{i,j}J_{e,m}^iJ_{e,m}^j,\lambda _{i,j}J_e^iJ_m^j,\hfill \end{array}$$

terms, up to order four, coming from relations (3) and (4), analogous terms substituting $`T^i`$ for $`J^i`$, and crossing terms such as

$$\tau _{i,j}J_{e,m}^iT_{e,m}^j,\omega _{i,j}J_{e,m}^iT_{m,e}^j,$$

where $`\gamma `$, $`\mu `$, $`\rho `$, $`\lambda `$, $`\tau `$ and $`\omega `$ are the corresponding suitable susceptibility tensors. To finish, let us add that it might allow permanent currents for particular choices of the latter tensors, and so superconductivity with toroidal phase transitions .


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# Equilibrium correlations in a model for multidimensional epistasis

## I Introduction

Although evolution takes place via a combination of random mutations and natural selection, it seems to proceed rather rapidly along directed paths in the space of all possible genetic states. It is a challenging problem to try to understand the mechanisms which lead to this phenomenon Smith .

Eigen has pointed out that each “species” actually consists of a more or less narrow distribution in the phase space of all possible genetic states, and this distribution may shift, in response to environmental pressure Eigen . Natural selection in response to environmental factors is usually modelled in terms of a “fitness function” which is a measure of the survival probability and/or reproductive capability of the individual.

Those mutations which have a salutary effect on the fitness persist in the population and lead to new variants; other, neutral mutations may simply be carried along since they do not affect the well being of the individual. Deleterious mutations usually affect the organism adversely, and the accumulation of too many will reduce the fitness drastically.

The simplest hypothesis biologists have adopted regarding how the number of mutations affect the fitness, is that each deleterious mutation reduces the fitness by an identical factor, say $`1/a`$, $`a>1`$. This is equivalent to assuming that the effect of each deleterious mutation is independent of the others, or that there is no “epistasis” between the mutations, and leads to a fitness function which decays exponentially with $`m`$, the number of mutations, as $`f\mathrm{exp}(\alpha m)`$, where $`\alpha =\mathrm{ln}a`$Kondrashov1  A different type of assumption can be made, to take $`f`$ to depend on $`m`$ in a step-wise fashion, so that the value of $`f`$ is unaffected for $`m`$ less than a threshold, after which it is reduced drastically. Jan

It is clear, however, that there can be epistatic interactions between mutations at different points on the genetic string and that the expression of unmutated genes may be affected by the presence of mutations at certain loci, and so on. Book  Therefore $`f`$ may depend not only on the total number of mutations, but also on their location, and may also increase as the result of mutations at certain loci. It has recently been pointed out that the fitness may depend strongly on the order in which certain mutations may occur Kondrashov . As a case in point, for a mutation leading to a certain modification to be beneficial, one must already have had a mutation leading to the emergence of a feature which will benefit from this modification.

This type of epistasis actually lends itself to a treatment in terms of statistical equilibria, with the appropriate choice of a fitness function. Seher

In this paper we will represent a complete genomic sequence with epistatic interactions by a one dimensional feromagnetic Ising model. We will subdivide the total genotype into subsequences (here taken to be of length 2, without any loss of generality), and stipulate that mutations can lead to salutory effects only if they occur in a certain order within these subsequences. We will further introduce a new quantity, the “tolerance” of the environment, which will have to be taken into acount to determine how strongly epistatis interactions affect the overall fitness. Our aim will be to compute, within this model, the effective correlations between mutations at different sites, at fixed tolerance, within a population at equilibrium.

## II The Model

Since Eigen first introduced the quasi-species model Eigen  bitstring models of genetic evolution have been extensively studied numerically Oliveira ; Orcal ; Tuzel1 ; Tuzel2 . In this approach, the genotype of an individual is represented by a string of Boolean variables $`\sigma _i`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{}N`$, which can obviously be identified with a one dimensional system of Ising spins McCoy . If one takes the wild type, or the initial genotype, to consist of a string of 0’s, each point mutation is indicated by flipping the bit representing a given gene, from 0 to 1.

We would like to avail ourselves of the analytically known results on the exactly solvable Ising model in equilibrium, to be able to make definite predictions regarding the correlation of mutated genes on a given genotype, under assumptions similar to those of Kondrashov and Kondrashov Kondrashov .

We devide the one dimensional string of spins representing the state of the genome, into dimers. We demand that the fitness is only increased relative to the wild type (all zeroes) if the bits that flip to 1 occur sequentially. Kondrashov . Thus, within each dimer, $`(0,0)`$, $`(1,0)`$, $`(1,1)`$ are in increasing order of fitness while $`(0,1)`$ is less fit than $`(0,0)`$.

Let us first construct a cost function by defining the Ising Hamiltonian,

$$=J/2\underset{i}{}s_is_{i+1}K\underset{i\mathrm{odd}}{}s_iH\underset{i\mathrm{even}}{}s_i,$$
(1)
where for greater convenince in manipulation, we have defined the variables $`s_i=2(\sigma _i1/2)`$. The value of $``$ for each given sequence of $`\{s_i\}`$ will serve as a cost function, in terms of which we may define the fitness. Notice that in the first term, we have a coupling between nearest neighbors, which tends to reduce the “cost” for those configurations in which the adjacent “spins”are in the same state. If the constants, $`K`$ and $`H`$, which correspond to a staggered external field in an Ising model, are here chosen as $`K=3J/4`$ and $`H=J/4`$, then we obtain a situation in which the dimer configurations $`(1,1)`$, $`(1,1)`$, $`(1,1`$ and $`(1,1)`$ have decreasing cost.

Then $`f`$ is defined as

$$f=\frac{1}{Z}e^{\beta H}$$
(2)
where $`\beta `$ is a measure of how effective the cost function is in affecting the fitness, and $`Z`$ is a normalization factor so that $`f(0,1)`$. Note that $`f[\{s_i\}]`$ can be identified as the Boltzmann factor in an equilibrium statistical model with the Hamiltonian $`H`$, at constant inverse “temperature” $`\beta ^1`$, and corresponds to the probablity of observing, within an equilibrium population, the particular genotype $`\{s_i\}`$. Temperature may be seen as the amount of randomness, or disorder in the system, competing with the cost function in determining the fitness. The higher the temperature, or randomness, the weaker will be the effect of the cost function in determining the state of the system. Therefore we define

$$T\beta ^1$$
(3)
as the tolerance in the system. Here $`J`$ is a measure of the strength of the interaction between the states of each of the sites (alleles), $`\sigma _i`$. Clearly, $`\beta `$ and $`J`$ will always occur together in this model, in the product $`\beta J`$, and we may simply absorb $`J`$ into the definition of $`\beta `$.

The fitness $`f`$ is normalized to take values between $`(0,1)`$, by defining

$$Z\underset{\{s_i\}}{}e^{\beta H[\{s_i\}]}.$$
(4)
Using the transfer matrix method, this sum may be computed exactly. We may then compute the expectation values $`m_i=s_i`$. Note that the quantity $`(m_i+1)/2`$ corresponds to the probability of finding a mutation on either of the sublattices, $`i`$ odd, or $`i`$ even. The results are shown in Fig. 1, as a function of $`T/J`$, which is the (inverse) ration of the strength of the epistasis to the tolerance in the system. The “staggered magnetization,” $`m_ss_{i(\mathrm{odd})}s_{i(\mathrm{even})}`$ is shown in Fig. 2, and is twice the difference between the probabilities of encountering a mutation on either of the two sublattices (the first or the second sites beloging to a dimer). It is seen to peak sharply at small values of the tolerance, and then the difference decays to zero, as the tolerance becomes very large, at which point the fitness function becomes essentially flat.

In Fig. 3a, b and c, we display the correlation functions, $`C_2=s_is_{i+2}`$ and $`C_1=s_is_{i+1}`$, as well as the subtracted correlation function $`C_ss_is_{i+2}s_is_{i+2}`$, as a function of $`T/J`$. It can clearly be seen here as well, that the effect of epistatic interactions in building up correlations between mutated sites on the gene string, is felt strongly within a given range of tolerances, in units of the strength of interaction. At $`T=0`$, since the genes are in the ordered state with all $`s_i=1`$, the excess correlation $`C_s`$ due to the interactions, is nil. In the other extreme of very large tolerances, the system is completely disordered, correlations vanish, so that the two terms in $`C_s`$ tend to each other, and both tend to zero.

To further elucidate the meaning of tolerance, we may compute the relative variances $`v_m`$, where

$$v_m^2(s_im_i)^2.$$
(5)
It is easy to see, that within a mean field approximation, where all the spins interact pairwise with each other, i.e., $`=J/N_{(ij)}s_is_j`$, $`v_m^2=T/2J`$; thus the ratio $`T/J`$ is a measure of the size of the fluctuations about the mean. In genome space, this means $`\sqrt{T/J}`$ is a measure of the radius of the distribution of genotypes about the most frequently encountred one, in equilibrium.

## III conclusions

In summary, we have cast an epistatic quasispecies model interms of a one dimensional Ising model with staggered magnetic field, to give greater advantage to certain subsequences of genes that may be mutated. We defined a “tolerance” of the system, to introduce an equilibrium statistical ensemble, namely one whose statistical properties do not change in time. Correlations induced on the genetic sequence of individuals in this equlibrium population have been computed as a function of the tolerance and the strength of the epistatic interaction, using exact solutions of the Ising model in one dimension. It has been shown that non-trivial correlations between mutated sites on the gene string may arise only in a finite range of the tolerance for a given interaction strength.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Seher Özçelik for many intersting discussions. AE acknowledges partial support from the Turkish Academy of Sciences.

Figure captions

1. The magnetization at a) odd, b) even sites, of the one dimensional Ising model on these respective sublattices, as a function of the “tolerance.” The probability of encountering mutations at these respective sites is given by $`(m_i+1)/2`$.

2. The “staggered magnetization” is twice the difference between the probabilities of encountereing mutated genes at the first or the second site of the dimers into which the genome has been decomposed.

3. The correlations function between mutated sites on a) analogous sites on neighboring dimers, b) odd-even sites c) the subtracted correlation function between analogous sites.


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# Untitled Document

Exact Wavefunction in a Noncommutative Dipole Field Theory

Wung-Hong Huang

Department of Physics

National Cheng Kung University

Tainan,70101,Taiwan

The nonrelativistic case of noncommutative scalar dipole field theory with quartic interaction on a two-dimensional spacetime is analyzed. As there are two parameters in the general quartic interaction we try a way to find their relation. To do this we first investigate the formulation of the quantum mechanics for a particle carrying the noncommutative dipole. We point out a problem therein and propose a possible method to solve it. We use this prescription to determined the quartic interaction term in the field theory once the noncommutative dipole is turned on. The two particle Schrödinger equation is then solved and the exact wavefunction of the bound state and associated spectrum are found. It is seen that the wavefunction has three center positions in the relative coordinates and the separation of the center is equal to the dipole length $`L`$ of the dipole field, exhibiting the nature of the noncommutative dipole field.

E-mail: whhwung@mail.ncku.edu.tw

In recent a new type of noncommutative product is introduced by considering a system of $`Dp`$-branes in the presence of a constant background $`B_{\mu \nu }`$ field with one index along the branes’ world volume and the other index transverse to it . The field theories defined on these $`Dp`$-branes are also noncommutative, but, in contrast to the Moyal case , the space-time remains commutative. The noncommutativity appears only in the product of functions and has its origin in the finite dipole length $`\stackrel{}{L}`$ associated to each field. A supergravity description of these so called noncommutative dipole theories is presented in .

In this paper we will consider the nonrelativistic case of noncommutative scalar dipole field theory with the quartic interaction on two-dimensional spacetime. As there are two parameters in the general quartic interaction we try to search a principle to find their relation. To do this we first investigate the formulation of the quantum mechanics for a particle carrying the noncommutative dipole. It is found that there is a problem in formulizing the quantum mechanics when the wavefunction carrying the internal noncommutative dipole. We propose a possible method to solve this problem. Using the prescription we see that, the ground state wavefunction for a particle possessing a noncommutative dipole in the simple harmonic potential will have two centers, which correctly reveals the nature of the noncommutative dipole in the particle.

Using this prescription we then determine the interaction term in the field theory once the noncommutative dipole is turned on and solve the two particle Schrödinger equation. We find the exact wavefunction of the bound state. The wavefunction shows three center positions in the relative coordinates and the separation of the center is equal to the dipole length $`\stackrel{}{L_i}`$ of the dipole field. This clearly exhibits the dipole nature of the noncommutative dipole field theory.

Note that the three-dimensional spacetime noncommutative field theory (in the Moyal case) has been investigated in . The simplest space in the Moyal case is two dimensions while that in the noncommutative scalar dipole system could be only one dimension and does not need renormalization.

Let us begin with a brief summary about the basic property of the algebra of noncommutative dipole field. The noncommutative dipole field theory was first studied in  and then in .

First, as in the Moyal case, the noncommutative dipole field theory can also be defined by replacing the ordinary product of function by a noncommutative dipole $``$-product. To any dipole field, $`\varphi _i`$, we assign a constant space-like dipole length $`\stackrel{}{L_i}`$ and define the “dipole star product” as

$$(\varphi _i\varphi _j)(x)\varphi _i(x\frac{1}{2}L_j)\varphi _j(x+\frac{1}{2}L_i).$$
$`(1)`$
Next, the natural choice for the $`Tr`$, similar to the Moyal case, is the integral over the space-time. Demanding the integral over star products of arbitrary dipole field to enjoy the cyclicity condition we shall restrict the integrand to have a total zero dipole length. This means that the following integral

$$\varphi _1\varphi _2\mathrm{}\varphi _n=\varphi _n\varphi _1\mathrm{}\varphi _{n1},$$
$`(2)`$
serves as the proper $`Tr`$, only if the condition

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\stackrel{}{L_i}=0,$$
$`(3)`$
is satisfied, where $`\stackrel{}{L}_i`$ are the dipole lengths for $`\varphi _i`$. In the field theory this condition is translated into the fact that any term in the proposed action should have a total vanishing dipole length. Therefore in each vertex, both the sum of the external momenta and the total dipole length should vanish .

Finally, we also need to define complex conjugate of a field and the behavior of the star product under complex conjugation. Demanding $`(\varphi ^{}\varphi )`$ to be real valued, i.e. $`\varphi ^{}\varphi =(\varphi ^{}\varphi )^{}`$, we can fixes the dipole length of $`\varphi ^{}`$ to be the same as that of $`\varphi `$ though with a minus sign. Therefore the dipole length of any real (hermitian) field, and in particular the gauge fields, is zero . Not that the noncommutativity in the dipole case is not a property of space-time, but originating from the dipole length associated to each field. Thus, the derivative operator on the dipole field will behave like the usual derivative .

Along the above property, the action for the quartic interaction scalar noncommutative dipole theory is

$$S=\left[_\mu \varphi ^{}_\mu \varphi V_{}(\varphi ^{}\varphi )\right],$$
$`(4)`$
where $`V_{}(\varphi ^{}\varphi )`$ is the potential with the products replaced by star products in (1). Using the cyclicity condition, we can drop the star product in the quadratic part of the action (much like the Moyal-star product case) and the effects of dipole moments appear only through the interaction terms. The most general case of quartic interaction $`V_{}(\varphi ^{}\varphi )`$ is

$$V_{}(\varphi ^{}\varphi )=\lambda _0(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(\varphi ^{}\varphi )+2\lambda _1(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(\varphi \varphi ^{}),$$
$`(5a)`$
and therefore

$$V_{}(\varphi ^{}\varphi )=\left[\lambda _0(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(x)(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(x)+2\lambda _1(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(x\frac{L}{2})(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(x+\frac{L}{2})\right]$$

$$=\left[\lambda _0(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(x)(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(x)+\lambda _1(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(x)(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(x+L)+\lambda _1(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(xL)(\varphi ^{}\varphi )(x)\right].$$
$`(5b)`$
The renormalization of the above noncommutative dipole theory has been discussed in . It was shown that the theory, though non-local, would be renormalizable in the usual sense.

Note that the most general quartic interaction $`V_{}(\varphi ^{}\varphi )`$ described in (5a) has two parameter $`\lambda _0`$ and $`\lambda _1`$. These two parameters seem to be irrelevant to each other and shall be defined by the model system. However, the following investigation could help us to determinate the relation between these two parameters.

To do this let us consider a quantum field without a noncommutative dipole. In this case the interaction may be written as $`V=\lambda (\varphi ^{}\varphi )(\varphi ^{}\varphi )=\frac{1}{2}\lambda (\varphi ^{}\varphi )(\varphi ^{}\varphi )+\frac{1}{2}\lambda (\varphi ^{}\varphi )(\varphi \varphi ^{})`$. Therefore, after turning on the noncommutative dipole we can expressed the interaction as that in (5a). Thus, we see that there are the following relations: $`\lambda _0=\frac{1}{2}\lambda `$ and $`\lambda _1=\frac{1}{4}\lambda `$. In this way, the interaction term in a noncommutative dipole field theory can be determined from the corresponding commutative theory.

To investigate this problem furthermore let us investigate the quantum mechanics system. As in the Moyal case , the general action of the quantum mechanics for a particle carrying the noncommutative dipole can be expressed as

$$S=𝑑t𝑑x\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}(x,t)\left[i\frac{}{t}\frac{p^2}{2m}V(x)\right]\mathrm{\Psi }(x,t)$$

$$=𝑑t𝑑x\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}(x,t)\left[i\frac{}{t}\frac{p^2}{2m}V(x\frac{L}{2})\right]\mathrm{\Psi }(x,t).$$
$`(6.a)`$
The above relation tell us that when a conventional particle moving in a potential $`V(x)`$, then after turning on its noncommutative dipole the new particle will behave as a conventional one while under the potential $`V(x\frac{L}{2})`$. Therefore, the particle spectrum will not be changed even if its noncommutative dipole was turned on and the associated wavefunction is just a conventional particle while shifting $`xx+\frac{L}{2}`$. However, this simple property suffers a serious problem. For example, consider a system which has a potential $`V(x)=0,`$ as $`|x|\mathrm{}`$ and $`V(x)=\mathrm{},`$ as $`|x|\mathrm{}`$. (This potential can be regarded as a limit form of some continuous functions.) In this case, according to the above discussion, a particle with noncommutative dipole $`|L|`$ could appear at the region $`\mathrm{}x\mathrm{}+\frac{|L|}{2}`$. But, as an intuition, because the potential in this region is infinity and particle shall not be found in this region. Therefore, there are some problems in the action of (6.a).

To solved this problem we propose that the action in (6.a) shall be replaced by

$$S=𝑑t𝑑x\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}(x,t)\left[i\frac{}{t}\frac{p^2}{2m}\right]\mathrm{\Psi }(x,t)$$

$$𝑑t𝑑x\frac{1}{2}\left[\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}(x,t)V(x)\mathrm{\Psi }(x,t)+\mathrm{\Psi }(x,t)V(x)\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}(x,t)\right]$$

$$=𝑑t𝑑x\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}(x,t)\left[i\frac{}{t}\frac{p^2}{2m}\frac{1}{2}[V(x\frac{L}{2})+V(x+\frac{L}{2})]\right]\mathrm{\Psi }(x,t).$$
$`(6.b)`$
From the above relation we see that a conventional particle confined in the region $`|x|\mathrm{}`$ will be confined in the new region $`|x|\mathrm{}|\frac{L}{2}|`$ once the noncommutative dipole is turned on. Especially, it is interesting to consider a conventional particle moving in the potential $`V=\frac{1}{2}kx^2`$. The ground state of this system has one center at $`x=0`$. However, when noncommutative dipole of the particle is turned on, the new particle will behave as a conventional particle moving in the potential $`V=\frac{1}{4}k(x\frac{L}{2})^2+\frac{1}{4}k(x+\frac{L}{2})^2`$. The ground state of this new particle, which possesses a noncommutative dipole $`L`$, will have two centers at $`x=\frac{L}{2}`$ and $`x=\frac{L}{2}`$. Therefore, the wavefunction now correctly reveal the nature of the noncommutative dipole in the particle.

We thus conjecture that the interaction term in the noncommutative dipole field theory shall be the summations of all possible permutations of the field in the interaction of commutative field theory, and replace the ordinary product by the dipole star product defined in (1).

We now consider the nonrelativistic limit of the noncommutative dipole scalar field theory (4) on one space described by the Lagrangian,

$$L=𝑑t𝑑x\left[i\varphi ^{}_t\varphi +\frac{1}{2}\varphi ^{}_x^2\varphi V_{}(\varphi ^{}\varphi )\right],$$
$`(7)`$
in which $`V_{}(\varphi ^{}\varphi )`$ is defined in (5b) while using the relations $`\lambda _0=\frac{1}{2}\lambda `$ and $`\lambda _1=\frac{1}{4}\lambda `$. Following the method in  we quantize the system by the canonical quantization method imposing the canonical commutation relation

$$[\varphi (x),\varphi ^{}(y)]=\delta (xy),$$
$`(8)`$
The Hamiltonian now is given by

$$H=𝑑t𝑑x\left[\frac{1}{2}\varphi ^{}_x^2\varphi +V_{}(\varphi ^{}\varphi )\right].$$
$`(9)`$
Note that the interaction $`V_{}`$ in here represents a contact interaction term in the usual sense.

We now construct two particle Schrödinger equation by the following manner . The operator Schrödinger equation is described by

$$i\frac{\varphi (x)}{t}=[\varphi (x),H]=\frac{1}{2}_x^2\varphi (x)+\lambda \varphi ^{}(x)\varphi (x)\varphi (x)+$$

$$\frac{\lambda }{2}\varphi (x)\varphi ^{}(x+L)\varphi (x+L)+\frac{\lambda }{2}\varphi (x)\varphi ^{}(xL)\varphi (xL),$$
$`(10)`$
where the time argument of the Schrödinger field operator is suppressed for simplicity. The two particle wavefunction may be constructed by projecting a generic state $`|\mathrm{\Phi }`$ to two particle sector, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x,y)=0|\varphi (x)\varphi (y)|\mathrm{\Phi }`$. Then, using the operator Schrödinger equation we can find the two particle Schrödinger equation,

$$i_t\mathrm{\Phi }(x,y)=\frac{1}{2}(_x^2+_y^2)\mathrm{\Phi }(x,y)+2\lambda \delta (xyL)\mathrm{\Phi }(x,xL)$$

$$+\lambda \delta (xy)\mathrm{\Phi }(x,x)+\lambda \delta (xy2L)\mathrm{\Phi }(x,x2L)$$
$`(11)`$
Defining the momentum-space wavefunction

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(Q,q)=𝑑x𝑑ye^{\frac{i}{2}Q(x+y)iq(xy)}\mathrm{\Phi }(x,y),$$
$`(12)`$
equation (11) in the momentum space becomes

$$i\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}(Q,q)=\left(\frac{1}{4}Q^2+q^2\right)\mathrm{\Phi }(Q,q)+\lambda 𝑑\stackrel{~}{q}\mathrm{\Phi }(Q,\stackrel{~}{q})+$$

$$+2\lambda 𝑑\stackrel{~}{q}e^{i(\stackrel{~}{q}q)2L}\mathrm{\Phi }(Q,\stackrel{~}{q})+\lambda 𝑑\stackrel{~}{q}e^{i(\stackrel{~}{q}q)L}\mathrm{\Phi }(Q,\stackrel{~}{q}).$$
$`(13)`$
This equation is already diagonal with respect to $`Q`$ and after setting

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(Q,q)=\delta (QP)\mathrm{\Psi }(P,q)e^{i(\frac{1}{4}P^2+E_r)t},$$
$`(14)`$
the Schrödinger equation is reduced to

$$(E_rq^2)\mathrm{\Psi }(P,q)=\lambda 𝑑\stackrel{~}{q}\mathrm{\Psi }(Q,\stackrel{~}{q})+2\lambda 𝑑\stackrel{~}{q}e^{i(\stackrel{~}{q}q)2L}\mathrm{\Psi }(Q,\stackrel{~}{q})$$

$$+\lambda 𝑑\stackrel{~}{q}e^{i(\stackrel{~}{q}q)L}\mathrm{\Psi }(Q,\stackrel{~}{q}).$$
$`(15)`$
Now, consider the bound state with $`E_r=ϵ_B`$, equation (15) becomes

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(P,q)=\frac{1}{q^2+ϵ_B}[\lambda d\stackrel{~}{q}\mathrm{\Psi }(Q,\stackrel{~}{q})+2\lambda d\stackrel{~}{q}e^{i(\stackrel{~}{q}q)2L}\mathrm{\Psi }(Q,\stackrel{~}{q})$$

$$+\lambda d\stackrel{~}{q}e^{i(\stackrel{~}{q}q)L}\mathrm{\Psi }(Q,\stackrel{~}{q})].$$
$`(16)`$
The above equation can be solved exactly. We first define

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(P,q)=𝑑R𝑑re^{iRP}e^{irq}\mathrm{\Psi }(R,r).$$
$`(17)`$
Then, after integrating the both sides for $`q`$ with the weight factor $`e^{irq}`$, equation (16) becomes

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(R,r)=e^{iRP}\psi (r),$$
$`(18)`$
with

$$\psi (r)=\lambda \frac{\pi }{\sqrt{ϵ}_B}e^{r\sqrt{ϵ}_B}\psi (0)2\lambda \frac{\pi }{\sqrt{ϵ}_B}e^{rL\sqrt{ϵ}_B}\psi (L)\lambda \frac{\pi }{\sqrt{ϵ}_B}e^{r2L\sqrt{ϵ}_B}\psi (0),$$
$`(19)`$
where $`R=\frac{x+y}{2}`$ and the relative position $`r`$ denotes $`xy`$. We thus get the explicit form of the position space wavefunction. It is interesting to see that the wavefunction in (19) is simply an addition of three function which coming from different interaction in (5b). To find the spectrum of the two particle bound state, we can set $`r=0`$ and $`r=L`$ respectively in (19) and then solve the equations. The eigenvalue equation for the energy $`ϵ_B`$ is

$$\frac{\sqrt{ϵ}_B+2\lambda \pi }{2\lambda \pi e^{L\sqrt{ϵ}_B}}=\frac{2\lambda \pi }{\sqrt{ϵ}_B+\lambda \pi (1+e^{2L\sqrt{ϵ}_B})}.$$
$`(20)`$
From the above results we see that in the commutative case, $`L=0`$, there is a possible bounded state with the spectrum $`\sqrt{ϵ}_B=4\lambda \pi `$ and wavefunction has only single center. This corresponds to the two particle system interacting through an attractive delta force (if $`\lambda <0`$). In general there are three distinguished centers at $`r=0,L`$ and $`2L`$ in the relative coordinates and we could have a bound state if $`\lambda <0`$. This behavior signaling the nature of the field theories with noncommutative dipole length.

In conclusion, we have proposed a method to formulate the action of a quantum mechanics when the internal noncommutative dipole was turned on. In this way we can avoid some problems and wavefunction could then correctly reveal the nature of the noncommutative dipole in the particle. Note that the action we propose in (6.b) is different from that in the Moyal case (6.a). We use our prescription to fix the quartic interaction in a noncommutative scalar dipole field theory. The two particle Schrödinger equation on a two-dimensional spacetime is then solved and the exact wavefunction of the bound state and associated spectrum are found. We see that the wavefunction has three center positions in the relative coordinate which exhibiting the nature of the noncommutative dipole field.

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