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# Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open 2𝐷 mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime

11institutetext:  Max-Planck-Institut für Strömungsforschung und Fakultät Physik der Universität Göttingen,
Bunsenstraße 10, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany

Scattering theory Quantum chaos; semiclassical methods Electronic transport in mesoscopic systems

## Abstract

We investigate the distribution of the resonance widths $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ and Wigner delay times $`𝒫(\tau _W)`$ for scattering from two-dimensional systems in the diffusive regime. We obtain the forms of these distributions (log-normal for large $`\tau _W`$ and small $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and power law in the opposite case) for different symmetry classes and show that they are determined by the underlying diffusive classical dynamics. Our theoretical arguments are supported by extensive numerical calculations.

Quantum scattering has been a subject of intensive research activity both in mesoscopic physics and in Quantum Chaos in the last years . Among the most interesting quantities for the description of a scattering process are the Wigner delay times and resonance widths. The former quantity captures the time-dependent aspects of quantum scattering. It can be interpreted as the typical time an almost monochromatic wave packet remains in the interaction region. It is related to the energy derivative of the total phase shift $`\mathrm{\Phi }(E)=i\mathrm{ln}detS(E)`$ of the scattering matrix $`S(E)`$, i.e. $`\tau _W(E)=\frac{d\mathrm{\Phi }(E)}{dE}`$. Resonances are defined as poles of the $`S`$-matrix occurring at complex energies $`_n=E_n\frac{i}{2}\mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$, where $`E_n`$ is the position and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$ the width of the resonance. They correspond to ”eigenstates” of the open system that decay in time due to the coupling to the ”outside world”.

For chaotic/ballistic systems Random Matrix Theory (RMT) is applicable, and the distributions of resonance widths $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ and Wigner delay times $`𝒫(\tau _W)`$ are known . As the disorder increases the system becomes diffusive and the deviations from RMT become increasingly apparent. In the strongly disordered limit where localization dominates, the distribution of resonances $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$  and delay times $`𝒫(\tau _W)`$  were found recently. At the same time, an attempt to understand systems at critical conditions, was undertaken in . For diffusive mesoscopic samples, however, there is no study of $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ and $`𝒫(\tau _W)`$ besides Ref.  where the authors have focused on the tails of $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ for a quasi-1D system in the diffusive regime. This study is important for diffusive random lasers, where the knowledge of short resonance width distribution determines the properties of lasing thresholds , as well as for various other applications like mesoscopic capacitors , microwave cavities  and chaotic optical cavities  where most of the theoretical treatment is limited by RMT. We point here that current developments of microwave experiments in random dielectric media in the diffusive regime  may allow us a direct comparison between theory and experiment. Finally we note that an analogous theoretical study for the distribution of wavefunction intensities of closed systems was put forward very early in the development of the mesoscopic physics  and recently their statistical properties have become clear .

In this paper, we study $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ and $`𝒫(\tau _W)`$ for $`2D`$ open systems in the diffusive regime. We will show that these distributions are determined by the diffusive classical dynamics of the corresponding closed system and depend on the time-reversal symmetry (TRS). Specifically, the resonance width distribution $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ is given by

$`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma }<\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl})`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{exp}(C_\beta (\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Gamma })^2),\mathrm{where}C_\beta \beta D`$
$`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl})`$ $``$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{D}{L^2}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }^{3/2}}}`$ (1)
where $`D`$ is the classical diffusion coefficient (which is proportional to the Thouless conductance for disordered $`2D`$ systems), $`L`$ is the linear size of the system, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}`$ is the classical decay rate  which is inversely proportional to the Thouless time $`L^2/D`$ and $`\beta `$ denotes the symmetry class \[$`\beta =1(2)`$ for preserved (broken) TRS\]. For the distribution of Wigner delay times we obtain

$`𝒫(\tau _W\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}^1)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\tau _W^{3/2}}}\mathrm{exp}(\sigma /\tau _W)`$
$`𝒫(\tau _W>\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}^1)`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{exp}(C_\beta (\mathrm{ln}\tau _W)^2)`$ (2)
where $`\sigma `$ is some constant of order unity. Our results (Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open $`2D`$ mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime,Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open $`2D`$ mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime) are applicable both for chaotic and disordered systems, provided that: (i) transport between scattering events may be treated semiclassically, (ii) a particle scatters many times while it traverses the system and (iii) strong localization effects can be neglected.

To numerically demonstrate the above predictions we use a model of the $`2D`$ Kicked Rotor (KR) with absorbing boundary conditions. The corresponding closed system is described by the time-dependent Hamiltonian

$`H=H_0+kV{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}\delta (tm),H_0(\{_i\})={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{2}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\rho _i}{2}}_i^2`$ (3)
$`V(\{\theta _i\})=\mathrm{cos}(\theta _1)\mathrm{cos}(\theta _2)\mathrm{cos}(\alpha )+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{sin}(2\theta _1)\mathrm{cos}(2\theta _2)\mathrm{sin}(\alpha )`$
where $`_i`$ denotes the angular momentum and $`\theta _i`$ the conjugate angle of one rotor. Here the kick period is one, $`k`$ is the kicking strength, while $`\rho _i`$ is a constant inversely proportional to the moment of inertia of the rotor. The parameter $`\alpha `$ breaks TRS. The motion generated by (3) is classically chaotic and for a sufficiently strong kicking strength $`k`$ there is diffusion in momentum space with diffusion coefficient $`Dlim_t\mathrm{}<^2(t)>/t\frac{k^2}{2}`$ .

Quantum mechanically, this system can be described by a finite-dimensional evolution operator for one period

$$U=e^{(iH_0(\{_i\})/2)}e^{(iV(\{\theta _i\}))}e^{(iH_0(\{_i\})/2)}$$
(4)
where we put $`\mathrm{}=1`$. The eigenvalues of $`U`$ are $`\lambda _n=e^{i\omega _n}`$ and lie on the unit circle; $`\omega _n`$ are known as quasi-energies and are dimensionless. The corresponding mean quasi-energy spacing is $`\mathrm{\Delta }=2\pi /L^2`$, where $`L`$ is the linear size of the system. A detailed presentation of our model can be found in , where the statistical properties of wavefunction intensities in the regime of interest were investigated and found to be in agreement with the theoretical predictions for mesoscopic diffusive samples . Therefore the $`2D`$ KR is a representative model both for $`2D`$ disordered and chaotic systems.

In this paper, we turn the closed $`2D`$ KR model into an open one. To this end we impose absorption at the boundary of a square sample of size $`L\times L`$ in the momentum space. In other words, every time that one of the components of the two dimensional momentum $`(_1,_2)`$ takes on the value $`1`$ or $`L`$, the particle is absorbed without coming back to the sample. Using a recently proposed recipe  we can write down the corresponding scattering matrix $`S`$ in the form

$$S(\omega )=WUe^{i\omega }\frac{1}{Ie^{i\omega }PU}W^{},P=IW^{}W$$
(5)
where $`I`$ is the $`L^2\times L^2`$ unit matrix and $`W`$ is a $`M\times L^2`$ matrix. It has only $`M`$ non-zero elements which are equal to one and describe at which ”site” of the $`L\times L`$ sample we attach $`M`$ ”leads” \[in our case $`M=4(L1)]`$. Here $`W^{}W`$ is a projection operator onto the boundary, while $`P`$ is the complementary projection operator. The scattering matrix $`S_{ij}`$ given by Eq. (5) can be interpreted in the following way: once a wave enters the sample, it undergoes multiple scattering induced by $`[Ie^{i\omega }PU]^1=_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}\left(e^{i\omega }PU\right)^n`$ until it is transmitted out. It is clear therefore that the matrix $`\stackrel{~}{U}=PU`$ propagates the wave inside the sample. However, contrary to the closed system in which the evolution operator is unitary, the absorption breaks the unitarity of the evolution matrix $`\stackrel{~}{U}`$ so that all eigenvalues $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ move inside the unit circle. Therefore each eigenvalue can be written in the form $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_n=e^{i\stackrel{~}{\omega }_n}=\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _n\mathrm{\Gamma }_n/2)`$ where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_n>0`$ is the dimensionless resonance width of an eigenstate.

The Wigner delay time can be expressed as the sum of proper delay times $`\tau _q`$. The latter are the eigenvalues of the Wigner-Smith operator written in our case as

$$Q(\omega )\frac{1}{i}S^{}\frac{dS}{d\omega }=e^{i\omega }WK^{}W^{}WKU^{}KW^{}$$
(6)
where $`K=\left(PU^{}e^{i\omega }\right)^1`$.

Below we present our theoretical considerations and compare them with the numerical data obtained for the $`2D`$ KR model. The parameters of the model were chosen in such a way that the conditions (i)-(iii) discussed above were fulfilled (see ). In order to improve our statistics, we randomized the phases of the kinetic term of the evolution operator (4) and used a number of different realizations. In all cases we had at least 60000 data for statistical processing.

Resonance widths distribution. We start our analysis with the study of resonance width distribution $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }<\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}`$. The small resonances $`\mathrm{\Gamma }<\mathrm{\Delta }`$ can be associated, with the existence of pre-localized states of the ”isolated” system. The latter states show strong localization features in contrast to the typical states in the diffusive regime and are considered as precursors of localization. They consist of a short-scale bump (where most of the norm is concentrated) and they decay rapidly in a power law from their center of localization . One then expects that states of this type with localization centers at the bulk of the sample are affected very weakly by the opening of the system at the boundaries. In first order perturbation theory, considering the opening as a small perturbation we obtain

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{2}=\mathrm{\Psi }|W^{}W|\mathrm{\Psi }=\underset{n\mathrm{boundary}}{}|\mathrm{\Psi }(n)|^2L|\mathrm{\Psi }(L)|^2$$
(7)
where $`|\mathrm{\Psi }(L)|^2`$ is the wavefunction intensity of a pre-localized state at the boundary. At the same time the distribution of $`\theta =1/\sqrt{L}\mathrm{\Psi }(L)`$ for large values of the argument is found to be of log-normal type i.e. $`𝒫(\theta )\mathrm{exp}\left(\pi ^2Dln^2(\theta ^2)\right)`$ . Using this together with Eq. ( 7) we get $`𝒫(1/\mathrm{\Gamma })\mathrm{exp}\left(\pi ^2Dln^2(1/\mathrm{\Gamma })\right)`$. We would like to stress that the expression for $`𝒫(\theta )`$, must be corrected by including the TRS factor $`\beta `$ in the exponent. This is due to the fact that the Optimal Fluctuation Method, which was used to derive the above expression for $`𝒫(\theta )`$, does not describe the effect of breaking TRS in a correct way . Taking all the above into account we end up with the expression given in Eq. (Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open $`2D`$ mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime).

The numerical data reported in Fig. 1 support the validity of the above considerations. However, we mention that the perturbative argument is valid only for the case of very small resonances i.e. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }<\mathrm{\Delta }`$, whereas our numerical data indicate that one can extend the log-normal behaviour of $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ up to resonances with $`\mathrm{\Delta }<\mathrm{\Gamma }<\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}`$.

Next we turn to the analysis of $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}`$. In this case, the resonances are overlapping, the corresponding eigenstates are strongly non-orthogonal and first-order perturbation theory breaks down . In Fig. 2a we report our numerical results for $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ with preserved (broken) TRS for two representative values of $`D`$. An inverse power law $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })\mathrm{\Gamma }^{1.5}`$ is evident in accordance with Eq. (Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open $`2D`$ mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime) . From Fig. 2a it is clear that this part of the distribution is independent of the symmetry class, in contrast to the small resonance distribution.

The following argument provides some understanding of the behaviour of $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}`$. First we need to recall that the inverse of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ represents the quantum lifetime of a particle in the corresponding resonant state escaping into the leads. Moreover we assume that the particles are uniformly distributed inside the sample and diffuse until they reach the boundaries, where they are absorbed. Then we can associate the corresponding lifetimes with the time $`t_R1/\mathrm{\Gamma }_RR^2/D`$ a particle needs to reach the boundaries, when starting distance $`R`$ away. This classical picture can be justified for all states with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}D/L^2`$. The relative number of states that require a time $`t<t_R`$ in order to reach the boundaries (or equivalently the number of states with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$) is

$$𝒫_{\mathrm{int}}(\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)=_{\mathrm{\Gamma }_R}^{\mathrm{}}𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })𝑑\mathrm{\Gamma }\frac{S(t_R)}{L^2}$$
(8)
where $`S(t_R)`$ is the area populated by all particles with lifetimes $`t<t_R`$. In the case of open boundaries we get

$$𝒫_{\mathrm{int}}(\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)\frac{L^2(L2R)^2}{L^2}\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_R}}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_R}.$$
(9)
For $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R>\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}`$ the first term in the above equation is the dominant one and thus Eq. (Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open $`2D`$ mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime) follows.

Here it is interesting to point that a different way of opening the system might lead to a different power law behaviour for $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$. Such a situation can be realized if instead of opening the system at the boundaries we introduce ”one-site” absorber (or one ”lead”) somewhere in the sample. In such a case we have

$$𝒫_{\mathrm{int}}(\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)\frac{S(t_R)}{L^2}=\frac{R^2}{L^2}=\frac{Dt_R}{L^2}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_R}.$$
(10)
The above result is valid for any number $`M`$ of ”leads” such that the ratio $`M/L^2`$ scales as $`1/L^2`$. In Fig. 2b we report $`𝒫_{\mathrm{int}}(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ for the case with nine ”leads” attached somewhere to the $`2D`$ sample.

A straightforward generalization of our arguments for 3D systems in the metallic regime gives $`𝒫_{\mathrm{int}}(\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\right)^{0.5}2\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\right)+(4/3)\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\right)^{1.5}`$ which for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R>\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}`$ leads to the same universal expression as in Eq. (Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open $`2D`$ mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime). Similarly, the analogue of Eq. (10) in 3D is $`𝒫_{\mathrm{int}}(\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\right)^{1.5}`$.

Wigner delay times distribution. Our theoretical understanding will be based on the following relation

$$\tau _W(\omega )=\underset{n=1}{\overset{L^2}{}}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_n}{(\omega \omega _n)^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_n^2/4}$$
(11)
which connects the Wigner delay time and the poles of the $`S`$matrix. Let us start with the far tails. It is evident that large times $`\tau _W(\omega )\mathrm{\Gamma }_n^1`$ correspond to the cases when $`\omega \omega _n`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_n1`$. Then for the distribution of delay times we obtain $`𝒫(\tau _W)𝑑\mathrm{\Gamma }𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })\mathrm{\Gamma }\delta (\tau _W1/\mathrm{\Gamma })`$. Using the small resonance width asymptotics given by Eq. (Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open $`2D`$ mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime) we get the log-normal law of Eq. (Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open $`2D`$ mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime).

Now we estimate the behaviour of $`𝒫(\tau _W)`$ for $`\tau _W\mathrm{\Gamma }_{cl}^1`$. In this regime many short-living resonances contribute to the sum (11). We may therefore consider $`\tau _W`$ as a sum of many independent positive random variables each of the type $`\tau _n=\mathrm{\Gamma }_nx_n`$, where $`x_n=\delta \omega _n^2`$. Assuming further that $`\delta \omega _n`$ are uniformly distributed random numbers we find that the distribution $`𝒫(x_n)`$ has the asymptotic power law behaviour $`1/x_n^{3/2}`$. As a next step we find that the distribution $`𝒫(\tau _n)`$ decays asymptotically as $`1/\tau _n^{3/2}`$ where we use that $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma }_n)1/\mathrm{\Gamma }_n^{3/2}`$. Then the corresponding $`𝒫(\tau _W)`$ is known to be a stable asymmetric Levy distribution $`L_{\mu ,1}(\tau _W)`$ of index $`\mu =1/2`$  which has the form given in Eq. (Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open $`2D`$ mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime) at the origin. We point out here that the asymptotic behaviour $`𝒫(\tau _W)1/\tau _W^{3/2}`$ emerges also for chaotic/ ballistic systems where the assumption of uniformly distributed $`\delta \omega _n`$ is the only crucial ingredient (see for example ).

Since $`\tau _W=_{i=1}^M\tau _q`$, we expect the behaviour of the distribution of proper delay times $`𝒫(\tau _q)`$ to be similar to $`𝒫(\tau _W)`$ for large values of the arguments (for $`\tau _W1`$ we have $`\tau _W\tau _q^{\mathrm{max}}`$). Moreover, from the numerical point of view $`𝒫(\tau _q)`$ can be studied in a better way because a larger set of data can be generated easily. Our numerical findings for $`𝒫(\tau _q)`$ are reported in Fig. 3 and are in nice agreement with Eq. (Fingerprints of classical diffusion in open $`2D`$ mesoscopic systems in the metallic regime), even for moderate values of $`\tau _q`$. We stress here that the dashed lines in Fig. 3, have slopes equal to $`C_\beta `$ taken from the corresponding log-normal tails of $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$.

We thank R. Fleischmann and Y. Fyodorov for many useful discussions and comments and C. Beenakker for pointing a misprint in Eq. (4). (T.K) thanks U. Smilansky for stimulating his interest in quantum scattering. This research was supported by a Grant from the GIF, the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development.


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# Untitled Document

A DIAGONAL REPRESENTATION OF QUANTUM DENSITY MATRIX USING q-BOSON OSCILLATOR COHERENT STATES

R.Parthasarathy and R.Sridhar111e-mail addresses: sarathy@imsc.ernet.in ; sridhar@imsc.ernet.in

The Institute of Mathematical Sciences

C.I.T. Campus, Tharamani, Chennai- 600113, INDIA

Abstract

A q-analogue of Sudarshan’s diagonal representation of the Quantum Mechanical density matrix is obtained using q-boson coherent states. Earlier result of Mehta and Sudarshan on the self reproducing property of $`\rho (z^{},z)`$ is also generalized and a self-consistent self-reproducing kernel $`\stackrel{~}{K}(z^{},z)`$ is constructed.

A diagonal representation of the quantum mechanical density matrix using standard bosonic oscillator coherent states has been given by Sudarshan . One of the remarkable features of this representation is that for any normal ordered operator, its ”average expectation value”, becomes the same as that of the classical function for a probability distribution over the complex plane. So, the classical complex representation and the quantum mechanical density matrices are in one-to-one correspondence.

The emergence of quantum groups in the study of inverse scattering  resulted in q-Boson  and q-Fermion  oscillators and many usual quantum mechanical descriptions find their appropriate q-analogues . It is possible that q-oscillators represent an effective way of dealing with non-ideal systems in which interactions are incorporated . It is not obvious at present, whether nature makes use of q-Bosons (or q-Fermions) as some kind of non-linear excitations of the electromagnetic (or electron) fields. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to examine the q-anologue of important quantum mechanical descriptions. It is the purpose here to find a q-anologue of the diagonal representation of the Quantum Mechanical density matrix. Although Nelson and Fields  have outlined a q-anologue of the diagonal representation of the density matrix, our results, while in agreement with them, offer further insight into the problem, such as the relationship between q-coherent state matrix elements and Fock space matrix elements, self-reproducing property and self reproducing kernel.

The q-Boson creation $`a^{}`$ and annihilation $`a`$ operators satisfy

$`aa^{}qa^{}a=1,`$ ; $`[N,a]=a,[N,a^{}]=a^{},`$ (1)
where $`N(a^{}a)`$ is the number operator. The q-Boson vacuum state $`0>`$ is an element of Fock Space $``$ and $`a0>=0;<00>=1`$. The $`n`$ q-Boson normalized state $`n>`$ is given by

$`n>={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{[n]!}}}(a^{})^n0>,`$ (2)
where $`\{|n>|n𝐍0\}`$ and the q-number $`[n]`$ is

$`[n]={\displaystyle \frac{1q^n}{1q}};0q1,`$ (3)
such that $`[n]n`$ as $`q1`$. The actions of $`a,a^{}`$ and $`N`$ on $`n>`$ are

$`an>`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{[n]}n1>,`$
$`a^{}n>`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{[n+1]}n+1>,Nn>=nn>.`$ (4)
and $`[n]!=[n][n1][n2]\mathrm{}.[1].`$ The q-Boson coherent state  is given by

$`z>`$ $`=`$ $`\left(e_q^{|z|^2}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{z^n}{\sqrt{[n]!}}}n>,`$ (5)
where

$`e_q^x`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{x^n}{[n]!}}.`$ (6)
In the above $`zC`$ and $`e_q^x`$ is the q-exponential function. Using (4) it readily follows that $`z>`$ is an eigen state of $`a`$ with $`z`$ as eigenvalue, i.e., $`az>=zz>`$. If $`z^{}>`$ is another such state, then

$`<zz^{}>`$ $`=`$ $`(e_q^{|z|^2}e_q^{|z^{}|^2})^{\frac{1}{2}}e_q(\overline{z}z^{})`$ (7)
showing such states are not orthogonal. Nevertheless, $`<zz>=1`$. Since $`zC`$ is continuous and $`<zz^{}>`$ is never vanishing, the states (5) satisfy the criteria of coherent states . Furthermore, the states (5) provide a resolution of unity, namely,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle d^2zz><z}`$ $`=`$ $`1.`$ (8)
Writing $`z=re^{i\theta }`$, $`0\theta 2\pi `$ , $`\theta `$ integration is ordinary Riemannian type while the $`r`$-integration will be ” q-integration” , it follows from (5) that

$`e_q^{r^2}re^{i\theta }><re^{i\theta }={\displaystyle \underset{n,m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}r^{m+n}e^{i(nm)\theta }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{[n]![m]!}}}n><m.`$ (9)
Multiplying this by $`e^{i\mathrm{}\theta }`$ and integrating over $`\theta `$, we find

$`{\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{d\theta }{2\pi }}e_q^{r^2}e^{i\mathrm{}\theta }re^{i\theta }<re^{i\theta }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n,m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{r^{m+n}}{\sqrt{[n]![m]!}}}`$ (10)
$`n><m\delta (\mathrm{}+nm).`$
Operating on (10) by the q-differential operator $`(\frac{d}{dr})_q`$ $`p`$-times, we find

$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}\right)_q^p{\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{d\theta }{2\pi }}e_q^{r^2}e^{i\mathrm{}\theta }\}re^{i\theta }><re^{i\theta }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n,m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{r^{m+np}}{\sqrt{[n]![m]!}}}{\displaystyle \frac{[m+n]!}{[m+np]!}}n><m`$ (11)
$`\delta (\mathrm{}+nm).`$
Now, if we evaluate this equation at $`r=0`$, it is easily seen that in the right hand side, the term with $`m+np=0`$ alone survives. Thus

$`\{\left({\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}\right)_{q}^{}{}_{}{}^{p}{\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{d\theta }{2\pi }}e_q^{r^2}e^{i\mathrm{}\theta }re^{i\theta }><re^{i\theta }\}_{r=0}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n,m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}[m+n]!`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{[m+np]!\sqrt{[n]![m]!}}}n><m\delta (\mathrm{}+nm)\delta (n+mp),`$
leading to the result

$`n><m`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{[n]![m]!}}{[n+m]!}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}\right)_{q}^{}{}_{}{}^{(n+m)}`$ (12)
$`{\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{d\theta }{2\pi }}e_q^{r^2}e^{i(mn)\theta }re^{i\theta }><re^{i\theta }_{r=0}.`$
This result will be used later. A density matrix, in terms of the states in $``$, has the fpllowing expansion:

$`\rho `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n,m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\rho (n,m)n><m.`$ (13)
Using (12) in (13),we have,

$`\rho `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n,m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\rho (n,m){\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{[n]![m]!}}{[n+m]!}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}\right)_{q}^{}{}_{}{}^{(n+m)}`$ (14)
$`{\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{d\theta }{2\pi }}e_q^{r^2}e^{i(mn)\theta }re^{i\theta }><re^{i\theta }_{r=0}.`$
which is the desired q-analogue of Sudarshan’s diagonal representation of the density matrix.

Expansion of $`\rho `$ in terms of the q-coherent states is

$`\rho `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2z\varphi (z)z><z}`$ (15)
where $`d^2z=dr^2d\theta `$, with $`dr^2`$ integration as q- integration. The complex function $`\varphi (z)`$ is such that $`d^2z\varphi (z)=1`$ due to $`Tr(\rho )=1`$. The expansion coefficients (13) and (15) are related by

$`\rho (n,m)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2z\varphi (z)\frac{z^n\overline{z}^m}{\sqrt{[n]![m]!}}\left(e_q|z|^2\right)^1}`$ (16)
which is the q-analogue of Eqn.(7) of Sudarshan . Performing the $`\theta `$ integration,

$`\rho (n,m)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^{R_{q}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}}\varphi (r^2)\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{r^{2n}}{[n]!}}e_{q}^{r^2}{}_{}{}^{1}\right\}\delta _{n,m},`$ (17)
consistent with $`Tr\rho =1`$.It is to be noted that the q-exponential function necessitates the upper limit as $`R_{q^2}=\frac{1}{(1q)}`$,the first zero of the q-exponential function . The expression in the curly bracket in (17) can be interpretted as the q-boson Poisson distribution.

As a first application of the q-coherent states, we consider the expansion of a bounded operator $`F`$ as a normal ordered power series in $`a`$ and $`a^{}`$, namely,

$`F`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{p,q}{}}C_{p,q}a_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{p}a^q,`$ (18)
with $`C_{p,q}`$ as expansion coefficients. Using $`az>=zz>`$, we have

$`{\displaystyle \frac{<z^{}Fz>}{<z^{}z>}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{p,q}{}}C_(p,q)\overline{z}^pz^q.`$ (19)
On the other hand, using (5),

$`{\displaystyle \frac{<z^{}Fz>}{<z^{}z>}}`$ $`=`$ $`e_{q}^{\overline{z^{}}z}{}_{}{}^{1}{\displaystyle \underset{n,m}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{<nFm>}{\sqrt{[n]![m]!}}}(\overline{z^{}}^n)z^m`$ (20)
From (19) and (20),we have

$`C_{p,q}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=0}{\overset{Min(p,q)}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^kq^{\frac{k(k1)1}{2}}}{[k]!sqrt[qk]![pk]!}}<pkFqk>.`$ (21)
$`C_{p,q}`$ in Eq(19) can be interpreted as the expansion coefficient of the operator $`F`$ in the q-coherent state space,while $`<nFm>`$, the corresponding coefficient in the Fock space and (21) relates them.

As a second application of the representation of $`\rho `$ interms of q-coherent states, we first consider the matrix element of $`\rho `$ between such states. Using (5),(8) and (13),we find

$`<z^{}\rho z>`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n,m}{}}\rho (m,n)\left\{e_q^{|z|^2}e_q^{|z^{}|^2}\right\}^{\frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{z^{}}^mz^n}{\sqrt{[m]![n]!}}}`$ (22)
Introduce a function $`\rho (z^{},z)`$ as

$`\rho (z^{},z)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m,n}{}}\rho (m,n){\displaystyle \frac{\overline{z^{}}^mz^n}{\sqrt{[m]![n]!}}}`$ (23)
so that using (22)

$`\rho (z^{},z)`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{e_q^{|z|^2}e_q^{|z^{}|^2}}<z^{}\rho z>.`$ (24)
The over completeness of the q-coherent states allows us to rewrite (24) as

$`\rho (z^{},z)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}{\displaystyle d^2\xi <z^{}\rho \xi ><\xi z>\left\{e_q^{|z|^2}e_q^{|z^{}|^2}\right\}^{\frac{1}{2}}}.`$ (25)
Substituting for $`<\xi z>`$ from (7), (25) can be expressed as

$`\rho (z^{},z)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2\xi K(z,\xi )\rho (z^{},\xi )},`$ (26)
where

$`K(z,\xi )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}\{e_q^{|\xi |^2}\}^1e_q^{\overline{\xi }z}.`$ (27)
Eq(26) attributes the remarkable ”self-reproducing property” for $`\rho (z^{},z)`$, with the kernal $`K(z,\xi )`$ in (27). Eqns (26) and (27) provide the q-analogue of eqns (3.25) and (3.26) of Mehta and Sudarshan.

From (27), it follows

$`{\displaystyle d^2\xi K(z,\xi )K(\xi ,z^{})}`$ $`=`$ $`K(z,z^{}),`$ (28)
exhibiting the matrix structure of the kernals. The theory of reproducing kernals has been investigated by Aronszajan, according to which the hermitian nature of $`\rho `$ demands the kernal $`K(z,\xi )`$ to satisfy

$`K(z,\xi )^{}`$ $`=`$ $`K(\xi ,z).`$ (29)
The above kernal (27), as well as the kernal (3.26) of Mehta and Sudarshan do not satisfy (29). This can be redressed by finding a suitable reproducing kernal. Instead of eq(23) for $`\rho (z^{},z)`$,we set

$`\stackrel{~}{\rho }(z^{},z)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m,n}{}}\rho (m,n){\displaystyle \frac{\overline{z^{}}^mz^n}{\sqrt{[m]![n]!}}}\{e_q^{|z|^2}e_q^{|z^{}|^2}\}^{\frac{1}{2}},`$ (30)
which differs from (23) only by the q-exponentials. As these involve $`|z|^2and|z^{}|^2`$ ,the analyticity of $`\rho (z^{},z)`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\rho }(z^{},z)`$ are the same. With this definition,it follows that

$`\stackrel{~}{\rho }(z^{},z)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2\xi \stackrel{~}{K}(\xi ,z)\stackrel{~}{\rho }(z^{},\xi )},`$ (31)
with

$`\stackrel{~}{K}(\xi ,z)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}\{e_q^{|\xi |^2}e_q^{|z|^2}\}^{\frac{1}{2}}e_q^{\overline{\xi }z}.`$ (32)
This reproducing kernal has the desired reproducing property and satisfies eq(29), namely the hermiticity requirement. Furthermore, it is seen that

$`\stackrel{~}{K}(z,z)0,`$ (33)
and $`\stackrel{~}{K}(z,z)`$ is an entire function.

To summarize, we have constructed an explicit diagonal representation of the quantum mechanical density matrix using q-deformed boson coherent states. By expanding the density matrix in terms of q-boson coherent states ($`C^{\mathrm{}}`$) and then in terms of q-boson Fock space states ($``$), the two expansion coefficients are shown to be related. The matrix element of $`\rho `$ between q-boson coherent states facilitated the introduction of $`\rho (z^{},z)`$ (23) which has the remarkable self-reproducing property (26) with respect to a kernel $`K(z^{},z)`$ in (27). This acquires significance due to the non-orthogonality of the q-boson coherent states (7). This provides a q-generalization of the earlier result of Mehta and Sudarshan . A slightly modified reproducing kernel is introduced which satisfies all the required mathematical properties of a self-reproducing kernel for density matrix which is hermitian.

References

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Jimbo,M.: A q-difference analogue of $`U(g)`$ and the Yang-Baxter equation, Lett.Math.Phys. 10 (1985) 63-69.
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Biedenharn, L.C.: The quantum group $`SU_q(2)`$ and a q-analogue of the boson operators, J.Phys.A: Math.Gen. 22 (1989) L873-L878.
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Chaturvedi,S, Jagannathan,R, Srinivasan,V and Sridhar,R.: Non-relativistic quantum mechanics in a non-commutative space, J.Phys.A: Math.Gen. 26 (1993) L105-L112.
6. Esteve,J.G, Tejel,C and Villarroya,B.E.: $`SU_q(2)`$ quantum group analysis of rotational spectra of diatomic molecules, J.Chem.Phys. 96 (1992) 5614 - 5617;
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text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

One of the most interesting questions in theoretical high energy physics concerns the lessons that a quantum theory of gravity might teach us about the origin of the universe. It is thus natural to study time dependence in the framework of string theory. Lately, there has been certain amount of work in this direction. One can consider orbifolds and discrete quotients of Minkowski spacetime acting non-trivially on time . Out of the different possibilities, there is a single basic one preserving one half of the spacetime supersymmetries, the null (parabolic) orbifold  acting on $`\text{}^{1,2}`$. This is a singular spacetime : it has fixed points, it is non-Hausdorff and it has closed lightlike curves. These features are resolved by the null-brane  which is obtained by adding a shift, transverse to $`\text{}^{1,2}`$, to the discrete quotient action. The stability of these configurations  and the validity of perturbative techniques have also been partially discussed . Another possibility is that of coset models having a cosmological spacetime interpretation and allowing a conformal field theory description on the worldsheet . There are other approaches, such as considering certain double Wick rotations of previously known configurations , S-branes  and Sen’s proposal  that dynamical rolling of the tachyon of open string field theory can lead to interesting cosmologies.

In this work, we shall be concerned with the first mentioned approach. The analysis made so far seems to indicate that the null-brane background is stable to black hole formation when probed by particles for large shifts and when the number of non-compact dimensions is big enough $`(D>5)`$ . However, our understanding of string dynamics in these backgrounds is still poor, specially concerning the winding sector. It is instructive to consider the open string sector by adding D-branes, expecting to get some insight from their low energy gauge theory description at weak coupling.

Our main goal will be to start exploring a possible non-perturbative string cosmology scenario by analysing the null-brane background in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence . It is thus necessary to know which M/D-branes exist in this vacuum, the amount of supersymmetry they preserve and their low energy closed string description in terms of classical supergravity configurations. Most of these steps have been answered in , or consist of generalisations of the techniques developed there. We shall primarily be concerned with branes in which the discrete quotient takes place along their worldvolumes. Even though the dynamics of string theory in these time dependent backgrounds is not understood, it is natural to study the near horizon geometry of the corresponding M2/M5/D3 configurations. The null-brane carries an intrinsic scale, that we shall denote by $`R`$, which gives the size of the neck of spacetime when moving from its contracting phase to its expanding one. It is natural to keep it fixed when taking the near horizon limit, which for D3-branes will be

$$\alpha ^{}0,\text{u}=\frac{\text{r}}{\alpha ^{}},\text{g}_s,\text{R}\text{fixed}.$$

The resulting geometry gives rise to a cosmological model in the Poincaré patch of $`\mathrm{AdS}_5`$. The latter has a similar geometrical interpretation to the one in flat spacetime, but D3-branes, or more generally, any M/D-brane that allows such a construction gives rise to horizons at u=0. There are two main roads that one can follow to understand the meaning of these horizons :

* Extend the cosmological model by crossing the horizon. This leads naturally to the analysis of orbifolds and discrete quotients of global AdS spaces.
* Since there is a compact dimension along the brane, whenever its effective radius probes distances smaller than the string scale, one is allowed to apply T-duality and use its T-dual description to understand the original horizon.

The first approach leads naturally to consider the analysis of null orbifolds in AdS spaces 111There have been previous works on orbifolds and discrete quotients of AdS spaces in the context of AdS/CFT, see .. This is because Lorentz transformations in the Poincaré patch are mapped into Lorentz transformations in $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$, the space in which we embed global $`\mathrm{AdS}_p`$. On the other hand, translations in the first turned out to be null rotations (boost + rotation) in $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$, involving the “second” time. To study the geometry, structure of singularities and conformal boundary of these discrete quotients, the embedding of $`\mathrm{AdS}_p`$ in $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$ turns out to be very useful. As expected, the null orbifold of AdS spaces has fixed points and it is a non-Hausdorff space, as it happened in the flat spacetime orbifold. Somewhat more surprisingly, the analogue of the null-brane discrete quotient in global $`\mathrm{AdS}_p`$ spaces $`(p5)`$ has no fixed points, but its conformal boundary is singular. It has fixed points, it is non-Hausdorff and it has closed lightlike curves. It can be shown that this singular conformal boundary is equivalent to the conformal compactification of the null-brane manifold. These statements may lead us to conclude that if there is any field theory dual to such cosmological scenarios in AdS, living on its boundary, its base space must be a singular manifold.

The second approach is much more appealing. Borrowing some intuition from the AdS/CFT correspondence, the cosmological model on the Poincaré patch of $`\mathrm{AdS}_5`$ should be dual to a four dimensional Super Yang-Mills (SYM) gauge theory in the null-brane background. Thus, a priori, this scenario has some perturbative description on the worldsheet, by extending the formalism developed in  for the null orbifold to the open string sector of the null-brane discrete quotient. It has a known low energy effective supergravity description and a dual gauge theory. Furthermore, T-duality can be studied both on the worldsheet and on supergravity. All in all, these might be the necessary ingredients to provide a non-perturbative definition of string cosmology. We shall comment on the first steps to fulfill this programme.

The organisation of the paper is as follows. In section 2, we explain the main tools necessary to describe null orbifolds in AdSp spaces, $``$ $`p3`$. As an aside remark, we briefly comment on the embedding of the BTZ black holes  in higher dimensional AdS spaces. In section 3, we embed the previous discussion in string/M-theory, by extending our analysis to include the q-forms relevant to $`AdS_4\times S^7`$, $`AdS_7\times S^4`$ and $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ spacetimes and by discussing supersymmetry considerations. In section 4, we comment on the corresponding orbifold construction in brane configurations and their near horizon limits. In particular, we analyse the mapping of symmetries between the Poincaré patch and global AdS. In section 5, we discuss the analogue of the null-brane discrete quotient in AdSp spaces $`(p5)`$ and discuss the singularities of their conformal boundary. In section 6, we comment on the gauge theory dual to the cosmological models in the Poincaré patches, some T-duality properties of our bulk configurations and on what we are still missing to fulfill this programme. Some explicit computations to prove the amount of supersymmetry preserved by the discrete quotients discussed in the body of the paper are performed in an appendix.

Note added. While working on this project, we received  which discusses similar cosmological scenarios and their holographic duals in terms of time-dependent non-commutative field theories. Notice that in their scenario, the shift that gives rise to the null-brane is transverse to the brane (D2-brane in the forementioned reference), and so it describes a physically inequivalent model to the ones considered in this work.

## 2 Null orbifolds in AdS spaces

The p-dimensional anti-de Sitter space $`(AdS_p)`$ is a maximally symmetric space of constant negative curvature. It can be represented as the hyperboloid

$`\text{AdS}_p`$ $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$ (1)
$`u^2v^2+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{p1}{}}}(x^i)^2=(\text{R}_{\text{AdS}})^2,`$
in the flat (p+1)-dimensional space $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$. By construction, the space has the isometry group $`\mathrm{O}(2,p1)`$ 222When embedding these spaces in string theory, the presence of fluxes will restrict this isometry group to $`\mathrm{SO}(2,p1)`$..

Equation (1) can be solved by setting

$`u`$ $`=\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}\mathrm{cosh}\rho \mathrm{cos}\tau ,v=\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}\mathrm{cosh}\rho \mathrm{sin}\tau `$ (2)
$`x^i`$ $`=\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}\mathrm{sinh}\rho \mathrm{\Omega }^i(i=1,\mathrm{},p1;{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}(\mathrm{\Omega }^i)^2=1),`$
where $`\{\mathrm{\Omega }^i\}`$ parametrise a unit (p-2)-sphere. The induced metric on the hyperboloid turns out to be

$$g_{AdS_p}=(\text{R}_{\text{AdS}})^2\left[(\mathrm{cosh}\rho )^2(d\tau )^2+(d\rho )^2+(\mathrm{sinh}\rho )^2g_{S^{p2}}\right]$$
(3)
where $`g_{S^{p2}}`$ stands for the metric on a unit $`\text{S}^{p2}`$ sphere. As usual in the physics literature, we shall refer to $`\text{AdS}_p`$ to the universal covering space of the above hyperboloid (1) in which the global timelike coordinate $`\tau `$ has been unwrapped (i.e. take $`\mathrm{}<\tau <\mathrm{}`$).

Any Killing vector $`\xi `$ defines a one parameter subgroup of isometries whose action in $`\text{AdS}_p`$ is given by

$$\text{P}e^{t\xi }\text{P}\text{P}\text{AdS}_p$$
(4)
In this section, we shall be concerned with the subgroup generated by 333The existence of such a generator requires us to work with $`\text{AdS}_p`$ $`p3`$.

$$\xi ^\pm =\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left[u_x+x_u\pm \left(y_xx_y\right)\right]=x^\pm _x+x_{},$$
(5)
where $`x^\pm =(u\pm y)/\sqrt{2}`$. Notice that $`\xi ^\pm `$ is the linear combination of a boost in the ux-plane and a rotation in the yx-plane. The quotient manifold $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^\pm `$ is obtained by identifying points under the action (4) whenever $`t`$ is an integer multiple of a basic discrete step.

In the following, we shall discuss the geometry of these quotient manifolds both for global $`AdS_p`$, and for particular patches of it, the second option giving rise to the embedding of the BTZ black hole  in higher dimensional $`AdS_p`$ spaces $`(p4)`$.

### 2.1 Global AdS

The embedding $`AdS_p\text{}^{2,p1}`$ provides us with the most natural way to study the null orbifold $`AdS_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$. Introduce coordinates $`\{x^+,x^{},x\}`$ on $`\text{}^{1,2}\text{}^{2,p1}`$ $`(p3)`$, being defined as above and assembled them into a column vector $`X`$. The generator $`g_0`$ of the orbifold acts as

$$X=\left(\begin{array}{c}x^+\\ x\\ x^{}\end{array}\right)g_oX=e^{t𝒥}X=\left(\begin{array}{c}x^+\\ x+tx^+\\ x^{}+tx+\frac{1}{2}t^2x^+\end{array}\right);𝒥=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& 0\\ 1& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(6)
The above definition coincides with $`\text{}^{1,2}/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$, but it certainly applies to $`AdS_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ since the action of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ leaves (1) invariant. Following the discussion in , the action of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ on the embedding space $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$ has a subset of fixed points located at $`x^+=x=0`$. Furthermore, $`\text{}^{2,p1}/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ is a non-Hausdorff space, as can be seen by inspection of the $`x^+=0`$ subspace. To learn about $`AdS_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$, one evaluates (1) in these singular subspaces. Denoting $`x^{p2}=x`$ and $`x^{p1}=y`$, the set of fixed points in $`AdS_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ is described by

$$v_\pm =\pm \sqrt{(\text{R}_{\text{AdS}})^2+\underset{i=1}{\overset{p3}{}}(x^i)^2},$$

consisting of two disconnected branches, whereas the loci where $`\xi ^+^2=(x^+)^2=0`$ is given by

$$v_\pm =\pm \sqrt{(\text{R}_{\text{AdS}})^2+\underset{i=1}{\overset{p3}{}}(x^i)^2+(x)^2}.$$

The fact that $`\{x^+=0\}\text{AdS}_p`$ $`\text{x}`$ allows us to conclude that $`AdS_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ is also a non-Hausdorff space.

Working in global coordinates (2) and picking $`\mathrm{\Omega }^x=\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^y=\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{cos}\psi `$ $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}\theta ,\psi <\pi `$ , for concreteness, we can describe the set of fixed points by

$`\rho =0`$ $`,\tau ={\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}+\pi \text{n}\text{n}\text{}\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\text{S}^{p2}`$ (7)
$`\theta ={\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}`$ $`,\mathrm{cos}\tau =\mathrm{tanh}\rho \mathrm{cos}\psi \stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\text{S}_{\mathrm{sin}\psi }^{p4}`$
where $`\text{S}_{\mathrm{sin}\psi }^{p4}`$ stands for a (p-4)-sphere of radius $`\mathrm{sin}\psi `$.

It is particularly interesting to study the action of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ on the conformal boundary of $`\text{AdS}_p`$. It is well-known that $`\text{AdS}_p`$ can be conformally mapped to one half of the Einstein static universe. This can be seen by introducing a new coordinate $`\phi `$ related to $`\rho `$ by

$$\mathrm{tan}\phi =\mathrm{sinh}\rho (0\phi <\frac{\pi }{2}).$$

The $`\text{AdS}_p`$ metric is conformal to

$$g_{E(p)}=(d\tau )^2+(d\phi )^2+(\mathrm{sin}\phi )^2g_{S^{p2}}.$$
(8)
It is now manifest that the spacelike hypersurfaces of constant $`\tau `$ are (p-1)-hemispheres, whose equator $`(\phi =\pi /2)`$ is a boundary with topology $`\text{S}^{p2}`$. The boundary of the full $`\text{AdS}_p`$ spacetime is thus $`\text{}\times \text{S}^{p2}`$, and located at $`\phi =\pi /2`$ $`(\rho \mathrm{})`$.

Moving to $`\mathrm{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$, one can derive the set of fixed points on the boundary by evaluating (7) at $`\rho \mathrm{}`$, giving rise to :

$$\theta =\frac{\pi }{2},\tau =\pi \pm \psi (\text{mod}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\pi )\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\text{S}_{\mathrm{sin}\psi }^{p4}$$

Using similar arguments as before, one concludes that the boundary is non-Hausdorff due to the specific features of the hypersurface

$$\mathrm{cos}\tau =\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{cos}\psi .$$

The above analysis suggests that if there is any field theory dual living on the boundary, it must be defined on a singular base space $``$, which we shall later identify with the conformal compactification of the null-brane manifold. Before discussing this point, we shall first find a useful local description for the orbifold $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$. Inspired by the embedding $`AdS_p\text{}^{2,p1}`$, it is natural to introduce a local adapted coordinate system $`\{z^+,z,z^{}\}`$

$`x^+`$ $`=z^+`$ (9)
$`x`$ $`=zz^+`$
$`x^{}`$ $`=z^{}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}z^+z^2`$
in which $`\xi ^+=_z`$, so that the identifications become shifts in the $`z`$ variable

$$(z^+,z,z^{})(z^+,z+2\pi ,z^{})$$
(10)
in some convenient normalization. It is important to keep in mind that the coordinate system $`\{z^+,z,z^{}\}`$ defined in (9) breaks down at $`z^+=0`$. Rewriting (1) in terms of $`\{z^+,z,z^{}\}`$

$$2z^+z^{}v^2+\underset{i=1}{\overset{p3}{}}(x^i)^2=(\text{R}_{\text{AdS}})^2,$$
(11)
one discovers that it is independent of the compact variable $`z`$. One thus learns that for $`z^+0`$, the metric for the null orbifold $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ is that of

$$g_{AdS_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+}=g_{AdS_{p1}}+(z^+)^2(dz)^2,$$
(12)
that is, some $`S^1`$ fibration over $`AdS_{p1}`$. Notice that $`\text{AdS}_{p1}`$ has the same radius $`\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}`$ as the original $`\text{AdS}_p`$ and that the effective radius $`(z^+)`$ of the compact direction (z) belongs to $`\text{AdS}_{p1}`$, for $`z^+0`$. The time dependence of the solution becomes manifest when one expresses $`z^+`$ in terms of the global parametrisation (2) of $`\mathrm{AdS}_{p1}`$.

Following the discussion on the conformal boundary for $`\text{AdS}_p`$, it is straightforward to determine the conformal boundary for $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$. Using the global parametrization for $`\text{AdS}_{p1}`$ appearing in (12), this metric is conformal to

$$g=g_{E(p1)}+\frac{1}{2}\left(\mathrm{cos}\tau +\mathrm{sin}\stackrel{~}{\phi }\mathrm{\Omega }^y\right)^2(dz)^2,$$
(13)
where the non-compact coordinate $`\rho `$ in $`\text{AdS}_{p1}`$ was related to $`\stackrel{~}{\phi }`$ through $`\mathrm{tan}\stackrel{~}{\phi }=\mathrm{sinh}\rho `$. Once more, the conformal boundary is at $`\stackrel{~}{\phi }=\pi /2`$, since $`S^1`$ does not have one. Notice that $`\mathrm{\Omega }^y`$ is just indicating the direction in which the null rotation identification was done. Thus the metric on the conformal boundary is given by

$$g_{\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+}=(d\tau )^2+g_{S^{p3}}+\frac{1}{2}\left(\mathrm{cos}\tau +\mathrm{\Omega }^y\right)^2(dz)^2.$$
(14)
We would finally like to prove that the conformal boundary of $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ is equivalent to the conformal compactification of $`\text{}^{1,p2}/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$. First of all, we introduce adapted coordinates for $`\text{}^{1,2}\text{}^{1,p2}`$ where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ acts non-trivially, just as in (9). By standard manipulations for studying the conformal infinity in flat Minkowski spacetime, the metric on $`\text{}^{1,p2}/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ is conformal to

$$g=(d\tau ^{})^2+(d\theta )^2+(\mathrm{sin}\theta )^2g_{S^{p4}}+\frac{1}{2}\left(\mathrm{sin}\tau ^{}+\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{\Omega }^{\stackrel{~}{y}}\right)^2(dz)^2.$$
(15)
Of course, the above description also breaks down when $`\stackrel{~}{y}^+=0`$. It is though manifest that both (14) and (15) are equivalent if $`\mathrm{\Omega }^y=\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{\Omega }^{\stackrel{~}{y}}`$ and $`\tau ^{}=\tau +\pi /2`$, that is, if the directions of the corresponding null rotations are conveniently identified. Strictly speaking, the above explicit computation shows that the conformal boundary for $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ in the adapted coordinate system $`\{z^\pm ,z\}`$ is equal to the conformal compactification of $`\text{}^{1,p2}/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ in the adapted coordinates $`\{\stackrel{~}{y}^\pm ,z\}`$. On the other hand, even though both sets of coordinates break down in different sets of points, both sets actually coincide when restricting them to the confomal boundary and compactification, respectively. This allows us to state that the conformal boundary of $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ is equal to the conformal compactification of $`\text{}^{1,p2}/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$.

Notice that concentrating on the hypersurface defined by the fixed values $`\rho =\rho _0`$, $`\theta =\theta _0`$ and zooming the region close to the singularity $`\tau _0`$, by expanding $`\tau =\tau _0+\delta \tau `$, $`\delta \tau 1`$, one recovers the double cone scenario advocated in

$$g_{AdS_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }}\frac{R^2}{(\mathrm{cos}\stackrel{~}{\theta })^2}\left\{(d\delta \tau )^2+(\mathrm{sin}\stackrel{~}{\theta }_0)^2(\mathrm{sin}\theta _0)^2g_{S^{p4}}+\frac{1}{2}(\mathrm{sin}\tau _0)^2(\delta \tau )^2(d\stackrel{~}{y})^2\right\}.$$
(16)
### 2.2 BTZ black holes

The extremal 2+1 BTZ black hole  can be understood as the quotient of a subset of $`AdS_3`$ by the discrete action generated by $`\xi ^+`$. See  for a more detailed discussion. What we would like to address here concerns the embedding of such a construction in higher dimensional $`AdS_p`$ $`(p4)`$ spaces. To do so, we set

$$u^2v^2+x^2+y^2=\rho ^2,$$

and inserting it back into (1), we learn $`\rho [R,\mathrm{})`$. It is thus natural to introduce global coordinates

$`\rho `$ $`=R\mathrm{cosh}\mu `$ (17)
$`x^i`$ $`=R\mathrm{sinh}\mu \widehat{x}^i`$
where $`\widehat{x}^i`$ parametrise a (p-4)-sphere. Notice that the range of the coordinate $`\mu `$ introduced in (17), depends on the dimension of the full $`AdS_p`$ space under consideration. In particular,

$`p=4`$ $`\mathrm{}<\mu <\mathrm{}`$ (18)
$`p>4`$ $`0\mu <\mathrm{}.`$
On the other hand, we shall parametrise the $`\{u,v,x,y\}`$ in terms of Poincaré coordinates, which now will depend on the point $`\mu `$

$$y+u=\frac{R\mathrm{cosh}\mu }{z},x=\frac{R\mathrm{cosh}\mu }{z}\beta v=\frac{R\mathrm{cosh}\mu }{z}\gamma .$$
(19)
It is precisely when one restricts to a single patch of $`AdS_3`$ with a definite sign of the z coordinate ($`z>0`$, for instance), that by modding out the corresponding spacetime by the discrete action generated by $`\xi ^+`$ one expects to embed the BTZ black hole in $`AdS_p`$. This is explicitly checked by rewriting the induced metric on (1) in the coordinate system defined in (17) and (19). The result is given by

$$g_{AdS_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }}=R^2\left\{(\mathrm{cosh}\mu )^2g_{\text{BTZ}}+(d\mu )^2+(\mathrm{sinh}\mu )^2g_{S^{p4}}\right\},$$
(20)
where $`g_{\text{BTZ}}`$ stands for the 2+1 massless extremal BTZ black hole metric,

$$g_{\text{BTZ}}=r^2(dt)^2+\frac{(dr)^2}{r^2}+r^2(d\varphi )^2$$
(21)
which was written in the standard coordinates $`t=\gamma `$, $`\varphi =\beta `$ and $`r=z^1`$, all of them being dimensionless. On the other hand, $`g_{S^{p4}}`$ stands for the metric on a unit sphere of dimension $`p4`$.

It is worthwhile pointing out that the above embedding of the extremal BTZ black hole in $`AdS_p`$ $`(p4)`$, can be straightforwardly generalised to the non–extremal ones. If instead of considering the action generated by $`\xi ^+`$, one would have considered the action generated by any of the Killing vectors spanning $`\mathrm{SO}(2,2)`$ giving rise to non-extremal BTZ black holes (see ), then one would have parametrised $`\{u^i\}=\{u,v,x,y\}`$ by

$$u^i=R\mathrm{cosh}\mu \widehat{u}^i,\widehat{u}^2\widehat{v}^2+\widehat{x}^2+\widehat{y}^2=1.$$

The choice of $`\{\widehat{u}^i\}`$ is directly related with the choice of discrete quotient (or Killing vector). The discussion on the remaining coordinates $`\{x^i\}`$ is as before. All in all, one derives the metric involving a non-extremal BTZ black hole $`(\stackrel{~}{g}_{BTZ})`$ embedded in $`AdS_p`$ for $`p4`$ :

$$g_{AdS_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }}=R^2\left\{(\mathrm{cosh}\mu )^2\stackrel{~}{g}_{\text{BTZ}}+(d\mu )^2+(\mathrm{sinh}\mu )^2g_{S^{p4}}\right\}.$$
(22)
## 3 Embedding in String/M-theory

Even though there are many known examples for embeddings of AdS spaces of different dimensions in string theory, we shall concentrate on the maximally supersymmetric ones. These are of the form $`\text{AdS}_{p+2}\times \text{S}^{Dp2}`$ and can be thought of near horizon geometries of the M2-, M5- and D3-brane configurations. The values of $`p`$ and $`D`$ are listed in Table 1 along with the ratio $`\iota =\text{R}_{\text{AdS}_{p+2}}/\text{R}_{\text{S}^{Dp2}}`$ of the radii of curvature of the two factors.

The metric on the direct product $`\text{AdS}_{p+2}\times \text{S}^{Dp2}`$ is

$$g=g_{\text{AdS}_{p+2}}+(\text{R}_\text{S})^2g_{\text{S}^{Dp2}}.$$

These configurations do also carry fluxes. Using the same conventions as in , these are summarised below :

$`\text{AdS}_4\times \text{S}^7:F_4`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{3}{\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}}\mathrm{dvol}\left(\text{AdS}_4\right)`$ (23)
$`\text{AdS}_5\times \text{S}^5:F_5`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}}\left(\mathrm{dvol}\left(\text{AdS}_5\right)+\mathrm{dvol}\left(\text{S}^5\right)\right)`$
$`\text{AdS}_7\times \text{S}^4:F_4`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{6}{\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}}\mathrm{dvol}\left(\text{S}^4\right).`$
It is straightforward to extend our previous analysis to these supersymmetric vacua. By construction, the action of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ is restricted to the $`\text{AdS}_{p+2}`$ part of the direct product, giving rise to $`\left(\text{AdS}_{p+2}/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+\right)\times \text{S}^{Dp2}`$. Therefore, in the local adapted coordinate system (9)

$$g_{\left(\text{AdS}_{p+2}/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+\right)\times \text{S}^{Dp2}}=g_{\text{AdS}_{p+1}}+(z^+)^2(dz)^2+(\text{R}_\text{S})^2g_{\text{S}^{Dp2}}.$$
(24)
Concerning the field strengths (23), due to its geometrical content, it is easy to work out their local expressions as

$`\left(\text{AdS}_4\right)/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+\times \text{S}^7:F_4`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{3}{\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}}z^+\mathrm{dvol}\left(\text{AdS}_3\right)dz`$ (25)
$`\left(\text{AdS}_5\right)/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+\times \text{S}^5:F_5`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}}z^+\left(\mathrm{dvol}\left(\text{AdS}_4\right)dz+\mathrm{dvol}\left(\text{S}^5\right)\right),`$
whereas $`F_4`$ is left unmodified for $`\text{AdS}_7\times \text{S}^4`$. Remember that these expressions break down at $`z^+=0`$ and notice that their fluxes over $`\text{S}^{Dp2}`$ are unchanged.

Whenever one considers an orbifold of any supersymmetric vacua, there is an issue concerning the amount of supersymmetry preserved. Just as there is a known correspondence among parallel spinors in $`\text{}^{n+1}`$ and Killing spinors in the n-sphere $`\left(\text{S}^n\text{}^{n+1}\right)`$ embedded in it , one can prove that there is an analogous correspondence between parallel spinors in $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$ and Killing spinors on $`\text{AdS}_p\text{}^{2,p1}`$ 444This correspondence was found in collaboration with J.M. Figueroa-O’Farrill and will be discussed in .. In this way, since the null orbifold breaks half of the supersymmetries in $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$, we learn the corresponding orbifolds of the maximally supersymmetric AdS spaces preserve one half of the original supersymmetries. In any case, we give an explicit proof of this fact in the appendix.

## 4 Null orbifolds in branes

When dealing with null orbifolds in flat spacetime, their singularities are naturally smoothed by modifying the action by which one quotients the original manifold. In other words, one considers a different Killing vector from the one given in (5). This gives rise to the null-brane discrete quotient  which is associated with the Killing vector

$$\xi =R_z+\xi ^\pm ,$$

$`z`$ being some spacelike direction orthogonal to the three dimensional lorentzian space where $`\xi ^\pm `$ acts.

As emphasized in  and extensively discussed in , a sufficient condition for a brane-like configuration to exist in such string vacuum (null-brane) is to have an $`\mathrm{ISO}(1,3)`$ isometry subgroup. This is the case in which we are going to concentrate, and so it will not apply for M2-branes. The structure of singularities is analogous to the one in flat spacetime, since the branes under consideration are flat. The main difference though, is the existence of horizons associated with brane throats.

We shall concentrate on D3-branes, even though a similar discussion would apply for M5-branes. Following , the classical supergravity configuration describing D3-branes in a null-brane vacuum has a ten dimensional metric

$$\begin{array}{c}g=V^{1/2}\{2dy^+dy^{}+dy^2+(1+\left(\frac{y^+}{R}\right)^2)dz^2\hfill \\ \hfill +2dz(\frac{y^+}{R}dy\frac{y}{R}dy^+)\}+V^{1/2}(dr^2+r^2g_{S^5}),\end{array}$$
(26)
with constant dilaton and the corresponding self-dual five form flux. The function $`V=V(r)`$ is the usual harmonic function

$$V(r)=1+\frac{Q^4}{r^4},Q^4=2\pi ^{3/2}\text{g}_{\text{YM}}^2\text{N}(\alpha ^{})^2.$$

Taking the near horizon limit

$$\alpha ^{}0,\text{u}=\frac{\text{r}}{\alpha ^{}},\text{g}_s,\text{R}\text{fixed},$$

one is left with the cosmological model

$$\begin{array}{c}g=\alpha ^{}\{\frac{\text{u}^2}{\sqrt{\lambda }}(2dy^+dy^{}+dy^2+(1+\left(\frac{y^+}{R}\right)^2)dz^2\hfill \\ \hfill +2dz(\frac{y^+}{R}dy\frac{y}{R}dy^+))+\frac{\sqrt{\lambda }}{\text{u}^2}d\text{u}^2+\sqrt{\lambda }g_{S^5}\},\end{array}$$
(27)
where $`\lambda =2\pi ^{3/2}\text{g}_{\text{YM}}^2\text{N}`$ and the corresponding self-dual five form fluxes. The above spacetime just covers the Poincaré patch $`(0<\text{u}<\mathrm{})`$. It is manifest that the effective radius of the compact dimension $`z`$ vanishes on the horizon $`(\text{u}=0)`$. At this stage, one may decide to maximally extend the above discrete quotient to global AdS, by crossing the horizon, or whenever such an effective radius becomes smaller than the string scale, one may apply T-duality. This second possibility will be postponed to the last section.

In order to carry on the first possibility, we need to identify how the generator of the discrete quotient in the Poincaré patch $`(\xi =R_z+\xi ^\pm )`$ acts in global AdS. We shall do this for $`\mathrm{AdS}_{p+2}`$. Let us remind the relation among the coordinates parametrising the Poincaré patch $`(y^\mu ,u)`$ and the ones describing the embedding $`\text{AdS}_{p+2}\text{}^{2,p+1}`$ (1) :

$`X^\mu `$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{u}{R_{\text{AdS}}}}x^\mu (\mu =0,1,\mathrm{},p1)`$ (28)
$`X^{p+1}`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{R_{\text{AdS}}^2}{2u}}\left[1+{\displaystyle \frac{u^2}{R_{\text{AdS}}^2}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\eta _{\mu \nu }y^\mu y^\nu }{R_{\text{AdS}}^2}}\right)\right]`$
$`X^p`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{R_{\text{AdS}}^2}{2u}}\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{u^2}{R_{\text{AdS}}^2}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{\eta _{\mu \nu }y^\mu y^\nu }{R_{\text{AdS}}^2}}\right)\right],`$
where we identified $`X^{p+1}=u`$ and $`X^0=v`$, without losing generality.

Using the identities :

$$\frac{X^\mu }{y^\nu }=\frac{u}{\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}\delta _\nu ^\mu ,\frac{X^{p+1}}{y^\nu }=\frac{X^p}{y^\nu }=\frac{\eta _{\nu \mu }X^\mu }{\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}},X^{p+1}X^p=u,$$

it is manifest that

$`P_\mu `$ $`=_\mu {\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}}\left(X_\mu _+X_+_\mu \right)`$ (29)
$`L_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=y_\mu _\nu +y_\nu _\mu X_\mu _\nu +X_\nu _\mu `$
where $`X^\pm =\left(X^{p+1}\pm X^p\right)/\sqrt{2}`$.

The above computation tells us that Lorentz transformations belonging to $`\mathrm{SO}(1,p)`$ in the Poincaré patch are mapped into Lorentz transformations in $`\mathrm{SO}(2,p+1)`$ in global AdS, which in particular justifies our previous analysis on null orbifolds in AdS spaces. Furthermore, translations $`(\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}_\mu )`$ in the Poincaré patch are mapped to null rotations in $`\mathrm{SO}(2,p+1)`$ involving “the second time” in $`\text{}^{2,p+1}`$. To be more precise,

$$\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}_\mu \sqrt{2}\xi ^{}$$

as defined in (5). This analysis strongly suggests to analyse the geometrical structure of $`\text{AdS}_p`$ $`(p5)`$ modded out by the discrete action generated by $`\xi =\xi ^+(u,x,y)+\xi ^{}(v,s,r)`$. This is the subject of the next section.

## 5 Null-brane discrete quotients in AdS spaces

Let us parametrise $`\text{AdS}_p`$ $`(p5)`$ as the hyperboloid

$$u^2+x^2+y^2v^2+r^2+s^2+\underset{i}{\overset{p5}{}}(x^i)^2=(\text{R}_{\text{AdS}})^2,$$
(30)
and study the quotient manifold $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ obtained by a discrete identification of points using the action $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ associated with the Killing vector

$$\xi =\xi ^+(u,x,y)+\xi ^{}(v,s,r)$$
(31)
Introducing coordinates $`\{x^\pm ,x\}`$ and $`\{s^\pm ,s\}`$ to describe both $`\text{}^{1,2}`$ factors where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ acts non-trivially and assembling them into a column vector $`X`$, the generator $`g_0`$ of the orbifold acts as

$$X=\left(\begin{array}{c}x^+\\ x\\ x^{}\\ s^{}\\ s\\ s^+\end{array}\right)g_oX=e^{t𝒥}X=\left(\begin{array}{c}x^+\\ x+tx^+\\ x^{}+tx+\frac{1}{2}t^2x^+\\ s^{}\\ s+ts^{}\\ s^++ts+\frac{1}{2}t^2s^{}\end{array}\right)$$
(32)
where the matrix $`𝒥`$ is given by

$$𝒥=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0\end{array}\right).$$

It is clear that such an action has fixed points in the embedding space $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$. These are located at $`x^+=x=s^{}=s=0`$. The question is whether these points belong to our original manifold, $`\text{AdS}_p`$. It is manifest that they do not satisfy (30) for any finite $`\{x^{},s^+\}`$ value, thus allowing us to conclude the absence of fixed points under the action of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ in $`\text{AdS}_p`$. Analogously, the set of points in $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$ where $`\xi ^2=0`$, that is, $`s^{}=x^+=0`$, does not belong to $`\text{AdS}_p`$. One thus concludes that the vector field $`\xi `$ (31) is spacelike everywhere in $`\text{AdS}_p`$. The corresponding quotient manifold $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ must be smooth.

Whenever one constructs quotient manifolds, the non-existence of closed causal curves (CCC’s) in it is non-trivial. Notice that the distance between a point and its n’th image in our construction is $`|tn|\sqrt{(x^+)^2+(s^{})^2}`$. Using the same argument as before, such distance is always positive in $`\text{AdS}_p`$. Since the integral curves of the Killing vector (31) are geodesic, the above distance is geodesic. Therefore, $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ has no CCC’s.

Working in global coordinates (2) allows us to study the action of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ on the conformal boundary of $`\text{AdS}_p`$. It is then easy to check that indeed there are no fixed points for finite $`\rho `$ (the non-compact spacelike direction in global AdS), but that there is a curve of fixed points on an infinite cylinder of maximal circle base extending along global time $`\tau `$ in AdS and lying in the ry-plane. It is also on this curve that $`\xi ^2`$ vanishes. To understand the origin of these singularities, consider the conditions $`x^+=s^{}=0`$ in global coordinates plus the fundamental trigonometric identity. This gives the constraint

$$\left(\mathrm{tanh}\rho \right)^2\left[(\mathrm{\Omega }^r)^2+(\mathrm{\Omega }^y)^2\right]=1,$$

which can only be satisfied for $`\rho \mathrm{}`$ (conformal boundary) and $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^r)^2+(\mathrm{\Omega }^y)^2=1`$. The latter defines a maximal circle in the ry-plane and enforces $`\mathrm{\Omega }^i=0`$ $``$ i$``$ r,s. Describing this circle by $`\phi `$ $`(0\phi <2\pi )`$, the curve on the cylinder is given by

$$\tau =\phi (\text{mod}\pi ).$$

This discussion allows us to state that if there is any field theory dual description, it would be defined in a singular base space.

As in the discussion of null orbifolds in previous sections, it is useful to introduce a local adapted coordinate system $`\{z^\pm ,\omega ^\pm ,z,\varphi \}`$ to describe the geometry of $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$

$`s^{}=\omega ^{},`$ $`x^+=z^+`$ (33)
$`s=\varphi \omega ^{},`$ $`x=z+\varphi z^+`$
$`s^+=\omega ^++{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\omega ^{}\varphi ^2,`$ $`x^{}=z^{}+\varphi z+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}z^+\varphi ^2`$
Notice that (33) is a well-defined coordinate system except at $`\omega ^{}=0`$, where it manifestly breaks down. When rewriting the embedding equation (30) in terms of $`\{z^\pm ,\omega ^\pm ,z,\varphi \}`$, it becomes

$$2x^+x^{}2\omega ^+\omega ^{}+z^2+\underset{i=1}{\overset{p5}{}}(x^i)^2=(\text{R}_{\text{AdS}})^2,$$
(34)
so that it describes $`\text{AdS}_{p1}`$ whenever $`\omega ^{}0`$. Since $`\xi =_\varphi `$, $`\varphi `$ becomes a compact dimension after the identification. The metric of the corresponding quotient manifold

$`g_{\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+}`$ $`=g_{\text{AdS}_{p1}}+[(\omega ^{})^2+(z^+)^2](d\varphi )^2+2(z^+)^2d\varphi d\left({\displaystyle \frac{z}{z^+}}\right)`$ (35)
$`=g_\stackrel{~}{}+\xi ^2\left(d\varphi +A_1\right)^2.`$
describes an $`S^1`$ fibration over some compact manifold $`\stackrel{~}{}`$ with non-trivial gauge field, whose field strength $`F_2=dA_1`$ is given by

$$F_2=\frac{2}{[(\omega ^{})^2+(z^+)^2]^2}\left\{(\omega ^{})^2dz^+dz\omega ^{}(z^+)^2d\omega ^{}d\left(\frac{z}{z^+}\right)\right\}.$$

It is easy to identify which is the nature of the conformal boundary in this case. The analysis of symmetries given in the previous section teaches us that the conformal boundary of $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ must be equal to the conformal compactification of $`\text{}^{1,p2}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\text{null-brane}}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\text{null-brane}}`$ stands for the discrete action generated by

$$\xi _{\text{null-brane}}=R_z+\xi ^+,$$

acting non-trivially on $`\text{}^{1,3}`$. This statement can be checked as we did for null orbifolds in $`\text{AdS}_p`$. For concreteness, we shall concentrate on the particular case $`p=5`$. Take the local description (35) for $`\text{AdS}_5/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ and parametrise $`\text{AdS}_4`$ in global coordinates (2). In particular,

$`z^+={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(u+x)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}{\sqrt{2}}}\mathrm{cosh}\rho \left(\mathrm{cos}\tau _{\text{AdS}}+\mathrm{tanh}\rho \mathrm{\Omega }^x\right)`$
$`\omega ^{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(v\omega )`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}{\sqrt{2}}}\mathrm{cosh}\rho \left(\mathrm{sin}\tau _{\text{AdS}}\mathrm{tanh}\rho \mathrm{\Omega }^\omega \right)`$
$`z`$ $`=\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}\mathrm{sinh}\rho \mathrm{\Omega }^z`$
in such a way that $`\mathrm{\Omega }^i`$ parametrise a unit 3-sphere. Extending our previous arguments, it can still be checked that there exists a conformal boundary at $`\rho \mathrm{}`$. The metric on such conformal boundary is

$$\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{g}=(d\tau _{\text{AdS}})^2+g_{S^2}+\frac{1}{2}(d\varphi )^2\left[(\mathrm{sin}\tau \mathrm{\Omega }^\omega )^2+(\mathrm{cos}\tau _{\text{AdS}}+\mathrm{\Omega }^x)^2\right]\hfill \\ \hfill +2\sqrt{2}d\varphi \left[(\mathrm{cos}\tau _{\text{AdS}}+\mathrm{\Omega }^x)d\mathrm{\Omega }^z\mathrm{\Omega }^z(d\mathrm{\Omega }^x\mathrm{sin}\tau _{\text{AdS}}d\tau _{\text{AdS}})\right].\end{array}$$
(36)
On the other hand, the metric on the null-brane vacuum $`\text{}^{1,3}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\text{null-brane}}`$

$$g=2dx^+dx^{}+(dy)^2+[R^2+(x^+)^2](d\varphi )^2+2d\varphi \left(x^+dyydx^+\right)$$
(37)
can be rewritten in terms of

$`x^\pm `$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(\tau _f\pm r\mathrm{\Omega }^x\right)`$
$`y`$ $`=r\mathrm{\Omega }^y.`$
By standard procedures, its conformal compactification is given by

$$\begin{array}{c}g=(d\tau _\text{f})^2+g_{S^2}+\frac{1}{2}(d\varphi )^2\left[2R^2(\mathrm{cos}\tau _\text{f}+\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2+(\mathrm{sin}\tau _\text{f}+\mathrm{\Omega }^x\mathrm{sin}\theta )^2\right]\hfill \\ \hfill +2\sqrt{2}d\varphi \{\mathrm{sin}\theta (\mathrm{sin}\tau _\text{f}+\mathrm{\Omega }^x\mathrm{sin}\theta )d\mathrm{\Omega }^y\\ \hfill \mathrm{\Omega }^y(\mathrm{sin}\theta )^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^x+\mathrm{\Omega }^y(\mathrm{sin}\tau _\text{f}\mathrm{cos}\theta d\theta \mathrm{cos}\tau _\text{f}\mathrm{sin}\theta d\tau _\text{f})\}\end{array}$$
(38)
One thus learns that using the identifications

$`\tau _\text{f}`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}+\tau _{\text{ads}}`$ (39)
$`\mathrm{\Omega }^z`$ $`=\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{\Omega }^y`$
$`\mathrm{\Omega }^x`$ $`=\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{\Omega }^x`$
$`\mathrm{\Omega }^\omega `$ $`=\mathrm{cos}\theta `$
both, the conformal compactification (38) and the conformal boundary (36) are equivalent. Notice that the angular identifications in (39) match the two directions in which the null rotations are defined in $`\mathrm{AdS}_5`$ with the two directions that the null-brane discrete quotient defines on the conformal compactification of Minkowski spacetime.

When considering the above quotient in string/M-theory, the discussion of the metric is as above. Concerning the field strengths in (23), one only has to deal with the one in type IIB since the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ action can not be defined in $`\text{AdS}_4`$ and it does not change $`F_4`$ for the $`\text{AdS}_7\times \text{S}^4`$ vacuum. Using the local adapted coordinate system for $`\left(\text{AdS}_5/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+\right)\times \text{S}^5`$

$`F_5`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}}\left\{\sqrt{(\omega ^{})^2+(z^+)^2}\mathrm{dvol}\stackrel{~}{}d\varphi +\mathrm{dvol}\left(\text{S}^5\right)\right\}`$ (40)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}}}\left\{\xi \mathrm{dvol}\stackrel{~}{}d\varphi +\mathrm{dvol}\left(\text{S}^5\right)\right\}.`$
Both $`\left(\text{AdS}_5/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+\right)\times \text{S}^5`$ and $`\left(\text{AdS}_7/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+\right)\times \text{S}^4`$ preserve one quarter of the spacetime supersymmetry. This is explicitly proved in the appendix, but it is very easy to argue using the embedding $`\text{AdS}_p\text{}^{2,p1}`$. We have constant Killing spinors $`\epsilon _0`$ in $`\text{}^{2,p1}`$. The action of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ preserves those satisfying

$$\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_x+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\widehat{+}s}\right)\epsilon _0=0,$$

where $`\widehat{+}`$ stands for a lightlike direction in the vr-plane, whereas $``$ lies in the uy-plane. Since both $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_x`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\widehat{+}s}`$ are nilpotent and commute, the quotient preserves $`\nu =1/4`$ of the original spacetime supersymmetry.

## 6 The quest for non-perturbative string cosmology

As explained in the introduction, the existence of a compact direction along the worldvolume of the branes, opens up a very natural possibility. Whenever its effective radius becomes smaller than the string scale, one is entitled to apply a T-duality transformation, and move to the T-dual description. Let us concentrate on D3-branes, from now on. We can read such a condition from the corresponding near horizon geometry (p=3) in (27)

$$\frac{\text{u}^2}{\text{g}_{\text{YM}}^2\text{N}}\left(R^2+(x^+)^2\right)<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}.$$

Before giving further details, let us summarise the different descriptions that we have at our disposal in this particular scenario. We are analysing the open string sector of string theory in a null-brane background. Extending the formalism developed in  for the parabolic orbifold, and further used for the null-brane in , one could in principle study a perturbative analysis on the worldsheet of D3-branes in such vacuum. The expected low energy effective field theory on the branes would be that of d=1+3 SYM on the null-brane manifold. This is a gauge theory that can be defined in terms of $`𝒩=4`$ SYM by requiring the connection $`A(X)`$ and the scalars transforming in the adjoint representation of $`\mathrm{SU}(N)`$ to satisfy the boundary conditions

$`\mathrm{\Phi }^j(g_oX)`$ $`=\mathrm{\Omega }(X)\mathrm{\Phi }^j(X)\left[\mathrm{\Omega }(X)\right]^1j=1,\mathrm{},6`$ (41)
$`A(g_oX)`$ $`=\mathrm{\Omega }(X)A(X)\left[\mathrm{\Omega }(X)\right]^1id\mathrm{\Omega }(X)\left[\mathrm{\Omega }(X)\right]^1`$
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }(X)`$ stands for an $`\mathrm{SU}(N)`$ group element describing a gauge transformation, $`X`$ is a vector parametrising $`\text{}^{1,3}`$ and $`g_o`$ is the generator of the null-brane discrete quotient

$$X=\left(\begin{array}{c}z\\ x^+\\ x\\ x^{}\end{array}\right),g_oX=\left(\begin{array}{c}z+tR\\ x^+\\ x+tx^+\\ x^{}+tx+\frac{1}{2}t^2x^+\end{array}\right).$$
(42)
It would be interesting to check whether this gauge theory captures all the low energy effective dynamics of the open string sector at weak coupling.

On the other hand, D-branes are massive charged objects which act as a source for the various supergravity fields. Since these D-branes are excitations over the null-brane vacuum, the corresponding classical D3-brane solution is the one in (26) and mentioned in . Relying on the intuition borrowed from the AdS/CFT correspondence, it seems reasonable to establish some duality relation between the previously defined gauge theory and type IIB in the background (27), even though the string theory dynamics in these backgrounds is still not understood.

It is at this stage that T-duality provides us with a bridge to go beyond the Poincaré patch. Since the gravitational configuration we are dealing with is locally isometric to the standard D3-brane solution, the forementioned classical gravity description becomes reliable when the radius of curvature of $`\mathrm{AdS}_5`$ and $`\text{S}^5`$ are large compared to the string scale

$$\frac{\text{R}_{\text{AdS}}^4}{(\alpha ^{})^2}\text{g}_{\text{YM}}^2\text{N}1.$$

Thus, one would expect T-duality to provide a reliable description whenever

$$\text{u}^2(R^2+(y^+)^2)<(\text{g}_{\text{YM}}^2\text{N})^{1/2},\text{g}_{\text{YM}}^2\text{N}1.$$
(43)
This is a time dependent condition, a fact which might not be that surprising since energy in the dual gauge theory is not a conserved quantity. Even though this condition restricts the regime of validity of the T-dual picture, what remains true is that whenever it is reliable, it gives rise to a strongly coupled type IIA configuration

$$e^\varphi \frac{g_sR}{\sqrt{\alpha ^{}}}\frac{(\text{g}_{\text{YM}}^2\text{N})^{1/4}}{\text{u}\left(R^2+(y^+)^2\right)^{1/2}}1$$

which forces us to open up an extra eleven dimension, and look for the corresponding M-theory lift classical configuration. We shall provide such a lift before taking any near horizon limit, just because the corresponding configuration is delocalised in two directions and it would not be that illuminating. This is found to be

$`g`$ $`=V^{1/3}L^{2/3}\left(dx_{\mathrm{}}^2+d\stackrel{~}{z}^2\right)+V^{1/3}L^{1/3}\left(dr^2+r^2g_{S^5}\right)`$ (44)
$`+V^{2/3}L^{1/3}\left\{2dy^+dy^{}+dy^2L^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{y}{R}}dy^+{\displaystyle \frac{y^+}{R}}dy\right)^2\right\}`$
$`C_3`$ $`=V^1dy^+dy^{}dy+L^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{y^+}{R}}dy{\displaystyle \frac{y}{R}}dy^+\right)d\stackrel{~}{z}dx_{\mathrm{}},`$
where we defined the scalar function

$$L(y^+,R)=1+\left(\frac{y^+}{R}\right)^2,$$

$`x_{\mathrm{}}`$ stands for the eleventh dimensional coordinate and all quantities are measured in terms of the eleven dimensional Planck scale. The fact that supergravity does not take into account the physical effect of any winding modes is, as usual, the responsible for the delocalisation of (44). As expected, not only the Lorentz group on the three dimensional M2-branes is broken due to the effect of the original null-brane, but also the transverse Lorentz group is manifestly broken. In particular, the two dimensional subspace spanned by $`\{x_{\mathrm{}},\stackrel{~}{z}\}`$ shrinks to zero size whenever $`y^+R`$. In the other limit, that is close to the “neck” of spacetime $`(y^+R)`$, the metric in (44) describes a three dimensional delocalised brane with a pp-wave propagating on it.

It is thus desirable to look for the most general eleven dimensional supergravity configuration compatible with the isometries and supersymmetries of our physical system. Its knowledge would teach us about the effect of the original winding sector in the T-dual picture. This question is currently under investigation. This problem is a very generic one and affects the T-dual descriptions of branes in both, fluxbrane and null-brane sectors in string theory.

Such an eleven dimensional background would be expected to be dual to some sort of large wave length approximation in the gauge theory. It would certainly be very interesting to study the dynamics of such a gauge theory 555The following comments were suggested by Moshe Roszali.. Due to its definition, correlation functions should be computable in terms of the known ones in $`𝒩=4`$ SYM by the method of images. Two point functions with times before and after the neck of spacetime and different spatial wavelengths could teach us about the nature of the neck itself. For instance, it could be that for large wave lengths the penetration probability is exponentially small. That would be interpreted as separation of the two branches of the cosmology.

Finally, we would also like to mention that the source of instability discussed in  may also exist in these scenarios, due to the redshift of the energy. If so, it would be interesting to understand its origin on the gauge theory side. Thinking of the black hole as a thermal state, one could look for thermalization effects in the two point function. We hope to come back to some of these issues in the near future.

## Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank O. Aharony, M. Berkooz, N. Drukker, JM. Figueroa-O’Farrill, N. Itzhaki, D. Kutasov, M. Roszali and A. Schwimmer for discussions on the topics presented in this work and for encouragement. It is also a pleasure to thank the University of Edinburgh for hospitality during the intermediate stages of the present work. This research has been supported by a Marie Curie Fellowship of the European Community programme “Improving the Human Research Potential and the Socio-Economic knowledge Base” under the contract number HPMF-CT-2000-00480.

## Appendix A Explicit supersymmetry analysis

In this appendix, we determine the amount of supersymmetry preserved by $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ and $`\text{AdS}_p/\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$. Since both, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ just act on $`\text{AdS}_p`$, we shall decompose the ten or eleven dimensional spinors into a convenient tensor product of spinors in AdS and on the sphere. By default, we shall denote tne ones in AdS by $`\epsilon `$. These were determined in . Working in a coordinate system where the AdS metric is described by

$$g_{\text{AdS}}=(dr)^2+e^{2\text{r}}\eta _{\alpha \beta }dx^\alpha dx^\beta ,$$
(45)
it was proved that the Killing spinors $`\epsilon `$ were satisfying

$$_\mu \epsilon =\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mu \epsilon \mu =\alpha ,\text{r},$$
(46)
which is solved by

$$\epsilon =e^{\text{r}/2}\epsilon _+;\epsilon =(e^{\text{r}/2}+e^{\text{r}/2}x^\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{\alpha }})\epsilon _{},\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{\text{r}}}\epsilon _\pm =\pm \epsilon _\pm .$$
(47)
The local condition of preservation of supersymmetry under the identification $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+`$ requires the action of $`\xi `$ on the Killing spinors $`\epsilon `$ to vanish

$$_\xi \epsilon =_\xi \epsilon +\frac{1}{4}_a\xi _b\mathrm{\Gamma }^{ab}\epsilon =0.$$
(48)
Working out both terms, they can be written as :

$`_\xi \epsilon `$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^\text{r}\left(\xi \mathrm{\Gamma }\right)\epsilon `$ (49)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}_a\xi _b\mathrm{\Gamma }^{ab}\epsilon `$ $`=\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}\left(_\alpha \overline{\xi }_\beta _\beta \overline{\xi }_\alpha \right)\mathrm{\Gamma }^{\underset{¯}{\alpha }\underset{¯}{\beta }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^\text{r}\left(\xi \mathrm{\Gamma }\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{\text{r}}}\right)\epsilon ,`$
where $`\xi \mathrm{\Gamma }=\xi ^\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{\alpha }}`$, $`\xi _\alpha =e^{2\text{r}}\eta _{\alpha \beta }\xi ^\beta =e^{2\text{r}}\overline{\xi }_\alpha `$ and $`\{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{\mu }},\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{\nu }}\}=2\eta _{\mu \nu }`$.

It is manifest that for $`\epsilon =e^{\text{r}/2}\epsilon _+`$ condition (48) reduces to the one in flat spacetime

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{x}}\epsilon =0.$$

For the second kind of Killing spinors, the one involving $`\epsilon _{}`$, splitting $`\alpha =\{\widehat{\alpha },z\}`$, $`z`$ being the direction in which $`\xi `$ acts as a translation 666The coordinates in (45) describe AdS in the Poincaré patch and it was proved in (29) that $`\xi ^{}`$ was mapped to $`R_z`$ for some spacelike direction z transverse to the action generated by $`\xi ^+`$ .

$$\begin{array}{c}_\xi \epsilon =\frac{1}{8}e^{\text{r}/2}\left(_\alpha \overline{\xi }_\beta _\beta \overline{\xi }_\alpha \right)\mathrm{\Gamma }^{\underset{¯}{\alpha }\underset{¯}{\beta }}\epsilon _{}+e^{\text{r}/2}R\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{z}}\epsilon _{}\hfill \\ \hfill +e^{\text{r}/2}\left\{\left(\xi ^{\widehat{\alpha }}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{\overset{^}{\alpha }}}\right)+\frac{1}{8}\left(_{\widehat{\alpha }}\overline{\xi }_{\widehat{\beta }}_{\widehat{\beta }}\overline{\xi }_{\widehat{\alpha }}\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }^{\underset{¯}{\overset{^}{\alpha }}\underset{¯}{\overset{^}{\beta }}}x^{\widehat{\gamma }}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{\overset{^}{\gamma }}}\right\}\epsilon _{}=0\end{array}$$
(50)
The first line is independent of $`x^{\widehat{\gamma }}`$ whereas the second line is linear in them. Thus, both must vanish independently. From the first one, we learn

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{x}}\epsilon _{}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{z}}\epsilon _{}=0\epsilon _{}=0(R0)$$

or

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{x}}\epsilon _{}=0(R=0).$$
(51)
When $`R=0`$, it can be shown using gamma matrices identities, the form of $`\xi ^+`$ and eq. (51) that

$$\frac{1}{8}\left(_{\widehat{\alpha }}\overline{\xi }_{\widehat{\beta }}_{\widehat{\beta }}\overline{\xi }_{\widehat{\alpha }}\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }^{\underset{¯}{\overset{^}{\alpha }}\underset{¯}{\overset{^}{\beta }}}x^{\widehat{\gamma }}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{\overset{^}{\gamma }}}\epsilon _{}=\xi ^{\widehat{\alpha }}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\underset{¯}{\overset{^}{\alpha }}}\epsilon _{}$$

so that the second line in (50) is automatically satisfied whenever the first is.

We sum up the conclusions of the above computation associating the generator of the orbifold with the amount of supersymmetry $`(\nu )`$ that is being preserved :

$`\xi =\xi ^+(R=0)`$ $`\nu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}`$ (52)
$`\xi =\xi ^++\xi ^{}(R0)`$ $`\nu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}.`$


text:
# Gales Suffice for Constructive Dimension 11footnote 1This research was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant 9988483.

## 1 Introduction

Effective martingales have been very useful objects in theoretical computer science. Schnorr  used constructive martingales to give an equivalent definition of Martin-Löf randomness . Martingales computable within resource bounds have been used by Lutz  to define various resource-bounded measures that have been successful in complexity theory. In all these cases, it is known that replacing the constructive or resource-bounded martingales with constructive or resource-bounded supermartingales results in an equivalent definition.

Lutz  recently introduced supergales and gales as natural generalizations of supermartingales and martingales, respectively. He showed that gales can be used to characterize classical Hausdorff dimension. With this as a motivation, Lutz used gales computable within resource bounds to define resource-bounded dimensions that work inside of complexity classes. He also showed that supergales may be used in place of gales to give equivalent definitions of these dimensions.

Constructive dimension  refines the theory of Martin-Löf randomness by assigning each individual binary sequence a dimension. Lutz used constructive supergales to define constructive dimension. Supergales were used rather than gales because he was able to show that optimal constructive supergales exist. The questions of whether optimal constructive gales exist and whether gales can be used to equivalently define constructive dimension were left open.

Therefore, martingales and supermartingales are known to give equivalent definitions for all the applications mentioned above, and gales and supergales are known to give equivalent definitions for all the applications mentioned above except constructive dimension. Here it is shown that constructive gales give an equivalent definition of constructive dimension. The proof is a simple and direct construction that uses some ideas from an earlier paper by the author . As a corollary we obtain a form of optimal constructive gales.

## 2 Preliminaries

The set of natural numbers is $`=\{0,1,2,\mathrm{}\}`$. The set of binary strings of length $`n`$ is $`\{0,1\}^n`$. The set of all finite binary strings is $`\{0,1\}^{}`$. The empty string is $`\lambda `$. For a language $`A\{0,1\}^{}`$, we write $`A_{=n}`$ for the set of strings in $`A`$ of length $`n`$. For strings $`w,v\{0,1\}^{}`$, we write $`wv`$ if $`w`$ is a prefix of $`v`$. $`𝐂`$ is the Cantor space of all infinite binary sequences. For a sequence $`S𝐂`$, $`S[0..n1]`$ is the prefix of $`S`$ of length $`n`$.

A real number $`r`$ is computable if there is a computable function $`f:`$ such that $`|f(n)r|2^n`$ for all $`n`$. A function $`g:\{0,1\}^{}[0,\mathrm{})`$ is constructive if there is a computable function $`h:\{0,1\}^{}\times `$ such that for all $`w\{0,1\}^{}`$, $`h(w,n)h(w,n+1)<g(w)`$ for all $`n`$ and $`g(w)=sup_nh(w,n)`$.

## 3 Constructive Dimension

Constructive dimension was introduced by Lutz . Here we review the basic concepts. We begin by defining supergales and gales.

###### Definition.

Let $`s[0,\mathrm{})`$. A function $`d:\{0,1\}^{}[0,\mathrm{})`$ is an $`s`$-supergale if

$$d(w)\frac{d(w0)+d(w1)}{2^s}$$
(3.1)
for all $`w\{0,1\}^{}`$. If equality holds in (3.1) for all strings $`w`$, then $`d`$ is an $`s`$-gale.

Note that 1-gales are martingales and 1-supergales are supermartingales. We are particularly interested in the success sets of supergales and gales.

###### Definition.

The success set of a supergale $`d:\{0,1\}^{}[0,\mathrm{})`$ is

$$S^{\mathrm{}}[d]=\{S𝐂|\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim\; sup}d(S[0..n1])=\mathrm{}\}.$$

###### Notation.

For any $`X𝐂`$, we define the sets

$$𝒢_{\mathrm{constr}}(X)=\left\{s\right|\begin{array}{c}\text{there exists a constructive}\hfill \\ s\text{-gale }d\text{ for which }XS^{\mathrm{}}[d]\hfill \end{array}\}$$

and

$$\widehat{𝒢}_{\mathrm{constr}}(X)=\left\{s\right|\begin{array}{c}\text{there exists a constructive}\hfill \\ s\text{-supergale }d\text{ for which }XS^{\mathrm{}}[d]\hfill \end{array}\}$$

of nonnegative real numbers.

Constructive dimension is defined in terms of succeeding constructive supergales.

###### Definition.

For a set $`X𝐂`$, the constructive dimension of $`X`$ is

$$\mathrm{cdim}(X)=inf\widehat{𝒢}_{\mathrm{constr}}(X).$$

For a sequence $`S𝐂`$, the constructive dimension of $`S`$ is

$$\mathrm{cdim}(S)=\mathrm{cdim}(\{S\}).$$

We now define two notions of optimality for a class of supergales.

###### Definition.

Let $`d^{}`$ be a supergale and let $`𝒟`$ be a class of supergales.

1. We say that $`d^{}`$ is multiplicatively optimal for $`𝒟`$ if for each $`d𝒟`$ there is an $`\alpha >0`$ such that $`d^{}(w)\alpha d(w)`$ for all $`w\{0,1\}^{}`$.
2. We say that $`d^{}`$ is successively optimal for $`𝒟`$ if for every $`d𝒟`$, $`S^{\mathrm{}}[d]S^{\mathrm{}}[d^{}]`$.

Lutz used Levin’s universal constructive semimeasure  to show that there exist multiplicatively optimal supergales.

###### Theorem 3.1.

(Lutz )For any computable $`s[0,\mathrm{})`$ there is a constructive $`s`$-supergale $`𝐝^{(s)}`$ that is multiplicatively optimal for the class of constructive $`s`$-supergales.

Theorem 3.1 was used to prove the following cornerstone of constructive dimension theory.

###### Theorem 3.2.

(Lutz )For any $`X𝐂`$,

$$\mathrm{cdim}(X)=\underset{SX}{sup}\mathrm{cdim}(S).$$

###### Remark.

In , a conference paper preceding , Lutz defined constructive dimension using constructive gales. There Lutz used a false assertion about martingales to argue that there exist multiplicatively optimal constructive gales. These “optimal gales” were then used to prove Theorem 3.2. These flawed arguments were subsequently noticed and corrected in  by reformulating constructive dimension in terms of constructive supergales. The multiplicatively optimal supergales of Theorem 3.1 exist and Theorem 3.2 is true in the reformulation. However, Lutz left open the questions of whether there exist optimal constructive gales and whether constructive dimension can be equivalently defined using constructive gales. This paper addresses these questions.

## 4 The Strength of Gales

###### Theorem 4.1.

Let $`0r<t`$ be computable real numbers. Then for any constructive $`r`$-supergale $`d`$, there exists a constructive $`t`$-gale $`d^{}`$ such that $`S^{\mathrm{}}[d]S^{\mathrm{}}[d^{}]`$.

###### Proof.

Let $`d`$ be a constructive $`r`$-supergale and assume without loss of generality that $`d(\lambda )<1`$. Define the language $`A=\{w\{0,1\}^{}|d(w)>1\}`$. Observe that $`A`$ is computably enumerable. For all $`n`$, $`_{w\{0,1\}^n}d(w)2^{rn}`$, so $`|A_{=n}|2^{rn}`$.

For each $`n`$, define a function $`d_n^{}:\{0,1\}^{}[0,\mathrm{})`$ by

$$d_n^{}(w)=\{\begin{array}{cc}2^{t(n|w|)}\left|\{vA_{=n}|wv\}\right|\hfill & \text{if }|w|n\hfill \\ 2^{(t1)(|w|n)}d_n^{}(w[0..n1])\hfill & \text{if }|w|>n\text{.}\hfill \end{array}$$

Then for all $`n`$, $`d_n^{}`$ is a $`t`$-gale and $`d_n^{}(w)=1`$ for all $`wA_{=n}`$.

Let $`s(r,t)`$ be computable and define a function $`d^{}`$ on $`\{0,1\}^{}`$ by $`d^{}=_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}2^{(sr)n}d_n^{}.`$ Then

$$d^{}(\lambda )=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}2^{(sr)n}2^{tn}|A_{=n}|\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}2^{(st)n}<\mathrm{},$$

and it follows that by induction that $`d^{}(w)<\mathrm{}`$ for all strings $`w`$. Therefore, by linearity, $`d^{}`$ is a $`t`$-gale. Also, because the language $`A`$ is computably enumerable, $`d^{}`$ is constructive.

Let $`SS^{\mathrm{}}[d]`$. Then for infinitely many $`n`$, $`S[0..n1]A`$. For each of these $`n`$,

$$d^{}(S[0..n1])2^{(sr)n}d_n^{}(S[0..n1])=2^{(sr)n},$$

so $`SS^{\mathrm{}}[d^{}]`$. Therefore $`S^{\mathrm{}}[d]S^{\mathrm{}}[d^{}]`$. ∎

Constructive dimension may now be equivalently defined using gales instead of supergales.

###### Theorem 4.2.

For all $`X𝐂`$, $`\mathrm{cdim}(X)=inf𝒢_{\mathrm{constr}}(X)`$.

###### Proof.

Because any gale is also a supergale, $`𝒢_{\mathrm{constr}}(X)\widehat{𝒢}_{\mathrm{constr}}(X)`$, so $`\mathrm{cdim}(X)=inf\widehat{𝒢}_{\mathrm{constr}}(X)inf𝒢_{\mathrm{constr}}(X)`$ is immediate.

Let $`t>r>\mathrm{cdim}(X)`$ be computable real numbers and let $`d`$ be a constructive $`r`$-supergale such that $`XS^{\mathrm{}}[d]`$. By Theorem 4.1, there is a constructive $`t`$-gale $`d^{}`$ such that $`XS^{\mathrm{}}[d]S^{\mathrm{}}[d^{}]`$, so $`t𝒢_{\mathrm{constr}}(X)`$. As this holds for any computable $`t>\mathrm{cdim}(X)`$, we have $`inf𝒢_{\mathrm{constr}}(X)\mathrm{cdim}(X)`$. ∎

We can also state the existence of a form of optimal constructive gales.

###### Corollary 4.3.

For all computable real numbers $`t>r0`$ there exists a constructive $`t`$-gale that is successively optimal for the class of constructive $`r`$-supergales.

###### Proof.

Let $`𝐝^{(r)}`$ be the constructive $`r`$-supergale from Theorem 3.1 that is multiplicatively optimal for the constructive $`r`$-supergales. Theorem 4.1 provides a constructive $`t`$-gale $`d^{}`$ that succeeds everywhere that $`𝐝^{(r)}`$ does. Therefore $`S^{\mathrm{}}[d]S^{\mathrm{}}[𝐝^{(r)}]S^{\mathrm{}}[d^{}]`$ for any constructive $`r`$-supergale $`d`$, so the corollary is proved. ∎

The optimal gales provided by Corollary 4.3 may not be technically strong as possible in two respects.

1. Lutz’s optimal constructive $`r`$-supergale is multiplicatively optimal, whereas our optimal constructive $`t`$-gale is only successively optimal. Does there exist a constructive $`t`$-gale that is multiplicatively optimal for the class of constructive $`r`$-supergales?
2. Our proof seems to require the hypothesis $`t>r`$. Does there exist a constructive $`r`$-gale that is successively optimal for the class of constructive $`r`$-supergales?

However, the optimality in Corollary 4.3 remains strong enough to prove Theorem 3.2.

###### Acknowledgment.

I thank Anumodh Abey for comments on an earlier draft.