An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models

We introduce an index indicating the occurrence of chiral fermions at the intersection of branes in matrix models. This allows to discuss the stability of chiral fermions under perturbations of the branes.

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Дата:2013
Автори: Steinacker, H., Zahn, J.
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Опубліковано: Інститут математики НАН України 2013
Назва видання:Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
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Цитувати:An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models / H. Steinacker, J. Zahn // Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications. — 2013. — Т. 9. — Бібліогр.: 13 назв. — англ.

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spelling irk-123456789-1493592019-02-22T01:23:16Z An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models Steinacker, H. Zahn, J. We introduce an index indicating the occurrence of chiral fermions at the intersection of branes in matrix models. This allows to discuss the stability of chiral fermions under perturbations of the branes. 2013 Article An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models / H. Steinacker, J. Zahn // Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications. — 2013. — Т. 9. — Бібліогр.: 13 назв. — англ. 1815-0659 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 81R60; 81T75; 81T30 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3842/SIGMA.2013.067 http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/149359 en Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications Інститут математики НАН України
institution Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
collection DSpace DC
language English
description We introduce an index indicating the occurrence of chiral fermions at the intersection of branes in matrix models. This allows to discuss the stability of chiral fermions under perturbations of the branes.
format Article
author Steinacker, H.
Zahn, J.
spellingShingle Steinacker, H.
Zahn, J.
An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models
Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
author_facet Steinacker, H.
Zahn, J.
author_sort Steinacker, H.
title An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models
title_short An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models
title_full An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models
title_fullStr An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models
title_full_unstemmed An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models
title_sort index for intersecting branes in matrix models
publisher Інститут математики НАН України
publishDate 2013
url http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/handle/123456789/149359
citation_txt An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models / H. Steinacker, J. Zahn // Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications. — 2013. — Т. 9. — Бібліогр.: 13 назв. — англ.
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fulltext Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications SIGMA 9 (2013), 067, 7 pages An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models? Harold STEINACKER and Jochen ZAHN Fakultät für Physik, Universität Wien, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Wien, Austria E-mail: harold.steinacker@univie.ac.at, jochen.zahn@univie.ac.at Received September 17, 2013; Published online November 08, 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.3842/SIGMA.2013.067 Abstract. We introduce an index indicating the occurrence of chiral fermions at the inter- section of branes in matrix models. This allows to discuss the stability of chiral fermions under perturbations of the branes. Key words: matrix models; noncommutative geometry; chiral fermions 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 81R60; 81T75; 81T30 1 Introduction The IKKT or IIB model [8] admits solutions which can be interpreted as branes embedded in a flat target space, cf. [11, 12] for recent reviews. Of particular interest is the case of intersecting branes, as these can give rise to chiral fermions living on the intersection [6], thus having the po- tential of yielding a physically viable model. The aim of this note is to show that the occurrence of chiral fermions can be rephrased as the non-vanishing of a certain index, which counts the number of zero modes of the Dirac operator, weighted with their chirality. Moreover, conditions ensuring the stability of the index under perturbations are given. This is also demonstrated in a concrete example. Let us explain the relation of the index we propose with different indices discussed in the context of emergent geometries in matrix models. In [2], two-dimensional compact branes em- bedded in R3 are studied. In our language, the intersection of such branes with a point y ∈ R3 is considered, and the index counts the difference of the number of positive and negative modes of the corresponding Dirac operator. The set of y’s where the index changes is then interpreted as the locus of the brane. Crucial differences to our setting are the odd dimension of the tar- get space (so that there is no chirality operator and eigenvalues of the Dirac operator are not symmetric around 0), and the restriction to finite matrices. Another index for noncommutative branes was considered in [1]. The difference to our definition is the usage of another Dirac operator, the so-called Ginsparg–Wilson Dirac operator, which does not coincide with the Dirac operator appearing in the IKKT action. The article is structured as follows: In the next section, we recall aspects of the matrix model framework and its effective (brane) geometry. We introduce the notion of intersecting branes, and introduce the index indicating the occurrence of chiral fermions. In Section 3, we present conditions guaranteeing the stability of the index under deformations, and discuss a concrete example. We conclude with a brief summary and an outlook. 2 Matrix models, intersecting branes, and chiral fermions We briefly collect the essential ingredients of the matrix model framework and its effective geometry, referring to the recent review [12] for more details. The starting point is the maximally ?This paper is a contribution to the Special Issue on Deformations of Space-Time and its Symmetries. The full collection is available at http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA/space-time.html mailto:harold.steinacker@univie.ac.at mailto:jochen.zahn@univie.ac.at http://dx.doi.org/10.3842/SIGMA.2013.067 http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA/space-time.html 2 H. Steinacker and J. Zahn supersymmetric IKKT or IIB model [8], whose action is given by S = Tr ([ XA, XB ][ XC , XD ] ηACηBD + 2Ψ̄DΨ ) . Here the XA are Hermitian matrices, i.e., operators acting on a separable Hilbert space H. The indices run from 0 to 9, and will be raised or lowered with the invariant tensor ηAB of SO(9, 1). Furthermore, Ψ is a matrix-valued Majorana Weyl spinor of SO(9, 1), and D is the Dirac ope- rator, defined by (DΨ)a = ΓA a b [ XA,Ψb ] , where ΓA are the 10-dimensional γ matrices. Even though this will not be used explicitly, the picture to have in mind is that the ma- trix configurations XA describe embedded noncommutative branes. By this one means that the XA can be interpreted as quantized embedding functions [12] of a 2n-dimensional submani- fold M2n ↪→ R10. More precisely, there should be some quantization map Q : C(M2n)→ L(H) which maps classical functions on M2n to a noncommutative (matrix) algebra, such that com- mutators can be interpreted as quantized Poisson brackets. The XA are then the image of classical embedding functions xA under this map. For more details, we refer to [12]. If the matrices XA are of block-diagonal form XA = ( XA L 0 0 XA R ) , we speak of two intersecting branes. If we analogously split the fermions as Ψ = ( ΨLL ΨLR ΨRL ΨRR ) , then the Dirac operator acts on the off-diagonal components as DLRΨLR = ΓA ( XA LΨLR −ΨLRX A R ) . We will consider the case when, in the semiclassical picture, the two branes ML/R are of the form ML/R =Md ×M′L/R, (1) where d is even andMd is embedded in the subspace of R10 generated by eµ, 0 ≤ µ ≤ d− 1 and M′L/R are embedded in the directions spanned by ei, d ≤ i ≤ 9. Furthermore, the symplectic form on ML/R is required to respect the split (1), i.e., it should vanish for one vector in TMd and one in TM′L/R. In formal terms, this means that HL/R = H(d) L/R ⊗H (10−d) L/R , Xµ L/R = Y µ L/R ⊗ 1, Xi L/R = 1⊗ Y i L/R. (2) Here µ labels the indices 0 ≤ µ ≤ d− 1, whereas i labels d ≤ i ≤ 9. Furthermore, H(d) L ' H (d) R ' H (d) (3) and, under this isomorphism, Xµ L = Xµ R. This encodes the requirement that the two branes share a common d-dimensional brane. Using the identification of H(d) L and H(d) R , we may write the Dirac operator as DLRΨLR = D (d) LRΨLR +D (10−d) LR ΨLR = Γµ[Xµ,ΨLR] + Γi ( Xi LΨLR −ΨLRX i R ) . An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models 3 We also split the chirality operator (note the different signs in χ(d) and χ(10−d) stemming from the signature (−,+, . . . ,+) of η), χ = χ(d)χ(10−d), χ(d) = i−d/2+1Γ0 · · ·Γd−1, χ(10−d) = i−(10−d)/2Γd · · ·Γ9, and remark that it fulfills[ χ(d), χ(10−d) ] = 0, ( χ(d) )2 = 1, ( χ(10−d) )2 = 1, and { χ(d), D (d) LR } = 0, { χ(10−d), D (10−d) LR } = 0,[ χ(d), D (10−d) LR ] = 0, [ χ(10−d), D (d) LR ] = 0. We also note that the Γ matrices may be represented as Γµ = γµ ⊗ 125−d/2 , Γi = γd+1 ⊗ δi, (4) where the γµ form the d-dimensional Lorentzian Clifford algebra, γd+1 is the corresponding chirality operator, and the δi form the (10− d)-dimensional Euclidean Clifford algebra. Given that the XL/R are represented on Hilbert spaces HL/R, the off-diagonal fermions are elements of HLR = B(HR,HL) ⊗ C25 . Due to the split (2), a general ansatz for solutions of DLRΨLR = 0 is1 ΨLR = Ψ (d) LR ⊗Ψ (10−d) LR , Ψ (d) LR ∈ H (d) LR, Ψ (10−d) LR ∈ H(10−d) LR , where we defined H(d) LR = B ( H(d) ) ⊗ C2d/2 , H(10−d) LR = B ( H(10−d) R ,H(10−d) L ) ⊗ C25−d/2 . Here we used (3) and the same factorization of the spinorial representation space as in (4). Using the operator norm, H(10−d) LR can be given the structure of a Banach space. Due to (4), have D (10−d) LR = γd+1 ⊗∆ (10−d) LR , χ(10−d) = 1(d/2)2 ⊗ θ(10−d), where ∆ (10−d) LR and θ(10−d) are anticommuting operators on H(10−d) LR . In particular, non-zero eigenvalues of ∆ (10−d) LR come in pairs ±m, which are interchanged by θ(10−d), and whose eigen- vectors v±m may be combined to eigenvectors v±m of θ(10−d) of opposite chirality. It is then clear that given an eigenvector Ψ (10−d) LR of ∆ (10−d) LR with eigenvalue m, the Dirac equation for Ψ (d) LR becomes, cf. (2), Γµ [ Yµ,Ψ (d) LR ] +mγd+1Ψ (d) LR = 0, which does not admit chiral solutions unless m = 0. Furthermore, given a zero mode Ψ (10−d) LR , the chirality of Ψ (10−d) LR w.r.t. θ(10−d) determines χ(d)Ψ (d) LR, i.e., the d-dimensional chirality of Ψ (d) LR, by the total chirality constraint χΨLR = ΨLR. Hence, a d-dimensional chiral fermion requires a zero eigenvector of ∆ (10−d) LR with no corresponding eigenvector of opposite chirality2. Note that if we have a chiral fermion in the LR sector, then the Majorana condition ensures that the RL sector contains the conjugate fermion with opposite chirality. 1Note that the condition (2) is crucial here. In [10], the same ansatz for ΨLR is used, but (2) is not fulfilled. Hence, in that work, the ansatz is not general enough to find all solutions of the Dirac equation. 2Otherwise, their combination will in general acquire a mass through quantum corrections. 4 H. Steinacker and J. Zahn By our assumptions, ∆ (10−d) LR is a Dirac operator on the intersection of branes with Riemannian signature, so we may expect it to have discrete spectrum (in Section 3.1, this is shown to be the case in a concrete example). The above discussion then motivates the following definition of an index for the Dirac operator ∆ (10−d) LR : Ξ ( ∆ (10−d) LR ) = TrH(10−d) LR ( PΓ (( ∆ (10−d) LR )2) θ(10−d) ) . Here Γ is some closed curve that encircles the origin and does not intersect an eigenvalue of( ∆ (10−d) LR )2 , and PΓ (( ∆ (10−d) LR )2) is the orthogonal projector on the eigenspaces whose eigenvalues are encircled by Γ. As discussed above, nonzero eigenvalues of ( ∆ (10−d) LR )2 occur in pairs of opposite chirality, so the definition is independent of the choice of Γ. The index counts the number of 0 eigenmodes, weighted with their chirality. This index can also be written in the form Ξ ( ∆ (10−d) LR ) = TrH(10−d) LR ( e−t ( ∆ (10−d) LR )2 θ(10−d) ) for generic t > 0, which is analogous to the usual definition of the index on compact Riemannian spaces, cf. [4, Theorem 3.50]. The motivation for introducing an index to describe chirality is that it takes discrete values, so by continuity, one would expect it to be constant under deformations of the branes. In the next section, we will discuss criteria which indeed ensure this. 3 Deformation stability of chiral modes Let us begin by recalling a notion from perturbation theory. Let A be a closed, in general unbounded operator on a Banach space. Then B is A-bounded, if D(A) ⊂ D(B), and there are positive constants a, b such that ‖Bx‖ ≤ a‖Ax‖+ b‖x‖ holds for all x ∈ D(A). A straightforward consequence of [9, Theorem IV.3.18] is now the following: Proposition 1. Let A have discrete spectrum. Given a closed curve Γ in C that encircles a finite part of the spectrum, we define the projector PΓ(A) on the corresponding eigenspaces. Given an A-bounded operator B, the map λ 7→ PΓ(A+λB) is norm-continuous in a small enough neighborhood of 0. Now fix some Xi L/R. By the above proposition and the fact that Ξ takes discrete values, one easily obtains precise conditions that ensure the invariance of the index under perturbations of the Xi L/R: Proposition 2. Let X̃i L/R ∈ L ( H(10−d) L/R ) be self-adjoint and ∆̃ (10−d) LR the corresponding Dirac operator. Assume that ( ∆̃ (10−d) LR )2 and { ∆̃ (10−d) LR ,∆ (10−d) LR } are ( ∆ (10−d) LR )2 bounded. Then there is a neighborhood U of 0 such that Ξ ( ∆ (10−d) LR + λ∆̃ (10−d) LR ) = Ξ ( ∆ (10−d) LR ) for all λ ∈ U . Remark 1. If H(10−d) L/R are finite-dimensional, then H(10−d) LR has finite even dimension. It is then no longer necessary to restrict the trace to a finite number of eigenvalues, so one can dispose of the projector in the definition of Ξ. It follows that for finite-dimensional representation spaces (corresponding to compact branes), the chirality index always vanishes. An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models 5 3.1 An example Up to now, the discussion was generic, in particular independent of the commutation relations of the Xi. Let us now consider the concrete example of intersecting Moyal planes (recall that a Moyal plane is defined by canonical commutation relations [Xi, Xj ] = iΘij , with Θ a real antisymmetric matrix). Take d = 6, and let Xi L/R span two 2-dimensional orthogonal Moyal planes, i.e., X6 L = x, X7 L = px, X8 L = 0, X9 L = 0, X6 R = 0, X7 R = 0, X8 R = y, X9 R = py, where (x, px) and (y, py) are the canonical position and momentum operators on H(10−d) L/R = L2(R). As shown in [6] (and also below), the index of this configuration is 1. It is easy to see that ( ∆ (10−d) LR )2 = x2 + y2 + p2 x + p2 y + 2Σ67 + 2Σ89, (5) where Σij = i 4 [Γi,Γj ]. This operator acts on H(10−d) LR ' L2(R2)⊗ C4, where we use that B ( L2(R), L2(R) ) ' L2 ( R2 ) . As the first four terms on the r.h.s. of (5) form a positive definite quadratic form, it follows from the above proposition that the index is invariant under perturbations Xi L/R → Xi L/R + λX̃i L/R for small enough λ, if the X̃i L/R are bounded or linear (corresponding to intersections at angles3) in the Xi L/R (or a sum of such contributions). In order to see this explicitly, let us consider the case where the X̃i are linear in the Xi. As an example, consider X6 = x+ cy, X7 = px, X8 = y, X9 = py. For the square of the Dirac operator, one obtains( ∆ (10−d) LR )2 = x2 + ( 1 + c2 ) y2 − 2cxy + p2 x + p2 y︸ ︷︷ ︸ ∆1 + 2Σ67 − 2Σ89 + 2cΣ69︸ ︷︷ ︸ ∆2 . Here ∆1 acts on L2(R2), while ∆2 acts on the spinorial representation space C4. To have a zero eigenvector of ( ∆ (10−d) LR )2 requires a pair of eigenvectors of ∆1 and ∆2 which add up to zero. Let us compute the lowest eigenvalue of ∆1. We use the ansatz Ψ = e− 1 2 (Ax2+By2+2Cxy). The eigenvalue equation ∆1Ψ = ηΨ then leads to −A2 − C2 + 1 = 0, −C2 −B2 + 1 + c2 = 0, −AC −BC − c = 0, 3For intersections at angles in the context of string compactifications, cf. [3, 5, 7]. 6 H. Steinacker and J. Zahn the eigenvalue being given by η = A+B. It is straightforward to find the eigenvalue η = √ 4 + c2. For the eigenvalues of the spinorial part ∆2, one finds η = ±c, η = ± √ 4 + c2. Hence, there is exactly one way to cancel the eigenvector of ∆1, i.e., there is one eigenvector of ( ∆ (10−d) LR )2 with eigenvalue 0 (the higher eigenvalues of ∆1 can obviously not lead to further zero eigenvalues). One can also explicitly check that it has positive chirality. Analogously, one can treat the d = 4 dimensional intersection of a 6- and an 8-dimensional brane, and similar configurations [6]. An example of intersecting branes with a vanishing index is provided by a degenerate inter- section of two quantum planes, such as X6 = x+ y, X7 = px, X8 = 0, X9 = py. In this case the part of ( ∆ (10−d) LR )2 that is quadratic in the coordinates of the quantum plane is given by (x− y)2 + p2 x + p2 y, which is not a positive definite quadratic form. In particular, the condition of being ( ∆ (10−d) LR )2 bounded is not fulfilled for rotations of this plane. One easily checks that the index for this configuration vanishes. This underlines the necessity of spanning the full R(10−d) in order to get chiral fermions, as already pointed out in [6]. 4 Summary and outlook We presented a definition of an index describing the occurrence of chiral fermions on intersecting branes in matrix models and discussed the stability of this index under perturbations. In particu- lar, this implies the existence of chiral fermions for branes intersecting at angles. The drawback of our approach is that it requires strong restrictions on the embedding, in particular (2). It is for example not applicable for situations in which (in the semiclassical picture) the brane Md is not flat. One possibility to treat this case could be to work in the semiclassical limit, or to use a modified chirality operator, like4 χ = εA1...A2nC1...C10−2nεB1...B2nC1...C10−2nX B1 · · ·XB2nΓA1 · · ·ΓA2n for a 2n-dimensional brane. We plan to come back to this issue in future work. As noted in Remark 1, the index always vanishes for intersections of compact fuzzy spaces Ki ⊂ R(10−d). This raises an apparent paradox, since the results on chiral fermions on intersec- tions should apply at least approximately for each intersection. What happens is that pairs of “almost-localized” fermionic near-zero modes arise on the intersections Ki ∩ Kj , such that for each “effectively” chiral fermion localized on some intersection, there is another fermion with opposite chirality at some other intersection5. This means that if, e.g., the chiral fermions of the standard model arise from some intersections such as in [6], there are additional sectors with fermions of opposite chirality localized at different intersections. The approximate localization on different intersections suggests that these unwanted sectors could be effectively hidden or removed in some way. A natural strategy to achieve this is to give up the product ansatz (2), as proposed in [10], and as realized, e.g., by solutions with split noncommutativity [13]. These are interesting directions for further research. 4This particular operator has the disadvantage that it does in general not anticommute with the Dirac operator, but it may be useful nevertheless. 5This is verified in numerical simulations. An Index for Intersecting Branes in Matrix Models 7 Acknowledgments This work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) under the contract P24713. References [1] Aoki H., Chiral fermions and the standard model from the matrix model compactified on a torus, Progr. Theoret. Phys. 125 (2011), 521–536, arXiv:1011.1015. [2] Berenstein D., Dzienkowski E., Matrix embeddings on flat R3 and the geometry of membranes, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012), 086001, 19 pages, arXiv:1204.2788. [3] Berkooz M., Douglas M.R., Leigh R.G., Branes intersecting at angles, Nuclear Phys. B 480 (1996), 265–278, hep-th/9606139. [4] Berline N., Getzler E., Vergne M., Heat kernels and Dirac operators, Grundlehren der Mathematischen Wissenschaften, Vol. 298, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1992. [5] Blumenhagen R., Cvetic M., Langacker P., Shiu G., Toward realistic intersecting D-brane models, Ann. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 55 (2005), 71–139, hep-th/0502005. [6] Chatzistavrakidis A., Steinacker H., Zoupanos G., Intersecting branes and a standard model realization in matrix models, J. High Energy Phys. 2011 (2011), no. 9, 115, 36 pages, arXiv:1107.0265. [7] Gauntlett J.P., Intersecting branes, hep-th/9705011. [8] Ishibashi N., Kawai H., Kitazawa Y., Tsuchiya A., A large-N reduced model as superstring, Nuclear Phys. B 498 (1997), 467–491, hep-th/9612115. [9] Kato T., Perturbation theory for linear operators, Die Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften, Vol. 132, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1966. [10] Nishimura J., Tsuchiya A., Realizing chiral fermions in the type IIB matrix model at finite N , arXiv:1305.5547. [11] Steinacker H., Emergent gravity from noncommutative gauge theory, J. High Energy Phys. 2007 (2007), no. 12, 049, 36 pages, arXiv:0708.2426. [12] Steinacker H., Emergent geometry and gravity from matrix models: an introduction, Classical Quantum Gravity 27 (2010), 133001, 46 pages, arXiv:1003.4134. [13] Steinacker H., Split noncommutativity and compactified brane solutions in matrix models, Progr. Theoret. Phys. 126 (2011), 613–636, arXiv:1106.6153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1143/PTP.125.521 http://dx.doi.org/10.1143/PTP.125.521 http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.1015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.86.086001 http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.2788 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0550-3213(96)00452-X http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9606139 http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.nucl.55.090704.151541 http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.nucl.55.090704.151541 http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0502005 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2011)115 http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.0265 http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9705011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0550-3213(97)00290-3 http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9612115 http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.5547 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2007/12/049 http://arxiv.org/abs/0708.2426 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/27/13/133001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/27/13/133001 http://arxiv.org/abs/1003.4134 http://dx.doi.org/10.1143/PTP.126.613 http://dx.doi.org/10.1143/PTP.126.613 http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.6153 1 Introduction 2 Matrix models, intersecting branes, and chiral fermions 3 Deformation stability of chiral modes 3.1 An example 4 Summary and outlook References