# Tiling with almost-BPS junctions.

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## Abstract

In the light of recent studies of BPS triple junctions in the Wess-Zumino model we describe techniques to construct infinite lattices using similar junctions. It is shown that whilst these states are only approximately locally BPS they are nevertheless stable to small perturbations, giving a stationary tiling of the plane.

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Domain walls have found their way into many areas of physics, ranging from the small scale in solid state laboratories, where they can appear as crystal dislocations, to the large scales of cosmology. Such objects can come about when there are vacuum states which are disconnected yet degenerate in energy, although one can envision walls appearing when the distinct vacua have different energy, but then the walls are not static.

The case of interest here is supersymmetric field theory, where the distinct vacua come about from a polynomial superpotential. As we shall see one is able to construct states where two or more walls meet at a junction to create a configuration which saturates a Bogomol’nyi bound. These junctions have been investigated recently in the context of the Wess-Zumino model by two groups  , pointing out that these junctions preserve $`\frac{1}{4}`$ of the $`N=1`$ supercharges. One may also motivate this study from the viewpoint of supersymmetric QCD. There it is found that gluino condensates can form, leading to the effective degrees of freedom satisfying a Wess-Zumino model . In this case distinct vacua are present, giving domain walls which are BPS states .

An intriguing possibility then arises due to the existence of junctions - one may make a network of domain walls in a similar manner to string networks . Here however we shall see that these networks of domain walls are only locally approximately BPS states rather than full BPS states. In doing this we shall come across a wonderful variety of patterns, including some of the Euclidean tilings .

Although a connection is not clear, such arrangements are familiar in fluid mechanics  and the physics of granular layers . In these Faraday experiments the fluids are driven by an external force which can generate instabilities, such as convection instabilities. A consequence of this is the generation of diverse cell patterns, from regular to quasi-patterns.

We shall follow the approach of Gibbons and Townsend in our choice of model , specifically the model under investigation is the bosonic sector of the Wess-Zumino model, reduced to 2+1 dimensions. Much of this section can be found in their work but is reproduced here for completeness. The Lagrangian is defined by,

$``$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}_\mu \overline{\varphi }^\mu \varphi |W^{}(\varphi )|^2.`$ (1)   
For static configurations we may use the energy density to derive a Bogomol’nyi equation. This is facilitated by the introduction of the complex coordinate $`z=x+iy`$, whereupon the energy density becomes,

$`=\left|{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{z}}e^{i\alpha }\overline{W^{}}\right|^2+2\mathrm{R}\mathrm{e}\left(e^{i\alpha }{\displaystyle \frac{W}{z}}\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}J(z,\overline{z}).`$ (2)   
Here we have introduced an arbitrary phase $`\alpha `$, and $`J(z,\overline{z})`$ is defined by,

$`J(z,\overline{z})=\left({\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{\overline{z}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{\varphi }}{z}}{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{z}}{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{\varphi }}{\overline{z}}}\right).`$ (3)   
We may derive a Bogomol’nyi bound by defining the quantities,

$`Q`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle dx\mathrm{dy}J(\mathrm{z},\overline{\mathrm{z}})},`$ (4)   
$`T`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle dx\mathrm{dy}\frac{W}{\mathrm{z}}},`$ (5)   
leading to

$`E={\displaystyle dx\mathrm{dy}}Q+|T|,`$ (6)   
which is saturated by solutions of the first order equation,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{z}}=e^{i\alpha }\overline{W^{}}.`$ (7)   
We now focus on models where the scalar field potential energy density, $`|W^{}(\varphi )|^2`$, contains isolated, degenerate minima. This allows for the presence of domain walls, in particular if there are more than two minima there will be more than one type of domain wall, giving the possibility of a wall junction. The question of what type of walls exist was investigated in , showing that not all 4D field theories with more than two disconnected vacua admit junction solutions, in contradiction to a statement made in . We note here that an existence proof for a class of junction solutions of the second order equations has been provided in .

Junctions may be thought of as the meeting point of a number of domain walls. Each domain wall interpolates between two vacua and one may associate a complex topological charge to them ,

$`T_{ab}`$ $`=`$ $`2e^{iarg(W(\varphi _b)W(\varphi _a))}|W(\varphi _b)W(\varphi _a)|,`$ (8)   
with BPS walls having a tension, $`\mu _{ab}=|T_{ab}|`$. This formula for the tensions will be of great use later, as the wall tensions are needed to describe the form of the junctions.

To be specific we now choose a superpotential which leads to three distinct vacua, placed where $`\varphi `$ is a cube root of unity, (1, $`\omega `$, $`\omega ^2`$),

$`W(\varphi )`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi {\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\varphi ^4.`$ (9)   
In this case the tensions are all equal, leading to a triple junction with 120 separating the sectors. One possible lattice using these junctions consists of hexagonal domains, pictured in Fig. 1.

One may ask the question whether such a network could be a BPS state , that this is not the case may be seen from two perspectives. Firstly we note that the lattice can at best be perturbatively stable, meaning it is not the lowest energy state for the given boundary data, and so is not BPS. If one of the domains were to tunnel to a different vacuum, liberating an energy of approximately $`3l\mu `$, the network would not recover its original form; the newly tunnelled phase would propagate through the entire lattice. Secondly, one may try to create such a network by solving the BPS equations in the plaquettes of the dual lattice (the dotted triangles in Fig. 1), then gluing the plaquettes together. This would clearly lead to a network of BPS junctions. However we note that each junction has a winding associated to it and that the three junctions it connects to have the opposite winding, with $`\varphi `$ being proportional to $`z`$ or $`\overline{z}`$ ($`z`$ here is measured from the centre of the junction.) We see then that while one junction may satisfy (7) its three neighbours satisfy an anti-BPS relation,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{\overline{z}}}=e^{i\beta }\overline{W^{}}.`$ (10)   
A BPS junction would therefore be connected to three anti-BPS junctions, so no global coordinate system exists that could make the whole lattice BPS. We also note that such a construction would lead to discontinuities in the derivatives of $`\varphi `$ where the dual plaquettes meet because one is solving different equations in each of them.

To establish whether a network could exist we performed a numerical simulation of the second order Lagrange equations and searched for a hexagonal structure, using a lattice with periodic boundary conditions. Once a tiling had been found we tested its stability against local fluctuations by randomly perturbing the field, with the expected result; static lattices exist so long as the domain sizes are greater than the width of the walls. An example is given below in Fig. 2. There remains, however, the possibility of non local instabilities other than tunnelling. In the thin wall limit the walls approach the BPS limit, and then one may expand or shrink a plaquette without changing the angles of the junctions, so keeping the energy the same. These non local zero modes do not survive outside the thin wall limit. As a plaquette is shrunk the walls which make up its boundary deviate more from the BPS limit, so increasing there tension, causing the plaquette to further collapse. This has been tested numerically, finding that such modes were not excited by the local random fluctuations but did occur when the initial data contained one plaquette smaller than the rest.

An interesting property of the domain walls in this model is that the wall interpolating between two vacua is effected by the other vacua, making the the field trace out a curve in $`\varphi `$ space which is not straight. An even more remarkable property of the BPS domain walls is that these curves are straight when plotted in the superpotential, W, plane . To see this consider a domain wall which is independent of $`y`$, so that $`zx`$ in (7). Then multiplying both sides of (7) by $`\frac{\overline{\varphi }}{x}`$ yields

$`|{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{x}}|^2`$ $`=`$ $`e^{i\alpha }{\displaystyle \frac{W}{x}},`$ (11)   
where $`\alpha `$ is now found to be the argument of the topological charge on the wall . This shows that the imaginary component of $`e^{i\alpha }W(\varphi )`$ is a constant, leading to BPS domain walls tracing out straight lines in the $`W`$ plane. This is illustrated below in Fig. 3, where the hexagonal array of Fig. 2 has been mapped to the $`\varphi `$ and $`W`$ planes. The density of dots in this figure represents the volume of physical space occupying that region of field space, the cusps (vacua) are the most dense, as we would expect for most of the field being in a vacuum. The straight lines joining the vacua in Fig. 3 (b) confirm the almost-BPS nature of the domain walls.

Using what we have learned above we may now be more adventurous in the choice of superpotential. Using the quintic superpotential, $`W(\varphi )=\varphi \frac{1}{5}\varphi ^5`$, we find that the vacua for $`\varphi `$ are the fourth roots of unity. In this case there are six domain walls, four of which have tension $`2\frac{4}{5}`$ and two with $`2\frac{4}{5}\sqrt{2}`$, using (8). The junctions allowed are found by considering the ways that the vacua can be joined by domain walls. Here there are essentially only two types of junction, one three-junction and one four-junction, with the angles involved being found by drawing the vacuum connectivity in the $`W`$ space. We know that the tensions of the walls are proportional to the length of the connection in $`W`$ space between the vacua (8), in fact these connections may be used as a vector diagram for forces. Together the domain walls making up a junction form a closed polygon when mapped to the $`W`$ plane, this is precisely what is required of a vector diagram of tensions if there is to be no net force. As an example we consider the junctions of the quintic superpotential in fig. 4. A triple junction is calculated by connecting up three vacua in the $`W`$ plane and translating this into a closed vector diagram. These vectors then make up the tensions in the junction, allowing the angles to found trivially.

One may initially expect the four-junction to be unstable to producing two triple junctions. This is not the case as it would require a heavy wall to interpolate between them which is disfavoured energetically. We undertook a simulation of this potential, looking for regular tessellations, testing the stability as before. One pattern which can be formed uses only the triple junction, leading to a familiar ‘bathroom tiling’ consisting of octagons and squares . This can be made more intricate by including the four-junction, a result pictured in Fig. 5.

We end this catalogue by considering an order seven superpotential, $`W(\varphi )=\varphi \frac{1}{7}\varphi ^7`$. This has the possibility of a rich variety of patterns as there are 5 factorial domain walls connecting the vacua, which are the sixth roots of unity. The walls have three different tensions, occuring in in the ratio 2:$`\sqrt{3}`$:1. The triple vertex which has all its walls at a different tension forms a junction with angles of 120, 150 and 90, which is easily found using the aforementioned method. One may use this this to generate a tiling consisting of dodecagons, hexagons and squares, as illustrated in Fig. 6. Here we may also generate an attractive tiling using three of the possible vertices, the triple, quadruple and sextuple junctions. The result is shown in Fig. 7.

In this paper we have indicated the huge variety of networks that are possible in a relatively simple field theory. These networks consist of domains, where the field falls into a given vacuum, and walls which separate the vacua. For stationary solutions we require that each domain does not ’know’ that there is another domain nearby in the same vacuum. This necessitates that the domain sizes are larger than the width of the walls separating them. In fact, violations of the BPS equation reduce as the wall thickness decreases with respect to the domain size, approaching the BPS limit as the thickness goes to zero. It is this same thin defect limit which makes the the string network’s of Sen  BPS.

One possible area for future study is static, space filling domain wall networks in three spatial dimensions. At present we see no reason why such states could not exist, although they may occur more naturally for a two component complex scalar transforming under a natural SU(2) action.

The networks of domain walls have been shown not to be BPS states, nevertheless junctions do locally approximately satisfy the BPS (or anti-BPS) equation, with the violation getting smaller as the domain size increases.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Gary Gibbons for suggesting this project and for his invaluable comments. Conversations with Nick Manton, Jesus Moreno and Paul Townsend are also gratefully acknowledged. This work was supported by PPARC.