# References

ITEP-TH-56/99

hep-th/xxnnmmm

On heavy states in supersymmetric gluodynamics at large N

A.Gorsky and K.Selivanov 

ITEP, Moscow, 117259, B.Cheremushkinskaya, 25

## Abstract

It is argued that there are states (quasiparticles) with masses ranging over the scales $`\mathrm{\Lambda }N_c^{1/3}÷\mathrm{\Lambda }N_c`$ in N=1 supersymmetric multicolor gluodynamics. These states exist in the form of quantum bubbles made out of the BPS domain walls. Analogous states are likely to exist in non-supersymmetric case as well.

Recently a remarkable progress in understanding supersymmetric gauge theories took place. One of the main roles in those developments was played by the so-called BPS states which showed up practically in every instance when some kind of exact information about a gauge theory was available. The classical example was, of course, the construction of low energy effective action in N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills , where a crucial piece of information was obtained due to existence of the BPS saturated monopoles and dyons.

N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills also possesses the BPS states. These are domain walls  and (upon perturbing the theory with some operators or upon introducing some matter) strings . Notice that this time the BPS states are not point-like which is, of course, much harder to work with. It may easily happen that extendedness of the BPS states in N=1 supersymmetric gluodynamics is the reason why it is less treatable compared to the N=2 theory. Anyway, the role of the BPS extended objects in dynamics of N=1 theory is still to be understood, though there are permanent advances (see, e.g. -) of which the most inspiring for the present note was the paper ).

The paper  was concentrated about the fact that the BPS domain wall width scales as $`1/N_c`$ at large $`N_c`$. The point of the paper was that such behavior of the width assumes existence of heavy particles, $`mN_c`$ (of which the wall could be done) in the spectrum of multicolor N=1 supersymmetric gluodynamics, in addition to the traditional glueballs whose mass is independent of $`N_c`$ in the multicolor limit. It is worth stressing that these heavy particles were argued in  to exist in the non-supersymmetric gluodynamics too.

The purpose of the present note is to suggest a candidate for these heavy particles. We argue that they can, in turn, be done out of the BPS walls, namely, in the form of quantum bubbles done out of the BPS walls. It happens that at large $`N_c`$ these bubbles can be treated semiclassically, the thing wall approximation being applicable (because a typical radius of the bubble is much bigger than the wall width). Masses of these bubbles range over the scales $`\mathrm{\Lambda }N_c^{1/3}÷\mathrm{\Lambda }N_c`$.

The BPS domain walls in N=1 supersymmetric gluodynamics were introduced in . They interpolate between the $`N_c`$ vacua distinguished by the value of gluino condensate. The tension of the wall between two adjacent vacua is of the order of $`N_c\mathrm{\Lambda }^3`$, where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ stands for the scale of the theory. It is instructive to discuss the domain walls at large $`N_c`$ in the framework of M-theory, where they are represented as M5 branes wrapped on some cycles . This construction naturally explains that the wall tension scales as $`N_c`$. Later it was argued in refs.  that the domain wall width $`\delta `$ scales as $`\delta 1/N_c`$. The arguments of refs. , were supplemented in  by considering the $`N_c`$-behavior  of the wall junctions  and by studying various effective Lagrangians.

Quantum bubbles (in a scalar theory with spontaneous symmetry breaking) were introduced in , where they arose as resonant states in the multi-particle production at a threshold. Let us remind main points concerning those bubbles. The action in the thin wall approximation reads

$$S=4\pi \mu 𝑑tr^2\sqrt{1\dot{r}^2}$$
(1)   
where $`\mu `$ stands for the tension of the wall. Corresponding Hamiltonian reads

$$H^2p^2=(4\pi \mu r^2)^2$$
(2)   
with the canonical momentum $`p`$. The classical trajectory with energy $`E`$ corresponds to oscillations of the bubble between the turning point

$`r=r_0=(\frac{E}{4\pi \mu })^{1/2}`$ and $`r=0`$. It could be that instead of oscillating the bubble would quickly dissipate into outgoing waves. Below we give some arguments that this is not the case. The bubble becomes stable in the large $`N_c`$ limit. Therefore for the moment we proceed discussing bubbles in assumption of their stability.

The part of the trajectory near zero radius, $`r\delta `$, cannot be described within the thin wall approximation. However in the case that $`r_0\delta `$ (which we show below is indeed the case) most of the evolution of the bubble proceeds within the applicability of the thin wall approximation. Via standard quasi-classical consideration this assumes that the wave function of the bubble decays quickly near zero radius so this region should not be essential.

The oscillatory motion of the bubbles can be quantized and the discrete energy levels found by applying the Bohr - Sommerfield quantization rule:

$$I(E)p𝑑r2\pi \nu (E)=2\pi n,$$
(3)   
where the integral runs over one full period of oscillation and contains the momentum $`p`$ determined by eq.(2) in the thin wall approximation. The quantity $`\nu (E)`$ is a correction to the thin wall limit, which arises from the contribution to the action of the motion at short distances $`r\delta `$, where the latter limit is not applicable. Since at such distances $`pE`$, by order of magnitude $`\nu (E)`$ can be estimated as $`\nu (E)E\delta `$. The integral in eq.(3) is of the order of $`Er_0`$, and is thus much larger than $`\nu (E)`$ once the condition $`r_0\delta `$ is satisfied. In terms of the turning radius $`r_0`$ the quantization relation (3) reads as

$$k\mu r_0^3=2\pi (n+\nu (E)),$$
(4)   
with $`k`$ being a numerical coefficient,

$$k=\frac{\pi \sqrt{\pi }\mathrm{\Gamma }[1/4]}{\mathrm{\Gamma }[7/4]}.$$
(5)   
For an energy level $`E_n`$ in terms of the number $`n`$ of the level one finds:

$$E_n=\mu ^{1/3}\left(2\pi n/k\right)^{2/3}.$$
(6)   
Thus for finite $`n`$ the energy of the bubble scales as $`N_c^{1/3}`$.

Let us first verify that the thin wall approximation is valid. Using the fact that the tension of the wall scales as $`N_c`$, one sees from Eq.(4) that (at finite $`n`$)

$$r_0N_c^{1/3}$$
(7)   
which is indeed large compared to the wall width, $`\delta 1/N_c`$ (on the other side, $`r_0`$ is small compared to the scale of the theory, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, so the bubbles are point-like).

Let us now estimate the decay rate of the quantum bubble into the light glueballs (whose mass is independent of $`N_c`$ in the multicolor limit). The spectrum of the particles produced by an accelerating wall is described by the exponential $`e^{E/T_{eff}}`$, where $`E`$ is the energy of the produced particles and $`T_{eff}`$ stands for an effective temperature, which is equal to the acceleration of the wall. In the case of the bubble a typical acceleration is of the order of $`1/r_0`$. Hence, in view of Eq.(7), we expect that the particle production rate is $`e^{CN_c^{1/3}}`$ where $`C`$ is $`N_c`$-independent.

It is seen from Eq.(4) that for sufficiently high levels of the bubble, $`nN_c`$, $`r_0`$ becomes unsuppressed by the powers of $`N_c`$ and hence for such levels one expects no suppression of the particle production. Remarkably, energy of these extremal levels scales as $`N_c`$, which is the mass scale argued in  to exist in N=1 supersymmetric multicolor gluodynamics in order to explain the $`N_c`$ dependence of the domain wall width.

It is worth noticing that both perturbative and nonperturbative corrections to the effective action Eq.(1) are likely to be small. Indeed, the effective coupling constant is expected to freeze at the scale $`r_0`$ which is small compared to $`1/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. So, perturbative corrections are expected to be of the order of $`1/logN_c`$. Nonperturbative corrections should be suppressed by powers of $`N_c`$. One is tempted to claim that in the multicolor limit Eq.(6) is nonexact only because it is obtained via Bohr-Sommerfield quantization, which is good only for sufficiently high levels. Notice, however, that Eq.(6) gives only part of the spectrum, nonspherical modes of the bubble being neglected. The problem of quantization of the bubble in general case is the problem of quantization of supermembrane which is unsolved by now.

All of the above picture is very likely to exist in the usual non-supersymmetric gluodynamics in the multicolor limit. In  (see also , ) it was argued that even in the non-supersymmetric case at every $`\theta `$ where are $`N_c`$ vacua one of which being stable and others - metastable. However those metastable vacua live infinitely long in the multicolor limit. The wall interpolating between the adjacent vacua was argued to have the same $`N_c`$-dependences - $`N_c`$ in its tension and $`1/N_c`$ in its width. Of course, the walls between nondegenerate vacua cannot be at rest, but the quantum bubbles can still exist. A typical size of the quantum bubbles is seen to be much less than the size of the critical bubble (the one which arise in the spontaneous metastable vacuum decay), hence the above estimates remain intact.

Let us briefly discuss possible interactions of quantum bubbles in Minkowski space. First we have to pose question about the bubble charges. It is clear that flat domain wall is charged with respect to three-form field which can be identified in non-supersymmetric case with Chern-Simons three-form. However the total charge of the bubble vanishes. The most simple argument concerning this point amounts from the analogy with the behaviour of one-form field in two dimensions. Indeed in d=2 electric field of the charge is constant and the total field of charge-anticharge pair is zero. The bubble above is the analogue of this pair in d=4 and taking into account that the curvature of the three-form field of the wall is constant one can show the absence of the total three-form charge.

Therefore there is no the Coulomb like interaction between two bubbles. However one can look for the possible string like interaction for the bubble pair. Naively one can expect a string stretched between bubbles since QCD string can end on the domain wall. But more careful inspection shows that it is not the case. The point is that U(1) field providing this possibility is related to the presence of the fermionic zero mode on the flat domain wall. In the bubble case zero mode disappears due to the curvature therefore the argument above fails in this case. Thus there is no interaction of the bubble pair via a single QCD string. On more supporting argument comes from the consideration of the sizes of the objects - the size of QCD string is believed to be independent of $`N_C`$ while the size of the low level bubble vanishes in the multicolor limit. The issue of other possibilities for the bubbles to interact deserves further investigation.

It would be interesting to realize the influence of these additional states on the thermodynamics of the multicolor QCD. The fractional dependence on N implies the possibility of a kind of the phase transition related with the quantum bubbles. Since we deal with the large N limit one can also expect gravitational counterpart of these states via AdS/CFT correspondence.

We would like to thank M. Shifman and M. Voloshin for discussions on the related issues. The work of A.G. was supported in part by grant INTAS-97-0103 and the work of K.S. by grant INTAS-96-0482.