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# Cu-O network dependent core-hole screening in low-dimensional cuprates: A theoretical analysis

## I Introduction

The influence of dimensionality and lattice geometry on the electronic structure of crystals is a classical topic in solid state physics. However, in the presence of strong electronic correlations like those observed in the high-$`T_c`$ superconducting cuprates, the theoretical analysis of electronic properties is especially difficult. Recently, the electronic structure of various undoped cuprates has been studied experimentally using core-level X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS).  By comparing these spectra to the results of theoretical model calculations we can try to improve our understanding of the electronic properties of the cuprates. In addition, a theoretical analysis allows us to check the validity of the microscopic models used for the calculations, and it provides values for the physical parameters which are contained in the model Hamiltonians.

The core-level photoemission process leads to a final state in which an electron is missing in the $`2p_{3/2}`$ core orbital of a Cu site. The resulting positive charge is screened by valence electrons, predominantly from Cu $`3d_{x^2y^2}`$ and O $`2p_{x,y}`$ orbitals. The contribution of these screening processes to the final state determines the detailed form of the experimental spectrum. Therefore, core-level spectra contain information about the dynamics of valence electrons.

Since the atomic ground state of the Cu-O system is a $`2p^63d^9`$ configuration, it is advantageous to use the hole picture. In this case the core-level photoemission process amounts to the creation of a core hole which has a strong repulsive Coulomb interaction with the valence hole in the $`3d_{x^2y^2}`$ orbital of the same Cu site.

Experimentally, the Cu $`2p`$ core-level spectrum of many formally divalent Cu compounds shows a dominant main line and a pronounced satellite structure. In analogy to an approach for metals,  this satellite structure was assigned to a (“poorly screened”) final state (denoted $`3d^9`$) in which the valence hole largely remains on the Cu site. In this way, the structure of the satellite could be explained by multiplet splitting due to the remaining $`d`$-hole.

The main line was interpreted as originating from a final state in which the hole resides in the neighbouring ligands (denoted $`3d^{10}`$L). However, for several compounds the main line is found to be asymmetric, and to have a large width. For instance, three substructures were identified in the main line of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 and Sr2CuO2Cl2  (which will be analyzed in this paper). Substructures of this kind are the reason why the main line in the Cu $`2p_{3/2}`$ spectra cannot be attributed to a local $`3d^{10}`$L excitation only: This interpretation does not account for the asymmetry and the large width of the main line.

An alternative explanation was found using numerical exact diagonalization for a chain of three plaquettes (Cu3O10). It was shown that the valence hole could delocalize further in the crystal. This leads to a lowest eigenstate of $`3d^{10}`$ character, in which the hole is mainly pushed out onto the neighbouring CuO4 units, forming a Zhang-Rice singlet. These delocalization processes in the hole picture are equivalent to the screening processes in the electron picture.

Obviously, this screening of the core hole depends on the geometry of the CuO network. This suggests the possibility of finite-size effects in cluster calculations. In fact, convergence of the spectra with respect to the system size was found only for chain clusters with lengths of seven plaquettes (Cu7O21). These calculations led to a satisfactory agreement with the experimental results for Sr2CuO3.

Another popular model for the description of core-level spectroscopy is the single-site Anderson impurity model. Recently, the influence of dimensionality on Cu $`2p_{3/2}`$ spectra of several cuprates was analyzed using this model. Overall, very good agreement with the experimental main lines was obtained. The satellite structures, however, were not discussed. In particular, no multiplet effects were included. Furthermore, the absolute energetical positions of the main lines of Sr2CuO3 and Sr2CuO2Cl2 were not correctly reproduced. These shortcomings are avoided in our treatment.

In the present paper, we discuss the influence of of the dimensionality on the Cu $`2p_{3/2}`$ core level spectra of undoped cuprates by means of the Mori-Zwanzig projection technique. Both exchange splitting and delocalization properties are described within one framework using a multi-band Hubbard model. In addition, a clear description of the final states is obtained.

Our analysis allows to distinguish between effects of the Cu-O geometry and effects from material-specific properties. Examples for material-specific properties are the Cu-O distance or components which do not belong to the Cu-O network. Some of these properties are described by the values of model parameters like the Cu-O charge-transfer energy or the Cu-O hybridization strength. A phenomenological analysis cannot conclusively determine whether an effect is due to dimensionality or not. For instance, due to differences in material-specific properties a peak which is brought about by a similar process in two different compounds may not appear at the same binding energy in both spectra. Therefore, the investigation of microscopic models is necessary.

We compare our calculations with the experimental spectra of three materials which consist of different Cu-O networks: Bi2CuO4 which contains separated CuO4 plaquettes  (“zero”-dimensional Cu-O4 network), Sr2CuO3 where the plaquettes form linear chains  (one-dimensional Cu-O3 network), and Sr2CuO2Cl2 which contains CuO2 planes  (two-dimensional Cu-O2 network).

In the case of zero-dimensional edge-shared or separated plaquettes (like Bi2CuO4) the main line consists of a single feature which is explained by a local process in which the valence hole moves from the core-hole site to the surrounding O sites.  For one-dimensional zigzag or linear chains (like Sr2CuO3) two features contribute to the main line. In the case of two-dimensional planar systems (like Sr2CuO2Cl2) the main line is composed of at least three features. In addition to these effects there is an interesting trend in the intensity ratio $`I_s/I_m`$ between the satellite and the main line. For zero-dimensional systems this ratio is rather large, e.g. $`I_s/I_m0.58`$ for Bi2CuO4. On the other hand, in the case of one-dimensional networks the ratio is small, for instance $`I_s/I_m=0.37`$ for Sr2CuO3. The ratio for two-dimensional systems lies in-between these values, e.g. $`I_s/I_m=0.52`$ for Sr2CuO2Cl2.

The paper is organized as follows. In Sec. II we introduce the model Hamiltonian and describe the method of calculation. Section III contains a discussion of the results. Our conclusions are summarized in Sec. IV.

## II Model and calculation

For the calculation of the Cu 2p3/2 photoemission spectra we use a multi-band Hubbard Hamiltonian to describe the Cu-O network, while additional terms represent the interaction between the core hole and valence holes on the core-hole site. The full Hamiltonian in the hole picture is

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }{\displaystyle \underset{j\sigma }{}}n_{j\sigma }^p+U_{dd}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}n_i^dn_i^d+U_{dc}{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma \xi }{}}n_{0\sigma }^dn_{0\xi }^c`$ (3)
$`+I_{dc}\text{S}_0^d\text{J}_0^c+t_{pd}{\displaystyle \underset{ij\sigma }{}}\varphi _{pd}^{ij}(p_{j\sigma }^{}d_{i\sigma }+h.c.)`$
$`+t_{pp}{\displaystyle \underset{jj^{}\sigma }{}}\varphi _{pp}^{jj^{}}p_{j\sigma }^{}p_{j^{}\sigma }\text{,}`$
where $`d_{i\sigma }^{}`$ ($`p_{j\sigma }^{}`$) create a hole with spin $`\sigma `$ in the $`i`$-th Cu $`3d`$ orbital ($`j`$-th O $`2p`$ orbital) and $`n_{i\sigma }^d`$ ($`n_{j\sigma }^p`$) are the corresponding occupation-number operators. The first and second term on the r.h.s. of Eq. (3) describe the charge-transfer energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and the on-site Coulomb repulsion $`U_{dd}`$ between Cu $`3d`$ valence holes. The third and fourth term represent the local Coulomb repulsion $`U_{dc}`$ and the effective exchange interaction $`I_{dc}`$ between the $`3d`$ valence holes and the $`2p_{3/2}`$ core hole at the core-hole site (which is taken to be site $`i=0`$). $`\text{S}_0^d`$ is the spin-$`1/2`$ operator of a Cu $`3d`$ hole, while $`\text{J}_0^c`$ and $`n_{0\xi }^c`$ are the pseudo-spin $`3/2`$ operator and the number operator of the $`2p_{3/2}`$ core hole (with $`\xi =\pm 3/2,\pm 1/2`$) at site $`i=0`$. Finally, the last two terms on the r.h.s. of Eq. (3) describe the hybridization of Cu $`3d`$ and O $`2p`$ orbitals (hopping strength $`t_{pd}`$) and of O $`2p`$ orbitals (hopping strength $`t_{pp}`$). The factors $`\varphi _{pd}^{ij}`$ and $`\varphi _{pp}^{jj^{}}`$ give the correct sign for the hopping processes and $`ij`$ denotes the summation over nearest neighbor pairs. Hamiltonian (3) describes delocalization processes and multiplet splitting within one framework.

The spectral intensity $`I\left(\omega \right)`$, as a function of binding energy $`\omega `$, is obtained from the hole-hole correlation function

$`I\left(\omega \right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\xi }{}}\mathrm{}\left[G_{00}^\xi \left(\omega +i0\right)\right]\text{,}`$ (4)
$`G_{00}^\xi \left(\omega +i0\right)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Psi }|c_{0\xi }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\omega +i0}}c_{0\xi }^{}|\mathrm{\Psi }\text{,}`$ (5)
where $`c_{0\xi }^{}`$ creates a core hole with pseudo-spin $`\xi `$ at site $`i=0`$. $``$ is the Liouville operator defined by $`A=[H,A]`$ for any operator $`A`$. $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is the full ground state of $`H`$ before the core hole is created in the photoemission process.

As illustrated in Ref. , the full ground state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ can be constructed by starting from the atomic, Néel-ordered ground state $`|\psi _0`$. In $`|\psi _0`$ all O sites are empty and every Cu site is singly occupied with alternating spin direction. Using an exponential transformation, $`|\psi _0`$ is approximately transformed into the full ground state $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{exp}\left(\underset{i\alpha }{}\lambda _\alpha F_{i,\alpha }\right)|\mathrm{\Psi }_N\text{,}$$
(6)
with fluctuation operators $`F_{i,\alpha }`$ and fluctuation strengths $`\lambda _\alpha `$. The operators $`F_{i,\alpha }`$ describe delocalizations of a valence hole which was initially located at Cu site $`i`$. For instance, fluctuation $`F_{i,2d}`$ describes the creation of doubly occupied Cu sites due to the hopping of a hole from Cu site $`i`$, via nearest neighbor O site $`j`$, to the nearest neighbor Cu sites $`k`$

$`F_{i,2d}={\displaystyle \underset{jk\sigma }{}}n_{k\overline{\sigma }}^dd_{k\sigma }^{}\left(1n_{j\sigma }^p\right)d_{i\sigma }\text{.}`$

In the case of a single CuO4 plaquette one fluctuation operator is sufficient to obtain the exact ground state. For a CuO3 chain we use up to nine fluctuation operators thus allowing for delocalizations leading as far as to the next-nearest neighbor plaquette. Due to its higher symmetry, the ground state of a CuO2 plane is well described by only five fluctuation operators. For a detailed description of the fluctuation operators $`F_{i,\alpha }`$ see Ref. . The fluctuation strengths $`\lambda _\alpha `$ are determined using the set of equations

$$0=\mathrm{\Psi }\left|[H,F_\alpha ^{}]\right|\mathrm{\Psi }\text{ , }\alpha =1,2,\mathrm{}\text{.}$$
(7)
which follows from the condition that $`|\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is an eigenstate of the full Hamiltonian (3). The parameters $`\lambda _\alpha `$ are found to decrease exponentially with increasing length of the fluctuation processes. This result is a retrospective justification for the neglect of fluctuations which lead beyond the range covered by the operators $`F_{i,\alpha }`$. Ground state (6) has charge properties which are size consistent and agree well with the results of Quantum Monte Carlo simulations.

From Eq.(4) the Cu $`2p_{3/2}`$ photoemission spectra are calculated using the Mori-Zwanzig projection technique.  This method uses a set of operators $`D_\mu `$, the so-called dynamical variables. For these dynamical variables the following matrix equation holds

$$\underset{\gamma }{}\left(z\delta _{\mu \gamma }\omega _{\mu \gamma }\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \gamma }\left(z\right)\right)G_{\gamma \nu }\left(z\right)=\chi _{\mu \nu }\text{,}$$
(8)
where $`z=\omega +i0`$, and where $`\delta _{\mu \gamma }`$ is the unity matrix. The correlation functions $`G_{\gamma \nu }\left(z\right)`$ are given by

$$G_{\gamma \nu }\left(z\right)=\mathrm{\Psi }\left|D_\gamma ^{}\frac{1}{z}D_\nu \right|\mathrm{\Psi }\text{.}$$
(9)
In Eq.(8) the susceptibility matrix $`\chi _{\mu \nu }`$, the frequency matrix $`\omega _{\mu \gamma }`$, and the self-energy matrix $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \gamma }`$ are defined by

$`\chi _{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Psi }\left|D_\mu ^{}D_\nu \right|\mathrm{\Psi }\text{,}`$ (10)
$`\omega _{\mu \gamma }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\eta }{}}\mathrm{\Psi }\left|D_\mu ^{}D_\eta \right|\mathrm{\Psi }\chi _{\eta \gamma }^1\text{,}`$ (11)
$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \gamma }\left(z\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\eta }{}}\mathrm{\Psi }\left|D_\mu ^{}Q{\displaystyle \frac{1}{zQQ}}QD_\eta \right|\mathrm{\Psi }\chi _{\eta \gamma }^1\text{.}`$ (12)
$`Q`$ is a projector on the subspace which is orthogonal to the space spanned by the dynamical variables $`D_\mu `$. It is defined by

$$Q=1\underset{\mu \nu }{}D_\mu |\mathrm{\Psi }\chi _{\mu \nu }^1\mathrm{\Psi }|D_\nu ^{}\text{.}$$
(13)
The set $`\left\{D_\mu \right\}`$ should contain the dynamical variable $`D_{0\xi }=c_{0\xi }^{}`$. Then, one of the correlation functions in Eq.(9) is the hole-hole correlation function $`G_{00}^\xi `$ of Eq.(5). In this case, solving Eq.(8) for $`G_{00}^\xi `$ one obtains the spectral intensity $`I\left(\omega \right)`$ from Eq.(4). One possible approach to obtain an approximate solution of Eq.(8) is to make the set $`\left\{D_\mu \right\}`$ of dynamical variables sufficiently large so that the self-energies $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \gamma }`$ can be neglected. In this case an approximation for $`I\left(\omega \right)`$ results which can be systematically improved by further enlarging the set of dynamical variables until the results are converged. Due to the neglect of the self-energy matrix the calculated spectra show no broadening. Thus, a convolution with an artificial line width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is necessary for a comparison with the experiment.

Besides $`D_{0\xi }`$ the chosen set of dynamical variables includes the operator

$`D_{0\xi }^{^{}}={\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}d_{0,\sigma }^{}d_{0\sigma }c_{0,\xi +2\sigma }^{}\text{,}`$

which describes the creation of a Cu core hole on site $`i=0`$ and a spin flip of the valence hole on the same site due to the exchange interaction with the core hole. Furthermore, we include the following dynamical variables

$`D_{\alpha \xi }`$ $`=`$ $`F_{0,\alpha }c_{0\xi }^{}\text{,}`$ (14)
$`D_{\alpha \xi }^{^{}}`$ $`=`$ $`F_{0,\alpha }{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}d_{0,\sigma }^{}d_{0\sigma }c_{0,\xi +2\sigma }^{}\text{,}`$ (15)
for all fluctuation operators $`F_{0,\alpha }`$ used in the ground-state calculation. These dynamical variables describe the creation of a core hole and the subsequent delocalization of the valence hole from the same site, without $`\left(D_{\alpha \xi }\right)`$ and with spin flip $`\left(D_{\alpha \xi }^{^{}}\right)`$. In the case of a single CuO4 plaquette a set of $`14`$ dynamical variables suffices for the exact solution. For a CuO2 plane $`33`$ variables lead to a well-converged spectrum, while $`40`$ variables are sufficient for a CuO3 chain.

In Fig.1 the convergence of the results is exemplified for the case of a CuO3 chain. Figure 1(a) shows the spectrum obtained with $`40`$ dynamical variables while for the spectrum in Fig. 1(b) the set of dynamical variables is almost twice as large ($`70`$ variables). The inclusion of the additional variables leads to a small redistribution of spectral weight around $`935`$ eV binding energy. This change is only visible when a small line width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is used for the convolution of the line spectrum.

## III Results

A typical set of values for the parameters in model (3) has been obtained for La2CuO4 by band-structure calculation

$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ $`=`$ $`3.5\text{ eV, }U_d=8.8\text{ eV,}`$ (16)
$`t_{pd}`$ $`=`$ $`1.3\text{ eV, }t_{pp}=0.65\text{ eV.}`$ (17)
For the comparison with the experimental spectra we start with this set and adapt some of the parameters to the specific systems which we investigate. The value of the exchange parameter $`I_{dc}=1.5`$ eV and the line width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.8\text{eV}`$ of the Gaussian function to convolute the spectrum are obtained from a comparison of the exact solution for a single CuO4 plaquette with the experimental result for Bi2CuO4, see Fig. 2. From this comparison we furthermore determine the absolute energetical position of all calculated spectra. Thereby we allow for general shifts of $`\pm 0.3\text{eV}`$ which is the experimental accuracy of the absolute energy values.

To fit the experimental spectra, we vary $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`U_{dc}`$ until the calculated satellite to main-peak intensity ratio $`I_s/I_m`$ coincides with the experimental one. It is not possible to use only $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ as fit parameter because the separation between the satellite and the main line is mainly determined by the difference $`U_{dc}\mathrm{\Delta }`$. However, we can reduce the number of free parameters by keeping this difference constant.

For the spectra of Bi2CuO4 and Sr2CuO3 we keep $`U_{dc}\mathrm{\Delta }=5\text{eV}`$, while the smaller satellite-main line separation in the spectrum of Sr2CuO2Cl2 is taken into account by keeping $`U_{dc}\mathrm{\Delta }=4.2\text{eV}`$. In this way, we obtain a good fit of the Bi2CuO4 spectrum with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=3.5\text{eV}`$, see Fig. 2, while the spectrum of Sr2CuO3 is well described by the result of the projection technique for a CuO3 chain with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=2.7\text{eV}`$, see Fig. 3. These results have already been described elsewhere.  Here, we therefore discuss only those aspects which are relevant for the influence of dimensionality and lattice geometry.

The lower parts of Figs. 2 and 3 show the delocalization properties of the final states which lead to the most important lines in the calculated spectra. The final state associated with the satellite lines, i.e. state (a) in Figs. 2 and 3, is highly localized. Since the valence hole remains mainly on the core-hole site, the influence of geometry is negligible. This is consistent with the experimental observation that the satellite peaks depend much less on the geometry than the main lines.

Final state (b) which causes the main line in the CuO4 plaquette spectrum (Fig. 2) leads to a shoulder in the main line of the CuO3 chain spectrum (Fig. 3) and is also rather localized, with most of the valence hole density concentrated on the O sites surrounding the core-hole site. However, in the case of the CuO3 chain the hole density at the O sites in chain direction is smaller than at the O sites perpendicular to it. A comparable effect has been observed in exact diagonalization studies.  The most important effect of the network geometry is the emergence of peak (c) in the CuO3 chain spectrum, see Fig. 3. This peak, which dominates the main line, is associated with a delocalization of the valence hole to the neighboring plaquettes which may be interpreted as the formation of a Zhang-Rice singlet.

In the case of the CuO2 plane it turns out that a fit using $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ as described above does not lead to a satisfying agreement with the spectrum of Sr2CuO2Cl2, see Fig. 4. For the standard value $`\mathrm{\Delta }=3.5\text{eV}`$ (dashed line in Fig. 4) the calculated ratio $`I_s/I_m=0.4`$ is too small compared to the experimental value $`I_s/I_m=0.52`$. With increasing $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (i.e. with decreasing charge fluctuations) the relative intensity of both the satellite and the shoulder structure around $`935\text{eV}`$ binding energy increases. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }=4.25\text{eV}`$ (solid line in Fig. 4) the calculated ratio $`I_s/I_m`$ is equal to the experimental one. However, the form of the main line is not reproduced correctly. The intensity of the shoulder structure is overestimated while a line seems to be missing around $`934\text{eV}`$ binding energy.

In order to obtain a better fit we have varied $`t_{pd}`$ and $`U_{dc}`$ instead of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`U_{dc}`$. As shown in Fig. 5 this leads to a better agreement with the spectrum of Sr2CuO2Cl2. Keeping $`\mathrm{\Delta }=3.5\text{eV}`$, the experimental ratio $`I_s/I_m=0.52`$ is reproduced for $`t_{pd}=1.15\text{eV}`$ and $`U_{dc}=8.1\text{eV}`$. The delocalization properties of the most important final states are shown in the lower part of Fig.5. As opposed to the zero- and one-dimensional cases shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the valence hole from the core-hole site may now delocalize in two dimensions. Nevertheless the final states obtained for a CuO2 plane are rather similar to those of the lower dimensional systems. For state (a) this is easy to explain by the local nature of the satellite peak. The fact that the delocalization in states (b) and (c) is not significantly larger in two dimensions than in one dimension is, on the other hand, somewhat surprising. Key element in the explanation of this effect are the four Cu sites which are the diagonal nearest neighbors of the core-hole site (cf. the lower part of Fig. 5). Due to antiferromagnetic correlations these diagonal Cu sites are predominantly occupied by valence holes which have the same spin direction as the valence hole on the core-hole site. Therefore, due to the Pauli principle the holes from the diagonal Cu sites suppress fluctuations of the valence hole from the core-hole site. The increase of charge fluctuations due to the higher dimensionality is largely compensated by this suppression. An analogous effect has already been found to be important for the ground-state charge properties of Hamiltonian (3).

It is interesting to compare the results of the projection technique with exact diagonalization calculations (without multiplet splitting) of a Cu5O16 cluster from Refs. . This cluster contains five plaquettes in a cross-like configuration where the central Cu site is the core-hole site. Notice that the Cu5O16 system does not contain the diagonal Cu sites which, as discussed above, suppress fluctuations from the central Cu site. Therefore one expects this system to display features of artificially strong delocalization like, e.g., a reduced ratio $`I_s/I_m`$. In fact, while the diagonalization shows a similar shoulder structure as the projection technique, cf. Fig. 4, the intensity of this shoulder, its separation from the lowest-energy line as well as the ratio $`I_s/I_m`$ are smaller.

The slightly reduced value $`t_{pd}=1.15\text{eV}`$ for the Cu-O hopping strength which leads to the spectrum shown in Fig. 5 may be explained by the larger Cu-O distance in Sr2CuO2Cl2 compared to La2CuO4 Nevertheless, the agreement of the theoretical result with the experimental spectrum is still not satisfactory. The calculated main line is dominated by two features, and at least one excitation seems to be missing in the region around $`934\text{eV}`$ binding energy. Notice, that in the theoretical main line of Sr2CuO2Cl2 from Ref.  an excitation is missing as well.

These results suggest the conclusion that Hamiltonian (3) still does not include all degrees of freedom which are necessary for a detailed description of the main line in the Cu 2p3/2 spectrum of Sr2CuO2Cl2. Since all effects of the Cu-O network dimensionality are already included in model (3) we expect the missing third main-line feature to be a material-specific effect. Orbitals which are not yet taken into account are, for example, non-planar orbitals in the CuO2 system, like the Cu $`3d_{z^2r^2}`$ orbital. However, in view of the good agreement with the experiments shown in Figs. 2 and 3, these orbitals do not seem necessary for the description of Bi2CuO4 and Sr2CuO3.

It may also be possible that sites which do not belong to the CuO2 plane (like the Cl apex site) contribute to the screening in Sr2CuO2Cl2. Notice that the Cu $`2p`$ main line in copper oxides without apex-oxygen site (CuO, Nd2CuO4) is narrower than in compounds with one apex oxygen (Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8) or two apex oxygens (La2CuO4) per copper site. However, both the large spatial distance between the Cl and the CuO2 plane and the large energy difference between the Cl-$`3p`$ and the Cu-$`3d`$-O-$`2p`$ line in the valence photoelectron spectrum  suggest that screening from Cl sites should be small. Another possible candidate for the explanation of the missing third main-line feature are non-bonding oxygen $`2p`$ orbitals. Recently, a feature in the optical spectrum of Sr2CuO2Cl2 has been attributed to these orbitals.

The influence of Cu-O network dimensionality on the Cu $`2p_{3/2}`$ spectra is illustrated in Fig. 6 where we show results of the projection technique for zero-, one- and two-dimensional Cu-O networks. Since the same parameter set (17) has been used for all geometries, all changes in the spectra are exclusively due to dimensionality effects. The most important effect in the spectra is that for the one- and two-dimensional system an additional excitation appears at lower binding energies. As discussed above the final states of this excitation are delocalized and rather similar for both the one- and the two-dimensional structures, see states (c) in Figs. 3 and 5. Overall, there is only a quantitative change from one to two dimensions, in contrast to the qualitative change observed between zero and higher dimensions. This conclusion is in principal agreement with results of exact diagonalization calculations. The peak around $`934\text{eV}`$ binding energy which dominates the main line in the case of zero dimensions becomes a shoulder structure which decreases in intensity and shifts towards higher binding energies as the dimensionality increases. Nevertheless, the final state associated with this peak preserves its main properties (a large valence-hole density at the O sites around the core-hole site) with changing dimensionality, see states (a) in Figs. 2, 3, and 5. As the dimensionality increases the delocalization in the Cu-O network increases. Therefore one observes a monotonic decrease in the ratio $`I_s/I_m`$ for increasing dimensions. Since this trend is not observed experimentally, the actual value of $`I_s/I_m`$ has to depend mainly on material-specific properties. In our calculation these properties are reflected by the values of the model parameters, cf. Figs. 2 to 5.

## IV Summary

Summing up, we have calculated the Cu $`2p_{3/2}`$ core-level spectra of zero- one- and two-dimensional Cu-O networks using a model Hamiltonian which describes exchange splitting and delocalization within one framework. The spectral intensity has been obtained using the Mori-Zwanzig projection technique. This method leads to the exact solution for a single CuO4 plaquette, and we observe excellent convergence in the case of an infinite CuO3 chain and an infinite CuO2 plane. The delocalization properties of the final states obtained in the calculation are easy to interpret. The results have been compared to experimental spectra by using either $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ or $`t_{pd}`$ as a fit parameter. While there is a good agreement between theory and experiment in the case of Bi2CuO4 and Sr2CuO3, one excitation seems to be missing when compared with the spectrum of Sr2CuO2Cl2. An analysis of the influence of dimensionality effects, as compared to effects due to material-specific properties, indicates that this missing feature may be due to orbitals which are not contained in the model. It is also found that dimensionality plays a minor role for the satellite-main line intensity ratio $`I_s/I_m`$ which is mainly determined by the values of the model parameters (especially the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$).

###### Acknowledgements.

Discussions with J. Fink, M. S. Golden, A. Goldoni, R. E. Hetzel, F. Parmigiani, and L. Sangaletti are gratefully acknowledged. This work is supported by DFG through the research program of the SFB 463, Dresden.


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# Untitled Document

Introduction à la Conjecture d’Alexandru

Rappelons quelques résultats de Bernstein, Gelfand, Gelfand, Delorme, Beilinson, Guinzburg et Soergel. Soient g une algèbre de Lie semisimple complexe, b une sous-algèbre de Borel et h une sous-algèbre de Cartan contenue dans b. Soient $`𝒪`$ la catégorie associée à ces données par BGG et $`𝒪_\rho `$ la sous-catégorie pleine de $`𝒪`$ dont les objets ont le caractère infinitésimal généralisé du module trivial. Notons $`\rho `$ la demi-somme des racines positives et $`W`$ le groupe de Weyl, muni de sa fonction longueur $`\mathrm{}`$ et de son ordre de Bruhat. À $`wW`$ attachons le module de Verma $`M_w`$ de plus haut poids $`w\rho \rho `$ ; rappelons que $`M_w`$ a un unique sous-module maximal ; notons $`L_w`$ le quotient correspondant. Soit $`P_w`$ un revètement projectif de $`L_w`$ ; posons $`P:=_wP_w`$, $`A:=(End_\text{g}P)^{op}`$ ; notons $`A`$-df la catégorie des $`A`$-modules de dimension finie et $`E`$ l’équivalence $`Hom_\text{g}(P,)`$ de $`𝒪_\rho `$ sur $`A`$-df. Par abus notons encore $`M_w`$ et $`L_w`$ les images de ces objets par $`E`$, et désignons par $`𝑴_w`$ et $`𝑳_w`$ leurs classes respectives dans le groupe de Grothendieck. Notons $`e_wA`$ la projection sur $`P_w`$.

Théorème 1. On a $`M_wAe_w/{\displaystyle \underset{xw}{}}Ae_xAe_w=Ae_w/{\displaystyle \underset{x>w}{}}Ae_xAe_w.`$

Théorème 2. On a $`End_A(M_w)=`$.

Considérons les polynômes de Delorme $`a_{x,y}:=SPExt_A^{}(M_x,L_y)`$$`SP`$ signifie $``$série de Poincaré$``$.

Théorème 3. On a $`𝑳_y=_xa_{x,y}(1)𝑴_x.`$

Théorème 4. Il existe des polynômes $`P_{x,y}`$ tels que

(1) $`a_{x,y}=t^{\mathrm{}(y)\mathrm{}(x)}P_{x,y}(t^2),`$

(2) $`P_{x,y}0xyP_{x,y}(0)=1,`$

(3) $`P_{x,x}=1,`$

(4) $`degP_{x,y}<{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}(y)\mathrm{}(x)}{2}}\text{ si }x<y`$.

Théorème 5. On a $`SPExt_A^{}(L_x,L_y)=_za_{z,x}a_{z,y}`$.

Voici des analogues conjecturaux des ces énoncés pour les modules de Harish-Chandra.

Soient $`G`$ un groupe de Lie semi-simple connexe à centre fini, $`K`$ un sous-groupe compact maximal, $``$ la catégorie des modules de Harish-Chandra associée à ces données et $`_\rho `$ la sous-catégorie pleine de $``$ dont les objets ont le caractère infinitésimal généralisé du module trivial. Notons $`r`$ le rang (réel) de $`G`$ et $`Z`$ l’algèbre $`[[z_1,\mathrm{},z_r]]`$. Soit $`A`$ une $`Z`$-algèbre telle que $`_\rho A`$-df, $`A`$ est de type fini sur $`Z`$, $`A`$ est commutative modulo son radical $`R`$ et $`A`$ est $`R`$-adiquement complète. (De telles algèbres existent et sont isomorphes en tant que $``$-algèbres.) Choisissons une sous-algèbre $`A_0`$ de $`A`$ relevant $`A/R`$ et notons $`\{e_i|iI\}`$ l’ensemble (fini) des idempotents minimaux de $`A_0`$. Soit $`L_i`$ le $`A`$-module simple associé à $`iI`$, soit $`\mathrm{}(i)`$ la dimension projective de $`L_i`$ et $``$ le plus petit ordre sur $`I`$ satisfaisant $`ij`$ chaque fois que

$$\mathrm{}(j)=\mathrm{}(i)+1\text{et}Ext_A^1(L_j,L_i)0.$$

Utilisons librement les analogues évidents des notations introduites dans le cadre de la catégorie $`𝒪`$.

Conjecture 1. On a $`Ae_i/_{ji}Ae_jAe_i=Ae_i/_{j>i}Ae_jAe_i.`$

Notons ce module $`M_i`$ et posons

$$\overline{M}_i:=M_i/\text{rad}(End_AM_i)M_i.$$

Cet objet ne coïncide pas toujours avec le module de Langlands correspondant.

Conjecture 2. On a $`End_A(\overline{M}_i)=`$.

Considérons les polynômes de Delorme $`a_{ij}:=SPExt_A^{}(M_i,L_j)`$.

Conjecture 3. On a $`𝑳_j=_ia_{ij}(1)\overline{𝑴}_i.`$

Conjecture 4. Il existe des polynômes $`p_{ij}`$ satisfaisant (1), …, (4).

Conjecture 5. Il existe des polynômes $`d_k`$ tels que

$$SPExt_A^{}(L_i,L_j)=\underset{k}{}d_ka_{ki}a_{kj}.$$

Le principal inconvénient de cette approche des modules de Harish-Chandra est que, contrairement à ce qui se passe pour les modules de BGG, rien de tout cela n’est calculable ! Voici un remède à la fois partiel et conjectural à ce mal. Supposons que $`G`$ et $`K`$ ont même rang. Dans la classification de Langlands $`L_i`$ apparaît comme l’unique quotient simple d’un module induit à partir d’un sous-groupe parabolique $`P_i`$ ; soit $`\text{p}_i=\text{m}_i\text{a}_i\text{n}_i`$ la décomposition de Langlands de Lie$`(P_i)`$ ; posons

$$\stackrel{~}{d}_i:=\left(1t^2\right)^{dim\text{a}_i};$$

soit $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}(i)`$ la dimension de la $`K_{}`$-orbite attachée à $`i`$ et $`(\stackrel{~}{p}_{ij})`$ la famille des polynômes de Kazhdan-Lusztig-Vogan ; posons

$$\stackrel{~}{a}_{ij}(t)=t^{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}(j)\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}(i)}\stackrel{~}{p}_{ij}(t^2).$$

Conjecture 5’. On a $`SPExt_A^{}(L_i,L_j)=_k\stackrel{~}{d}_k\stackrel{~}{a}_{ki}\stackrel{~}{a}_{kj}`$.

This text and others are available at http://www.iecn.u-nancy.fr/$``$gaillard

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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Recent works on theories of open strings and D$`p`$-branes with a constant nonvanishing Neveu-Schwarz 2-form $`B_{ij}`$ have suggested that the noncommutativity which appears is an underlying and very general property of such theories . Since Hopf algebras (HAs) often lie at the root of noncommutative systems, we were motivated to look for a HA structure for these theories, and showed that the noncommutative $``$-product  was in fact a specific case of a more general multiplication defined in terms of the R-matrix $`R`$ of a quasitriangular HA $``$; furthermore, when $`=`$, where $``$ was the HA of functions on $`^{p+1}`$, as was the case for the aforementioned noncommutative string theories, we found an explicit form for $`R`$  which covers both the commutative ($`B_{ij}=0`$) and noncommutative ($`B_{ij}0`$) cases.

However, it was not immediately apparent how we could introduce derivations on the algebra endowed with this multiplication, $`\widehat{}`$. One way to think of derivations on a HA $``$ is as elements of the dually paired HA $`^{}`$, with the action of the latter on the former given in terms of the HA properties of both. The problem was that $`\widehat{}`$ was shown not to be a HA, and therefore neither was the dually paired space $`\widehat{}^{}`$. This precluded the interpretation of the latter as local derivatives on $`\widehat{}`$, so it was not immediately obvious how one might define a gauge theory on the noncommutative space, since we needed a derivative in order to construct the (noncommutative) field strength tensor $`\widehat{F}_{ij}`$ from the gauge field $`\widehat{A}_i`$, i.e$`\widehat{F}_{ij}=_{[i}\widehat{A}_{j]}i\widehat{A}_{[i}\widehat{A}_{j]}`$ . The question was, what could we use for $`_i`$? We speculated that we might have to replace local derivatives by difference operators, but this guess seemed to be contradicted by the fact that regular derivatives were used consistently in .

In this follow-up note to , we explain why the usual derivatives are in fact the correct ones when dealing with noncommutative string theory: We show that even though $`\widehat{}`$ is not a HA, there exists a HA which has a well-defined action on $`\widehat{}`$ and plays the role of the space of derivations. This holds for arbitrary $``$, and for the specific case where $`=`$, this HA is $`^{}`$ and the action is the same as that for the usual partial derivative. This is done in Section 2.

The ability to relate the commutative and noncommutative theories via the R-matrix, however, turns out to be a bit of a fluke, being true only if $`^{}`$ is cocommutative. While this is certainly true of the space of derivations $`^{}`$, if we want to be as general as possible, we must relax this condition. In Section 3, we demonstrate how this can be done by using the Drinfel’d twist , which allows us to find a generalisation of the $``$-product and the space of derivations on the algebra constructed with this $``$. (Related but more mathematical treatments of this construction may be found in , and very recently , which covers much of the same in a broader context.)

However, using the Drinfel’d twist gives exactly the same derivatives and noncommutative product as if we had used an R-matrix approach, so why pick one over the other? In Section 4, we present two arguments why we think the former is more appropriate: First, the R-matrix construction connects the commutative and noncommutative cases only when $``$ is commutative (i.e$`^{}`$ is cocommutative), whereas the Drinfel’d twist includes both cases, and therefore does not require us to make any a priori assumptions about the algebraic structure of $``$. Secondly, an R-matrix must satisfy two coproduct conditions, while the analogous element in the Drinfel’d twisting only has to fulfill one, and there may be a way of naturally implementing the latter using the Ward identity which must arise out of gauge-fixing the form of $`B_{ij}`$. These reasons lead us to think that the Drinfel’d twist plays a fundamental role in noncommutative string theory, specifically in helping to determine the form of the low-energy effective action of the theory in terms of the commutative coordinates, e.g. Born-Infeld.

Throughout this letter we use terms and notations described in our previous paper ; the reader is referred therein for the details.

## 2 The Leibniz Rule and the $``$-product

We begin with a HA $``$ and its dually paired HA $`^{}`$. The (left) action of $`x^{}`$ on $`f`$ is given by $`xf:=f_{(1)}x,f_{(2)}`$, and satisfies the Leibniz rule $`x(fg)=\left(x_{(1)}f\right)\left(x_{(2)}g\right)`$. The elements of $`^{}`$ (with the exception of the unit 1 and its multiples) thus may be thought of as derivations on $``$.

In the case where $`^{}`$ is quasitriangular with R-matrix $`R`$, we can define a new multiplication between $`f,g`$ as

$$fg:=f_{(1)}g_{(1)}R_{21},f_{(2)}g_{(2)}.$$
(2.1)
$`\widehat{}`$ is taken to be the algebra equivalent to $``$ as a vector space and with the multiplication $``$. It is not a HA, so neither is the dually paired coalgebra $`\widehat{}^{}`$. We therefore cannot think of $`\widehat{}^{}`$ as derivations of $`\widehat{}`$.

However, let’s go ahead and compute the action of $`x^{}`$ on the product $`fg`$:

$`x(fg)`$ $`=`$ $`x\left(f_{(1)}g_{(1)}\right)R_{21},f_{(2)}g_{(2)}`$ (2.2)
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}x,f_{(2)}g_{(2)}R_{21},f_{(3)}g_{(3)}`$
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}\mathrm{\Delta }(x)R_{21},f_{(2)}g_{(2)}f_{(3)}g_{(3)}`$
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}\mathrm{\Delta }(x)R_{21},f_{(2)}g_{(2)}.`$
Using $`\mathrm{\Delta }(x)=R_{21}\left(\tau \mathrm{\Delta }(x)\right)R_{21}^1`$, we obtain

$`x(fg)`$ $`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}R_{21}\left(\tau \mathrm{\Delta }\right)(x),f_{(2)}g_{(2)}`$ (2.3)
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}R_{21}\left(\tau \mathrm{\Delta }\right)(x),f_{(2)}g_{(2)}f_{(3)}g_{(3)}`$
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(2)}R_{21},f_{(2)}g_{(2)}x_{(2)}x_{(1)},f_{(3)}g_{(3)}`$
$`=`$ $`\left(f_{(1)}g_{(2)}\right)x_{(2)},f_{(2)}x_{(1)},g_{(2)}`$
$`=`$ $`\left(x_{(2)}f\right)\left(x_{(1)}g\right).`$
So we see that the Leibniz rule is ‘reversed’: The first piece of the coproduct of $`x`$ acts on the second function, and vice versa.

In , we reviewed the construction of the HA dually paired to $``$, denoted $`^{}`$. Recall that the coproduct and antipode for $`x^{}`$ were defined by

$`\mathrm{\Delta }(x),fg`$ $`:=`$ $`x,fg,`$
$`S(x),f`$ $`:=`$ $`x,S(f).`$ (2.4)
However, this is not the only HA which may be constructed to the vector space dual to $``$: A different HA, called the opposite dual and denoted $`^{\mathrm{op}}`$This is the same well-known HA which plays a key role in the construction of the Drinfel’d double ., can be defined by keeping all the relations between $``$ and $`^{}`$ except the above two, which are replaced by

$`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(x),fg`$ $`:=`$ $`x,gf,`$
$`S^{}(x),f`$ $`:=`$ $`x,S^1(f).`$ (2.5)
We see that the coproduct on $`^{\mathrm{op}}`$ is the one on $`^{}`$ with the two spaces flipped, i.e$`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=\tau \mathrm{\Delta }`$. From (2.3) we can see that although $`^{}`$ does not have a action on $`\widehat{}`$, $`^{\mathrm{op}}`$ does, because

$$x(fg)=\left(x_{(1)^{}}f\right)\left(x_{(2)^{}}g\right),$$
(2.6)
where we have used the notation $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}(x):=x_{(1)^{}}x_{(2)^{}}`$. Hence, we conclude that $`^{\mathrm{op}}`$, not $`^{}`$ or $`\widehat{}^{}`$, is the space of derivations on $`\widehat{}`$. And since in general $``$ is not cocommutative, the Leibniz rule on $`\widehat{}`$ does not have the same form as that on $``$. However, if $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=\mathrm{\Delta }`$, i.e$`^{}`$ is cocommutative, then $`^{\mathrm{op}}`$ and $`^{}`$ are the same, and the space of derivations is the same for $`\widehat{}`$ as for $``$.

If we now look at noncommutative string theory, the algebra $``$ is the function algebra $``$ spanned by monomials in the coordinate maps $`x^i`$ taking the D$`p`$-brane into $`^{p+1}`$. The $``$-product is introduced by using the R-matrix

$$R:=e^{\frac{i}{2}\theta ^{ij}_i_j},$$
(2.7)
where $`\theta ^{ij}`$ is related to $`B_{ij}`$ and the open string metric $`g_{ij}`$ by

$$\theta ^{ij}:=\left(2\pi \alpha ^{}\right)^2\left(\frac{1}{g+2\pi \alpha ^{}B}B\frac{1}{g2\pi \alpha ^{}B}\right)^{ij}.$$
(2.8)
This $`R`$ gives the (noncommutative) product between functions $`f`$ and $`g`$ as

$$f(x)g(x)=e^{\frac{i}{2}\theta ^{ij}\frac{^2}{\xi ^i\zeta ^j}}f(x+\xi )g(x+\zeta )|_{\xi =\zeta =0}.$$
(2.9)
The dually paired HA $`^{}`$ is the space spanned by monomials of the partial derivatives $`_i`$. The coproduct is generated by $`\mathrm{\Delta }\left(_i\right)=_i1+1_i`$, and with the action on $``$ being the usual derivative, the Leibniz rule is the familiar

$$_i\left(f(x)g(x)\right)=\left(_if(x)\right)g(x)+f(x)\left(_ig(x)\right)$$
(2.10)
(the $``$ signifying the action has been suppressed in the above two equations). But since this HA is cocommutative, this is also the Leibniz rule for the action of $`^{\mathrm{op}}`$ on $``$. Hence, $`^{}=^{\mathrm{op}}`$, and this is the reason that one can use the familar derivatives even when the space is noncommutative, as was done in .

## 3 The Drinfel’d Twist

The material in the preceding Section is in fact a specific example of a more general construction: Suppose $``$ is a HA such that there exists an invertible element $`F`$ which satisfies $`(ϵid)(F)=(idϵ)(F)=1`$ as well as the coproduct identity

$$F_{12}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }id\right)(F)=F_{23}\left(id\mathrm{\Delta }\right)(F).$$
(3.1)
If this is the case, then a new HA $`^F`$, called the Drinfel’d twist of $``$ , can be defined in the following way: $`^F=`$ at the algebra level, and the counit and unit of $`^F`$ are the same as those of $``$. The coproduct and antipode, however, are given in terms of those on $``$ by

$`\mathrm{\Delta }^F(f):=F\mathrm{\Delta }(f)F^1,`$ $`S^F(f):=\sigma ^1S(f)\sigma ,`$ (3.2)
where $`\sigma `$ is the quantity constructed from $`F:=F_\alpha F^\alpha `$ (sum implied) via

$$\sigma :=m\left((idS)\right)(F)F_\alpha S\left(F^\alpha \right).$$
(3.3)
(The inverse can be shown to be $`\sigma ^1=m\left((Sid)\left(F^1\right)\right)`$.) For future reference, we also use the notation $`\mathrm{\Delta }^F(f):=f_{(1)F}f_{(2)F}`$.

Now suppose we start with dually paired HAs $``$ and $`^{}`$, and an element $`F`$ in $`^{}^{}`$ satisfying (3.1) exists; then a new product, $``$, may be defined on $``$ via

$$fg:=f_{(1)}g_{(1)}F^1,f_{(2)}g_{(2)}.$$
(3.4)
We can then check associativity by first computing the triple product $`(fg)h`$:

$`(fg)h`$ $`=`$ $`\left(f_{(1)}g_{(1)}\right)hF^1,f_{(2)}g_{(2)}`$ (3.5)
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}h_{(1)}F^1,f_{(2)}g_{(2)}h_{(2)}F^1,f_{(3)}g_{(3)}`$
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}h_{(1)}(\mathrm{\Delta }id)\left(F^1\right),f_{(2)}g_{(2)}h_{(2)}F^1,f_{(3)}g_{(3)}`$
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}h_{(1)}(\mathrm{\Delta }id)\left(F^1\right)F_{12}^1,f_{(2)}g_{(2)}h_{(2)}.`$
Computing $`f(gh)`$ in a similar fashion replaces the left argument of the inner product above with $`(id\mathrm{\Delta })\left(F^1\right)F_{23}^1`$, and if we take the inverse of (3.1), we see the two are equal, and this proves that $``$ is associative. The counit condition of $`F`$ ensures that $`1`$ is also the $``$-multiplicative identity as well. We therefore denote by $`\widehat{}`$ the unital associative algebra with vector space $``$ and multiplication $``$.

One consequence of this definition of $``$ is that the Drinfel’d twist of $`^{}`$ is a HA of left actions on $`\widehat{}`$: Taking $`x^{}`$ and $`f,g\widehat{}`$,

$`x(fg)`$ $`=`$ $`x\left(f_{(1)}g_{(1)}\right)F^1,f_{(2)}g_{(2)}`$ (3.6)
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}x,f_{(2)}g_{(2)}F^1,f_{(3)}g_{(3)}`$
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}\mathrm{\Delta }(x)F^1,f_{(2)}g_{(2)}f_{(3)}g_{(3)}`$
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}\mathrm{\Delta }(x)F^1,f_{(2)}g_{(2)}`$
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}F^1\mathrm{\Delta }^F(x),f_{(2)}g_{(2)}`$
$`=`$ $`f_{(1)}g_{(1)}x_{(1)F}x_{(2)F},f_{(2)}g_{(2)}`$
$`=`$ $`\left(x_{(1)F}f\right)\left(x_{(2)F}g\right).`$
So $`^F`$ has a well-defined action on $`\widehat{}`$, and therefore may be used as a the space of derivations on $`\widehat{}`$.

What if $`^{}`$ is quasitriangular? Then we automatically have an $`F`$ which satisfies (3.1),namely, $`F=R_{21}^1`$. This follows from the coproduct properties of the R-matrix, and we recover all the results in Section 2: We see immediately that the $``$-product given by plugging $`R_{21}`$ in for $`F^1`$ in (3.4) is the same as (2.1). The coproduct is also the same, $`\mathrm{\Delta }^F=\tau \mathrm{\Delta }=\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$. To compare the antipodes, note that $`\sigma ^1`$ becomes $`m(Sid)\left(R_{21}\right)`$, which is the element, usually denoted $`u`$, which generates the square of the antipode in $`^{}`$: $`uxu^1=S^2(x)`$ . This immediately leads to $`S^F=S^1=S^{}`$, exactly as expected, and we see that this choice of $`F`$ gives $`\left(^{}\right)^F=^{\mathrm{op}}`$, which, as we proved, is the correct choice for the space of derivations on $`\widehat{}`$.

There is potentially a wider class of $`F`$s than there are of R-matrices, because the one coproduct condition on $`F`$ (3.1) is less restrictive than the two coproduct conditions on $`R`$:

$`(\mathrm{\Delta }id)(R)=R_{13}R_{12},`$ $`(id\mathrm{\Delta })(R)=R_{13}R_{23}.`$ (3.7)
This means that, in principle, there may be other associative $``$-products besides the one defined using the R-matrix. However, for the noncommutative string case, the cocommutativity of $`^{}`$ is still a strong enough condition to force $`F`$ to be identical to the $`R`$ given in (2.7), so in this instance, reformulating the $``$-product on $``$ in terms of the Drinfel’d twist does not change the fact that it has the unique form (2.9). Therefore, using the Drinfel’d twist gives exactly the same noncommutativity to the D$`p`$-brane-open string system as using an R-matrix does.

## 4 Noncommutative String Theory

We conclude this work with some brief speculations about how the Drinfel’d twist may appear in the context of a noncommutative string theory.

In , we conjectured that the dependence on $`\theta ^{ij}`$ in the effective field theory would appear only through the $``$-product, and that since this in turn was given in terms of the R-matrix $`R`$, then there would be explicit dependence on $`R`$ in the action when written in terms of the commutative theory. However, this is in fact probably not the case in general, for the following reason: The $``$-product becomes the commutative product when $`\theta ^{ij}=0`$, which, using the explicit form (2.7), corresponds to $`R=11`$. When we are dealing with a cocommutative HA where $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=\mathrm{\Delta }`$, this is an admissible R-matrix, but for the most general case where the HA may not be cocommutative, $`11`$ doesn’t work as an R-matrix.

However, the Drinfel’d twist construction is still applicable, because $`F=11`$ satisfies (3.1), and just gives the trivial case $`\left(^{}\right)^F=^{}`$. Thus, if $`\theta `$ is some element of a parameter space, and there exists a continuous map $`\theta F(\theta )`$ which satisfies (3.1) and $`F(0)=11`$, we have a family of spaces $`\widehat{}(\theta )`$ and Drinfel’d twists $`^F(\theta )`$ continuously connected to the undeformed cases $``$ and $`^{}`$, respectively, with elements of the latter being derivations on elements of the former. This deformation does not depend on the cocommutativity, or lack thereof, of $`^{}`$. Furthermore, since the coproduct of $`^{}`$ is dual to the multiplication on $``$, this also implies that we do not even have to start with a commutative $``$ for this procedure to be valid.

When we look at the specific case of a D$`p`$-brane/open string system, where we expect to be able to go continuously from the commutative case with vanishing $`B_{ij}`$ to the noncommuting theory, it therefore seems reasonable to us that the $`\theta `$-dependence in the effective action when expressed as an integral over the commutative space will be entirely through an $`F`$ and not an $`R`$, and that the underlying structure is that of a Drinfel’d twisted HA rather than a quasitriangular one.

There is another reason to favour the Drinfel’d twist: Recall that the recent work on noncommutative string theory has been done with a constant $`B_{ij}`$. Since the full theory should be invariant under the gauge transformation $`B_{MN}B_{MN}+_{[M}\lambda _{N]}`$ for any $`\lambda _M`$, where $`M,N=0,\mathrm{},9`$, taking $`B_{MN}=0`$ for $`M,N=p+1,\mathrm{},9`$ and constant for $`M,N=0,\mathrm{},p`$ is a gauge fixing condition. We should therefore expect to find a Ward identity resulting from this fixing. To us, it seems very likely that this Ward identity is related to (3.1). This explanation is attractive because, if correct, it means we do not have to impose (3.1) by hand; it comes out naturally from taking $`B_{ij}`$ to be constant. And just as a Ward identity must hold to have a self-consistent theory, i.e. gauge invariance, so must (3.1) hold for consistency, i.e$``$ is associative. For an R-matrix to be involved instead of $`F`$, we would have to come up with some way of arriving at the two conditions (3.7), and the single requirement that the theory have $`B`$-gauge invariance would presumably not give these.

Thus, the signs point more toward a Drinfel’d twisted rather than a quasitriangular HA; more specifically, if we think of the ‘undeformed’ theory as one formulated with the HA $``$ (commutative or not), and the ‘deformed’ one as that on the algebra $`\widehat{}`$, then the former should have explicit $`F`$-dependence. This fact may therefore give some clues as to the explicit form of the undeformed low-energy effective action, even though it is presumably very complicated (unlike the deformed version, which may be very nice, e.g. super-Yang-Mills ).

## Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank Florin Panaite for his helpful comments and for pointing out the references , and to Robert Oeckl for .


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# Singularities in General Relativity coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics

## I Introduction

It is a well-known fact that some of the most important solutions of Einstein’s field equations (e.g. Friedmann-Robertson-Walker and Schwarzschild) are singular. However, our understanding of the nature of these singularities is still incomplete. For instance, the cosmic censorship conjecture was put forward by R. Penrose in 1969 , but there is still no general proof of it. As a consequence of this lack of understanding, solutions that are everywhere regular and share some of the properties of singular solutions deserve attention. This is precisely the case of the “regular black hole” spacetimes recently exhibited in . These solutions were obtained for a very special type of source: an electric field that obeys a nonlinear electrodynamics. The authors of  analyzed some of the features of the solution, but left aside others that are relevant. We shall re-examine this solution in detail. More importantly, we shall show in this particular example the far-reaching consequences of the fact that in nonlinear electromagnetism photons do not propagate along null geodesics of the background geometry. They propagate instead along null geodesics of an effective geometry, which depends on the nonlinearities of the theory. This result, derived by Plebańsky for Born-Infeld electrodynamics , was generalized for any nonlinear theory by Gutiérrez et al , and later independently rediscovered by Novello et al . Let us mention that the propagation of photons beyond Maxwell electrodynamics has been studied in several different situations. It has been investigated in curved spacetime, as a consequence of non-minimal coupling of electrodynamics with gravity , and in nontrivial QED vacua as an effective modification induced by quantum fluctuations . Nearly always, these analysis have had some unexpected results. As an example, let us mention the possibility of faster and slower-than-light photons .

Our main concern in this article will be then to show that one must consider the modifications on the trajectories of the photons induced by the nonlinearities of the electromagnetic theory in order to give a complete characterization of spacetimes with a nonlinear electromagnetic source. The structure of the paper is the following. A summary of the the solution given in  and the properties studied there will be given in Section II, along with some interesting properties that went unnoticed before. In Section III we briefly review the origin of the effective geometry for photons in nonlinear electrodynamics. We shall use in Section IV the method of the effective geometry to study the features of the structure that photons see when travelling in the geometry given in . We close with some conclusions.

## II Details of the solution

Ayón Beato and García  have found an exact solution of Einstein’s equations in the presence of a nonlinear electromagnetic source. The relevant equations are derived from the action

$$𝒮=d^4x\left[\frac{1}{16\pi }R\frac{1}{4\pi }(F)\right],$$
(1)
where $`R`$ is the curvature scalar and $``$ is a nonlinear function of $`F\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }`$. Following  and  this system could also be described using another function obtained by means of a Legendre transformation:

$$2F_F.$$
(2)
($`_F`$ denotes the derivative of $``$ w.r.t. $`F`$). With the definition

$$P_{\mu \nu }_FF_{\mu \nu },$$
(3)
it can be shown that $``$ is a function of $`P\frac{1}{4}P_{\mu \nu }P^{\mu \nu }=(_F)^2F`$, i.e., $`d=(_F)^1d((_F)^2F)=_PdP`$. With the help of $``$ one could express the nonlinear electromagnetic Lagrangian in the action (1) as $`=2P_P`$, which depends on the anti–symmetric tensor $`P_{\mu \nu }`$. The solution of Einstein’s equations coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics obtained in  was derived from the following source:

$$(P)=P\frac{\left(13\sqrt{2q^2P}\right)}{\left(1+\sqrt{2q^2P}\right)^3}\frac{3}{2q^2s}\left(\frac{\sqrt{2q^2P}}{1+\sqrt{2q^2P}}\right)^{5/2},$$
(4)
where $`s=|q|/2m`$ and the invariant $`P`$ is a negative quantity. The corresponding Lagrangian is given by

$``$ $`=`$ $`P{\displaystyle \frac{\left(18\sqrt{2q^2P}6q^2P\right)}{\left(1+\sqrt{2q^2P}\right)^4}}`$ (6)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4q^2s}}{\displaystyle \frac{(2q^2P)^{5/4}\left(32\sqrt{2q^2P}\right)}{\left(1+\sqrt{2q^2P}\right)^{7/2}}}.`$
From Eq.(1) we get the following equations of motion:

$$G_\mu ^\nu =2(_PP_{\mu \lambda }P^{\nu \lambda }\delta _\mu ^\nu (2P_P)),$$
(7)
$$_\mu P^{\alpha \mu }=0.$$
(8)
This system was solved in , and the explicit form of the solution is the following:

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{2mr^2}{(r^2+q^2)^{3/2}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{q^2r^2}{(r^2+q^2)^2}}\right]dt^2`$ (10)
$`\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{2mr^2}{(r^2+q^2)^{3/2}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{q^2r^2}{(r^2+q^2)^2}}\right]^1dr^2r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^2,`$
$`E_r=qr^4\left[{\displaystyle \frac{r^25q^2}{(r^2+q^2)^4}}+{\displaystyle \frac{15}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{m}{(r^2+q^2)^{7/2}}}\right].`$ (11)
By means of the substitution $`x=r/|q|`$ we can rewrite $`g_{tt}`$ and $`E_r`$ as follows

$$g_{tt}=A(x,s)1\frac{1}{s}\frac{x^2}{(1+x^2)^{3/2}}+\frac{x^2}{(1+x^2)^2},$$
(12)
$$E_r=\frac{x^4}{q}\left[\frac{x^25}{(x^2+1)^4}+\frac{15}{4s}\frac{1}{(x^2+1)^{7/2}}\right].$$
(13)
The result of the analysis made in  is that this metric describes a regular black hole. The position of the horizons was identified there with the values of the coordinate $`x`$ for which $`g_{tt}`$ is zero. These are given by

$$s=\frac{x^2\sqrt{x^2+1}}{x^4+3x^2+1}.$$
(14)
Accordingly, the solution has two horizons (for $`0<s<0.317`$), one horizon (for $`s=0.317`$), or no horizons (for $`s>0.317`$). It was also stated that this solution is regular, on the basis of the finiteness of the three invariants $`R`$, $`R_{\mu \nu }R^{\mu \nu }`$, and $`R_{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }R^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }`$ 111 We have checked that all the components of $`R_{ABCD}`$ and $`C_{ABCD}`$ w.r.t a static observer are finite at $`r=0`$..

Let us point out now some features of the solution described by Eqns.(12) and (13) that were not noticed in . First, the behaviour of the radial component of the electric field depends on the value of $`s`$. Specifically, $`E_r`$ may have a zero; its position is given by

$$s=\frac{15}{4}\frac{\sqrt{x^2+1}}{x^25}.$$
(15)
Consequently, $`E_r`$ does not have zeros for $`0<s<3/4`$. For $`s3/4`$, $`E_r`$ has one zero located in the interval $`(0,\sqrt{5})`$ of the coordinate $`x`$. These features of the electric field are depicted in Figure 1 222The plots in this paper have been done with gnuplot . .

Another salient feature of $`E_r`$ is that its energy density, calculated as the $`G_t^t`$ component of the Einstein tensor 333 This and other calculations in this paper were done with the package Riemann . may be negative for some interval of $`x`$. In fact, the expression

$$G_t^t=\rho =\frac{1}{sq^2}\frac{s\sqrt{1+x^2}(x^23)+3(x^2+1)}{(1+x^2)^{7/2}}$$
(16)
is zero for

$$s=3\frac{\sqrt{1+x^2}}{x^23}.$$
(17)
For $`s<1`$, the energy is always positive, but for $`s1`$ it has a zero given by Eq.(17). Figure 2 illustrates the situation.

## III Effective geometry for photons

In this section we give a summary of the method of the effective geometry . We will deal here only with the case in which the Lagrangian of the nonlinear electromagnetic theory is a function of $`F`$ only. The general case in which $``$ depends also on $`G=\frac{1}{2}F^{\mu \nu }\eta _{\mu \nu }^{\alpha \beta }F_{\alpha \beta }`$ is analyzed in . Based on the framework introduced by Hadamard , Novello et al showed that the discontinuities of the electromagnetic field propagate according to the equation

$$(_F\eta ^{\mu \nu }4_{FF}F^{\mu \alpha }F_\alpha {}_{}{}^{\nu })k_\mu k_\nu =0,$$
(18)
where $`\eta _{\mu \nu }`$ is the (flat) background metric, and $`k^\mu `$ is the propagation vector. This expression suggests that the self-interaction of the field $`F^{\mu \nu }`$ can be interpreted as a modification on the spacetime metric $`\eta _{\mu \nu }`$, leading to the effective geometry

$$g_{(\mathrm{eff})}^{\mu \nu }=_F\eta ^{\mu \nu }4_{FF}F_{}^{\mu }{}_{\alpha }{}^{}F^{\alpha \nu }.$$
(19)
Note that only in the particular case of linear Maxwell electrodynamics the discontinuities of the electromagnetic field propagate along the null cones of the Minkowskian background.

The general expression of the effective geometry can be equivalently written in terms of the energy-momentum tensor, given by

$$T_{\mu \nu }\frac{2}{\sqrt{\gamma }}\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Gamma }}{\delta \gamma ^{\mu \nu }},$$
(20)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the effective action

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }d^4x\sqrt{\gamma }L,$$
(21)
and $`\gamma _{\mu \nu }`$ is the Minkowski metric written in an arbitrary coordinate system; $`\gamma `$ is the corresponding determinant. In the case of one-parameter Lagrangians, $`=(F),`$ we obtain

$$T_{\mu \nu }=4_FF_{\mu }^{}{}_{}{}^{\alpha }F_{\alpha \nu }\eta _{\mu \nu },$$
(22)
where we have chosen an Cartesian coordinate system in which $`\gamma _{\mu \nu }`$ reduces to $`\eta _{\mu \nu }.`$ In terms of this tensor the effective geometry (19) can be re-written as

$$g_{(\mathrm{eff})}^{\mu \nu }=\left(_F+\frac{_{FF}}{_F}\right)\eta ^{\mu \nu }+\frac{_{FF}}{_F}T^{\mu \nu }.$$
(23)
It is shown in  that the field discontinuities propagate along the null geodesics of the effective geometry given by Eq.(23). This equation explicitly shows that the stress-energy distribution of the field is the true responsible for the deviation of the geometry felt by photons, from its Minkowskian form 444For $`T_{\mu \nu }=0`$, the conformal modification in (23) clearly leaves the photon paths unchanged..

We will show now that the modification of the underlying spacetime geometry seen by photons due to nonlinear electrodynamics can be also described as if photons governed by Maxwell electrodynamics were propagating inside a dielectric medium. In this last case, the electromagnetic field is represented by two antisymmetric tensors, the electromagnetic field $`F_{\mu \nu }`$ and the polarization field $`P_{\mu \nu }`$. For electrostatic fields inside isotropic dielectrics it follows that $`P_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`F_{\mu \nu }`$ are related by

$$P_{\mu \nu }=ϵ(E)F_{\mu \nu }.$$
(24)
where $`ϵ`$ is the electric susceptibility. Comparing with Eq.(3) we see that we can make the identification

$$_Fϵ,$$
(25)
which implies

$$_{FF}\frac{ϵ^{}}{4E},$$
(26)
in which $`ϵ^{}dϵ/dE`$ and $`E^2E_\alpha E^\alpha >\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}.`$ Therefore, every Lagrangian $`=(F)`$ which describes a nonlinear electromagnetic theory may be used as a convenient description of Maxwell theory inside isotropic nonlinear dielectric media. Conversely, results obtained in the latter context can be restated in terms of Lagrangians of nonlinear theories. Using this equivalence, the effective geometry can be rewritten as

$$g_{(\mathrm{eff})}^{\mu \nu }=ϵ\eta ^{\mu \nu }\frac{ϵ^{}}{E}\left(E^\mu E^\nu E^2\delta _t^\mu \delta _t^\nu \right).$$
(27)
In other words,

$`g_{(\mathrm{eff})}^{tt}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ+ϵ^{}E,`$ (28)
$`g_{(\mathrm{eff})}^{ij}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ\delta ^{ij}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ^{}}{E}}E^iE^j.`$ (29)
This shows that the discontinuities of the electromagnetic field inside a nonlinear dielectric medium propagate along null cones of an effective geometry (given by Eqn.(27)) which depends on the characteristics of the medium.

Although in  the background was flat, the method can also be used in a curved background. The reason is that the equations given in  are valid locally in any curved spacetime. Then from the Equivalence Principle follows that the only change in Eq.(19) is that of $`\eta _{\mu \nu }`$ by $`g_{\mu \nu }`$.

## IV Analysis of the “regular black hole”

Using Eqns.(28) and (29) it follows that the effective metric associated to a spherically symmetric solution of Einstein’s equations is given by

$$ds^2=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Phi }(r)}\left[A(r)dt^2A(r)^1dr^2\right]\frac{r^2}{_F}d\mathrm{\Omega }^2,$$
(30)
where

$$\mathrm{\Phi }=ϵ+\frac{dϵ}{dE_r}E_r=\frac{2q}{r^3}\frac{1}{\frac{dE_r}{dr}}$$
(31)
and

$$ϵ=\frac{1}{E_r}\sqrt{\frac{P_{\mu \nu }P^{\mu \nu }}{2}}.$$
(32)
For the case dealt with in the previous section, the function $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ takes the form

$`\mathrm{\Phi }(x,s)=`$ (33)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{8(x^2+1)^5s}{x^6(8x^4s104sx^2+80s+45x^2\sqrt{x^2+1}60\sqrt{x^2+1})}}.`$ (34)
From Eq.(30) we see that the $`tt`$ coefficient of the effective metric is given by the quotient $`g_{tt}^{(\mathrm{eff})}=A/\mathrm{\Phi }`$. The function $`\mathrm{\Phi }^1`$ has real zeros for

$$s=\frac{15}{8}\frac{\sqrt{x^2+1}(3x^24)}{x^413x^2+10}.$$
(35)
Taking into account that $`s`$ must be positive, we conclude from Eqn.(35) that the function $`\mathrm{\Phi }^1`$ has one zero for $`s<3/4`$ and two zeros for $`s3/4`$. In both cases the zeros are in the interval $`(0,3.49)`$ of the coordinate $`x`$.

It was shown in  that the metric coefficient $`g_{tt}`$ given by Eq.(12) has two zeros for $`s<0.317`$, one zero for $`s=0.317`$, and no zeros for $`s>0.317`$. The zeros in $`g_{tt}`$ were identified in  with horizons . We see that due to the effective metric, the geometry seen by the photons is more complex than the geometry seen by ordinary matter. Taking into account the zeros of $`A`$ and those of $`\mathrm{\Phi }^1`$ we conclude that $`g_{tt}^{(\mathrm{eff})}`$ has 3 zeros for $`s<0.371`$, two zeros for $`s=0.371`$, one zero for $`0.317<s<3/4`$, and again two zeros for $`s3/4`$.

To determine the nature of the new zeros in the metric, it is useful to study the effective potential that is felt by the photons. The symmetries of the metric imply that there are two Killing vectors and consequently, two conserved quantities:

$$E_0=g_{tt}\dot{t},\mathrm{and}h_0=\frac{r^2}{_F}\dot{\varphi }$$
(36)
(the overdot means derivative w.r.t the affine parameter). Standard calculations (see for instance ) using $`g_{\mu \nu }^{(\mathrm{eff})}`$ show that the effective potential for photons is given by

$$V_{\mathrm{eff}}=(1\mathrm{\Phi }^2)\frac{E_0^2}{2}+\frac{h_0^2}{x^2}_FA\mathrm{\Phi }$$
(37)
The explicit form of the effective potential is too involved to be displayed here. However, we note that $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ has poles. One of them is at $`x=0`$, and the others are given by the expression of the poles of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ (see Eq.(35)), and those of $`_F`$ which are given by Eq.(15). $`_F`$ has no poles for $`0<s<3/4`$, and one pole for $`s3/4`$. Leaving aside the pole at $`x=0`$, it follows that for $`s<3/4`$, the effective potential has only one pole, and for $`s3/4`$, it has three poles. Those that originate in the singularities of the function $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ are in agreement with the extrema of the electric field, as shown by Eq.(34). We give in Figs. 3, 4 and 5 plots of $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ for different values of the relevant parameters.

Several comments are in order. The singularities in the potential suggest that the effective geometry itself may be singular. This is confirmed by the expression of the scalar curvature $`R^{(\mathrm{eff})}`$, which diverges in the values of $`x`$ given by Eqs.(15) and (35). Let us analize the relative position of these singularities felt by the photons and those of the metric coefficient $`g_{tt}(x,s)`$, given by Eq.(14). The information is conveniently summarized by the following plot:

We see that for a fixed $`s0.317`$ the singularities are situated inside the first horizon. However, for $`s>0.317`$ the singularities are not anymore hidden behind a horizon: we are then in the presence of naked singularities. We must remark that these singularities are only felt by photons. The rest of the matter follows geodesics of the regular spacetime given in .

It can also be seen from the plot that for $`s<0.371`$ the coordinate distance between the two horizons decreases for increasing $`s`$, up to $`s=0.371`$, where the two horizons coalesce.

Before analyzing the path of a photon coming from infinity, let us remark that there is a low potential barrier extending to the right of the outermost singularity for any value of the parameters. This barrier can be seen in Fig.3, and it is also present to the right of Fig.4. A low-energy photon incident from the right will find then this barrier, and will be deflected back to large values of $`x`$. This deflection will be more pronounced with increasing energy. When the energy of the photon is aproximately that of the height of the barrier, the photon can orbit around the center of the field in an unstable orbit. Finally an incident photon with energy greater that the height of the barrier will inevitably encounter the first singularity.

It is easily seen from Eq.(37) that the potential goes to zero for large values of $`x`$. We have also analyzed the effective potential for the case of a negative $`q`$, but the only quantitatively different result is a small increment of the innnermost local maximum seen in Figs.3 and 4.

We move now to another peculiar feature of the effective geometry. It is known that the effective potential for the Schwzarschild and Reissner-Nordstrom geometries is null in the case of photons with $`h_0=0`$. However, from Eq.(37) we see that in this case $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ for the effective geometry reduces to

$$V_{\mathrm{eff}}=(1\mathrm{\Phi }^2)E_0^2$$
(38)
The dependence of this potential on $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the same as in Eq.(37), so the behaviour of $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ with $`x`$ in this case is qualitatively depicted in Figs.3 and 4.

Let us finally point out some unusual geometrical properties of the metric seen by the photons. The effective metric has the same symmetries of the original metric given by Eq.(10). It can be easily shown that the time Killing vector $`/t`$ is null on the hypersurfaces determined by the zeros of $`g_{tt}^{(\mathrm{eff})}`$.

Another interesting property of these surfaces is associated to the redshift of the photons. The redshift $`z`$ of a source as measured by an observer with velocity $`u^\mu `$ can be defined in terms of the frequency by

$$1+z=\frac{(u^\mu k_\mu )_{\mathrm{emitter}}}{(u^\mu k_\mu )_{\mathrm{observer}}}.$$
(39)
Considering a static observer for which $`u^\mu =\delta _0^\mu /\sqrt{g_{tt}}`$ this expression can be written as

$$1+z=\left[\frac{\sqrt{g_{tt}}}{g_{tt}^{(\mathrm{eff})}}\right]_{\mathrm{em}}\left[\frac{g_{tt}^{(\mathrm{eff})}}{\sqrt{g_{tt}}}\right]_{\mathrm{obs}}$$
(40)
Using the expression of the effective metric, and if the observer is at infinity,

$$1+z=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{\sqrt{A}}$$
(41)
We conclude then that the redshift diverges in two cases: when $`A`$ is zero, and when $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ diverges (see Fig.(6)).

## V Conclusion

The remarkable fact that in nonlinear electrodynamics the trajectories of photons are modified by the nonlinearities of the field equations has not been addressed frequently in the literature. The photons do not propagate following the null cones of the background metric but those of the effective metric. We have shown here the dramatic consequences that this has in a so-called regular black hole. In this case, there are singularities that are seen only by the photons. These singularities can either be hidden behind a horizon or naked, according to the value of the ratio $`q/2m`$. Let us remark that the existence of singularities in these type of solutions is a direct consequence of the existence of extrema of the electric field, as Eq.(31) shows. This is a general property which will always be present in any static and spherically symmetric solution of the system of equations (7) and (8) when the electromagnetic theory is nonlinear.

We have also shown that the effective potential to the right of the outermost singularity resembles that of Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstrom. However, contrary to what happens in Maxwell theory, photons with zero angular momentum travel under the influence of an effective potential that is different from zero.

We also exhibited some unusual properties of the solution found in . The electric field may have one or two extrema depending on the value of $`s`$. In the second case, it has a zero. Also, for certain values of $`s`$ the energy of the electric field is negative in some coordinate range. There are at least two more properties, geometrical in origin, that are worth of notice. First, the time Killing vector of the effective geometry is null in the surfaces where the function $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ diverges. Second, the redshift measured by an observer far from the source diverges on the same surfaces. It is important to remark that these geometrical properties will be present in every solution with the same symmetries if the electric field has extrema.

To close, we would like to emphasize that ordinary matter follows geodesics of the background metric. However, the modifications of the metric induced by the nonlinearities of the electromagnetic field must always be taken into account when studying the propagation of photons. The abovementioned properties are nothing but a consequence of the nonlinearities of the electromagnetic theory.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SEPB would like to acknowledge financial support from CONICET-Argentina. MN and JMS acknowledge financial support from CNPq. The authors would like to thank K. Bronnikov for a useful remark.


text:
# Casimir force at both non-zero temperature and finite conductivity

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to S. Reynaud for attracting their attention to Ref.  and discussion. G.L.K. and V.M.M. are indebted to Center of Theoretical Sciences and Institute of Theoretical Physics of Leipzig University, where this work was performed, for kind hospitality. G.L.K. was supported by Graduate College on Quantum Field Theory at Leipzig University. V.M.M. was supported by Saxonian Ministry for Science and Fine Arts.

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