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# Chern-Simons Theory for Quantum Hall Stripes

## Abstract

We develop a Chern-Simons theory to describe a two-dimensional electron gas in intermediate magnetic fields. Within this approach, inhomogeneous states emerge in analogy to the intermediate state of a superconductor. At half filling of the highest Landau level we find unidirectional charge-density-wave (CDW) solutions. With a semiclassical calculation we give an intuitive explanation of the change of CDW orientation in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field. An anisotropy in the electron band mass is suggested as a possible source of the reproducible orientation of the CDW.

In two-dimensional electron systems both interactions and disorder have surprising and striking consequences. A strong perpendicular magnetic field quenches the kinetic energy and allows for the observation of both fractional quantum Hall effect and composite fermions in the lowest Landau level (LLL), where correlations among electrons are especially important. In higher Landau levels on the other hand, interest has mainly been devoted to reentrant localization-delocalization transitions causing the integer quantum Hall effect, with interactions thought of as modifying its non-universal features. The discovery of a pronounced resistivity anisotropy close to half filling of higher LLs  with filling factor $`\nu >4`$ has recently attracted attention to interaction effects in this regime. The transport anisotropy is consistent with the formation of a unidirectional CDW state which was predicted theoretically on the basis of Hartree-Fock calculations . Numerical exact diagonalization studies also support the idea of a CDW formation . The orientation of this CDW structure is related to the anisotropy observed in resistivity .

In this letter, we show that a CDW ground state arises naturally in the framework of a Chern-Simons (CS) theory . The CS approach successfully describes the fractional quantum Hall effect and composite fermions in the LLL. In intermediate LLs it is complementary to Hartree-Fock calculations which become exact in the limit of high Landau levels . Our bosonic CS theory has solutions similar to the intermediate state of superconductors and allows for an intuitive interpretation of the striped phase: in the highest, partially filled LL (HLL) domain walls separate incompressible “superconducting” stripes with local filling factor $`\nu _{\mathrm{HLL}}=1`$ from empty stripes ($`\nu _{\mathrm{HLL}}=0`$) penetrated by flux. The CDW wave vector is determined by the competition of the domain-wall energy favoring a long wave length and the Hartree energy which generally increases with CDW wave length but has minima for special wave vectors due to the modulation of the electron charge density by the wave-function form factor. The CDW wave length and structure are calculated numerically within a mean-field approximation. Furthermore, we calculate the wave-function form factor in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field using a semiclassical approximation. We find that for a thin quantum well the in-plane component of the field is parallel to the axis of high resistivity, in agreement with experiments  and numerical calculations . The band mass anisotropy is shown to provide a mechanism determining the the experimentally reproducible orientation of the CDW wave vector for perpendicular fields.

Chern-Simons theory. — To employ the CS approach we first map the problem of a partially filled $`N`$th LL onto an effective LLL problem. The scattering of electrons between different LLs can be neglected when the Bohr radius $`a_\mathrm{B}=(4\pi \mathrm{}^2ϵ_0ϵ_\mathrm{r})/(me^2)`$ is much smaller than the magnetic length $`\mathrm{}=\sqrt{\mathrm{}/eB}`$, a condition satisfied in experimentally investigated systems. We describe screening by the completely filled LLs by a wave-vector dependent dielectric constant $`ϵ(q)=ϵ_0ϵ_\mathrm{r}\{1+(2/qa_\mathrm{B})[1\mathrm{J}_0^2(qR_\mathrm{c})]\}`$  with $`\mathrm{J}_0`$ denoting the zeroth order Bessel function and $`R_\mathrm{c}=\sqrt{2N+1}\mathrm{}`$ the cyclotron radius. The intra–LL matrix elements of the Coulomb interaction depend on the LL index $`N`$ only via the Laguerre polynomial $`\mathrm{L}_N`$ in the form factor of the single particle eigenstates . One obtains the same matrix elements for states in the zeroth instead of the $`N`$-th LL but with the effective interaction $`V^{\mathrm{eff}}(𝐪)=\frac{e^2}{2ϵ(q)q}\mathrm{L}_N^2(\mathrm{}^2q^2/2)`$. The Laguerre polynomial can be interpreted as the quotient of the form factor of the $`N`$-th and the zeroth LL as $`\mathrm{L}_N=F_N/F_0`$. Since all LLs span equivalent Hilbert spaces, the new interaction $`V^{\mathrm{eff}}`$ in the LLL gives a faithful representation of the original problem.

The Fermi-Dirac statistics of electrons is mimicked by bosons carrying one flux quantum $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0=h/e`$ with them. The flux quanta are attached by a singular gauge transformation  with a statistical gauge field $`𝐚(𝐫)`$ tied to the density of bosons $`\rho (𝐫)=\varphi ^{}(𝐫)\varphi (𝐫)`$ via the condition $`\mathbf{}\times 𝐚(𝐫)=\mathrm{\Phi }_0\rho (𝐫)`$. The bosonic CS Hamiltonian is given by

$$=d^2r\varphi ^{}(𝐫)\frac{1}{2m}\left(i\mathrm{}\mathbf{}+e\delta 𝐚\right)^2\varphi (𝐫)+\frac{1}{2}d^2rd^2r^{}\delta \rho (𝐫)V^{\mathrm{eff}}(𝐫𝐫^{})\delta \rho (𝐫^{}),$$
(1)
with $`\delta 𝐚=𝐀+𝐚`$, $`\delta \rho =\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }\overline{\nu }_{\mathrm{HLL}}B/\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$, and $`e`$ the charge of the proton.

Mean-field analysis. — We perform a mean-field (MF) analysis of the bosonic CS problem and replace the operators by a complex field. The kinetic energy (of the bosons, not to be confused with the quenched kinetic energy of the electrons) alone would be minimized by the homogeneous saddle points $`\varphi \sqrt{B/\mathrm{\Phi }_0}`$, $`\delta 𝐚0`$ and $`\varphi 0`$, $`\delta 𝐚𝐀`$ corresponding to a completely filled or empty LL, respectively. Without the interaction potential the ground state of a half filled LL would clearly be one domain with filling factor $`\nu _{\mathrm{HLL}}=1`$ and another domain with $`\nu _{\mathrm{HLL}}=0`$. However, due to the long-range nature of the Coulomb interaction, these large domains break up into smaller ones in such a way that the sum of domain-wall and Coulomb energy is minimal, and a charge-density wave is formed in analogy to the intermediate state of a superconductor. The effective field $`\mathbf{}\times \delta 𝐚`$ is expelled from the “superconducting” regions with $`\nu _{\mathrm{HLL}}=1`$. For average fillings $`\overline{\nu }_{\mathrm{HLL}}=1ϵ`$ close to one on the other hand, the solution with lowest energy is given by a flux-tube array in analogy to phases of type-I superconductors in the intermediate state, where each flux tube can carry a single or multiple flux quanta. For the electron problem this is equivalent to the formation of a Wigner crystal.

To make the physics of the mean-field solution transparent, we express the wave function by amplitude and phase, introduce a gauge invariant “velocity” $`𝐐`$, and express the boson current density $`𝐣`$ in these new variables

$`\varphi (𝐫)=\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{B}{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}}}f(𝐫)e^{i\theta (𝐫)},𝐐(𝐫)=\mathrm{}^2\left(\mathbf{}\theta +{\displaystyle \frac{2\pi }{\mathrm{\Phi }_0}}\delta 𝐚\right),𝐣(𝐫)={\displaystyle \frac{e\omega _\mathrm{c}}{2\pi \mathrm{}^2}}f^2𝐐(𝐫).`$ (2)
We enforce the constraint on $`𝐚(𝐫)`$ with the help of a Lagrange multiplier $`\lambda `$ (which is the rescaled zero component of the CS field) and find the saddle-point equations

$`f^{\prime \prime }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}^4}}𝐐^2f+2(u_\mathrm{H}\lambda )f=0,\mathbf{}\times 𝐐=(v+f^21)\widehat{𝐳},\mathbf{}\lambda ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}^4}}f^2𝐐\times \widehat{𝐳}`$ (3)
with the vortex density $`𝐯(𝐫)=\mathrm{}^2\mathbf{}\times \mathbf{}\theta (𝐫)`$. The Hartree potential $`u_\mathrm{H}`$ is expressed in units of $`\mathrm{}^2\mathrm{}\omega _\mathrm{c}`$. One immediate consequence of the saddle-point equations is the screening of an electrostatic potential by the CS superconductor in analogy to the screening of a vector potential by a conventional superconductor. A negative potential causes a reduction of $`\nu _{\mathrm{HLL}}=f^2`$ from one and induces a current via the second part of Eq. (3). This argument can be made quantitative by describing the current response to an electric field with the help of the Hall conductivity $`\sigma _\mathrm{H}=e^2/h`$ as $`𝐣=\sigma _\mathrm{H}𝐄\times \widehat{𝐳}`$. From the third part of Eq. (3) one finds $`\mathbf{}\lambda =(e/\mathrm{}\omega _\mathrm{c}\mathrm{}^2)𝐄`$ leading to an exact cancellation of the external potential in the Schrödinger equation for the superfluid density $`f^2`$. Via this mechanism a Bose condensation in a spatially varying external potential is possible. Note that the bosonic wave functions are not restricted to the LLL in the variational approach. This is an valid approximation in the limit where the electron-electron interaction is weak compared to the inter-Landau-level spacing  and a mixing of Landau levels is negligible. The same assumption is used also in the Hartree-Fock approaches  in order to justify that the ground state does not involve single-particle states above the partially filled highest LL. Since on the scale $`\mathrm{}`$ of the typical particle distance the strength of the bosonic interaction $`V^{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is comparable to that of the original fermionic interaction (for $`N`$ not too large as in experiments), the ground state of the bosonic problem (1) will lie to a good approximation in the LLL, even if we search in an extended space of functions including higher LLs. Dropping the variational constraint in the bosonic problem therefore induces inaccuracies of the same order of magnitude as ignoring the Landau-level mixing in the fermionic problem. As can be seen from the variational result below (Fig. 1), the local filling factor overshoots only by a few percent over one, which indicates that the solution lies to a very good approximation within the LLL although the constraint is not imposed.

1D numerical solution. — In order to confirm the physical picture developed above and to provide a comparison of our CS approach with previous Hartree-Fock approaches , we have numerically determined the MF solution at half filling ($`\overline{\nu }_{\mathrm{HLL}}=\frac{1}{2}`$). This was done approximately by assuming a unidirectional modulation, i.e., that the charge density is modulated with a period $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ in $`x`$ direction and is constant in $`y`$ direction. In this approximation, vortices cannot be taken into account as point-like objects. Instead, all vortices within a period have to be concentrated on lines, $`v(𝐫)=_n\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{2}\delta (x(n+1/2)\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. For symmetry reasons, currents then flow only in $`y`$ direction, $`𝐐(𝐫)=Q_y(x)𝐞_y`$. To obtain the MF solution, we use a variational ansatz $`f(x)=_kf_k\mathrm{cos}(2\pi kx/\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ with the constraint $`f((n+\frac{1}{2})\mathrm{\Lambda })=0`$ at the vortex positions. In a first step, we minimize $``$ for given $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ by varying the coefficients $`f_k`$ with the constraints of half filling and $`_xQ_y(x)=v+f^21`$. Then the resulting energy $`(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ is minimized as a function of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ to obtain the CDW period. The choice of $`a_\mathrm{B}=\mathrm{}/\sqrt{\nu }`$ fixes the interaction strength and is representative for experiments . A full 2D numerical solution and the analysis of gauge field fluctuations  is beyond the scope of the present analysis.

We present our results for filling factors $`\nu =2N+\frac{1}{2}`$ in the Landau levels $`N=8`$ and $`N=2`$. The structure of the MF solutions is depicted in Fig. 1. For $`N=8`$, $`f^2`$ shows a clear separation between full ($`f^21`$) and empty ($`f^20`$) regions. The width of the transition between the full and empty region is of order $`\mathrm{}`$. Therefore, the separation between full and empty regions is blurred out for smaller $`N`$ (for $`N=2`$, see Fig. 1b). The actual charge and charge-current density, which are obtained after convoluting $`f^2`$ and $`f^2Q_y`$ with the appropriate form factors are much smoother than $`f^2`$ and vary only on the scale of $`R_\mathrm{c}`$. The charge density within this LL shows a relative variation of about 20% for $`N=8`$. This magnitude is roughly consistent with Hartree-Fock calculations  for large $`N`$. For $`N=2`$ the charge density shows a stronger modulation of about 60%. Thus, although charge and charge-current density are modulated only on the scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ for all $`N`$, the relative variation of charge density is found to increase with decreasing $`N`$.

The energy per electron as a function of the periodicity is displayed in Fig. 2. The energy scale in our saddle-point approximation is the cyclotron energy. We expect that gauge-field fluctuations will renormalize it to the Coulomb energy $`e^2/4\pi ϵ_0ϵ_\mathrm{r}\mathrm{}`$. The optimal periodicity $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_N`$, given by the global minimum of this function, is found at $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_83.1R_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_23.9R_\mathrm{c}`$. Thus, the periodicity is larger than expected from the first zero of the form factor at $`\mathrm{\Lambda }2.6R_\mathrm{c}`$ in agreement with HF calculations . However, we find that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_N/R_\mathrm{c}`$ increases notably with decreasing $`N`$. In our approach this effect can be understood from the increasing weight of the “kinetic” or domain-wall contribution within the CS energy.

Tilted magnetic field. — So far, we have studied the formation of a CDW by electrons in high Landau levels within the CS approach. In experiments  the longitudinal resistivity appears to be systematically higher in $`[1\overline{1}0]`$ directions as compared to $`[110]`$ directions. This raises the question of what mechanism breaks the fourfold crystal symmetry and orienting the CDW wave vector parallel to the $`[1\overline{1}0]`$ directions. For this reason resistivity was studied in tilted magnetic fields  and a sufficiently strong in-plane component $`𝐁_{}`$ of the magnetic field was found to orient the directions of large resistivity parallel to $`𝐁_{}`$. We present a mechanism for the coupling between the CDW wave vector and $`𝐁_{}`$ that involves the dynamics of the electrons in the $`z`$ direction perpendicular to the plane. We model the confinement of the electrons in this direction by a harmonic potential with eigenfrequency $`\omega _0`$. While similar models were studied recently in the framework of a Hartree-Fock approach  and of Laughlin-like states , we use a simple semiclassical approach to obtain the anisotropic form factor of cyclotron orbits in tilted fields, which then can easily be combined with the theory of untilted fields.

The classical equations of motion for a single electron subject to a tilted magnetic field $`𝐁=(B_{},0,B_z)`$ and a harmonic confining potential are linear and possess two eigenmodes with frequencies $`\omega _\pm ^2=\frac{1}{2}(\omega _0^2+\omega _z^2+\omega _x^2)\pm \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{(\omega _0^2+\omega _z^2+\omega _x^2)^24\omega _0^2\omega _z^2}`$, where $`\omega _x`$ and $`\omega _z`$ are the cyclotron frequencies associated with the in-plane and out-of-plane components of the magnetic field, which typically are small compared to $`\omega _0`$. For vanishing $`B_{}`$, the modes with frequency $`\omega _+^2\omega _0^2[1+\omega _x^2/(\omega _0^2\omega _z^2)]`$ or $`\omega _{}^2\omega _z^2[1\omega _x^2/(\omega _0^2\omega _z^2)]`$ become a pure oscillation in $`z`$ direction or a cyclotron orbit in the $`xy`$ plane, respectively. We determine the semiclassical orbits from the Bohr quantization condition $`𝐩_\sigma 𝐫_\sigma =2\pi \mathrm{}(\frac{1}{2}+n_\sigma )`$, where $`\sigma =\pm `$ and we choose the ground state, $`n_+=0`$, for the oscillator-like mode and the and the $`N`$th Landau level, $`n_{}=N`$, for the cyclotron-like mode. This choice is unique for $`\omega _0>\omega _z`$. Subsequently, we consider only the projection of the orbits onto the $`xy`$ plane, which are ellipses with half axes of lengths

$`R_{x\sigma }^2=(1+2N_\sigma ){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{m\omega _\sigma }}{\displaystyle \frac{\omega _z^2}{\omega _z^2+\omega _x^2\omega _\sigma ^4/(\omega _0^2\omega _\sigma ^2)^2}},R_{y\sigma }^2={\displaystyle \frac{\omega _\sigma ^2}{\omega _z^2}}R_{x\sigma }^2.`$ (4)
The cyclotron-like ellipse is larger than the oscillator-like ellipse ($`R_\alpha >R_{\alpha +}`$). In addition, the cyclotron-like ellipse is longer in $`x`$ direction than in $`y`$ direction ($`R_x>R_y`$), whereas for the oscillator-like ellipse the opposite holds true (cf. Fig. 2b). Because of this contrary deformation the resulting anisotropy of the form factor is delicate. The form factor $`F(𝐪)`$ is the Fourier transform of the density $`\rho (𝐫)`$ of finding the electron at a position $`𝐫=𝐫_{}(t)+𝐫_+(t)`$. It factorizes into two contributions from the normal modes, $`F(𝐪)=F_{}(𝐪)F_+(𝐪)`$, which are the Fourier transforms of the density $`\rho _\pm (𝐫)=\frac{1}{T_\pm }_0^{T_\pm }𝑑t\delta (𝐫𝐫_\pm (t))`$ of the normal mode orbits, where $`T_\pm =2\pi /\omega _\pm `$ is the orbit period.

In the presence of the tilted field the form factor is anisotropic and we now discuss the location of its first zero at small momenta, which essentially determines the CDW periodicity and energy. At small momenta, the zeros of $`F`$ are those of $`F_{}`$ since the cyclotron-like orbits have a larger radius. If one estimates the CDW periodicity from the location of the zeros of $`F_{}(𝐪)`$ one finds the periodicity proportional to the radius of the cyclotron ellipse in the direction of the CDW wave vector. The total energy of the CDW is then minimized if its wave vector points parallel to the long direction of the cyclotron ellipse, i.e., parallel to $`𝐁_{}`$. This conclusion is in agreement with experiments .

Finally, we estimate the energy difference between an orientation of the CDW wave vector parallel and perpendicular to the in-plane field in the LL $`N=2`$ (assuming again $`\omega _x\omega _z\omega _0`$). The energy change is related to a change of the CDW period which can be approximated by $`\delta \mathrm{\Lambda }/\mathrm{\Lambda }(R_x/R_\mathrm{c}1)(\omega _x/\omega _0)^2`$. The change of the energy per particle with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is estimated numerically as $`\delta E0.1\mathrm{}\omega _\mathrm{c}\delta \mathrm{\Lambda }/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ from the domain-wall energy. The tilt energy per particle is then given by $`E_{\mathrm{tilt}}=\mathrm{tan}^2(\theta )\left(\omega _z/\omega _0\right)^23\mathrm{K}`$ ¿From the threshold angle $`\theta 10^{}`$  where the CDW orientation follows the in-plane component of the field and a typical ratio $`\omega _z0.15\omega _0`$ we find $`E_{\mathrm{tilt}}1`$mK. Consequently, the intrinsic symmetry breaking mechanism in the absence of a tilt must lead to an energy gain of the same magnitude. We now examine two possible mechanisms.

Anisotropy. — In the normal state the electron gas has anisotropic resistivity with “hard” axis parallel to the $`[110]`$ crystallographic direction, i.e., perpendicular to the hard axis observed in the CDW state. This normal anisotropy, which has been reported for some of the samples studied in , can be ascribed to scattering processes caused by an interface roughness with anisotropic correlation lengths $`\xi _{[1\overline{1}0]}>\xi _{[110]}`$ . The observed surface morphology  is consistent with such an anisotropic interface roughness. Since the anisotropy in the CDW state is determined by collective pinning, whereas it is determined by single-electron scattering in the normal state, the direction of the hard axis is not necessarily identical and therefore we now examine the collective pinning mechanism. Variations of the interface height $`d`$ result in an electrostatic potential $`\varphi _d(𝐪)=\frac{1}{2}end(𝐪)/ϵ(q)`$. Here $`n`$ is the density of positive donors and the height fluctuations are assumed to be Gaussian correlated, $`[|d(𝐪)|^2]_{\mathrm{av}}=2\pi d_0^2\xi _x\xi _y\mathrm{exp}[(q_x^2\xi _x^2+q_y^2\xi _y^2)/2]`$ with correlation lengths $`\xi _x`$, $`\xi _y\mathrm{\Lambda }`$  and a typical height $`d_02.8`$Å of the order of a GaAs monolayer. Pinning leads to an energy gain via local displacements of the CDW profile which are governed by a smectic elastic response . From the curvature of the CDW energy as a function of the wave length we estimate the compression modulus $`K_x10^{11}`$eVm<sup>-2</sup> and the bending modulus $`K_y(\mathrm{\Lambda }/4\pi )^2K_x`$. For parameters representing the experiments  we estimated the pinning energy density in a linear response calculation ,

$`E_{\mathrm{rough}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{n\pi e}{2\nu \mathrm{\Lambda }}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{d^2q}{(2\pi )^2}\frac{\left[|\varphi _d(q_x+2\pi /\mathrm{\Lambda },q_y)|^2\right]_{\mathrm{av}}}{K_xq_x^2+K_yq_y^4}}.`$ (5)
Note that the pinning strength is given by the disorder correlator near the wave vector $`2\pi /\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and therefore it is exponentially small, $`\left[|\varphi (q_x+2\pi /\mathrm{\Lambda },q_y)|^2\right]_{\mathrm{av}}e^{2(\pi \xi _x/\mathrm{\Lambda })^2}`$. For $`\xi _x\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ this exponential dependence suppresses the pinning energy per particle by orders of magnitude below 1mK per particle as determined above from the threshold tilt angle. Therefore interface roughness is irrelevant for the CDW orientation. In addition it would imply that the CDW wave vector is aligned in the direction of the shorter disorder correlation length, i.e., the $`[110]`$ direction  in contradiction to experiments.

As pointed out in Ref.  the electric field $`E=en/2ϵ_0ϵ_\mathrm{r}`$ in $`[00\overline{1}]`$ direction between the electron system and the donor layer provides a different symmetry breaking mechanism. We now show that this field generates an anisotropic electronic band mass which induces the observed CDW orientation by an energy gain on the appropriate scale. Since Ga and As carry opposite partial charges they are displaced such that the GaAs bonds in $`[11]`$ direction are stretched whereas the bonds in $`[1\overline{1}]`$ direction are shortened. From pressure experiments  it is known that a shortening of bonds leads to an increase of the effective band mass $`m^{}`$. We estimate the effective mass changes $`m_{[1\overline{1}0]/[110]}^{}/m^{}1\pm 10^4`$ by identifying the electric field with an effective pressure . This anisotropic band mass affects the CDW via the form factor. A semiclassical analysis implies elliptic cyclotron orbits with half axes $`R_{[1\overline{1}0]/[110]}/R_c1\pm 10^4`$ which leads to an increased CDW period $`\delta \mathrm{\Lambda }_{[1\overline{1}0]/[110]}/\mathrm{\Lambda }\pm 10^4`$. In analogy to the analysis of the in-plane field this implies that the mass anisotropy prefers the $`[1\overline{1}0]`$ orientation over the $`[110]`$ orientation by about 1mK per electron in agreement with the experimentally observed orientation and the energy scale derived from the tilt experiments.

Conclusion. — We have developed a bosonic Chern-Simons theory to investigate the formation of a CDW state in intermediate Landau levels and the influence of an anisotropic interface potential on the CDW orientation. In a semiclassical calculation we have found that the CDW wave vector is parallel to an in-plane magnetic field for quantum wells with a hard confining potential. The band mass anisotropy is a possible origin for the CDW orientation in perpendicular fields.

Acknowledgments. — We are grateful to B. I. Halperin, M. M. Fogler, M. P. Lilly, R. H. Morf, and F. von Oppen for stimulating discussions and thank A. Kleinschmidt for assistance during the initial stages of the numerical part of this work. B.R. was supported by DFG grant Ro2247/1-1.


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# Experimental generation of steering odd dark beams of finite length

## I Introduction

Physically, Dark Spatial Solitons (DSSs) are localized intensity dips existing on stable background beams as a result of an exact counterbalance of diffraction and nonlinearity. A necessary condition for their existence is the presence of a phase dislocation in the wavefront along which the phase is indeterminate and the field amplitude is zero. Besides the intriguing physical picture, the particular interest in the DSSs is motivated by their ability to induce gradient optical waveguides in bulk self-defocusing nonlinear media . The only known truly two-dimensional (2D) DSSs are the Optical Vortex Solitons (OVSs) , whereas in one transverse spatial dimension DSSs manifest themselves as dark stripes . The odd initial conditions required to generate a fundamental 1D DSS correspond to an abrupt $`\pi `$-phase jump centered along the irradiance minimum of the stripe. The OVSs have a more complicated phase profile described by $`\mathrm{exp}(im\phi )`$, where $`\phi `$ is the azimuthal coordinate in a plane perpendicular to the background beam propagation direction and $`m`$ – the so-called topological charge (TC) – is an integer number. This phase function ensures a $`\pi `$-phase jump in each diametrical slice through the vortex core. Fundamental DSSs of these types have the common feature of zero transverse velocity if no perturbations are present. In contrast to that, ring dark solitary waves  slowly change their parameters even when born from ideal odd initial conditions .

In the pioneering work of Nye and Berry  it is conjectured that mixed edge-screw dislocations cannot exist. Despite that, almost two decades later an indication for their existence was found  for two interacting optical vortices of opposite topological charges. In our recent experiments on the generation of quasi-2D DSSs  we found that moderate saturation of the nonlinearity can stabilize the snake instability which usually leads to their decay. This made possible the first identification of 1D Odd Dark Beams (ODBs) of finite length with their characteristic edge-screw phase dislocations . The mixed dislocation forces the dark beams to steer in space. This appears to be of practical interest  provided that there are effective ways to control the ODBs transverse velocity.

In this article we report the first experimental realization of steering odd dark beams of finite length with mixed phase dislocations under controllable initial conditions. Two approaches to control their transverse velocity are investigated experimentally and compared with numerical simulations.

## II Experimental setup and results

### A Computer-generated holograms

The phase portrait of the mixed edge-screw dislocation (see Fig. 1 in Ref.) consists of a pair of semi-helices with a phase difference of $`\pi `$ to which an effective topological charge of $`\pm 1/2`$ can be ascribed. Their spatial offset $`2b`$ determines the length of the edge part of the dislocation and ensures a phase jump of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi `$ in the direction perpendicular to the dark stripe of finite length. The phase function of this mixed phase dislocation can be described by

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{\alpha ,\beta }(x,y)=\mathrm{\Delta }\phi \left\{\frac{\beta }{\pi }\mathrm{arctan}\left(\frac{\alpha x}{y+b\beta }\right)+\frac{(1\alpha )}{2}\text{sgn}(x)\right\},$$
(1)
where $`x`$ and $`y`$ denote the transverse Cartesian coordinates perpendicular and parallel to the dark beam. $`2b`$ stands for the length of the edge part of the dislocation and

$$\alpha =\{\begin{array}{cc}0\hfill & \text{for }|y|b\hfill \\ 1\text{ and }\beta =1\hfill & \text{for }y>b\hfill \\ 1\text{ and }\beta =1\hfill & \text{for }yb\hfill \end{array}.$$
(2)
The pattern of the Computer-Generated Holograms (CGHs) used to produce this phase distribution consists of parallel lines which become curved at the position of the semi-vortex cores. In the edge part of the dislocation they terminate and reappear shifted, for a $`\pi `$-jump by one half of the pattern period. Holograms with such structures correspond to interference lines shifted along an imaginary line of finite length and to curved lines limiting the dislocations as observed in our previous experiment (see Fig. 8 in ). The binary CGHs used are photolithographically fabricated with a grating period of $`20\mu m`$. Several holograms with various lengths of the edge part of the dislocation are etched on a common substrate. Special attention was paid to align the edge parts of the different dislocations correctly on their common substrate. The simplicity of varying the dislocation length and magnitude of the phase jump is the main advantage  of the approach we have chosen. The diffraction efficiency at first orders is measured to be $`9\%`$, close to the theoretical $`10\%`$ limit for binary holograms. The unavoidable quantization inaccuracy of $`\pi /24`$  for holograms of this type is negligible for measurements with phase jumps of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi =3\pi /4`$, $`\pi `$, and $`5\pi /4`$ which are presented in this work.

### B Experimental setup

The setup used is similar to that in our previous experiments (see Fig. 1 in Ref.). Briefly, the beam of a single-line $`Ar^+`$ laser ($`\lambda =488nm`$) is used to reconstruct the CGHs. The first-diffraction-order beam with the phase dislocation nested in is filtered through a slit and is focused on the entrance of the $`10cm`$ long Nonlinear Medium (NLM). After the desired propagation path length, the beam is deflected by a prism immersed in the nonlinear liquid and is projected directly on a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) camera array with a resolution of $`13\mu m`$. The NLM is ethylene glycol dyed with DODCI (Lambdachrome) to reach an absorption coefficient of $`0.107cm^1`$. In a calibration measurement we generated 1D DSSs by using CGHs of the type described in Sec. I. The soliton constant $`Ia^2`$ (i.e. the product of the background-beam intensity $`I`$ and the square of the dark beam width $`a`$ measured at the $`1/e`$-level) was found to reach its asymptotically constant value for input powers of $`P_{\mathrm{sol}}^{1D}33mW`$. It is known that thermally self-defocusing liquids are both nonlocal and saturable. Since the saturation of the nonlinearity is able to modify the ODBs transverse velocity and profile, we needed to estimate it and to account for it in our numerical calculations. In an independent measurement we realized a self-bending scheme similar to that used in . The asymmetry required was introduced by an intentional tilt of the prism immersed in the NLM, which resulted in different nonlinear propagation path-lengths for the different parts of the background beam. The strength of the self-bending effect was measured in the near field. For an absorptive nonlocal medium the choice of a suitable saturation model is not trivial (, see also Sec. IV of ). We found a good fit for the experimental data with the equation $`\mathrm{\Delta }yI/(1+I/I_{sat})^\gamma `$. Using it we estimated $`P_{sat}100mW`$ and $`\gamma =3`$. In addition to the careful alignment of the CGHs on the substrate, the holograms were reproduced to achieve vertical dark beam steering, which is not sensitive to possible undesired weak horizontal self-deflection of the background beam. Changing the ODB parameters (length-to-width ratio and magnitude of the phase jump) was performed by a strict horizontal translation of the substrate. The accuracy of the alignment was tested by checking for equal steering of the ODBs reproduced from two identical holograms placed at opposite ends of the series of aligned CGHs. In this work the ODBs are identified by the corresponding lengths $`2b`$ of the edge portions of the dislocations in CGH pixels ($`1pix.=5\mu m`$) as encoded in the holograms. The deflection $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ of the dark beams is measured in units of CCD camera pixels. We estimate that measurements with an encoded dislocation length of $`b/5\mu m`$ CGH pixels corresponds to a dislocation length-to-ODB width ratio $`(2b/a)=1/10b/5\mu m`$ in the numerical simulations (e.g. 14 pix. dislocation length corresponds to $`b/a=1.4`$ in the simulations).

### C ODB steering vs. dislocation length

All data presented in this subsection refer to $`\pi `$ phase jumps across the edge parts of the mixed dislocations. In Fig. 1a we plot the deflection $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ of ODBs with different dislocation lengths for input powers of $`1.7mW`$ (circles), $`33mW`$ (triangles) and $`67mW`$ (squares). The data obtained at $`P=1.7mW`$ refer to a linear regime of propagation. The results at $`33mW`$ and $`67mW`$ are extracted from the experimental pictures shown in Fig. 1b and Fig. 1c, respectively, which are recorded for a nonlinear propagation path length of $`z=8.5cm`$. The general tendency of linear increase of the deflection with decreasing the dislocation length is clearly expressed (Fig. 1a, solid line). The shortest mixed phase dislocation encoded was only $`1pix.`$ long. In this case the strong deviation from the linear dependence is caused by the annihilation of the semi-charges due to the shortening of the edge part of the dislocation. It will be shown later that this shortening accelerates for higher input powers (intensities). For that reason, even the ODB with an initially $`10pix.`$ long phase dislocation appears gradually less deflected at $`P=67mW`$ as compared to the case of $`P=33mW`$ (Fig. 1a). In Fig. 1b,c the thick solid lines are intended to denote the positions of the ODBs at the entrance of the NLM. Because ODB steering is present also in the linear regime of propagation (Fig. 1a, dots) these positions (with respect to the dark beam intensity minimum and trailing peak maximum) are identified by numerical simulations for $`b/a=2.5`$. The identification corresponds to an encoded dislocation length of $`25pix.`$, i.e. to the most right frame shown in Fig. 1b,c. Somewhat surprising is the weak sensitivity of the ODB deflection vs. background beam power (intensity) far from TC annihilation. It can be intuitively understood by recalling the known interaction scenario of well-separated OVSs of opposite TCs . In this case the attraction between the OVSs is negligible as compared to their translation as a pair. At a constant input power of $`33mW`$ we measured the ODB deflection vs. nonlinear propagation path length (Fig. 2). As expected, the ODB with $`10pix.`$ long dislocation has higher transverse velocity than that one with $`22pix.`$ long dislocation. The linearity in the dependencies is also well pronounced.

### D Phase control of the ODB steering

As a second possible way to control the dark beam deflection, we considered the variations in the magnitude of the phase jump $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi `$ across the edge part of the mixed dislocation. In Fig. 3 we compare the experimental dependencies $`\mathrm{\Delta }x(\mathrm{\Delta }\phi )_{b=22pix.}`$ (squares) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }x(b)_{\mathrm{\Delta }\phi =\pi }`$ (dots). The straight lines are the respective linear fits. Because a problem in encoding a larger set of phase jumps in the CGHs was recognized too late, we measured the deflection $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ at $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi =3\pi /4`$, $`\pi `$, and $`5\pi /4`$ only. In view of that the linear fit of the phase dependence in Fig. 3 appears to be assailable. Its linearity, however, is confirmed by numerical simulations (see Sec. III). The dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ on $`\mathrm{\Delta }x(\mathrm{\Delta }\phi )`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }x(b)`$ has been plotted in one figure in order to underline the fact that it appears to be easier to deflect the ODB by controlling the phase than by controlling the dislocation length. The measurements are performed at a constant power of $`33mW`$.

### E Power/Intensity dependencies

The ability of the dark spatial solitons  (and the dark spatial waves ) to induce gradient all-optical waveguides in bulk self-defocusing NLM originates in the negative nonlinear correction to the linear refractive indices of the media. In view of that, the intensity dependencies remain undoubtfully of interest, despite of the low sensitivity of the ODB steering on the input power (intensity). In Fig. 4 we present experimental data on the power dependence of the length of the edge portion of the mixed dislocation for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi =\pi `$ and for two different lengths of $`14pix.`$ and $`22pix.`$ encoded in the holograms. It is easy to understand that the (mixed) phase dislocations do not remain sharp and of an unchanged magnitude when the (odd) dark beam steers . The dislocation lengths are estimated by evaluating the respective longitudinal ODB slices at $`5\%`$ of the background beam intensity (i.e. at the actual noise level in the recorded frames). Generally, the dislocation length decreases monotonically with increasing the input power. Asymptotically, the dislocation flattens and disappears, provided that the ratio $`b/a`$ is less than 2. As mentioned in , at $`b/a4`$ the ODBs should be expected to bend due to the snake instability . In fact we observed such a behavior for ODBs with encoded dislocation lengths ranging from 4 to 6. A vortex-beam creation is recognized by the convergence of two neighboring interference lines in one. However, the vortices formed by this instability remained with highly overlapping cores .

In Fig. 5a,b we plot the measured ODB widths (a) and their lengths (b) at the $`1/e`$-level as a function of the background beam power. The initial lengths of the mixed phase dislocations are denoted in pixels as encoded on the respective CGHs, whereas the widths and lengths at the exit of the NLM are measured in units of CCD camera pixels. The strong decrease in both the ODB width and length up to $`17mW`$ (approximately $`P_{sol}^{1D}/2`$) is followed by an approximate recovering of the width and length at approximately $`P_{sol}^{1D}`$. At higher input powers both transverse quantities decrease but the tendency is slower as compared to the situation below $`P_{sol}^{1D}/2`$ and stabilizes asymptotically at high saturation. As it will be discussed in the next section, the minima in the curves plotted in Fig. 5a,b result from the reshaping of the OD beams at the particular $`1/e`$ intensity-level chosen for evaluation. The estimation there shows that the first rapid decrease in both transverse dimensions of the ODBs does not correspond to a ‘soliton constant’ formation. Generally speaking, the ODBs analyzed are no solitary waves in the widely adopted sense, since they do not survive, for instance, a collision with a second ODB steering in the opposite direction . Nevertheless, the narrowing in both transverse directions for higher powers (intensities) should improve their guiding ability when signal beams or pulses are to be transmitted inside the ODBs and deflected in space. This feature will be addressed elsewhere. It is interesting to note that, independent of the length of the mixed dislocations ($`2b`$), the widths ($`a`$) of the dislocations should be initially equal (in the near field behind the CGHs), but appeared different near the entrance of the NLM. The estimation has shown a CGH-to-NLM distance of approximately 4 Rayleigh diffraction lengths with respect to the initial ODB width. The well pronounced separation between the curves in Fig. 5a should be attributed to the different two-dimensional diffraction at different initial ODB length-to-width ratios.

## III Numerical simulations

In our numerical simulations we tried to model the experimentally obtained dependencies by accounting for the estimated moderate saturation of the nonlinearity ($`P_{sol}^{1D}=33mW`$; $`P_{sat}=100mW`$ at $`\gamma =3`$; see Sec. II B). The $`(2+1)`$-dimensional nonlinear evolution of the steering ODB of finite length in the bulk homogeneous and isotropic NLM is described by the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation

$$i\frac{E}{\zeta }+\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{^2}{\xi ^2}+\frac{^2}{\eta ^2}\right)E\frac{L_{Diff}}{L_{NL}}\frac{|E|^2}{(1+s|E|^2)^\gamma }E=0,$$
(3)
where the transverse spatial coordinates are normalized to the initial dark-beam width $`(\zeta =x/a,\eta =y/a)`$, and the propagation path length is expressed in Rayleigh diffraction lengths $`L_{\mathrm{Diff}}=ka^2`$. Further, $`L_{NL}=(kn_2I_0)^1`$ is the nonlinear length, $`k`$ is the wavenumber inside the NLM, and $`I_0`$ is the background beam intensity. The adopted correction for the nonlinear refractive index is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }n=n_2|E|^2/(1+s|E|^2)^\gamma ,$$
(4)
with $`s=P_{sol}^{1D}/P_{sat}=0.3`$. As it was done in , the slowly varying electric-field amplitude of the ODB was chosen $`tanh`$-shaped

$$E(x,y)=\sqrt{I_0}B(r_{1,0}(x,y))\mathrm{tanh}\left[\frac{r_{\alpha ,\beta }(x,y)}{a}\right]e^{i\mathrm{\Phi }_{\alpha ,\beta }(x,y)},$$
(5)
where $`r_{\alpha ,\beta }(x,y)=\sqrt{x^2+\alpha (y+\beta b)^2}`$ is the effective Cartesian/radial coordinate, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\alpha ,\beta }`$ is the phase distribution of the mixed edge-screw dislocation (see Eq. 1), and $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are given by Eq. 2. The width $`w`$ of the super-Gaussian background beam

$$B(r)=\mathrm{exp}\left\{\left(\sqrt{\frac{x^2+y^2}{w^2}}\right)^{14}\right\}$$
(6)
is chosen to exceed at least 15 times the ODB lengths. The model equation (3) was solved numerically by the beam propagation method on a $`1024\times 1024`$ grid. It should be mentioned, that the initial width $`a(z=0)`$ of the ODB of finite length was chosen to correspond to that of an infinite 1D ODSS ($`a=a_{sol}^{1D}=const.I_0^{1/2}`$). It was proven numerically that the ODB deflection is insensitive to the particular value of $`a`$, and Figs. 6-8 are generated under this assumption. Actually, the nonlinearity causes an appreciable reshaping of the beams, in particular in the first evolution stage when the ODB starts steering, see Fig. 2 in Ref. ). In order to improve the similarity between the experimental data (Figs. 4 and 5) and the numerical results (Figs. 9 and 10), an initial ODB width twice as large as in the experiment is assumed. In Fig. 6 we plot the ODB deflection vs. $`b/a_{z=0}`$ for different input powers (intensities). All data presented in this section refer to a normalized propagation path length of $`z=4L_{NL}`$, which corresponds to that estimated for the experiment. Nevertheless all calculations are carried out up to $`10L_{NL}`$ whereby no qualitative deviation from the tendencies discussed is seen. The linearity in the ODB deflection vs. $`b/a`$ is well obeyed except for $`b/a>2.2`$. The longer ODBs steer slower, bend slightly, and decay into pairs of vortex beams for $`b/a>4`$. In the linear regime of propagation, the ODBs also deflect but the deflection is stronger at higher input powers/intensities. This is more pronounced for shorter dislocations. In the experimental data (Fig. 1a), this behavior is much weaker, rather the deflection remains within the experimental accuracy. Looking for an adequate explanation, in a series of simulations we checked that a $`\pm 30\%`$ inaccuracy in estimating $`P_{sat}`$ results only in $`\pm 5\%`$ deviation in the ODB deflection at $`z=4L_{NL}`$. The observed tendency of a decrease of the ODB steering velocities at increased saturation is well understood  but seems insufficient in quantity. We attribute the absence of a well expressed power dependence in Fig. 1a to the NLM nonlocality. In a separate experiment it was estimated, that the nonlocality in this medium is negligible on a spatial scale of several hundred of micrometers only .

In Fig. 7 we plot the ODB deflection vs. the nonlinear propagation path length $`z/L_{NL}`$ for $`b/a=1.0`$ and $`2.2`$. As in the previous figure the magnitude of the edge part of the phase dislocation is set to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi =\pi `$. Ones the ODB starts steering, its transverse velocity remains constant (see Fig. 2). The longer ODBs with longer edge dislocations, however, emit dispersive waves in their first evolution stage ($`z<1L_{NL}`$). This causes a ‘delay’ in the steering along the NLM (Fig. 7, lower curve).

In Fig. 8 we present results obtained for the phase-dependent control of the ODB deflection at different input powers (intensities). In qualitative agreement with the experimental observation, the linear increase in the ODB steering with decreasing the magnitude of the phase jump down to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi =0.5\pi `$ is evident. The comparison of Figs. 6 and 8 confirms the conclusion that at a fixed nonlinear propagation distance the phase-controlled ODB deflection is more efficient as compared to that by varying the $`b/a`$ ratio.

Fig. 9 is intended to clarify the origin of the non-monotonic power dependencies of the ODB widths (and lengths) observed at input powers below $`P_{sol}^{1D}`$ (see Fig. 5). The solid line represents the ODB full width at half maximum (FWHM), the dashed one the full width at the $`1/e`$-intensity level. In these simulations $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi =\pi `$ and $`b/a=1.4`$ are assumed. Qualitatively, we obtained the same curves also for $`b/a=2.2`$ by accounting for the initial free-space propagation in the experiment (from the CGH to the entrance of the NLM; $`z4L_{Diff}`$). The minimum in the ODB width evaluated at the $`1/e`$ level originates from the reshaping of the beam profile which is caused by the moderate saturation. A similar reshaping is reported in  (see Figs. 2-4 therein). At $`b/a=2.2`$ the data obtained for the ODB length vs. input power (intensity) were found to be even more sensitive to the intensity level of evaluation. Because of the transverse steering of the ODBs of finite length the edge portions of the dislocations shorten monotonically with increasing the background beam power (intensity) (Fig. 10). The numerical results are in a very good qualitative agreement with the experimental ones (Fig. 4).

## IV Conclusion

The results presented show that the inherent steering dynamics of odd dark beams of finite length can be effectively controlled by varying both the magnitude $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi `$ and the relative length $`b/a`$ of the mixed edge-screw phase dislocation. The background-beam intensity has weak influence on the steering but is important for keeping the optically-induced gradient waveguides steep, which is crucial for all-optical guiding, deflection and switching of signal beams or pulses. Since the mixed phase dislocations shorten and flatten along the nonlinear media (tending asymptotically to washout) the ODBs seem to be promising primarily for future short-range all-optical switching devices.

###### Acknowledgements.

A. D. would like to thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for the award of a fellowship and the opportunity to work in the stimulating atmosphere of the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik (Garching, Germany). This work was also supported by the National Science Foundation of Bulgaria.


text:
# Restrictions on Gauge Groups in Noncommutative Gauge Theory

## I Introduction

The Yang-Mills theories naturally arise as low energy limits of the theory of open strings. One can obtain Yang-Mills theories with different gauge groups by studying different D-brane configurations (see e.g. ). For instance, if we place $`N`$ D-branes on top of each other in the flat space, the corresponding open string theory gives rise to the Yang-Mills theory with the gauge group $`U(N)`$. One can also obtain gauge theories with other gauge groups such as $`SO(N)`$ and $`Sp(N)`$ by using the orientifold construction. In more detail, one combines the spatial reflection $`\sigma \pi \sigma `$ on the string world-sheet with the target space reflection, $`X^\mu X^\mu ,\mu =1,\mathrm{},k`$ and $`X^\mu X^\mu ,\mu =(k+1),\mathrm{},10`$. It is the goal of this note to study which gauge groups can be realized in the presence of the background $`B`$-field when the brane world-volume turns into a noncommutative space .

Interaction with the $`B`$-field introduces an extra term into the Polyakov action of the string ,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }S=\frac{i}{2}_\mathrm{\Sigma }B_{\mu \nu }ϵ^{ab}_aX^\mu _bX^\nu .$$
(1)
Here $`a,b=1,2`$ are world-sheet indices, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is the worldsheet and $`B_{\mu \nu }=B_{\nu \mu }`$ is the $`B`$-field on the target space. One requires the expression (1) to be invariant with respect to the orientifold reflection. This implies the following transformation rules for components of the $`B`$-field,

$`B_{}B_{}`$ $`B_{}B_{}`$ (2)
$`B_{}B_{}`$ $`B_{}B_{}.`$ (3)
Here the symbols $``$ and $``$ stand for the target space indices $`\mu =1,\mathrm{},k`$ and $`\mu =(k+1),\mathrm{},10`$, respectively. In the orientifold construction we finally let the branes lie on the orientifold. The continuity of the $`B`$-field implies that the $`B`$-field on the brane, $`B_{}`$, vanishes. Hence, the brane world-volumes are commutative since it is $`B_{}`$ which is responsible for the noncommutativity . This consideration indicates that one should encounter difficulties in the construction of the gauge theories with gauge groups $`SO(N)`$ and $`Sp(N)`$ on noncommutative spaces. Somewhat surprisingly, we find that the reduction from $`U(N)`$ to $`SU(N)`$ in the framework of noncommutative geometry also fails.

## II The closure of classical Lie algebras under the Moyal commutator

In the flat case the presence of a constant $`B`$-field turns the D-branes into noncommutative spaces, with the ordinary pointwise multiplication of functions replaced by the Moyal product,

$`(XY)(x)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}({\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}\theta ^{ij}_i^x_j^y)X(x)Y(y)|_{x=y}=`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`XY+{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}\theta ^{ij}_iX_jY+\mathrm{}`$ (5)
Here $`X`$ and $`Y`$ are functions on the D-brane world-volume, and $`\theta ^{ij}`$ is a real-valued constant antisymmetric tensor constructed of the metric and $`B`$-field . The Moyal product naturally extends to $`N`$ by $`N`$ matrices, formula (3) still applies. One can also introduce the Moyal commutator by the formula,

$$[X,Y]_{}=XYYX.$$
(6)
In what follows we check whether the matrix Lie algebras of the classical Lie groups $`SO(N),U(N),SU(N)`$ and $`Sp(N)`$ are closed under the Moyal commutator. We choose to work in the fundamental representation of these Lie algebras.

The Lie algebra of $`U(N)`$ consists of anti-Hermitean matrices, $`\overline{X^t}=X`$, where the bar stands for complex conjugation. We first show that this algebra is closed under the Moyal commutator. The key observation is the following property of the Moyal product,

$$\overline{(XY)^t}=\overline{Y^t}\overline{X^t}.$$
(7)
By using the ordinary rules for the transpose of matrices we get,

$`(XY)^t=Y^tX^t+`$ (8)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}\theta ^{ij}_jY^t_iX^t{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}\theta ^{ij}\theta ^{kl}_j_lY^t_i_kX^t+\mathrm{}`$ (9)
The construction for higher order terms is obvious. Now we apply the complex conjugation and rename the indices of $`\theta `$ to obtain,

$`\overline{(XY)^t}=\overline{Y^t}\overline{X^t}+{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}\theta ^{ij}_i\overline{Y^t}_j\overline{X^t}`$ (10)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}\theta ^{ij}\theta ^{kl}_i_k\overline{Y^t}_j_l\overline{X^t}+\mathrm{}=\overline{Y^t}\overline{X^t}.`$ (11)
Taking into account $`\overline{X^t}=X`$ and $`\overline{Y^t}=Y`$ yields,

$`\overline{[X,Y]_{}^t}`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{(XY)^t}\overline{YX)^t}=`$ (12)
$`=`$ $`\overline{Y^t}\overline{X^t}\overline{X^t}\overline{Y^t}=`$ (13)
$`=`$ $`YXXY=[X,Y]_{}`$ (14)
which shows that the algebra $`U(N)`$ is closed under the Moyal commutator.

We now turn to the algebras of $`SO(N)`$, $`SU(N)`$ and $`Sp(N)`$. We first show that for $`N=2`$ these algebras are not closed with respect to the Moyal commutator.

The counter examples for both $`SO(2)`$ and $`Sp(2)`$ are given by formulas,

$$X=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& \alpha \\ \alpha & 0\end{array}\right)Y=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& \beta \\ \beta & 0\end{array}\right).$$
(15)
and the counterexample for $`SU(2)`$ is

$$X=\left(\begin{array}{cc}i\alpha & 0\\ 0& i\alpha \end{array}\right)Y=\left(\begin{array}{cc}i\beta & 0\\ 0& i\beta \end{array}\right).$$
(16)
Here $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are coordinates on the manifold chosen so that $`\theta ^{\alpha \beta }0`$. This can always be done unless $`\theta =0`$ and the Moyal product coincides with the ordinary multiplication of matrix-valued functions. With $`X`$ and $`Y`$ as given above one can easily compute the Moyal commutator since all derivatives of order higher than one vanish. The result for both counter examples is

$$[X,Y]_{}=i\theta ^{\alpha \beta }\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right).$$
(17)
Note that this matrix has a nonvanishing trace. Since the Lie algebras of $`SO(2),SU(2)`$ and $`Sp(2)`$ consist of traceless matrices, we conclude that they are not closed under the Moyal commutator. This also applies to $`SO(N),SU(N)`$ and $`Sp(N)`$ for arbitrary $`N`$ because they contain $`SO(2),SU(2)`$ and $`Sp(2)`$ as subgroups.

Acknowledgements First of all I would like to thank Anton Alekseev who has been very helpful during the preparation of this note. I would also like to thank Ulf Danielsson, Martin Kruczenski and Mårten Stenmark for helpful and encouraging discussions.