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# On the occurrence of dwarf nova outbursts in post novae

## 1 Introduction

Although nova eruptions and dwarf nova outbursts may resemble each other in some cases111In fact, a number of large amplitude/low outburst frequency dwarf novae are found in the lists of nova remnants, the most famous example being the short-period dwarf nova WZ Sge (Duerbeck 1987)., the physical mechanisms behind the outbursts are entirely different: a nova eruption arises when hydrogen-rich material accreted onto the surface of a white dwarf ignites under degenerate conditions (see Starrfield et al. 1998 for a review); dwarf novae outbursts are thought to result from thermal instabilities associated with hydrogen ionisation in an accretion disc (see Cannizzo 1993 for a review and Ludwig et al. 1994 for a detailed parameter study).

It is clear that the class of cataclysmic variables (CVs), close binaries containing a white dwarf accreting from a less massive main-sequence companion, provides numerous potential novae progenitors (pre-novae). In fact, almost all CVs should suffer nova eruptions repeatedly during their lives. To our knowledge, no system became a nova after it had been classified as a CV. However, a large number of nova remnants (post novae) have been found to be CVs after they attracted attention by erupting (novae may arise, of course, on a white dwarf accreting hydrogen-rich material in other environments, e.g. in a symbiotic binary). Among the wide variety of known CV subtypes, most post novae were found to have rather high mass transfer rates $`\dot{M}`$, and, thus, fall into the class of novalike variables222 Note that the published mass transfer rates were determined generally under the assumption that the disc luminosity arises from viscous dissipation only. However, irradiation by the hot white dwarf contributes significantly to the observed disc luminosity in young post novae. Only in a small number of cases were quasiperiodic brightenings observed in post novae, identifying those systems to be dwarf novae (Livio 1989).

In this paper, we analyse the circumstances under which a post nova will evolve into a dwarf nova following the nova eruption. In the next two sections we calculate the irradiation of the accretion disc by the hot white dwarf, and estimate the amount of time required for a post nova to cool to the point that it may begin exhibiting dwarf nova outbursts. We then discuss our results in the context of the post nova with the best observational coverage to test our predictions – V446 Her.

## 2 White dwarf cooling in classical novae

Even though a large part of the accreted hydrogen-rich material is ejected during the nova eruption, a significant amount of hydrogen is left over in the remaining envelope, which rapidly returns to hydrostatic equilibrium (MacDonald 1996). The nova remnant experiences steady-state hydrogen shell burning until the nuclear fuel is exhausted, and is consequently heated to effective temperatures of several $`10^5`$ K. The turn-off times of the burning envelope which have been observed with ROSAT for a small number of novae are of the order of years, e.g. 1.8 yr in V1974 Cyg (Krautter et al. 1996) and 10 yr in GQ Mus (Shanley et al. 1995). Additional support for turn-off times on the order of years comes from monitoring of the ultraviolet luminosity of a number of post novae following their eruption (González-Riestra et al. 1998).

Prialnik (1986) modelled the evolution of a classical nova through a complete cycle of accretion, outburst, mass loss, decline and resumed accretion. During the decline, the cooling of the white dwarf can be fit with a power-law of the form

$$Lt^{1.14},$$
(1)
where $`L`$ denotes the luminosity of the white dwarf and $`t`$ the time after the nova explosion. Prialnik’s theoretical model is confirmed by Somers & Naylor (1999), who derive the cooling rate of the white dwarf using B band observations of the irradiated secondary in V1500 Cygni and find

$$Lt^{0.94\pm \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.09}}.$$
(2)
## 3 Irradiation of the disc by the white dwarf

External irradiation of the disc by the hot central source can suppress the thermal instabilities particularly in the inner disc regions. In the context of soft X-ray transients, Tuchman et al. (1990) and Mineshige et al. (1990) calculate the thermal equilibrium structure of externally irradiated accretion disc annuli assuming that the irradiation flux is thermalized in the photosphere of the disc. King (1997) explains the UV-delay in dwarf novae taking into account irradiation from the white dwarf which truncates the inner disc. Hameury et al. (1999) confirm this claim only for hot white dwarfs ($`T_{\mathrm{wd}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}40\hspace{0.17em}000}\mathrm{K}`$) and find that the depletion of the inner disc must create several small outbursts between the main outbursts, contrary to observations. Leach et al. (1999) explain the low states of VY Scl stars as being due to the interplay of irradiation from hot white dwarfs and low mass transfer rates.

For completeness we note that the motivation of King (1997) and Hameury et al. (1999) was to account for the “problem of the UV delay” in dwarf novae, although the effects of irradiation of the inner disc are of general interest for the operation of the accretion disc limit cycle mechanism. Smak (1998) critically re-examined the basis for the claim of a problem, and finds that there does not seem to be one. Previous studies which had claimed there to be a problem had utilised various simplifications in their time dependent models which turned out to be critical - such as the neglect of a variable outer boundary. The contraction of the accretion disc during quiescence has the effect of increasing the local surface density in the outer disc, and thereby promoting disc instabilities which begin at large radii. These so-called “outside-in” (Cannizzo et al. 1986) or “type A” (Smak 1984) outbursts in which a narrow spike of enhanced surface density propagates from the initial site of the instability to the inner edge, are able to produce outbursts with the observed delay.

In this work we calculate the structure of irradiated accretion discs in non-magnetic post novae, taking into account the time dependent flux of the white dwarf cooling down from the hydrogen shell burning phase, as well as the luminosity of the boundary layer resulting from accretion onto the white dwarf. The luminosity of the white dwarf is given by

$$L_{\mathrm{wd}}(t)=4\pi R_{\mathrm{wd}}^2\sigma T_{\mathrm{wd}}^4(t)t^{1.14},$$
(3)
where $`R_{\mathrm{wd}}`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{wd}}`$ denote the radius and the effective temperature of the white dwarf, respectively, and $`\sigma `$ is the Stefan-Boltzman constant. The boundary layer luminosity is

$$L_{\mathrm{BL}}=\alpha _{\mathrm{BL}}\frac{GM_{\mathrm{wd}}\dot{M}}{R_{\mathrm{wd}}}$$
(4)
where $`G`$ is the gravitational constant and, as in Stehle & King (1999) and Leach et al. (1999) we take $`\alpha _{\mathrm{BL}}=0.5`$. Assuming that the boundary layer luminosity is radiated by the entire surface of the white dwarf and the disc is geometrically thin, the time-dependent flux $`F_{\mathrm{irr}}(t)`$ irradiating the disc at the radius $`R`$ is given by

$$F_{\mathrm{irr}}(t)=(1\beta )\frac{L_{\mathrm{BL}}+L_{\mathrm{wd}}(t)}{2\pi \sigma R_{\mathrm{wd}}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}\frac{1}{\pi }[\mathrm{arcsin}\rho \rho (1\rho ^2)^{\frac{1}{2}}],$$
(5)
(Adams et al. 1988; King 1997), where $`\beta `$ is the albedo, $`\rho =R_{\mathrm{wd}}/R`$ and $`t=0`$ at the end of the hydrogen shell burning phase. Throughout this paper we follow King (1997) in adopting $`\beta =0.5`$.

If the irradiation temperature ($`\sigma T_{\mathrm{irr}}^4F_{\mathrm{irr}}`$) exceeds $`T_\mathrm{H}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}6500}\mathrm{K}`$ the hydrogen in the disc is fully ionised independent of the accretion rate (van Paradijs 1996) Thus, setting $`T_{\mathrm{irr}}T_\mathrm{H}`$ at the outer edge of the disc ($`R=R_{\mathrm{out}}`$) gives a limit of the irradiation flux which suppresses the disc instability. Using standard equations (Eggleton 1983; Frank et al. 1992) and assuming that the outer disc radius $`R_{\mathrm{out}}`$ is 70 % of the primary’s Roche lobe radius, we obtain the outer radius of the accretion disc as function of the orbital Period $`P`$ and the binary mass ratio $`q=M_2/M_{\mathrm{wd}}`$. We used $`q=0.5`$ for all calculations throughout the paper as we are mainly interested in systems above the period gap.

We can now estimate how long disc instabilities in the accretion discs of post novae are suppressed due to irradiation, where we assume either $`\dot{M}=0`$ or $`\dot{M}=10^{17}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{s}^1`$, as typical for dwarf novae above the period gap (for much higher accretion rates, the disc remains in a stable, hot state anyway). Fig. 1 shows the results for initial temperatures of $`T_{\mathrm{wd}}(0)=5\times 10^5\mathrm{K}`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{wd}}(0)=3\times 10^5\mathrm{K}`$. Apparently, disc instabilities, and, hence, dwarf nova outbursts, should typically be suppressed for $``$5–50 yr, and up to $``$100 yr if the white dwarf is strongly heated during the nova eruption. It is also clear that the size of the disc is a crucial parameter: the irradiation from the white dwarf can suppress the instability over the entire disc only for orbital periods $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}20`$ hr. The contribution of the boundary layer luminosity becomes important only after $`5`$ yr at the earliest.

It is important to note that our results are lower limits on the time scale on which irradiation from the white dwarf suppresses dwarf nova outbursts in post novae for the given disc albedo: (a) in order to produce significant dwarf nova outbursts, the disc instability has to affect on considerable parts of the outer disc and not only the outer edge (we focus on this subject in the next section) and (b) the disc may be flared and therefore intercept more flux from the white dwarf than described by Eq.(5), which assumes a flat disc.

## 4 Dwarf novae among post novae?

Accretion disc instabilities and their observational consequence, dwarf nova outbursts, can occur in a non-magnetic cataclysmic variable, if under the assumption of stationary accretion, the disc at its outer rim is colder than the ionisation temperature of hydrogen, $`T_\mathrm{H}`$. As described above, two factors determine the disc temperature at a given radius: the mass transfer rate and the irradiation field from the white dwarf.

While most post novae seem to have no outbursts, a small number of post novae show repetitive optical brightenings that are reminiscent of dwarf nova outbursts (Livio 1989; Honeycutt et al. 1998a). The post novae for which this outburst behaviour is best documented are GK Per ( = Nova Per 1901), which shows outbursts of $`3`$ mag every $`1000`$ d, and V446 Her ( = Nova Her 1960), which shows outbursts with an amplitude of $`2.5`$ mag and a recurrence time of $`23`$ d (Honeycutt et al. 1998b).

The presence of outbursts in GK Per is not surprising: The critical mass transfer rate below which outbursts are possible is $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cr}}10^{16}`$ g s-1 $`R_{10}^{2.6}m_1^{0.87}`$, where $`R_{10}`$ is the outer disc radius in units of $`10^{10}`$ cm and $`m_1`$ is the primary mass in solar units (Cannizzo et al. ). The large disc size ($`P_{\mathrm{orb}}=2`$ d) for GK Per means that $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cr}}2\times 10^{19}`$ g s-1, which ensures that disc instabilities are possible even at very high mass transfer rates and almost independent of the mass transfer rate. Indeed, the outbursts observed in GK Per have been successfully modelled within the disc instability scenario (Cannizzo & Kenyon 1986; Kim et al. 1992).

By contrast, V446 Her has $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}=4.97`$ h (Thorstensen & Taylor 2000), which places it among a number of “normal” dwarf novae longward of the $`23`$ hr period gap. The dwarf nova nature of V446 Her is confirmed by its spectrum which is typical for this class (Thorstensen & Taylor 2000). The presence of dwarf nova outbursts in V446 Her indicates that the accretion rate cannot be too high.

In the previous section we assumed that the disc instability is suppressed for $`T_{\mathrm{irr}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}6500}\mathrm{K}`$, which is a reasonable but somewhat simplified statement. In order to get more detailed results, we re-derive the accretion rate above which the disc instability is suppressed, $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cr}}`$, from calculations of the vertical structure of irradiated accretion discs. Our computations are based on the vertical structure code written by one of us (JKC) and described in Cannizzo & Wheeler (1984) and Cannizzo & Cameron (1988) which we have modified to include the effects of external irradiation. Assuming that the external flux is thermalized in the surface layer, we set

$$\sigma T_\mathrm{s}^4=F_{\mathrm{visc}}+\sigma T_{\mathrm{irr}}^4$$
(6)
at the outer boundary, where $`T_\mathrm{s}`$ is the photospheric temperature, $`F_{\mathrm{visc}}`$ the energy flux arising from viscous dissipation and $`T_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ the irradiation temperature defined above (Hameury et al. 1999). We calculate the modified vertical structure for $`M_{\mathrm{wd}}=[0.5,\mathrm{},1.3]M_{},\alpha =[0.005,\mathrm{},1],R=[0.1,\mathrm{},10]\times 10^{10}\mathrm{cm}`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{irr}}=[0,\mathrm{},12]\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^3\mathrm{K}`$. For the non-irradiated disc (i.e. $`T_{\mathrm{irr}}=0`$), we obtain

$$\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cr}}=9.5\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{15}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{s}^1R_{10}^{2.64}\alpha ^{0.01}m_1^{0.88}.$$
(7)
This result is in good agreement with values derived previously (Cannizzo et al. ; Ludwig et al. 1994; Hameury et al. 1998).

Fig. 2 shows examples of the thermal equilibrium curves for different irradiation temperatures. Irradiation has a significant influence on the ionisation state of the disc for $`\mathrm{log}(T_{\mathrm{irr}})\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3.5}`$. The critical accretion rate, below which the disc becomes unstable, decreases with increasing irradiation until the external flux becomes strong enough to hold the disc in the hot stable state independent of the accretion rate. We find that the irradiation temperature $`T_{\mathrm{irr},\mathrm{s}}`$ for which $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ vanishes is a slightly decreasing function of $`R_{10}`$ and $`\alpha `$, but nearly independent of $`m_1`$:

$$T_{\mathrm{irr},\mathrm{s}}=7382\mathrm{K}\alpha ^{0.07}R_{10}^{0.03}.$$
(8)
The decrease of $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ between the non-irradiated case (Eq. 7) and the suppression of the instability is approximately given by:

$$\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cr}}^{\mathrm{irr}}=\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cr}}\left(1\frac{T_{\mathrm{irr}}^{7.2}}{T_{\mathrm{irr},\mathrm{s}}^{7.2}}\right),$$
(9)
where $`T_{\mathrm{irr},\mathrm{s}}`$ and $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ given above. Using the result of our parameter study, i.e. $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cr}}^{\mathrm{irr}}(M_{\mathrm{wd}},R,T_{\mathrm{irr}},\alpha )`$, combined with Eq. (5) and assuming $`T_{\mathrm{wd}}(0)=3\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$ K after the nova event, we find that the limit cycle instability can operate now (i.e. 40 yr after the 1960 nova) only between $`1.2\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{10}`$ cm and $`R_{\mathrm{out}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3.8}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{10}`$ cm in V446 Her (Fig. 3). This might be enough to produce significant dwarf nova outbursts but the continuing cooling of the white dwarf should lead in the future to an increase of the outburst amplitude as well as to longer quiescence periods.

Assuming that the mass transfer rate in V446 Her is indeed low enough to permit a disc instability limit cycle, we compare now our estimates of irradiation suppression of dwarf nova outbursts with the long-term photometric history of the system.

The pre-nova showed brightness fluctuations between $`V1815`$, which bear some resemblance to dwarf nova outbursts, even though the rise time of the single well sampled “flare” seems too slow compared to a typical dwarf nova outburst (Robinson 1975). Stienon (1971) reports 9 photometric measurements of the post nova obtained between 22 September 1968, and 26 September 1970, i.e. 8–10 yr after the nova eruption, all of which show the system at $`m_{\mathrm{pg}}15.8`$. Finally, the systematic RoboScope photometry of Honeycutt et al. (1998a), starting in 1990, shows V446 Her at a quiescent magnitude of $`V18`$ with regular outbursts reaching $`V15.5`$. It appears very unlikely that all of Stienon’s measurements caught the system at the maximum of an outburst, and we believe that dwarf nova outbursts were suppressed in V446 Her for at least ten years after the nova eruption in 1960. Unfortunately, we do not know how long the hydrogen shell burning lasted in V446 Her, and it is not clear at which point between 1970 and 1990 the dwarf nova outbursts resumed. Therefore, we can not give a quantitative estimate of $`T_{\mathrm{wd}}(0)`$.

## 5 Discussion

Taken at face value, the decrease of the optical brightness observed in V446 Her over several decades following the nova eruption and the onset of dwarf nova outbursts $`13`$ decades after the nova eruption could be interpreted simply as a decline of the accretion rate, being higher than the critical accretion rate for at least the first decade after the eruption, and being below the critical rate in the 1990’s.

Such a decline of the accretion rate in post novae is the hallmark of the “hibernation scenario”, which was invoked by Shara et al. (1986, see Shara 1989 for a review) to solve discrepancies between nova theory and observations and to account for the low observed space density of CVs when compared to the number of nova eruptions in our Galaxy or M31. In the hibernation scenario, irradiation of the secondary star by the hot white dwarf should keep the mass transfer rate high after the nova eruption for a limited period of time, after which the mass transfer rate decreases to very low values. The post novae should, hence, appear at first as a novalike variables (for many decades to a century) with stable hot accretion discs, and evolve thereafter into inconspicuous low $`\dot{M}`$ CVs. Thus, in the hibernation scenario it appears plausible that most “fresh” post novae have indeed high accretion rates, and that the oldest recovered novae are intrinsically very faint (e.g Shara et al. 1985).

On observational grounds, the hibernation scenario has been challenged, e.g. Naylor et al. (1992) and Weight et al. (1994), but obtained also some support: Vogt (1990) and Duerbeck (1992) found a gradual decrease in the visual brightness during the final decline of novae and interpret this result as an evidence for a decrease of the mass transfer rate in these systems, consistent with the hibernation scenario. However, the latter point needs to be considered with some care: as already mentioned in the introduction, irradiation by the hot white dwarf significantly contributes to the observed disc brightness. As the white dwarf cools from the nova outburst, the decreasing amount of irradiation will result in a decrease of the observed disc brightness, and, hence, mimick a decrease of the accretion rate.

A valuable alternative to the hibernation model that can explain at least the fact that only in a small number of cases dwarf nova outbursts were observed in post novae (and pre novae) is the mass transfer cycle proposed by King et al. (1995) in which the accretion-induced irradiation of the secondary drives a limit cycle with a period of $`10^610^7`$ yr. In this cycle, a CV spends similar times in states of high and low accretion rates, appearing as a novalike variable or as a dwarf nova. It is then clear that the probability that a CV turns into a nova is highest during the phase of high mass transfer, which naturally explains why most post novae are novalike variables. Of course, in some low $`\dot{M}`$ CVs the accreted envelope will also reach the critical mass for a nova eruption, and V446 Her might be such a case.

In this scenario, pre novae and post novae would have the same characteristics, which is in agreement with the analysis of Robinson (1975), who found that in most novae the pre-eruption and post eruption magnitudes are very similar.

## 6 Conclusion

We have calculated the effect that irradiation by the heated white dwarf in a post nova has on the structure of an accretion disc. We find that, even if the accretion rate in such a system is low enough to permit disc instabilities, irradiation from the white dwarf suppresses dwarf nova outbursts for up to $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}100}`$ yr. In the case of V446 Her our calculations predict an increase of the outburst amplitude and a decrease of the outburst frequency as the white dwarf keeps on cooling down. We encourage long-term monitoring of V446 Her in order to detect any evolution of the outburst pattern.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the referee H. Ritter and F.V. Hessmann for their helpful comments and suggestions. MRS would like to thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for financial support (Ma 1545 2-1). BTG thanks for support from the DLR under grant 50 OR 99 03 6.


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# BNL–67630 August 15, 2000 Measurement of B(𝐾⁺→𝜋⁺𝜈𝜈̄ )1footnote 11footnote 1 To be published in the Proceedings of the 7th Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics; Quebec City, Canada, May 22-28, 2000; Z. Parsa and W. Marciano, Eds.

## Introduction

The unprecedented sensitivities of rare kaon decay experiments and the recent observation of $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ have opened doors to the measurement of the unitarity triangle completely within the kaon system. The decay $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ is one of the ‘golden modes’ for measuring CKM parameters. Measurement of the branching ratio B($`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ ) provides a clean and unambiguous determination of the CKM matrix element $`|V_{td}|`$ , in particular of the quantity $`|\lambda _t||V_{ts}^{}V_{td}|.`$

The theoretical uncertainty in $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ is quite small ($``$7%) as the hadronic matrix element is extracted from the $`K\pi e\nu _e`$ branching ratio B($`K_{e3}`$). The $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ branching ratio has been calculated to next-to-leading-log approximation bb1 , with isospin violation corrections marciano  and two-loop-electroweak effects bb2 . The branching ratio can be expressed as bb3

$`B(K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }\text{ })`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _+\alpha ^2B(K_{e3})}{2\pi ^2\mathrm{sin}^4\theta _W|V_{us}|^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}|X_t\lambda _t+X_c\lambda _c|^2`$
$`=`$ $`8.88\times 10^{11}A^4[(\overline{\rho }_0\overline{\rho })^2+(\sigma \overline{\eta })^2]`$
$`=`$ $`3.6\times 10^4([Re(\lambda _t)1.4\times 10^4]^2+[Im(\lambda _t)]^2)`$
$`=`$ $`(8.2\pm 3.2)\times 10^{11},`$
with the error determined by the present uncertainty of $`\lambda _t`$. The current limit on $`B_s`$$`\overline{B}_s`$ mixing, combined with the measured frequency of $`B_d`$$`\overline{B}_d`$ mixing, implies a limit on $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ that has very small theoretical uncertainty bb3 : B($`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ ) $`<1.67\times 10^{10}`$.

## Experiment E787

The E787 experiment at BNL e787\_det  was designed to search for $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ and collected data in 1989–91e787\_pnnold  and then again in 1995–98 after an upgrade to the detector and beamline e787\_det2 .

The first observation of $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ was reported in the analysis of the 1995 data set pnn95 . A new and improved analysis of the 1995–97 data set has reduced the background levels by almost a factor of three. A plot of range vs. energy for events passing all other $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ criteria is shown in Figure 1(a).

One event is observed in the signal region (the same one as observed in the 1995 data: see Ref. References). A reconstruction of the event is shown in Figure 1(b). The background is measured to be $`0.08\pm 0.02`$ events. Based on this one event, the branching ratio is B($`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ ) = $`(1.5_{1.2}^{+3.4})\times 10^{10}`$ e787\_pnn . From this measurement, a limit of

$$0.002<|V_{td}\text{ }|<0.04$$
(2)
is determined; in addition, the following limits on $`\lambda _tV_{ts}^{}V_{td}\text{ }`$ can be set:

$`|Im(\lambda _t)|`$ $`<1.22\times 10^3`$ (3)
$`1.10\times 10^3<`$ $`Re(\lambda _t)`$ $`<1.39\times 10^3`$
$`1.07\times 10^4<`$ $`|\lambda _t|`$ $`<1.39\times 10^3.`$
The final sensitivity of the E787 experiment, based on data from 1995–98, should reach a factor of two further to the standard-model (SM) expectation for $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ .

The 90% CL upper limit on $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ is B($`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ ) $`<5.8\times 10^{10}`$ and a model-independent limit grossman  on the neutral mode, $`K_L^{}\pi ^{}\nu \overline{\nu }`$ , can be derived from this result:

$`B(K_L^{}\pi ^{}\nu \overline{\nu }\text{ })`$ $`<`$ $`4.4\times B(K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }\text{ })`$
$`<`$ $`2.6\times 10^9(90\%\mathrm{CL})`$
The $`K\pi \pi \nu \overline{\nu }`$ decays, such as $`K^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}\nu \overline{\nu }`$ , can also, in principle, provide a clean determination of CKM matrix parameters; however, due to the small SM branching ratios, e.g. B($`K^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}\nu \overline{\nu }`$ ) = (1–2)$`\times 10^{14}`$, their usefulness is limited. E787 has recently set the first limit on any of these modes e787\_ppnn , with B($`K^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}\nu \overline{\nu }`$ ) $`<4.3\times 10^5`$. Additional new results from E787 include a measurement of the direct emission (DE) radiation in $`K^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}\gamma `$ decay (Kπ2γ) and the first observation of structure-dependent radiation (SD) in $`K^+\mu ^+\nu _\mu \gamma `$ decays (Kμ2γ). With eight times higher statistical sensitivity than previous experiments and better kinematic constraints E787 has measured a branching ratio for direct emission B(Kπ2γ:DE) that is four times smaller than previous results e787\_ppg , B(Kπ2γ:DE, 55 MeV $`<`$ $`T_+`$ $`<`$ 90 MeV) = $`(4.7\pm 0.8\pm 0.3)\times 10^6`$ ($`T_+`$ is the kinetic energy of the $`\pi ^+`$). E787 has also measured the branching ratio for structure-dependent Kμ2γ e787\_mng  to be B(K$`{}_{\mu 2\gamma }{}^{}:SD^+`$) = $`(1.33\pm 0.12\pm 0.18)\times 10^5`$. The vector and axial-vector form factors are $`|F_V+F_A|=0.165\pm 0.007\pm 0.011`$ and $`0.04<F_VF_A<0.24`$ at $`90\%`$ CL.

## Future Prospects

Significant progress in the determination of the fundamental CKM parameters from the $`K\pi \nu \overline{\nu }`$ system will be made in the generation of experiments that is now starting: E949 and KOPIO at BNL, CKM and KAMI at FNAL and E391 at KEK. These measurements can unambiguously determine SM CP violation parameters. Comparison with the B-system will then over-constrain the triangle and test the SM explanation of CP violation. The two most important tests are expected to be:

* Comparison of the angle $`2\beta `$ from the ratio B($`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ )/B($`K_L^{}\pi ^{}\nu \overline{\nu }`$ ) and the CP asymmetry in the decay $`B_d^{}\psi K_S^{}`$  grossman ; sinb .
* Comparison of the magnitude $`|V_{td}\text{ }|`$ from $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ and the ratio of the mixing frequencies of $`B_s`$ and $`B_d`$ mesons bb3 .

Improvement in the charged mode $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ will come in two steps: E949 and CKM.

The E787 experiment has already demonstrated sufficient background rejection for a very precise measurement of B($`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ ). A new experiment under construction, E949, is expected to run in 2001–03. Taking advantage of the very large AGS proton flux and the experience gained with the E787 detector, E949 with modest upgrades should observe $`𝒪`$(10) SM events in a two year run. The background is well-understood and is $``$10% of the SM signal.

A proposal for a further factor of 10 improvement has been initiated at FNAL. The CKM experiment (E905) plans to collect $`𝒪`$(100) SM events, with $`𝒪`$(10) background events, in a two year run starting after 2005. This experiment will use a new technique, with K+ decay-in-flight and independent momentum (Si and straw-tube trackers) and velocity (kaon and pion RICH) spectrometers. CKM is situated in a high flux 22 GeV/c RF-separated kaon beam, derived from the Main Injector at FNAL.

Improvements in the sensitivities of $`K^+\pi ^+\nu \overline{\nu }`$ experiments over time is shown in Figure 2.

Published data are shown as solid points and future projections to E949 and CKM are shown as open points.

## Acknowledgments

This work was supported under U.S. Department of Energy contract #DE-AC02-98CH10886.


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# Untitled Document

GEOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF QCD STRING FROM WILLMORE FUNCTIONAL

R.Parthasarathy111e-mail address:sarathy@imsc.ernet.in

The Institute of Mathematical Sciences

C.I.T.Campus, Taramani Post

Chennai 600 113, India.

and

K.S.Viswanathan222e-mail address:kviswana@sfu.ca

Department of Physics

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby

Canada, V5A 1S6.

Abstract

The extremum of the Willmore-like functional for $`m`$-dimensional Riemannian surface immersed in $`d`$-dimensional Riemannian manifold under normal variations is studied and various cases of interest are examined. This study is used to relate the parameters of QCD string action, including the Polyakov-Kleinert extrinsic curvature action, with the geometric properties of the world sheet. The world sheet has been shown to have negative stiffness on the basis of the geometric considerations.

MSC indices: 51P05;53C42;53C80;81V05

Keywords:Willmore functional, immersion in Riemann space, QCD string action, extrinsic curvature

I.Introduction

QCD strings is a string theory in 4-dimensions. It has been realized by Polyakov  and independently by Kleinert  that for QCD strings, added extrinsic curvature action to the usual Nambu-Goto (NG) area term is appropriate. In particular the theory with extrinsic curvature action alone has been shown to be asymptotically free  - a feature relevant to describe QCD. By considering the 1-loop multi-instanton effects in the theory of 2-dimensional world sheet in $`R^3`$ and $`R^4`$, the grand partition function has been found to be that of a 2-dimensional modified Coulomb gas system with long range order in the infra-red region and, in plasma phase in the ultra-violet region . The above result uses the running coupling constant and the string world sheet is stable against small fluctuations along the normal (transverse) directions in the infra-red region and avoids crumpling. Thus the Polyakov-Kleinert string provides a relevant description of colour flux tubes between quarks in QCD.

In order to remove the unphysical ghost poles and to realize a lowest energy state, Kleinert and Chervyakov  recently proposed a new string model with negative sign for the extrinsic curvature action i.e., they hypothesize negative stiffness for the gluonic flux tubes, inspired by properties of magnetic flux tubes in Type-II superconductor and of Nielsen-Olesen vortices in relativistic gauge models. They propose an effective string action as,

$`S`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(c1)}{2}}M^2{\displaystyle d^2\xi \sqrt{g}g^{\alpha \beta }_\alpha X^\mu (\xi )\frac{1}{ce^{^2/\mu ^2}}_\beta X^\mu (\xi )},`$
where $`X^\mu (\xi )`$ ; $`\mu =1,2,3,4`$ are the worldsheet coordinates, $`\xi _1,\xi _2`$ are the local isothermal coordinates on the surface, $`g_{\alpha \beta }=_\alpha X^\mu _\beta X^\mu `$ is the induced metric (first fundamental form) on the world sheet, $`_\alpha `$ is the covariant derivative on the surface, $`M`$ is dimensionfull (mass dimension) constant and $`c`$ is a dimensionless constant. The propagator from the quadratic part in $`X^\mu `$, in momentum space , is

$`G(k^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(c1)}}{\displaystyle \frac{ce^{k^2/\mu ^2}}{k^2}},`$
and for small momentum, this is

$`G(k^2)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1+k^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}{k^2}},`$
with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2=(c1)/\mu ^2`$. This has a single pole at $`k^2=0`$ with negative stiffness $`\alpha _0=\mathrm{\Lambda }^2/M^2`$, in contrast to the propagator in Polyakov-Kleinert model $`1/(k^2(1+k^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2)`$, which has unphysical pole at $`k^2=\mathrm{\Lambda }^2`$ and which has positive stiffness of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2/M^2`$. Approximating the full propagator by its low momentum expression, Kleinert and Chervyakov  have proposed an action at low momentum region as,

$`S_{KC}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}M^2{\displaystyle d^2\xi \sqrt{g}g^{\alpha \beta }_\alpha X^\mu \frac{1}{1\frac{^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}}_\beta X^\mu }.`$ (1)
Such an action (1) has the the high temperature behaviour as that of large-N QCD . The negative extrinsic curvature term can be seen from (1) by expanding the non-local term, using the Gauss equation

$`_\alpha _\beta X^\mu `$ $`=`$ $`H_{\alpha \beta }^iN^{i\mu },`$ (2)
where $`i=1,2`$ and $`H_{\alpha \beta }^i`$ are the components of the extrinsic curvature (second fundamental form) along the two normals $`N^{i\mu }`$ to the world sheet, and the Weingarten equation

$`_\alpha N^{i\mu }`$ $`=`$ $`H_\alpha ^{i\gamma }_\gamma X^\mu ,`$ (3)
where the covariant derivative $`_\alpha `$ in (3) incorporates the connection in the normal frame as well. By expanding $`(1\frac{^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2})^1`$ in (1) and realizing $`X^\mu `$ is a scalar on the world sheet, (1) can be written as

$`S_{KC}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}M^2{\displaystyle d^2\xi \sqrt{g}\{2+\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}g^{\alpha \beta }_\alpha X^\mu g^{\gamma \delta }_\gamma (_\delta _\beta X^\mu )\mathrm{}\}},`$
where we have retained up to the $`\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}`$ term for illustration. Upon using (2) and (3) and the fact $`_\alpha X^\mu N^{i\mu }=0`$, the above expression simplifies to

$`S_{KC}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}M^2{\displaystyle d^2\xi \sqrt{g}\{2\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}H^{i\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }^i\}}.`$
But then,

$`H^{i\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }^i`$ $`=`$ $`4H^2+R,`$
where $`H^2=H^iH^i`$, with $`H^i=\frac{1}{2}g^{\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }^i`$ and $`R`$ is the scalar curvature of the world sheet. In view of this, the expression for $`S_{KC}`$ becomes

$`S_{KC}`$ $``$ $`M^2{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}d^2\xi }{\displaystyle \frac{2M^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}}{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}H^2d^2\xi }{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}}{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}Rd^2\xi }+\mathrm{}`$ (4)
In above $`M^2`$ plays the role of string tension. The extrinsic curvature action (the second term in (4)) has negative stiffness. The third term is just the Euler characteristic of the surface which is a topological invariant action. It is clear from (1) that unphysical poles can be avoided by appealing to surfaces with negative stiffness.

It will be worthwhile to examine whether the negative stiffness is favoured from purely geometric considerations of the surface. In this context, the Willmore surfaces which extremize the Willmore functional

$`S_W`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}H^2d^2\xi },`$
become relevant. It is the purpose of this paper to first consider general Willmore functional for $`m`$-dimensional surface immersed in $`d`$-dimensional Riemannian space ($`m<d`$) and study various cases of interest. Then using the results, we compare the classical equation of motion for (4) with immersion in flat space, with that of the Willmore functional for immersion in a Riemannian space, thereby showing the effects of the Nambu-Goto term in (4) could be accounted for by considerations of the Willmore functional in a curved space.

The extremum of Willmore functional for hypersurfaces in Euclidean space ($`E^3`$) has been dealt with in detail by Willmore  and, by Chen  for $`m`$-dimensional oriented closed hypersurface in Euclidean space $`E^{m+1}`$. Willmore and Jhaveri  extended to $`m`$-dimensional manifold immersed as a hypersurface of a general ($`m+1`$)-dimensional Riemannian manifold and Weiner  to that of 2-dimensional surface in a general Riemannian manifold. In this paper, we examine the Willmore functional for the general case of $`m`$-dimensional Riemann surface immersed in $`d`$-dimensional Riemann space and then consider various cases of interest. As an application of this study, we will compare the equation of motion of Willmore functional for $`2`$-dimensional surface immersed in $`d`$-dimensional space with the classical equation of motion of QCD string to relate the QCD string parameters, namely, the string tension and stiffness parameter to the geometrical properties of the surface.

II. EFFECTS DUE TO NORMAL VARIATIONS

For an $`m`$-dimensional surface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ immersed in a $`d`$-dimensional ($`d>m`$) Riemannian manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ with metric $`h_{\mu \nu };(\mu ,\nu =1,2,\mathrm{}d)`$, we have the induced metric on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ as

$`g_{\alpha \beta }`$ $`=`$ $`_\alpha X^\mu _\beta X^\nu h_{\mu \nu },`$ (5)
where the indices $`\alpha ,\beta `$ take values $`1,2,\mathrm{}m`$ and $`X^\mu =X^\mu (\xi _1,\xi _2\mathrm{},\xi _m)`$, with $`\xi _\alpha `$’s as coordinates on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. There are $`(dm)`$ unit normals at a point $`P\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, denoted by $`N^{i\mu };(i=1,2,\mathrm{}(dm))`$, chosen to satisfy

$`N^{i\mu }N^{j\nu }h_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`\delta ^{ij}`$
$`_\alpha X^\mu N^{i\nu }h_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`0,i=1,2,\mathrm{}(dm);\alpha =1,2,\mathrm{},m.`$ (6)
Repeated indices will be appropriately summed over in this paper. The equation of Gauss  for $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$,

$`_\alpha _\beta X^\mu `$ $``$ $`_\alpha _\beta X^\mu \mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \beta }^\gamma _\gamma X^\mu +\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\nu \rho }^\mu _\alpha X^\nu _\beta X^\rho `$ (7)
$`=`$ $`H_{\alpha \beta }^iN^{i\mu },`$
defines the second fundamental form $`H_{\alpha \beta }^i`$. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \beta }^\gamma `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\nu \rho }^\mu `$ are the connections on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ determined by $`g_{\alpha \beta }`$ and $`h_{\mu \nu }`$ respectively. The $`(dm)`$ normals $`N^{i\mu }`$ satisfy the Weingarten equation

$`_\alpha N^{i\mu }`$ $``$ $`_\alpha N^{i\mu }+\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\nu \rho }^\mu _\alpha X^\nu N^{i\rho }A_\alpha ^{ij}N^{j\mu }`$ (8)
$`=`$ $`H_\alpha ^{i\beta }_\beta X^\mu ,`$
where $`A_\alpha ^{ij}=N^{j\nu }(_\alpha N^{i\mu }+\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\nu \rho }^\mu _\alpha X^\nu N^{i\rho })h_{\mu \nu }`$ is the $`m`$-dimensional gauge field or connection in the normal bundle. We need the Gauss equation

$`\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }_\alpha X^\mu _\beta X^\nu _\gamma X^\rho _\delta X^\sigma `$ $`=`$ $`R_{\alpha \beta \gamma \delta }+H_{\beta \gamma }^iH_{\alpha \delta }^iH_{\beta \delta }^iH_{\alpha \gamma }^i,`$ (9)
where $`R_{\alpha \beta \gamma \delta }`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }`$ are the Riemann symbols of the first kind for $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ respectively. We introduce the mean curvature $`H^i`$ (there are ($`dm`$) such quantities) by

$`H^i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{m}}g^{\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }^i.`$ (10)
The variations of the surface can be described by the variations of $`X^\mu (\xi _1,\mathrm{}\xi _m)`$ as $`X^\mu (\xi _1,\mathrm{}\xi _m)+\delta X^\mu (\xi _1,\mathrm{}\xi _m)`$. In general $`\delta X^\mu =\varphi ^iN^{i\mu }+_\alpha X^\mu \eta ^\alpha `$, comprising of variations along $`m`$ tangent directions and $`(dm)`$ normals. The tangential variations are related to the structure equations . So, we consider only the normal variations and accordingly,

$`\delta X^\mu `$ $`=`$ $`\varphi ^iN^{i\mu }.`$ (11)
Using (5) it follows for normal variations

$`\delta \sqrt{g}`$ $`=`$ $`m\sqrt{g}\varphi ^iH^i,`$
$`\delta g^{\alpha \beta }`$ $`=`$ $`2\varphi ^iH^{i\alpha \beta }.`$ (12)
From (10) it follows

$`\delta H^i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{m}}\varphi ^kH^{k\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }^i+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{m}}g^{\alpha \beta }\delta H_{\alpha \beta }^i,`$ (13)
using the second equation in (12). For hypersurfaces, there will be only one normal and in such a case, the computation of $`\delta H`$ has been given in Ref.9. The evaluation of $`\delta H_{\alpha \beta }^i`$ for 2-dimensional surface in $`d`$-dimensional Riemannian manifold is described in Ref.12. The computation of $`\delta H_{\alpha \beta }^i`$ for $`m`$-dimensional surface in $`d`$-dimensional Riemannian manifold is involved and we give here the relevant steps for the sake of completeness.

From (7) we have

$`H_{\alpha \beta }^i`$ $`=`$ $`\{_\alpha _\beta X^\mu +\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\rho \sigma }^\mu _\alpha X^\rho _\beta X^\sigma \}N^{i\nu }h_{\mu \nu }.`$ (14)
Using (6), we have

$`\delta N^{j\mu }N^{i\nu }h_{\mu \nu }+N^{j\mu }\delta N^{i\nu }h_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`N^{j\mu }N^{i\nu }\delta h_{\mu \nu },`$
$`_\gamma (\delta X^\mu )N^{i\nu }h_{\mu \nu }+_\gamma X^\mu \delta N^{i\nu }h_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`_\gamma X^\mu N^{i\nu }\delta h_{\mu \nu },`$
and then,

$`g^{\alpha \beta }H^i\delta H_{\alpha \beta }^i`$ $`=`$ $`g^{\alpha \beta }H^i\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }_\alpha X^\nu _\beta X^\rho \delta X^\sigma N^{i\lambda }`$ (15)
$`+`$ $`g^{\alpha \beta }H^i(_\alpha _\beta \delta X^\mu )N_\mu ^i+{\displaystyle \frac{m}{2}}H^iH^jN^{j\mu }N^{i\nu }(_\lambda h_{\mu \nu })\delta X^\lambda `$
$``$ $`mH^iH^j\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\rho \lambda }^\mu N^{j\sigma }\delta X^\lambda N_\mu ^i.`$
The last two terms cancel each other after expanding $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\rho \lambda }^\mu `$ and using $`ij`$ symmetry. Now using (11) and (8), we find

$`g^{\alpha \beta }H^i\delta H_{\alpha \beta }^i`$ $`=`$ $`g^{\alpha \beta }H^i\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }_\alpha X^\nu _\beta X^\rho \varphi ^kN^{k\sigma }N^{i\lambda }`$ (16)
$`+`$ $`H^k(_\alpha ^\alpha \varphi ^k)H^iH_{\alpha \beta }^iH^{k\alpha \beta }\varphi ^k.`$
We consider the extremum of the following functional

$`W`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}\left(H^iH^i\right)^{\frac{m}{2}}d^m\xi },`$ (17)
which reduces to Willmore functional for $`m=2`$ and to that of Chen  for $`m`$-dimensional hypersurface as well with Willmore and Jhaveri  for $`m`$-dimensional hypersurface in $`(m+1)`$ dimensional Riemannian manifold. The normal variations of (17) give the equations of motion. Taking the normal variations of (17) and using (12), (13) and (16), we obtain

$`\delta W`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}(H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}H^k(_\alpha ^\alpha \varphi ^k)d^m\xi }`$ (18)
$``$ $`m{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}\varphi ^kH^k(H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}}d^m\xi }`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}(H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}\varphi ^kH^iH_{\alpha \beta }^iH^{k\alpha \beta }d^m\xi }`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}(H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}H^ig^{\alpha \beta }\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }_\alpha X^\nu _\beta X^\rho \varphi ^kN^{k\sigma }N^{i\lambda }d^m\xi }.`$
Equating this to zero and using

$`{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}(H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}H^k(_\alpha ^\alpha \varphi ^k)d^m\xi }`$ $`=`$
$`{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}\varphi ^k_\alpha ^\alpha \left((H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}H^k\right)d^m\xi },`$ (19)
we obtain the equation of motion for (17) as

$`_\alpha ^\alpha \left((H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}H^k\right)mH^k(H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}}+(H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}H^iH_{\alpha \beta }^iH^{k\alpha \beta }`$
$`+(H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}H^ig^{\alpha \beta }\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }_\alpha X^\nu _\beta X^\rho N^{k\sigma }N^{i\lambda }=0,`$ (20)
since (18) must hold for all allowed $`\varphi ^k`$.

We now consider various cases.

Case.1 hypersurface in Euclidean space

Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be an $`m`$-dimensional hepersurface in $`d=m+1`$ dimensional Euclidean space, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}=E^{m+1}`$. As there will be only one normal for a hypersurface, $`H^jH^j=H^2`$ and (20) reduces to

$`_\alpha ^\alpha (H^{m1})mH^{m+1}+H^{m1}H_{\alpha \beta }H^{\alpha \beta }`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (21)
and in this case the Gauss equation (9) when contracted with $`g^{\alpha \gamma }g^{\beta \delta }`$ gives

$`H^{\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }`$ $`=`$ $`R+m^2H^2,`$
where $`R`$ is the curvature scalar of the hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. Then (21) becomes

$`_\alpha ^\alpha (H^{m1})+m(m1)H^{m+1}H^{m1}R`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (22)
which is the result of Chen  and agrees with Eqn.5.59 of Willmore .

Case.2 hypersurface in Riemannian space

Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be an $`m`$-dimensional hypersurface immersed in $`d=m+1`$ dimensional Riemannian manifold $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$. Then Eqn.20 becomes

$`_\alpha ^\alpha H^{m1}mH^{m+1}+H^{m1}H_{\alpha \beta }H^{\alpha \beta }`$
$`+H^{m1}g^{\alpha \beta }\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }_\alpha X^\nu _\beta X^\rho N^\sigma N^\lambda =0.`$ (23)
In this case, the equation of Gauss (9) is

$`R_{\alpha \beta \gamma \delta }`$ $`=`$ $`H_{\beta \delta }H_{\alpha \gamma }H_{\beta \gamma }H_{\alpha \delta }+\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }_\alpha X^\mu _\beta X^\nu _\gamma X^\rho _\delta X^\sigma ,`$
which when contracted with $`g^{\alpha \gamma }g^{\beta \delta }`$ gives

$`R`$ $`=`$ $`H^{\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }+m^2H^2+\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }_\alpha X^\mu _\beta X^\nu _\gamma X^\rho _\delta X^\sigma g^{\alpha \gamma }g^{\beta \delta }.`$ (24)
The completeness relation found in Ref.12 will now be used and it is

$`h^{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`g^{\alpha \beta }_\alpha X^\mu _\beta X^\nu +{\displaystyle \underset{i}{\overset{d2}{}}}N^{i\mu }N^{i\nu }.`$ (25)
For hypersurfaces, (25) is simply

$`h^{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`g^{\alpha \beta }_\alpha X^\mu _\beta X^\nu +N^\mu N^\nu ,`$ (26)
and using this in (24), we find

$`H^{\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }`$ $`=`$ $`R+m^2H^2+\stackrel{~}{R}2\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu }N^\mu N^\nu .`$ (27)
Using (26) in the last term of (23), we have

$`g^{\alpha \beta }\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }_\alpha X^\nu _\beta X^\rho N^\sigma N^\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }h^{\rho \nu }N^\sigma N^\lambda \stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }N^\nu N^\sigma N^\rho N^\lambda `$
$`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{R}_{\sigma \lambda }N^\sigma N^\lambda ,`$
and so the Eqn.23 becomes,

$`_\alpha ^\alpha H^{m1}+m(m1)H^{m+1}+H^{m1}\{R+\stackrel{~}{R}\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu }N^\mu N^\nu \}`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (28)
We analyse (28), by choosing an orthogonal frame at $`P\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ such that the matrix $`H^{\alpha \beta }`$ is diagonal. Then $`H^{\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }=_{i=1}^mh_i^2`$, and $`m^2H^2=(_{i=1}^mh_i)^2`$. (See ). Then, Eqn.28 can be written as,

$`_\alpha ^\alpha H^{m1}`$ $`=`$ $`H^{m1}\{{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}}h_i^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{m}}({\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}}h)^2+\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu }N^\mu N^\nu \},`$ (29)
since (27) gives

$`R+\stackrel{~}{R}+m^2H^22\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu }N^\mu N^\nu `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}}h_i^2.`$
It is to be noted that $`_{i=1}^mh_i^2\frac{1}{m}(_{i=1}^mh_i)^20`$. For $`\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu }`$ positive-definite, it is seen from (29) that $`_\alpha ^\alpha H^{m1}`$ has the same sign as $`H^{m1}`$.

Case.3 2-dimensional surface in Riemannian space

Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be a 2-dimensional surface immersed in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$. Then (20) becomes,

$`_\alpha ^\alpha H^k2H^k(H^jH^j)+H^iH_{\alpha \beta }^iH^{k\alpha \beta }+`$
$`H^ig^{\alpha \beta }\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }_\alpha X^\nu _\beta X^\rho N^{k\sigma }N^{i\lambda }`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (30)
agreeing with Eqn.35 of Ref.12.

Case.4 Immersions in space of constant curvature

Consider $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ space to be a space of constant curvature i.e., de-Sitter or anti-de-Sitter type. In this case

$`\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }`$ $`=`$ $`K(h_{\mu \rho }h_{\nu \sigma }h_{\mu \sigma }h_{\nu \rho }).`$ (31)
Then,

$`\stackrel{~}{R}_{\nu \sigma }=h^{\mu \rho }\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }`$ $`=`$ $`K(d1)h_{\nu \sigma },`$
$`\stackrel{~}{R}`$ $`=`$ $`h^{\mu \sigma }\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \sigma }=Kd(d1).`$ (32)
Then (20) becomes,

$`_\alpha ^\alpha \left((H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}H^k\right)+mH^k(H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}(KH^{\mathrm{}}H^{\mathrm{}})`$
$`+(H^jH^j)^{\frac{m}{2}1}H^iH_{\alpha \beta }^iH^{k\alpha \beta }=0.`$ (33)
Similarly Eqn.28 in Case.2, becomes,

$`_\alpha ^\alpha H^{m1}+m(m1)H^{m+1}RH^{m1}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (34)
for $`m`$-dimensional hypersurface immersed in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ space of constant curvature.

Eqn.30 of Case.3 i.e., 2-dimensional surface immersed in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$, a space of constant curvature, becomes,

$`_\alpha ^\alpha H^k2H^k(H^jH^j)+H^iH^{i\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }^k+2KH^k`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (35)
In spite of the simplifications, these equations are still difficult to solve explicitly without further choices for the geometry.

III. QCD STRING AND WILLMORE FUNCTIONAL

As explained in the Introduction, it appears that a candidate action for describing QCD string has to involve the extrinsic geometry of the world sheet, regarded as a 2-dimensional Riemannian surface immersed in $`R^4`$. With negative stiffness, Kleinert and Chervyakov  successfully obtained the correct hight temperature behaviour as in large-N QCD . Further evidence for the role of the extrinsic geometry in QCD stems from the $`U(N);N\mathrm{}`$ lattice gauge theory calculations of Kazakov , Kostov  and O’Brien and Zuber . These calculations confirm the equivalence of multicolour QCD and string theory in which the resulting surfaces intersect at self-intersections. It is known that the self-intersection number involves extrinsic geometry. We consider the action (4) without the Euler characteristic term, as

$`S_{KC}`$ $`=`$ $`T{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}d^2\xi }+\alpha _0{\displaystyle \sqrt{g}H^2d^2\xi },`$ (36)
where $`T`$ is the string tension, $`\alpha _0`$ a measure of stiffness of the QCD string immersed in $`R^d`$ (say) and $`H^2=H^iH^i;i=1,2\mathrm{}(d2)`$. The extremum of (36) can be easily found using (12), (13), and (16) for normal variations. We find the equation of motion for (36) as

$`_\alpha ^\alpha H^k{\displaystyle \frac{2T}{\alpha _0}}H^k2H^kH^jH^j+H^iH^{k\alpha \beta }H_{\alpha \beta }^i`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (37)
for the stiffness parameter $`\alpha _00`$. This non-linear equation is complicated and it will be wothwhile hence to draw some information from this.

Kholodenko and Nesterenko  proposed an approach in this direction by considering (36) for immersion in $`R^3`$ and relating to the extremum of the Willmore functional for immersion in $`S^3`$. We will generalize this approach here, by relating (37) to (20) for $`m=2`$, which is (30). Eqn.30 has the same form as (37) provided we identify,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{2T}{\alpha _0}}H^k`$ $`=`$ $`H^i\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }_\alpha X^\nu _\beta X^\rho N^{k\sigma }N^{i\lambda }g^{\alpha \beta }.`$ (38)
Upon using (25), this becomes,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{2T}{\alpha _0}}H^k`$ $`=`$ $`H^i(\stackrel{~}{R}_{\sigma \lambda }N^{k\sigma }N^{i\lambda }\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }N^{j\nu }N^{j\rho }N^{k\sigma }N^{i\lambda }),`$ (39)
a new relation among the string tension, stiffness parameter, mean curvature scalar and the geometric properties of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$. In order to make (39) manageable, we take $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ a space of constant curvature as in (31) and (32). Then it can be seen,

$`\stackrel{~}{R}_{\sigma \lambda }N^{k\sigma }N^{i\lambda }`$ $`=`$ $`K(d1)\delta _{ik},`$
$`\stackrel{~}{R}_{\rho \sigma \nu \lambda }N^{j\nu }N^{j\rho }N^{k\sigma }N^{i\lambda }`$ $`=`$ $`K(d3)\delta ^{ik},`$ (40)
and so (39) becomes

$`{\displaystyle \frac{2T}{\alpha _0}}H^k`$ $`=`$ $`K(d1)H^kK(d3)H^k=2KH^k.`$ (41)
Now as we have assumed that $`H^k`$’s are not zero, it follows

$`{\displaystyle \frac{T}{\alpha _0}}`$ $`=`$ $`K.`$ (42)
It is noted here that the dimensionality of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ does not directly appear in relating $`T`$, the string tension, and $`\alpha _0`$, the stiffness parameter, with $`K`$. From this, it follows that the stiffness parameter can be positive for $`K<0`$ (Anti-de-Sitter background) or negative for $`K>0`$ (de-Sitter background).

VI. CONCLUSIONS

The extremum of the Willmore functional for $`m`$-dimensional surface immersed in $`d`$-dimensional Riemannian space is studied under the normal variations of the immersed surface. Various cases of interest are examined. In particular the equation of motion for a 2-dimensional surface immersed in spaces of constant curvature, is compared with the equation of motion of the Polyakov-Kleinert action of the QCD string considered as a Riemann surface immersed in $`R^4`$, to obtain a new relation connecting the string tension and stiffness parameter of the QCD string on the one hand and the constant $`K`$ of the Riemann space (31). This relation $`T/\alpha _0=K`$, is independent of the dimensionality of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$. For positive $`K`$, favoured by positive-definteness of $`\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mu \nu }`$ (see Case.2) from (32), it follows that negative stiffness is recommended by geometric considerations. This result agrees with the observation of Kleinert and Chervyakov  using (physical) QCD string. Thus the QCD string world sheet regarded as a 2-dimensional surface immersed in $`R^4`$ has been shown to favour negative stiffness by comparing its classical equation with that of a Willmore 2-dimensional surface immersed in a space of constant curvature.

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