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# Band-filling effects on the Kondo-lattice properties

## I INTRODUCTION

The properties of many cerium or ytterbium compounds are well accounted for by the Kondo-lattice model, where a strong competition exists between the Kondo effect and magnetic ordering arising from the RKKY (Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida) interaction between rare-earth atoms at different lattice sites. This situation is well described by the Doniach diagram,Doniach  which gives the variation of the Néel temperature and of the Kondo temperature with increasing antiferromagnetic intrasite exchange interaction $`J_K`$ between localized spins and conduction-electron spins. If one considers the exchange Hamiltonian between localized ($`𝐒`$) and conduction-electron ($`𝐬`$) spins, given by

$$H=J_K𝐬𝐒,$$
(1)
usual theories of the one-impurity Kondo effect and of the RKKY interaction yield a Kondo temperature $`T_{\mathrm{K0}}`$ that is proportional to $`\mathrm{exp}(1/\rho J_K)`$, and an ordering temperature (Néel or, in some cases, Curie) $`T_{\mathrm{N0}}`$, proportional to $`\rho J_K^2`$, $`\rho `$ being the density of states for the conduction band at the Fermi energy. Thus, for small $`\rho J_K`$ values, $`T_{\mathrm{N0}}`$ is larger than $`T_{\mathrm{K0}}`$ and the system tends to order magnetically, with often a reduction of the magnetic moment due to the Kondo effect. On the contrary, for large $`\rho J_K`$, $`T_{\mathrm{K0}}`$ is larger than $`T_{\mathrm{N0}}`$ and the system tends to become non magnetic. The actual ordering temperature $`T_N`$, therefore, increases initially with increasing $`\rho J_K`$, then passes through a maximum and tends to zero at a critical value $`\rho J_K^c`$ corresponding to a “quantum critical point” (QCP) in the Doniach diagram. Such a behavior of $`T_N`$ has been experimentally observed with increasing pressure in many cerium compounds, such as CeAl2 (Ref. Barbara, ) or CeRh2Si2.Graf  We also know that the Néel temperature starts from zero at a given pressure, and increases rapidly with pressure in YbCu2Si2 (Ref. Alami, ) or in related ytterbium compounds, which can be considered as another test of the Doniach diagram. The one-impurity model predicts an exponential increase of the Kondo temperature with $`\rho J_K`$. This means that the Kondo temperature should increase with increasing pressure in cerium compounds and with decreasing pressure in ytterbium compounds, in good agreement with many observations. However, deviations seem to occur in some cerium compounds, such as CeRh2Si2 (Ref. Graf, ) or CeRu2Ge2,Sullow ; Wilhelm  where the actual Kondo temperature observed in a lattice can be significantly different from the one derived for the single-impurity case. Thus, in order to account for such an effect, we have treated in a previous paperIglesias  the Kondo-lattice model with both intrasite Kondo exchange and intersite antiferromagnetic exchange interactions, for a half-filled conduction band (corresponding to a number of conduction electrons $`n=1`$). We employed a mean-field approximation with two correlators, $`\lambda _{i\sigma }`$, describing the intrasite Kondo correlation, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij\sigma }`$, representing an intersite correlation between two neighboring moments. We have shown that the enhancement of the intersite exchange interaction tends to decrease the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$ for the lattice with respect to the one-impurity Kondo temperature $`T_{\mathrm{K0}}`$, and to suppress the Kondo effect for large values of the intersite exchange interaction parameter.Iglesias  So, this model can account for the pressure dependence of $`T_K`$ observed in CeRh2Si2,Graf  CeRu2Ge2,Sullow ; Wilhelm  or more recentlyUmeo  Ce2Rh3Ge5.

The above mentioned model also yields a correlation temperature $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$, below which short-range magnetic correlations between neighboring cerium atoms occur. For sufficiently large values of the intersite exchange, $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$ is higher than the Kondo temperature. This result is in agreement with the experimental observation by neutron diffraction experiments of such short-range magnetic correlations in single crystals of CeCu6,Rossat  CeInCu2,Pierre  CeRu2Si2,Flouq ; Rossat ; Regnault  or Ce1-xLaxRu2Si2 (Refs. Flouq, ; Regnault, ; Mignot, ; Regnault2, ) at low temperatures. The experimentally observed temperature $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$ is clearly larger than the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$: $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$ 60–70 K and $`T_K`$ 20 K in CeRu2Si2;Rossat ; Flouq ; Regnault  $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$ 10 K and $`T_K`$ 5 K in CeCu6.Rossat

Most Kondo-lattice models have been studied for the case of a half-filled conduction band, corresponding to a number of conduction electrons, $`n`$, equal to the number $`n_f=1`$ of $`f`$ electrons. However, when $`n<1`$, an “exhaustion” problem arises, which means that there are not enough conduction electrons to screen all the localized spins and, as a consequence, the Kondo temperature decreases.Lacroix-79 ; Nozieres  The stability of the Kondo effect when $`n`$ decreases has been recently studied,Alaor  and also the temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility has been computed for different values of $`n`$,Coq-2000  with the Hamiltonian including an intersite exchange interaction $`J_H`$ between the localized spins, treated as independent of $`J_K`$. The results showed that a reduction of $`n`$ and/or an enhancement of $`J_H`$ tend to suppress the Kondo effect. In particular, the analytical calculation at $`T=0`$ gave $`\lambda ^2`$ proportional to $`n`$ in the case of $`J_H=0`$.Coq-2001

Early studies of the Kondo-lattice model have considered only the intrasite Kondo interaction.Jullien ; Continentino ; Tsunetsugu  In particular, Continentino et al.,Continentino  using scaling theory, have found a coherence temperature increasing above the QCP. Recently, Burdin et al.,Burdin ; Burdin2  using the slave-boson method in the exhaustion limit, have obtained two different energy scales: the single-impurity Kondo temperature $`T_K`$, which corresponds to the onset of local singlet formation, and the zero-temperature energy gain, $`T^{}`$, related to the coherent Kondo effect. Thus, the low-temperature energy scale is not equal to the high-temperature one, although there is only one mean-field parameter in the theory.Burdin ; Burdin2  It has been shown that the ratio $`T^{}/T_K`$ is much smaller than 1, and depends only on the band filling factor. In the case of a rectangular density of states for the conduction band, $`T_K`$ vanishes as $`n^{1/2}`$ and the coherence temperature as $`n`$ in the limit $`n0`$. However, both $`T_K`$ and $`T^{}`$ where found to exhibit the same exponential behavior $`\mathrm{exp}(2D/J_K)`$, in contrast with the formula established by Nozières,Nozieres  who found $`T^{}T_K^2/D`$. The effect of a small number of conduction electrons has been also studied within both the Kondo-lattice and the Anderson-lattice models.Castro ; Ben-Hur ; Tahvildar ; Arko

The purpose of the present paper is to further develop the study of conduction-band filling effects within the Kondo-lattice model. Besides previous work cited above,Iglesias ; Coq-2000 ; Coq-2001  a first brief account has been already given,Lacroix-2001  but we will present here both numerical results and new analytical expressions for some specific limits, as well as a detailed discussion of band-filling effects.

## II The Theoretical Model

As it was mentioned above, the Kondo-lattice model is often studied with only the intrasite Kondo interaction. In principle, both the RKKY magnetic interaction and the Kondo effect are consequences of the intrasite exchange term. However, the RKKY interaction is perturbative in $`J_K`$ while the Kondo effect is not.Castro  When dealing with approximation schemes, it is hard to obtain both effects starting with the intrasite interaction alone. For this reason, an explicit intersite exchange interaction is usually included in the model Hamiltonian.Iglesias ; Castro ; Coleman

The proposed Hamiltonian of the system is, therefore,

$$H=\underset{𝐤\sigma }{}\epsilon _𝐤n_{𝐤\sigma }^c+J_K\underset{i}{}𝐬_i𝐒_i+J_H\underset{ij}{}𝐒_i𝐒_j,$$
(2)
where $`\epsilon _𝐤`$ is the energy of the conduction band, $`J_K`$ is the Kondo coupling between a localized spin $`𝐒_i`$ and the spin $`𝐬_i`$ of a conduction electron at the same site, and $`J_H`$ is the interaction between nearest-neighboring localized spins. Assuming spin-1/2 localized moments, we represented them by a zero-width $`f`$ band with one electron per site, while the conduction band has width $`2D`$ and a constant density of states. We choose $`J_K`$ and $`J_H`$ to be positive, implying that both local and intersite interactions are antiferromagnetic, as is the case in most cerium compounds.

We now write the spin operators in fermionic representation:

$`s_i^z={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(n_i^cn_i^c\right),`$ $`S_i^z={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(n_i^fn_i^f\right),`$
$`s_i^+=c_i^{}c_i,`$ $`S_i^+=f_i^{}f_i,`$ (3)
$`s_i^{}=c_i^{}c_i,`$ $`S_i^{}=f_i^{}f_i,`$
remembering that we have a constraint of single-occupancy of the $`f`$ level at all sites, $`n_i^f=1`$.

In order to discuss the Kondo effect and magnetic correlations we define the operators

$$\lambda _{i\sigma }c_{i\sigma }^{}f_{i\sigma },\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij\sigma }f_{i\sigma }^{}f_{j\sigma },$$
(4)
where $`\lambda _{i\sigma }`$ describes the intrasite Kondo correlation, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij\sigma }`$ represents an intersite correlation between two neighboring atoms. This is so because the on-site spin-spin correlation $`𝐬_i𝐒_i`$ can be written in terms of the average $`\lambda _{i\sigma }\lambda _{i,\sigma }`$, and similarly for the intersite correlation using $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij\sigma }`$. With this notation we perform an extended mean-field approximation, introduced by Coleman and Andrei,Coleman  and presented in full detail in Ref. Iglesias, . Considering translational invariance, and taking into account that there is no breakdown of spin symmetry, i.e., no magnetic states, we can write $`\lambda =\lambda _{i\sigma }`$ for all sites, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij\sigma }`$ for nearest-neighboring sites and zero otherwise. In this way we obtain a mean-field Hamiltonian that takes the form of a hybridized two-band system:

$`H^{\mathrm{MF}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤\sigma }{}}\epsilon _𝐤n_{𝐤\sigma }^c+E_0{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}n_{i\sigma }^f1\right)`$ (5)
$`J_K\lambda {\displaystyle \underset{i\sigma }{}}\left(c_{i\sigma }^{}f_{i\sigma }+f_{i\sigma }^{}c_{i\sigma }\right)+\overline{E}_K`$
$`J_H\mathrm{\Gamma }{\displaystyle \underset{ij\sigma }{}}\left(f_{i\sigma }^{}f_{j\sigma }+f_{j\sigma }^{}f_{i\sigma }\right)+\overline{E}_H,`$
with

$$\overline{E}_K=2NJ_K\lambda ^2,\overline{E}_H=zNJ_H\mathrm{\Gamma }^2,$$
(6)
$`N`$ being the total number of lattice sites. We have introduced a term depending on the Lagrange multiplier $`E_0`$ in order to impose the constraint $`_i(n_i^f1)=0`$. This is a weak form of the original constraint $`n_i^f=1`$.

After performing this approximation, one deals with a one-electron Hamiltonian representing two hybridized bands: the conduction band of width $`2D`$ and the $`f`$ band of effective band width $`2BD`$, with $`B`$ given by

$$B=zJ_H\mathrm{\Gamma }/D,$$
(7)
$`z`$ being the number of nearest neighbors of a site, while the magnitude of the hybridization gap is directly related to $`\lambda ^2`$. This quantity is also a measure of the Kondo effect, as the Kondo correlation function $`𝐬_i𝐒_i`$ is proportional to $`\lambda ^2`$.

The Hamiltonian (5), leaving aside the constant terms, is easily diagonalized, and the resulting energies of the two new hybrid bands are

$`E_𝐤^\pm `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[\epsilon _𝐤(1+B)+E_0`$ (8)
$`\text{ }\pm \sqrt{\left[\epsilon _𝐤(1B)E_0\right]^2+4J_K^2\lambda ^2}]`$
The mean-field parameters $`\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are obtained by self-consistently solving Eqs. (4) or, equivalently, by minimizing the total internal energy

$$E=2\underset{𝐤,\alpha =\pm }{}E_𝐤^\alpha f(E_𝐤^\alpha )+\overline{E}_K+\overline{E}_HE_0N$$
(9)
at zero temperature, or the total free energy $`F`$ at finite temperatures.Alaor  The summation in Eq. (9) is made over all k states in the first Brillouin zone, and $`f(E_𝐤)`$ is the Fermi-Dirac function. As usual,Iglesias  the reference energy $`E_0`$ of the $`f`$ band and the chemical potential $`\mu `$ have to be determined self-consistently in order to keep the average numbers of $`f`$ and conduction electrons respectively equal to 1 and $`n`$.

We have previously treated the half-filled case, corresponding to a number of conduction electrons $`n=1`$,Iglesias  and here we consider the general case of a non-integer number of conduction electrons. For the half-filled case,Iglesias  we have shown that the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$ for the lattice can be much smaller than the Kondo temperature $`T_{K0}`$ for the single impurity, as observed in some cerium compounds. We will present in the next sections the theoretical results for band-filling effects, and discuss later on the comparison with experiment.

## III Band-filling effects at $`T=0`$

The two hybridized bands $`E_𝐤^\pm `$ given by Eq. (8) exhibit a structure that depends on the two factors $`AJ_K^2\lambda ^2`$ and $`B`$, defined by (7), and especially on the sign of $`B`$. In the case of $`n=1`$, previously considered,Iglesias  for small $`|B|`$ values such that $`|B|D^2<A`$ there is a gap, the lower band is completely full and the upper band empty at $`T=0`$. For $`n<1`$, the Fermi level cuts the lower band, and the upper band is still empty at $`T=0`$, which corresponds, therefore, to a real metallic situation.

The shape of the lower band $`E_𝐤^{}`$ and the solution of the case $`n<1`$ depend critically and self-consistently on the values of the different parameters $`J_K`$, $`J_H`$ and $`n`$ or equivalently $`A`$, $`B`$ and $`n`$. If $`B>0`$, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Gamma }<0`$ (since $`J_H`$ is positive here), both the “$`f`$ band” and the hybridized lower band $`E_𝐤^{}`$ are continuously increasing with $`\epsilon _𝐤`$. The same structure exists for $`B<0`$ and small $`J_H`$ values, while $`E_𝐤^{}`$ presents a maximum for $`B<0`$ and larger $`J_H`$ values.

Thus, the shape of $`E_𝐤^{}`$ can change under a variation of the parameters, and this peculiar situation makes the problem difficult to solve. The two characteristic cases are presented schematically in Fig. 1, where we have used the fact that the energies $`E_𝐤^\pm `$ depend on $`𝐤`$ only through the bare conduction-band energies $`\epsilon (𝐤)`$, making the substitution $`E_𝐤^\pm E_\pm (\epsilon )`$, with $`\epsilon `$ defined in the interval \[-1,1\] in units of the half bandwidth $`D`$. As can be seen in Fig. 1, the curve $`E_{}(\epsilon )`$ may or may not have a maximum, according to the different cases studied. Moreover, when $`E_{}(\epsilon )`$ presents a maximum, the Fermi energy can cut the lower band in two points or in only one point within the first Brillouin zone. In fact, we have to distinguish two cases, depending on whether there are one or two intersection points (which implies automatically in the second case that the curve $`E_{}(\epsilon )`$ has a maximum). We will compute the total energy in both situations.

For $`T=0`$, we firstly derive analytical expressions for both cases, and then we present numerical solutions for different sets of parameters that affect the shape of $`E_{}(\epsilon )`$. In the first case, shown in Fig. 1 a), the energy per lattice site is written as

$``$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2D}}{\displaystyle _D^{\epsilon _0}}d\epsilon [E_0+(1+B)\epsilon `$
$`\sqrt{\left[E_0(1B)\epsilon \right]^2+4J_K^2\lambda ^2}]`$
$`+zJ_H\mathrm{\Gamma }^2+2J_K\lambda ^2E_0.`$
The upper limit $`\epsilon _0`$ is the value of $`\epsilon _𝐤`$ that corresponds to $`E_𝐤^{}=\mu `$ in Eq. (8), as shown in Fig. 1. Writing the two self-consistent equations that yield $`n_f=1`$ and the number of conduction electrons $`n`$, we obtain $`\epsilon _0=Dn`$, and

$$E_0=\frac{1}{2}(1n)\left[(1B)D+\mathrm{\Delta }\right],$$
(11)
with

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=\sqrt{D^2(1B)^2+\frac{4J_K^2\lambda ^2}{n}}.$$
(12)
Finally, the internal energy per site at $`T=0`$ \[Eq. (III)\] is given by

$``$ $`=`$ $`zJ_H\mathrm{\Gamma }^2+2J_K\lambda ^2E_0+{\displaystyle \frac{D}{2}}(n^21){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}}`$ (13)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{J_K^2\lambda ^2}{D(1B)}}\mathrm{ln}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }D(1B)}{\mathrm{\Delta }+D(1B)}}\right\}.`$
The derivatives of the total energy with respect to $`\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ yield two self-consistent equations, whose solutions give the final values of $`\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ corresponding to the minimum energy. For small values of $`J_H`$, Eq. (13) allows us to write

$`\lambda ^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{nD^2(1B)^2}{J_K^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{u}{(1u)^2}},`$ (14)
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n\mathrm{\Delta }}{4D(1B)}}{\displaystyle \frac{1n}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{J_K\lambda ^2}{D(1B)}},`$ (15)
with $`u\mathrm{exp}\left[2D(1B)/J_K\right]`$.

The case with a maximum in $`E_𝐤^{}`$ is more complicated. As shown in Fig. 1, for the case $`B<0`$ with large values of $`J_H`$, the Fermi level $`\mu `$ cuts the band $`E_𝐤^{}`$ in two energies; then, the two corresponding energies $`\epsilon _1`$ and $`\epsilon _2`$ are given by the values of $`\epsilon (𝐤)`$ which are roots of the equation $`E_𝐤^{}=\mu `$ with $`E_𝐤^{}`$ given by eq.(8). So, the expression of the energy is given by Eq. (III) by changing the integration limits so that the integral is now performed from $`D`$ to $`\epsilon _1`$ and from $`\epsilon _2`$ to $`D`$.

Now, the two equations derived from the constraint $`n_f=1`$ and the number of conduction electrons equal to $`n`$ are

$$\epsilon _2\epsilon _1=D(1n),$$
(16)
$$E_0=(1n)\sqrt{D^2+\frac{4J_K^2\lambda ^2}{(1B)^2(1n)^2}}.$$
(17)
We can derive analytical expressions for $`\epsilon _1`$ and $`\epsilon _2`$, and finally for the total energy per site $``$ for $`B<0`$. A quite long calculation yields

$``$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{R}{2(1B)}}\left[(1B)^22B(1n)+(1n^2)\right]{\displaystyle \frac{J_K^2\lambda ^2}{(1B)D}}\mathrm{ln}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{PD(1n)\sqrt{\left|B\right|}}{P+D(1n)\sqrt{\left|B\right|}}}{\displaystyle \frac{R+D}{RD}}\right\}`$ (18)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1n}{2(1B)}}P\sqrt{\left|B\right|}+{\displaystyle \frac{D^2B^2}{zJ_H}}+2J_K\lambda ^2E_0,`$
where

$$R=\sqrt{D^2+\frac{4J_K^2\lambda ^2}{(1B)^2(1n)^2}}$$
(19)
and

$$P=\sqrt{4J_K^2\lambda ^2D^2B(1n)^2}.$$
(20)
Minimizing the energy (18) with respect to $`\lambda `$ we obtain

$$\lambda ^2=p/2a,$$
(21)
with

$$p=2J_K\frac{J_K^2}{D(1B)}\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{(1B)^2(1n)^2}{B(1n)^2}\right],$$
(22)
and

$$a=\frac{J_K^2}{4D(1B)}\left[\frac{1}{B(1n)^2}+\frac{1}{(1B)^2(1n)^2}\right].$$
(23)
For the present case, $`\lambda `$ vanishes at a critical band filling given by

$$n_c=1(1B)\sqrt{\frac{u}{uB}}.$$
(24)
We have finally performed a numerical calculation by considering the general form of the energy given by either Eq. (III) or Eq. (18) in the different cases studied, and looking for the minimum energy of the system. In fact, for each value of the different parameters, we compare the two solutions and we retain the lowest-energy one, thus determining the corresponding $`\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

Figure 2 shows $`\lambda ^2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ versus $`n`$ for different values of $`J_H`$, and $`J_K/D=0.4`$. For $`J_H=0`$ we obtain negative values of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (not shown in Fig. 2), with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }1/4`$ in the limit $`n0`$ \[see Eq. (15)\]. This is consistent with previous resultsAlaor ; Lacroix-2001  showing that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ changes sign as a function of $`n`$ when the Kondo effect is strongly dominant.

Figure 3 shows the phase diagram for $`J_K/D=0.4`$ and 1.0. In the latter case (previously reported in Ref. Lacroix-2001, ), for small $`J_H`$ the Kondo phase is stable for all values of the band filling, while for large $`J_H`$ the Kondo phase is stable only for $`n>n_c`$ given by Eq. (24). Figure 3 also shows that Eq. (24) is very close to the numerical result in this region, but does not apply when $`J_H`$ is very small, since the assumed maximum in the lower energy band no longer exists. The crossover between these two regimes was obtained numerically. In the crossover region we found a discontinous transition from $`\lambda 0`$ to $`\lambda =0`$. These results have to be taken with caution, however, since the value of $`J_K/D=1`$ is unphysically high, and the Kondo lattice is expected to show ferromagnetic behavior in the low-$`n`$ limit,Tsunetsugu  while our analysis is restricted to antiferromagnetic intersite exchange.

Thus, our calculation shows clearly that small $`n`$ and large $`J_H`$ values tend to suppress the Kondo effect, yielding a “magnetic” phase with $`\lambda =0`$ and large short-range magnetic correlations. In fact, in this region a long-range magnetic order should certainly be stabilized, but this was not taken into account in this approach. In contrast, both $`\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are different from zero in the Kondo phase.

## IV Band-filling effects at finite temperature

Focusing on the Kondo-lattice problem at finite temperatures, the half-filled case has been previously described, and we consider here the general case of $`n<1`$. The number of $`f`$ electrons $`n_f`$ is always taken equal to 1. The values of $`\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are determined by self-consistently solving Eqs. (4) or by minimizing the free energy, which is given by

$`F`$ $`=`$ $`2T{\displaystyle \underset{k,\alpha =\pm }{}}\mathrm{ln}\left[1+e^{(E_\alpha \mu )/T}\right]`$
$`E_0+zJ_H\mathrm{\Gamma }^2+2J_K\lambda ^2.`$
In our mean-field approximation, $`T_K`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$ are defined as the temperatures at which respectively $`\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ become zero. We have shown, in the case $`n=1`$, that the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$ for the lattice can be much smaller than the Kondo temperature $`T_{K0}`$ for the single impurity, as observed in some cerium compounds.Iglesias  Moreover, we have also shown that the temperature $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$ for the occurrence of short-range magnetic correlations lies above the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$ for large $`J_H`$ values, while $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}=T_K`$ for small $`J_H`$. These two theoretical results have provided a good explanation for the previously described anomalous behavior observed in some cerium compounds.

First, we present analytical results obtained in the case of large $`J_H`$ values, where $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}>T_K`$. In this case, $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$ is easily determined by taking the limit $`\mathrm{\Gamma }0`$ in the self-consistent equation for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ with fixed $`\lambda =0`$, and we obtain

$$T_{\mathrm{cor}}=zJ_H/12,$$
(26)
where $`z`$ is the number of nearest neighbors. In the simple cubic case, $`z=6`$, we obtain $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}=J_H/2`$. Still for the case $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}>T_K`$, we determine $`T_K`$ by taking the limit $`\lambda 0`$ in the self-consistent equation for $`\lambda `$, with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ remaining finite. We obtain the following equation to determine $`T_K`$:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho J_K}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _D^D}d\epsilon [{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\epsilon (1B)E_0}}\times `$ (27)
$`({\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+e^{\frac{\epsilon \mu }{T_K}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+e^{\frac{E_0+B\epsilon \mu }{T_K}}}})].`$
Equation (27), together with the self-consistent evaluation of $`B`$ \[see Eqs. (7) and (4)\], and the two equations giving $`n_f=1`$ and $`n<1`$ (which yield $`E_0`$ and $`\mu `$) allow us to determine $`T_K`$. In the case of $`J_H=0`$, we recover the simple equation

$$\frac{2}{\rho J_K}=_D^D𝑑\epsilon \left[\frac{1}{\epsilon E_0}\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{\epsilon \mu }{2T_K}\right)\right],$$
(28)
which reproduces the single-impurity result. In the limit $`J_K/D<<1`$, this yields

$$T_K=C_0D\sqrt{n(2n)}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{\rho J_K}\right),$$
(29)
where $`C_0`$ is a numerical constant: $`C_0=1.1337`$. Eq. (29) gives $`T_K`$ depending on the band filling as $`\sqrt{n(2n)}`$, which is consistent with a $`\sqrt{n}`$ dependence when $`n0`$, as found in Ref. Burdin, .

Now, we present numerical results obtained at finite temperatures in the case $`n<1`$, for different sets of parameters $`J_K`$, $`J_H`$ and $`n`$, in order to study the Kondo-lattice properties and band-filling effects. Figure 4 gives the curves of the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$ versus $`J_H`$ for a given $`J_K`$ value and several values of the conduction-band filling $`n`$. We see clearly that $`T_K`$ first increases, and then decreases with $`J_H`$ for fixed $`n`$, dropping abruptly to zero at some critical value of $`J_H`$. On the other hand, for a given $`J_H`$, $`T_K`$ decreases rapidly as $`n`$ departs from half filling. The enhancement of $`T_K`$ for small $`J_H`$ was masked in Ref. Iglesias,  by the choice of $`J_H=\alpha J_K^2`$, which intended to mimic the RKKY interaction. Besides this being a questionable approximation, we have preferred here to study the behavior of the Kondo temperature as a function of $`J_K`$ and $`J_H`$ considered as independent parameters. For comparison, in Fig. 4 we have also plotted the correlation temperature $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$, which is linear with $`J_H`$ independently of the value of $`n`$.Iglesias  Figure 5 gives $`T_K`$ as a function of $`J_K`$ for $`J_H/D=0.04`$ and representative values of $`n`$. Here again we include the correlation temperature $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$, which signals the onset of short-range magnetic correlations when the temperature is lowered at fixed $`J_K`$. For comparison, we plot the single-impurity Kondo temperature $`T_{K0}`$ (for $`n1`$), which varies exponentially with $`J_K`$, and is weakly dependent on $`n`$ near half-filling \[see Eq. (29)\].

Figures 4 and 5 show some interesting results of our model. First, one can see the occurrence of short-range magnetic correlations above the Kondo temperature, in good agreement with experiment. Also, in the region of coexistence between Kondo effect and magnetic correlations, the Kondo temperature is enhanced with respect to the single-impurity case, and shows a smoother variation with $`J_K`$. Such an enhancement agrees with the ideaColeman  that $`f`$-$`f`$ correlations may, in some cases, reinforce the Kondo effect on a lattice. The second noticeable feature of Figs. 4 and 5 is the almost catastrophic supression of the Kondo effect with increasing intersite coupling, and the enhancement of this behavior as the band-filling factor is reduced.

Now, in order to better understand the physics of the Kondo lattice at low temperatures, and to see more clearly the different regimes occurring with decreasing temperature, we present different curves showing the product of magnetic susceptibility and temperature, $`\chi T`$, which represents the square of the effective magnetic moment.

On the two following figures, $`\chi T`$ is constant at high temperatures down to a first kink corresponding to either the correlation temperature $`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$ for a sufficiently large $`J_H`$ value or to $`T_K`$ at low $`J_H`$ values. The kink corresponding to $`T_K`$ in the case when $`T_K<T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$ is less pronounced, but still clearly visible. Figure 6 gives the results for the temperature dependence of the product $`\chi T`$ for $`J_K/D=0.4`$, $`n=0.8`$, and representative values of $`J_\mathrm{H}`$. This figure shows a Kondo regime alone for small $`J_H`$, a regime with only short-range magnetic correlations above the Kondo regime for intermediate $`J_H`$, and the absence of the Kondo phase for large $`J_H`$. Then, Fig. 7 gives the results for the temperature dependence of the product $`\chi T`$ for $`J_K/D=0.4`$, an intermediate value $`J_H/D=0.04`$, and representative values of $`n`$. The curves show the onset of short-range correlations and the Kondo regime for $`n`$ values not very far from 1, while the Kondo effect has completely disappeared for $`n=0.6`$, in which case a single critical temperature remains. We immediately see on this figure that the behavior of the magnetic susceptibility is completely different for $`n=1`$ and smaller $`n`$ values, because the $`n=1`$ case corresponds to an insulating system, and smaller $`n`$ values yield metallic behavior. We also see that the Kondo effect disappears when $`n`$ decreases below a critical value, which can be interpreted as a manifestation of the “exhaustion” problemNozieres  in connection with the competition between Kondo effect and magnetic correlations.

Finally, in figure 8, we present a plot of the magnetic susceptibility versus temperature for the three different regimes for typical sets of parameters: Kondo regime alone (small $`J_H`$, $`n`$ near half-filling), both magnetic correlations and Kondo regimes (higher $`J_H`$, smaller $`n`$), and short-range magnetic correlations only (still higher $`J_H`$, relatively small $`n`$). This figure gives an illustrative summary of the physics of the Kondo-lattice model.

The different behaviors shown in the last three figures are worth analyzing in more detail. At high temperatures, the magnetic susceptibility is decreasing in $`1/T`$ as normally expected. Then, below the highest characteristic temperature ($`T_{\mathrm{cor}}`$ or $`T_K`$), there is a rapid decrease of the product $`\chi T`$, indicating a reduction of the effective magnetic moment due to the occurence of short-range antiferromagnetic correlations, which tend to reduce the response of the localized moments to an applied magnetic field, and an even faster reduction due to the Kondo effect. At lower temperatures, within the Kondo regime, we observe a flattening of the effective magnetic moment. This region of nearly constant magnetic moment below $`T_K`$ can be related to the “exhaustion” problem, because there are not enough electrons to screen the localized spins. At still lower temperatures, a coherent regime sets in, and this residual moment becomes completely screened. This behavior is not observed in the half-filled case, where the effective magnetic moment tends very rapidly to zero due to the existence of a gap at the Fermi level.

## V CONCLUSIONS

We have studied the different behaviors of the intra-site and inter-site correlations, and the characteristic temperatures as a function of the intrasite Kondo exchange coupling, of the intersite exchange coupling, and of the number of conduction electrons relative to the number of $`f`$ electrons, which remains fixed to 1. We use here a mean-field approximation with two order parameters in each case, the mean-field Kondo correlator and the short-range magnetic correlation.

We have established here for $`n<1`$, as in previous workIglesias  for $`n=1`$, that the dependence of the Kondo temperature with the coupling constant $`J_K`$ for the lattice can be significantly different from the single-impurity case. This result can account for the pressure dependence of $`T_K`$ observed in CeRh2Si2,Graf  CeRu2Ge2,Sullow ; Wilhelm  or more recently Ce2Rh3Ge5.Umeo  On the other hand, depending on the relative values of $`J_H`$ and $`J_K`$, as well as on the band-filling, the lattice Kondo temperature can closely follow the single-impurity one, as observed in many cerium and all ytterbium compounds. Further experiments are needed to better understand the conditions yielding a Kondo temperature for the lattice much different than the single-impurity one. This issue has also been addressed by different theoretical approaches to both the Kondo lattice and the Periodic Anderson Model.Burdin ; Castro ; Ben-Hur ; Continentino ; Tahvildar ; TSUrev

Another interesting result concerns the derivation of a correlation temperature below which short-range magnetic correlations appear, in good agreement with neutron scattering experiments in cerium compounds. These correlations can coexist with the Kondo effect, but eventually dominate, and suppress the Kondo regime for sufficiently high values of the intersite exchange interaction or sufficiently low band fillings.

Our present calculation addresses again the difficult issue of the nature of the ground state and screening in the Kondo-lattice problem. We have shown here that, as the number of conduction electrons is reduced, exhaustion may be compensated by formation of intersite singlets of localized spins. Exact calculations for small clusters would be interesting in that a comparison between results with a number of conduction electrons equal to, or much smaller than the number of 4$`f`$ electrons localized on the different sites of the clusters could shed new light on this issue.Busser  Finally, it is interesting to notice that taking into account lattice effects is essential for describing the properties of cerium or other anomalous rare-earth compounds at low temperatures, as shown, for example, in photoemission experiments.Tahvildar ; Arko


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# YM on the dielectric brane: a D0-brane tale

## 1 Introduction

Since the appearance of D-branes in string theory, our understanding of gauge theories has been changed dramatically. D-brane physics delivers a geometrical picture to many phenomena in Yang-Mills (YM) theory and also gives the opportunity to include many aspects of non-perturbative physics. In particular there is a strong correlation between geometric configuration of the D-branes in the bulk space-time and the physics of the YM theory on the world-volume of the branes. For example, in the last years many phenomenological models inspired or based on string theory compactifications with D-brane states, have been proposed as potential candidates of our physical word.

One of the most interesting aspects of D-brane physics is the possibility to describe the hole body of M-theory in terms of a single class of partonic variables, like D0-branes in the BFSS conjecture  or string bits in matrix string theory . In this approach, the physical states of M-theory are the result of interplay of a more fundamental set that corresponds to the partonic degrees of freedom.

Following this line of thoughts, we should be able to describe a set of D-branes as a coarse grain approximation of the underlying D0-branes or the string bits. One interesting example of the above situation is the Myers effect , where a group of Dp-branes can be described from the perspective of many Dq-branes ($`p>q`$). Note that, in particular, this implies that the corresponding fields living on the Dp-branes should be tractable in terms of the partonic variables.

To be more precise, let us take as an example the original dielectric effect of Myers. Here we have the possibility to describe the dielectric D2-brane in two different ways: first in term of a single D2-brane, with commutative world-volume and a magnetic flux of monopole charge $`N`$; second in term of a set of $`N`$ D0-branes, forming a non-commutative geometry.

In the original calculation of Myers both descriptions were shown to agree in the large $`N`$ limit, in the sense that certain observables like the energy, the radius and the Ramond-Ramond (RR) couplings coincide in both pictures up to corrections of order $`1/N^2`$. The calculation on the D0-brane picture goes as follows: consider the action for $`N`$ D0-branes in a time-independent case, in the presence of a constant RR field strength 4-form $`F_{t123}^{(4)}=2fϵ_{123}`$:

$`S_{D0}=\mu _0\lambda ^2{\displaystyle 𝑑t\mathrm{Tr}\left(\frac{1}{4}[\varphi ^i,\varphi ^j][\varphi _j,\varphi _i]\frac{i}{3}F_{tijk}^{(4)}\varphi ^i\varphi ^j\varphi ^k\right)},`$ (1)
where $`\varphi ^i`$ are $`u(N)`$ matrix-valued scalars. They represent the nine directions $`i=1,2,..,9`$ transverse to the $`D`$0-brane. $`\mu _0`$ is the charge of the $`D`$0-brane and $`\lambda =2\pi l_s^2`$ ($`l_s`$ is the string length). This potential has a classical extremum corresponding to a non-commutative configuration known as fuzzy sphere defined by

$`\varphi ^i=fL^i,[L^i,L^j]=ϵ_{ijk}L^k`$ (2)
where now $`i,j,k`$ takes value on $`1,2,3`$, $`\varphi ^i`$ represent the non-trivial scalar fields on the D0-brane world-volume theory, $`L^i`$ are the $`su(2)`$ Lie algebra generators in an irreducible $`N`$ dimensional matrix representation. In particular the radius of the above configuration is given by

$`\widehat{R}=2\pi l_s^2\sqrt{Tr(\varphi ^i\varphi _i)/N}=\pi l_s^2f\sqrt{N^21}.`$ (3)
In the dual picture, we take the Born-Infeld and Chern-Simons action for a single D2-brane in a spherical configuration of radius $`R`$, and same external fixed RR 4-form $`F_{t123}^{(4)}`$. Then, to include the effect of the $`N`$ D0-branes, a gauge field configuration of monopole charge $`N`$ is added. The minimum of the potential as a function of $`R`$ is

$`R=\pi l_s^2fN.`$ (4)
Although Myers found agreement in the large $`N`$ limit in a set of observables (like the radius of the sphere, explicit sowed here111We have not showed the calculation for the energy and the RR couplings, and the above discussion gives only some of the final results. For a complete treatment go to the original work of Myers.), there is an important missing ingredient in the above relation between the dual descriptions. Basically, we don’t have a description corresponding to the gauge field (living on the commutative D2-brane) from the D0-brane point of view222In the original calculation of Myers, the presence of the monopole field is justify by CS coupling arguments and also by t-duality, in the sense that the monopole number correspond to number of diluted D0-branes in the D2-brane.. In other words, we would like to understand how the notion of a monopole field and generally the notion of the gauge field living on the D2-brane emerge from the D0-brane picture.

There seems to be more than one way to approach this question. T-duality certainly gives a hint as we know that $`[\varphi _i,\varphi _j]F_{ij}`$, therefore pointing out a strong relation between non-commutativity and a non-trivial gauge field, but this idea is clearly not satisfactory enough. A more direct approach will be to try to use the definition of gauge theories in non-commutative geometry  and impose a monopole structure, following for example , that in the large $`N`$ limit recovers the configuration of Myers. Nevertheless, this extra structure appears artificial and seems to be imposed ad hoc.

In this letter we will rather search for string theory arguments to disclose the non-commutative description of the gauge field. Inspired by the results presented in , we will follow a matrix theory approach, together with the Seiberg-Witten map to define the background YM field configuration of the D2-brane appearing in Myers’ dielectric effect calculation. As a bonus we will obtain also the description of the fluctuations around this classical configuration and therefore the full gauge theory description.

In the next section, we present a detailed discussion of the large $`N`$ limit of the dielectric brane, then we study the overlap of the two dual descriptions of the dielectric brane, obtaining the desired correspondence for the gauge field. We conclude with a summary and some remarks regarding physical consequences and possible future generalizations. At last, an appendix containing a more complete derivation of the results is included.

After this work was completed, our attention was called on a previous work , in which there is partial overlap with our results.

## 2 Dielectric Branes and Seiberg-Witten Map

In order to understand how to describe the gauge field degrees of freedom from the D0-brane point of view, we will first pay some attention to the definition of the large $`N`$ limit. Note that, if we simply take $`N`$ to be large, we will retain the non-commutativity in the D0-brane solution. The commutators of the scalar fields $`\varphi ^i`$ don’t go to zero. Therefore, the resulting D0-brane picture will not be quite the same as the D2-brane picture. On one hand we have a commutative geometry while, on the other, we have a non-commutative geometry (although we should remember that the algebra of functions on the non-commutative solution will be very close to the algebra of functions on the commutative solution). To solve this slight problem, we have to realize that the correct physical limit (where both picture are supposed to overlap), is obtained by taking not only $`N`$ big but also the RR field strength to be small. One way to see this is by noticing that the D0-brane description is valid as long as the distance between the D0-branes is smaller than the string scale $`l_s`$. Thinking on the D0-branes as forming area elements, we get

$`{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi \widehat{R}^2}{N}}l_s^2f{\displaystyle \frac{1}{l_s\sqrt{N}}}.`$ (5)
There is also a constraint coming from the D2-brane picture, since we need the radius of the commutative sphere to be larger than the string scale,

$`Rl_sf{\displaystyle \frac{1}{l_sN}}.`$ (6)
Using the following ansatz for the RR field strength

$$f^2=\frac{\beta }{\lambda N^\alpha },$$
(7)
we get for large $`N`$, that $`\alpha `$ takes values on the interval $`[1,2]`$ and $`\beta `$ satisfies the inequality $`N^{\alpha 2}\beta N^{\alpha 1}`$. The equation (4) for the radius of the sphere becomes

$`R={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\lambda \beta }}{2}}N^{1\frac{\alpha }{2}}.`$ (8)
The extremal cases are of particular interest as they correspond, in the first case $`(\alpha =1,\beta 1)`$, to a fuzzy sphere of large radius depending on $`N`$ with the biggest RR field, in the second $`(\alpha =2,N\beta 1)`$, to a fuzzy sphere of constant radius.

Once we have clarified the necessary conditions to take the correct limit, we return to the object of this letter, i.e. the description of the gauge field.

The idea of having a large number of D0-branes forming Dp-brane configurations is not new and can be found in the context of M(atrix) theory or in string theory calculations on brane dynamics. In particular, Seiberg and Witten  and Seiberg  discuss the background independence of these type of formulations and how to interpolate from the matrix model description of a Dp-brane to the usual commutative Born-Infeld description. They introduce the Seiberg-Witten map defined between non-commutative and commutative D-brane effective theories. In particular, we have the following well known relations,

$`G=\lambda ^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{g}}`$ , $`G_s=g_sdet(\lambda g^1)^{\frac{1}{2}}`$
$`\mathrm{\Theta }={\displaystyle \frac{1}{}}`$ , $`\mathrm{\Phi }=,`$ (9)
between open string metric $`G`$, open string coupling constant $`G_s`$, noncommutative parameter $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$, two-form $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and close string metric $`g`$, close string coupling constant $`g_s`$ and constant magnetic field $``$. This map is constructed for the flat case and is understood as a field redefinition related to different regularizations of string theory333Note the different in the sign conventions from the original work. Here we follow the same conventions of Myers i.e. $`BB,AA,,\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Phi }`$..

Now, if the Seiberg-Witten map was defined for curved spaces in RR backgrounds, we could use it to answer our question. Unfortunately this generalization has not yet appeared (to the best of our knowledge). Nevertheless, we are interested in the large $`N`$ limit, since it is only in this regime that the D0-brane picture and the D2-brane picture should agree, and if in equations (7) and (8) we take $`\alpha <2`$, in this limit the curvature of the sphere and the RR field are very small, hence the use of Seiberg-Witten map seems possible at least at a first order approximation.

Therefore, our plan is to take the correct large $`N`$ limit and, by means of the Seiberg-Witten map, recover the monopole field on the commutative sphere.

We start with the D2-brane picture and, for simplicity, we focus on a small neighborhood of the north pole of the sphere. In spherical coordinates the monopole field takes the form $`_{\psi \phi }=\frac{N}{2}sin\psi `$. We introduce the coordinates $`\sigma ^a,a=1,2`$, such that,

$$\sigma ^1=R\psi cos\phi ,\sigma ^2=R\psi sin\phi .$$
(10)
In these coordinates the induced closed string metric in the north pole is the euclidean $`g_{ab(\sigma ^c=0)}=\delta _{ab}`$, hence in the neighborhood we take $`g_{ab}\delta _{ab}`$. If we now define $`\rho =R\psi =\sqrt{(\sigma ^1)^2+(\sigma ^2)^2}`$, the field strength in these coordinates becomes

$`_{ab}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\lambda f\rho }}sin({\displaystyle \frac{\rho }{R}})ϵ_{ab}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\lambda \beta }}ϵ_{ab}.`$ (11)
where we have used equation (7) with $`\alpha =1`$ (this is the case were the RR field decreases more slowly)444In the following, we will restrict to the $`\alpha =1`$ case such that the quantity $`fR`$, that appears in many expressions, remains finite in the $`N\mathrm{}`$ limit. The general case needs an extension of the Seiberg-Witten map to curved backgrounds.. We can see that locally the monopole field looks like a constant magnetic field and the metric looks flat. Therefore we characterize the above neighborhood on the D2-brane by,

$`\left(_{ab}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\lambda \beta }}ϵ_{ab},g_{ab}=\delta _{ab},g_s\right).`$ (12)
Consider next the equivalent calculation in the D0-brane picture. The fuzzy sphere configuration is defined by the matrix-value scalar fields $`\varphi ^i`$. The variable with length dimension is recovered by defining $`x^i=\lambda \varphi ^i`$ which satisfies the relations

$`[x^i,x^j]=i\lambda fϵ_{ijk}x^k.`$ (13)
In the large $`N`$ limit, to be “near the north pole” corresponds to use the equation $`x^3\widehat{R}`$ 555This statement can be understood from the point of view of coherent states. Coherent states are use to identify quantum functions on the fuzzy sphere with classical functions on the sphere. Here, we are restricting the Hilbert space of the fuzzy sphere to a subspace, such that in the large $`N`$ limit the coherent states that can be form from this subspace, map quantum operators to classical functions on the north pole. On this subspace $`x^3\widehat{R}`$.. Then, the commutation relation adopts the form

$`[x^a,x^b]i\lambda f\widehat{R}ϵ_{ab}i{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda \beta }{2}}ϵ_{ab}.`$ (14)
where $`a,b=1,2`$. In the above limit, we can redefine the fuzzy sphere as a non-commutative geometry with constant theta angle $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{ab}=\frac{\lambda \beta }{2}ϵ_{ab}`$ in a “flat manifold”, at least at first order in a $`1/N`$ expansion. Therefore, we can use the set of equations (9) to rewrite the above non-commutative theory as a commutative theory with constant magnetic field.

As can be seen from the expressions (14) and (11) and the Seiberg-Witten map, we get a perfect agreement in the large $`N`$ limit between the monopole field in the D2-brane and the non-commutativity of the D0-brane. Our first conclusion is that the non-commutative space itself is translated into the background gauge field.

At this point we have been able to recover the constant magnetic monopole field characteristic of the D2-brane from the D0-brane point of view, to go one step further in this derivation, we consider general fluctuations around the dielectric solution,

$`\lambda \varphi _i=x_i+\lambda f\widehat{A}_i=\lambda f(L_i+\widehat{A}_i)`$ (15)
where $`x_i`$ corresponds to the fuzzy solution of Myers, $`\widehat{A}_i`$ are the fluctuations and as before $`L_i`$ correspond to the Lie algebra generators of $`su(2)`$. In the usual commutative case, if we consider a non-Abelian gauge field on the sphere we get the following form for the field strength, $`F=dA+iAA`$. Using the bases $`\{l^i\}_{i=1}^3`$ of 1-forms dual to the vector fields which generate the rotations $`l_i`$ ($`[l_i,l_j]=ϵ_{ijk}l_k`$), we obtain,

$$F_{ij}=l_i(A_j)l_j(A_i)+i[A_i,A_j]+ϵ_{ijk}A_k.$$
(16)
To generalize this definition to the non-commutative case one has simply to make the substitution $`l_ii[L_i,]`$, obtaining666Note that we started from Cartesian coordinates, but we have ended in the base $`(l_1,l_2,l_3)`$, that corresponds to an angular-type base and so it seems that the “fuzzyfication” produce a transmutation of the meaning of the indexes.

$$\widehat{F}_{ij}=i[L_i,\widehat{A}_j]i[L_j,\widehat{A}_i]+i[\widehat{A}_i,\widehat{A}_j]+ϵ_{ijk}\widehat{A}_k.$$
(17)
This expressions can be also obtained by applying the more rigorous formulation a la Connes on the fuzzy sphere . To obtain the effective action of the perturbation $`\widehat{A}_i`$, we substitute the expansion (15) into the D0-brane action (1) using the above definitions. In particular, from the first term of the action we get,

$`Tr\lambda ^4\delta ^{ij}\delta ^{hk}[\varphi _i,\varphi _h][\varphi _j,\varphi _k]=`$ (18)
$`=\lambda ^4Trf^4\delta ^{ij}\delta ^{hk}(\widehat{F}_{ih}ϵ_{ihm}L_m)(\widehat{F}_{jk}ϵ_{jkr}L_r)+more\mathrm{}`$ (19)
Then we can replace the trace $`Tr`$ in the D0-brane action by the symbol $`(N/4\pi )𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }`$ (that in the large $`N`$ limit corresponds the the notion of integration on the sphere). Following the analysis of Seiberg presented in , we can extract777See the appendix for the complete derivation the form of the effective metric $`G_{ij}`$, the 2-form $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{ij}`$ and the string coupling constant, giving

$`\left(G_{ij}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{f^2}}\delta _{ij},\mathrm{\Phi }_{ij}=ϵ_{ijk}L^k,G_s={\displaystyle \frac{g_s}{f\widehat{R}}}\right).`$ (20)
Next, we take the large $`N`$ limit and focus on the “north pole” sector of the theory, where we find that $`L_3=x_3/\lambda f\widehat{R}/\lambda f`$, and we change to the “almost flat” non-commutative coordinates $`x^a`$, $`a=1,2`$ introduced in (14), obtaining

$`\mathrm{\Phi }_{ab}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\widehat{R}^2}}ϵ_{ab}L_3{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\lambda \beta }}ϵ_{ab},`$
$`G_{ab}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\widehat{R}^2f^2}}\delta _{ab}{\displaystyle \frac{4}{\beta ^2}}\delta _{ab},`$
$`G_s={\displaystyle \frac{g_s}{f\widehat{R}}}{\displaystyle \frac{2g_s}{\beta }}`$ (21)
then, using the Seiberg-Witten map in the above non-commutative gauge theory, we get a commutative gauge theory with constant magnetic field in full agreement with the expressions of equation (12). In the appendix we give a more complete derivation, using the full time dependent BI action, where the YM dynamics of the D2-brane is recovered.

To finish this discussion, we mention that the above action can be rewritten in terms of $`\widehat{A}_i`$ and $`L_i`$ only, giving

$`T_0\lambda ^2f^4Tr\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\widehat{F}_{ij}\widehat{F}^{ij}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}ϵ^{ijk}(i[L_i,\widehat{A}_j]\widehat{A}_k+{\displaystyle \frac{i}{3}}\widehat{A}_i[\widehat{A}_j,\widehat{A}_k]+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}ϵ_{ijl}\widehat{A}^l\widehat{A}_k)\right\}`$ (22)
which is the well known action corresponding to non-commutative YM theory plus a Chern-Simon term in the fuzzy sphere . It arises naturally also in a CFT approach to brane dynamics in background fluxes  and is used in matrix models . Therefore, we have not only recovered the monopole field of the D2-brane, but also the dynamics of the YM theory, since we have shown that the non-commutative YM theory on the fuzzy sphere, in the large $`N`$ limit near the “north pole”, goes to a non-commutative YM theory with a 2-form $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ that after the use of the Seiberg-Witten map gives the commutative YM theory of the D2-brane.

Actually, we should say that string theory is also telling us how to define YM theory on the fuzzy sphere. Although there are a few different constructions of YM in the fuzzy sphere, all these programs face the problem of the appearance of an extra degree of freedom in the gauge field related to a “radial direction”. In the above construction, we still have that same radial mode but this time we interpreted this “scalar field” (in the large $`N`$ limit) as corresponding to the radial fluctuation of the D2-brane. For example we can take the gauge field defined in (15), and consider a splitting of the form

$`\widehat{A}_i=\widehat{a}_i+n_i\varphi _r,`$ (23)
where $`n_i=x_i/|x|`$ and $`n_i\widehat{a}^i=0`$. Note that we define the radial mode from the action on the left only i.e. $`n^i\widehat{A}_i=\varphi _r`$ (there are more symmetric prescriptions, but in the large $`N`$ limit we anyway recover the same commutative restriction $`n^ia_i=0`$ characteristic of a gauge field on the sphere). In the large $`N`$ limit, the field $`a_i`$ corresponds to the usual gauge field, while the scalar field $`\varphi _r`$ becomes the radial fluctuation of the D2-brane. In fact, we can check that the infinitesimal $`U(N)`$ transformation of the original D0-brane matrix model $`\delta _\rho \varphi _i=i[\varphi _i,\rho ]`$ corresponds for the fields $`(\widehat{a}_i,\varphi _r)`$ to

$`\delta _\rho \widehat{a}_i=i(\delta _i^jn_in^j)[L_j+\widehat{a}_j,\rho ]+i(\delta _i^jn_in^j)[n_j\varphi _r,\rho ]`$
$`\delta _\rho \varphi _r=n^i(i[L_i,\rho ]+i[\widehat{a}_i\rho ]+i[n_i\varphi _r,\rho ]).`$ (24)
where both transformations go to the usual non-commutative gauge and scalar transformation in the large $`N`$ limit on the “north pole”. Therefore we have recovered the missing ingredients to complete the world-volume theory of the D2-brane 888Note that only in the large $`N`$ limit the non-commutative field and the radial fluctuation can be separated; in the finite $`N`$ case, it makes no sense to use the splitting..

## 3 Conclusions and Discussions

In this short letter we have shown explicitly how the full YM dynamics on the dielectric D2-brane can be described from the D0-brane point of view. To do this, we have studied in detail the large $`N`$ limit in the construction of Myers, founding for the consistency of this solution a scaling dependent on $`N`$ in the external RR field. Because of this scaling, starting from the fuzzy sphere solution, we were able to end up (in the large $`N`$ limit) in a non-commutative geometry, reminiscence of the original fuzzy sphere, where the Seiberg-Witten map can be applied to obtain a commutative theory. This final theory matches the field content of the corresponding D2-brane. As a bonus, we have seen how string theory solves the problem of the “radial mode” present in the definition of non-commutative YM theory in the fuzzy sphere, in the sense that this mode should be understood as the radial fluctuation of the D2-brane.

We have also included an appendix where the matching between the two dual pictures for the gauge field is shown in details including time-dependent perturbations and for the full action, not only the leading order expansion used in (1). Although Myers used a similar analysis with the full potentials for the breathing radial mode, it is still intriguing that we can find the correspondence at all orders in our complementary case. It remains to give a description of the duality for the full radial perturbation.

Moreover, in this letter we have approximated the non-commutative space “fuzzy sphere” with a non-commutative plane, in the limit of large $`N`$. Hence, we were able to use the Seiberg-Witten map that is only defined for flat space-time or toroidal compactifications. It will be very interesting to generalize this map to quantum compact spaces, hence the relation between the D0-brane picture and the D2-brane picture could be obtained globally and for the full dynamics of the YM and radial fluctuations. Nevertheless, it seems that the generalized map will produce a commutative theory with ultraviolet and infrared cut-off since the quantum theory will have finite degrees of freedom999There is a generalization of the Seiberg-Witten map for the fuzzy sphere, but uses a modify start-product .. A deeper analysis goes beyond this work so we postpone it for future work.

Finally, we should say that although the above analysis was carried on for the dielectric effect, there are other very similar situations in M-theory where the results will carry on, like in M(atrix) theory or matrix string theory (where this time the D-branes are made of string bits ) or even in the case of D-branes on compact group manifolds, where the non-commutative geometry appears from the CFT analysis and the corresponding relation with the D0-brane picture is also explicit .

###### Acknowledgments.

We thank G. Alexanian and D. Zanon for useful discussions. This work was partially supported by INFN, MURST and by the European Commission RTN program HPRN-CT-2000-00131, in association with the University of Torino.

## Appendix A A More Complete Calculation

In this appendix we generalize the discussion of the previous section both working with a time dependent perturbation of the fuzzy solution and using the full D0-brane action, in contrast with the calculation showed in the main body of the article. We start our analysis from the non-Abelian action of Myers.

The first part of the non-Abelian D0 effective action is the Born-Infeld term

$`S_{BI}=T_0{\displaystyle 𝑑tSTr\left(e^\varphi \sqrt{\left(P[E_{ab}+E_{ai}(Q^1\delta )^{ij}E_{jb}]\right)det(Q^i{}_{j}{}^{})}\right)}`$ (25)
with

$$E_{AB}=G_{AB}+B_{AB}\mathrm{and}Q^i{}_{j}{}^{}\delta ^i{}_{j}{}^{}+i\lambda [\varphi ^i,\varphi ^k]E_{kj}.$$
(26)
In writing (25) we have used a number of conventions taken from Myers :

* Indexes to be pulled-back to the world-line (see below) have been labeled by $`a`$. For other indexes, the symbol $`A`$ takes values in the full set of space-time coordinates while $`i`$ labels only directions perpendicular to the center of mass world-line.
* The center of mass degrees of freedom decouple completely and are not relevant to our discussion. The fields $`\varphi ^i`$ thus take values in the adjoint representation of SU(N). As a result, the fields satisfy $`Tr\varphi ^i=0`$ and form a non-Abelian generalization of the coordinates specifying the displacement of the branes from the center of mass. These coordinates have been normalized to have dimensions of $`(length)^1`$ through multiplication by $`\lambda ^1`$.

The rest of the action is given by the non-Abelian Chern-Simon terms. These involve the non-Abelian ‘pullback’ $`P`$ of various covariant tensors to the world-volume of the D0-brane e.g. $`P[C_t^{(1)}]=C_\mu ^{(1)}D_tx^\mu =C_0^{(1)}+\lambda C_i^{(1)}D_t\varphi ^i`$, where we have used the static gauge $`x^0=t,x^i=\lambda \varphi ^i`$ for a coordinate $`x`$ with origin at the D0-brane center of mass. The symbol $`STr`$ will be used to denote a trace over the $`SU(N)`$ index with a complete symmetrization over the non-Abelian objects in each term. In this way, the Chern-Simons terms may be compactly written

$`S_{CS}=\mu _0{\displaystyle 𝑑tSTr\left(P\left[e^{i\lambda \widehat{ı}_\varphi \widehat{ı}_\varphi }(C^{(n)}e^B)\right]\right)}.`$ (27)
The symbol $`\widehat{ı}_\varphi `$ is a non-Abelian generalization of the interior product with the coordinates $`\varphi ^i`$,

$`\widehat{ı}_\varphi \left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}C_{AB}dX^AdX^A\right)=\mathrm{\Phi }^iC_{iB}dX^B.`$ (28)
In our case we have $`N`$ $`D0`$ branes (the generalization to Dp branes which polarize into $`D(p+2)`$ branes is straightforward) in flat space with a constant RR field strength $`F_{t123}^{(4)}=2fϵ_{123}`$. Focusing on the first four directions of space-time for the BI part of the action, we have

$$S_{BI}=T_0𝑑tSTr\sqrt{det[1+\lambda ^2D_t\varphi _i(Q^1)_{ij}D_t\varphi _j]det(Q_{ij})},$$
(29)
where $`Q_{ij}=\delta _{ij}+i\lambda [\varphi _i,\varphi _j]`$, $`D_t\varphi _i=_t\varphi _i+i[\widehat{A}_t,\varphi _i]`$ and $`i,j`$ takes values in $`\{1,2,3\}`$. Observing that the $`U(N)`$ connection with zero spatial dimension $`\widehat{A}_t(t)`$ can be seen as a $`U(1)`$ connection on the fuzzy sphere, by substituting $`\varphi =f(L_i+\widehat{A}_i)`$, we get

$$D_t\varphi _i=f\{_ti[L_i,\widehat{A}_t]+i[\widehat{A}_t,\widehat{A}_i]\}=f\widehat{F}_{ti}.$$
(30)
After some manipulations, this action can be rewritten as

$$S_{BI}=T_0f^2𝑑tSTr\sqrt{f^2det\{G_{\mu \nu }+\lambda [\widehat{F}_{\mu \nu }\delta _\mu ^i\delta _\nu ^jϵ_{ijk}(L_k+A_k)]\}},$$
(31)
where $`\mu ,\nu =0,\mathrm{},3`$ and we have defined the effective metric $`G_{\mu \nu }`$

$$G_{\mu \nu }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& \frac{\delta _{ij}}{f^2}\end{array}\right).$$
(32)
Making the formal substitution $`STr\frac{N}{4\pi }𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }_2`$, which is valid only in the $`N\mathrm{}`$ limit (here $`d\mathrm{\Omega }_2`$ is to be understood as the volume form on the sphere of radius one), we finally write

$$S_{BI}=T_2(G_s)𝑑t𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }_2\sqrt{f^2det\{G_{\mu \nu }+\lambda [\widehat{F}_{\mu \nu }\delta _\mu ^i\delta _\nu ^jϵ_{ijk}(L_k+A_k)]\}},$$
(33)
where we have borrow the definition $`R=\frac{\lambda fN}{2}`$ from the D2-brane physics to define

$$T_2(G_s)=\frac{2\pi }{(2\pi l_s)^3G_s},G_s=\frac{g_s}{fR}.$$
(34)
Note that, there is a disturbing factor of $`f^2`$ in front of the determinant $`det`$. Nevertheless, this factor is due to the fact that the fuzzy sphere construction force us to work with a three dimensional embedding space. Recalled that we expect to have a redefinition of the metric only along the tangential directions of the sphere, but in the metric $`G_{\mu \nu }`$ we have multiplied all three spatial direction by $`f^2`$.

To make contact with the D2-brane picture, we take the north pole approximation. Note that in this way we can identify the transverse fluctuation of the fuzzy sphere with the third component of the gauge field (more precisely $`\phi f\widehat{A}_3`$). For simplicity we will set this transverse fluctuation to zero. Using the fact that in this approximation $`L_3R/\lambda f`$, we introduce the “almost flat” non-commutative coordinates $`\sigma ^A=(t,\sigma ^a)`$, $`A=0,1,2,a=1,2`$ that satisfy

$$[\sigma ^A,\sigma ^B]=i\mathrm{\Theta }^{AB},\mathrm{\Theta }^{AB}=\frac{\lambda \beta }{2}\delta _A^a\delta _B^bϵ_{ab},$$
(35)
Therefore, the action (33) can now be written in in the following way

$$S_{BI}=T_2(G_s)d^3\sigma \sqrt{det\{G_{AB}+\lambda [\widehat{F}_{AB}+\mathrm{\Phi }_{AB}]\}},$$
(36)
where the effective metric is

$$G_{AB}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& \frac{\delta _{ab}}{R^2f^2}\end{array}\right),$$
(37)
we have introduced the background field

$$𝚽_{AB}=\frac{1}{\lambda fR}\delta _A^a\delta _B^bϵ_{ab},$$
(38)
and we have used the star product associated to $`\theta ^{AB}`$ in the definition of the action.

In these form the BI action is identical to the non-commutative BI action of Seiberg and Witten  and so it is equivalent to the commutative BI action

$$S=T_2d^3\sigma \sqrt{det\{g_{AB}+\lambda [F_{AB}+_{AB}]\}},$$
(39)
where $`_{AB}=\frac{1}{\lambda fR}\delta _A^a\delta _B^bϵ_{ab}`$ is the right background monopole field of the D2-brane as seen in the north pole approximation and $`g_{AB}=diag(1,1,1)`$ is the flat metric.

To complete our analysis we must consider also the CS term of the D0-branes, that can be rewritten as

$`S_{CS}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mu _0\lambda ^2f^4}{3}}{\displaystyle 𝑑tTrL_iL_i}+\mu _0\lambda ^2f^4{\displaystyle 𝑑tTr(L_i+A_i)(L_i+A_i)}`$ (41)
$`\mu _0\lambda ^2f^4{\displaystyle 𝑑tTrϵ^{ijk}\{i\widehat{A}_i[L_j,\widehat{A}_k]+\frac{i}{3}\widehat{A}_i[\widehat{A}_j,\widehat{A}_k]+\frac{1}{2}ϵ_{jkm}\widehat{A}_i\widehat{A}_m\}}.`$
In the north pole approximation with zero transversal fluctuation, the only term that survives is the vacuum energy term

$$S_{CS}\frac{2\mu _0\lambda ^2f^4}{3}Tr(L_iL_i)𝑑t=\frac{2\mu _0f^2\widehat{R}^2N}{3}𝑑t,$$
(42)
which indeed corresponds to the CS term coming from the dual $`D2`$brane description (up to correction of order $`O(1/N)`$, with no radial fluctuations).

summarizing we have found complete agreement in the north pole approximation between the D0-brane picture and the D2-brane picture for the full action.

We conclude observing that, because $`f1/\sqrt{N}`$ and $`\varphi _i=f(L_i+\widehat{A}_i)`$, in the large $`N`$ limit we can consider only the first terms in the expansion of the D0-brane BI action (29) such that

$`S`$ $`=`$ $`S_{BI}+S_{CS}=`$ (43)
$`=`$ $`T_2(G_s){\displaystyle 𝑑t𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }_2\sqrt{f^2detG_{\mu \nu }}}`$ (47)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{T_2(G_s)\lambda ^2}{4}}{\displaystyle 𝑑t𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }_2\sqrt{f^2detG_{\mu \nu }}G^{\mu \nu }G^{\rho \sigma }\widehat{F}_{\mu \rho }\widehat{F}_{\nu \sigma }}+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\mu _2(G_s)\lambda ^2}{2}}{\displaystyle }dtd\mathrm{\Omega }_2\sqrt{f^2detG_{\mu \nu }}G^{li}G^{mj}G^{nk}ϵ_{lmn}\{i\widehat{A}_i[L_j,\widehat{A}_k]+`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{i}{3}}\widehat{A}_i[\widehat{A}_j,\widehat{A}_k]+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}ϵ_{jkm}\widehat{A}_i\widehat{A}_m\},`$
where $`\mu _2(G_s)=T_2(G_s)`$.

This action is a generalization of the non-commutative YM theory in the fuzzy sphere for time dependent gauge field.