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# ℤ₂-gradings of Clifford algebras and multivector structures

## 1 Introduction

Clifford algebras have long been an important tool in the interplay among geometry, algebra and physics. The development of the theory of spinor structures, with applications in field and string theories, and the study of Dirac operators, with applications in geometry and topology, are examples of this general setting. These algebras carry $`_2`$-graded structures which play a major role in such developments. For example, the usual $`_2`$-graded structure of the Clifford bundle over a Riemannian manifold may be used to construct models of supersymmetric quantum mechanics, which have unveiled deep connections between field theory and geometry . Also, in Hestenes’s approach to Dirac theory , the usual $`_2`$-grading of the spacetime algebra is extensively employed to represent spinors by even elements of this algebra (such an approach has a natural generalization for arbitrary Clifford algebras ).

Let $`V`$ be a finite-dimensional real vector space endowed with a metric $`g`$. By that we mean that $`g:V\times V`$ is a bilinear, symmetric and nondegenerate map. Let $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ be the real Clifford algebra associated to $`(V,g)`$. As a vector space, $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ is naturally $``$-graded by the multivector structure inherited from the Grassmann algebra $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$ over $`V`$. This is the usual Chevalley construction (see eq. (2)). However, as an algebra, $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ is not $``$-graded, but only $`_2`$-graded and, in general, such $`_2`$-gradings do not have to preserve in any sense the homogeneous subspaces of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ ($``$ denotes linear isomorphism in this expression).

In this paper, we study the class of $`_2`$-gradings of $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ which are somehow compatible with the usual multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$ (see definition 3). In section 2, we completely characterize such $`_2`$-gradings by classifying all the even subalgebras coming from them. Also, a formula relating such arbitrary even subalgebras to the usual even part of $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ is obtained.

In the next section, some preliminary applications are considered. We start by discussing the possibility of employing these arbitrary $`_2`$-gradings to define spinor spaces, as in . After that, we consider the problem of signature change in an arbitrary Clifford algebra. There are various situations in theoretical physics where changing the signature of a given space is an useful tool, as in Euclidean formulations of field theories, in the theory of instantons, in finite temperature field theory and in lattice gauge theory. In  and , the authors discuss the specific signature changes $`(1,3)(3,1)`$ and $`(1,3)(4,0)`$ inside the spacetime algebra (in the last case, the corresponding signature change map is used to study the Dirac equation, and self-dual/anti-self-dual solutions of gauge fields). In section 3.2, we generalize such approaches in order to obtain completely arbitrary signature change maps in Clifford algebras of any dimension. As in the aforementioned works, our method is purely algebraic, and is implemented by a deformation of the algebraic structure underlying the theory. More specifically, the $`_2`$-gradings discussed above are employed to deform the original Clifford product, thereby “simulating” the product properties of the signature changed space. As a result, we parametrize all the possible signature changes on $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ by $`_2`$-gradings of this algebra. This opens the possibility of applying this formalism to higher dimensional physical theories.

The concept of $`_2`$-graded structures has numerous applications in mathematical physics (as in supersymmetry, supergeometry, etc.). It is then reasonable to expect that the present work may find other applications besides the ones considered here and outlined above.

### 1.1 Algebraic preliminaries and notation

A vector space $`W`$ is said to be graded by an Abelian group $`G`$ if it is expressible as a direct sum $`W=_iW_i`$ of subspaces labelled by elements $`iG`$ (we refer the reader to appendix A of  for a general review of algebraic concepts). Here we consider only the cases when $`G`$ is given by $``$ or $`_2`$. Then, the elements of $`W_i`$ are called homogeneous of degree $`i`$ and we define $`\mathrm{deg}(w)=i`$ if $`wW_i`$. Let $`𝒜`$ be an algebra which, for the purposes of this paper, can always be considered as a finite-dimensional associative algebra with unit, over $``$ or $``$. We say that $`𝒜`$ is graded by $`G`$ if (a) its underlying vector space is a $`G`$-graded vector space and (b) its product satisfies $`\mathrm{deg}(ab)=\mathrm{deg}(a)+\mathrm{deg}(b)`$.

Let $`V`$ be an $`n`$-dimensional real vector space. Then, the tensor algebra $`T(V)=_{k=0}^{\mathrm{}}T^k(V)`$ over $`V`$ is an example of a $``$-graded algebra. We denote the space of antisymmetric $`k`$-tensors by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$. The elements of this space will be called $`k`$-vectors. Let $`V^{}=_{k=0}^n\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$ denote the $`2^n`$-dimensional real vector space of multivectors over $`V`$. Using the natural embeddings of $``$ and $`V`$ in $`V^{}`$, we identify $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^0(V)`$ with $``$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^1(V)`$ with $`V`$. When endowed with the exterior product $``$, the vector space $`V^{}`$ becomes the so called Grassmann algebra $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)=(V^{},)`$ over $`V`$. We note that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)=_{k=0}^n\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$ is another example of a $``$-graded algebra, with a $``$-graded structure inherited from the usual $``$-grading of $`T(V)`$. It is important to note that such $``$-grading for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$ is by no means unique . Nevertheless, suppose one wants to identify $`V`$ with the tangent space (at a certain point) of a spacetime $`M`$. Then, in the context of this usual grading, one can interpret elements of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^0(V)`$ as scalars, elements of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^1(V)`$ as tangent vectors of $`M`$ and so on. In this paper, we always consider the multivector structure coming from such usual $``$-grading of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$ (more discussion along these lines can be found in ).

We denote the projection of a multivector $`a=a_0+a_1+\mathrm{}+a_n`$, with $`a_k\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$, on its $`p`$-vector part by $`a_p:=a_p`$. The parity operator $`()^{}`$ is defined as the algebra automorphism generated by the expression $`\widehat{v}=v`$ on vectors $`vV`$. The reversion $`()^{}`$ is the algebra anti-automorphism generated by the expression $`\stackrel{~}{v}=v`$ on vectors $`vV.`$ It follows that $`\widehat{a}=(1)^ka`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{a}=(1)^{[k/2]}a`$ if $`a\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$, where $`[m]`$ denotes the integer part of $`m`$. When $`V`$ is endowed with a metric $`g`$, it is possible to extend (in a non-unique way) $`g`$ to all of $`V^{}`$. Given $`a=u_1\mathrm{}u_k`$ and $`b=v_1\mathrm{}v_l`$ with $`u_i,v_jV`$, the expressions $`g(a,b)=det(g(u_i,v_j))`$, if $`k=l`$, and $`g(a,b)=0`$, if $`kl`$, provides one such extension. Also, the left ($`\mathrm{}`$) and right ($`\mathrm{}`$) contractions on the Grassmann algebra are respectively defined by $`g(a\mathrm{}b,c)=g(b,\stackrel{~}{a}c)`$ and $`g(b\mathrm{}a,c)=g(b,c\stackrel{~}{a})`$, with $`a,b,c\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$.

The Clifford product between a vector $`vV`$ and a multivector $`a`$ in $`V^{}`$ is given by $`va=va+v\mathrm{}a`$. This is extended by linearity and associativity to all of $`V^{}`$. The resulting algebra is the so called Clifford algebra $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$. Note that, although the underlying vector space of $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ (i.e., $`V^{}`$) is $``$-graded, $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ is not a $``$-graded algebra as, for example, the Clifford product between two 1-vectors is a sum of elements of degrees $`0`$ and $`2`$. Nevertheless, there are (infinite) $`_2`$-gradings which are compatible with the Clifford product structure. For instance, the usual $`_2`$-grading of $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ is given by $`𝒞\mathrm{}^+(V,g)𝒞\mathrm{}^{}(V,g)`$ where $`𝒞\mathrm{}^+(V,g)=_{keven}\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$ and $`𝒞\mathrm{}^{}(V,g)=_{kodd}\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$. When the metric $`g`$ has signature $`(p,q)`$, we will also denote the real vector space $`V`$ endowed with $`g`$ by $`^{p,q}`$. In this case, the real Clifford algebra $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ over $`V`$ will be denoted by $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$ or $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}`$. We adopt the definition $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()=𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$ for the complexified Clifford algebra (of course, all the $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$ with fixed $`p+q`$ are isomorphic as complex algebras). Note that given 1-vectors $`x,y^{p,q}`$, we have $`2g(x,y)=xy+yx`$. In particular, an orthonormal basis $`\{e_i\}`$ of $`^{p,q}`$ yields $`e_ie_j+e_je_i=2g_{ij}`$, where $`g_{ij}=g(e_i,e_j)`$. In the following, we denote by $`(m,𝕂)`$ the space of $`m\times m`$ matrices over $`𝕂`$, where $`𝕂=`$, $``$ or $``$.

We observe that there are other ways of defining Clifford and Grassmann algebras (see, for example, chapter 14 of  and chapters 1 and 2 of ). In the definitions adopted here, both the Grassmann and the Clifford algebras are defined on the same underlying vector space $`V^{}`$. This will be particularly useful in section 3.2, where we consider various Clifford products defined, at the same time, on $`V^{}`$.

It is well known that real Clifford algebras exhibit an 8-fold periodicity and can be classified by $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()(m,)𝒜`$, where $`𝒜`$ is given by table 1 and $`m`$ is fixed by $`m^2dim_{}𝒜=2^n,`$ with $`n=p+q`$.

The usual even subalgebras $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}^+()`$ can be shown to satisfy

$$𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}^+()𝒞\mathrm{}_{q,p1}()𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q1}()𝒞\mathrm{}_{q,p}^+().$$
(1)
In this way, their classification follows from table 1, as table 2 shows.

The classification of the complex Clifford algebras is simpler, as table 3 shows (in this table, $``$ denotes isomorphism of complex algebras).

Clifford algebras may also be characterized by their universal property, in the sense of the well known theorem below.

###### Theorem 1

Let $`V`$ be a finite dimensional real vector space endowed with a nondegenerate metric $`g`$. Let $`𝒜`$ be a real associative algebra with unit $`1_𝒜`$. Given a linear map $`\mathrm{\Gamma }:V𝒜`$ such that $`(\mathrm{\Gamma }(v))^2=g(v,v)1_𝒜`$, there exists a unique homomorphism $`\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}:𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)𝒜`$ such that $`\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}|_V=\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

A map $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ as in the above theorem will be called a *Clifford map* for the pair $`(V,g)`$. An important example is given by the Clifford map $`\mathrm{\Gamma }:VEnd(V^{})`$, defined by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(v)=v+v\mathrm{},$$
(2)
which implements the well known Chevalley identification of $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ with a subalgebra of $`End(V^{})`$.

## 2 $`_2`$-gradings of Clifford Algebras

Abusing language, we will denote an arbitrary $`_2`$-grading of $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ simply by $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)=𝒞\mathrm{}_0𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$. In this way, (the vector space structure of) $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ is given by a direct sum of subspaces $`𝒞\mathrm{}_i`$, $`i=0,1`$, which satisfy

$$𝒞\mathrm{}_i𝒞\mathrm{}_j𝒞\mathrm{}_{i+j(\mathrm{mod}2)}.$$
(3)
Of course, $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ is then a subalgebra of $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$. To each such a decomposition we have an associated vector space automorphism $`\alpha :𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ defined by $`\alpha |_{𝒞\mathrm{}_i}=(1)^i`$id$`_{𝒞\mathrm{}_i}`$ (where idW denotes the identity map on the space $`W`$). The projections $`\pi _i`$ on $`𝒞\mathrm{}_i`$ are given by $`\pi _i(a)=\frac{a+(1)^i\alpha (a)}{2}`$. We also denote $`\pi _i(a)=a_i`$. Note that $`\alpha `$ is an algebra isomorphism, for given $`a,b𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$, we have $`\alpha (ab)=\alpha (_{ij}a_ib_j)=_{ij}\alpha (a_ib_j)=_{ij}(1)^{i+j}a_ib_j=_i(1)^ia_i_j(1)^jb_j=\alpha (a)\alpha (b)`$. For the usual $`_2`$-grading, where $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0=𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}^+()`$ and $`𝒞\mathrm{}_1=𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}^{}()`$, the grading automorphism is simply given by $`()^{}`$ (see section 1.1).

Given a $`_2`$-grading of $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ as above, we refer to $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ and $`𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$ as the $`\alpha `$-even and $`\alpha `$-odd parts of $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$. Also, an element belonging to $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ ($`𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$) will be called $`\alpha `$-even ($`\alpha `$-odd).

We observe that the scalar $`1\mathrm{\Lambda }^0(V)`$ is always $`\alpha `$-even. Indeed, let us write $`1=e+o`$, where $`e=\pi _0(1)`$ and $`o=\pi _1(1)`$. Left-multiplying this equation by $`e`$ yields $`e=e^2+eo`$. As $`e`$ and $`e^2`$ are $`\alpha `$-even and $`eo`$ is $`\alpha `$-odd, we must have $`eo=0`$. Then, right-multiplying $`1=e+o`$ by $`o`$ yields $`o=o^2`$. As $`o`$ is $`\alpha `$-odd and $`o^2`$ is $`\alpha `$-even, we thus have $`o=0`$.

Let us now address the central point of the present paper. In the general $`_2`$-gradings introduced so far, the even and odd projections do not have to preserve the multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$ (see example later). In other words, it is possible that the even or odd part of a $`k`$-vector comprises an inhomogeneous combination of elements of different degrees.

###### Proposition 2

Let $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)=𝒞\mathrm{}_0𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$ be a $`_2`$-grading with grading automorphism $`\alpha `$. The following are equivalent:111In the following, we make the usual identification of $`V`$ with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^1(V)`$ (as mentioned in section 1.1). In particular, items (ii) and (iv) of proposition 2 can be written, in a more precise way, as $`\pi _i(\mathrm{\Lambda }^1(V))\mathrm{\Lambda }^1(V)`$ and $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Lambda }^1(V))\mathrm{\Lambda }^1(V),`$ respectively.

(i) The projections $`\pi _i`$, $`i=0,1`$, preserve each $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$, $`k=1,\mathrm{},n`$;

(ii) $`\pi _i(V)V`$, $`i=0,1`$;

(iii) $`\alpha `$ preserves each $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$, $`k=1,\mathrm{},n`$;

(iv) $`\alpha (V)V`$.

Proof.: It follows from the definition of $`\pi _i`$ that $`\pi _i(\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V))\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$ if, and only if, $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V))\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$. Thus (i)$``$(iii) and (ii)$``$(iv). Of course, (iii)$``$(iv). Conversely, if we assume (iv), then $`\alpha |_V`$ (see footnote 1) is an isometry. Indeed, given $`x,yV`$, $`2g(\alpha (x),\alpha (y))=\alpha (x)\alpha (y)+\alpha (y)\alpha (x)=\alpha (xy+yx)=2g(x,y)`$, since $`\alpha `$ is an algebra isomorphism and $`\alpha (1)=1`$ (as we mentioned earlier). If $`\{e_i\}`$ is an orthonormal basis of $`V`$, every element $`a\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$ can be written as a linear combination of terms like $`e_{i_1}\mathrm{}e_{i_k}=e_{i_1}\mathrm{}e_{i_k}`$. As $`\alpha |_V`$ is an isometry, $`\{\alpha (e_i)\}`$ is also an orthonormal basis of $`V`$ and thus $`\alpha (e_{i_1}\mathrm{}e_{i_k})=\alpha (e_{i_1})\mathrm{}\alpha (e_{i_k})=\alpha (e_{i_1})\mathrm{}\alpha (e_{i_k})\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$. It follows that $`\alpha (a)\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$, establishing (iv)$``$(iii).$`\mathrm{}`$

###### Definition 3

A $`_2`$-grading fulfilling one (and hence all) of the conditions above will be said to preserve the multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$.

For this class of $`_2`$-gradings, we have the following proposition.

###### Proposition 4

Let $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)=𝒞\mathrm{}_0𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$ be a $`_2`$-grading preserving the multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$ and define $`V_i:=V𝒞\mathrm{}_i`$, $`i=0,1`$, i.e., $`V_0`$ ($`V_1`$) is the space of $`\alpha `$-even ($`\alpha `$-odd) 1-vectors (see footnote 1). Then $`V=V_0V_1`$, with $`V_0=V_1^{}`$ (and $`V_1=V_0^{}`$). It follows that each subspace $`V_i`$ is nondegenerate (i.e. $`g`$ restricted to $`V_i`$ is nondegenerate).

Proof.: By assumption, each projection $`\pi _i`$ preserves $`V`$. This immediately induces a $`_2`$-grading for the vector space $`V`$, so that $`V=V_0V_1`$. Moreover, such a decomposition is orthogonal. Indeed, given $`xV_0`$ and $`yV_1`$, we have $`xy+yx=2g(x,y)`$. As the left hand side belongs to $`𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$ and the right hand side to $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$, we must have $`g(x,y)=0`$. Thus $`V_0V_1`$ and, in particular, $`V_0V_1^{}`$. By counting dimensions, we finally have $`V_0=V_1^{}`$ (for $`dim(V_0)+dim(V_1)=n`$ and $`dim(V_1)+dim(V_1{}_{}{}^{})=n`$).$`\mathrm{}`$

Let the metric $`g`$ have signature $`(p,q)`$, with $`p+q=n`$, and let us denote the vector space $`V`$, endowed with $`g`$, by $`^{p,q}`$ (as in section 1.1). By proposition 4, we can choose orthonormal basis $`_0=\{v_1,\mathrm{},v_a\}`$ and $`_1=\{v_{a+1},\mathrm{},v_{a+b}\}`$ of $`V_0`$ and $`V_1`$ respectively. Then, $`\{v_1,\mathrm{},v_{a+b}\}`$ is an orthonormal basis for $`^{p,q}`$ and thus $`\{1,v_{i_1}\mathrm{}v_{i_k}:1i_1\mathrm{}i_kn`$, $`k=1,\mathrm{},n\}`$ is an orthonormal basis for $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$. It follows from eq. (3) that $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ is generated (as an algebra) by elements of the form:

| (i) $`v_i`$, | with $`ia`$, |
| --- | --- |
| (ii) $`v_iv_j`$, | with $`i,j>a`$. |

(4)
This leads to a straightforward characterization of $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$. Let $`p_i`$ $`(q_i)`$ be the number of elements in $`_i`$ squaring to $`+1`$ $`(1)`$. As we are working within $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$, we have $`p=p_0+p_1`$ and $`q=q_0+q_1.`$ Then, eq. (4) implies $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0𝒞\mathrm{}_{p_0,q_0}𝒞\mathrm{}_{p_1,q_1}^+`$, where the tensor product is over $``$ and comes from the fact that the elements in (i) and (ii) commute. We summarize this result in the following proposition.

###### Proposition 5

Let $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()=𝒞\mathrm{}_0𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$ be a $`_2`$-grading preserving the multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^{p,q})`$. Then

$$𝒞\mathrm{}_0𝒞\mathrm{}_{p_0,q_0}𝒞\mathrm{}_{pp_0,qq_0}^+,$$
(5)
where $`p_0`$ $`(q_0)`$ is the number of $`\alpha `$-even elements of an orthonormal basis of $`^{p,q}`$ squaring to $`+1`$ $`(1)`$.

Note that:

(i) if $`p_0=q_0=0`$, then eq. (5) reduces to $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0=𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}^+()`$, as expected. We refer to this case as the usual $`_2`$-grading of $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$.

(ii) if $`p_0=p`$ and $`q_0=q`$, then $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0=𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$ and $`𝒞\mathrm{}_1=0`$. Therefore, this case corresponds to the trivial $`_2`$-grading of $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$. Moreover, this is the unique choice for $`p_0`$ and $`q_0`$ which yields the trivial $`_2`$-grading.

It follows that every non-trivial $`_2`$-grading, preserving the multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$, provides an invertible $`\alpha `$-odd element $`u`$ (for example, any basis 1-vector in $`V_1`$ squaring to $`\pm 1`$ can be chosen for $`u`$). This can be used to construct the isomorphism of vector spaces $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$, $`xux`$. Thus, the class of $`_2`$-gradings considered here is such that either

$`\text{(a)}dim𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ $`=dim𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()\text{ (trivial case), or}`$ (6a)
$`\text{(b)}dim𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ $`=\frac{1}{2}dim𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}().`$ (6b)
At this point, it is interesting to consider some examples of $`_2`$-gradings that do not preserve the multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$. For simplicity, let us momentarily regard the real Clifford algebra $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ as an algebra of $`m\times m`$ matrices, as in table 1. Let us define $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ and $`𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$ as, respectively, the spaces of matrices of the form

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}A& 0_{a\times b}\\ 0_{b\times a}& B\end{array}\right)\text{and}\left(\begin{array}{cc}0_{a\times a}& C\\ D& 0_{b\times b}\end{array}\right),$$

where $`A`$ and $`B`$ are square matrices of order $`a`$ and $`b`$, respectively, with $`a+b=m`$. It is easy to see that this gives a $`_2`$-grading for $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$ for any choice of $`a`$ and $`b`$. In particular, if $`m>2`$, we can choose nonzero $`a`$ and $`b`$ such that $`ab`$. As a result, we end up with a nontrivial $`_2`$-grading with $`dim𝒞\mathrm{}_0\frac{1}{2}dim𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$. It follows from eqs. (6) that such $`_2`$-grading does not preserve the multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$.

Let us now return to the study of the $`_2`$-gradings preserving the multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^{p,q})`$. The explicit formula for $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ in proposition 5 can be used to obtain a complete classification for these objects. In fact, a straightforward calculation (using the facts that $``$, $`(2,)`$ and $`(4,)`$) shows that $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0(k,)𝒟`$, where $`𝒟`$ is given by table 4 and $`k`$ is fixed by $`k^2dim_{}𝒟=2^{n1}`$, where $`n=p+q`$. It is interesting to note that this yields an overall 4-fold periodicity in terms of $`p_0q_0`$.

We see from table 4 that $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ is not always a Clifford algebra. For instance, when $`pq=1(\mathrm{mod}4)`$ and $`p_0q_0=1(\mathrm{mod}4)`$, we have $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0(k,)()`$, and we know that no Clifford algebra has this form.

## 3 Applications

Now we consider some simple applications of the framework developed in the previous section. In section 3.1, we outline a possible use of the $`_2`$-gradings studied here to define spinor spaces, as in  and . In section 3.2, we analyze an algebraic method for changing the signature of arbitrary real Clifford algebras, as advanced at the introduction.

### 3.1 Spinor spaces

The identification of the even part of a Clifford algebra with a space of spinors is mostly known in the context of Hestenes’s formulation of Dirac theory . In such an approach, the state of the electron is described by an operator spinor  $`\mathrm{\Psi }𝒞\mathrm{}_{1,3}^+()`$ satisfying the so called Dirac-Hestenes equation, $`\mathrm{\Psi }e_{21}=m\mathrm{\Psi }e_0`$ (here $`\{e_\mu \}`$ is an orthonormal frame in Minkowski space, corresponding to a given observer, and $`=e^\mu _\mu `$). We observe that the space of operator spinors is more than a vector space, it is an *algebra*. This leads, among other things, to an elegant canonical decomposition for $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$, which generalizes the polar decomposition of complex numbers. The Dirac-Hestenes equation is covariant under a change of frame/observer, for another choice $`\{e_\mu ^{}\}`$ must be related to the old one by $`e_\mu ^{}=Ue_\mu \stackrel{~}{U}`$, with $`USpin_+(1,3)`$, yielding $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}e_{21}^{}=m\mathrm{\Psi }^{}e_0^{}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}=\mathrm{\Psi }\stackrel{~}{U}`$. On the other hand, the usual (matrix) Dirac equation is known to be covariant under a larger class of transformations, in which the gamma matrices $`\gamma _\mu `$ are transformed by $`𝖲\gamma _\mu 𝖲^1`$, where $`𝖲`$ is an arbitrary unitary matrix (this amounts to a change in the gamma matrix representation).

By considering this kind of transformations, it is possible to derive multivector Dirac equations associated to a large class of gamma matrix representations, including the standard, Majorana and chiral ones . The resulting spinor spaces can be identified with even subalgebras $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ of the kind considered in the previous section. Indeed, the generalized Dirac-Hestenes equation in this context reads $`\stackrel{˘}{}\mathrm{\Psi }\sigma +m\mathrm{\Psi }u=0`$, where $`\mathrm{\Psi }𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$, $`\sigma `$ and $`u`$ are any commuting $`\alpha `$-even and $`\alpha `$-odd elements, respectively, satisfying $`\sigma ^2=1`$ and $`u^2=1`$, and $`\stackrel{˘}{}\mathrm{\Psi }:=\pi _0()\mathrm{\Psi }u+\pi _1()\mathrm{\Psi }`$ (see  for details). It follows that the resulting operator spinor spaces for the Dirac theory are isomorphic to either $`(2,)`$ or $``$. This method gives rise to a generalized spinor map, relating algebraic and operator spinors, which was used by us  to rederive certain quaternionic models of (the usual) quantum mechanics and to provide a natural way to obtain gamma matrix representations in terms of the enhanced $``$-general linear group $`GL(2,)^{}`$ .

Let us now briefly consider more general Clifford algebras than $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{1,3}()`$. As it was shown by A. Dimakis, it is always possible to represent a given $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$ in itself, with a corresponding spinor space isomorphic to a subalgebra of the original algebra. This is done in , where such a subalgebra is obtained by taking the even part of successive $`_2`$-gradings of $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$. Moreover, this subalgebra is a real Clifford algebra by itself. Let us now outline a slight generalization of this procedure, in which the corresponding $`_2`$-gradings are given as in the previous section. As we have seen, the resulting even subalgebra is not necessarily a real Clifford algebra in this case.

First of all, we note that the even subalgebra $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ is in general too large to be taken as the space of spinors, which is classically given by a minimal one-sided ideal $``$ in $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$ . Indeed, we have shown in the previous section that, for the (non-trivial) $`_2`$-gradings considered here, $`dim𝒞\mathrm{}_0=\frac{1}{2}dim𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()`$. Thus, $``$ and $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$ have the same dimension only for Clifford algebras isomorphic to $`2\times 2`$ matrices, i.e., for $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{2,0}()(2,)`$, $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{3,0}()(2,)`$ and $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{1,3}()(2,)`$ (modulo isomorphisms) (see also section 10.8 of ). As we have already mentioned, the case $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{1,3}()`$ was analyzed in . On the other hand, for the Clifford algebra $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{3,0}()`$, which is related to Pauli theory in the same way as $`C\mathrm{}_{1,3}()`$ is related to Dirac theory, our method leads to spinor spaces isomorphic to $``$, $`(2,)`$ or $``$ (see table 4). Note that, as $``$ is not a real Clifford algebra, this case is not given by Dimakis’s method. A study of Pauli equation along the lines of  would then result in three different (i.e. non-isomorphic) corresponding spinor algebras for this case.

For higher dimensional Clifford algebras, we can successively take $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$, $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{00}=(𝒞\mathrm{}_0)_0`$ and so one, having in mind that the prescription given by eq. (5) only works when we have a real Clifford algebra involved. In the other cases, one might consider further generalizations of eq. (5), like $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p_0,q_0}^+𝒞\mathrm{}_{pp_0,qq_0}^+`$ or $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p_0,q_0}𝒞\mathrm{}_{pp_0,qq_0}^{++}`$ for example.

### 3.2 Signature change in Clifford algebras

Let us now associate to each $`_2`$-grading $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)=𝒞\mathrm{}_0𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$, with corresponding grading automorphism $`\alpha `$, the linear map $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha :VEnd(V^{})`$ given by (cf eq. (2)):

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha (v)=v+\alpha (v)\mathrm{}.$$

###### Proposition 6

If the above $`_2`$-grading preserves the multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$, then $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$ is a Clifford map for the pair $`(V,g_\alpha )`$, where given $`u,vV`$, the deformed metric $`g_\alpha `$ is defined by $`g_\alpha (u,v)=g(u_0,v_0)g(u_1,v_1)`$, with $`u_i=\pi _i(u)`$, $`v_i=\pi _i(v)`$, $`i=0,1`$ (see footnote 1).

Proof.: As the $`_2`$-grading is assumed to preserve the multivector structure of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)`$, we have $`\alpha (v)V`$ $`vV`$. This yields $`(\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha (v))^2(x)=(v+\alpha (v)\mathrm{})(vx+\alpha (v)\mathrm{}x)=v(\alpha (v)\mathrm{}x)+\alpha (v)\mathrm{}(vx)=(\alpha (v)\mathrm{}v)x`$, $`xV`$. Therefore, $`(\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha (v))^2=g(\alpha (v),v)1_{\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)}`$ and thus

$$(\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha (v))^2=\{\genfrac{}{}{0.0pt}{}{g(v,v)1_{\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)}\text{ if }vV_0,}{g(v,v)1_{\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)}\text{ if }vV_1,}.$$

where $`V_i:=V𝒞\mathrm{}_i`$, $`i=0,1`$ (as in the previous section).$`\mathrm{}`$

Under the conditions above, we can define a Clifford product $`_\alpha `$ in $`V^{}`$, associated to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$, by

$$v_\alpha a=va+\alpha (v)\mathrm{}a,vV,aV^{},$$

extended by linearity and associativity to all of $`V^{}`$. It follows that $`(V^{},_\alpha )`$ is the Clifford algebra associated to $`(V,g_\alpha )`$, where $`g_\alpha `$ is defined in proposition 6.

Given $`vV`$ and $`a\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$, with $`v_i:=\pi _i(v)`$, this product is related to the original Clifford product (denoted by juxtaposition) by $`v_\alpha a=v_0a+v_0\mathrm{}a+v_1av_1\mathrm{}a=v_0a+(1)^k(av_1+a\mathrm{}v_1)=v_0a+\widehat{a}v_1`$. Therefore, the signature changed product $`_\alpha `$ may be written in terms of the original one as

$$v_\alpha a=v_0a+\widehat{a}v_1,$$
(7)
where $`vV`$ and $`aV^{}`$. A more general expression for the $`_\alpha `$-product between arbitrary multivectors may be obtained from the above formula by recursion.

Consider now the situation where one wants to change the metric signature from $`(p,q)`$ to $`(r,s)`$, with $`p+q=r+s`$ (see introduction for a discussion on the instances where this can be useful). To accomplish that, we emulate the Clifford product associated to this new metric inside the algebraic structure of $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}`$, i.e., using only the algebraic data of $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}`$. More specifically, suppose that the square of some basis vectors $`e_{i_1},\mathrm{},e_{i_k}`$, of an orthonormal basis $`\{e_1,\mathrm{},e_n\}^{p,q}`$, are required to change sign in this new setting, i.e., when viewed inside the signature changed space. We then define a suitable $`_2`$-grading for $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}`$ by declaring $`e_{i_1},\mathrm{},e_{i_k}`$ as $`\alpha `$-odd and the remaining basis vectors as $`\alpha `$-even. In other words, we choose the $`\alpha `$-parity of the elements in $`\{e_1,\mathrm{},e_n\}`$ by

C0
C11-vectorsremaining ei’sei1,,eik,fragments

C0
C11-vectorsfragmentsremaining e𝑖’sfragmentsesubscript𝑖1,,esubscript𝑖𝑘\begin{tabular}[]{|c|c|c|}\hline\cr&$\mathcal{C}\ell_{0}$&$\mathcal{C}\ell_{1}$\\
\hline\cr 1-vectors&remaining $e_{i}$'s&$e_{i_{1}},\dots,e_{i_{k}}$\\
\hline\cr\end{tabular},
and let this choice generate the $`_2`$-grading in which $`\alpha `$-even ($`\alpha `$-odd) elements are products of

(a) an even (odd) number of elements in $`\{e_{i_1},\mathrm{},e_{i_k}\}`$;

(b) any number of elements in $`\{e_1,\mathrm{},e_n\}\backslash \{e_{i_1},\mathrm{},e_{i_k}\}`$.

By the above proposition, the corresponding $`_\alpha `$-product clearly implements the desired signature change $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}𝒞\mathrm{}_{r,s}`$. To clarify what is going on, we observe that we initially have a space of multivectors $`V^{}=_{k=0}^n\mathrm{\Lambda }^k(V)`$ (which is not an algebra). Then, various products can be defined on $`V^{}`$. As we have seen, endowing $`V^{}`$ with the exterior product leads to the Grassmann algebra $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(V)=(V^{},)`$, while endowing $`V^{}`$ with the Clifford product leads to the Clifford algebra $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}=(V^{},`$Clifford product$`)`$. In the same way, the above arguments show that the Clifford algebra associated to the signature changed metric (with signature $`(r,s)`$) is given by $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{r,s}=(V^{},_\alpha )`$. Moreover, the $`_\alpha `$-product is parametrized by $`_2`$-gradings and is related to the original Clifford product by eq. (7).

Some examples are in order:

(i) For the trivial $`_2`$-grading, where $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0=𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}`$, i.e.,

C0
C11-vectorse1,,en,fragments

C0
C11-vectorsfragmentse1,,e𝑛\begin{tabular}[]{|c|c|c|}\hline\cr&$\mathcal{C}\ell_{0}$&$\mathcal{C}\ell_{1}$\\
\hline\cr 1-vectors&$e_{1},\dots,e_{n}$&---\\
\hline\cr\end{tabular},
we have $`\alpha =`$id$`_{𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}()}`$ and thus $`_\alpha =`$\[original product\]. In other words, the trivial $`_2`$-grading yields the trivial signature change (none);

(ii) For the usual $`_2`$-grading, i.e.,

C0
C11-vectorse1,,en,fragments

C0
C11-vectorsfragmentse1,,e𝑛\begin{tabular}[]{|c|c|c|}\hline\cr&$\mathcal{C}\ell_{0}$&$\mathcal{C}\ell_{1}$\\
\hline\cr 1-vectors&---&$e_{1},\dots,e_{n}$\\
\hline\cr\end{tabular},
we have $`\alpha |_{^{p,q}}=`$id$`_{^{p,q}}`$ an thus $`_\alpha `$ yields a change to the opposite metric $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}𝒞\mathrm{}_{q,p}`$. A straightforward calculation shows that given $`a,b𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}`$, we have $`a_\alpha b=b_0a_0+b_0a_1+b_1a_0b_1a_1`$, where $`a_i=\pi _i(a)`$ and $`b_j=\pi _j(b)`$. This is precisely the tilt transformation introduced by Lounesto in .

(iii) For the $`_2`$-grading

$$\begin{array}{ccc}& 𝒞\mathrm{}_0& 𝒞\mathrm{}_1\\ \text{1-vectors}& e_1,\mathrm{},e_{k1},e_{k+1},\mathrm{},e_n& e_k\end{array},$$

we have $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}𝒞\mathrm{}_{p1,q+1}`$ if $`e_k`$ originally squares to $`+1`$ and $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}𝒞\mathrm{}_{p+1,q1}`$ if $`e_k`$ originally squares to $`1`$;

(iv) Finally, for the arbitrary $`_2`$-grading

C0
C11-vectorsremaining ei’sei1,,ei|rp|,fragments

C0
C11-vectorsfragmentsremaining e𝑖’sfragmentsesubscript𝑖1,,esubscript𝑖𝑟𝑝\begin{tabular}[]{|c|c|c|}\hline\cr&$\mathcal{C}\ell_{0}$&$\mathcal{C}\ell_{1}$\\
\hline\cr 1-vectors&remaining $e_{i}$'s&$e_{i_{1}},\dots,e_{i_{|r-p|}}$\\
\hline\cr\end{tabular},
we have an arbitrary signature change $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}𝒞\mathrm{}_{r,s}`$. Therefore, the product $`_\alpha `$ parametrizes all the possible signature changes in $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}`$ by means of $`_2`$-gradings.

As a final remark, we note that Lounesto’s tilt transformation can be alternatively generalized by the following prescription. Given $`a_i𝒞\mathrm{}_i`$, $`b_j𝒞\mathrm{}_j`$, we may define $`a_i_\alpha ^{}b_j:=(1)^{ij}b_ia_j`$, and extend $`_\alpha ^{}`$ as a bilinear product in $`V^{}`$. A straightforward calculation shows that $`_\alpha ^{}`$ is associative and preserves the $`_2`$-graded structure of $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{p,q}`$ in question, in the sense that $`𝒞\mathrm{}_i_\alpha ^{}𝒞\mathrm{}_j𝒞\mathrm{}_{i+j(\mathrm{mod}2)}`$. By defining convenient $`_2`$-gradings exactly as above, we see that $`_\alpha ^{}`$ also provides general signature change maps $`C\mathrm{}_{p,q}C\mathrm{}_{r,s}`$. However, the usual relation between the exterior product and the Clifford product must be accordingly changed. As a matter of fact, given two 1-vectors $`x,yV`$, we have $`xy=\frac{1}{2}(xyyx)`$ but $`xy=_{ij}(1)^{ij}\frac{1}{2}(y_i_\alpha ^{}x_jx_j_\alpha ^{}y_i)`$, where $`x_i=\pi _i(x)`$, $`y_j=\pi _j(y).`$ In Lounesto’s tilt to the opposite metric $`𝒞\mathrm{}_{1,3}𝒞\mathrm{}_{3,1}`$, the latter expression simplifies to $`\frac{1}{2}(x_\alpha ^{}yy_\alpha ^{}x)`$, but it is easy to see that, in general, this is not the case.

## 4 Concluding remarks

We studied in detail an important class of $`_2`$-graded structures on a real Clifford algebra $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$. The corresponding $`_2`$-gradings $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0𝒞\mathrm{}_1`$ are required to preserve the multivector structure of the underlying Grassmann algebra over $`V`$ (see definition 3). A complete classification for the associated even subalgebras, i.e., for the $`𝒞\mathrm{}_0`$’s, was obtained. As preliminary applications, we first outlined the possibility of using such general even subalgebras as spinor spaces. After that, we employed such $`_2`$-graded structures to deform the Clifford product of $`𝒞\mathrm{}(V,g)`$, thereby parametrizing all the possible signature changes on this algebra. This can be useful in signature changing applications in theoretical physics (see introduction). As we also mentioned at the introduction, the pervasiveness of $`_2`$-graded structures in mathematical physics allows us to expect that yet other applications are likely to be found.

As a last remark, we would like to note that the opposite path to the one considered here, with a fixed $`_2`$-grading and alternative multivector structures, has been receiving considerable interest in the literature. Applications range from models in QFT  to q-quantization of Clifford algebras  (see also  and references therein).

Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to B. Fauser, E. Hoefel, P. Lounesto and W. Rodrigues for useful comments. RAM is grateful to FAPESP for the financial support (process number 98/16486-8). DM acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology contract No. BFM2000-0604 and 2000SGR/23 from the DGR of the Generalitat de Catalunya. JV is grateful to CNPq (300707/93-2) and FAPESP (01/01618-0) for partial financial support.


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# Low temperature relations in QCD

Abstract

In this talk I discuss the low temperature relations for the trace of the energy-momentum tensor in QCD with two and three quarks. It is shown that the temperature derivatives of the anomalous and normal (quark massive term) contributions to the trace of the energy-momentum tensor in QCD are equal to each other in the low temperature region. Leading corrections connected with $`\pi \pi `$-interactions and thermal excitations of $`K`$ and $`\eta `$ mesons are calculated.

The investigation of the vacuum state behavior under the influence of various external factors is known to be one of the central problems of quantum field theory. In the realm of strong interactions (QCD) the main factors are the temperature and the baryon density. At low temperatures, $`T<T_c`$ ( $`T_c`$–temperature of the ”hadron–quark-gluon” phase transition ), the dynamics of QCD is essentially nonperturbative and is characterized by confinement and spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry (SBCS). In the hadronic phase the partition function of the system is dominated by the contribution of the lightest particles in the physical spectrum. It is well known that due to the smallness of pion mass as compared to the typical scale of strong interactions, the pion plays a special role among other strongly-interacting particles. Therefore for many problems of QCD at zero temperature the chiral limit, $`M_\pi 0`$, is an appropriate one. On the other hand a new mass scale emerges in the physics of QCD phase transitions, namely the critical transition temperature $`T_c`$. Numerically the critical transition temperature turns out to be close to the pion mass, $`T_cM_\pi `$ 111 The deconfining phase transition temperature is the one obtained in lattice calculations $`T_c(N_f=2)173`$ MeV and $`T_c(N_f=3)154`$ MeV .. However hadron states heavier than pion have masses several times larger than $`T_c`$ and therefore their contribution to the thermodynamic quantities is damped by Boltzmann factor $`\mathrm{exp}\{M_{hadr}/T\}`$. Thus the thermodynamics of the low temperature hadron phase, $`T\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}M_\pi `$, is described basically in terms of the thermal excitations of relativistic massive pions.

The low-energy theorems, playing an important role in the understanding of the vacuum state properties in quantum field theory, were discovered almost at the same time as quantum field methods have been applied in particle physics (see, for example, Low theorems ). In QCD, they were obtained in the beginning of eighties . The QCD low-energy theorems, being derived from the very general symmetry considerations and not depending on the details of confinement mechanism, sometimes give information which is not easy to obtain in another way. Also, they can be used as ”physically sensible” restrictions in the constructing of effective theories. Recently, they were generalized to finite temperature  and a magnetic field case . These theorems were used for investigation of QCD vacuum phase structure in a magnetic field at finite temperature .

In this talk I will discuss the low temperature relations for the trace of the energy-momentum tensor in QCD with two and three light quarks. These relations is based on the general dimensional and renormalization-group properties of the QCD partition function and dominating role of the pion thermal exitations in the hadronic phase. The physical consequences of these relations are discussed as well as the possibilities to use it in the lattice studies of the QCD at finite temperature.

For non-zero quark mass ($`m_q0)`$ the scale invariance is broken already at the classical level. Therefore the pion thermal excitations would change, even in the ideal gas approximation, the value of the gluon condensate with increasing temperature 222 At zero quark mass the gas of massless noninteracting pions is obviously scale-invariant and therefore does not contribute to the trace of the energy-momentum tensor and correspondingly to the gluon condensate $`G^2(gG_{\mu \nu }^a)^2`$..

A relation between the trace anomaly and thermodynamic pressure in the chiral limit of QCD was first written in . Rigorous derivation of this relation in the framework of the renormalization group (RG) method in pure-glue QCD was performed in  and in QCD with non-zero quark masses in .

Trace anomaly is

$$\theta _{\mu \mu }^g=\frac{\beta (\alpha _s)}{16\pi \alpha _s^2}G^2=(4T\frac{}{T}\underset{q}{}(1+\gamma _{m_q})m_q\frac{}{m_q})P_R,$$
(1)
where $`P_R`$ is the renormalized pressure, $`\beta (\alpha _s)=d\alpha _s(M)/dlnM`$ is the Gell-Mann-Low function and $`\gamma _{m_q}`$ is the anomalous dimension of the quark mass. It is convenient to choose such a large scale that one can take the lowest order expressions, $`\beta (\alpha _s)b\alpha _s^2/2\pi `$, where $`b=(11N_c2N_f)/3`$ and $`1+\gamma _m1`$. Thus, we have the following equations for condensates

$$G^2(T)=\frac{32\pi ^2}{b}(4T\frac{}{T}\underset{q}{}m_q\frac{}{m_q})P_R\widehat{D}P_R,$$
(2)
$$\overline{q}q(T)=\frac{P_R}{m_q}.$$
(3)
In the hadronic phase the effective pressure from which one can extract the condensates $`\overline{q}q(T)`$ and $`G^2(T)`$ using the general relations (2) and (3) has the form

$$P_{eff}(T)=\epsilon _{vac}+P_h(T),$$
(4)
where $`\epsilon _{vac}=\frac{1}{4}\theta _{\mu \mu }`$ is the nonperturbative vacuum energy density at $`T=0`$ and

$$\theta _{\mu \mu }=\frac{b}{32\pi ^2}G^2+\underset{q=u,d}{}m_q\overline{q}q$$
(5)
is the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. In Eq.(4) $`P_h(T)`$ is the thermal hadrons pressure. The quark and gluon condensates are given by the equations

$$\overline{q}q(T)=\frac{P_{eff}}{m_q},$$
(6)
$$G^2(T)=\widehat{D}P_{eff},$$
(7)
where the operator $`\widehat{D}`$ is defined by the relation (2)

$$\widehat{D}=\frac{32\pi ^2}{b}(4T\frac{}{T}\underset{q}{}m_q\frac{}{m_q}).$$
(8)
Consider the $`T=0`$ case. One can use the low energy theorem for the derivative of the gluon condensate with respect to the quark mass

$$\frac{}{m_q}G^2=d^4xG^2(0)\overline{q}q(x)=\frac{96\pi ^2}{b}\overline{q}q+O(m_q),$$
(9)
where $`O(m_q)`$ stands for the terms linear in light quark masses.Then one arrives at the following relation

$$\frac{\epsilon _{vac}}{m_q}=\frac{b}{128\pi ^2}\frac{}{m_q}G^2+\frac{1}{4}\overline{q}q=\frac{3}{4}\overline{q}q+\frac{1}{4}\overline{q}q=\overline{q}q.$$
(10)
Note that three fourths of the quark condensate stem from the gluon part of the nonperturbative vacuum energy density. Along the same lines one arrives at the expression for the gluon condensate

$$\widehat{D}\epsilon _{vac}=G^2.$$
(11)
Let us consider $`N_f=2`$ case. In order to get the dependence of the quark and gluon condensates upon $`T`$ use is made of the Gell-Mann- Oakes-Renner (GMOR) relation ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }=|\overline{u}u|=|\overline{d}d|`$)

$$F_\pi ^2M_\pi ^2=\frac{1}{2}(m_u+m_d)\overline{u}u+\overline{d}d=(m_u+m_d)\mathrm{\Sigma }.$$
(12)
Then we can find the following relations

$$\frac{}{m_q}=\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{F_\pi ^2}\frac{}{M_\pi ^2},$$
(13)
$$\underset{q=u,d}{}m_q\frac{}{m_q}=(m_u+m_d)\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{F_\pi ^2}\frac{}{M_\pi ^2}=M_\pi ^2\frac{}{M_\pi ^2},$$
(14)
$$\widehat{D}=\frac{32\pi ^2}{b}(4T\frac{}{T}M_\pi ^2\frac{}{M_\pi ^2}).$$
(15)
At low temperature the main contribution to the pressure comes from thermal excitations of massive pions. The general expression for the pressure reads

$$P_\pi =T^4\phi (M_\pi /T),$$
(16)
where $`\phi `$ is a function of the ratio $`M_\pi /T`$. Then the following relation is valid

$$(4T\frac{}{T}M_\pi ^2\frac{}{M_\pi ^2})P_\pi =M_\pi ^2\frac{P_\pi }{M_\pi ^2}.$$
(17)
With the account of (6,7), (10,22) and (17) one gets

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{q}q=\frac{P_\pi }{m_q},\mathrm{\Delta }G^2=\frac{32\pi ^2}{b}M_\pi ^2\frac{P_\pi }{M_\pi ^2},$$
(18)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{q}q=\overline{q}q_T\overline{q}q`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }G^2=G^2_TG^2.`$ In view of (14) one can recast (18) in the form

$$\mathrm{\Delta }G^2=\frac{32\pi ^2}{b}\underset{q=u,d}{}m_q\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{q}q.$$
(19)
Differentiating (19) with respect to $`T`$ one obtains

$$\frac{G^2}{T}=\frac{32\pi ^2}{b}\underset{q=u,d}{}m_q\frac{\overline{q}q}{T}.$$
(20)
This can be rewritten as

$$\frac{\theta _{\mu \mu }^g}{T}=\frac{\theta _{\mu \mu }^q}{T},$$
(21)
where $`\theta _{\mu \mu }^q=m_q\overline{q}q`$ and $`\theta _{\mu \mu }^g=(\beta (\alpha _s)/16\pi \alpha _s^2)G^2`$ are correspondingly the quark and gluon contributions to the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. Note that in deriving this result use was made of the low energy GMOR relation, and therefore the thermodynamic relation (20,21) is valid in the light quark theory. Thus in the low temperature region when the excitations of massive hadrons and interactions of pions can be neglected, equation (21) becomes a rigorous QCD theorem.

As it was mentioned above the pion plays an exceptional role in thermodynamics of QCD due to the fact that its mass is numerically close to the phase transition temperature while the masses of heavier hadrons are several times larger than $`T_c`$. It was shown in  that at low temperatures, the contribution to $`\overline{q}q`$ generated by the massive states is very small, less than 5% if $`T`$ is below 100 MeV. At $`T=150`$ MeV, this contribution is of the order of 10%. The influence of thermal excitations of massive hadrons on the properties of the gluon and quark condensates in the framework of the conformal-nonlinear $`\sigma `$\- model was studied in detail in .

Let us consider leading corrections to relation (19-21) within the described above framework. Clearly, leading corrections are connected with the $`\pi \pi `$-interaction, since it’s contribution to the pressure is $`e^{2M_\pi /T}`$. Also, account for $`s`$-quark leads to the contributions to the pressure $`e^{M_K/T}`$, $`e^{M_\eta /T}`$, which are related to the thermal excitations of $`K`$ and $`\eta `$-mesons. Then pressure in hadronic phase can be recast in the following form

$$P_h(T)=P_g(T)+P_{\pi \pi }(T),$$
(22)
$$P_g(T)=\underset{i=\pi ,K,\eta }{}P_i(T),$$
(23)
where $`P_i(T)=g_iT^4\phi (M_i/T)`$ is gas pressure of $`i=\pi ,K,\eta `$ \- meson and $`g_i`$ is the number of degrees of freedom of $`i`$-state, $`g_\pi =3`$, $`g_K`$=4, $`g_\eta =1`$. Pressure related to $`\pi \pi `$ interaction in two-loop ChPT in general form is

$$P_{\pi \pi }=T^4\frac{M_\pi ^2}{F_\pi ^2}f\left(\frac{M_\pi }{T}\right),$$
(24)
here $`f`$ is function of ratio $`M_\pi /T`$, and factor $`M_\pi ^2/F_\pi ^2`$ is connected with the $`\pi \pi `$ interaction vertex.

Making use of Gell-Mann-Okubo relations one gets (analogous to (17))

$`\widehat{D}P_g(T)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{32\pi ^2}{b}}(4T{\displaystyle \frac{}{T}}{\displaystyle \underset{q=u,d,s}{}}m_q{\displaystyle \frac{}{m_q}})P_g(T)`$ (25)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{32\pi ^2}{b}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=\pi ,K,\eta }{}}M_i^2{\displaystyle \frac{P_i}{M_i^2}}`$
For the temperature shift of quark condensates on has

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }(T)}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}=\frac{P_g}{m_u}=\frac{1}{F_\pi ^2}\left(\frac{P_\pi }{M_\pi ^2}+\frac{P_K}{M_K^2}+\frac{1}{3}\frac{P_\eta }{M_\eta ^2}\right)$$
(26)
$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }_s(T)}{\mathrm{\Sigma }_s}=\frac{P_g}{m_s}=\frac{1}{F_\pi ^2}\left(\frac{P_K}{M_K^2}+\frac{4}{3}\frac{P_\eta }{M_\eta ^2}\right)$$
(27)
Note, that light $`\pi `$-meson does not carry strangeness and thus does not participate in $`\overline{s}s`$ condensate ”evaporation”. Leading contribution to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s}s(T)`$ comes from thermal excitations of lightest strange $`K`$-meson with the mass several times larger than $`M_\pi `$. Therefore it is obvious that $`\overline{s}s(T)`$ decreases more slowly than $`\overline{u}u=\overline{d}d`$ with the increase of $`T`$. In the gas approximation one finds 333Contribution of $`K`$-meson to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }_s(T)`$ can be obtained from low temperature expression for the condensate $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }(T)`$ (see ), with the obvious substitution of $`M_\pi M_K`$, $`F_\pi F_K`$ and multiplication by the factor $`4/3`$.

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }_s(T)/\mathrm{\Sigma }_s}{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }(T)/\mathrm{\Sigma }}=\frac{4}{3}\left(\frac{M_K}{M_\pi }\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{F_\pi }{F_K}\right)^2e^{(M_\pi M_K)/T}$$
(28)
and this ratio is of order of $`0.13`$ at $`T140`$ MeV. Analogous to the derivation of equation (19) (with the account of the (24-27))one gets

$$\frac{b}{32\pi ^2}\mathrm{\Delta }G^2=\underset{q=u,d,s}{}m_q\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{q}q+2P_{\pi \pi }+\frac{1}{2}M_\pi ^2\frac{P_K}{M_K^2}$$
(29)
Let us introduce functions

$$\theta ^\pm (T)=\theta _{\mu \mu }^g\pm \theta _{\mu \mu }^q(T)\theta _{\mu \mu }^g\pm \theta _{\mu \mu }^q(0).$$
(30)
$`\theta ^+(T)`$ is the thermal part of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor and $`\theta ^+(T)=\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mu \mu }^{tot}(T)=\epsilon 3P`$, where $`\epsilon =TdP/dTP`$ is energy density.

Then the function

$$\delta _\theta (T)=\frac{\theta ^{}(T)}{\theta ^+(T)}=\frac{2P_{\pi \pi }+\frac{1}{2}M_\pi ^2\frac{P_K}{M_K^2}}{\epsilon 3P}$$
(31)
can be considered as a measure of the deviation from low temperature relation (19). Let us estimate this correction numerically. One has for $`P_{\pi \pi }`$ .

$`P_{\pi \pi }`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_\pi ^2}{F_\pi ^2}}\right)\left[g_1(M_\pi /T)\right]^2`$ (32)
$`g_1`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{1}{\omega _\pi \left(e^{\omega _\pi /T}1\right)}},\omega _\pi =\sqrt{𝐩^2+M_\pi ^2}`$ (33)
For $`i`$-meson gas

$$P_i=g_iT\frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\mathrm{ln}(1e^{\sqrt{𝐩^2+M_i^2}/T}).$$
(34)
Choosing $`M_\pi =140`$ MeV, $`M_K=493`$ MeV, $`F_\pi =93`$ MeV, one can see from numerical calculations that

$$\delta _\theta (T<150\text{MeV})<0.04$$
(35)
Consequently, leading corrections to the low temperature relation (19) amounts to several percent up to the critical temperature.

Thus the function $`\delta _\theta (T)`$ at low temperatures is, with good accuracy, close to zero. In the vicinity and at the phase transition point, i.e. in the region of nonperturbative vacuum reconstruction this function changes drastically. To see it, we first consider pure gluodynamics. It was shown in  using the effective dilaton Lagrangian, that gluon condensate decreases very weakly with the increase of temperature, up to phase transition point. This result is physically transparent and is the consequence of Boltzmann suppression of thermal glueball excitations in the confining phase.

Further, the dynamical picture of deconfinement based on the reconstruction of the nonperturbative gluonic vacuum was suggested in . Namely, confining and deconfining phases differ first of all in the vacuum fields, i.e., in the value of the gluon condensate and in the gluonic field correlators. The color-magnetic (CM) correlators and their contribution to the condensate are kept intact across the temperature phase transition, while the confining color-electric (CE) part abruptly disappears above $`T_c`$. Furthermore, there exist numerical lattice measurements of field correlators near the critical transition temperature $`T_c`$, performed by the Pisa group , where both CE and CM correlators are found with good accuracy. These data clearly demonstrate the strong suppression of CE component above $`T_c`$ and persistence of CM component. Thus, the function $`\delta _\theta ^{}(T)`$ can be presented as a $`\delta `$-function smeared around the critical point $`T_c`$ with the width $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ which defines the fluctuation region of phase transition.

Similar, but more complicated and interesting situation takes place in the theory with quarks. The function $`\delta _\theta (T)`$ contains the quark term, proportional to the chiral phase transition order parameter $`\overline{q}q(T)`$. So it is interesting to check the relation (21) and to study the behavior of the function $`\delta _\theta (T)`$ in the lattice QCD at finite temperature. It would allow both to test the nonperturbative QCD vacuum at the low temperatures in the confining phase and to extract additional information on the thermal phase transitions in QCD.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to A.B. Kaidalov, V.A. Novikov, V.A. Rubakov, Yu.A. Simonov and A.I. Vainshtein for discussions and comments. The financial support of RFFI grant 00-02-17836 and INTAS grant N 110 is gratefully acknowledged.


text:
# Improvement Taykov’s lower bound in an inequation between 𝐶 and 𝐿 norms for trigonometric polynomials

(Date: 10/17/2002)

## Abstract.

We give new lower asymptotical estimate of constant

$$C_n=sup\{\frac{t_n_{C(𝕋)}}{t_n_{L(𝕋)}}:t_n\text{ are real trigonometric polynomials},\mathrm{deg}t_n<n\}$$

as $`n\mathrm{}`$. This estimate improves known bound of L.V.Taykov (1965).

This research was supported by the RFBR under grant no. 00-01-00644 and 02-01-06563. Matem. zametki (Russia), 2002 (in publishing).

Suppose $`e(t)=\mathrm{exp}(2\pi it)`$, $`c(t)=\mathrm{cos}(2\pi t)`$, $`s(t)=\mathrm{sin}(2\pi t)`$. We consider an extremum problem about behavior of the best constant as $`n\mathrm{}`$ in the inequation between $`C`$ and $`L`$ norms for real trigonometric polynomials $`t_n(x)=_{\nu ,|\nu |<n}\widehat{t}_n(\nu )e(\nu x)`$:

$$C_n=\underset{t_n}{sup}\frac{t_n_C}{t_n_L},$$

where

$$t_n_C=\underset{|x|1/2}{\mathrm{max}}|t_n(x)|,t_n_L=_{1/2}^{1/2}|t_n(x)|𝑑x.$$

Exact value of the constant $`C_n`$ is unknown for all $`n3`$  ($`C_1=1`$, $`C_2=2,12532\mathrm{}`$). S.B. Stechkin (see ) proved that $`C_n=cn+o(n)`$ as $`n\mathrm{}`$ ($`c>0`$). L.V. Taykov  improved this result. He found following bounds for $`C_n`$:

$$(1,07995\mathrm{})n+O(1)=\frac{2}{_0^\pi \mathrm{sin}tdt/t}n+O(1)C_n\frac{4G}{\pi }n+O(1)=(1,16624\mathrm{})n+O(1),$$
(1)
where $`G=_{k=0}^{\mathrm{}}(1)^k(2k+1)^2=0,91596\mathrm{}`$ is Katalan’s constant. The lower bound of this result is obtained for polynomials of Rogozinsky

$$R_n(x)=\underset{|\nu |<n}{}c(\frac{\nu }{4n})e(\nu x)=s(\frac{1}{4n})c(nx)(c(x)c(\frac{1}{4n}))^1.$$
(2)
In this work we show new polynomials for improvement the lower bound in (1). By $`q_k=k/21/4`$ ($`k`$) denote zeros of function $`c(t)`$; $`1/2<z_1<1<z_2<3/2`$,

$$\omega (z)=\frac{(z_1^2z^2)(z_2^2z^2)}{(q_1^2z^2)(q_2^2z^2)(q_3^2z^2)},\omega _k(z)=(q_k^2z^2)\omega (z)(k=1,2,3).$$

Consider an even function

$$\phi (x)=\underset{k=1}{\overset{3}{}}\omega _k(q_k)\sigma _k(x)$$

such that $`\sigma _k(x)=(\pi /q_k)s(q_k(1|x|))`$ for $`|x|<1`$ and $`\sigma _k(x)=0`$ for $`|x|1`$.

Fourier transform $`\widehat{\sigma }_k(z)=_{}\sigma _k(x)e(zx)𝑑x`$ equals to $`c(z)(q_k^2z^2)^1`$. Therefore Fourier transform of the function $`\phi `$ equals to

$$\widehat{\phi }(z)=\underset{k=1}{\overset{3}{}}\omega _k(q_k)\frac{c(z)}{q_k^2z^2}=\omega (z)c(z).$$

Suppose

$$F_n(x)=\underset{|\nu |<n}{}\phi (\frac{\nu }{n})e(\nu x).$$

Using Poisson summation formula $`_\nu \widehat{f}(\nu x)=_\nu f(\nu )e(\nu x)`$ for the function $`f(x)=\phi (x/n)`$ (since $`\widehat{\phi }(z)=O(z^2)`$ ($`|z|\mathrm{}`$), $`\phi (x)=0`$ ($`|x|1`$)) and identity

$$\underset{\nu }{}\frac{1}{a^2(z+\nu )^2}=\frac{(\pi /a)s(a)}{c(z)c(a)},$$

we get a following expression for polynomial $`F_n`$

$$F_n(x)=n\underset{\nu }{}\widehat{\phi }(nx+n\nu )=c(nx)\underset{k=1}{\overset{3}{}}\frac{(\pi /q_k)\omega _k(q_k)s(\frac{q_k}{n})}{c(x)c(\frac{q_k}{n})}.$$
(3)
Theorem. $`F_n_C/F_n_L\rho (\alpha ,\beta )n+O(n^1),`$ where

$$\rho (z_1,z_2)=\widehat{\phi }(0)\left[4\left(_0^{q_1}+_{q_2}^{q_3}_{z_1}^{z_2}\right)\widehat{\phi }(z)dz\right]^1.$$

The function $`\rho (z_1,z_2)`$ can be expressed by an integral sine. Using necessary conditions of extreme, we maximize this function on $`1/2<z_1<1<z_2<3/2`$ and obtain new asymptotic lower bound for the constant $`C_n`$.

Corollary. $`C_n(1.08176\mathrm{})n+O(n^1),`$ $`z_1^{}=0,72096\mathrm{},`$ $`z_2^{}=1,23305\mathrm{}`$

Remark 1. For $`z_1=q_2`$, $`z_2=q_3`$ polynomials $`F_n`$ coincide with polynomials of Rogozinsky (2) (accurate to a coefficient $`4\pi `$) $`F_n(x)=4\pi R_n(x)`$ and $`\rho (q_2,q_3)=2(_0^\pi \mathrm{sin}tdt/t)^1;`$ this fact give Taykov’s lower bound.

Proof. Since $`\widehat{\phi }(z)=O(z^2)`$ as $`|z|\mathrm{}`$, it follows that $`n_{\nu \{0\}}\widehat{\phi }(nx+n\nu )=O(n^1)`$ uniformly for $`|x|1/2`$. Therefore from (3) we have

$$F_n_C=\underset{|x|1/2}{\mathrm{max}}\left|n\underset{\nu }{}\widehat{\phi }(nx+n\nu )\right|=\underset{|z|n/2}{\mathrm{max}}|n\widehat{\phi }(z)|+O(n^1)n\widehat{\phi }(0)+O(n^1).$$

Now we estimate $`F_n_L`$. We have

$$\begin{array}{c}F_n_L=_{1/2}^{1/2}\left|n\underset{\nu }{}\widehat{\phi }(nx+n\nu )\right|dx=_{1/2}^{1/2}|n\widehat{\phi }(nx)|dx+O(n^1)=\hfill \\ \hfill =_{n/2}^{n/2}|\widehat{\phi }(z)|𝑑z+O(n^1)_{}|\widehat{\phi }(z)|𝑑z+O(n^1).\end{array}$$

Therefore $`F_n_C/F_n_L{\displaystyle \frac{\widehat{\phi }(0)}{_{}|\widehat{\phi }(z)|𝑑z}}n+O(n^1)`$.

We calculate $`_{}|\widehat{\phi }(z)|𝑑z`$. Suppose

$$E_+=[0,z_1][z_2,q_4](_{k=2}^{\mathrm{}}[q_{2k+1},q_{2k+2}]),E_{}=(z_1,z_2)(_{k=2}^{\mathrm{}}(q_{2k},q_{2k+1})).$$

Then $`_+=E_+E_{}`$ and $`\widehat{\phi }(z)0`$ for $`zE_+`$; $`\widehat{\phi }(z)<0`$ for $`zE_{}`$. $`\widehat{\phi }`$ is even function. Hence we obtain

$$\begin{array}{c}_{}|\widehat{\phi }(z)|𝑑z=2__+|\widehat{\phi }(z)|𝑑z=2\left(_0^{z_1}+_{z_2}^{q_4}+\underset{k=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}_{q_{2k+1}}^{q_{2k+2}}_{z_1}^{z_2}\underset{k=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}_{q_{2k}}^{q_{2k+1}}\right)\widehat{\phi }(z)dz=\hfill \\ \hfill =2\left(__+2\left(_{z_1}^{z_2}+\underset{k=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}_{k1/4}^{k+1/4}\right)\right)\widehat{\phi }(z)dz=\phi (0)4_{z_1}^{z_2}\widehat{\phi }(z)𝑑z4\underset{k=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}_{1/4}^{1/4}\widehat{\phi }(z+k)𝑑z=\\ \hfill =\phi (0)4_{z_1}^{z_2}\widehat{\phi }(z)𝑑z4_0^{1/4}\left(\underset{k=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\widehat{\phi }(z+k)\widehat{\phi }(z)\widehat{\phi }(z1)\widehat{\phi }(z+1)\right)𝑑z=\\ \hfill =\phi (0)4_{z_1}^{z_2}\widehat{\phi }(z)𝑑z4_0^{1/4}\phi (0)𝑑z+4\left(_0^{1/4}+_1^{3/4}+_1^{5/4}\right)\widehat{\phi }(z)dz=\\ \hfill =4\left(_0^{q_1}+_{q_2}^{q_3}_{z_1}^{z_2}\right)\widehat{\phi }(z)dz.\end{array}$$

In these calculations we use parity $`_{k=\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\widehat{\phi }(z+k)=\phi (0)`$; it following from Poisson summation formula $`_\nu \widehat{\phi }(z+\nu )=_\nu \phi (\nu )e(\nu z)`$ and $`\phi (\nu )=0`$ for $`|\nu |1`$. Theorem is proved.

Remark 2. It is possible to improve new lower bound of the constant $`c,`$ but it demands large calculations (these calculations are not included in this short article).

All computer calculations are obtained by mathematical package `Maple`.