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# Characterization of entanglement transformation via group representation theory

## Abstract

Entanglement transformation of composite quantum systems is investigated in the context of group representation theory. Representation of the direct product group $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$, composed of local operators acting on the binary composite system, is realized in the four-dimensional complex space in terms of a set of novel bases that are pseudo orthonormalized. The two-to-one homomorphism is then established for the group $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ onto the $`SO(4,C)`$. It is shown that the resulting representation theory leads to the complete characterization for the entanglement transformation of the binary composite system.

Nonlocal correlation or entanglement between spatially separated quantum systems is one of the most striking features of quantum mechanics. In recent years, extensive attention has been addressed to this topic due to its great importance in quantum information processing ekert ; bennett ; steane . One basic approach to this subject, first exploited by Bennett and co-workers bennett1 ; bennett2 , is to employ entanglement transformation for quantum states under actions of local quantum operations and classical communication (LOCC). Such studies, contributed to characterize what is possible locally and what is impossible, promise in principle criterion not only for distinguishing entangled (nonseparable) states from separable states but also for classifying entanglement in different categories. Entanglement transformation also relates to the measures of entanglement. For instance, the asymptotic measures such as distillable entanglement and entanglement cost owe their very existence to this body of knowledge horodecki ; donald .

Despite it is very fruitful for pure entangled states nielsen ; vidal1 ; vidal2 , the entanglement transformation has so far provided only fragments of the knowledge on mixed entangled states linden ; kent ; jonathan , even for the simplest binary composite system. Consider a quantum system described by a density matrix $`\rho `$ in the Hilbert space $`H_AH_B`$. State transformation under the actions of LOCC can be illustrated as benjamin

$$\rho \rho ^{}=\frac{_{i,j}A_iB_j\rho A_i^{}B_j^{}}{_{i,j}\mathrm{tr}(A_i^{}A_iB_j^{}B_j\rho )},$$
(1)
where $`A_i`$ and $`B_j`$ are local operators acting on the two isolated subsystems, obeying the conditions $`_iA_i^{}A_iI`$ and $`_jB_j^{}B_jI`$, respectively. Note that, the entangled state $`\rho `$ by definition does not allow local description; that is, it cannot be written as statistical mixtures of product states, $`\rho _ip_i\rho _A^i\rho _B^i`$. The unfavorable contrast between the state nonlocality and the $`A_iB_j`$ action locality causes the characterization of the state transformation Eq. (1) extremely ambiguous. A different aspect to account for this problem is that the representation of the mixed state in terms of pure states is not unique, making the characterization for the nonlocal parameters (or entanglement monotones monotone ) notoriously difficult.

Bearing in mind that a proper uniform description for both the states and operators is impossible in terms of local bases, we shall ask instead the following question: is there a profitable way to describe the local operators $`A_iB_j`$ in terms of nonlocal bases so that the concerning problem could become more transparent? This question will be specified clearly in the paper by the underlying language of group representation theory. Note that each local operator $`A_i`$ ($`B_j`$) acting on the $`N`$-dimensional complex space corresponds, up to a real coefficient, to an element of the unimodular linear transformation group $`SL(N,C)`$. Thus, the problem stated above can be recast as finding out a proper realization, in terms of nonlocal bases, of the homomorphic representation for the direct product group $`SL(N,C)SL(N,C)`$.

In this paper we establish such a realization for the group $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ that completely resolves the entanglement transformation of the binary composite system. We construct, based on the “spin flip” operation introduced by Wootters wootters , a class of pseudo-orthonormal bases in the four-dimensional Hilbert space. We then prove that the representative matrices of the group elements of $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ embedded in such pseudo-orthonormal bases are complex orthogonal, and thus establish the homomorphism of $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ onto the group $`SO(4,C)`$. Finally, we show that the realization of the representation for $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ actually enables the complete characterization for the entanglement transformation of the binary composite systems under LOCC.

Let us start by introducing the following notation. For the states in the space $`C^2C^2`$, define the pseudo inner product as

$$C(\psi _1,\psi _2)\psi _1|\stackrel{~}{\psi }_2.$$
(2)
Here the spin-flipped state $`|\stackrel{~}{\psi }`$ is introduced according to Wootters’ definition wootters

$$|\stackrel{~}{\psi }=\sigma _2\sigma _2|\psi ^{},$$
(3)
with $`|\psi ^{}`$ indicating the complex conjugate of $`|\psi `$. A state $`|\psi `$ is said to be pseudo-normalized if there exists

$$C(\psi )=\psi |\stackrel{~}{\psi }=1.$$
(4)
For an arbitrary state $`|\varphi `$ in $`C^2C^2`$, its pseudo normalization (denoted as $`\mathrm{}`$ hereafter) can be given as $`|\varphi =re^{i\theta }|\varphi `$, where $`r`$ is a positive real number and the phase factor $`\theta `$ is set as $`0\theta <\pi `$. Note that the pseudo normalization (4) avoids the phase uncertainty which occurs in the common definition of normalization.

The set of pseudo-orthonormal bases $`\{|x_i,i,j=1,\mathrm{},4\}`$ is defined similarly as the conventionally used orthonormal set but with

$$C(x_i,x_j)=x_i|\stackrel{~}{x}_j=\delta _{ij}.$$
(5)
Obviously, the pseudo-conjugate set {$`|\stackrel{~}{x}_i`$} itself constitutes also a set of pseudo-orthonormal bases. The pseudo orthogonality relation (5) can be alternatively stated as the set of bases that are biorthogonal to their pseudo-conjugate set. From the biorthogonality of the dual bases it suffices to see that the pseudo-orthonormal basis constitutes a complete set in the space $`C^2C^2`$. Actually, given an arbitrary set of linearly independent vectors {$`|\alpha _i,i=1,\mathrm{},4`$}, one can construct immediately the pseudo-orthonormal basis {$`|x_i,i=1,\mathrm{},4`$} via the following pseudo “Schmidt orthogonalisation” procedure by setting that

$`|x_1`$ $`=`$ $`|\alpha _1,`$
$`|x_n`$ $`=`$ $`(I{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n1}{}}}|x_i\stackrel{~}{x}_i|)|\alpha _n,n=2,3,4.`$ (6)
Before proceeding, let us mention that the special set of maximally entangled states, the so-called “magic basis” introduced by Bennett et al bennett2 ,

$`|e_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}}(|00+|11),|e_2=i{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}}(|00|11),`$
$`|e_3`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}}(|01+|10),|e_4={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}}(|01|10),`$ (7)
are just the simplest pseudo-orthonormal basis. In this case the dual bases are completely overlapped: $`|e_i=|\stackrel{~}{e}_i`$, hence the pseudo-orthonormal set {$`|e_i`$} recovers the common orthonormal basis. Remarkably, it is shown that this magic basis possesses very curious properties and has been employed to quantify the entanglement of some two-qubit states in earlier studies bennett2 ; hill . Note that the unimodular unitary transformations acting locally on the two subsystems,

$`U_AU_B`$ $`=`$ $`(\mathrm{cos}\theta _aI_2+i\mathrm{sin}\theta _a\stackrel{}{r}_a\sigma _a)`$ (8)
$`(\mathrm{cos}\theta _bI_2+i\mathrm{sin}\theta _b\stackrel{}{r}_b\sigma _b),`$
correspond to real orthogonal matrices in terms of the above set of bases (7). In the context of group theory, it is well known the homomorphism between the groups $`SU(2)SU(2)`$ and $`SO(4)`$. The magic basis establishes in fact an explicit realization for such a homomorphism, namely, the two-to-one mapping of $`SU(2)SU(2)`$ onto $`SO(4)`$ in the four-dimensional complex space. The kernel of the homomorphism is just the center of the group $`SU(2)SU(2)`$ consisting of the elements {$`I_2I_2,I_2I_2`$}. In this stage, there is no curiosity that any real orthogonal combinations of the magic basis correspond to local unitary transformations on the subsystems and hence yield still maximally entangled states (another magic basis).

Let us now explore the implication of the aforementioned pseudo-orthonormal basis $`\{|x_j\}`$ with Eq. (5), which is obviously a nontrivial extension of the magic basis. To this end, consider the class of transformations that preserve the pseudo inner product,

$$C(Rx,Ry)=C(x,y).$$
(9)
It is equivalent to say, by definition (2), that the operators $`R`$ satisfy

$$R^{}\stackrel{~}{R}=\stackrel{~}{R}R^{}=I.$$
(10)
###### Theorem 1

The statements below are equivalent:
(i) Operator $`R`$ preserves the pseudo inner product;
(ii) Operator $`R`$ transforms a set of pseudo-orthonormal bases {$`|x_i`$} into another such set {$`|x_i^{}`$};
(iii) The representation of an operator $`RD(R)`$ in terms of the biorthogonal dual bases {$`|x_i`$} and {$`|\stackrel{~}{x}_j`$}, defined as $`D_{ij}(R)\stackrel{~}{x}_i|R|x_j`$, is a $`4\times 4`$ complex orthogonal matrix. Namely, the matrix $`D(R)`$ satisfies

$$D(R)D^T(R)=D^T(R)D(R)=I,$$
(11)
where the superscript “$`T`$” denotes the matrix transpose.

Proof: The equivalence between the statements (i) and (ii) is evident, merely regarding that the set of pseudo-orthonormal states constitute a complete set of bases for the space $`C^2C^2`$. The equivalence between (i) and (iii) is proven as follows. Firstly, given the transformation $`R`$ preserving the pseudo inner product, one has the representative matrix

$`(D(R)D^T(R))_{ij}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{4}{}}}\stackrel{~}{x}_i|R|x_k\stackrel{~}{x}_j|R|x_k`$ (12)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{4}{}}}\stackrel{~}{x}_i|R|x_k\stackrel{~}{x}_k|\stackrel{~}{R}^{}|x_j`$
$`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{x}_i|R\stackrel{~}{R}^{}|x_j=\delta _{ij},`$
where we have used the fact that $`_{k=1}^4|x_k\stackrel{~}{x}_k|I`$ and $`R\stackrel{~}{R}^{}=(\stackrel{~}{R}R^{})^{}=I`$. Reciprocally, from the statement (iii) and noting that the operator $`R`$ can be expressed as $`R=_{ij}D_{ij}(R)|x_i\stackrel{~}{x}_j|`$ one can obtain immediately that

$`R^{}\stackrel{~}{R}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i,j,k=1}{\overset{4}{}}}D_{ij}(R)D_{ik}(R)|\stackrel{~}{x}_jx_k|`$ (13)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{4}{}}}|\stackrel{~}{x}_jx_j|=I.`$
We have thus completed the proof.

Theorem 1 is important as it discloses the intrinsic connection between the complex orthogonal matrix and the linear transformation that preserves pseudo inner product. As one can see, the aggregate of all complex orthogonal matrices constitutes the linear transformation group $`SO(4,C)`$, which is a direct extension of the real orthogonal group $`SO(4)`$ in the magic basis. Physically, the presence of pseudo-orthonormal basis renders actually a homomorphic realization for the direct product group $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ onto $`SO(4,C)`$.

###### Theorem 2

The homomorphism between the transformation group $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ and the complex $`SO(4,C)`$ can be realized via the pseudo-orthonormal basis.

Proof: Let us start with a readily verified fact that every element of $`SL(2,C)`$, which is a complex $`2\times 2`$ matrix with the unit determinant, satisfies the relation

$$A^{}\stackrel{~}{A}=I_2,B^{}\stackrel{~}{B}=I_2.$$
(14)
Thus the operator of the direct product $`AB`$ satisfies Eq. (10) and, hence, preserves the pseudo inner product. According to Theorem 1, the above arguments amount to the realization, via the pseudo-orthogonal basis, of the correspondence for each element $`AB`$ of the group $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ to a unique complex orthogonal matrix $`D`$.

The proof of the reverse relation that for each matrix $`D`$ of $`SO(4,C)`$ there correspondences to the element $`AB`$ of the group $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ is less straightforward. Note that according to Theorem 1 the complex orthogonal matrix $`D`$ induces the transformation $`R`$ that preserves the pseudo inner product. Therefore, to prove the existence of $`SO(4,C)SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ correspondence, it requires only to demonstrate that the operator $`R`$ can be decomposed into the product form $`AB`$. To this end, let us introduce:
Lemma 1 Any operator $`H`$ that transforms a set of pseudo-orthonormal bases {$`|x_i`$} into its dual set {$`|\stackrel{~}{x}_i`$} can be decomposed into a product form. Such an operator $`H`$ is hermitian and can be written as $`H=_{i=1}^4|\stackrel{~}{x}_i\stackrel{~}{x}_i|`$.
This Lemma was proved previously in Ref. cen  through decomposing directly the operator into product form. Note the concerning operator $`R`$ now takes the form $`R=_{i=1}^4|x_i^{}\stackrel{~}{x}_i|`$, which is generally not hermitian. It would be helpful to introduce the polar decomposition for the operator, $`R=\sqrt{RR^{}}U`$, where $`U`$ is a unitary operator. Then, the required property for $`R`$ can be proved by showing that both the hermitian part $`\sqrt{RR^{}}`$ and the unitary $`U`$ can be decomposed into the product forms. For the hermitian part, we have explicitly that

$$RR^{}=\underset{i,j=1}{\overset{4}{}}|x_i^{}\stackrel{~}{x}_i|\stackrel{~}{x}_jx_j^{}|.$$
(15)
Suppose the pseudo-orthonormal basis {$`|\stackrel{~}{x}_i`$} is related to the magic basis {$`|e_i`$} by a transformation

$$|\stackrel{~}{x}_i=\underset{j=1}{\overset{4}{}}S_{ij}|e_j,$$
(16)
where $`S^TS=I`$ by Theorem 1. We can obtain then

$`RR^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i,j,m,n}{}}S_{im}^{}S_{jn}|x_i^{}e_m|e_nx_j^{}|`$ (17)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}S_{im}^{}|x_i^{}\right)\left({\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}S_{jm}x_j^{}|\right)`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m=1}{\overset{4}{}}}|y_my_m|.`$
Here $`|y_m_iS_{im}^{}|x_i^{}`$, which obviously constitutes another set of pseudo-orthonormal bases satisfying $`y_m|\stackrel{~}{y}_n=\delta _{mn}`$. Consequently, according to Lemma 1, the operator $`RR^{}`$ (hence its square root $`\sqrt{RR^{}}`$) can be decomposed into the product form. To show the unitary part $`U`$ of the operator $`R`$ is also factorizable, write out

$$I=R^{}\stackrel{~}{R}=U^{}\left(\sqrt{RR^{}}\right)\left(\stackrel{~}{\sqrt{RR^{}}}\right)\stackrel{~}{U}=U^{}\stackrel{~}{U},$$
(18)
which leads to $`U=\stackrel{~}{U}`$. Therefore, $`U`$ must transform magic basis into another set of magic basis. As mentioned earlier, $`U`$ just belongs to the class of unitary transformations that act locally on the subsystems: $`U=U_AU_B`$. Note that

$$R^{}R=U^{}(RR^{})U.$$
(19)
Therefore, once the product form of $`R^{}R`$ and $`RR^{}`$ are obtained, the distinct forms of $`U_A`$ and $`U_B`$ can be worked out consequently. We have now concluded the required property that the operator $`R`$ preserving pseudo inner product does have a product form $`AB`$.

The above proof depicts also that the transformation of $`SO(4,C)`$ under the pseudo-orthonormal basis does correspond to the physical operation acting on the two subsystems locally. Obviously, the mapping $`R=ABD(R)`$ preserves the group multiplication. We have thus completed the proof of Theorem 2, the homomorphism of $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)SO(4,C)`$. More specifically, by viewing the unimodular constraint of $`detA=detB=1`$, the mapping between the elements of the group $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ and that of $`SO(4,C)`$ is two-to-one, reflected by the kernel {$`I_2I_2,I_2I_2`$}.

With the group reprsentation theory established, we are now in the position to investigate the entanglement transformation for the binary composite system. In practice, the general LOCC process (1) can be decomposed into a sequence of the elementary actions of generalized measurements with two outcomes. Commonly, as in the filtering process gisin , only one outcome will produce the desired result with a finite probability. We thus consider simply the following transformation:

$$\sigma =\frac{AB\rho A^{}B^{}}{\mathrm{tr}(\rho A^{}AB^{}B)}.$$
(20)
Suppose the matrix representation of the state $`\rho `$ in a set of pseudo-orthonormal bases {$`|\stackrel{~}{x}_i`$} is given by $`\stackrel{~}{x}_i|\rho |\stackrel{~}{x}_j=h_{ij}^\rho `$, or explicitly,

$$\rho =\underset{i,j=1}{\overset{4}{}}h_{ij}^\rho |x_ix_j|.$$
(21)
Since the operator $`AB`$ just transforms the basis {$`|x_i`$} into another pseudo-orthonormal basis, say {$`|y_i`$}, one has

$`\sigma `$ $`=`$ $`N{\displaystyle \underset{i,j=1}{\overset{4}{}}}h_{ij}^\rho |y_iy_j|`$ (22)
$`=`$ $`N{\displaystyle \underset{i,j=1}{\overset{4}{}}}(S^Th^\rho S^{})_{ij}|x_ix_j|,`$
where $`N`$ is the trace norm factor and $`S^TS=I`$. Thus, we can now conclude the following fact:

###### Theorem 3

The state transformation $`\rho \sigma `$ for the composite binary system can be realized under LOCC iff there exists a complex orthogonal matrix $`S`$ such that

$$\frac{h^\sigma }{deth^\sigma }=\frac{Sh^\rho S^{}}{deth^\rho },$$
(23)
where $`h^\rho `$ and $`h^\sigma `$ are representative matrices of $`\rho `$ and $`\sigma `$ in the pseudo-orthonormal basis, respectively.

Moreover, note that the density matrix $`\rho `$ can always be “diagonalized” in a certain set of pseudo-orthonormal bases wootters . That is that

$$\rho =\underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}\lambda _i^\rho |x_i^\rho x_i^\rho |,$$
(24)
where $`\lambda _i^\rho `$ in the decreasing order has been shown to be related to the volume of a certain measure of entanglement in $`\rho `$. According to Theorem 3, we have diag$`\{\lambda _1^\rho ,\lambda _2^\rho ,\lambda _3^\rho ,\lambda _4^\rho \}`$ $``$ diag$`\{\lambda _1^\sigma ,\lambda _2^\sigma ,\lambda _3^\sigma ,\lambda _4^\sigma \}`$. Thus it can be concluded concisely that the transformation $`\rho \sigma =_{i=1}^4\lambda _i^\sigma |x_i^\sigma x_i^\sigma |`$ can be achieved by LOCC iff $`\lambda _i^\rho /\lambda _j^\rho =\lambda _i^\sigma /\lambda _j^\sigma `$ linden2 . The detailed local actions can be acquired straightforwardly as

$$\frac{AB}{(detA\times detB)^{1/2}}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}|x_i^\sigma \stackrel{~}{x}_i^\rho |.$$
(25)
In summary, this work provides a fruitful application of the group representation theory to the study of the LOCC entanglement transformation. We have shown, for the simplest binary composite system, the local operators acting on the subsystems are represented by complex orthogonal matrices in terms of the set of bases that are pseudo orthonormalized. This leads explicitly to the notable realization of the homomorphic representation for the direct product group $`SL(2,C)SL(2,C)`$ onto the group $`SO(4,C)`$. Consequently, the entanglement transformation for the binary composite system is completely characterized by virtue of the resulting representation theory. Further studies on the entanglement transformation of more complex composite quantum systems, such as the many-pair binary systems and the multipartite composite systems, should resort to the representation theory of Lie group with high dimensions, which will be a subject in the future research.

This work is financially supported by the Postdoctoral Fellowship from HKUST, the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China, the special funds for Major State Basic Research Project No. G001CB3095 of China, and the special grant from Chinese Academy of Sciences to distinguished young researchers.


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# On complex and noncommutative tori

## Introduction

Noncommutative geometry is a branch of algebraic geometry studying “varieties” over noncommutative rings. The noncommutative rings are usually taken to be rings of operators acting on a Hilbert space . The rudiments of noncommutative geometry can be traced back to F. Klein ,  or even earlier. The fundamental modern treatise  gives an account of status and perspective of the subject.

The noncommutative torus $`T_\theta `$ is a $`C^{}`$-algebra generated by linear operators $`u`$ and $`v`$ on the Hilbert space $`L^2(S^1)`$ subjected to the commutation relation $`vu=e^{2\pi i\theta }uv,\theta RQ`$ . The classification of noncommutative tori was given in , , . Recall that two such tori $`T_\theta ,T_\theta ^{}`$ are Morita equivalent if and only if $`\theta ,\theta ^{}`$ lie in the same orbit of the action of group $`GL(2,Z)`$ on irrational numbers by linear fractional transformations.

It is remarkable that “moduli problem” for $`T_\theta `$ looks as such for the complex tori $`E_\tau =C/(Z+\tau Z)`$, where $`\tau `$ is complex modulus. Namely, complex tori $`E_\tau ,E_\tau ^{}`$ are isomorphic if and only if $`\tau ,\tau ^{}`$ lie in the same orbit of the action of $`SL(2,Z)`$ on complex numbers by linear fractional transformations. It was observed by some authors, e.g. , , that it might be not just a coincidence. This note is an attempt to show that it is indeed so: there exists a general morphism between Riemann surfaces and $`C^{}`$-algebras.

Let us give rough idea of our approach. Given Riemann surface $`S`$, there is a function $`SR_+^{\mathrm{}}`$ which maps the (discrete) set of closed geodesics of $`S`$ to a discrete subset of real line by assigning each closed geodesic its riemannian length. If $`T_g(S)`$ is the space of all Riemann surfaces of genus $`g0`$, then function

$$W:T_g(S)R_+^{\mathrm{}},$$
(1)
is finitely-to-one and “generically” one-to-one . In the case $`g=1`$, function $`W`$ is always one-to-one. It is known also that restriction $`W_{syst}:T_g(S)R_+`$ of $`W`$ to the shortest closed geodesic of $`S`$ (called systole) is a $`C^0`$ Morse function on $`T_g(S)`$ , §5. Below we focus on the case $`g=1`$, i.e. $`T_1E_\tau `$.

Recall that $`T_\theta `$ has unique state $`s_0`$ (which is actually a tracial state) . Any positive functional on $`T_\theta `$ has form $`\omega s_0`$, where $`\omega >0`$ is a real number. Let $`\mathrm{\Theta }=\{T_\theta |\theta RQ\}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\{\omega R|\omega >0\}`$. We define a map

$$V:\mathrm{\Theta }\times \mathrm{\Omega }R_+^{\mathrm{}}$$
(2)
by formula $`(T_\theta ,\omega )\{f_n(\omega )\mathrm{ln}tr(A_n)\}_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}`$, where

$`A_0`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}a_0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right),`$
$`A_1`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}a_0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}a_1& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right),`$ (3)
$`\mathrm{}`$
$`A_n`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}a_0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}a_1& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)\mathrm{}\left(\begin{array}{cc}a_n& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right),`$
are integer matrices whose entries $`a_i>0`$ are partial denominators of continued fraction expansion of $`\theta `$ and $`f_n`$ are monotone $`C^0`$ functions of $`\omega `$. Assuming that functions $`W,V`$ have common range, one gets a mapping $`WV^1:E_\tau (T_\theta ,\omega )`$.

Morphisms between $`E_\tau `$ and $`T_\theta `$ have been studied in , , , . The works ,  and  treat noncommutative tori as “quantum compactification” of the space of elliptic curves. This approach deals with an algebraic side of the subject. In particular, Manin  suggested to use “pseudolattices” (i.e. $`K_0`$-group of $`T_\theta `$) to solve the multiplication problem for real number fields. This problem is part of the Hilbert 12th problem. In  a functor from derived category of holomorphic vector bundles over $`T_\theta `$ to the Fukaya category of such bundles over $`E_\tau `$ was constructed. In this note we prove the following results.

###### Theorem 1

Let $`E_\tau `$ be complex torus of modulus $`\tau ,Im\tau >0`$ and $`(T_\theta ,\omega )`$ pair consisting of noncommutative torus with an irrational Rieffel’s parameter $`\theta `$ and a positive functional $`T_\theta C`$ of norm $`\omega `$. Then there exists a one-to-one mapping $`E_\tau (T_\theta ,\omega )`$. The action of modular group $`SL(2,Z)`$ on the complex half plane $`\{\tau C|Im\tau >0\}`$ is equivariant with:

(i) the action of group $`GL(2,Z)`$ on irrationals $`\{\theta RQ|\theta >0\}`$ by linear fractional transformations;

(ii) a discrete action on positive reals $`\{\omega R|\omega >0\}`$.

In particular, isomorphic complex tori map to the Morita equivalent noncommutative tori, and vice versa.

###### Definition 1

The irrational number $`\theta `$ of mapping $`E_\tau (T_\theta ,\omega )`$ we call a projective curvature of the elliptic curve $`E_\tau `$.

###### Theorem 2

Projective curvature of an elliptic curve with complex multiplication is a quadratic irrationality.

Acknowledgements. It is my pleasure to thank G. A. Elliott, Yu. I. Manin and M. Rieffel for their interest in the subject of present note. I am greatful to the referee for critical remarks and helpful suggestions.

## 1 Proofs

The proof of both theorems is based on the rigidity of length spectrum of complex torus, cf Wolpert . A preliminary information on complex and noncommutative tori can be found in Section 2.

### 1.1 Proof of Theorem 1

Let us review main steps of the proof. By the rigidity lemma (Lemma 1) the length spectrum $`SpE`$ defines conformal structure of $`E`$. In fact, this correspondence as a bijection. Under isomorphisms of $`E`$ the length spectrum can acquire a real multiple or get a “cut of finite tail” (Lemma 2). We attach to $`C/L`$ a continued fraction of its projective curvature $`\theta `$ as specified in Introduction. Then isomorphic tori $`C/L`$ will have continued fractions which differ only in a finite number of terms. In other words, one can attach a Morita equivalence class of noncommutative tori to every isomorphism class of complex tori.

###### Lemma 1

(Rigidity of length spectrum) Let $`SpE`$ be length spectrum of a complex torus $`E=C/L`$. Then there exists a unique complex torus with the spectrum. This correspondence is a bijection.

Proof. See McKean . $`\mathrm{}`$

Let $`SpX=\{l_1,l_2,\mathrm{}\}`$ be length spectrum of a Riemann surface $`X`$. Let $`a>0`$ be a real number. By $`aSpX`$ we understand the length spectrum $`\{al_1,al_2,\mathrm{}\}`$. Similarly, for any $`mN`$ we denote by $`Sp_mX`$ the length spectrum $`\{l_m,l_{m+1},\mathrm{}\}`$, i.e. the one obtained by deleting the first $`(m1)`$-geodesics in $`SpX`$.

###### Lemma 2

Let $`EE^{}`$ be isomorphic complex tori. Then either:

(i) $`SpE^{}=|\alpha |SpE`$ for an $`\alpha C^\times `$, or

(ii) $`SpE^{}=Sp_mE`$ for a $`mN`$.

Proof. (i) The complex tori $`E=C/L,E^{}=C/M`$ are isomorphic if and only if $`M=\alpha L`$ for a complex number $`\alpha C^\times `$. It is not hard to see that closed geodesic of $`E`$ are bijective with the points of the lattice $`L=\omega _1Z+\omega _2Z`$ in the following way. Take a segment of straight line through points $`0`$ and $`\omega `$ of lattice $`L`$ which contains no other points of $`L`$. This segment represents a homotopy class of curves through $`0`$ and a closed geodesic of $`E`$. Evidently, this geodesic will be the shortest in its homotopy class with the length $`|\omega |`$ equal to absolute value of complex number $`\omega `$. Thus, $`|\omega |`$ belongs to the length spectrum of $`E`$.

Let now $`SpE=\{|\omega _1|,|\omega _2|,\mathrm{}\}`$ with $`\omega _iL`$. Since $`M=\alpha L`$, one gets $`SpE^{}=\{|\alpha ||\omega _1|,|\alpha ||\omega _2|,\mathrm{}\}`$ and $`SpE^{}=|\alpha |SpE`$. Item (i) follows.

(ii) Note that according to (i) the length spectrum $`SpX=\{l_0,l_1,l_2,\mathrm{}\}`$ can be written as $`SpX=\{1,l_1,l_2,\mathrm{}\}`$ after multiplication on $`1/l_0`$, where $`l_0`$ is the length of shortest geodesic. Note also that shortest geodesic of complex torus has homotopy type $`(1,0)`$ or $`(0,1)`$ (standard generators for $`\pi _1E`$).

Let $`a,b,c,d`$ be integers such that $`adbc=\pm 1`$ and let

$`\omega _1^{}`$ $`=`$ $`a\omega _1+b\omega _2,`$
$`\omega _2^{}`$ $`=`$ $`c\omega _1+d\omega _2,`$ (4)
be an automorphism of the lattice $`L=\omega _1Z+\omega _2Z`$. This automorphisms maps standard generators $`(1,0)`$ and $`(0,1)`$ of $`L`$ to the vectors $`\omega _1=(a,b),\omega _2=(c,d)`$. Let their lengths be $`l_m,l_{m+1}`$, respectively.

As we showed earlier, $`l_m,l_{m+1}SpE`$ and it is not hard to see that there are no geodesics of the intermediate length. (This gives a justification for the notation chosen.) Note that $`\omega _1,\omega _2`$ are standard generators for the complex torus $`E^{}E`$ and therefore one of them is the shortest closed geodesics of $`E^{}`$. One can normalize it to the length $`1`$.

On the other hand, there are only finite number of closed geodesics of length smaller than $`l_n`$ (McKean ). Thus $`SpESpE^{}=\{l_m,l_{m+1},\mathrm{}\}`$ for a finite number $`m`$ and since (1.1) is automorphism of the lattice $`L`$. In other words, $`SpE^{}=Sp_mE`$. Item (ii) follows. $`\mathrm{}`$

To finish the proof of item (i) of Theorem 1, one needs to combine Lemmas 1,2 with the fact that two noncommutative tori $`T_\theta ,T_\theta ^{}`$ are Morita equivalent if and only if their continued fractions differ only in a finite number of terms (Section 2.1).

To prove item (ii) of Theorem 1, let to the contrary the action of $`SL(2,Z)`$ be non-discrete, i.e. having limit points in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Let $`p=lim_n\mathrm{}(T_{\theta _n},\omega _n)`$, where $`\theta _n`$ lie in the same orbit of $`GL(2,Z)`$. Let $`E_p`$ be corresponding complex torus such that $`E_p\cong ̸E_{p_n}`$ are non-isomorphic. By continuity of the systole function $`W_{syst}`$ (see Introduction) $`SpE_p=limSpE_{p_n}`$. Then by the rigidity of length spectra, $`E_pE_{p_n}`$ are isomorphic. The contradiction proves item (ii) of theorem. $`\mathrm{}`$

### 1.2 Proof of Theorem 2

Let us outline the idea of the proof. If $`E`$ admits complex multiplication, then its complex modulus $`\tau `$ lies in an imaginary quadratic field $`K`$. In fact, up to an isogeny, the ring of endomorphisms $`EndE=𝒪_K`$, where $`𝒪_K`$ is the ring of integers of field $`K`$. It can be shown that $`L`$ is an ideal in $`𝒪_K`$ (Section 2.3). The length spectrum $`SpE`$ of elliptic curve with complex multiplication is a “geometric progression” with the growth rate $`|\alpha |`$, where $`\alpha EndE`$ (Lemma 3). One can use Klein’s lemma (Lemma 4) to characterize length spectra in terms of continued fractions. In particular, length spectrum with asymptotically geometric growth correspond to periodic continued fractions. Thus, projective curvature converges to quadratic irrationality.

###### Definition 2

Length spectrum $`SpE`$ of an elliptic curve $`E=C/L`$ is called $`\alpha `$-multiplicative, if there exists a complex number $`\alpha C^\times `$ with $`|\alpha |>1`$ such that

$$SpE=\{l_1,\mathrm{},l_N,|\alpha |l_1,\mathrm{},|\alpha |l_N,\mathrm{},|\alpha |^nl_1,\mathrm{},|\alpha |^nl_N,\mathrm{}\},$$
(5)
for a $`NN`$.

###### Lemma 3

Let $`E`$ be an elliptic curve with complex multiplication. Then its length spectrum $`SpE`$ is $`\alpha `$-multiplicative for an $`\alpha C^\times `$.

Proof. Let $`E=C/L`$ be complex torus which admits non-trivial endomorphisms $`z\alpha z,\alpha K=Q(\sqrt{d})`$. It is known that $`EndE`$ is an order in the field $`K`$. In fact, up to an isogeny of $`E`$, $`EndE𝒪_K`$, where $`𝒪_K`$ is the ring of integers of imaginary quadratic field $`K`$ (Section 2.3). Lattice $`L`$ in this case corresponds to an ideal in $`𝒪_K`$.

Let $`l_1`$ be minimal length of closed geodesic of $`E`$. For an endomorphism $`\alpha :EE,\alpha C^\times `$, consider the set of geodesics whose lengths are less than $`|\alpha |l_1`$. By the properties of $`SpE`$ mentioned in Section 1.1, such a set will be finite. Let us denote the lengths of geodesics in this set by $`l_1,\mathrm{},l_N`$. Since every geodesic in $`SpE`$ is a complex number $`\omega _i`$ lying in the ring $`L𝒪_K`$, one can consider the set of geodesics $`\alpha \omega _1,\mathrm{},\alpha \omega _N`$. The length of these geodesics will be $`|\alpha |l_1,\mathrm{},|\alpha |l_N`$, respectively. It is not hard to see that by the choice of number $`N`$, the first $`2N`$ elements of $`SpE`$ are presented by the following growing sequence of geodesics: $`l_1,\mathrm{},l_N,|\alpha |l_1,\mathrm{},|\alpha |l_N`$. We proceed by iterations of $`\alpha `$, until all closed geodesics of $`E`$ are exhausted. The conclusion of Lemma 3 follows. $`\mathrm{}`$

We shall need the following statement regarding geometry of the regular continued fractions ,. It is valid for any regular fraction, not necessarily periodic.

###### Lemma 4

(F. Klein) Let

$$\omega =\mu _1+\frac{1}{\mu _2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mu _3+\mathrm{}}}}$$
(6)
be a regular continued fraction. Let us denote the convergents of $`\omega `$ by:

$$\frac{p_1}{q_1}=\frac{0}{1},\frac{p_0}{q_0}=\frac{1}{0},\frac{p_1}{q_1}=\frac{\mu _1}{1},\mathrm{},\frac{p_\nu }{q_\nu }=\frac{\mu _\nu p_{\nu 1}+p_{\nu 2}}{\mu _\nu q_{\nu 1}+q_{\nu 2}}.$$
(7)
For any lattice $`L`$ in $`C`$, consider a segment $`I`$ with ends in the points $`(p_{\nu 2},q_{\nu 2})`$ and $`(p_\nu ,q_\nu )`$. Then the segment $`J`$ which joins $`0`$ with the point $`p_{\nu 1},q_{\nu 1}`$ is parallel to $`I`$ and

$$|I|=\mu _\nu |J|,$$
(8)
where $`||`$ denotes the length of the segment.

Proof. We refer the reader to . $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Corollary 1

Let $`\omega _\nu =(p_\nu ,q_\nu )`$ be lattice points mentioned in Lemma 4. Then the length of vector $`\omega _\nu `$ can be evaluated with the help of the following asymptotic formula:

$$|\omega _\nu ||\omega _{\nu 2}|+\mu _\nu |\omega _{\nu 1}|.$$
(9)
Proof. Indeed, using notation of Lemma 4, one can write $`|(p_\nu ,q_\nu )|`$$`|(p_{\nu 2},q_{\nu 2})|+|I|`$. But according to equation (8), $`|I|=\mu _\nu |(p_{\nu 1},q_{\nu 1})|`$. Corollary 1 follows. $`\mathrm{}`$

Note that according to the recurrent formula (9) the length spectrum $`\{|\omega _\nu |\}`$ coming from continued fraction (6) is completely determined by the first two values: $`|\omega _1|`$ and $`|\omega _2|`$. Using (9), one can easily deduce the following asymptotic formula for $`|\omega _\nu |`$ as function of $`|\omega _1|,|\omega _2|`$:

$$|\omega _\nu ||\omega _2|\underset{k=3}{\overset{\nu }{}}\mu _k+|\omega _1|\underset{k=4}{\overset{\nu }{}}\mu _k+O(\nu ).$$
(10)
Fix $`N`$ a positive integer. It follows from equation (10) that:

$`\underset{\nu \mathrm{}}{lim}{\displaystyle \frac{|\omega _{\nu +N}|}{|\omega _\nu |}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _{\nu +1}\mathrm{}\mu _{\nu +N}\underset{\nu \mathrm{}}{lim}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu _\nu \mathrm{}\mu _3|\omega _2|+\mu _\nu \mathrm{}\mu _4|\omega _1|+O(\nu )}{\mu _\nu \mathrm{}\mu _3|\omega _2|+\mu _\nu \mathrm{}\mu _4|\omega _1|+O(\nu )}}\right)=`$ (11)
$`=`$ $`\mu _{\nu +1}\mathrm{}\mu _{\nu +N}.`$
Let $`E`$ be an elliptic curve with complex multiplication. Then by Lemma 3 its length spectrum $`SpE`$ is $`\alpha `$-multiplicative. In other words,

$$\frac{l_{\nu +N}}{l_\nu }=|\alpha |=Const,$$
(12)
for an $`NN`$ and any $`\nu modN`$. Note that $`|\alpha |`$ is a rational integer. Thus, by formula (11) we have $`\mu _{\nu +1}\mathrm{}\mu _{\nu +N}=Const`$, for any $`\nu modN`$. The last requirement can be satisfied if and only if continued fraction (6) is $`N`$-periodic. Theorem 2 is proven. $`\mathrm{}`$

## 2 Background information

In present section we briefly review noncommutative and complex tori. The excellent source of information on noncommutative torus are papers ,  and monograph of . The literature on complex torus is fairly vast. We recommend for the reference Ch. VI of .

### 2.1 Noncommutative torus

By the $`C^{}`$-algebra one understands a noncommutative Banach algebra with an involution . Namely, a $`C^{}`$-algebra $`A`$ is an algebra over $`C`$ with a norm $`aa`$ and an involution $`aa^{},aA`$, such that $`A`$ is complete with respect to the norm, and such that $`abab`$ and $`a^{}a=a^2`$ for every $`a,bA`$. If $`A`$ is commutative, then the Gelfand theorem says that $`A`$ is isometrically $``$-isomorphic to the $`C^{}`$-algebra $`C_0(X)`$ of continuous complex-valued functions on a locally compact Hausdorff space $`X`$. For otherwise, $`A`$ represents a “noncommutative” topological space $`X`$.

$`K_0`$ and dimension groups. Given a $`C^{}`$-algebra, $`A`$, consider new $`C^{}`$-algebra $`M_n(A)`$, i.e. the matrix algebra over $`A`$. There exists a remarkable semi-group, $`A^+`$, connected to the set of projections in algebra $`M_{\mathrm{}}=_{n=1}^{\mathrm{}}M_n(A)`$. Namely, projections $`p,qM_{\mathrm{}}(A)`$ are Murray-von Neumann equivalent $`pq`$ if they can be presented as $`p=v^{}v`$ and $`q=vv^{}`$ for an element $`vM_{\mathrm{}}(A)`$. The equivalence class of projections is denoted by $`[p]`$. The semi-group $`A^+`$ is defined to be the set of all equivalence classes of projections in $`M_{\mathrm{}}(A)`$ with the binary operation $`[p]+[q]=[pq]`$. The Grothendieck completion of $`A^+`$ to an abelian group is called a $`K_0`$-group of $`A`$. The functor $`AK_0(A)`$ maps the unital $`C^{}`$-algebras into the category of abelian groups so that the semi-group $`A^+A`$ corresponds to a “positive cone” $`K_0^+K_0(A)`$ and the unit element $`1A`$ corresponds to the “order unit” $`[1]K_0(A)`$. The ordered abelian group $`(K_0,K_0^+,[1])`$ with the order unit is called a dimension (Elliott) group of $`A`$. The dimension (Elliott) group is complete invariant of the $`AF`$ $`C^{}`$-algebras.

Noncommutative torus. Fix $`\theta `$ irrational and consider a linear flow $`\dot{x}=\theta ,\dot{y}=1`$ on the torus. Let $`S^1`$ be a closed transversal to our flow. The noncommutative torus $`T_\theta `$ is a norm-closed $`C^{}`$-algebra generated by the unitary operators in the Hilbert space $`L^2(S^1)`$:

$$Uf(t)=z(t)f(t),Vf(t)=f(t\alpha ),$$

which are multiplication by a unimodular function $`z(t)`$ and rotation operators. It could be easily verified that $`UV=e^{2\pi i\alpha }VU`$. As an “abstract” algebra, $`T_\theta `$ is a crossed product $`C^{}`$-algebra $`C(S^1)_\varphi Z`$ of (commutative) $`C^{}`$-algebra of complex-valued continuous functions on $`S^1`$ by the action of powers of $`\varphi `$, where $`\varphi `$ is a rotation of $`S^1`$ through the angle $`2\pi \alpha `$. $`T_\theta `$ is not $`AF`$, but can be embedded into an $`AF`$-algebra whose dimension group is $`P_\theta `$ (to be specified below); the latter is known to be intimately connected with the arithmetic of the irrational numbers $`\theta `$’s. The following beautiful result is due to the efforts of many mathematicians 111The author apologizes for possible erroneous credits regarding history of the problem. Classification of noncommutative tori seems to be an old problem; early results in this direction can be found in the works of Klein ,. (Effros, Elliott, Pimsner, Rieffel, Shen, Voiculescu, etc):

###### Theorem 3

(Classification of noncommutative tori) Let $`T_\theta `$ be a noncommutative torus. Suppose that the $`\theta `$ has a continued fraction expansion

$$\theta =a_0+\frac{1}{a_1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{a_2+\mathrm{}}}}\stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}[\mathrm{a}_0,\mathrm{a}_1,\mathrm{a}_2,\mathrm{}].$$

Let $`\phi _n`$ be a composition of isometries of the lattice $`Z^2R^2:\phi _n=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a_0& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$$`\mathrm{}\left(\begin{array}{cc}a_n& 1\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)`$. Then $`T_\theta `$ can be embedded into an $`AF`$-algebra whose dimension group is a direct limit of the ordered abelian groups: $`P_\theta =lim_n\mathrm{}(Z^2,\phi _n)`$. Moreover, if $`\theta =[a_0,a_1,\mathrm{}]`$ and $`\theta ^{}=[b_0,b_1,\mathrm{}]`$ are two irrational numbers, then $`P_\theta `$ and $`P_\theta ^{}`$ are isomorphic (i.e. noncommutative tori $`T_\theta `$ and $`T_\theta ^{}`$ are Morita equivalent) if and only if $`a_{m+k}=b_m`$ for an integer number $`kZ`$. In other words, the irrational numbers $`\theta `$ and $`\theta ^{}`$ are modular equivalent: $`\theta ^{}=\frac{a\theta +b}{c\theta +d},adbc=\pm 1`$, where $`a,b,c,dZ`$ are integer numbers.

Proof. An algebraic proof of this fact can be found in . $`\mathrm{}`$

### 2.2 Complex torus

Let $`L`$ denote a lattice in the complex plane $`C`$. Attached to $`L`$, there are following classic Weierstrass function $`\mathrm{}(z;L)`$ and Eisenstein series $`G_k(L)`$:

$`\mathrm{}(z;L)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{z^2}}+{\displaystyle \underset{\omega L^\times }{}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(z+\omega )^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\omega ^2}}\right\},`$ (13)
$`G_k(L)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\omega L^\times }{\overset{k2}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\omega ^{2k}}}.`$ (14)
$`\mathrm{}(z;L)`$ is analytic and $`G_k(L)`$ is convergent for any lattice $`L`$ . There exists a duality between lattices $`L`$ and cubic curves $`E`$ given by the following theorem.

###### Theorem 4

Let $`L`$ be a lattice in $`C`$. Then the map $`z(\mathrm{}(z;L),\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{}^{}(z;L))`$ is an analytic isomorphism from complex torus $`C/L`$ to elliptic cubic $`E=E(C)`$:

$$E(C)=\{(x,y)C^2|y^2=x^315G_4(L)x35G_6(L)\}.$$
(15)
Conversely, to any cubic in the Weierstrass normal form $`y^2=x^3+ax+b`$ there corresponds a unique lattice $`L`$ such that $`a=15G_4(L)`$ and $`b=35G_6(L)`$.

Proof. We refer the reader to  for a detailed proof of this fact. $`\mathrm{}`$

Isomorphism of complex tori. Let $`L`$ be a lattice in $`C`$. The Riemann surface $`C/L`$ is called a complex torus. Let $`f:C/LC/M`$ be holomorphic and invertible map (isomorphism) between two complex tori. Since $`f`$ is covered by a linear map $`z\alpha z`$ on $`C`$, one can easily conclude that $`\alpha L=M`$ for an $`\alpha C^\times `$. On the other hand, lattice $`L`$ can always be written as $`L=\omega _1Z+\omega _2Z`$, where $`\omega _1,\omega _2C^\times `$ and $`\omega _2k\omega _1`$ for a $`kR`$. The complex number $`\tau =\frac{\omega _2}{\omega _1}`$ is called a complex modulus of lattice $`L`$.

###### Lemma 5

Two complex tori are isomorphic if and only if their complex moduli $`\tau `$ and $`\tau ^{}`$ satisfy the equation:

$$\tau ^{}=\frac{a\tau +b}{c\tau +d}adbc=\pm 1,a,b,c,dZ.$$
(16)
Proof. The proof of this fact can be found in . $`\mathrm{}`$

### 2.3 Elliptic curves with complex multiplication

Let $`E=C/L`$ be an elliptic curve. Consider the set $`EndE`$ of analytic self-mappings of $`E`$. Each $`fEndE`$ is covered on the complex plane by map $`z\alpha z`$ for an $`\alpha C`$. It is not hard to see that $`EndE`$ has the structure of a ring under the pointwise addition and multiplication of functions. The set $`EndE`$ is called an endomorphism ring of elliptic curve $`E`$. By the remarks above, $`EndE`$ can be thought of as a subring of complex numbers:

$$EndE=\{\alpha C|\alpha LL\}.$$
(17)
There exists a fairly complete algebraic description of such rings. Roughly speaking, they are either “rational integers” $`Z`$ or integers $`𝒪_K`$ of an algebraic number field $`K`$. The following lemma is true.

###### Lemma 6

Let $`\alpha EndE`$ be a complex number. Then either:

(i) $`\alpha `$ is a rational integer, or

(ii) $`\alpha `$ is an algebraic integer in an imaginary quadratic number field $`K=Q(\sqrt{d})`$.

Proof. See . $`\mathrm{}`$

Complex multiplication. If $`EndE`$ is different from $`Z`$, $`E`$ is said to be elliptic curve with complex multiplication. If $`E`$ admits complex multiplication, then its ring $`EndE`$ is an order in an imaginary quadratic field $`K`$. In fact, $`E`$ admits an isogeny (analytic homomorphism) to a curve $`E^{}`$ such that $`EndE^{}𝒪_K`$, where $`𝒪_K`$ is the ring of integers of field $`K`$ . Thus, by property $`\alpha LL`$, lattice $`L`$ is an ideal in $`𝒪_K`$. Denote by $`h_K`$ the class number of field $`K`$. It is well known, that there exist $`h_K`$ non-isomorphic ideals in $`𝒪_K`$. Therefore, elliptic curves $`E_1=C/L_1,\mathrm{},E_{h_K}=C/L_{h_K}`$ are pairwise non-isomorphic, but their endomorphism ring is the same .


text:
# Observation of a Strongly-Interacting Degenerate Fermi Gas of Atoms

Published in Science Dec 13 2002: 2179-2182.
Published online November 7, 2002;10.1126/science.1079107
(Submitted 4 October, 2002; accepted 31 October, 2002)
Address correspondence to jet@phy.duke.edu

## Abstract

We report on the observation of a highly-degenerate, strongly-interacting Fermi gas of atoms. Fermionic 6Li atoms in an optical trap are evaporatively cooled to degeneracy using a magnetic field to induce strong, resonant interactions. Upon abruptly releasing the cloud from the trap, the gas is observed to expand rapidly in the transverse direction while remaining nearly stationary in the axial. We interpret the expansion dynamics in terms of collisionless superfluid and collisional hydrodynamics. For the data taken at the longest evaporation times, we find that collisional hydrodynamics does not provide a satisfactory explanation, while superfluidity is plausible.

As the fundamental constituents of matter are interacting fermions, the experimental study of strongly-interacting, degenerate Fermi gases will impact theories in fields from particle physics to materials science. Although the interactions between fermions are understood when they are weak (e.g., quantum electrodynamics), the treatment of very strong interactions requires the development of new theoretical approaches. To test these new approaches, there is a need for experimental systems with widely tunable interaction strengths, densities, and temperatures. Ultracold atomic Fermi gases have exactly these properties, and thus enable tests of calculational techniques for fundamental systems ranging from quarks in nuclear matter to electrons in high temperature superconductors Bedaque ; Wilczek ; Randeria ; Stoof ; Houbiers ; Combescot ; Heiselberg ; Holland ; Timmermans ; Griffin ; Kokkelmans . For this reason, a number of groups are developing methods for creating and exploring ultracold atomic Fermi gases Jin ; Truscott ; Salomon ; Granade ; Hadzibabic ; Inguscio . We report on the study of a strongly-interacting, degenerate Fermi gas. In contrast to the isotropic expansion previously observed for a noninteracting degenerate Fermi gas Jin , we observe anisotropic expansion when the gas is released from an optical trap.

An exciting feature of strongly-interacting atomic Fermi gases is the possibility of high-temperature superfluids that are analogs of very high temperature superconductors Holland ; Timmermans ; Griffin ; Kokkelmans . Our experiments produce the conditions predicted for this type of superfluid transition. Further, the anisotropic expansion we observe has been suggested as a signature of the onset of superfluidity in a Fermi gas Stringari . We interpret the observed anisotropic expansion in terms of both collisionless superfluid hydrodynamics Stringari  and a new form of collisional hydrodynamics.

Strong, magnetically-tunable interactions are achieved in our experiments by employing a Fermi gas comprising a 50-50 mixture of the two lowest hyperfine states of 6Li, i.e., the $`|F=1/2,M=\pm 1/2`$ states in the low-magnetic-field basis. This mixture has a predicted broad Feshbach resonance near an applied magnetic field of 860 G zerocross ; Houbiers12 , where the energy of a bound 6Li-6Li molecular state is tuned into coincidence with the total energy of the colliding atoms. This enables the interaction strength to be widely varied zerocross ; Houbiers12 ; Grimm ; JinFB . It has also been suggested that interactions between fermions can be modified by immersion in a Bose gas Modugno . Our experiments are performed at 910 G, where the zero energy scattering length $`a_S`$ is estimated to be $`10^4a_0`$ ($`a_0=0.53\times 10^8`$ cm) and the gas has strongly attractive interactions. Resonance superfluidity has been predicted to occur at this magnetic field for sufficiently low temperatures Kokkelmans .

In our experiments, 6Li atoms are loaded from a magneto-optical trap into an ultrastable CO2 laser trap Granade . The trap oscillation frequencies are $`\omega _z=2\pi \times (230\pm 20`$ Hz) for the axial (z) direction and $`\omega _{}=2\pi \times (6625\pm 50`$ Hz) for the transverse directions. Rate equation pumping is used to produce the 50-50 spin-mixture: A broad-band radio frequency (rf) field centered at 7.4 MHz is applied at a magnetic field of $`8`$ G, nulling the population difference according to $`\mathrm{\Delta }n(t)=\mathrm{\Delta }n(0)\mathrm{exp}(2Rt)`$, where $`R`$ is the pumping rate. In our experiments, $`2R=600\mathrm{sec}^1`$; applying the rf field for $`t=0.1`$ sec produces precise population balance.

We achieve very low temperatures via rapid forced evaporation in the CO2 laser trap. In contrast to experiments which employ magnetic traps to achieve degeneracy Jin ; Truscott ; Salomon ; Hadzibabic ; Inguscio , this approach has several natural advantages. First, we are able to evaporate both spin states to degeneracy at the desired magnetic field of 910 G. As a result, the sample is never exposed to fields near 650 G where loss and heating are observed zerocross ; Dieckmann2 . Second, the evaporation process is identical for both spin states, thereby maintaining the initial spin balance as well as Fermi surface matching. Third, at this field, the collision cross section is extremely large and unitarity-limited, so that runaway evaporation is expected Scaling .

Forced evaporation is achieved by lowering the power of the trapping laser, while maintaining the beam profile and angular alignment. The trap depth $`U`$ is reduced for 3.5 s according to the trajectory $`U(t)=U_0(1+t/\tau )^{1.45}+U_B`$ Scaling , where $`U_B`$ is a small offset. The value of $`\tau `$ is taken to be 0.1 s, large compared to the time constant estimated for achieving degeneracy at 910 G. With this choice, very high evaporation efficiency is achieved, yielding extremely low temperatures.

After evaporation, the trap is adiabatically recompressed to full depth over 0.5 s and then held for 0.5 s to ensure thermal equilibrium. While maintaining the applied magnetic field of 910 G, the gas is released from the trap and imaged at various times to observe the anisotropy. The CO2 laser power is extinguished in less than 1 $`\mu `$s with a rejection ratio of $`2\times 10^5`$ Granade .

A CCD camera images the gas from a direction perpendicular to the axial direction (z) of the trap and parallel to the applied magnetic field direction (y). The small repulsive potential induced by the high-field magnet is along the camera observation axis and does not affect the images. The remaining attractive potential has cylindrical symmetry and corresponds to a harmonic potential with an oscillation frequency for 6Li of 20 Hz at 910 G. Resonant absorption imaging is performed on a cycling transition at a fixed high magnetic field by using a weak ($`I/I_{\mathrm{sat}}0.05`$), 20 $`\mu `$s probe laser pulse that is $`\sigma _{}`$ polarized with respect to the y-axis. Any residual $`\sigma _+`$ component is rejected by an analyzer. At 910 G, the transitions originating from the two occupied spin states are split by 70 MHz and are well resolved compared to the 3 MHz half-linewidth, permitting precise determination of the column density and hence the number of atoms per state. The magnification is found to be $`4.9\pm 0.15`$ by moving the axial position of the trap through 0.5 mm with a micrometer. The net systematic error in the number measurement is estimated to be $`{}_{6\%}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+10\%}`$ error . The spatial resolution is estimated to be $`4\mu `$m by quadratically combining the effective pixel size, 13.0 $`\mu `$m/4.9, with the aperture limited spatial resolution of $`3\mu `$m.

Figure 1 shows images of the anisotropic expansion of the degenerate gas at various times $`t`$ after release from full trap depth. The gas rapidly expands in the transverse direction (Fig. 2A) while remaining nearly stationary in the axial direction (Fig. 2B) over a time period of 2.0 ms. In contrast to ballistic expansion, where the column density is $`1/t^2`$, the column density decreases only as $`1/t`$ for anisotropic expansion. Consequently, the signals are quite large even for long expansion times.

One possible explanation of the observed anisotropy is provided by a recent theory of collisionless superfluid hydrodynamics Stringari . After release from the trap, the gas expands hydrodynamically due to the force from an effective potential $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}=ϵ_F+U_{\mathrm{MF}}`$, where $`ϵ_F(𝐱)`$ is the local Fermi energy and $`U_{\mathrm{MF}}(𝐱)`$ is the mean field contribution. In general, $`U_{\mathrm{MF}}a_{\mathrm{eff}}n`$, where $`n`$ is the spatial density and $`a_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is an effective scattering length. However, this theory is not rigorously applicable to our experiment, as it was derived for the dilute limit assuming a momentum-independent scattering length $`a_{\mathrm{eff}}=a_S`$. This assumption is only valid when $`k_F|a_S|<1`$, where $`k_F`$ is the Fermi wavevector. By contrast, our experiments are performed in the intermediate density regime Heiselberg , where $`k_F|a_S|1`$, and the interactions are unitarity-limited. We have therefore attempted to extend the theory in the context of a simple model. We make the assumption that unitarity limits $`a_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ to $`1/k_F`$. As $`nk_F^3`$ and $`ϵ_F(𝐱)=\mathrm{}^2k_F^2/(2M)`$, we obtain $`U_{\mathrm{MF}}=\beta ϵ_F(𝐱)`$, where $`\beta `$ is a constant. This simple assumption is further justified by more detailed calculations Heiselberg  which show that $`\beta `$ is an important universal many-body parameter. With this assumption, $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}(𝐱)=(1+\beta )ϵ_F(𝐱)`$. As $`ϵ_Fn^{2/3}`$, it then follows that $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}n^{2/3}`$.

For release from a harmonic trap and $`U_{\mathrm{eff}}n^\gamma `$, the hydrodynamic equations admit an exact solution Stringari ; Kagan ,

$$n(𝐱,t)=\frac{n_0(x/b_x,y/b_y,z/b_z)}{b_xb_yb_z}.$$
(1)
Here, $`n_0(𝐱)`$ is the initial spatial distribution in the trap, and $`b_i(t)`$ are time dependent scaling parameters, which satisfy simple coupled differential equations with the initial conditions, $`b_i(0)=1`$, $`\dot{b}_i(0)=0`$, where $`i=x,y,z`$. As the shape of the initial distribution (even with the mean field included) is determined by the trap potential, $`n_0`$ is a function only of $`r^{}`$ where $`\overline{\omega }^2r^2=\omega _{}^2(x^2+y^2)+\omega _z^2z^2`$ and $`\overline{\omega }=(\omega _{}^2\omega _z)^{1/3}`$. Hence, the initial radii of the density distribution $`n_0`$ are in the proportion $`\sigma _x(0)/\sigma _z(0)=\lambda \omega _z/\omega _{}`$. For our trap, $`\lambda =0.035`$. Then, during hydrodynamic expansion, the radii of the density distribution evolve according to

$$\sigma _x(t)=\sigma _x(0)b_x(t),\sigma _z(t)=\sigma _z(0)b_z(t).$$
(2)
We determine $`b_x(t)=b_y(t)`$ and $`b_z(t)`$ from their evolution equations Stringari . For $`\gamma =2/3`$, $`\ddot{b}_x=\omega _{}^2b_x^{7/3}b_z^{2/3}`$ and $`\ddot{b}_z=\omega _z^2b_x^{4/3}b_z^{5/3}`$.

¿From the expansion data, the widths $`\sigma _x(t)`$ and $`\sigma _z(t)`$ are determined by fitting one-dimensional distributions projected  with normalized, zero-temperature Thomas-Fermi (T-F) distributions, $`n(x)/N=(16/(5\pi \sigma _x))(1x^2/\sigma _x^2)^{5/2}`$. As shown in Fig. 2A, the zero-temperature T-F fits to the transverse spatial profiles are quite good. This shape is not unreasonable despite a potentially large mean field interaction. As noted above $`U_{\mathrm{MF}}(𝐱)ϵ_F(𝐱)`$. Hence, the mean field simply rescales the Fermi energy in the equation of state Stringari . In this case, it is easy to show that the initial shape of the cloud is expected to be that of a Thomas-Fermi distribution. This shape is then maintained by the hydrodyamic scaling of Eq. 2.

Figure 3A shows the measured values of $`\sigma _x(t)`$ and $`\sigma _z(t)`$ as a function of time $`t`$ after release. To compare these results with the predictions of Eq. 2, we take the initial dimensions of the cloud, $`\sigma _x(0)`$ and $`\sigma _z(0)`$, to be the zero-temperature Fermi radii. For our measured number $`N=7.5_{0.5}^{+0.8}\times 10^4`$ atoms per state, and $`\overline{\omega }=2\pi \times (2160\pm 65`$ Hz), the Fermi temperature is $`T_F=\mathrm{}\overline{\omega }(6N)^{1/3}/k_B=7.9_{0.2}^{+0.3}\mu `$K at full trap depth. One then obtains $`\sigma _x(0)=\sqrt{2k_BT_F/M\omega _x^2}=3.6\pm 0.1\mu `$m in the transverse direction, and $`\sigma _z(0)=103\pm 3\mu `$m in the axial. For these initial dimensions, we obtain very good agreement with our measurements using no free parameters, as shown by the solid curves in Fig. 3A.

Figure 3B shows the measured aspect ratios $`\sigma _x(t)/\sigma _z(t)`$ and the theoretical predictions based on hydrodynamic, ballistic, and attractive ($`\beta =0.4`$) or repulsive ($`\beta =0.4`$) collisionless mean field scaling Stringari . The observed expansion appears to be nearly hydrodynamic. For comparison, we also show the measured aspect ratios obtained for release at 530 G, where the scattering length has been measured to be nearly zero zerocross ; Grimm . In this case, there is excellent agreement with the ballistic expansion expected for a noninteracting gas. This directly confirms that the observed anisotropy is a consequence of interactions.

A primary assumption of our simple model is that the system is unitarity limited, i.e., $`|k_Fa_S|1`$. In this limit the fluid properties are predicted to be independent of $`k_Fa_S`$, for both a collisionless superfluid Heiselberg  and for collisional hydrodynamics as shown below (see Eq. 4). To test this assumption, we have released the gas at a trap depth $`U`$ which is 1/100 of the full trap depth. As the trap frequencies, and hence the Fermi energy, scale as $`\sqrt{U}`$, $`k_F`$ is reduced by $`(1/100)^{1/4}1/3`$. The time scale for the expansion is increased by a factor of 10 as expected, and we continue to observe strongly anisotropic expansion. This suggests that the system is unitarity-limited at full trap depth, consistent with the estimated value of $`k_F|a_S|=7.4`$ for our experimental conditions. Hence, the gas appears to be strongly interacting.

In the unitarity limit, where $`U_{\mathrm{MF}}=\beta ϵ_F`$, we can obtain the first estimate of $`\beta `$ from measurements of the transverse release energy. From the zero-temperature T-F fits to the 910 G data, we obtain an average transverse release energy of $`ϵ_x=Mv_x^2/2=M(\sigma _x/4t)^2=1.44\pm 0.02\mu `$K per particle. To derive an expression for the release energy as a function of $`\beta `$, we assume that the initial density distribution $`n_0(𝐱)`$ is determined by the equation of state for a trapped, normal fluid Stringari : $`ϵ_F(𝐱)+U_{\mathrm{MF}}(𝐱)+U_{\mathrm{trap}}(𝐱)=\mu `$, where $`\mu `$ is the chemical potential. In this case, the release energy per particle is

$$ϵ_r=\frac{3}{8}k_BT_F\sqrt{1+\beta }.$$
(3)
As shown above, $`T_F=7.9_{0.2}^{+0.3}\mu `$K at full trap depth. To obtain an estimate of $`\beta `$ from the experiments, we assume $`ϵ_r/2`$ is released in each transverse direction, with negligible energy deposited axially. Calculating $`\beta `$ using the appropriate $`T_F`$ and $`ϵ_x`$ for each trial in the range $`t=0.40.8`$ ms, we find $`\beta =0.10\pm 0.07`$. Note that the uncertainty is the quadratic combination of the statistical and systematic uncertainties in the measurements, but does not reflect any systematic effects arising from our model. We find that the sign is in agreement with recent predictions, but the magnitude is a factor of ten smaller than expected Heiselberg . It is remarkable that the release energy and the initial cloud dimensions are well-described assuming a zero-temperature, noninteracting Fermi gas, while the highly anisotropic expansion results from strong interactions.

The preceding determination of $`\beta `$ assumed a cloud at zero temperature. To investigate the validity of this approximation, we fit normalized, finite-temperature T-F distributions to the transverse data at short times, 0.2 and 0.4 ms, where the signal to background ratio in the thermal wings is high. As noted above, it is not unreasonable to expect a T-F distribution. In this case, it is possible to perform a two parameter fit with $`\sigma _x`$ and $`T/T_F`$ as the free parameters, where $`T/T_F`$ is the ratio of the temperature to the Fermi temperature. The fits (not shown) to the measured transverse spatial distributions yield $`0.08T/T_F0.18`$, while $`\sigma _x`$ is essentially unchanged from the zero-temperature results. Hence, it appears that $`T/T_F`$ is quite small and the zero-temperature approximation is reasonable.

In our experiments, the peak Fermi density is calculated to be $`n_F=4.7\times 10^{13}/\mathrm{cm}^3`$ per state Butts . At this density, it is possible that the anisotropic expansion arises from collisional hydrodynamics Kagan . In contrast to the case usually considered, for the large scattering lengths in this system, the collision cross section is unitarity-limited to a value $`\sigma _F4\pi /k_F^2`$ in the degenerate regime. The gas is collisionally hydrodynamic when the collision parameter $`\varphi =\gamma /\omega _{}1`$, where $`\gamma `$ is the elastic collision rate and $`1/\omega _{}`$ is the relevant time scale for the expansion. Using the s-wave Boltzmann equation Walraven  for a constant cross section $`\sigma `$ and including Pauli blocking JinPB , we find that $`\gamma =\gamma _0F_P(T/TF)`$, where $`\gamma _0=NM\sigma \overline{\omega }^3/(2\pi ^2k_BT_F)`$, $`N`$ is number of atoms in one spin state, and $`F_P`$ describes the temperature dependence. Here, $`F_PT_F/T`$ for $`TT_F`$, and $`F_P15(T/T_F)^2`$ for $`T<0.2T_F`$, where Pauli blocking occurs. The maximum value of $`F_P=1.3`$ occurs at $`T/T_F=0.5`$. In the degenerate regime (i.e., $`T<0.5T_F`$), where $`\sigma \sigma _F`$, we obtain

$$\varphi =\frac{(6\lambda N)^{1/3}}{6\pi }F_P(T/T_F).$$
(4)
For our experimental conditions, $`\varphi 1.3F_P(T/T_F)`$, which is independent of the trap depth as long as $`k_F|a_S|1`$. As $`F_P`$ is at most of order unity, strongly hydrodynamic behavior arising from collisions seems unlikely. Including the temperature dependence, $`\varphi `$ ranges from 0.8 down to 0.2 where the system is nearly collisionless. Hence, collisional hydrodynamics does not provide a satisfactory explanation of the observed anisotropic expansion, while superfluid hydrodynamics is plausible.

Given this possibility, we have performed an initial investigation of the transition between ballistic and hydrodynamic expansion. We measure the aspect ratio for an expansion time of 0.6 ms as a function of the evaporation time. For short evaporation times $`<0.13`$ s, where $`T/T_F>3.5`$, the measured aspect ratio is consistent with that expected for ballistic expansion. For any evaporation time $`>\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1.5}`$ s, the aspect ratio is consistent with hydrodynamic expansion. We observe a very smooth transition between these two extremes. In the intermediate regime, at temperatures below $`T/T_F=3.5`$, the expansion lies between hydrodynamic and ballistic. At $`T/T_F=3.5`$, where the evaporation time is short and the number is large, an estimate of the classical collision rate with a unitarity-limited cross section shows that the onset of collisional behavior is not surprising. In the intermediate region, there is no theory of expansion to describe the spatial anisotropy of the energy release. Hence, any attempt to determine the temperature is highly model-dependent and cannot be trusted. To further complicate the analysis, varying the evaporation time changes the trap population in addition to the temperature. Finally, if high-temperature resonance superfluidity does exist, the transition temperature is predicted to be in the range 0.25-0.5 $`T_F`$, where Pauli blocking is not very effective. Hence, one would not expect to observe a collisionless region immediately prior to the onset of superfluid hydrodynamics, unless the transition occurs at very low temperature, in contrast to predictions.

There are a number of noticeable discrepancies between the hydrodynamic theory and the data. The deviations at 0 and 0.1 ms can be explained by possible index of refraction effects as well as spatial resolution limits. These issues are not significant for longer expansion times where the density is reduced and the cloud size is well beyond the resolution limit of our imaging system. However, close examination of the long time deviations reveals that there may be a two-component structure in the gas. In the axial direction, hydrodynamic expansion is very slow, and a second component expanding according to ballistic or collisionless mean field scaling (Fig. 3B) easily overtakes the hydrodynamic component. A two-component structure may also explain why the axial spatial distributions (Fig. 2B), are better fit by gaussian distributions than by zero-temperature T-F distributions. By contrast, in the transverse direction, the hydrodynamic expansion is the fastest, masking any two-component structure after a short time.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are indebted to H. Heiselberg and S. Stringari for stimulating correspondence as well as for independently providing us with the release energy formula of Eq. 3. We also thank Professor D. Gauthier for a critical reading of the manuscript. This research is supported by the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U. S. Department of Energy through a program on the dynamics of ultracold Fermi gases and by the National Science Foundation through a program on resonance superfluidity. We are grateful for continuing support from the Physics Division of the Army Research Office and the Fundamental Physics in Microgravity Research program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.