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# Domain walls in supersymmetric QCDWork partly supported by the British Council/Acciones Integradas programme under contract HB1997-0073.

## 1 Introduction

Supersymmetric (SUSY) gluodynamics, the theory of gluons and gluinos with gauge group SU($`N_c`$), shares a lot of common features with ordinary QCD, with the advantage of being supersymmetric. Therefore it seems a good idea to exploit the supersymmetric properties of SUSY gluodynamics in order to try to understand better how QCD works. Although this is an idea which has been around for many years, the recent and positive results of Dvali and Shifman , which we shall briefly explain in detail, triggered a great deal of activity in these past three years.

Our starting point will be the Lagrangian for SUSY gluodynamics, which is given by

$$=\frac{1}{g_0^2}\left[\frac{1}{4}𝒢_{\mu \nu }^a𝒢_{\mu \nu }^a+i\lambda ^{a\alpha }𝒟_{\alpha \dot{\beta }}\overline{\lambda }^{a\dot{\beta }}\right],$$
(1)
where $`g_0`$ is the gauge coupling constant, $`G_{\mu \nu }^a`$ the usual gluon field strength tensor and $`\lambda `$ is the gaugino field. This theory has an axial U(1) symmetry which is broken down to $`Z_{2N_c}`$, the chiral symmetry, by the anomaly. Moreover, the theory is strongly coupled: at a scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ gaugino condensates (which, from now on, we shall denote as $`\lambda \lambda `$) will form. This will break the chiral symmetry from $`Z_{2N_c}`$ to $`Z_2`$ and, clearly, the gaugino condensate is the order parameter associated with the symmetry breakdown.

The value of the gaugino condensate was calculated by various methods a few years ago . The $`N_c`$ degenerate vacua of our theory are given by

$$\lambda \lambda \mathrm{Tr}\lambda ^a\lambda _a=\mathrm{\Lambda }^3e^{i2\pi \frac{k}{N_c}},k=0,\mathrm{},N_c1.$$
(2)
The presence of degenerate vacua leads immediately to the formation of domain walls interpolating between them. The key result of Dvali and Shifman  was to realize that if these walls are of a certain kind, i.e. BPS-saturated, then they preserve one half of the supersymmetry and their energy density is exactly calculable and given by

$$ϵ=\frac{N_c}{8\pi ^2}\left|\mathrm{Tr}\lambda ^a\lambda _a_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{Tr}\lambda ^a\lambda _a_{\mathrm{}}\right|,$$
(3)
i.e. the difference between the values of the condensate at the two vacua -situated at spatial infinities- between which the wall is interpolating. This is very interesting because it has been suggested  that BPS-saturated domain walls would play an important role in the D-brane description of N=1 supersymmetric QCD (SQCD). Also, recent work claims that, in the large $`N_c`$ limit, these walls are BPS-saturated states , but so far it has not been fully proved for finite $`N_c`$ configurations. In any case the question to be answered, before making any further connections to other interesting topics, is what the nature of these domain walls is.

In order to do that we are going to discuss first of all different effective approaches to SUSY gluodynamics and the problems associated with them. Then we shall study in detail the Taylor, Veneziano, Yankielowicz (TVY) approach  which is the one used in our calculation. Finally we present results and draw a few conclusions.

## 2 Towards an effective theory of SUSY gluodynamics

A first and very complete description of SUSY gluodynamics was provided by Veneziano and Yankielowicz  (VY), in terms of a composite chiral superfield $`S`$ whose lowest component is the gaugino condensate

$$S\frac{3}{32\pi ^2}\mathrm{Tr}(\omega _\alpha \omega ^\alpha )=\frac{3}{32\pi ^2}\mathrm{Tr}(\lambda _\alpha \lambda ^\alpha )+\mathrm{}$$
(4)
The Lagrangian for this model is given by the usual supersymmetric structure,

$$=\frac{1}{4}d^4\theta 𝒦+\frac{1}{2}[d^2\theta 𝒲+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.],$$
(5)
with $`𝒦`$ the Kähler potential and $`𝒲`$ the superpotential. Throughout this talk we shall be working with canonically normalized fields, therefore $`𝒦=(\overline{S}S)^{1/3}`$. The superpotential for the VY model is given by

$$𝒲=\frac{2}{3}S\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{S^{N_c}}{(e\mathrm{\Lambda }^3)^{N_c}}\right).$$
(6)
The structure of $`𝒲`$ is uniquely fixed by the anomaly and the symmetries of the theory. Again $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the scale parameter. It has been widely shown that the VY superpotential describes very well the vacuum structure of SUSY gluodynamics, however this is not the case when we try to describe the dynamics of the theory and, in particular, when we try to construct domain walls.

It was pointed out not so long ago  that this Lagrangian is not explicitly $`Z_{2N_c}`$ invariant. Moreover, the scalar potential derived in global supersymmetry, i.e. $`V(S)=𝒦_{S\overline{S}}^1|𝒲/S|^2`$ is multivalued due to the presence of the logarithm in $`𝒲`$. That is, a physical state and its equivalent, just rotated by $`2\pi `$, would give rise to completely different values of $`V`$, which is totally unacceptable.

In order to cure this problem, several solutions have been proposed. In Refs  the idea of glued potential was introduced and developed. Essentially it consists of adding a Lagrange multiplier to the Lagrangian in such a way that the scalar potential is divided into $`N_c`$ sectors which, glued together, result in a single-valued $`Z_{2N_c}`$-invariant theory. The problem with such an amendment is that cusps will inevitably form at the joining point of each sector with its nearest neighbours. Any configuration interpolating between two vacua will necessarily cross a cusp and it is doubtful whether it would be possible to correctly interpret the energy density associated with it. Therefore we conclude that the VY model, even when properly modified, is unable to provide us with a good description of domain walls in SUSY gluodynamics.

Other solutions have been proposed to deal with the problems associated to the presence of the logarithm in the VY superpotential. For example, in Ref.  it was proposed that the origin of such problems was related to leaving behind some relevant degrees of freedom when deriving the VY efective Lagrangian. It is then suggested that introducing new degrees of freedom in the model, in particular a glueball order parameter, would be enough to enable us to construct well behaved domain walls. This is certainly a possibility worth considering, however we will not be following this approach but that of Taylor, Veneziano and Yankielowicz  (TVY), which we describe in detail in the next section.

## 3 Our model: the TVY approach

Given all the problems of the VY model when trying to construct domain wall solutions of the equations of motion, it is convenient to work with a slightly more complicated model which respects all the symmetries of the theory. This consists of adding $`N_f`$ pairs of chiral superfields, $`Q^i`$, $`\overline{Q}_i`$ to the VY model. Then, below the condensation scale we shall have matter condensates, $`M_j^i=Q^i\overline{Q}_j`$, as well as gaugino condensates. The Lagrangian, given again by Eq. (5), has the following superpotential

$$𝒲=\frac{2}{3}S\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{S^{N_cN_f}\mathrm{det}M}{e^{N_cN_f}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{3N_cN_f}}\right)\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{Tr}(mM).$$
(7)
From now on we shall work in a flavour-diagonal basis, i.e. $`m_k^j=\delta _k^jm_j`$. Our goal will be to construct domain walls between the vacua of this model, and then try to obtain the limit of large masses where the theory should tend to SUSY gluodynamics. In other words, we start off by working in the weak (Higgs) phase of the model, and we will try to extrapolate the results obtained to strong coupling.

Therefore the first step consists of defining the vacua of the model. These are given by

$`S_{}^{N_c}`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}\right)^{N_f}detm`$
$`(M_i^j)_{}`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _i^j{\displaystyle \frac{1}{m_i}}{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}S_{},`$
where, and from now on, we are taking $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1`$. That is, the vacuum values for the gaugino and matter condensates are aligned ($``$ denotes values at the vacuum). Also, one can easily evaluate the superpotential to find out that it is proportional to the vacuum values of the fields, i.e. $`W_{}=(2/3)N_cS_{}`$.

A very important point which we are going to discuss in detail is the paths the fields take when going from one vacuum to another. As mentioned before, we are using the matter fields to restore the lost $`Z_{2N_c}`$ invariance of the TV Lagrangian and ensure that, when building domain walls, we do not cross the logarithmic branch. In order to formulate this in a more precise way, let us suppose that we are building a wall between vacuum a and vacuum b. Then we define the field trajectories as follows

$`S|_b`$ $`=`$ $`e^{i\delta }S|_a`$ (9)
$`M_i^i|_b`$ $`=`$ $`e^{i(\delta 2\pi \omega _i)}M_i^i|_a,i=1,\mathrm{},N_f.`$
where $`\omega _i`$, the windings of the matter fields, have to be integers, in order to fulfill the alignment condition at the vacua. To ensure that the logarithmic branch is not crossed one must impose the following condition, coming from the fact that the phases in the logarithm of Eq. (7) cancel out

$$(N_cN_f)\delta +\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_f}{}}(\delta 2\pi \omega _i)=0.$$
(10)
As an immediate result it follows that $`\delta =2\pi k/N_c`$ where we define $`k=_{i=1}^{N_f}\omega _i`$. Note that, if all the windings are equal to one, then $`k=N_f`$. This is an important fact to which we will return.

Let us now briefly discuss the method used to calculate the domain wall profiles. We assume that the walls spread along the $`xy`$ plane, therefore the profiles are calculated along $`z`$. This is done by minimizing the energy functional which, for a generic set of fields, $`X^k`$, with Kähler metric $`g_i^j=𝒦_{X^i\overline{X}_j}`$, looks like

$$ϵ_{ab}=\frac{1}{2}_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}𝑑z(g_i^j_zX^i_z\overline{X}_j+(g_i^j)^1𝒲_i\overline{𝒲}^j),$$
(11)
where $`𝒲_i=𝒲/X^i`$. This equation can be rewritten as

$`ϵ_{ab}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{Re}(e^{i\gamma }(𝒲_b𝒲_a))`$ (12)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}}𝑑z(g_i^j)^1(g_k^j_zX^ke^{i\gamma }\overline{𝒲}^j)`$
$`\times `$ $`(g_i^k_z\overline{X}_ke^{i\gamma }𝒲_i)`$
where $`e^{i\gamma }`$ is an arbitrary phase. In fact, if we choose it in a clever enough way, i.e. $`e^{i\gamma _{ab}}=(𝒲_b𝒲_a)/|𝒲_b𝒲_a|`$, then it is easy to see that we can put a lower bound on the energy density of the wall that interpolates between vacua $`a`$ and $`b`$, which is

$$ϵ_{ab}|𝒲_b𝒲_a|.$$
(13)
This is the so-called BPS bound; if the bound is saturated the wall to which it corresponds is a BPS-saturated domain wall. An immediate consequence of the BPS condition being fulfilled is that the first term in Eq. (12) becomes zero, in other words, the equations of motion become first order, which represents a significant simplification from the numerical point of view. Further details of this can be found in Ref. .

In particular, for the TVY model we are working with, the BPS equations are

$`𝒦_{S\overline{S}}_z\overline{S}`$ $`=`$ $`e^{i\gamma }{\displaystyle \frac{𝒲}{S}},`$
$`𝒦_{M\overline{M}}_z\overline{M_i^i}`$ $`=`$ $`e^{i\gamma }{\displaystyle \frac{𝒲}{M_i^i}}.`$
In order to simplify the analysis, from now on we will work with a Kähler potential which is canonical for the dimension one matter fields. For the case of degenerate windings, which we will analyze next, this is equivalent to taking $`\mathrm{Tr}(M\overline{M})^{1/2}`$ modulo factors of $`\sqrt{N_f}`$. The case of non-degenerate windings is slightly more involved and will be fully discussed in the future . Also we choose $`\gamma =\frac{1}{2}(\delta +\pi )=\frac{k\pi }{N_c}\frac{\pi }{2}`$ where, we stress again, $`k`$ is the sum of all the windings associated with the matter fields. From now on, in order to find solutions to these equations, we adopt the following parametrization

$`S(z)`$ $`=`$ $`|S_{}|R(z)e^{i\beta (z)}`$
$`M_i^i(z)`$ $`=`$ $`|M_{}|\rho _i(z)e^{i\alpha _i(z)},`$
where $`R`$, $`\beta `$, $`\rho _i`$ and $`\alpha _i`$ are real functions of the coordinate $`z`$. Note that the moduli of the fields, $`R`$ and $`\rho _i`$, are normalized to one at the vacua. The boundary conditions, when going from vacuum $`j`$ to vacuum $`j+1`$, are

$$SSe^{i2\pi \frac{k}{N_c}},M_i^iM_i^ie^{i2\pi (\frac{k}{N_c}\omega _i)}.$$
(16)
We also have a constraint, which is a consequence of the equations of motion, Eqs (LABEL:TVY\_bps), namely

$$\mathrm{Im}(e^{i\gamma }𝒲(S,M_i^i))=\mathrm{constant},$$
(17)
which, evaluated at the centre of the domain wall (i.e. $`z=0`$) becomes

$``$ $`R_0\left[\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{N_f}{N_c}}\right)(\mathrm{ln}R_01)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N_c}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\mathrm{ln}\rho _{0i}\right]`$ (18)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N_c}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}(1)^{\omega _i}\rho _{0i}=\mathrm{cos}\left(\pi {\displaystyle \frac{k}{N_c}}\right).`$
This constraint will turn out to be extremely relevant to the understanding of the results we are presenting in the next section.

## 4 Results

### 4.1 Equal windings

To start the discussion of the results, we are going to present those corresponding to models where the windings $`\omega _i`$ are all equal to one (remember that, in such case, $`k=N_f`$). This is the standard choice that other authors in the literature have made, and it is therefore the one we should consider in order to compare with previous results. In this case the constraint given by Eq. (18) becomes

$``$ $`R_0\left[\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{N_f}{N_c}}\right)(\mathrm{ln}R_01)+{\displaystyle \frac{N_f}{N_c}}\mathrm{ln}\rho _0\right]`$ (19)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N_f}{N_c}}\rho _0=\mathrm{cos}\left(\pi {\displaystyle \frac{N_f}{N_c}}\right).`$
Let us summarize the results. The case $`N_f=N_c1`$ was analyzed by Smilga and Veselov in a series of very interesting papers , and recently reanalyzed by Binosi and ter Veldhuis . They found that the TVY model had BPS-saturated domain walls up to a certain value of the mass of the chiral matter condensate, $`m_{}`$. Between $`m_{}`$ and another, higher, value of the mass, $`m_{}`$, they found domain wall solutions which were not BPS-saturated. Finally, above $`m_{}`$ there were no solutions at all. The values of $`m_{}`$, $`m_{}`$ seem to depend on the value of $`N_c`$ and they decrease when the latter increases. Moreover there seem to be two branches of BPS-saturated solutions which merge at $`m_{}`$. These results are very well illustrated by Fig. 1 of the third paper in Ref. .

A couple of years ago, two of us  analyzed the case of $`N_f=1`$ flavour. We found that there were BPS-saturated solutions for any value of the mass parameter $`m`$. This can be seen in Fig. 1 where we plot the magnitude of the gaugino condensate, $`R`$, versus the spatial coordinate, $`z`$, for several values of $`m`$. As the mass increases it can be seen that the profiles tend to a unique one, represented by the thick line. We shall return to that point later on. These results were subsequently confirmed by the work of Ref. . In general it is possible to make the following statement:

* for $`N_f/N_c1/2`$ there are BPS-saturated domain walls only up to $`m_{}`$
* for $`N_f/N_c<1/2`$ there are BPS-saturated domain walls for any value of $`m`$

Also, a more thorough study of the $`N_f/N_c<1/2`$ case  leads us to claim that, for $`N_f>1`$, these domain walls will cross the logarithmic branch and therefore we are uncertain of their physical meaning. We illustrate this point in Fig. 2, where we plot the phase of the logarithm that appears in the second equation of Eqs (7) as a function of the spatial coordinate, $`z`$, for a TVY model with $`N_c=5`$. As we can see, for $`N_f=1`$ and a large enough mass, the total variation of the phase is never bigger than $`2\pi `$. However, for $`N_f=2`$ and $`m=200`$ the overall variation of the phase is already bigger than $`2\pi `$, i.e. the fields are crossing the branch when going from one vacuum to the other. We can give an estimate of why this is the case. Given the boundary conditions we are setting for our field profiles, it is clear that, at the centre of the wall (i.e. $`z=0`$)

$$\frac{\beta _0}{2\pi }=\frac{k}{2N_c},\frac{\alpha _{i0}}{2\pi }=\frac{k}{2N_c}\frac{\omega _i}{2},$$
(20)
where, as usual, $`k=_i\omega _i`$. Note that, by definition, the phase of the logarithm (given by $`(N_cN_f)\beta +_i\alpha _i`$, modulo $`2\pi `$) cancels here. It immediately follows that the evolution of the phases of the fields from $`z=0`$ towards the vacuum, when $`m`$ is large, follows a very precise pattern111This point is actually straightforward to realize once the large mass regime has been explained, see Eq. (LABEL:SeqM).: first, the phases of the matter condensates, $`\alpha _i`$ change, more or less at the edge of the centre of the domain wall (defined by $`z=\pm 1/m`$); after that, the gaugino condensate phase, $`\beta `$, starts to change as well, to compensate the previous changes in such a way that the phase of the logarithm cancels again at the vacuum. This can be formulated by saying that, when $`z=1/m`$, the different phases are given by

$$\frac{\beta _1}{2\pi }=\frac{k}{2N_c},\frac{\alpha _{i1}}{2\pi }=\frac{k}{2N_c}\omega _i.$$

This is the point at which the phase of the logarithm will acquire its biggest absolute value, before it starts decreasing again. This is given by the changes produced both at $`\pm 1/m`$, i.e.

$$\frac{|\mathrm{\Delta }(\mathrm{phase}\mathrm{log})|}{2\pi }2\frac{|k|}{2}=|k|.$$
(21)
Therefore, in order to have a change of the phase less or equal to $`2\pi `$, $`|k|=1`$ (remember that k must be an integer).

In practice it means that, for equal windings, only models with $`N_f=1`$ will give domain walls profiles with no crossing of the branch. This implies a series of conceptual problems which are beyond the scope of this talk, but which should certainly be addressed at some point.

Now that the main result has been presented, let us try to understand why the different situations arise. In order to do that, we consider the cases where this model could be described by just one of the two condensates, i.e. either by the gaugino or by the matter condensate. This corresponds to the limits of very small and very big mass, respectively.

$``$ For small masses (i.e. $`m\mathrm{\Lambda }`$) one can integrate out the gaugino condensate $`S`$ and describe the theory in terms of the matter condensate $`Q\overline{Q}`$ only. The resulting model accounts for the results we obtained for $`N_f=1`$  and also for the upper branch of the $`N_f=N_c1`$ case, studied by Smilga et al .

One can easily check that the second, lower branch present in this latter case corresponds to $`S0`$. If we have a look at the constraint equation (19) evaluated at $`R_00`$ the result is

$$\rho _0=\frac{N_c}{N_f}\mathrm{cos}\left(\pi \frac{N_f}{N_c}\right).$$
(22)
The immediate conclusion one can draw is that there will only exist domain wall solutions with $`\rho _0>0`$ if and only if $`\frac{N_f}{N_c}>1/2`$. It has been argued in Ref.  that the existence of this lower branch is directly connected to the fact that the Kähler metric for the $`S`$ field is, in this case, singular. In that case, this lower branch would be nothing but an artifact due to the choice of metric. It should also be mentioned here that, according to Ref. , the total number of BPS-saturated domain walls for a given value of $`N_f/N_c`$ can only change by a multiple of two, when $`m`$ is continuously varied, and that is the reason why the upper and lower branches end up collapsing into a non-BPS domain wall above $`m_{}`$. However this does not explain why they have to collapse at all.

$``$ For large masses (i.e. $`m\mathrm{\Lambda }`$) one can integrate out the matter condensate ($`Q\overline{Q}`$) and our model will be described by the gaugino condensate only (i.e. we recover SUSY gluodynamics). In order to do that, it is worth noticing that, in this large mass regime, $`MS`$, and we can do the following identifications

$`\rho (z)e^{i\alpha (z)}`$ $`=`$ $`R(z)e^{i\beta (z)},z1/m`$
$`\rho (z)e^{i\alpha (z)}`$ $`=`$ $`R(z)e^{i(\beta (z)2\pi )},z1/m.`$
That is, to the left of the centre of the domain wall, both condensates behave in the same way whereas, to the right of it, their phase difference is $`2\pi `$. This is illustrated in Fig. 3, where we plot the phase difference between the two condensates (in units of $`2\pi `$) as a function of the spatial coordinate, for several values of the mass parameter $`m`$.

One can also analyze the constraint equation (19) in this large mass limit, which will be given in terms of the modulus of the condensate $`R_0`$ as

$$R_0(1\mathrm{ln}(R_0))=\mathrm{cos}\left(\pi \frac{N_f}{N_c}\right).$$
(24)
A quick glance at this equation tells us that, in order to have $`R_0<1`$, which corresponds to finite-energy, well-defined domain walls, we must be in the case where $`\frac{N_f}{N_c}<1/2`$. In other words, it does not seem possible to reach the $`m\mathrm{}`$ limit, continuously from small $`m`$, in a model where $`\frac{N_f}{N_c}>1/2`$. The fact that, in that case, there are no BPS-saturated domain walls at large $`m`$, whereas we had two branches of solutions at small $`M`$ explains why, at some point, those must have annihilated each other at $`m_{}`$.

On the other hand, Eq. (24) is telling us that there is an analytic limit $`m\mathrm{}`$ limit that we can construct when $`N_f/N_c<1/2`$; using Eq. (LABEL:SeqM) we can write down two BPS equations for $`S`$, one for the right hand side of the domain wall and another one for the left hand side. The solution is given by the thick line in Fig. 1 and, as we can see, coincides very well with what we would expect for the large $`m`$ limit by looking at the finite mass results.

### 4.2 Different windings

Now that we have presented and explained most of the results in the literature, let us step onto new ground. As mentioned above, up to now the standard procedure was to consider all the matter fields transforming in the same way when going from one vacuum of the theory to another. We shall now break this degeneracy and assign different winding numbers to the different matter fields. At this stage we present results concerning a particular example, that of $`N_c=3`$ and $`N_f=2`$, while a more detailed and general analysis will be presented elsewhere .

According to the results of the previous subsection, when $`N_c=3`$ and $`N_f=2`$, then $`N_f/N_c>1/2`$ and we should expect two branches of BPS-saturated domain walls that annihilate each other at $`m_{}`$ (see Ref. ). And that is indeed what happens when $`\omega _1=\omega _2=1`$. However, if we consider a different choice for the windings, i.e. $`\omega _1=1`$, $`\omega _2=0`$, then it turns out that one can construct BPS-saturated domain walls for any value of the mass $`m`$. The profiles of these fields can be seen in Fig. 4, where we plot the Argand diagram for $`S`$, $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$ with masses $`m_1=m_2=250`$.

There it can be seen that the matter condensate with $`\omega _1=1`$ follows a different path than the one with no winding, which simply mimics the gaugino condensate, $`S`$; and it is exactly the same path described by the matter field for $`N_c=3`$, $`N_f=1`$. Actually it is possible to increase the value of $`m_2`$ while keeping $`m_1`$ finite and constant, in order to integrate out the second condensate and recover the results we obtained for $`N_c=3`$, $`N_f=1`$. The key point to perform this exercise is to notice that the relevant ratio that classifies the solutions is not $`N_f/N_c`$ but $`k/N_c`$ where, as defined before, $`k=_i\omega _i`$. In the previous case, $`k=N_f`$, whereas now we have $`N_f=2`$ with $`k=1`$.

Therefore it should be in principle possible to construct BPS-saturated domain walls for any value of $`N_f`$, $`N_c`$, just by choosing the windings of the matter fields in such a way that their sum, $`k`$, over the number of colours, $`N_c`$, is less than $`1/2`$. However it must be pointed out once again that, only when $`|k|1`$, the paths described by the different fields between two vacua do not cross the logarithmic branch. Those are the only physically meaningful domain walls that we know, so far, how to construct.

## 5 Conclusions

Let us summarize first the results obtained, before discussing what would be interesting to pursue in order to improve our understanding of these objects. We have looked in detail at domain walls in SUSY-QCD, as a way of understanding SUSY gluodynamics, the nearest relative to ordinary QCD. Using the TVY effective Lagrangian, we have constructed BPS-saturated domain walls for certain values of $`N_f`$, the number of matter condensates, and $`m`$, the mass of those condensates. The results so far obtained can be summarized as follows:

* All matter fields transforming in the same way (equal windings)

+ If $`N_f/N_c<1/2`$ there are BPS-saturated domain walls for any value of $`m`$.
    + If $`N_f/N_c1/2`$ there are BPS-saturated domain walls up to $`m_{}`$.
    + The logarithmic branch of the scalar potential is not crossed only when $`N_f=1`$.
* Non-degenerate flavours (different windings): any choice of $`\omega _i`$ such that $`k=_i\omega _i=1`$ gives BPS-saturated solutions for any ($`N_f`$,$`N_c`$) and $`m`$ with no crossing of the branch.
* The analysis of the constraint $`\mathrm{Im}(e^{i\gamma }𝒲)=\mathrm{const}`$ at the origin ($`z=0`$) is the key to understand the results.

So, at least, we have now a criterion to construct well-behaved BPS-saturated domain walls but, of course, this project is far from over. The next issue that should be addressed is that of the branches associated with the logarithm in the potential. As mentioned at the end of section 2, several suggestions have been put forward but none has so far provided us with a satisfactory answer.

Another issue which is rather controversial is the dependence of these results on the choice of Kähler metric. In fact it has been widely claimed in the literature that the origin of the lower branch found in Refs  is a Kähler metric which blows up near the centre of those solutions. This is not a problem that one encounters in theories with higher supersymmetries, where the Kähler function is totally determined by the symmetries of the theory. Therefore an obvious way of trying to understand this dependence is through the connection of the $`N=1`$ SUSY contructions here presented with those attempted with higher supersymmetries (for example, those of Refs. ).

Finally it would be desirable to connect the results obtained here with constructions of BPS-saturated domain walls in the large $`N_c`$ limit in the context of SUSY gluodynamics, which have been performed in Ref. . As mentioned in the introduction, these objects could play a very important role in the D-brane description of SUSY-QCD.


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# On the product by generators of characteristically nilpotent Lie S-algebras11footnote 1Research partially supported by the D.G.I.C.Y.T project PB98-0758

## Abstract.

We introduce the product by generators of complex nilpotent Lie algebras, which is a commutative product obtained from a central extension of the direct sum of Lie algebras. We show that the product preserves also the characteristic nilpotence provided that the multiplied algebras are $`S`$-algebras. In particular, this shows the existence of nonsplit characteristically nilpotent Lie algebras $`𝔥`$ such that the quotient $`\frac{dim𝔥dimZ\left(𝔥\right)}{dimZ\left(𝔥\right)}`$ is as small as wanted.
Keywords : product by generators, S-algebra, characteristically nilpotent

A nilpotent Lie algebra $`𝔤`$ is called characteristically nilpotent ( short CNLA) if there exists an integer $`m`$ such that $`𝔤^{[m]}=0`$, where

$$𝔤^{[1]}=Der\left(𝔤\right)\left(𝔤\right)=\left\{X𝔤\right|X=f\left(Y\right),fDer\left(𝔤\right),Y𝔤\}$$

and

$$𝔤^{[k]}=Der\left(𝔤\right)\left(𝔤^{[k1]}\right),k>1$$

In  it is shown that this condition is equivalent to the nilpotence of the Lie algebra of derivations. CNLAs were introduced in 1957 by Dixmier and Lister , and have constituted an interesting object of study since then. It is well known that, given two CNLAs $`𝔤_1`$ and $`𝔤_2`$, their direct sum $`𝔤_1𝔤_2`$ is also a CNLA. This allows to construct such algebras in arbitrary dimension. However, the disadvantage is the splitness of the resulting algebra. In this paper we introduce a commutative operation $`\underset{¯}{\times }`$ on the variety of complex nilpotent Lie algebras, which is called product by generators. This product is a natural generalization of the direct sum, and it has the remarkable property of preserving nonsplitness. Moreover, for the subclass of nilpotent S-Lie algebras the product by generators of two CNLAs is also characteristically nilpotent ( and nonsplit), generalizing the result obtained by Leger and Tôgô in  for the direct sum. In particular, we can construct nonsplit CNLAs for which the proportion between the elements in the derived algebra which are not central and the center is as small as wanted.
We convene that whenever we speak about nilpotent Lie algebras, we mean a finite dimensional complex nonabelian nilpotent Lie algebra.

Let $`𝔤_1`$ and $`𝔤_2`$ be nilpotent Lie algebras of dimensions $`m_1,m_2`$, respectively. Suppose that $`\{X_1,..,X_{m_1}\}`$ is a basis for $`𝔤_1`$ such that $`\{X_1,..,X_{n_1}\}`$ generates the algebra, and $`\{X_1^{},..,X_{m_2}^{}\}`$ a basis of $`𝔤_2`$ with generators $`\{X_1^{^{}},..,X_{n_2}^{}\}`$. Consider the direct sum $`𝔤_1𝔤_2`$ and the 2-cochain $`\phi C^2(𝔤_1𝔤_2,^{n_1n_2})`$ given by

$$\phi (X_i,X_j^{})=\{\begin{array}{cc}e_{\left(i1\right)n_2+j}& 1in_1,1jn_2\\ 0& \text{if }i>n_1\text{ or }j>n_2\end{array}$$

where $`\{e_1,..,e_{n_1n_2}\}`$ is the canonical basis of $`^{n_1n_2}`$.

The proof of the next assertion follows at once :

###### Lemma.

For $`n_1,n_22`$ we have $`\phi Z^2(𝔤_1𝔤_2,^{n_1n_2})`$.

It is well that the central extensions of a nilpotent Lie algebra $`𝔤`$ are defined by cocycles for the trivial representation . This justifies the following :

###### Definition.

The product by generators $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ of $`𝔤_1`$ and $`𝔤_2`$ is the central extension of $`𝔤_1𝔤_1`$ defined by the cocycle class of $`\phi `$.

###### Proposition 1.

If $`𝔤_i`$ is nonsplit for $`i=1,2`$, then the product by generators $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ is a $`\left(m_1+m_2+n_1n_2\right)`$-dimensional nonsplit Lie algebra of nilindex $`\mathrm{max}\{n\left(𝔤_1\right),n\left(𝔤_2\right)\}`$.

###### Remark.

We observe in particular that any product by generators of two Lie algebras ( abelian or not ) is nonsplit.

###### Proposition 2.

For nilpotent Lie algebras $`𝔤_i\left(1it\right)`$ we have

1. $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2=𝔤_2\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_1`$
2. $`\left(𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_3\underset{¯}{\times }\mathrm{}𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_{t1}\right)\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_t𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }\left(𝔤_2\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_3\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_4\underset{¯}{\times }\mathrm{}𝔤_{t1}\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_t\right)`$

###### Definition.

A nilpotent Lie algebra $`𝔤`$ is called a product by generators if there exist two subalgebras $`𝔥_1`$ and $`𝔥_2`$ such that $`𝔥_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔥_2`$.

As usual, the center of a nilpotent Lie algebra $`𝔤`$ is denoted by $`Z\left(𝔤\right)`$, while the ideals of the central descending sequence are denoted by $`C^i𝔤`$, where $`C^1𝔤=[𝔤,𝔤]`$.

###### Proposition 3.

If $`𝔤`$ is a product by generators, then $`dimZ\left(𝔤\right)6`$ and $`dim\frac{𝔤}{C^1𝔤}4`$. In particular, no filiform Lie algebra can be a product by generators.

###### Proof.

Let $`𝔤`$ be a such product and $`𝔤_1,𝔤_2`$ the ( nonabelian ) subalgebras which define it. As any nilpotent Lie algebra has at least two generators, and the product by generators combines precisely these vectors, the product $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ has at least four generators. Now the adjoined vectors are central, and as $`dimZ\left(𝔤_i\right)1`$ for $`i=1,2`$, the assertion follows. Now, if $`𝔤`$ were filiform, we would have $`dim\frac{𝔤}{C^1𝔤}=2.`$

###### Corollary.

If $`𝔤`$ is a product by generators, then $`dim\left(𝔤\right)10`$.

###### Remark.

The preceding dimension is the lowest possible, as we have excluded the one dimensional Lie algebra $``$ from our analysis.

###### Corollary.

If $`𝔤`$ is a product by generators of characteristically nilpotent algebras, then $`dim\left(𝔤\right)18.`$

###### Proof.

The lowest dimension for which CNLA exist is seven . Thus, as these algebras have at least two generators and a one dimensional center, the minimal dimension for a product $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ is 18. ∎

Let $`𝔤_1`$ and $`𝔤_2`$ be nilpotent Lie algebras and consider the product by generators $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$. It is clear that as vector space we have $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2=𝔤_1𝔤_2𝔤_3`$, where $`𝔤_3=Z_1,..,Z_{n_1n_2}`$. Let $`p_i:𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2𝔤_i`$ be the projection of $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ over $`𝔤_i`$ for $`i=1,2,3`$. For an arbitrary derivation $`DDer\left(𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2\right)`$ write $`D_{ij}=p_iDp_j`$. It is obvious that $`D=_{i,j}D_{ij}`$. In particular

$`D\left(𝔤_1\right)`$ $`=D_{11}\left(𝔤_1\right)+D_{21}\left(𝔤_1\right)+D_{31}\left(𝔤_1\right)`$
$`D\left(𝔤_2\right)`$ $`=D_{12}\left(𝔤_2\right)+D_{22}\left(𝔤_2\right)+D_{32}\left(𝔤_2\right)`$
$`D\left(𝔤_3\right)`$ $`=D_{13}\left(𝔤_3\right)+D_{23}\left(𝔤_3\right)+D_{33}\left(𝔤_3\right)`$
###### Proposition 4.

The following relations hold :

1. $`D_{ii}`$ is a derivation of $`𝔤_i`$ for $`i=1,2`$
2. $`D_{21}\left(C^1𝔤_1\right)=D_{12}\left(C^1𝔤_2\right)=0`$
3. $`D_{i3}\left(𝔤_3\right)Z\left(𝔤_i\right)`$ for $`i=1,2`$
4. $`D_{12}\left(𝔤_2\right)T_1,D_{21}\left(𝔤_1\right)T_2`$, where

$$T_i=\left\{Y𝔤_i\right|[Y,𝔤_i]Z\left(𝔤_i\right)\},i=1,2$$

###### Proof.

Let $`X,X^{}`$ be arbitrary elements of $`𝔤_1`$. Then

$`D[X,X^{}]`$ $`=D_{11}[X,X^{}]+D_{21}[X,X^{}]+D_{31}[X,X^{}]`$
$`=[D_{11}X,X^{}]+[D_{21}X,X^{}]+[X,D_{11}X^{}]+[X,D_{21}X^{}]`$
From the brackets of $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ it follows that

$`D_{11}[X,X^{}]`$ $`=[D_{11}X,X^{}]+[X,D_{11}X^{}]`$
$`D_{21}[X,X^{}]`$ $`=0`$
$`D_{31}[X,X^{}]`$ $`=[D_{21}X,X^{}]+[X,D_{21}X^{}]`$
This shows that $`D_{11}`$ is a derivation of $`𝔤_1`$ and that $`D_{21}\left(C^1𝔤_1\right)=0`$. From the third identity it follows moreover that $`D_{31}\left(C^2𝔤_1\right)=0`$.
Reasoning with elements $`X,X^{}𝔤_2`$ we obtain that $`D_{22}Der\left(𝔤_2\right)`$ and $`D_{12}\left(C^1𝔤_2\right)=D_{32}\left(C^2𝔤_2\right)=0`$.
Now let $`X𝔤_1`$ and $`X^{}𝔤_2`$. Then $`[X,X^{}]𝔤_3`$ and

$`D[X,X^{}]`$ $`=D_{13}[X,X^{}]+D_{23}[X,X^{}]+D_{33}[X,X^{}]`$
$`=[D_{11}X,X^{}]+[D_{21}X,X^{}]+[X,D_{12}X^{}]+[X,D_{22}X^{}]`$
and reordering as before

$`D_{33}[X,X^{}]`$ $`=[D_{11}X,X^{}]+[X,D_{22}X^{}]`$
$`D_{13}[X,X^{}]`$ $`=[X,D_{12}X^{}]`$
$`D_{23}[X,X^{}]`$ $`=[D_{21}X,X^{}]`$
which shows that $`D_{i3}\left(𝔤_3\right)C^1\left(𝔤_i\right)`$ for $`i=1,2`$.
If $`X𝔤_1`$ and $`X^{}𝔤_3,`$

$$D[X,X^{}]=0=[X,D_{13}X^{}]+[X,D_{23}X^{}]$$

and as $`[X,D_{13}X^{}]C^1𝔤_1`$ and $`[X,D_{23}X^{}]𝔤_3`$, we have

$$[X,D_{13}X^{}]=[X,D_{23}X^{}]=0$$

This proves that $`D_{13}\left(𝔤_3\right)Z\left(𝔤_1\right)`$. Similarly we obtain $`D_{23}\left(𝔤_3\right)Z\left(𝔤_2\right)`$.
Now, taking $`X,X^{}`$ generators of $`𝔤_1`$ and $`𝔤_2`$, respectively, we have

$$Z\left(𝔤_1\right)D_{13}[X,X^{}]=[X,D_{12}X^{}]$$

$$Z\left(𝔤_2\right)D_{23}[X,X^{}]=[D_{21}X,X^{}]$$

This shows that $`D_{12}X^{}T_1`$ and $`D_{21}XT_2`$, from which the last assertion follows. ∎

###### Remark.

Observe that if $`T_iC^1𝔤_i`$, it clearly follows that $`D_{21}\left(𝔤_1\right)C^1𝔤_i,D_{12}\left(𝔤_2\right)C^1𝔤_2`$ and $`D_{31}\left(C^1𝔤_1\right)=D_{32}\left(C^1𝔤_2\right)=0`$. In particular, algebras satisfying this were used in  to prove that the deletion of the center by any derivation is not sufficient for an algebra to be characteristically nilpotent. For an example of a CNLA $`𝔤`$ for which $`\left\{Y𝔤\right|[Y,𝔤]Z\left(𝔤\right)\}C^1𝔤`$ consider the algebra introduced by Luks in .

The following result gives sufficient conditions to ensure that $`D_{ij}\left(𝔤_j\right)C^1𝔤_i\left(1i,j2,ij\right)`$ :

###### Proposition 5.

Let $`1i,j2`$$`ij`$. Suppose that any generator $`X`$ of $`𝔤_i`$ satisfies one of the following conditions

1. there exists a generator $`X^{}`$ such that

$$[X,Y]C^p𝔤_i,p2$$
2. there exist generators $`X^{},Y,Y^{}`$ of $`𝔤_i`$ such that

$$[X,X^{}]=a[Y,Y^{}]\left(\mathrm{mod}C^2𝔤_i\right),a0$$

Then $`D_{ji}\left(𝔤_i\right)C^1𝔤_j`$and $`D_{3i}\left(C^1𝔤_i\right)=D_{3j}\left(C^1𝔤_j\right)=0`$.

###### Proof.

Let $`X`$ be a generator of $`𝔤_1`$ satisfying the first condition. From the preceding proof we have $`D_{31}[X,X^{}]=[D_{21}X,X^{}]+[X,D_{21}X^{}]`$ for $`X,X^{}𝔤_1`$.Let $`X^{}`$ be the generator such that $`[X,X^{}]C^p𝔤_1`$ with $`p2`$. Then $`D_{31}[X,X^{}]=0`$. If $`Y,Y^{}`$ are arbitrary generators of $`𝔤_2`$, then by the definition of $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ it follows that $`[Y,X]=[Y^{},X^{}]`$ if and only if $`X=X^{}`$ and $`Y=Y^{}`$. This shows that

$$[D_{21}X,X^{}]=[X,D_{21}X^{}]=0$$

thus $`D_{21}XC^1𝔤_1`$ and $`D_{21}X^{}C^1𝔤_1`$.
The second assertion follows in a similar way. ∎

###### Definition.

A nilpotent Lie algebra $`𝔤_1`$ is called an $`S`$-algebra if for any Lie algebra $`𝔤_2`$ and any derivation $`D`$ of $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ we have

$$D_{21}\left(𝔤_1\right)C^1𝔤_2$$

###### Remark.

Clearly any CNLA $`𝔤_i`$ satisfying $`T_iC^1𝔤_i`$ or the requirements of proposition $`4`$ is an $`S`$-algebra. Thus all nonsplit classical examples of CNLAs satisfy the preceding definition ( , , , ).

In what follows, we will require that the Lie algebras $`𝔤_i`$ are also $`S`$-algebras. With these conditions, we have, for any derivation $`D=_{i,j}D_{ij}`$ :

$`D_{12}\left(𝔤_2\right)`$ $`C^1𝔤_1\text{and }D_{12}\left(C^1𝔤_2\right)=0;`$
$`D_{21}\left(𝔤_1\right)`$ $`C^1𝔤_2\text{and }D_{21}\left(C^1𝔤_1\right)=0`$
$`D_{i3}\left(𝔤_3\right)`$ $`Z\left(𝔤_i\right),i=1,2`$
$`D_{3j}\left(𝔤_j\right)`$ $`𝔤_3\text{and }D_{3j}\left(C^1𝔤_j\right)=0,j=1,2`$
From this, it is easy to deduce the following relations

(1) $`D_{ij}D_{jk}`$ $`=0,j=1,2,ik`$
(2) $`D_{i3}D_{31}\left(𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2\right)`$ $`Z\left(𝔤_i\right),ik`$
(3) $`D_{ki}D_{i3}D_{3j}`$ $`=0,i,j3,ki`$
(4) $`D_{i3}D_{3j}D_{jk}`$ $`=0,i,i3,jk`$
###### Lemma.

Let $`j=1,2`$. For any $`m1`$ we have

$$D_{ij}D_{jj}^mD_{jk}=0,ij,jk$$

###### Proof.

As for $`j3`$ we have $`D_{jk}\left(𝔤_k\right)C^1𝔤_j`$ and $`D_{jj}^m\left(C^1𝔤_j\right)C^1𝔤_j`$, the result follows from the fact that $`D_{ij}\left(C^1𝔤_j\right)=0`$. ∎

###### Remark.

Observe that this result is false if it is not assured that $`D_{ij}\left(𝔤_j\right)C^1𝔤_j`$ $`\left(i=1,2\right)`$.

###### Lemma.

Let $`i,j\{1,2\}`$. Then following equalities hold

1. $`D_{i3}D_{33}D_{3j}\left(𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2\right)Z\left(𝔤_i\right)`$
2. $`D_{i3}D_{33}D_{3j}D_{jk}=0,jk`$
3. $`D_{li}D_{i3}D_{33}D_{3j}=0,li`$

The proof follows immediately from succesice application of the relations $`\left(1\right)`$ to $`\left(4\right)`$.
From these facts, it is elementary to see that for any $`k1`$ we have

(5)
$$D^k=\underset{\begin{array}{c}ij\\ p+q=k1\end{array}}{}D_{ii}^pD_{ij}D_{jj}^q+\underset{\begin{array}{c}i,j3\\ r+s+t=k2\end{array}}{}D_{ii}^rD_{i3}D_{33}^sD_{3j}D_{jj}^t$$

###### Remark.

Observe the similarity with the corresponding formula for the direct sum . The residue of the second summand is due to the fact that $`𝔤_3`$ is an abelian ideal generated by $`𝔤_1`$ and $`𝔤_2`$ and that $`D_{33}`$ is not a derivation.

###### Proposition 6.

If $`D_{11}`$ and $`D_{22}`$ are nilpotent derivations, then $`D_{33}`$ is a nilpotent endomorphism.

###### Proof.

Let $`X𝔤_1`$ and $`X^{}𝔤_2`$. By the definition of $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$, $`[X,X^{}]𝔤_3`$. Then

$`D^k[X,X^{}]`$ $`=[D^kX,X^{}]+[X,D^kX^{}]`$
$`=[p_1D^kX+p_2D^kX,X^{}]+[X,p_1D^kX^{}+p_2D^kX^{}]`$
It follows that

$`p_1D^k[X,X^{}]`$ $`=[X,p_1D^kX^{}];p_2D^k[X,X^{}]=[p_2D^kX,X^{}]`$
$`p_3D^k[X,X^{}]`$ $`=[p_1D^kX,X^{}]+[X,p_2D^kX^{}]`$
From the relations $`\left(1\right)`$ to $`\left(4\right)`$ and the form of $`D^k`$ in $`\left(5\right)`$ it is easy to see that the last identity simplifies to

$$D_{33}^k[X,X^{}]=[D_{11}^kX,X^{}]+[X,D_{22}^kX^{}]$$

Thus, if $`D_{11}^{r_1}=D_{22}^{r_2}=0`$, then $`D_{33}^{\mathrm{max}\{r_1,r_2\}}=0`$. ∎

###### Theorem 1.

Let $`𝔤_1`$ and $`𝔤_2`$ be two characteristically nilpotent Lie ($`S`$-)algebras. Then $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ is also a CNLA.

###### Proof.

Let $`\alpha _1,\alpha _2`$ be the smallest integers such that $`𝔤_i^{\left[\alpha _i\right]}=0`$. Without loss of generality suppose that $`\alpha _2=\mathrm{max}\{\alpha _1,\alpha _2\}`$. Then for any $`m\alpha _1+2\alpha _2+2`$ we have $`D^m=0`$. Thus any derivation of $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ is nilpotent. ∎

###### Corollary.

Let $`𝔤_1,..,𝔤_n`$ be characteristically nilpotent $`S`$-algebras. Then $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2\underset{¯}{\times }\mathrm{}\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_n`$ is a CNLA.

###### Example 1.

Consider the algebra $`𝔤`$ of Dixmier and Lister  : it has basis $`\{X_1,..,X_8\}`$ and law

$$\begin{array}{ccc}[X_1,X_2]=X_5& [X_2,X_3]=X_8& [X_3,X_4]=X_5\\ [X_1,X_3]=X_6& [X_2,X_4]=X_6& [X_3,X_5]=X_7\\ [X_1,X_4]=X_7& [X_2,X_6]=X_7& [X_4,X_6]=X_8\\ [X_1,X_5]=X_8& & \end{array}$$

Consider the product $`𝔤\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤`$. It is 32-dimensional with 20-dimensional center. As this algebra satisfies $`T=\left\{Y𝔤\right|[Y,𝔤]Z\left(𝔤\right)\}`$, its product is characteristically nilpotent. Observe in particular that $`D_{33}=`$. This follows from the fact that any derivation of $`𝔤`$ maps the algebra into $`C^1𝔤`$. Thus

$$D\left(𝔤\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤\right)C^1\left(𝔤\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤\right)$$

for any derivation $`D`$.

###### Corollary.

Let $`𝔤_i`$ ( $`i=1,2`$ ) be S-algebras such that $`f_i\left(𝔤_i\right)C^1\left(𝔤_i\right)`$ for any $`f_iDer\left(𝔤_i\right)`$. Then $`𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2`$ is characteristically nilpotent and $`D\left(𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2\right)C^1\left(𝔤_1\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤_2\right)`$ for any derivation of the product.

###### Example 2.

Consider the algebra $`𝔏`$ given by Luks in . It has basis $`\{X_1,..,X_{16}\}`$ and law

$`[X_1,X_i]`$ $`=X_{5+i},i=2,3,4,5;[X_1,X_6]=X_{13};[X_1,X_i]=X_{8+i},i=7,8`$
$`[X_2,X_i]`$ $`=X_{i+8},i=3,4,6;[X_2,X_5]=X_{15};[X_2,X_7]=X_{16}`$
$`[X_3,X_4]`$ $`=X_{13}{\displaystyle \frac{9}{5}}X_{15};[X_3,X_5]=X_{14};[X_3,X_6]=X_{16};[X_4,X_5]=2X_{16}`$
Clearly it is an $`S`$-algebra, as its generators satisfy proposition $`4`$. Take the product $`𝔏\underset{¯}{\times }𝔏`$. This algebra is 68-dimensional with 52-dimensional center of nilindex $`3`$. By the preceding theorem, this algebras is characteristically nilpotent.

###### Problem.

It remains to see if there exist characteristically nilpotent Lie algebras $`𝔤`$ which are not $`S`$-algebras. Such an algebra must have at least three generators, from which at least one belongs to the transporter $`T=\left\{Y𝔤\right|[Y,𝔤]Z\left(𝔤\right)\}`$ and does not satisfy the conditions of proposition $`4`$.

Let $`𝔤`$ be a characteristically nilpotent $`S`$-algebra with $`k`$ generators. Then, for any $`n1`$, the $`n^{th}`$ power $`\times `$$`{}_{}{}^{n}𝔤=𝔤\underset{¯}{\times }\mathrm{}\underset{¯}{\times }𝔤`$ ( n times ) is characteristically nilpotent. Morever, we have

$`dim\underset{¯}{\times }^n𝔤`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}n^2k^2+\left(dim𝔤{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}k^2\right)n`$
$`dimZ\left(\underset{¯}{\times }^n𝔤\right)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}n^2k^2+\left(dimZ\left(𝔤\right){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}k^2\right)n`$
The proof follows by induction over $`n`$. Observe in particular that

$$\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{\frac{1}{2}n^2k^2+\left(dim𝔤\frac{1}{2}k^2\right)n}{\frac{1}{2}n^2k^2+\left(dimZ\left(𝔤\right)\frac{1}{2}k^2\right)n}=1$$

from which we obtain

###### Theorem 2.

For any $`\epsilon >0`$ there exists a nonsplit characteristically nilpotent Lie algebra $`𝔥`$such that

$$\frac{codim_𝔥Z\left(𝔥\right)}{dimZ\left(𝔥\right)}<\epsilon $$

where $`codim_𝔥Z\left(𝔥\right)=dim𝔥dimZ\left(𝔥\right)`$.
Now, the number of elements in $`C^1\left(\underset{¯}{\times }^n𝔤\right)`$ which are not central equals

$$dim\left(\underset{¯}{\times }^n𝔤\right)dimZ\left(\left(\underset{¯}{\times }^n𝔤\right)\right)kn=n\left(\text{co}dim_𝔤Z\left(𝔤\right)k\right)=n\left(dimC^1𝔤dimZ\left(𝔤\right)\right)$$

###### Corollary.

For any $`\epsilon >0`$ there exists a nonsplit characteristically nilpotent Lie algebra $`𝔥`$such that

$$\frac{dimC^1𝔥dimZ\left(𝔥\right)}{dimZ\left(𝔥\right)}<\epsilon $$

###### Proof.

Let $`N`$ be such that $`\frac{1}{N}<\epsilon `$. Let $`𝔤`$ be any nonsplit characteristically nilpotent $`S`$-algebra with $`k`$ generators. Consider the $`n^{th}`$-power $`\times `$$`{}_{}{}^{n}𝔤`$, where

$$n>\frac{2N}{k^2}\left(\text{co}dim_𝔤Z\left(𝔤\right)k\right)\frac{2dimZ\left(𝔤\right)}{k^2}+1$$

Then we have

$$\frac{dimC^1\left(\underset{¯}{\times }^n𝔤\right)dimZ\left(\underset{¯}{\times }^n𝔤\right)}{dimZ\left(\underset{¯}{\times }^n𝔤\right)}<\frac{1}{N}$$

###### Remark.

Observe that for any $`n,`$ the number of elements in $`C^1\left(\underset{¯}{\times }^n𝔤\right)`$ which are not central increases linearly, while the number of central elements increases quadratically.