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# On the Schrödinger Flows

## 1. Introduction

Recently the research on so-called Schrödinger flow (or Schrödinger map -) has been carried out by several authors. This is an infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian flow defined on the space of mappings from a Riemannian manifold $`(M,g)`$ into a Kähler manifold $`(N,J,h)`$, where $`g`$ is the Riemannian metric on $`M`$, and $`h`$ is the Kähler metric on $`N`$, with $`J`$ being the complex structure on $`N`$. This flow is defined by the following equation

$`u_t=J(u)\tau (u),`$ (1.1)
where $`\tau (u)`$ is the so-called tension field well-known in the theory of harmonic maps. In local coordinates, $`\tau (u)`$ is given by

$$\tau (u)^i=\mathrm{\Delta }_Mu^ig^{\alpha \beta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{jk}^i(u)\frac{u^j}{x^\alpha }\frac{u^k}{x^\beta }.$$

Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }_M`$ is the Laplace-Beltrami operator on $`M`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{jk}^i`$ are the Christoffel symbols of the Riemannian connection on $`N`$. Obviously, the Schrödinger flows preserves the energy $`E(u)`$ of mapping $`u`$, i.e. $`E(u(t))E(u(0))`$, where

$$E(u)=\frac{1}{2}_Mg^{\alpha \beta }h_{jk}(u)\frac{u^j}{x^\alpha }\frac{u^k}{x^\beta }𝑑M.$$

Schrödinger flows are related to various theories in mechanics and physics. A well-known and important example is the so-called Heisenberg spin chain system (also called ferromagnetic spin chain system ). This is just the Schrödinger flow into $`S^2`$. Consider $`S^2`$ as the unit sphere in $`R^3`$, then the equation for the system is given by

$$u_t=u\times \mathrm{\Delta }u.$$

Note that, for a mapping $`u`$ from $`M`$ into $`S^2`$,

$$J(u)=u\times :T_uS^2T_uS^2$$

is the standard complex structure on $`S^2`$, and the tension field of the map $`u`$ into $`S^2`$ is given by $`\tau (u)=\mathrm{\Delta }u+|u|^2u`$. So, we have $`u\times \mathrm{\Delta }u=J(u)\tau (u)`$. Another interesting example of the Schrödinger flow is the anisotropic Heisenberg spin chain system, i.e. the Schrödinger flow into Poincaré disk $`H(1)`$.

Comparing to other geometric nonlinear evolutionary systems, such as the heat flow of harmonic maps (parabolic system) and wave maps (hyperbolic system), the study of Schrödinger flows is still at the beginning stage. There are some remarkable results on the existence of solutions for certain specific cases. E.g. for the Heisenberg spin chain system ($`N=S^2`$), Zhou et. al.  proved the global existence for $`M=S^1`$, and Sulem et. al.  proved the local existence for $`M=R^m`$. There are some more recent works, see ,  and . For the general case, however, it turns out that even local existence is hard to prove. In this respect, a recent result obtained by Youde Wang and this author () states

Theorem  Let $`(M,g)`$ be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension $`m`$, and let $`(N,J,h)`$ is a closed Kähler manifold. If $`m_0`$ is the smallest integer greater than $`m/2`$ (i.e. $`m_0=[m/2]+1`$), and $`u_0W^{k,2}(M,N)`$ for any $`km_0+3`$, then the initial value problem for (1.1) with initial value $`u_0`$ has a unique local solution. Moreover, if $`u_0C^{\mathrm{}}(M,N)`$, the local solution is $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$ smooth.

We remark that, the maximal existence time of the local solution in the above result, depends only on the $`W^{m_0+1}`$-norm of the initial map $`u_0`$ for any $`k`$. This is why we can get local existence in the $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$ case. Also, for the existence part, the regularity of $`u_0`$ can be lowered to $`W^{k,2}`$ with $`km_0+1`$, however we do not know how to get the uniqueness if $`k<m_0+3`$.

In the following, we give a description of the proof of the above Theorem in Section 2 and 3. Then, in Section 4, we pose some important problems for future research of the Schrödinger flows.

## 2. Some inequalities for Sobolev section norms of maps

Let $`\pi :EM`$ be a Riemannian vector bundle over $`M`$. Then we have the bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^pT^{}MEM`$ over $`M`$ which is the tenser product of the bundle $`E`$ and the induced $`p`$-form bundle over $`M`$, where $`p=1,2,\mathrm{},dim(M)`$. We define $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{\Lambda }^pT^{}ME)`$ as the set of all smooth sections of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^pT^{}MEM`$. There exists a induced metric on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^pT^{}MEM`$ from the metric on $`T^{}M`$ and $`E`$ such that for any $`s_1,s_2\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{\Lambda }^pT^{}ME)`$

$$s_1,s_2=\underset{i_1<i_2<\mathrm{}<i_p}{}s_1(e_{i_1},\mathrm{},e_{i_p}),s_2(e_{i_1},\mathrm{},e_{i_p}),$$

where $`\{e_i\}`$ is an orthonormal local frame of $`TM`$. We define the inner product on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{\Lambda }^pT^{}ME)`$ as follows

$$(s_1,s_2)=_Ms_1,s_2(x)𝑑M=_Ms_1,s_2(x)1.$$

The Sobolev space $`L^2(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }^pT^{}ME)`$ is the completion of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{\Lambda }^pT^{}ME)`$ with respect to the above inner product $`(,)`$, we may also define analogously the Sobolev spaces $`H^{k,r}(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }^pT^{}ME)`$ or $`H^{k,r}(M,E)`$. Let $``$ be the covariant differential induced by the metric on $`E`$, then we can take the completion of the smooth sections of $`E`$ in the norm,

$$s_{k,r}=s_{H^{k,r}(M,E)}=(\underset{i=0}{\overset{k}{}}_M|^is|^r𝑑M)^{\frac{1}{r}}.$$

We call the above Sobolev spaces as the bundle-valued Sobolev spaces.

In  We establish the following interpolation inequality for sections on vector bundles, which was proved for functions on $`^m`$ by Gagliardo and Nirenberg, and for functions on Riemannian manifolds by Aubin ().

Lemma 2.1 Let $`M`$ be a compact Riemannian manifold with $`dim(M)=m`$ and $`E`$ be a Riemannian vector bundle over $`M`$. Let $`q,r`$ be real numbers $`1q,r\mathrm{}`$ and $`j,m`$ integers $`0jn`$. Then there exists a constant $`C(M)`$ depending $`m,n,j,q,r`$ and $`a`$, and on $`M`$, but not depending on the choice of metrics on $`E`$, such that for all $`sC^{\mathrm{}}(E)`$:

$`^js_{L^p}C(M)s_{H^{n,r}}^as_{L^q}^{1a},`$ (2.1)
where

$$\frac{1}{p}=\frac{j}{m}+a\left(\frac{1}{r}\frac{n}{m}\right)+(1a)\frac{1}{q},$$

for all $`a`$ in the interval $`\frac{j}{n}a1`$, for which $`p`$ is non-negative. If $`r=\frac{m}{nj}1`$, then the above interpolation inequality is not true for $`a=1`$.

The so-called Sobolev section norms of mapping $`uC^{\mathrm{}}(M,N)`$, where $`M`$ is a closed Riemannian manifold, is defined as the Sobolev section norms of $`u`$ where $`u`$ is regarded as a section on the bundle $`u^{}(TN)T^{}M`$. Then with $`s=u`$, we have by Lemma 2.1,

$$^{j+1}u_{L^p}Cu_{H^{k,q}}^au_{L^r}^{1a},$$
(2.2)
where the constants in (2.1) satisfy the conditions of Lemma 2.1. Obviously, the $`H^{k,2}`$ norm of maps $`uC^{\mathrm{}}(M,N)`$ is nonlinear with respect to $`u`$.

In order to prove Theorem we need to consider the problem of comparing the $`W^{k,2}`$ norm with $`H^{k,2}`$ norm of maps $`uC^{\mathrm{}}(M,N)`$ (i.e. Sobolev section norm). We assume that $`M`$ is a closed Riemannian manifold and $`N`$ is a compact Riemannian manifold with or without boundary. It will be convenient to imbed $`N`$ isometrically into some Euclidean space $`^K`$, and consider $`N`$ as a compact submanifold of $`^K`$. Then the map $`u`$ can be represented as $`u=(u^1,\mathrm{},u^K)`$ with $`u^i`$ being globally defined functions on $`M`$. The we have

$$u_{W^{k,2}}^2=\underset{i=0}{\overset{k}{}}D^iu_{L^2}^2,$$

where

$$D^iu_{L^2}^2=\underset{|𝐚|=i}{}D_𝐚u_{L^2}^2,$$

and $`D`$ denotes the covariant derivative for functions on $`M`$. The $`H^{k,2}`$ norm of $`u`$ is defined similarly, only we need to replace $`D`$ by $``$, where $``$ is the covariant derivative for sections of the bundle $`u^{}(TN)`$ over $`M`$( For simplicity we also write $`u=Du`$). In  Ding and Wang obtained the following lemma.

Lemma 2.2 Assume that $`k>m/2`$. Then there exists a constant C=C(N,k) such that for all $`uC^{\mathrm{}}(M,N)`$,

$$Du_{W^{k1,2}}C\underset{t=1}{\overset{k}{}}u_{H^{k1,2}}^t,$$
(2.3)
and

$$u_{H^{k1,2}}C\underset{t=1}{\overset{k}{}}Du_{W^{k1,2}}^t.$$
(2.4)
## 3. The proof of theorem

In this section we prove the local existence of smooth solutions for the initial value problem of the Schrödinger flow

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}u_t=J(u)\tau (u),\hfill & \\ u(,0)=u_0C^{\mathrm{}}(M,N).\hfill & \end{array}$$
(3.1)
We need to employ an approximate procedure and solve first the following perturbed problem

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}u_t=ϵ\tau (u)+J(u)\tau (u),\hfill & \\ u(,0)=u_0C^{\mathrm{}}(M,N),\hfill & \end{array}$$
(3.2)
where $`ϵ>0`$ is a small number.

The advantage of (3.2) is that the equation with $`ϵ>0`$ is uniformly parabolic. Hence the initial value problem has a unique smooth solution $`u_ϵC^{\mathrm{}}(M\times [0,T_ϵ],N)`$ for some $`T_ϵ>0`$. The problem is then to obtain a uniform positive lower bound $`T`$ of $`T_ϵ`$, and uniform bounds for various norms of $`u_ϵ(t)`$ in suitable spaces for $`t`$ in the time interval $`[0,T)`$. (Since we shall use $`L^2`$ estimates, the norms are $`W^{k,2}(M,N)`$norms for all positive integer $`k`$.) Once we get these bounds it is clear that the $`u_ϵ`$ subconverge to a smooth solution of (3.1) as $`ϵ0`$.

Now let $`u=u_ϵ`$ be a solution of (3.2), then it is easy to see that the energy $`E(u(t))`$ is uniformly bounded for $`t[0,T_ϵ)`$, i.e.

$$E(u(t))E(u_0).$$
(3.3)
In the following we will make estimations on $`L^2`$norms of all covariant derivatives $`^ku`$ ($`k=2,3,\mathrm{}`$).

Lemma 3.1 Let $`m_0=[m/2]+1`$, where $`[q]`$ denotes the integral part of a positive number $`q`$, and let $`u_0C^{\mathrm{}}(M,N)`$. There exists a constant $`T=T(u_0_{H^{m_0+1,2}})`$ $`>0`$, independent of $`ϵ[0,1]`$, such that if $`uC^{\mathrm{}}(M\times [0,T_ϵ])`$ is a solution of (3.1) with $`ϵ(0,1]`$ then

$$T_ϵT(u_0_{H^{m_0,2}})$$

and

$$u(t)_{H^{k,2}}C(k,u_0_{H^{k,2}})t[0,T]$$

for all $`km_0`$.

Proof  Fix a $`km_0`$, and let $`l`$ be any integer with $`1lk`$. Suppose that $`𝐚`$ be a multi-index of length $`l`$, i.e. $`𝐚=(a_1,\mathrm{},a_l)`$. Then we have for $`tT_ϵ`$

$$\frac{1}{2}\frac{d}{dt}_𝐚_iu_{L^2}^2=_M_𝐚_iu,_t_𝐚_iu.$$
(3.4)
Exchanging the order of covariant differentiation we have (cf. )

$$_t_𝐚_iu=_𝐚_i_tu+_𝐛R(u)(_𝐜u,_𝐝_tu)_𝐞_iu,$$

where the sum is over all multi-indexes $`𝐛,𝐜,𝐝,𝐞`$ with possible zero lengths, except that $`|𝐜|>0`$ always holds, such that

$$(𝐛,𝐜,𝐝,𝐞)=\sigma (𝐚)$$

is a permutation of $`𝐚`$. Noting that we may replace $`_tu`$ in the terms of the summation by the right hand side of equation (3.2), the above identity can be rewritten as

$$_t_𝐚_iu=_𝐚_i_tu+Q$$
(3.5)
with

$$|Q|C(l,M)|^{j_1}u|\mathrm{}|^{j_s}u|$$
(3.6)
where the summation is over all $`(j_1,\mathrm{},j_s)`$ satisfying

$$j_1j_2\mathrm{}j_s,l+1j_i1,j_1+\mathrm{}+j_s=l+3,s3.$$
(3.7)
For the first term in the right hand side of (3.5), we may use the equation (3.2) to get

$`_𝐚_i_tu`$ $`=`$ $`_𝐚_i(ϵ\tau (u)+J(u)\tau (u))`$ (3.8)
$`=`$ $`ϵ_𝐚_i_k_ku+J(u)_𝐚_i_k_ku`$
where we have used the integrability of the complex structure $`J`$ of the Kähler manifold $`N`$. By exchanging the orders of covariant differentiation as above, we get from (3.5) and (3.8)

$$_t_𝐚_iu=ϵ_k_k_𝐚_iu+J(u)_k_k_𝐚_iu+Q$$

where $`Q`$ satisfies (3.6-3.7). Substituting this into (3.4) and integrating by part we then have

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}_𝐚_iu_{L^2}^2`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _M}(ϵ|_𝐚_iu|^2_k_𝐚_iu,J(u)_k_𝐚_iu+_𝐚_iu,Q).`$
Note that the first integrand is non-positive and the second vanishes, so we have by (3.6)

$$\frac{d}{dt}_𝐚_iu_{L^2}^2C(l,M)_M|^{l+1}u||^{j_1}u|\mathrm{}|^{j_s}u|,$$

and consequently

$$\frac{d}{dt}^{l+1}u_{L^2}^2C(l,M)_M|^{l+1}u||^{j_1}u|\mathrm{}|^{j_s}u|,$$
(3.9)
where the summation is over all $`(j_1,\mathrm{}j_s)`$ satisfying (3.7).

To treat the integrals in the summation of (3.9), i.e.

$$I=_M|^{l+1}u||^{j_1}u|\mathrm{}|^{j_s}u|,$$
(3.10)
we need the following lemmas which can be proved by applying Lemma 2.1, the Hölder inequality and some combination techniques. Especially, the proof of Lemma 3.3 is slightly tricky, for details we refer to .

Lemma 3.2 Let $`I`$ be the integral (3.10), where $`(j_1,\mathrm{},j_s)`$ satisfy (3.7). If $`1lm_0`$, then there exists a constant $`C=C(M,l)`$ such that

$$ICu_{H^{m_0,2}}^Au_{L^2}^B^{l+1}u_{L^2},$$

where $`A=[l+3+(m/21)sm/2]/m_0`$ and $`B=sA`$.

Lemma 3.3 Assume $`l>m_0`$. Then there exists a constant $`C=C(M,l)`$ such that
(1) if $`j_1=l+1`$,

$$IC^{l+1}u_{L^2}^2u_{H^{m_0,2}}^{m/m_0}u_{L^2}^{2m/m_0}.$$

(2) if $`j_1l`$,

$$IC(1+u_{H^{l,2}}^2)(1+u_{H^{l1,2}}^A)$$

where $`A=A(m,l)`$.

Now, return to the proof of Lemma 3.1. We first consider the case $`1lm_0`$ in (3.9). Then Lemma 3.2 together with (3.3) leads to

$$\frac{d}{dt}u_{H^{m_0,2}}C\underset{l=1}{\overset{m_0}{}}\underset{s=3}{\overset{l+3}{}}u_{H^{m_0,2}}^{A(s,l)},$$

where

$$A(s,l)=[l+3+(m/21)sm/2]/m_0.$$

If we let $`f(t)=u(t)_{H^{m_0,2}}+1`$, then we have

$$f^{}Cf^{A_0},f(0)=u_0_{H^{m_0,2}}+1,$$
(3.11)
where $`A_0=\mathrm{max}\{A(s,l):3sl+3,1lm_0\}`$. The constant $`C`$ in (3.11) depends only on $`m_0`$, $`M`$ and $`N`$. It follows from (3.11) that there exists $`T=T(N,u_0_{W^{m_0,2}})>0`$ and $`K_0>0`$ such that

$$u(t)_{H^{m_0,2}}K_0,t[0,T].$$
(3.12)
For any $`k>m_0`$, we need to consider the case $`m_0<lk`$ in (3.9). Lemma 3.3, (3.3) and (3.12) then imply

$$\frac{d}{dt}u_{H^{k,2}}^2C(1+u_{H^{k,2}}^2)(1+u_{H^{k1,2}}^A).$$
(3.13)
For $`k=m_0+1`$, we see from (3.12) that the summation in (3.13) is bounded since $`k1=m_0`$. Then, since (3.13) is a linear differential inequality for $`u_{H^{k,2}}^2`$, there exists a constant $`K_1>0`$ such that

$$u(t)_{H^{m_0+1,2}}K_1,\text{ }t[0,T].$$
(3.14)
It now is clear that one can show inductively using (3.13) the existence of $`K_i>0`$ for any $`i1`$ such that

$$u(t)_{H^{m_0+i,2}}K_i,t[0,T].$$
(3.15)
Since we assume $`M`$ is compact, consequently $`u(t)_L^{\mathrm{}}`$ is uniformly bounded for $`t[0,T]`$.

It is easy to find that the solution to (3.2) with $`ϵ(0,1)`$ must exist on the time interval $`[0,T]`$. Otherwise, we always extend the time interval of existence to cover $`[0,T]`$, i.e., we always have $`T_ϵT`$. Thus, Lemma 3.1 has been proved.

Proof of Theorem First, we would like to mention that $`N`$ is always regarded as an embedded submanifold of $`^K`$. If $`u_0:MN`$ is $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$, then, Lemma 3.1 claims that the initial value problem (3.2) admits a unique smooth solution $`u_ϵ`$ which satisfies the estimates in Lemma 3.1. It follows from Proposition 2.2 that, for any $`k>0`$ and $`ϵ(0,1]`$, there holds

$$\underset{t[0,T]}{\mathrm{max}}u_ϵ_{W^{k,2}(M)}C_k(M,u_0),$$

where $`C_k(M,u_0)`$ does not depend on $`ϵ`$. Hence, by sending $`ϵ0`$ and applying the embedding theorem of Sobolev spaces to $`u`$, we have $`u_\epsilon uC^k(M\times [0,T],N)`$ for any $`k`$. It is very easy to check that $`u`$ is a solution to the initial value problem (3.1). The uniqueness was addressed in Proposition 2.1 in .

Finally, if $`u_0:MN`$ is not $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$, but $`u_0W^{k,2}(M,N)`$, we may always select a sequence of $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$ maps from $`M`$ into $`N`$, denoted by $`u_{i0}`$, such that

$$u_{i0}u_0\text{in}W^{k,2},\text{as}i\mathrm{}.$$

This together with the definition of covariant differential leads to

$$u_{i0}_{H^{k1,2}}u_0_{H^{k1,2}},\text{as}i\mathrm{}.$$

Thus, there exists a unique, smooth solution $`u_i`$, defined on time interval $`[0,T_i]`$, of the Cauchy problem (3.1) with $`u_0`$ replaced by $`u_{i0}`$. Furthermore, it is not difficult to see from the arguments in Lemma 3.1 that if $`i`$ is large enough, then there exists a uniform positive lower bound of $`T_i`$, denoted by $`T`$, such that the following holds uniformly with respect to large enough $`i`$:

$$\underset{t[0,T]}{sup}u_i(t)_{H^{k1,2}}C(T,u_0_{H^{k1,2}}).$$

It follows from Lemma 2.2 and the last inequality that

$$\underset{t[0,T]}{sup}Du_i(t)_{W^{k1,2}}C^{}(T,Du_0_{W^{k1,2}}),$$

where $`D`$ denotes the covariant derivative for functions on $`M`$. Therefore, there exists a $`uL^{\mathrm{}}([0,T],W^{k1,2}(M,N))`$ such that

$$u_iu\text{[weakly*] in}L^{\mathrm{}}([0,T],W^{k,2}(M,N))$$

upon extracting a subsequence and re-indexing if necessary. It is easy to verify that $`u`$ is a strong solution to (3.1) (see ).

Remark  For the Schrödinger flow from an Euclidean space into a Kähler manifold, in  we obtained similar local existence results.

## 4. Some problems

1. For the one-dimensional case, i.e. $`dimM=1`$, we conjecture the Schrödinger flows should exist globally whenever the target $`N`$ is a compact Kähler manifold. This is still open, and is supported by the result with $`N`$ being Hermitian locally symmetric ().

The result by Terng and Uhlenbeck  shows that for some special targets (e.g. complex Grassmannians), the Schrödinger flows are bi-Hamiltonnian integrable systems. In their work, they assume that $`M=R^1`$, and their result can be generalized to compact Hermitian symmetric spaces (cf. ). An interesting open problem is, for these special targets, whether or not the Schrödinger flows are bi-Hamiltonnian systems if $`M=S^1`$.

2. For higher dimensional cases, i.e. $`dimM2`$, we believe that the Schrödinger flow may develop finite-time singularities. There are however no such examples known by now.

3. All present results in the study of the Schrödinger flows depend on the global estimates for the solutions. We do not know if one can find some kind of local estimates for the solutions. It has been well known from the research of various geometric flows that local estimates are important for the analysis of singularities. It is therefore desirable to develop some new methods to attack the question before any serious advance can be made for the study of the Schrödinger flows.


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# Some remarks on varieties with degenerate Gauss image

## 1. Introduction

A classical theorem on surfaces states that, if the tangent plane to a ruled projective surface $`S`$ remains fixed along a general line of the ruling, then $`S`$ is a developable surface, i.e., a cone or the tangent developable of a curve.

In the case of higher dimensional varieties, this generalizes to the problem of giving a structure theorem for projective varieties with degenerate Gauss image. More precisely, let $`X^N`$ be a projective variety of dimension $`n`$. The Gauss map of $`X`$ is the rational map $`\gamma `$ from $`X`$ to the Grassmannian $`𝔾(n,N)`$ of $`n`$-dimensional subspaces of $`^N`$, associating to a smooth point $`x`$ of $`X`$ the embedded tangent space $`𝕋_xX`$ to $`X`$ at $`x`$. The Gauss image $`\gamma (X)`$ of $`X`$ is, by definition, the closure of $`\gamma (X_{sm})`$, where $`X_{sm}`$ is the smooth locus of $`X`$.

Clearly $`dim\gamma (X)n`$, and for “general” varieties equality holds. Several terms have been used recently to denote the varieties such that $`dim\gamma (X)<dimX`$: they are called varieties with degenerate Gauss image by Landsberg (\[L2\]), developable by Piontkowski (\[P\]), tangentially degenerate by Akivis - Goldberg (\[AG\]). We will follow Landsberg’s convention.

Several general facts are well known for these varieties (see for instance the classical article \[S\]). First of all, general fibres of $`\gamma `$ are linear. This means that, if the dimension of the Gauss image is $`r<n`$, then the general fibre is a linear space of dimension $`nr`$ along which the tangent space is constant. Secondly, if $`X`$ is not linear, then it is singular and its singular locus cuts a general fibre along a codimension 1 subscheme.

The theory of foci for families of linear varieties well applies to the family of fibres of $`\gamma `$. This allows us to consider and study the focal locus on $`X`$ and on the fibre $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ of $`\gamma `$, which we will denote by $`F`$ and $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ respectively. Both loci have a natural scheme structure.

Several classification results have recently been established for these varieties (e.g. \[GH\], \[AGL\], \[MT\], \[P\], \[AG\]) but a general structure theorem is still missing. In \[AG\] a structure theorem is proved, but under rather strong assumptions on a general $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, for example that it is reduced or set-theoretically linear. Moreover, Akivis and Goldberg state the problem of constructing examples of projective varieties with degenerate Gauss image such that $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is not reduced and $`(F_\mathrm{\Lambda })_{red}`$ is not linear (or proving that such varieties don’t exist).

Piontkowski (\[P\]) proved a uniqueness theorem for developable varieties $`X`$ with Gauss image of dimension 2, such that the focal locus has codimension 2 in $`X`$. Those for which the focal conic is integral are precisely the varieties of secant lines of the Veronese surface $`v_2(^2)`$ or of cones over it. Inspired by this example, we construct a series of examples where $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is not reduced and $`(F_\mathrm{\Lambda })_{red}`$ has arbitrarily large degree. The examples are the secant varieties of Severi varieties of dimension $`>2`$ and some natural generalizations of them.

Zak’s theorem on linear normality (\[Z1\]) states that a smooth nondegenerate $`m`$-dimensional subvariety of $`^N`$, with $`N<3m/2+2`$, cannot be isomorphically projected to $`^{N1}`$. Zak also classified in \[Z2\] the varieties which are border cases in his theorem, and called them Severi varieties. He proved that there are only 4 smooth examples: the Veronese surface $`v_2(^2)`$ in $`^5`$, $`^2\times ^2`$, $`𝔾(1,5)`$ and the non-classical variety $`E`$ of dimension 16. For any of these varieties $`F`$, its secant variety $`X=SF`$ is a cubic hypersurface in $`^N`$ with Gauss image isomorphic to $`X`$.

We prove in Example 2 that on a general fibre of the Gauss map for the secant variety of a Severi variety, the focal scheme is a quadric of maximal rank with multiplicity 1, 2, 4, 8 respectively.

In Section 4 we show that these examples can be generalized in two ways, taking instead of the Severi varieties the following three series of varieties $`Y`$: $`v_2(^m)`$, $`^m\times ^m`$ and $`𝔾(1,2m+1)`$, of dimensions $`m`$, $`2m`$, $`4m`$ respectively (they are Scorza varieties according to Zak \[Z3\]). If we consider their higher secant variety $`S^{m1}Y`$ of $`m`$-secant $`(m1)`$-planes, it turns out that they are hypersurfaces of degree $`m+1`$, whose dual is $`Y`$ and whose singular locus is $`S^{m2}Y`$: it appears in each fibre with multiplicity resp. 1, 2, 4. If we consider $`SY`$ instead, we get on each fibre a focal quadric with an arbitrarily high multiplicity, more precisely, $`m1`$, $`2(m1)`$, $`4(m1)`$ respectively.

It is interesting to observe that the fourth Severi variety does not generalize to give a complete class of examples (\[L1\]).

We observe also that there is an upper bound on the codimension of the focal scheme and that there are restrictions on the set of possible codimensions if we require that $`F`$ is not reduced (see Theorem 3.1). For “high” codimension we prove in Theorem 3.3 some uniqueness results, in the case in which the general focal hypersurface is a quadric of maximal rank with multiplicity 2. We extend in this way the result found by Piontkowski in the case of the secant variety of the Veronese surface. Our results rely on the fact, stated by Zak in \[Z4\], that if $`F`$ is a variety whose general linear section is a Severi variety, then $`F`$ is a cone over a Severi variety.

The plan of the article is as follows. In §2 we recall the language of focal schemes for families of linear spaces, as introduced in \[MT\]. We also prove Proposition 2.2, giving a lower bound, based on the codimension of the focal scheme, for the multiplicity of the focal scheme. In §3 we prove Theorems 3.1 and 3.3. Finally in §4, we give two series of examples, showing that the focal hypersurfaces can have arbitrarily high degree and multiplicity.

### 1.1. Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Prof. Fyodor Zak for some useful suggestions and the referees for interesting remarks and criticism.

### 1.2. Notations and conventions

In this paper a variety will be an integral closed subscheme of a projective space over an algebraically closed field $`𝕂`$, $`char𝕂=0`$.
If $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^N`$ is a projective linear subspace, $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}𝕂`$ will denote the linear subspace associated to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=(\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }})`$. $`T_xX`$ will denote the Zariski tangent space to the variety $`X`$ at its point $`x`$, while we will denote by $`𝕋_xX^N`$ the embedded tangent space to $`X`$ at $`x`$.
We will always use the same symbol to denote the points of a Grassmannian and the corresponding linear subspaces.

## 2. The focal scheme and its multiplicity

Let $`X^N`$ be a projective variety of dimension $`n<N`$. Let us assume that $`X`$ is covered by an $`r`$-dimensional family of linear spaces of dimension $`k:=nr`$. Let $`B`$ be the subvariety of the Grassmannian $`𝔾(k,N)`$ parametrizing that family.

Let us denote by $``$ the incidence correspondence of $`B`$, with the natural projections:

(4) $`\begin{array}{ccccc}B& \underset{}{\overset{p_1}{}}& B\times ^N& \underset{}{\overset{p_2}{}}& ^N\\ & & & & \\ B& \underset{}{\overset{𝑔}{}}& & \underset{}{\overset{𝑓}{}}& X.\end{array}`$
We will associate to the family $`B`$ its focal subscheme $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and its focal locus $`FX`$. For their definitions and for the proof of results cited in this section, we refer to \[MT\].

We recall moreover that the characteristic map of the family $`B`$ is the map $`\chi :=\beta \alpha `$,

$$\left(p_1^{}(𝒯_B)\right)_|\stackrel{𝛼}{}𝒯_{}\stackrel{𝛽}{}𝒩_{|B\times ^N},$$

where $`\alpha `$ comes from the exact sequence expressing the tangent sheaf to the product variety $`B\times ^N`$ as a product of tangent sheaves, and $`\beta `$ from that defining the normal sheaf to $``$ inside $`B\times ^N`$.

For every smooth point $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ of $`B`$, the restriction of $`\chi `$ to $`g^1(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ is called the *characteristic map of $`B`$ relative to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$*.

Finally the focal scheme on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, denoted $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, is the scheme-theoretic intersection of the Cartier divisor $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ with $`\{\mathrm{\Lambda }\}\times \mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

Let $`\gamma :X𝔾(n,N)`$ be the (rational) Gauss map of $`X`$, regular on $`X_{sm}`$. It is a consequence of biduality (\[K\]) that its fibres are linear spaces, i.e. that a general embedded tangent space is tangent to $`X`$ along a linear space. In the following, we will apply the above contruction to the family of the fibres of $`\gamma `$, assuming that they are of positive dimension.

###### Definition 2.1.

The *Gauss rank* of a variety $`X`$ is the number $`r=dim\gamma (X)`$. If $`r<n`$, then $`X`$ is called a *variety with degenerate Gauss image*.

Varieties with degenerate Gauss image are characterized by the fact that the focal scheme on a general $`\mathrm{\Lambda }B`$ is a hypersurface of degree $`r`$. Another important property is that the focal locus of $`B`$ is always contained in the singular locus of $`X`$.

Let us denote by $`\overline{g}`$ (respectively, $`\overline{f}`$) the restriction of $`g`$ (resp., $`f`$) to $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. Note that the fibre $`\overline{g}^1(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ coincide with $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, which has in general dimension $`nr1`$, hence every irreducible component of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ has dimension $`n1`$.

###### Proposition 2.2.

Let $`X`$ be a variety of dimension $`n`$ with Gauss image of dimension $`r<n`$. Let $`\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ be an irreducible component of the focal scheme of the family $`B`$ considered as a reduced variety. Let $`\overline{F}X`$ be its scheme-theoretic image and let $`c`$ be the codimension of $`\overline{F}`$ in $`X`$. For a general point $`P=(\mathrm{\Lambda },x)\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, the Cartier divisor $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ has Samuel multiplicity $`\mu (P,\mathrm{\Phi })c1.`$

###### Corollary 2.3.

For a general element $`(\mathrm{\Lambda },x)\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, either $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }=\{\mathrm{\Lambda }\}\times \mathrm{\Lambda }`$, or the Cartier divisor $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }\{\mathrm{\Lambda }\}\times \mathrm{\Lambda }`$ has Samuel multiplicity $`\mu (x,F_\mathrm{\Lambda })c1`$.

###### Proof.

Let $`P=(\mathrm{\Lambda },x)\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ be a point that projects to $`x`$. Considering the differentials of the maps $`f`$ and $`\overline{f}`$ at $`P`$, we get the diagram:

(8) $`\begin{array}{ccc}T_P& \underset{}{\overset{d_Pf}{}}& T_xX\\ & & \\ T_P\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}& \underset{}{\overset{d_P\overline{f}}{}}& T_x\overline{F}\end{array}`$
We consider also the characteristic map $`\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ of the family $`B`$ relative to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. At the point $`P`$, it gives rise to a linear map

$$\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda },x):T_\mathrm{\Lambda }B\widehat{𝕋}_xX/\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}.$$

Let $`K_P`$ denote the common kernel of both $`d_Pf`$ and $`\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda },x)`$. By generic smoothness $`d_P\overline{f}`$ is surjective, hence

$$dim\mathrm{ker}d_P\overline{f}=(n1)(nc)=c1.$$

But $`\mathrm{ker}d_P\overline{f}=K_PT_P\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, where $`T_P\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ has dimension $`n1`$, so either $`K_PT_P\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, the two kernels coincide and $`dimK_P=c1`$, or they are different and $`dimK_P=c`$. Since the structure of scheme on $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is given by the minors of the characteristic map, this proves that $`\mu (P,\mathrm{\Phi })`$ is at least $`c1`$ in the former case, and at least $`c`$ in the latter. ∎

###### Example 1.

The multiplicity $`\mu (x,F_\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ can be strictly greater than $`c`$. We see now an example of such a situation, in which the fibres of the Gauss map have special properties of tangency to the focal locus.

Let us consider a birational map $`\phi :FS`$ between two surfaces $`F,S^6`$. Then

$$\begin{array}{cccc}\psi :& F& & 𝔾(3,6)\\ & x& & 𝕋_xF,\phi (x)\end{array}$$

defines a rational map on $`F`$, and $`X`$ is defined by the closure of the variety swept by the 3-planes in $`^6`$ belonging to the image of $`\psi `$. If the choice of $`F,S`$ and $`\phi `$ is general, then $`X`$ is a variety of dimension 5 whose Gauss image has dimension 4, and its focal locus is $`F`$, with codimension 3. If $`x`$ is a general point of $`F`$, then any line passing through $`x`$ and contained in $`𝕋_xF,\phi (x)`$ is a fibre of the Gauss map.

Let $`P=(\mathrm{\Lambda },x)`$ project to a general point of $`F`$. By a direct computation, $`x`$ results to be the only focus on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, with multiplicity $`4=c+1`$.

It is nonetheless true that $`dimK_P=2=c1`$: the kernels of $`d_P\overline{f}`$ and $`d_Pf`$ indeed coincide and are generated by the directions of the curves in $``$ of the form $`(\mathrm{\Lambda }(t),x)`$, where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(t)`$ varies in the star of lines of centre $`x`$ contained in $`\psi (x)`$.

The just constructed example belongs to the class of hyperbands of \[AGL\]. It can be generalized to a whole series of analogous examples with larger dimensions and increasing difference between the multiplicity of the focal locus and the codimension $`c`$.

###### Example 2.

*The Severi varieties.*

Let $`F`$ denote one of the four Severi varieties (see the Introduction). Let $`X=SF`$ be its secant variety, i.e. the closure of the union of lines joining two distinct points of $`F`$. There are several known facts about $`F`$.

###### Proposition 2.4 (\[Z2\]).

Let $`F^N`$ be a Severi variety. Then the following hold:

* F has dimension $`m\{2,4,8,16\}`$;
* F is embedded in a projective space of dimension $`N=3m/2+2`$;
* the secant variety $`X`$ of $`F`$ is a normal cubic hypersurface in $`^N`$;
* $`X`$ is isomorphic to the dual variety of $`F`$;
* the singular locus of $`X`$ coincides with $`F`$.

As $`X`$ is a hypersurface, its Gauss image is the same as its dual variety, which is $`F`$. Then $`X`$ has Gauss rank $`m`$ and the fibres of the Gauss map $`\gamma `$ of $`X`$ are linear subspaces of dimension $`m/2+1`$. As shown in \[Z2\], the intersection with $`F`$ of the secant lines of $`F`$ passing through a general point $`xX`$ is a quadric generating a space of dimension $`m/2+1`$. This space is precisely the fibre of the Gauss map passing through $`x`$, and $`B`$ is just the family of such spaces. As the quadric depends on the fibre $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ to which $`x`$ belongs and not on $`x`$, we will denote it by $`Q_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

The degree of the focal scheme on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ must equal the Gauss rank, so it is $`m`$, i.e. 2, 4, 8 or 16 respectively. But the focal locus of $`B`$ on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ has to be $`Q_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, of degree 2, because it has to be contained in the singular locus of $`X`$. This shows that $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ coincides with $`Q_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ set-theoretically, but, as a scheme, appears with multiplicity 1, 2, 4, 8 respectively in the four cases. This fact is confirmed by Proposition 2.2, because in this case $`c=m/2+1`$ and the multiplicity $`\mu (x,\overline{F})`$ is equal to $`m/2=c1`$.

## 3. Gaps on the codimension and uniqueness of Severi examples

The results of the previous section allow us to state some bounds on the possible codimension of the focal locus for the family of the fibres of the Gauss map and some uniqueness results.

###### Theorem 3.1.

Let $`X`$ be a variety of dimension $`n`$ with degenerate Gauss image $`\gamma (X)`$ of dimension $`r`$ with $`r2`$. Let $`c`$ denote the codimension of the focal locus $`F`$ in $`X`$. Then:

* $`cr+1`$;
* if $`c=r+1`$, then $`X`$ is a cone of vertex a space of dimension $`(nr1)`$ over a variety of dimension $`r`$;
* if $`cr`$ and the reduced focal hypersurfaces are not linear, then $`cr/2+1`$;
* if $`c=r/2+1`$, then either the multiplicity of the focal hypersurfaces in the fibres of $`\gamma `$ is at least $`c`$ and they are set-theoretically linear, or the multiplicity is $`r/2`$ and the reduced focal hypersurfaces are quadrics.

###### Proof.

(i) Let $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ be the focal scheme on a general fibre $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ of the Gauss map. Then $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a hypersurface of degree $`r`$, and from Corollary 2.3, it has multiplicity $`\mu (x,F_\mathrm{\Lambda })c1`$ at a general point $`x`$. Hence $`c1\mu (x,F_\mathrm{\Lambda })r`$, which implies (i).

(ii) If $`c=r+1`$, then a general $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a hyperplane in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ with multiplicity $`r`$. On the other hand $`dimF=nr+1=dimF_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, so $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a fixed $`(nr+1)`$-plane and $`X`$ is a cone over it.

(iii) and (iv) Assume $`r/2+1cr`$: then $`\mu (x,F_\mathrm{\Lambda })c1r/2`$. So the degree of the reduced focal locus on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is $`r/\mu (x,F_\mathrm{\Lambda })2`$. If $`\mu (x,F_\mathrm{\Lambda })c`$, then the hypothesis implies that $`\mu (x,F_\mathrm{\Lambda })=r`$, so $`(F_{\mathrm{\Lambda })_{red}}`$ is linear. If $`\mu (x,F_\mathrm{\Lambda })=c1`$, then our hypothesis implies $`c=r/2+1`$ and $`\mu (x,F_\mathrm{\Lambda })=r/2`$. ∎

###### Remark 3.2.

The description of varieties with Gauss rank $`r=1`$ is classical (see \[FP\] for a modern account), the description of varieties with $`r=2`$ has been accomplished recently by Piontkowski (\[P\]). His uniqueness theorem for the case in which the focal locus has codimension 2 can be extended as follows.

###### Theorem 3.3.

Let $`X`$ be a variety of dimension $`n`$ with degenerate Gauss image $`\gamma (X)`$ of dimension $`r2`$ and let $`F`$ be the focal locus of the family of fibres of $`\gamma `$. Assume that the codimension of $`F`$ in $`X`$ is $`c=r/2+1`$ and that the focal hypersurfaces are quadrics counted with multiplicity $`r/2`$.

* If $`F`$ is irreducible, then $`X`$ coincides with $`SF`$, the secant variety of $`F`$, and $`n3r/2+1`$;
* if moreover $`n=3r/2+1`$ and a general quadric $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is smooth, then $`F`$ is a Severi variety;
* if $`n3r/2+1`$, then the rank of the quadrics $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is at most $`r/2+1`$, and, if equality generically holds, then $`F`$ is (a cone over) a Severi variety of dimension $`r`$.

###### Proof.

(i) Since the focal hypersurfaces have set-theoretically degree 2, then the lines which are contained in the fibres of $`\gamma `$ are all secant lines of $`F`$. Hence $`XSF`$. On the other hand, the family of lines obtained in this way has dimension $`r+dim𝔾(1,nr)`$, which is equal to $`2dimF`$. This proves that $`X=SF`$. A standard count of parameters shows that the family of quadrics passing through a general point of $`F`$ has dimension $`r/2`$ and that the intersection of two focal quadrics is always non-empty.

Let us denote by $`B`$ as usual the family of fibres of $`\gamma `$. Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }B\times B\times F`$ be the set of triples $`(\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{M},P)`$ such that $`PF_\mathrm{\Lambda }F_\mathrm{M}`$. Considering the projections from $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ to $`B\times B`$ and to $`F`$, one gets easily that a general intersection $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }F_\mathrm{M}`$ has dimension $`n3r/21`$. This proves (i).

(ii) We can assume without loss of generality that $`X`$ is non-degenerate (otherwise, we can restrict to the projective subspace of minimal dimension in which $`X`$ is contained). Suppose first that $`X`$ is a hypersurface. We have that $`F`$ is a variety of dimension $`r`$ covered by a $`r/2`$-dimensional family of non-singular quadrics of dimension $`r/2`$, such that a general pair of such quadrics meet at a point. This property of the family of quadrics allows us to argue as in \[Z2, Lemma 5\], and deduce, as there, that $`F`$ is smooth, so it is a Severi variety by definition.

Suppose now that $`X^N`$, $`N=3/2r+2+k`$, $`k>0`$. The image of $`X`$ in a projection with centre a general $`(k1)`$-plane of $`^N`$ is a hypersurface, which is the secant variety of a Severi variety $`F^{}`$ by the previous argument. Since the focal locus of $`X`$ project to $`F^{}`$, we have that the general section of $`F`$ by a linear subspace of dimension $`3/2r+2`$ is a Severi variety. By Corollary 1 of \[Z4\] Severi varieties are unextendable, hence $`F`$ must be a cone over $`F^{}`$, which is impossible because in that case the quadrics $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ would be singular.

(iii) Assume that the rank of $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is $`r/2+1`$. Let $`h:=(nr/21)(r+1)=n3/2r2`$, $`h1`$. Cutting $`F`$ with $`L`$, the intersection of $`h+1`$ general hyperplanes, we get $`F^{}:=FL`$, of dimension $`r`$, containing a $`r`$-dimensional family of quadrics of dimension $`r/2`$ and generically of maximal rank $`r/2+1`$. Moreover the variety of secant lines of $`F^{}`$ coincides with $`SFL`$, so it has dimension $`3r/2+1`$. By (ii) we obtain that $`F^{}`$ is a Severi variety. Again since Severi varieties are unextendable, we can conclude that $`F`$ is a cone over $`F^{}`$ with vertex a linear space of dimension $`h`$. In particular, the rank of $`F_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is $`r/2+1`$. ∎

###### Remark 3.4.

Smooth varieties $`F`$ such that $`X=SF`$ satisfies the assumptions of Theorem 3.3 are precisely the varieties studied by Ohno in \[O\].

## 4. Examples of focal hypersurfaces of any degree or with arbitrarily high multiplicity

In this section we give two series of examples: the former show that the focal hypersurfaces in the fibres of the Gauss map can appear with arbitrarily high multiplicity, the latter have focal hypersurfaces of arbitrary degree. Note that in Example 3 the variety $`X`$ is not a hypersurface if $`m3`$.

###### Example 3.

*Secant varieties of Scorza varieties.* Let $`F`$ be one of the following varieties: $`v_2(^m)`$, $`^m\times ^m`$, $`𝔾(1,2m+1)`$. They are contained in the projective spaces of dimension $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{m+2}{2}\right)1`$, $`(m+1)^21`$, $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2m+2}{2}\right)1`$ respectively, and have dimensions $`m`$, $`2m`$, $`4m`$. In all cases $`F`$ is defined by suitable minors of a matrix of variables, and precisely by $`2\times 2`$ minors of a symmetric $`(m+1)\times (m+1)`$ matrix in the first case, by $`2\times 2`$ minors of a generic $`(m+1)\times (m+1)`$ matrix in the second case, by Pfaffians of $`4\times 4`$ minors of a skew-symmetric matrix of order $`2m+2`$ in the third one. These varieties are considered by Zak in \[Z3\], and named by him Scorza varieties.

Let $`X`$ be the secant variety of $`F`$: it is defined by minors of the same matrix as $`F`$ of order one more. Then the fibres of the Gauss map of $`X`$ have respectively dimension 2, 3, 5, the focal hypersurfaces are quadrics of dimensions 1, 2, 4, which appear with multiplicity $`m1`$, $`2m2`$, $`4m4`$ respectively.

###### Example 4.

*Higher secant varieties of Scorza varieties.* Let $`X=S^{m1}F`$ be the variety of $`m`$-secant $`(m1)`$-planes of $`F`$, where $`F`$ is one of the varieties appearing in the previous example. $`X`$ is the maximal proper secant variety of $`F`$ and it is the hypersurface defined by the determinant (or the Pfaffian) of the matrix considered in previous example. The varieties $`X`$ and $`F`$ result to be mutually dual, so $`r=m,2m,4m`$ respectively. The focal locus of the Gauss map is $`S^{m2}F`$. The focal hypersurfaces are the maximal secant varieties of $`v_2(^{m1})`$, $`^{m1}\times ^{m1}`$, $`𝔾(1,2m1)`$ respectively. They have degree $`m`$ and appear with multiplicity respectively 1, 2, 4.

###### Remark 4.1.

The class of Scorza varieties includes also $`^m\times ^{m1}`$ and $`𝔾(1,2m)`$, for all $`m3`$. Also their secant varieties have properties similar to above. They are defined by minors of matrices of type $`(m+1)\times (m+2)`$ and of skew-symmetric square matrices of type $`2m+1`$ respectively.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Recent discovery of the cosmic acceleration calls for explanation within the framework of fundamental theory of superstring/M theories. It has been known for some time that it is difficult to derive such cosmologies from the compactifications of solutions in superstring/M theories and has been considered that there is a no-go theorem which excludes such possibility if one chooses the internal space compact and static manifolds .

Recently it has been shown that this no-go theorem can be overcome if one allows time-dependence, and a solution of the vacuum Einstein equations with compact hyperbolic internal space has been proposed for such a model . The solution turned out  to be a special case of the time-dependent solutions discovered before . Moreover it has been found  that similar accelerating cosmologies can be obtained for S(pacelike)M2-branes  and that not only the hyperbolic but also flat internal spaces give similar behavior. The SM2-brane case is also studied in ref. . Later SD2-brane, which can be obtained from SM2-brane by dimensional reduction, has been discussed in ref. . However, problem with strong string coupling in SD2-brane casts a question on the validity of the results at least for flat internal space. Related cosmologies with accelerated expansion are also discussed in refs. .

In ref. , the degree of the expansion factor during the period of the accelerated expansion has been studied for SM2-brane, with the small result of order 2. This appears to be too small to solve cosmological issues such as the horizon or flatness problems, which require the magnitude $`𝒪(e^{60})`$. Since the solutions contain some parameters, it is interesting to examine if there is a possibility of evading this problem.

In this paper, we study aspects of these models of accelerated expansions including parameters for vacuum, SM2-brane and SD2-brane solutions. We also estimate how the expansion factors change by varying the parameters. It turns out that the factors can change but not enough to get around the difficulty mentioned above. We also find that it is possible to have accelerated expansion for spherical internal space too for S2-branes (but not for vacuum solutions) if one chooses parameters appropriately, although the universe enters into contracting phase after some period. We further discuss how SD2-branes are obtained from SM2-branes by dimensional reduction. One can thus see that the features of the cosmologies from SD2-brane is basically similar to those from SM2-brane. In fact we find that qualitative behavior does not change much, as expected. However, there is a potential problem with the SD2-brane model because it often suffers from the strong string coupling and then it is not clear if we can trust the result in this picture. It is known that the strong string coupling can be understood as the 11-th dimension becoming large, so that the description by M theory becomes more relevant .

This paper is organized as follows. In sect. 2, we first discuss the relation of the vacuum and our S-brane solutions, and study the cosmologies from the vacuum solutions. In this case, there is no adjustable parameter and the result does not change. In sect. 3, we examine the cosmologies from SM2-brane. The hyperbolic, flat and spherical internal spaces are discussed in subsections 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3, respectively. We study these cases by changing a parameter, and find that an interesting model can be obtained also from spherical internal space. In sect. 4, the way how SD2-brane is obtained from SM2-brane is explicitly shown. We discuss the cosmologies in this case briefly. We also note that in many cases in this kind of models, the string coupling becomes strong so that the picture becomes obscure. We show how this can be avoided for compactification on hyperbolic manifolds, but there seems to be no way to avoid this for flat and spherical manifolds. Finally sect. 5 is devoted to conclusions and discussions.

In the course of writing this article, a paper appeared with related observations on the spherical internal space for SM2-brane .

## 2 Vacuum solution and S2-brane

### 2.1 Generality

It is convenient to write the $`(4+n)`$-dimensional solution as

$`ds^2=\delta ^n(t)ds_E^2+\delta ^2(t)d\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n,\sigma }^2,`$ (2.1)
where $`n`$ is the dimension of the internal spherical ($`\sigma =+1`$), flat ($`\sigma =0`$) or hyperbolic ($`\sigma =1`$) spaces, whose line elements are $`d\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n,\sigma }^2`$, and

$`ds_E^2=S^6(t)dt^2+S^2(t)d𝐱^2,`$ (2.2)
describes the 4-dimensional spacetime. The form of (2.1) is chosen such that the metric in (2.2) are in the Einstein frame. The solution in refs.  is given as

$`\delta (t)`$ $`=`$ $`e^{3t/(n1)}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{3(n+2)/n}}{(n1)\mathrm{sinh}(\sqrt{3(n+2)/n}|t|)}}\right)^{\frac{1}{(n1)}},`$
$`S(t)`$ $`=`$ $`e^{(n+2)t/2(n1)}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{3(n+2)/n}}{(n1)\mathrm{sinh}(\sqrt{3(n+2)/n}|t|)}}\right)^{\frac{n}{2(n1)}}.`$ (2.3)
with hyperbolic internal space.

If we take the time coordinate $`\eta `$ defined by

$`d\eta =S^3(t)dt,`$ (2.4)
the metric (2.2) describes a flat homogeneous isotropic universe with scale factor $`S(t)`$, and $`\delta (t)`$ gives the measure of the size of internal space. The condition for expanding 4-dimensional universe is that

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dS}{d\eta }}>0.`$ (2.5)
Accelerated expansion is obtained if, in addition,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d^2S}{d\eta ^2}}>0.`$ (2.6)
It has been shown that these can be satisfied for $`n=7`$ and for certain period of negative $`t`$ (with the convention $`t_1=0`$) which is the period that our universe is evolving ($`t<0`$ and $`t>0`$ are two disjoint possible universes) .

We have noted  that the above solution is actually a special case of the solutions derived in ref. . The theory considered there is given by the action for $`d`$-dimensional gravity coupled to a dilaton $`\varphi `$ and $`m`$ different $`n_A`$-form field strengths:

$`I={\displaystyle \frac{1}{16\pi G_d}}{\displaystyle d^dx\sqrt{g}\left[R\frac{1}{2}(\varphi )^2\underset{A=1}{\overset{m}{}}\frac{1}{2n_A!}e^{a_A\varphi }F_{n_A}^2\right]}.`$ (2.7)
This action describes the bosonic part of $`d=11`$ or $`d=10`$ supergravities; we simply drop $`\varphi `$ and put $`a_A=0`$ and $`n_A=4`$ for $`d=11`$, whereas we set $`a_A=1`$ for the NS-NS 3-form and $`a_A=\frac{1}{2}(5n_A)`$ for forms coming from the R-R sector. The field strength for an electrically charged S$`q`$-brane is given by

$`F_{t\alpha _1\mathrm{}\alpha _{q+1}}=ϵ_{\alpha _1\mathrm{}\alpha _{q+1}}\dot{E},(n_A=q+2),`$ (2.8)
where $`\alpha _1,\mathrm{},\alpha _{q+1}`$ stand for the tangential directions to the S$`q`$-brane. The magnetic case is given by

$`F^{\alpha _{q+2}\mathrm{}\alpha _pa_1\mathrm{}a_n}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{g}}}e^{a\varphi }ϵ^{t\alpha _{q+2}\mathrm{}\alpha _pa_1\mathrm{}a_n}\dot{E},(n_A=dq2)`$ (2.9)
where $`a_1,\mathrm{},a_n`$ denote the coordinates of the $`n`$-dimensional hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n,\sigma }`$.

In ref.  a single S-brane solution was given, and in ref.  general orthogonally intersecting solutions were derived by solving field equations. Our solutions restricted to a single S$`q`$-brane with $`(q+1)`$-dimensional world-volume in $`p`$-dimensional space  are (hereafter the subscript $`A`$ is not necessary and is dropped)

$`ds_d^2`$ $`=`$ $`[\mathrm{cosh}\stackrel{~}{c}(tt_2)]^{2\frac{q+1}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}[e^{2c_0t+2c_0^{}}\{e^{2ng(t)}dt^2+e^{2g(t)}d\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n,\sigma }^2\}`$ (2.10)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =1}{\overset{p}{}}}[\mathrm{cosh}\stackrel{~}{c}(tt_2)]^{2\frac{\gamma ^{(\alpha )}}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}e^{2\stackrel{~}{c}_\alpha t+2c_\alpha ^{}}(dx^\alpha )^2],`$
$`E`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2(d2)}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}}{\displaystyle \frac{e^{\stackrel{~}{c}(tt_2)ϵac_\varphi ^{}/2+_{\alpha q}c_\alpha ^{}}}{\mathrm{cosh}\stackrel{~}{c}(tt_2)}},\stackrel{~}{c}={\displaystyle \underset{\alpha q}{}}c_\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}c_\varphi ϵa,`$
$`\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(d2)ϵa}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{cosh}\stackrel{~}{c}(tt_2)+\stackrel{~}{c}_\varphi t+c_\varphi ^{},`$ (2.11)
where $`d=p+n+1`$ and $`ϵ=+1(1)`$ corresponds to electric (magnetic) fields. The coordinates $`x^\alpha ,(\alpha =1,\mathrm{},p)`$ parametrize the $`p`$-dimensional space, within which $`(q+1)`$-dimensional world-volume of S$`q`$-brane is embedded, and the remaining coordinates of the $`d`$-dimensional spacetime are the time $`t`$ and coordinates on compact $`n`$-dimensional spherical ($`\sigma =+1`$), flat ($`\sigma =0`$) or hyperbolic ($`\sigma =1`$) spaces. We have also defined

$`\mathrm{\Delta }=(q+1)(dq3)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}a^2(d2),`$
$`\gamma ^{(\alpha )}=\{\begin{array}{c}d2\hfill \\ 0\hfill \end{array}\mathrm{for}\{\begin{array}{c}x_\alpha \mathrm{belonging}\mathrm{to}q\mathrm{brane}\hfill \\ \mathrm{otherwise}\hfill \end{array},`$ (2.16)
and

$`g(t)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{n1}\mathrm{ln}\frac{\beta }{\mathrm{cosh}[(n1)\beta (tt_1)]}\hfill & :\sigma =+1,\hfill \\ \pm \beta (tt_1)\hfill & :\sigma =0,\hfill \\ \frac{1}{n1}\mathrm{ln}\frac{\beta }{\mathrm{sinh}[(n1)\beta |tt_1|]}\hfill & :\sigma =1,\hfill \end{array}`$ (2.20)
$`\beta ,t_1,t_2`$ and $`c`$’s are integration constants which satisfy

$`c_0={\displaystyle \frac{q+1}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}\stackrel{~}{c}{\displaystyle \frac{_{\alpha =1}^pc_\alpha }{n1}},c_0^{}={\displaystyle \frac{_{\alpha =1}^pc_\alpha ^{}}{n1}},`$
$`\stackrel{~}{c}_\alpha =c_\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{\gamma ^{(\alpha )}q1}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}\stackrel{~}{c},\stackrel{~}{c}_\varphi =c_\varphi +{\displaystyle \frac{(d2)ϵa}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}\stackrel{~}{c}.`$ (2.21)
These must further obey the condition

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n1}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =1}{\overset{p}{}}}c_\alpha \right)^2+{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =1}{\overset{p}{}}}c_\alpha ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}c_\varphi ^2=n(n1)\beta ^2.`$ (2.22)
The free parameters in our solutions are $`c_\alpha ,c_\alpha ^{}(\alpha =1,\mathrm{},p),c_\varphi ,c_\varphi ^{},t_1`$ and $`t_2`$. The time derivative of $`E`$ gives the field strengths of antisymmetric tensor and in our convention they are given as

$`\begin{array}{c}e^{a\varphi }F\\ F\end{array}\}=\stackrel{~}{c}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2(d2)}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}}e^{_{\alpha q}c_\alpha ^{}+ϵac_\varphi ^{}/2}dx^{\alpha _{q+2}}\mathrm{}dx^{\alpha _p}\text{Vol}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n,\sigma }),`$ (2.25)
for electric (first line) and magnetic (second line) fields, where Vol$`(\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n,\sigma })`$ is the unit volume form of the hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n,\sigma }`$ and $``$ represents dual. We can check that $`\sqrt{\frac{2(d2)}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}=1`$ for SM- and SD-branes. The above solution includes that in ref. , and the precise relation is given in . (If we also use the relation $`c_\varphi ^{}=\frac{d2}{q1}ac_\gamma ^{}+c_2,(\gamma =1,\mathrm{},p)`$ which was not given in eq. (40) there, we reproduce $`F=bdy^1\mathrm{}dy^{qn}\text{Vol}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n,\sigma })`$.)

For the general S2-brane obtained from the solution (2.10) by putting $`p=q+1=3,cc_1=c_2=c_3,c^{}c_1^{}=c_2^{}=c_3^{}`$, we find that it takes the form (2.1) and (2.2) with

$`\delta (t)`$ $`=`$ $`[\mathrm{cosh}\stackrel{~}{c}(tt_2)]^{3/\mathrm{\Delta }}e^{g(t)+c_0t+c_0^{}},`$
$`S(t)`$ $`=`$ $`[\mathrm{cosh}\stackrel{~}{c}(tt_2)]^{(n+2)/2\mathrm{\Delta }}e^{ng(t)/2+(n+2)(c_0t+c_0^{})/6},`$ (2.26)
where

$`\stackrel{~}{c}=3c{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}c_\varphi ϵa,c_0={\displaystyle \frac{3}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}\stackrel{~}{c}{\displaystyle \frac{3}{n1}}c,c_0^{}={\displaystyle \frac{3}{n1}}c^{},`$
$`\beta =\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3(n+2)}{n(n1)^2}}c^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2n(n1)}}c_\varphi ^2}.`$ (2.27)
We are now going to discuss how this S2-brane solution includes the vacuum solution (2.3) and the resulting cosmologies .

### 2.2 Vacuum solution

The relation between $`\stackrel{~}{c}`$ and $`c_\alpha `$ and $`c_\varphi `$ in eq. (2.11) is derived  under the assumption that we have the independent field strengths $`F`$. In the absence of these, we can disregard this relation and should set $`\stackrel{~}{c}`$ to zero. It is then easy to see that the solution (2.10) reproduces (2.1)-(2.3) for $`p=q+1=3,\sigma =1,c=1,c^{}=0`$ without dilaton ($`c_\varphi =0`$. The scale factor is simply (2.26) with $`\stackrel{~}{c}=0`$ which coincides with (2.3). On the other hand, the S-brane solutions derived in  assume nonzero field strengths from the start, and one cannot simply get the vacuum solution.

The condition of the expansion (2.5) for the vacuum solution (2.3) is

$`n_1(t)1\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3n}{n+2}}}\mathrm{coth}\left(\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3(n+2)}{n}}}c(tt_1)\right)>0,`$ (2.28)
where we have also included parameters $`c,c^{}`$ and $`t_1`$. The condition (2.6) gives

$`{\displaystyle \frac{3(n1)}{(n+2)\mathrm{sinh}^2[\sqrt{3(n+2)/n}c(tt_1)]}}n_1^2(t)>0.`$ (2.29)
The parameter $`t_1`$ and $`c`$ can be absorbed into the shift and rescaling of the time $`t`$. Hence without loss of generality, we can set $`t_1=0`$ and $`c=1`$ (changing $`c`$ gives the change in the scale of time). There is a singularity in $`S(t)`$ at $`t=0`$, but the time $`\eta `$ run from 0 to infinity while $`t`$ runs from $`\mathrm{}`$ to 0, which is an infinite future for any event with $`t<0`$ and hence the evolution of our universe can be restricted to $`t<0`$.

The left hand side of these eqs. for $`n=7`$ are shown in Fig. 2, and the behavior of the scale factor $`S(t)`$ in (2.3) is depicted in Fig. 2.

We see that there is a certain period of negative time that the conditions (2.28) and (2.29) are satisfied . The period of the accelerated expansion can be adjusted by changing the constant $`c`$, but this does not affect the resulting expansion factor. The scale factor vanishes in the infinite past, but diverges in the infinite future.

The expansion factor $`A`$ during the accelerated expansion is given by the ratio of $`S(t)`$ at the starting time $`T_1`$ and ending time $`T_2`$ of the acceleration. These are read off from Fig. 2 as

$`T_10.73,T_20.07.`$ (2.30)
If we keep the parameter $`c`$, $`T=ct`$ and this simply changes the scale of the time by a constant multiplicative factor. We then find that the expansion factor is

$`A={\displaystyle \frac{S(T_2)}{S(T_1)}}2.91.`$ (2.31)
This value is too small to explain the cosmological problems. Note that there is no parameter to improve $`A`$ here.

The behavior of the size of the internal space is also shown in Fig. 3. Though it appears as if the internal space rapidly expands in terms of $`t`$, the actual time coordinate is $`\eta `$ and the region $`t0^{}`$ is actually long.

When the acceleration starts, $`\delta (t)`$ shrinks but eventually starts expanding, and the ratio of the sizes during the accelerated expansion is 2.18. As observed for SM2-brane case , there is no stable point in the size of the internal space, and in the infinite future and past its size goes to infinity. This seems to be the common problem in the hyperbolic compactification . We will find this behavior in other cases.

We have also examined other internal spaces, but without any adjustable parameter we find that neither flat nor spherical spaces give accelerating cosmologies .

## 3 SM2-brane

The SM2-brane in M-theory can be obtained from (2.10) by putting $`p=q+1=3,ϵ=+1,a=0,c_\varphi =0`$ without dilaton and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=3(n1)`$. We also put $`cc_1=c_2=c_3,c^{}c_1^{}=c_2^{}=c_3^{}`$ and then $`\beta =\frac{1}{n1}\sqrt{\frac{3(n+2)}{n}}c`$ is determined from (2.22). The solution (2.10) then gives

$`ds_d^2`$ $`=`$ $`[\mathrm{cosh}3c(tt_2)]^{2/(n1)}[e^{2ng(t)6c^{}/(n1)}dt^2+e^{2g(t)6c^{}/(n1)}d\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n,\sigma }^2`$ (3.1)
$`+[\mathrm{cosh}3c(tt_2)]^{2(n+2)/3(n1)2}e^{2c^{}}d𝐱^2].`$
This is the universe (2.1)-(2.2) with

$`\delta (t)`$ $`=`$ $`[\mathrm{cosh}3c(tt_2)]^{1/(n1)}e^{g(t)3c^{}/(n1)},`$
$`S(t)`$ $`=`$ $`[\mathrm{cosh}3c(tt_2)]^{(n+2)/6(n1)}e^{ng(t)/2(n+2)c^{}/2(n1)}.`$ (3.2)
We now discuss three internal spaces (2.20) separately.

### 3.1 Hyperbolic internal space

The conditions (2.5) and (2.6) for $`n=7`$ of our interest and hyperbolic internal space $`\sigma =1`$ are (again shifting the time to set $`t_1=0`$)

$`n_2(t){\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}\mathrm{tanh}[3c(tt_2)]{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{21}}{4}}\mathrm{coth}(3\sqrt{3/7}ct)>0,`$ (3.3)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{9}{8}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{cosh}^2[3c(tt_2)]}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{sinh}^2(3\sqrt{3/7}ct)}}\right)n_2^2(t)>0.`$ (3.4)
Here we can again consider that our universe evolves only for $`t<0`$. The left hand side of these eqs. for $`c=1`$ and $`t_2=0`$ are shown in Fig. 5, and the behavior of the scale factor $`S(t)`$ in (3.2) is depicted in Fig. 5. We again see that there is a certain period of negative time that these conditions are satisfied .

The starting time $`T_1`$ and ending time $`T_2`$ of the acceleration are read off from Fig. 5 as

$`T_10.78,T_20.15.`$ (3.5)
We then find that the expansion factor is

$`A2.17.`$ (3.6)
This value is too small to explain the cosmological problems. However, here is a parameter $`t_2`$ in contrast to the vacuum solution, and it is interesting to check what effect this may have.

We have examined the conditions for various choices of $`t_2`$ and found that the typical behavior for positive $`t_2`$ is basically the same as $`t_2=0`$ case, but the period of the accelerated expansion changes slightly. For example, for $`t_2=1`$, we find

$`T_10.73,T_20.06.`$ (3.7)
and the value of the expansion factor during the accelerated expansion improves:

$`A3.13.`$ (3.8)
This is still not enough improvement for cosmological applications. Increasing the value of $`t_2`$ does not affect the numerical value of $`A`$ much. The behavior for negative $`t_2`$ is also basically the same, but the expansion factor is worse; one typically gets $`A1.4`$.

The behavior of the size of the internal space for $`t_2=0`$ is also shown in Fig. 6.

As observed in , there is no stable point in the size of the internal space, and in the infinite future its size goes to infinity. There is no significant change in this behavior if we change the parameter $`t_2`$.

### 3.2 Flat internal space

The conditions (2.5) and (2.6) for $`n=7`$ and flat internal space $`\sigma =0`$ are

$`n_3(t){\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}\mathrm{tanh}[3c(tt_2)]+{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{21}}{4}}>0,`$ (3.9)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{9}{8}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{cosh}^2[3c(tt_2)]}}n_3^2(t)>0,`$ (3.10)
where we have chosen the plus sign in eq. (2.20) since minus sign cannot give expanding universe.

Here since $`S(t)`$ does not have any singularity and is positive, the time $`t`$ runs from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`+\mathrm{}`$ while the time $`\eta `$ runs from 0 to $`+\mathrm{}`$ monotonously. The left hand side of these eqs. for $`c=1`$ and $`t_2=0`$ are shown in Fig. 8, and the behavior the scale factor $`S(t)`$ in (3.2) is depicted in Fig. 8. We again see that there is a certain period of negative time that these conditions are satisfied .

We again read off the starting time $`T_1`$ and ending time $`T_2`$ of the acceleration from Fig. 8 as

$`T_10.48,T_20.04,`$ (3.11)
and the expansion factor is

$`A1.35.`$ (3.12)
This value is again too small to explain the cosmological problems. The conditions (3.9) and (3.10) depend only on $`tt_2`$, so changing $`t_2`$ simply shifts the evolution of the spacetime and does not give any difference.

The behavior of the size of the internal space is also shown in Fig. 9.

There is no stable point in the size of the internal space, and in the infinite future its size goes to infinity.

### 3.3 Spherical internal space

The conditions (2.5) and (2.6) for $`n=7`$ and spherical internal space $`\sigma =+1`$ are (again shifting the time to set $`t_1=0`$)

$`n_4(t){\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}\mathrm{tanh}[3c(tt_2)]{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{21}}{4}}\mathrm{tanh}(3\sqrt{3/7}ct)>0,`$ (3.13)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{9}{8}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{cosh}^2[3c(tt_2)]}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{cosh}^2(3\sqrt{3/7}ct)}}\right)n_4^2(t)>0.`$ (3.14)
The time ranges of $`\eta `$ and $`t`$ are the same as the flat internal space. We have reported the result for $`t_2=0`$ in ref. ; the result indicates that there is no period of accelerated expansion. We have examined what happens if we change the parameter $`t_2`$. The results for $`c=1`$ and $`t_2=1`$ are shown in Fig. 11. We find that there is a certain period of negative time that the conditions (3.13) and (3.14) are satisfied, though the universe begin contraction after some positive time. The behavior of the scale factor $`S(t)`$ in (3.2) is depicted in Fig. 11. It contracts on both ends $`t\pm \mathrm{}`$.

The acceleration starting time $`T_1`$ and ending time $`T_2`$ are read off from Fig. 11 as

$`T_11.48,T_21.04,`$ (3.15)
and the expansion factor is

$`A1.35.`$ (3.16)
This value is again too small to explain the cosmological problems. We have also checked that the typical behavior for negative $`t_2`$ is again basically the same as $`t_2=1`$ case, but the period of the accelerated expansion and the value of the expansion factor during the accelerated expansion change.

A different behavior is observed for positive $`t_2`$. We find the acceleration occurs while the universe is already contracting for $`t>0`$, as shown in Fig. 13. We do not know if this case gives any interesting cosmology. The behavior of the size of the internal space is also shown for $`t_2=1`$ in Fig. 13.

There is no stable point in the size of the internal space, and in the infinite future its size goes to infinity. There is no significant change in this behavior if we further change the parameter $`t_2`$.

## 4 SD2-brane

In this section, we discuss accelerating cosmologies from SD2-brane.

### 4.1 SD2-brane obtained from SM2-brane

We first show how the SD2-brane can be obtained by dimensional reduction from SM2-branes. Though it is possible to examine general dimensions, we restrict ourselves to $`d=11`$ here. We will see why the qualitative behavior is similar to SM2-brane.

The 10-dimensional metric in the string frame is obtained from the 11-dimensional one by the relation

$`ds_{11}^2=e^{2\varphi /3}ds_{10,s}^2+e^{4\varphi /3}dx_{10}^2.`$ (4.1)
In our solutions (2.10), we consider SM2-brane by taking $`q=2`$, but we set $`p=4`$ with one extra coordinate outside SM2-brane, in which direction we make dimensional reduction. We choose $`x_1,x_2,x_3`$ to be the SD2-brane world-volume and $`x_4`$ the direction of dimensional reduction. We further set $`cc_1=c_2=c_3,c^{}c_1^{}=c_2^{}=c_3^{}`$ but leave $`c_4`$ and $`c_4^{}`$ arbitrary. There is no dilaton which comes from the metric as (4.1) upon dimensional reduction, and we put $`a=c_\varphi =0`$. This gives

$`\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\mathrm{ln}[\mathrm{cosh}3c(tt_2)]+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}(c+2c_4)t+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}c_4^{},`$
$`ds_{10,s}^2`$ $`=`$ $`e^{2\varphi /3}[\mathrm{cosh}3c(tt_2)]^{1/3}[e^{(c+2c_4)t/52(3c^{}+c_4^{})/5}\{e^{12g(t)}dt^2+e^{2g(t)}d\mathrm{\Sigma }_{6,\sigma }^2\}`$ (4.2)
$`+[\mathrm{cosh}3c(tt_2)]^1e^{2c^{}}d𝐱^2].`$
In the Einstein frame $`ds_{10,E}^2=e^{\varphi /2}ds_{10,s}^2`$, this reduces to

$`ds_{10,E}^2`$ $`=`$ $`[\mathrm{cosh}3c(tt_2)]^{3/8}[e^{3(c+2c_4)t/403(8c^{}+c_4^{})/20}\{e^{12g(t)}dt^2+e^{2g(t)}d\mathrm{\Sigma }_{6,\sigma }^2\}`$ (4.3)
$`+[\mathrm{cosh}3c(tt_2)]^1e^{(c+2c_4)t/8+(8c^{}+c_4^{})/4}d𝐱^2].`$
The relation to the notation of  is given by

$`c={\displaystyle \frac{16}{15}}\alpha ,c_4={\displaystyle \frac{5}{8}}c_1{\displaystyle \frac{8}{15}}\alpha ,`$ (4.4)
which must obey (2.22) or

$`30\beta ^2={\displaystyle \frac{128}{25}}\alpha ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{15}{32}}c_1^2.`$ (4.5)
The scale factor $`S(t)`$ and $`\delta (t)`$ are given as

$`\delta (t)`$ $`=`$ $`[\mathrm{cosh}(16\alpha /5)(tt_2)]^{3/16}e^{g(t)3c_1t/643\stackrel{~}{c}^{}/4},`$
$`S(t)`$ $`=`$ $`[\mathrm{cosh}(16\alpha /5)(tt_2)]^{1/4}e^{3g(t)c_1t/16\stackrel{~}{c}^{}},`$ (4.6)
$`\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\mathrm{ln}[\mathrm{cosh}(16\alpha /5)(tt_2)]+{\displaystyle \frac{15}{16}}c_1t+c_\varphi ^{},`$
where we have also put

$`\stackrel{~}{c}^{}={\displaystyle \frac{8c^{}+c_4^{}}{10}},c_\varphi ^{}={\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}c_4^{}.`$ (4.7)
On the other hand, if we consider the SD2-brane with $`d=10,q=2,p=3,n=6,a=\frac{1}{2},ϵ=+1`$ in eq. (2.10), we get precisely (4.1) with different parametrization

$`c=\alpha +{\displaystyle \frac{5}{64}}c_1,c_\varphi ={\displaystyle \frac{15}{16}}c_1{\displaystyle \frac{4}{5}}\alpha ,c^{}={\displaystyle \frac{5}{4}}\stackrel{~}{c}^{}.`$ (4.8)
The scale factors (4.1) almost coincide with those for SM2-brane in (3.2) if we choose $`n=6`$, though the power of the $`\mathrm{cosh}`$ is slightly different and there is an additional $`c_1t`$ term in the exponent. However, the difference is small and one may expect that qualitative features remain the same. This is the reason why one finds basically the same behavior as SM2-brane. To confirm this, we present some results for SD2-brane below.

Continuing this reduction, one should leave the constants $`c_\alpha `$ arbitrary in order to get general lower-dimensional solutions; in the SM2-brane solution of ref. , homogeneity of the space outside the S-brane is assumed, and then general solutions cannot be obtained by dimensional reduction. If we start with our solutions without putting any relations among $`c_\alpha `$’s, we can simultaneously discuss all possible cases. This is another virtue of our solutions, in addition to the fact that they cover the vacuum solution.

### 4.2 Hyperbolic internal space

The conditions (2.5) and (2.6) give

$`n_5(t){\displaystyle \frac{4}{5}}\alpha \mathrm{tanh}[(16\alpha /5)(tt_2)]3\beta \mathrm{coth}(5\beta t){\displaystyle \frac{c_1}{16}}>0,`$ (4.9)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{32\alpha ^2/25}{\mathrm{cosh}^2[(16\alpha /5)(tt_2)]}}+{\displaystyle \frac{15\beta ^2/2}{\mathrm{sinh}^2(5\beta t)}}n_5^2(t)>0,`$ (4.10)
where we have again set $`t_1=0`$ by a shift of time.

The conditions (4.9) and (4.10) for $`\alpha =0.92,c_1=1,\beta =\frac{2}{5}`$ was examined in , and the qualitative behavior is found to be the same as SM2-brane, as expected. We have studied how the behavior changes if we change parameter $`t_2`$. The results for $`t_2=1,+1`$ are shown in Figs. 15 and 15, respectively.

The expansion factor is also obtained for $`t_2=+1`$ as

$`A3.28.`$ (4.11)
Again similarly to the SM2-brane, the positive $`t_2`$ gives bigger $`A`$, but not so much change. We thus see that the behavior does not change qualitatively from the case of SM2-brane, as expected.

However, there is a potential subtlety in this picture of SD2-brane. This is because the string coupling is given by the dilaton as $`e^\varphi `$, and it may diverge for the solution (4.1) for certain range of parameters. If this happens, quantum effects dominate and we cannot simply trust the result. Fortunately there is a safe range of parameters for this compactification on hyperbolic internal space because the time range is restricted to $`t<0`$. From eq. (4.1), one finds that if the condition

$`c_1>{\displaystyle \frac{64}{75}}|\alpha |`$ (4.12)
is satisfied, we can remain in the weak coupling region and the above picture may be trusted. The above choice of the parameters is within this range so the above result may be correct. However we will see that this may be a more serious problem for other internal spaces.

### 4.3 Flat internal space

The conditions (2.5) and (2.6) give

$`n_6(t){\displaystyle \frac{4}{5}}\alpha \mathrm{tanh}[(16\alpha /5)(tt_2)]+3\beta {\displaystyle \frac{c_1}{16}}>0,`$ (4.13)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{32\alpha ^2/25}{\mathrm{cosh}^2[(16\alpha /5)(tt_2)]}}n_6^2(t)>0.`$ (4.14)
This case for $`\alpha =0.92,c_1=1,\beta =\frac{2}{5}`$ was examined in  with results similar to SM2-brane again, and one can see that the change of $`t_2`$ simply gives the shift in time of the whole behavior without new feature.

However, in this case the time range is from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`+\mathrm{}`$ so that the dilaton (4.1) always gives strong string coupling somewhere for large $`|t|`$ whatever the choice of the parameters are, and it is not clear if this classical analysis is valid. So we cannot conclude whether this model gives a reasonable result. It is actually known that this limit is the one in which 11-th dimension becomes large . This case is better described in the SM2-brane picture, with large 11-th dimension. This is what we have already analyzed in the preceding section.

### 4.4 Spherical internal space

The conditions (2.5) and (2.6) give

$`n_7(t){\displaystyle \frac{4}{5}}\alpha \mathrm{tanh}[(16\alpha /5)(tt_2)]3\beta \mathrm{tanh}(5\beta t){\displaystyle \frac{c_1}{16}}>0,`$ (4.15)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{32\alpha ^2/25}{\mathrm{cosh}^2[(16\alpha /5)(tt_2)]}}{\displaystyle \frac{15\beta ^2/2}{\mathrm{cosh}^2(5\beta t)}}n_7^2(t)>0,`$ (4.16)
where we have again set $`t_1=0`$ by a shift of time.

We have examined the behaviors for $`\alpha =1,c_1=0,\beta =\frac{8}{5\sqrt{15}}`$ for $`t_2=1,+1`$ which are shown in Figs. 17 and 17, respectively.

We find again that there is a possibility of getting accelerating cosmologies for negative $`t_2`$, and also for positive $`t_2`$ though in this case the universe is contracting. The typical features of the solution is essentially the same as SM2-brane case. Here again this internal space suffers from the problem of strong string coupling. It is not clear if we can trust this result, but the analysis in SM2-brane seems to support the basic behavior.

## 5 Conclusions and discussions

We have examined accelerating cosmologies obtained from time-dependent solutions in superstring/M theories including parameter dependence, with the hope to get bigger expansion factors. As a new feature, we have found that it is also possible to obtain accelerating phase not only for hyperbolic and flat internal spaces but also for spherical space. In the last case, the universe eventually enters into the contracting phase.

The obtained expansion factors of our universe seem to be rather small to solve the horizon and flatness problems, and this seems to be typical problem in these models. This factor improves slightly if we change parameters of the models, but still not enough.

We have also shown the relation between SM2-brane and SD2-brane, and thus have given the reason why the qualitative behavior is basically the same as SM2-brane. There is also a problem associated with the strong string coupling in SD2-brane, in which case one must return to the SM2-brane picture.

One of the common features of the above results is that our spacetime starts from very small size while the internal space is fairly large, and our scale factor grows in time while the size of the internal space shrinks for a while (perhaps in our time). It is interesting to further pursue this possibility.

An obvious generalization of our work would be to consider more general case allowing the full parameters in our solution (2.10). Also it would be interesting to examine other possibility of the internal space such as product space. It is extremely important to investigate how one can achieve expansion factor large enough to explain the cosmological problems in this context.

## Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Nos. 12640270 and 02041.