format: text

text:
# A Two-Atom Picture of Coherent Atom-Molecule Quantum Beats

## 1 Introduction

Utilizing Feshbach resonance physics, recent experiments have produced an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) coherently coupled to molecules in high vibrationally excited bound states . The coupling of atomic and molecular states was achieved through application of a pulsed external magnetic field and it has sparked much interest  since it ultimately (although possibly not yet) should lead to the creation of a molecular condensate. The problem of creating a molecular BEC has been one of the focus areas of ultracold physics research for several years now . Two different techniques, namely photoassociation and a magnetic field ramp near a Feshbach resonance, have been used in attempts to transform an atomic condensate into a molecular one. The use of Feshbach resonances to control the atom-atom scattering length, and other properties, has been previously demonstrated experimentally .

It was predicted theoretically  that magnetic field pulses would drive a significant part of an atomic BEC into a molecular one. These predictions were based on a mean field theory approach, of the same type that has proven very successful in describing many properties of the alkali atom BECs produced experimentally to date. However, two sets of experiments performed at JILA have shown puzzling results that did not match the original theoretical predictions. In one experiment, a single magnetic pulse close to the Feshbach resonance probed the strongly interacting atomic dynamics,  while in a second experiment double pulses generated interference patterns between the different states populated. In both experiments, the atoms, part of the initial BEC cloud, were observed to end up in one of the following three components: a remnant BEC cloud, a burst of hot atoms, and a missing (undetected) component. This outcome differed from the theoretical predictions which only accounted directly for two components. The questions regarding the nature of the three components observed experimentally, including the specific issue of whether a molecular BEC was created, were addressed by two independent theoretical papers . Both of these papers accounted for many body effects by employing field theory beyond the mean field (i.e., Gross-Pitaevskii equation) level. These two studies gave similar answers, in identifying the observed atom bursts as hot, non-condensed atoms, and the missing component as a molecular condensate. In addition to Refs.  and , three other theoretical studies involving many-body approaches have also addressed the interpretation of the Donley et al. experiment .

In this paper we propose an alternative model that does not rely on field theory. Our model considers only two-body dynamics and uses a very simple scaling procedure to apply our results to the many-body system studied experimentally. The observed oscillatory behavior can then be viewed as a simple example of quantum beats of the type that arise whenever indistinguishable quantum mechanical pathways associated with two or more impulsively-excited stationary states interfere coherently. Specifically, our treatment considers two atoms confined by a spherically symmetric harmonic oscillator potential, which interact through a contact potential. The stationary states of such a system have been described by Busch et al.,  who proposed it as a model that can be used in the context of ultracold collisions occuring in trapped gases. The properties of this treatment were further investigated in the context of the condensed Bose gases by Julienne and coworkers  and by Blume and Greene . These papers investigated the strong interactions that occur near a Feshbach resonance, and employed an energy-dependent scattering length to model this situation. Here we implement this model for a time-dependent magnetic field, augmented by the sudden approximation to model the rapid field ramps.

By performing a frequency rescaling, an initial condensate density can be achieved for two bodies that is comparable to the density range studied experimentally. The premise of our model is that the energy scale of the trap energy levels is very low in present day experiments, far smaller than the molecular binding energies of interest. At the same time, we anticipate that the physics of any single molecule formation is controlled by the interaction of just two atoms, even in a many-atom condensate. Accordingly, we consider just two atoms in an oscillator trap of very high frequency, adjusted so that the density of the two atoms becomes the same as the condensate density in the experiments. The resulting approach is then used to model the recent experimental results of Donley et al. . Our two-body model is shown to describe most of the nontrivial features observed in the experiment, although some discrepancies remain. This may indicate that a more elaborate inclusion of the many-body effects may be necessary to achieve a full quantitative description. Nevertheless, our results show that more of the key effects can be interpreted in terms of two-body physics than appears to have been realized in existing theoretical models.

This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 determines the eigenstates of two trapped atoms using a quantum-defect-style method that differs from the treatment of Ref.  but is equivalent. Section 3 discusses the behavior of the atom pair close to a Feshbach resonance, and our approximate solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation using the sudden approximation. Section 4 discusses the frequency rescaling employed to interpret the many-atom system. Section 5 compares the results of our model with recent experiments, while Section 6 summarizes our conclusions.

## 2 Two Interacting Atoms in a Trap

We consider two atoms of mass $`m`$ in a spherical oscillator trap of angular frequency $`\omega `$, which interact through a zero-range potential $`V(𝐫)`$ ,

$$V(𝐫)=\frac{4\pi \mathrm{}^2a_{\mathrm{sc}}}{m}\delta ^{(3)}(𝐫)\frac{}{r}r.$$
(1)
Here $`a_{\mathrm{sc}}`$ is the two-body atom-atom scattering length and $`𝐫`$ is the relative coordinate of the two particles. The Hamiltonian of the two-body system separates into a center of mass part and a relative part. The center of mass part has the usual harmonic oscillator solutions which are not affected by the scattering length; hence, we focus on the relative motion in the following.

Since the contact potential in Eq. (1) acts solely on the $`s`$-wave symmetry, we consider only solutions of the relative Schrödinger equation with zero orbital angular momentum. We define the harmonic oscillator length $`a_{\mathrm{ho}}=\sqrt{\mathrm{}/(\omega m/2)}`$ corresponding to the reduced  mass, $`m/2`$, as our length scale, leading to a dimensionless radial coordinate $`x=r/a_{\mathrm{ho}}`$. Our energy unit is chosen to be $`\mathrm{}\omega `$, resulting in a dimensionless energy variable $`ϵ=E/\mathrm{}\omega `$. The $`s`$-wave eigenfunction $`\varphi _{ϵ,l=0}`$ of the radial Schrödinger equation in the relative coordinate corresponding to energy $`ϵ\mathrm{}\omega `$ is then rescaled,

$$\varphi _{ϵ,l=0}=\frac{u(x)}{x}\frac{1}{\sqrt{4\pi }},$$
(2)
so that the radial equation has only second derivatives,

$$\left(\frac{1}{2}\frac{d^2}{dx^2}+\frac{1}{2}x^2\right)u(x)=ϵu(x).$$
(3)
The contact potential, Eq. (1), imposes a boundary condition on the logarithmic derivative of $`u(x)`$ at the origin:

$$\frac{u^{}(0)}{u(0)}=\frac{a_{\mathrm{ho}}}{a_{\mathrm{sc}}}.$$
(4)
Solutions of these equations have been obtained by Busch et al. . However, we now rederive these solutions in a slightly different manner, along the lines of quantum defect theory (QDT) .

We start with a pair of solutions of Eq. (3), $`f`$ and $`g`$, that have regular,

$$f_\nu (x)=A_\nu x\mathrm{e}_1^{x^2/2}\mathrm{F}_1(\nu ;\frac{3}{2};x^2),$$
(5)
and irregular,

$$g_\nu (x)=B_\nu \mathrm{e}_1^{x^2/2}\mathrm{F}_1(\nu \frac{1}{2};\frac{1}{2};x^2),$$
(6)
behavior at the origin, at any energy. Here $`\nu `$ denotes a quantum number, $`\nu =ϵ/23/4`$, while $`A_\nu `$ and $`B_\nu `$ are constants that will be determined later. In the following, our solutions are characterized by the subscript $`\nu `$ instead of the subscript $`ϵ`$. We calculate the asymptotic behavior of the two solutions using the known behavior of the confluent hypergeometric function, $`{}_{1}{}^{}\mathrm{F}_{1}^{}`$,

$${}_{1}{}^{}\mathrm{F}_{1}^{}(a;b;x)|_x\mathrm{}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(b)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(a)}x^{ab}\mathrm{e}^x+\mathrm{cos}(\pi a)\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(b)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(ba)}x^a,$$
(7)
as well as the gamma reflection formula:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu )\mathrm{\Gamma }(1\nu )=\frac{\pi }{\mathrm{sin}(\pi \nu )}.$$
(8)
For $`x\mathrm{}`$, we obtain

$`f_\nu A_\nu \mathrm{\Gamma }({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}})\left(x^{2\nu 2}\mathrm{e}^{x^2/2}\mathrm{sin}(\pi \nu ){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +1)}{\pi }}+x^{2\nu +1}\mathrm{e}^{x^2/2}\mathrm{cos}(\pi \nu ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +\frac{3}{2})}}\right),`$
$`g_\nu B_\nu \mathrm{\Gamma }({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})\left(x^{2\nu 2}\mathrm{e}^{x^2/2}\mathrm{cos}(\pi \nu ){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +\frac{3}{2})}{\pi }}x^{2\nu +1}\mathrm{e}^{x^2/2}\mathrm{sin}(\pi \nu ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +1)}}\right).`$
Our goal is to recast these solutions in the “usual” QDT form  given by

$`f_\nu C\left(D^1\mathrm{e}^{x^2/2}x^{2\nu 2}\mathrm{sin}(\pi \nu )D\mathrm{e}^{x^2/2}x^{2\nu +1}\mathrm{cos}(\pi \nu )\right),`$ (9)
$`g_\nu C\left(D^1\mathrm{e}^{x^2/2}x^{2\nu 2}\mathrm{cos}(\pi \nu )D\mathrm{e}^{x^2/2}x^{2\nu +1}\mathrm{sin}(\pi \nu )\right).`$ (10)
In addition, we want to normalize the functions $`f`$ and $`g`$ such that their Wronskian $`\mathrm{W}[f_\nu ,g_\nu ]`$ is $`2/\pi `$. These requirements can be fulfilled by defining $`A_\nu `$ and $`B_\nu `$ \[Eqs. (5) and (6), respectively\] appropriately, which leads to

$`f_\nu ={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{\pi }}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +\frac{3}{2})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +1)}}}x\mathrm{e}_1^{x^2/2}\mathrm{F}_1(\nu ;{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}};x^2),`$ (11)
$`g_\nu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi }}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +1)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +\frac{3}{2})}}}\mathrm{e}_1^{x^2/2}\mathrm{F}_1(\nu {\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}};{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}};x^2).`$ (12)
Using these normalizations, the constants $`C`$ and $`D`$ \[Eqs. (9) and (10)\] become $`C=1/\sqrt{\pi }`$ and $`D=\sqrt{\pi }/\sqrt{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +1)\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu +3/2)}`$.

With these solutions for $`f`$ and $`g`$ in hand, we can proceed in the spirit of QDT by deriving a solution to the radial Schrödinger equation that accounts for an additional non-oscillator short-range potential. For distances beyond those where the short-range potential is non-negligible, the radial wave function $`u_\nu `$ must assume the form

$$u_\nu =f_\nu \mathrm{cos}\pi \mu g_\nu \mathrm{sin}\pi \mu .$$
(13)
Armed with the known asymptotic behavior of $`f`$ and $`g`$, we can determine the asymptotic behavior of $`u`$ and impose the requirement that $`u`$ is finite at large $`x`$ (i.e., the coefficient of the growing exponential is zero). This leads to the equality $`\mathrm{sin}\pi (\nu +\mu )=0`$, which can be recast as a quantization condition

$$ϵ=2(n\mu )+\frac{3}{2},$$
(14)
where $`n=0,1,2,\mathrm{}`$. The last step towards finding the energy levels $`ϵ`$ of our confined atom pair is to impose the boundary condition on the solution $`u`$, which is implied by the contact potential at the origin \[Eq. (4)\]. Using the fact that at small arguments $`{}_{1}{}^{}\mathrm{F}_{1}^{}(a;b;x)`$ approaches $`1`$ , we obtain

$$\frac{u^{}(0)}{u(0)}=\frac{f^{}(0)\mathrm{cos}\pi \mu }{g(0)\mathrm{sin}\pi \mu }=\frac{a_{\mathrm{ho}}}{a_{\mathrm{sc}}}.$$
(15)
Upon inserting the explicit forms for $`f`$ and $`g`$ as given in Eqs. (11) and (12), we obtain the following equation for the quantum defect $`\mu `$ (see also )

$$\mathrm{tan}\pi \mu =\frac{a_{\mathrm{sc}}}{a_{\mathrm{ho}}}\frac{2\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\frac{ϵ}{2}+\frac{3}{4}\right)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\frac{ϵ}{2}+\frac{1}{4}\right)}.$$
(16)
Equations (14) and (16) allow determination of the energy spectrum for any value of the scattering length $`a_{\mathrm{sc}}`$. It can be shown that these equations are equivalent to the transcendental equation

$$\frac{2\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\frac{ϵ}{2}+\frac{3}{4}\right)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\frac{ϵ}{2}+\frac{1}{4}\right)}=\frac{1}{a_{\mathrm{sc}}/a_{\mathrm{ho}}}$$
(17)
of Busch et al. . The energy quantization conditions derived here for a zero-range pseudo potential using QDT also apply to a confined atom pair interacting through an arbitrary (i.e., non-contact) short-range potential, the only difference being that the quantum defect $`\mu `$ has a different value. Regardless of the specific short-range potential, the corresponding eigenfunctions $`u_\nu `$ are then given outside the potential range in terms of the hypergeometric U function ,

$$u_\nu (x)=N_\nu \mathrm{e}^{x^2/2}\mathrm{U}(\frac{(2\nu +1)}{2},\frac{1}{2},x^2),$$

where $`N_\nu `$ is a normalization constant.

## 3 Two atoms near a Feshbach Resonance. Overlap matrix elements

To apply our formalism derived above to two-atom states that lie energetically near a Feshbach resonance, we rewrite our scattering length $`a_{\mathrm{sc}}`$ as a function of the magnetic field strength $`B`$

$$a_{\mathrm{sc}}(B)=a_{\mathrm{bg}}\left(1\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{BB_0}\right).$$

Here, $`a_{\mathrm{bg}}`$ denotes the scattering length far from the resonance, $`B_0`$ denotes the resonance position, while $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is a parameter related to the width of the resonance. In our numerical calculations (see Sec. 5), we choose parameter values in agreement with those obtained by fitting to recent experimental data  of the Feshbach resonance in 85Rb: $`B_0=155.041`$ G, $`\mathrm{\Delta }=10.71`$ G, and $`a_{\mathrm{bg}}=443`$ a.u. Note that a similar model was employed in Ref.  for the case of a Feshbach resonance in 23Na. While that study additionally incorporated an energy dependence of the scattering length, the energy dependence of $`a_{\mathrm{sc}}(B)`$ in the present study is comparatively weak over the range of energies and magnetic fields considered. Hence we choose to neglect it.

Our goal is to describe our two-atom system when it is subjected to time-dependent magnetic field ramps $`B(t)`$, like the ones used in the experiments of . To approximate the experimental $`B(t)`$, we assume a piecewise constant $`B(t)`$ as indicated in Fig. 3. In our approach the assumption of an instantaneous variation of $`B(t)`$ amounts to the use of the sudden approximation. In this approximation, the wavefunction of the atom pair is initially unaffected by the instantaneous change of $`B(t)`$. Let the magnetic field strength before (after) the instantaneous change be $`B_1`$ ($`B_2`$). It is then convenient to write the time-dependent superposition state $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ at field strength $`B_1`$ in terms of the eigenfunctions $`\{\varphi _{\nu _1}\}_{\nu _1=0,\mathrm{}}`$ (with corresponding eigenvalues $`\{ϵ_{\nu _1}\}_{\nu _1=0,\mathrm{}}`$), and that at field strength $`B_2`$ in terms of the eigenfunctions $`\{\varphi _{\nu _2}\}_{\nu _2=0,\mathrm{}}`$ (with corresponding eigenvalues $`\{ϵ_{\nu _2}\}_{\nu _2=0,\mathrm{}}`$),

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(B_j,t)=\underset{\nu _j}{}a_{\nu _j}^{(j)}(t)\varphi _{\nu _j},j=1,2.$$
(18)
The “new” expansion coefficients $`a_{\nu _2}^{(2)}`$ can be expressed through the “old” expansion coefficients,

$$a_{\nu _2}^{(2)}=\underset{\nu _1}{}O_{\nu _2,\nu _1}a_{\nu _1}^{(1)},$$

where $`O_{\nu _2,\nu _1}`$ denotes the overlap matrix between the eigenfunctions corresponding to $`B_1`$ and $`B_2`$, respectively,

$$O_{\nu _2,\nu _1}=\varphi _{\nu _2}|\varphi _{\nu _1}.$$
(19)
The following derivation shows how the eigenstate transformation projections $`O_{\nu _2,\nu _1}`$ can be determined analytically. Let $`u_{\nu _{1,2}}`$ be the reduced radial wavefunctions corresponding to $`\varphi _{\nu _{1,2}}`$. If we multiply the equation for $`u_{\nu _1}`$ by $`u_{\nu _2}`$ and that for $`u_{\nu _2}`$ by $`u_{\nu _1}`$, subtract the resulting equations and integrate the result from 0 to $`\mathrm{}`$, an integration by parts gives

$$\left(ϵ_{\nu _1}ϵ_{\nu _2}\right)_0^{\mathrm{}}u_{\nu _1}(x)u_{\nu _2}(x)𝑑x=W[u_{\nu _1},u_{\nu _2}]_{x=0}.$$
(20)
Here, $`W[u_{\nu _1},u_{\nu _2}]_{x=0}`$ denotes the Wronskian of $`u_{\nu _1}`$ and $`u_{\nu _2}`$ evaluated at the origin. The above formula allows the determination of both the normalization constant $`N_\nu `$ \[Eq. (2)\] and the overlap matrix element $`O_{\nu _2,\nu _1}`$ \[Eq. (19)\],

$`O_{\nu _2,\nu _1}=N_{\nu _1}N_{\nu _2}`$ $`[2\mathrm{cos}(\pi \nu _1)\mathrm{\Gamma }({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}+\nu _1)\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\nu _2)\mathrm{sin}(\pi \nu _2)`$ (21)
$`2\mathrm{cos}(\pi \nu _2)\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\nu _1)\mathrm{\Gamma }({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}+\nu _2)\mathrm{sin}(\pi \nu _1)]/[4\pi (\nu _2\nu _1)]`$
and

$$N_\nu =\left\{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\nu )\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{3}{2}+\nu )\left[2\pi +\left(\psi (\nu )\psi (\frac{1}{2}+\nu )\right)\mathrm{sin}(2\pi \nu )\right]\right\}^{1/2},$$
(22)
where $`\psi `$ denotes the digamma function . The overlap matrix elements $`O_{\nu _2,\nu _1}`$ are expressed in terms of the $`\nu `$ quantum numbers, which, in turn, are directly linked to the energy eigenvalues $`ϵ`$ through $`ϵ=2\nu +3/2`$. Figure 1 shows examples of the dependence of the overlap matrix elements on the non-integer quantum numbers $`\nu _1`$ and $`\nu _2`$. While the overlap matrix elements oscillate rapidly with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu =\nu _2\nu _1`$), our analytical formula for the matrix elements results in stable numerical calculations (see Sec. 5).

## 4 Description of many-body effects through a frequency rescaling

The simple model described in the previous section allows us to describe the states of a trapped atom pair that undergoes sudden changes of the interatomic interaction, here parameterized accurately through a magnetic field-dependent scattering length. Our goal is now to apply our two-atom model to interpret an ensemble of $`N`$ atoms ($`N2`$). Without constructing a rigorous many-body approach like, e.g., the ones based on the field theory formalism, we will attempt to account for many-body effects by using our two-particle model with a rescaled frequency. The idea suggested by Cornell  is to capitalize on the importance of the diluteness or gas parameter $`na_{\mathrm{sc}}^{}{}_{}{}^{3}`$, ($`n`$ is the density of atoms) which in more rigorous many-body models of degenerate Bose gases plays a key role in determining the behavior of the system. Instead of modeling an $`N`$-atom system we will model a two-body system that has the same diluteness parameter as the experimentally studied $`N`$ atom sample.

To motivate that our two-body description can, at least to a crude level of approximation, account for many-body physics we calculate the overlap integral for one particular case. We consider the overlap integral between a two-body state located very far from the resonance centered at $`B_0`$, $`u_{\mathrm{ho}}(r)`$, with that corresponding to a value of $`B`$ close to $`B_0`$, $`u_M(r)`$. $`u_{\mathrm{ho}}`$ refers to the trap ground state, which we approximate through a state describing two independent atoms with zero scattering length,

$$u_{\mathrm{ho}}(x)\frac{2}{\pi ^{1/4}}x\mathrm{e}^{x^2/2}$$
(23)
$`u_M(r)`$ denotes a molecular state (i.e., the state that remains bound even in the absence of the confining potential). Neglecting the influence of the confining potential we assume the wavefunction of this state to be:

$$u_M(r)\sqrt{2\kappa }\mathrm{e}^{\kappa r},$$
(24)
where $`\kappa =1/a_{\mathrm{sc}}`$. We estimate the overlap integral of these two states, by assuming that the exponential in $`u_{\mathrm{ho}}`$ is approximately 1 over the range relevant for the evluation of the integral. This aproximation yields

$$u_M|u_{\mathrm{ho}}\left(\frac{2a_{\mathrm{sc}}}{a_{\mathrm{ho}}}\right)^{3/2}\pi ^{1/4}.$$
(25)
The absolute value of this overlap matrix element gives the probability $`p`$ that the initially “unbound” atom pair ends up in the molecular state as the $`B`$ field is tuned close to resonance,

$$p=\frac{8}{\sqrt{\pi }}\left(\frac{a_{\mathrm{sc}}}{a_{\mathrm{ho}}}\right)^3.$$
(26)
For small $`p`$ ($`p1/N`$), we can extend our two-body treatment to model an ensemble of $`N`$ atoms. As the $`B`$ field is tuned to resonance, each atom pair in the ensemble has the probability $`p`$ to form a molecular bound state. Using this simple picture, the calculation of the fraction of atoms that transform into molecules, $`f_{atomsmolecules}`$, due to the magnetic field ramp amounts to a simple counting of atom pairs,

$$f_{\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{molecules}}=\frac{2}{N}\frac{N(N1)}{2}pNp=\frac{8}{\sqrt{\pi }}\frac{a_{\mathrm{sc}}^{}{}_{}{}^{3}N}{a_{\mathrm{ho}}^{}{}_{}{}^{3}}.$$
(27)
Within our estimate, the fraction of atoms transformed to molecules is proportional to the diluteness parameter $`na_{\mathrm{sc}}^{}{}_{}{}^{3}`$ (the density is proportional to $`N/a_{\mathrm{ho}}^{}{}_{}{}^{3}`$). This back-of-the-envelope estimate, although not a rigorous proof, provides a somewhat quantitative motivation for the idea that lies behind the frequency rescaling introduced above.

Since in our two body model we will choose a scattering length that is the same as in the sample used in the experiment, having the same diluteness parameter for the two amounts to having the same density. This condition, that our two atoms confined by the harmonic potential have the same peak density as the average many-body density, $`n`$, provides the criterion for determining our rescaled frequency $`\omega ^{}`$. For the purpose of evaluating $`\omega ^{}`$ from this condition we neglect the atom-atom potential and consider the two non-interacting atoms in the ground state of the harmonic trap. Based on this assumption we find the relation between the density of the many-body sample, $`n`$, and the trap frequency confining the two atoms, $`\omega ^{}`$, to be

$$\omega ^{}=\frac{\mathrm{}}{m_{\mathrm{atom}}}\pi \left(\frac{n}{2}\right)^{2/3}.$$
(28)
The experiment  uses an inhomogeneous trap that has a geometric mean of $`\omega 2\pi \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}12}`$ Hz, and involves approximately $`N=17100`$ atoms. The starting value of the magnetic field of about $`162.2`$ G corresponds to a scattering length of 220 a.u.. For these parameters, using either the Thomas-Fermi formula or the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, one obtains a density profile with an average of approximately $`n410^{12}`$ cm-3 (see, e.g., Fig. 10 of Ref. ). Note that this is lower than the claimed experimental density of $`n=1.110^{13}`$ cm-3. We find that the final results (see Fig. 4) depend sensitively on density, and this way of rescaling the frequency in Eq. (28) seems to best reproduce the experimental results. The rescaled frequency that we obtain for this density ($`n=410^{12}`$ cm-3) is $`\omega ^{}2\pi \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3.72}`$ kHz.

Figure 2 shows the eigenvalues of two 85Rb atoms confined by a harmonic potential with angular frequency $`\omega ^{}`$ as a function of the magnetic field strength $`B`$ in the vicinity of the Feshbach resonance described through the parameters given in Sec. 3.

Notice that the sequence of avoided crossings of energy levels associated with the Feshbach resonance becomes smeared out at this high frequency. We group the two-body states into three groups (see Fig. 2): the molecular state, the trap ground state, and the excited states of the trap. To connect our two-body study to the $`N`$-body systems studied experimentally, we make the following correspondence between the two-atom states and the many body states. The molecular state of two atoms is in the ground state of the center-of-mass motion, and accordingly we associate this population with translationally cool (condensed) molecules in the $`N`$-atom system. At fields above the resonance, the lowest positive energy state (which we refer to as the trap ground state) corresponds to condensate atoms. Finally, the higher trap excited states correspond to non-condensed atoms, i.e., the experimentally observed “jets of hot atoms” . In the next section, we interpret the occupation probability of the two-atom states as the fraction of atoms ending up in the corresponding many body states.

## 5 Numerical Results

We now use the above description to simulate the experiment of Donley et al. . This experiment consists of applying two magnetic field pulses, separated by a time interval of variable length (denoted by $`t_{\mathrm{evolve}}`$ in Fig. 3), to a condensed sample of 85Rb atoms. The two pulses of durations $`t_1`$ and $`t_2`$, respectively, ramp the magnetic field to $`B_m`$, a value close to the Feshbach resonance, which couples the atomic and molecular states of the sample. After the application of these magnetic pulses, three distinct components are identified experimentally: a remaining sample of condensed atoms, a hot burst of atoms, and a “missing” component which is not detected under the current experimental conditions. At least two theoretical approaches , both involving a field theory formalism, identified this third component (i.e., the missing component) as a molecular condensate, however, other interpretations exist. The size of the three components oscillates as a function of the evolve time $`t_{evolve}`$ with a frequency that corresponds to the energy of a weakly-bound, vibrationally excited state of the 85Rb2 dimer.

We model the experimental situation using the sudden approximation to describe the sharp rises and drops of the magnetic field. At time $`t=0`$ in Fig. 3, our initial state is chosen to be the trap ground state corresponding to the initial value of the magnetic field, $`B_i`$. This initial state is then propagated in time. During the time period where the magnetic field is unchanged, $`B(t)=B_i`$, the time propagation simply modulates the phase of the initial state. After the magnetic field changes to the value $`B(t)=B_m`$, the system is projected onto the new eigenstates at that field. We then propagate the quantum amplitudes of the two-atom energy eigenstates. At the end of the double pulse, when the magnetic field becomes $`B_f`$, our final state is expanded in the $`\varphi _\nu `$ states corresponding to the final value of the magnetic field, $`B_f`$. Using the correspondence between two-body and many-body states discussed in the previous section, we then relate the final population probabilities to the Donley et al. experiment. In taking the absolute square of this final quantum amplitude for each distinguishable final state, cross terms arise that exhibit quantum beats, the most prominent of which is between the molecular state and the atomic trap ground state (condensate). The parameters entering our simulations are the rescaled frequency $`\omega ^{}`$, the four magnetic field values $`B_i`$, $`B_{evolve}`$, $`B_m`$ and $`B_f`$, as well as the three time periods $`t_1`$, $`t_{evolve}`$ and $`t_2`$. Our particular simulation values are given in the caption of Fig. 3.

Figure 4 shows the results of our time-dependent two-atom calculation for a scaled frequency $`\omega ^{}`$ that gives a two-atom density of $`410^{12}`$ cm-3. This figure can be directly compared with Fig. 6 of Ref. . Inspection of these two figures shows reasonable agreement in the average values and the oscillation amplitudes for the three components. In addition, our results reproduce approximately the relative phases of the oscillations of the three different populations. The observed agreement is remarkable if one considers that we have used the sudden approximation for magnetic field ramps that in the experimental conditions last about $`15`$ $`\mu `$s. We have also assumed that the atomic sample has a constant (average) density across the atom cloud, while an improved model could consider averaging over a distribution of densities (see, for example, ). The frequency of the beats that we observe is approximately 150 kHz in accordance with the bound state energy produced by our parametrization of the scattering length given in Eq. (3). In contrast, the experiment measures oscillations at approximately 196 kHz for the same value of $`B_{\mathrm{evolve}}`$. In fact, a possible way to improve our model would be to use a better description of the atom-atom scattering properties, and consequently, a more accurate value of the molecular binding energy. Our estimations show that inclusion of the energy dependence up to the effective range level (the first non-zero correction, see ) significantly improves the agreement between the bound state energy produced by our simple model and by a multichannel calculation. However, in order to maintain our simple description of the system dynamics during the pulse evolution, we do not include this correction here.

Note that our rescaled frequency yields $`\mathrm{}\omega ^{}/k_B180`$ nK, which implies that the first excited pair above the trap ground state would share approximately two times this energy. We note that the resulting energy per atom for the least energetic of our “hot atoms” is approximately 180 nK above the trap ground state. This is not very far from the experimentaly observed energy (150 nK) of the burst atoms. However, including all excited trap states, our model predicts that burst atoms will have a higher average energy than in the experiment. In addition, our model predicts a dependence of the energy of the hot atoms on the initial atomic density like the one given by Eq. (28) while the experiment does not mention an observable density dependence of the energy of the hot bursts. We conclude that the rescaling used in our model allows a reasonable prediction of the number of the hot atoms, but has a limited ability to account for their energy distribution.

Figure 5 shows the evolution of the populations during only one pulse (with $`t_{\mathrm{evolve}}=20`$ $`\mu `$s) as a function of time. According to our calculations, the molecular eigenstate and the excited states (i.e., the non-condensed atoms) acquire roughly comparable populations after the complete first pulse (after $`t=22`$ $`\mu `$s) and mantain them until the last ramp of the pulse, when the population of the excited states becomes considerably larger. The significant population we observe for the molecular state during $`t_{\mathrm{evolve}}`$ supports our interpretation of the quantum beats seen in the end-of-pulse populations. These beats are the result of the interference of quantum paths that go through the intermediate molecular state with those that go through the intermediate ground or excited trap states. (The difference between the latter is too small to show up on the time scales considered here.) The predictions of this two-atom model, concerning the intermediate time populations of the molecular and hot components, are consistent with the comments of Braaten et al.,  (see also ) which point out the difficulty of interpreting the intermediate populations shown in Ref. . Interpretation of the results of Kokkelmans and Holland  is complicated by the fact that their two-body representation does not consist of eigenfunctions of the molecular Hamiltonian. Accordingly, their ”molecular state” is not actually the two-body molecular eigenstate, except at magnetic fields well above 160 G. In problems with a linear Schrödinger equation, a simple basis change could always be carried out, to re-express the physics in an eigenrepresentation. Here, however, the nonlinearity of the coupled equations complicates this transformation. At the same time, as Braaten et al.  comment, the success of the final calculations in reproducing the experimental observations with no adjustable parameters is immediately apparent and convincing that the right two-body physics has been incorporated into the formulation. We mainly recommend caution in interpreting the meaning of the “molecular state” in the Kokkelmans and Holland formulation, except at high magnetic fields where it approximately coincides with a two-body eigenstate.

The two-atom model disagrees with a specific qualitative prediction of Mackie et al. . Whereas in our model the “hot” atoms at the end of the pulse can be created through any of the three intermediate states (i.e, molecules, condensed atoms or non-condensed atoms), in the model of Ref.  the “hot” atoms are solely the results of the “rogue dissociation” of intermediate molecular states. Our approach suggests that around half of the final hot atoms are not produced by rogue dissociation. In fact, the pathway condensate $``$ hot atoms, which is apparently neglected by Ref. , is of comparable importance. This may in fact be the additional loss mechanism that is cited as being “missing” in Ref. .

## 6 Conclusions

We have investigated the results given by a simple model of the dynamics of two trapped atoms near a Feshbach resonance. Our model accounts for the interaction between the two atoms using a zero range potential and it also includes the confinement of the atoms by an external harmonic trap. This model can be used to make predictions regarding atomic Bose condensate driven with the help of magnetic fields near a Feshbach resonance, if a rescaled frequency is used to achieve a density comparable to the density of the many-atom condensates studied experimentally. A correspondence can be drawn between the three components observed in the recent field-ramp experiments and three groups of two-body states in our model. The experimentally-observed burst of hot atoms appears in our model as atom pairs excited to states energetically higher than the trap ground state level. The two-atom model is able to predict the populations of these three states, in fair agreement with the experimental observations. Accordingly this may provide a useful alternative view of the physics of coherent atom-molecule coupling in a condensate. The success of a two-body description may initially seem surprising, because the dominant physical processes occurring in condensate experiments near a Feshbach resonance are normally viewed as being inherently many-body in nature. Nevertheless, the present study suggests that a two-body picture, with minimal modifications, is sufficiently realistic to be used for simple estimates at a qualitative or semiquantitative level.

We thank E. Cornell for helpful suggestions and encouragement. We also thank N. Claussen, J. Dunn, M. Holland, and C. Wieman for informative discussions. This work was supported by NSF.

## References


text:
# On cubics and quartics through a canonical curve

## 1 Introduction

Let $`C`$ be a smooth nonhyperelliptic curve of genus $`g4`$, which we consider as an embedded curve $`\iota _\omega :C^{g1}`$ by its canonical linear series $`|\omega |`$. Let $`I=_{n2}I(n)`$ be the graded ideal of the canonical curve. It was classically known (Noether-Enriques-Petri theorem, see e.g. \[ACGH\] p. 124) that the ideal $`I`$ is generated by its elements of degree $`2`$, unless $`C`$ is trigonal or a plane quintic.

It was also classically known how to construct some distinguished quadrics in $`I(2)`$. We consider a double point of the theta divisor $`\mathrm{\Theta }\mathrm{Pic}^{g1}(C)`$, which corresponds by Riemann’s singularity theorem to a degree $`g1`$ line bundle $`L`$ satisfying $`\mathrm{dim}|L|=\mathrm{dim}|\omega L^1|=1`$ and we observe that the morphism $`\iota _L\times \iota _{\omega L^1}:CC^{}|L|^{}\times |\omega L^1|^{}=^1\times ^1`$ (here $`C^{}`$ denotes the image curve) followed by the Segre embedding into $`^3`$ factorizes through the canonical space $`|\omega |^{}`$, i.e.,

$$\begin{array}{ccc}C& & |\omega |^{}\\ & & ^\pi \\ ^1\times ^1& & ^3,\end{array}$$

where $`\pi `$ is projection from a $`(g5)`$-dimensional vertex $`V^{}`$ in $`|\omega |^{}`$. We then define the quadric $`Q_L:=\pi ^1(^1\times ^1)`$, which is a rank $`4`$ quadric in $`I(2)`$ and coincides with the projectivized tangent cone at the double point $`[L]\mathrm{\Theta }`$ under the identification of $`H^0(C,\omega )^{}`$ with the tangent space $`T_{[L]}\mathrm{Pic}^{g1}(C)`$. The main result, due to M. Green \[Gr\], asserts that the set of quadrics $`\{Q_L\}`$, when $`L`$ varies over the double points of $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$, linearly spans $`I(2)`$. From this result one infers a constructive Torelli theorem by intersecting all quadrics $`Q_L`$ — at least for $`C`$ general enough.

The geometry of the theta divisor $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ at a double point $`[L]`$ can also be exploited to produce higher degree elements in the ideal $`I`$ as follows: we expand in a suitable set of coordinates a local equation $`\theta `$ of $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ near $`[L]`$ as $`\theta =\theta _2+\theta _3+\mathrm{}`$, where $`\theta _i`$ are homogeneous forms of degree $`i`$. Having seen that $`Q_L=\mathrm{Zeros}(\theta _2)`$, we denote by $`S_L`$ the cubic $`\mathrm{Zeros}(\theta _3)|\omega |^{}`$, the osculating cone of $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ at $`[L]`$. The cubic $`S_L`$ has many nice geometric properties: under the blowing-up of the vertex $`V^{}S_L`$, the cubic $`S_L`$ is transformed into a quadric bundle $`\stackrel{~}{S}_L`$ over $`^1\times ^1`$ and it was shown by G. Kempf and F.-O. Schreyer \[KS\] that the Hessian and Steinerian curves of $`\stackrel{~}{S}_L`$ are $`C^{}^1\times ^1`$ and $`C|\omega |^{}`$ respectively, which gives another proof of Torelli’s theorem.

In this paper we construct and study distinguished cubics and quartics in the ideal $`I`$ by adapting the methods of \[KS\] to rank-$`2`$ vector bundles over $`C`$. Our construction basically goes as follows (section 2): we consider a general $`3`$-plane $`WH^0(C,\omega )`$ and define the rank-$`2`$ vector bundle $`E_W`$ as the dual of the kernel of the evaluation map in $`\omega `$ of sections of $`W`$. The bundle $`E_W`$ is stable and admits a theta divisor $`D(E_W)`$ in the Jacobian $`JC`$. Since $`D(E_W)`$ contains the origin $`𝒪JC`$ with multiplicity $`4`$, the projectivized tangent cone to $`D(E_W)`$ at $`𝒪`$ is a quartic hypersurface in $`T_𝒪JC=|\omega |^{}`$, denoted by $`F_W`$ and which contains the canonical curve. We therefore obtain a rational map from the Grassmannian $`\mathrm{Gr}(3,H^0(\omega ))`$ to the ideal of quartics $`|I(4)|`$

$$𝐅_4:\mathrm{Gr}(3,H^0(\omega ))|I(4)|,WF_W.$$
(1.1)
Our main tool to study the tangent cones $`F_W`$ is G. Kempf’s cohomological obstruction theory \[K1\],\[K2\],\[KS\] which in our set-up leads to a simple criterion (Proposition 4.1) for $`bT_𝒪JC=|\omega |^{}`$ to belong to $`F_W`$. We deduce in particular from this criterion that the cubic polar $`P_x(F_W)`$ of $`F_W`$ with respect to a point $`xW^{}`$ also contains the canonical curve. Here $`W^{}`$ denotes the annihilator of $`WH^0(\omega )`$. We therefore obtain a rational map from the flag variety $`\mathrm{Fl}(3,g1,H^0(\omega ))`$ parametrizing pairs $`(W,x)`$ to the ideal of cubics $`|I(3)|`$

$$𝐅_3:\mathrm{Fl}(3,g1,H^0(\omega ))|I(3)|,(W,x)P_x(F_W).$$
(1.2)
Our two main results can be stated as follows.

(1) Like the cubic osculating cones $`S_L`$, the quartic tangent cones $`F_W`$ transform under the blowing-up of the vertex $`W^{}F_W`$ into a quadric bundle $`\stackrel{~}{F}_WW^{}=^2`$. Their Hessian and Steinerian curves are the plane curve $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, image under the projection with center $`W^{}`$, $`\pi :C\mathrm{\Gamma }W^{}`$, and the canonical curve $`C|\omega |^{}`$ (Theorem 4.8). This surprising analogy with the osculating cones $`S_L`$ remains however unexplained.

(2) Let us denote by $`|F_4||I(4)|`$ and $`|F_3||I(3)|`$ the linear subsystems spanned by the quartics $`F_W`$ and the cubics $`P_x(F_W)`$ respectively. Then we show (Theorem 6.1) that both base loci of $`|F_4|`$ and $`|F_3|`$ coincide with $`C|\omega |^{}`$,i.e., the quartics $`F_W`$ (resp. the cubics $`P_x(F_W)`$) cut out the canonical curve.

The starting point of our investigations was the question asked by B. van Geemen and G. van der Geer (\[vGvG\] page 629) about “these mysterious quartics” which arise as tangent cones to $`2\theta `$-divisors in the Jacobian having multiplicity $`4`$ at the origin. In that paper the authors implicitly conjectured that the base locus of $`|F_4|`$ equals $`C`$, which was subsequently proved by G. Welters \[We\]. Our proof follows from the fact that $`|F_4|`$ contains all squares of quadrics in $`|I(2)|`$.

This paper leaves many questions unanswered (section 7), like e.g. finding explicit equations of the quartics $`F_W`$, their syzygies, the dimensions of $`|F_3|`$ and $`|F_4|`$. The techniques used here also apply when replacing $`|\omega |^{}`$ by Prym-canonical space $`|\omega \alpha |^{}`$, and generalizing rank-$`2`$ vector bundles to symplectic bundles.

Acknowledgements: Many results contained in this paper arose from discussions with Bert van Geemen, whose influence on this work is considerable. I would like to thank him for these enjoyable and valuable discussions.

## 2 Some constructions for rank-$`2`$ vector bundles with ca- nonical determinant

In this section we briefly recall some known results from \[BV\], \[vGI\] and \[PP\] on rank-$`2`$ vector bundles over $`C`$.

### 2.1 Bundles $`E`$ with $`\mathrm{dim}H^0(C,E)3`$

Let $`WH^0(C,\omega )`$ be a $`3`$-plane. We denote by $`[W]\mathrm{Gr}(3,H^0(\omega ))`$ the corresponding point in the Grassmannian and by $`\mathrm{Gr}(3,H^0(\omega ))`$ the codimension $`2`$ subvariety consisting of $`[W]`$ such that the net $`W|\omega |`$ has a base point. For $`[W]/`$ we consider (see \[vGI\] section 4) the rank-$`2`$ vector bundle $`E_W`$ defined by the exact sequence

$$0E_W^{}𝒪_CW\stackrel{ev}{}\omega 0.$$
(2.1)
Here $`E_W^{}`$ denotes the dual bundle of $`E_W`$. We have $`\mathrm{det}E_W=\omega `$ and $`W^{}H^0(C,E_W)`$. We denote by $`𝒟`$ the effective divisor in $`|𝒪_{\mathrm{Gr}}(g2)|`$ defined by the condition

$$[W]𝒟\mathrm{dim}H^0(C,E_W)4.$$

Moreover $`𝒟`$ and $`E_W`$ is stable if $`[W]/𝒟`$.

Let $`W^{}H^0(\omega )^{}=H^1(𝒪)`$ denote the annihilator of $`WH^0(\omega )`$. We call the projective subspace $`W^{}|\omega |^{}`$ the vertex and denote by

$$\pi :|\omega |^{}W^{},\pi :C\mathrm{\Gamma }W^{},$$

the projection with center $`W^{}`$. If $`[W]/`$, then $`CW^{}=\mathrm{}`$ and $`\pi `$ restricts to a morphism $`CW^{}`$. Its image is a plane curve $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of degree $`2g2`$. We note that $`E_W=\pi ^{}(T(1))`$, where $`T`$ is the tangent bundle of $`W^{}=^2`$.

Conversely any bundle $`E`$ with $`\mathrm{det}E=\omega `$ and $`\mathrm{dim}H^0(C,E)3`$ is of the form $`E_W`$.

### 2.2 Bundles $`E`$ with $`\mathrm{dim}H^0(C,E)4`$

Following \[BV\] (see also \[PP\] section 5.2) we associate to a bundle $`E`$ with $`\mathrm{dim}H^0(C,E)=4`$ a rank $`6`$ quadric $`Q_E|I(2)|`$, which is defined as the inverse image of the Klein quadric under the dual $`\mu ^{}`$ of the exterior product map

$$\mu ^{}:|\omega |^{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }^2H^0(E)^{})\mathrm{Gr}(2,H^0(E)^{}),Q_E:=(\mu ^{})^1\left(\mathrm{Gr}\right).$$

Composing with the previous construction, we obtain a rational map

$$\alpha :𝒟|I(2)|,\alpha ([W])=Q_{E_W}.$$

Moreover given a $`Q|I(2)|`$ with $`\mathrm{rk}Q6`$ and $`\mathrm{Sing}QC=\mathrm{}`$, it is easily shown that

$$\alpha ^1(Q)=\{[W]𝒟|W^{}Q\}.$$

If $`\mathrm{rk}Q=6`$, then $`\alpha ^1(Q)`$ has two connected components, which are isomorphic to $`^3`$.

###### 2.1 Lemma.

We have $`[W]/𝒟`$ if and only if the linear map induced by restricting quadrics to the vertex $`W^{}`$

$$res:I(2)H^0(W^{},𝒪(2))$$

is an isomorphism.

###### Proof.

It is enough to observe that the two spaces have the same dimension and that a nonzero element in $`\mathrm{ker}res`$ corresponds to a $`Q|I(2)|`$ with $`\mathrm{rk}Q6`$. ∎

### 2.3 Definition of the quartic $`F_W`$

We will now define the main object of this paper. Given $`[W]/`$, we consider the $`2\theta `$-divisor $`D(E_W)JC`$ (see e.g. \[BV\],\[vGI\],\[PP\]), whose set-theoretical support equals

$$D(E_W)=\{\xi JC|\mathrm{dim}H^0(C,\xi E_W)>0\}.$$

Since $`\mathrm{mult}_𝒪D(E_W)\mathrm{dim}H^0(C,E_W)3`$ and since any $`2\theta `$-divisor is symmetric, the first nonzero term of the Taylor expansion of a local equation of $`D(E_W)`$ at the origin $`𝒪`$ is a homogeneous polynomial $`F_W`$ of degree $`4`$. The hypersurface in $`|\omega |^{}=T_𝒪JC`$ associated to $`F_W`$ is also denoted by $`F_W`$. Here we restrict attention to the case $`\mathrm{dim}H^0(C,E_W)=3\text{or}4`$. We have

$$F_W:=\mathrm{Cone}_𝒪(D(E_W))|\omega |^{}.$$

The study of the quartics $`F_W`$ for $`[W]\mathrm{Gr}(3,H^0(\omega ))𝒟`$ is the main purpose of this paper. If $`[W]𝒟`$, the quartics $`F_W`$ have already been described in \[PP\] Proposition 5.12.

###### 2.2 Proposition.

If $`\mathrm{dim}H^0(C,E_W)=4`$, then $`F_W`$ is a double quadric

$$F_W=Q_{E_W}^2.$$

Since $`|I(2)|`$ is linearly spanned by rank $`6`$ quadrics (see \[PP\] section 5), we obtain the following fact, which will be used in section 6.

###### 2.3 Proposition.

The linear subsystem $`|F_4|`$ contains all squares of quadrics in $`|I(2)|`$.

Although we will not use that fact, we mention that the rational map (1.1) is given by a linear subsystem $`\mathrm{\Gamma }|𝒥_{}(g1)|`$, where $`𝒥_{}`$ is the ideal sheaf of the subvariety $``$. If $`g=4`$, the inclusion is an equality (see \[OPP\] section 6). If $`g>4`$, a description of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is not known.

## 3 Kempf’s cohomological obstruction theory

In this section we outline Kempf’s deformation theory \[K1\] and apply it to the study of the tangent cones $`F_W`$ of the divisors $`D(E_W)`$.

### 3.1 Variation of cohomology

Let $``$ be a vector bundle over the product $`C\times S`$, where $`S=\mathrm{Spec}(A)`$ is an affine neighbourhood of the origin of $`JC`$. We restrict attention to the case

$$=\pi _C^{}E_W,$$

for some $`3`$-plane $`W`$, and recall that Kempf’s deformation theory was applied \[K1\], \[K2\], \[KS\] to the case $`=\pi _C^{}M`$, for a line bundle $`M`$ over $`C`$. The line bundle $``$ denotes the restriction of a Poincaré line bundle over $`C\times JC`$ to the neighbourhood $`C\times S`$. The fundamental idea to study the variation of cohomology, i.e. the two upper-semicontinuous functions on $`S`$

$$sh^0(C\times \{s\},_A_s),sh^1(C\times \{s\},_A_s),$$

where $`_s=A/𝔪_s`$ and $`𝔪_s`$ is the maximal ideal of $`sS`$, is based on the existence of an approximating homomorphism.

###### 3.1 Theorem (Grothendieck, \[K1\] section 7).

Given a family $``$ of vector bundles over $`C\times S`$, there exist two flat $`A`$-modules $`F`$ and $`G`$ of finite type and an $`A`$-homomorphism $`\alpha :FG`$ such that for all $`A`$-modules $`M`$, we have isomorphisms

$$H^0(C\times S,_AM)\mathrm{ker}(\alpha _Aid_M),H^1(C\times S,_AM)\mathrm{coker}(\alpha _Aid_M).$$

By considering a smaller neighbourhood of the origin, we may assume the $`A`$-modules $`F`$ and $`G`$ to be locally free (Nakayama’s lemma). Moreover (\[K1\] Lemma 10.2) by restricting further the neighbourhood, we may find an approximating homomorphism $`\alpha :FG`$ such that $`\alpha _0:F_AA/𝔪_0G_AA/𝔪_0`$ is the zero homomorphism.

We apply this theorem to the family $`=\pi _C^{}E_W`$, for $`[W]/𝒟`$. Since by Riemann-Roch $`\chi (_s)=\chi (E_W_s)=0`$, $`sS`$, and since $`h^0(C,E_W)=3`$, the local equation $`f`$ of the divisor

$$D(E_W)_{|S}=\{sS|h^0(C\times \{s\},E_W_s)>0\}$$

is given at the origin $`𝒪`$ by the determinant of a $`3\times 3`$ matrix of regular functions $`f_{ij}`$ on $`S`$, with $`1i,j3`$, which vanish at $`𝒪`$, i.e., the $`A`$-modules $`F`$ and $`G`$ are free and of rank $`3`$. Hence

$$f=\mathrm{det}(f_{ij}).$$

The linear part of the regular functions $`f_{ij}`$ is related to the cup-product as follows (\[K1\] Lemma 10.3 and Lemma 10.6): let $`𝔪=𝔪_0`$ be the maximal ideal of the origin $`𝒪S`$ and consider the exact sequence of $`A`$-modules

$$0𝔪/𝔪^2A/𝔪^2A/𝔪0.$$

After tensoring with $``$ over $`C\times S`$ and taking cohomology, we obtain a coboundary map

$$H^0(C,E_W)=H^0(C\times \{s\},_AA/𝔪)\stackrel{\delta }{}H^1(C\times \{s\},_A𝔪/𝔪^2)=H^1(C,E_W)𝔪/𝔪^2,$$

where $`𝔪/𝔪^2`$ is the Zariski cotangent space at $`𝒪`$ to $`JC`$. Note that we have a canonical isomorphism $`(𝔪/𝔪^2)^{}H^1(𝒪)`$ and that a tangent vector $`bH^1(𝒪)`$ gives, by composing with the linear form $`l_b:𝔪/𝔪^2`$, a linear map $`\delta _b:H^0(E_W)H^1(E_W)`$. As in the line bundle case \[K1\], one proves

###### 3.2 Lemma.

For any nonzero $`bH^1(𝒪)=T_𝒪JC`$, we have

1. The linear map $`\delta _b:H^0(E_W)H^1(E_W)`$ coincides with the cup-product $`(b)`$ with the class $`b`$, and is skew-symmetric after identifying $`H^1(E_W)`$ with $`H^0(E_W)^{}`$ (Serre duality).
2. The coboundary map $`\delta :H^0(E_W)H^1(E_W)𝔪/𝔪^2`$ is described by a skew-symmetric $`3\times 3`$ matrix $`(x_{ij})`$, with $`x_{ij}H^1(𝒪)^{}`$. Moreover the linear form $`x_{ij}`$ coincides with the differential $`(df_{ij})_0`$ of $`f_{ij}`$ at the origin $`𝒪`$.

The coboundary map $`\delta `$ induces a linear map

$$\mathrm{\Delta }:H^1(𝒪)\mathrm{\Lambda }^2H^0(E_W)^{},b\delta _b,$$

which coincides with the dual of the multiplication map of global sections of $`E_W`$. Moreover

$$\mathrm{ker}\mathrm{\Delta }=W^{}=\{x_{12}=x_{13}=x_{23}=0\}.$$

Using a flat structure \[K2\] we can write the power series expansion of the regular functions $`f_{ij}`$ around $`𝒪`$

$$f_{ij}=x_{ij}+q_{ij}+\mathrm{},$$

where $`x_{ij}`$ and $`q_{ij}`$ are linear and quadratic polynomials respectively. We easily calculate the expansion of $`f`$: by skew-symmetry its cubic term is zero, and its quartic term equals

$$F_W:q_{11}x_{23}^2+q_{22}x_{13}^2+q_{33}x_{12}^2+x_{12}x_{23}(q_{13}+q_{31})x_{12}x_{23}(q_{12}+q_{21})x_{12}x_{13}(q_{23}+q_{32}).$$

We straightforwardly deduce from this equation the following properties of $`F_W`$.

###### 3.3 Proposition.

1. The quartic $`F_W`$ is singular along the vertex $`W^{}`$.
2. For any $`xW^{}`$, the cubic polar $`P_x(F_W)`$ is singular along the vertex $`W^{}`$.

### 3.2 Infinitesimal deformations of global sections of $`E_W`$

We first recall some elementary facts on principal parts. Let $`V`$ be an arbitrary vector bundle over $`C`$ and let $`\mathrm{Rat}(V)`$ be the space of rational sections of $`V`$ and $`p`$ be a point of $`C`$. The space of principal parts of $`V`$ at $`p`$ is the quotient

$$\mathrm{Prin}_p(V)=\mathrm{Rat}(V)/\mathrm{Rat}_p(V),$$

where $`\mathrm{Rat}_p(V)`$ denotes the space of rational sections of $`V`$ which are regular at $`p`$. Since a rational section of $`V`$ has only finitely many poles, we have a natural mapping

$$\mathrm{pp}:\mathrm{Rat}(V)\mathrm{Prin}(V):=\underset{pC}{}\mathrm{Prin}_p(V),s\left(s\mathrm{mod}\mathrm{Rat}_p(V)\right)_{pC}.$$
(3.1)
Exactly as in the line bundle case (\[K1\] Lemma 3.3), one proves

###### 3.4 Lemma.

There are isomorphisms

$$\mathrm{ker}\mathrm{pp}H^0(C,V),\mathrm{coker}\mathrm{pp}H^1(C,V).$$

In the particular case $`V=𝒪`$, we see that a tangent vector $`bH^1(𝒪)=T_𝒪JC`$ can be represented by a collection $`\beta =\left(\beta _p\right)_{pI}`$ of rational functions $`\beta _p\mathrm{Rat}(𝒪)`$, where $`p`$ varies over a finite set of points $`IC`$. We then define $`\mathrm{pp}(\beta )=\left(\omega _p\right)_{pI}\mathrm{Prin}(𝒪)`$, where $`\omega _p`$ is the principal part of $`\beta _p`$ at $`p`$. We denote by $`[\beta ]=b`$ its cohomology class in $`H^1(𝒪)`$. Note that we can define powers of $`\beta `$ by $`\beta ^k:=\left(\beta _p^k\right)_{pI}`$.

For $`i1`$, let $`D_i`$ be the infinitesimal scheme $`\mathrm{Spec}(A_i)`$, where $`A_i`$ is the Artinian ring $`[ϵ]/ϵ^{i+1}`$. As explained in \[K2\] section 2, a tangent vector $`bH^1(𝒪)`$ determines a morphism

$$\mathrm{exp}_{i,b}:D_iJC,$$

with $`\mathrm{exp}_{i,b}(x_0)=𝒪`$, where $`x_0`$ is the closed point of $`D_i`$. Let $`𝕃_{i+1}(b)`$ denote the pull-back of the Poincaré sheaf $``$ under the morphism $`\mathrm{exp}_{i,b}\times id_C`$. Note that we have the following exact sequences

$$D_1\times C:0ϵ𝒪𝕃_2(b)𝒪0,$$
(3.2)
$$D_2\times C:0ϵ^2𝒪𝕃_3(b)𝕃_2(b)0.$$
(3.3)
The second arrows in each sequence correspond to the restriction to the subschemes $`\{x_0\}\times CD_1\times C`$ and $`D_1\times CD_2\times C`$ respectively. As above we choose a representative $`\beta `$ of $`b`$. Following \[K2\] section 2, one shows that the space of global sections $`H^0(C\times D_i,𝕃_{i+1}(b)E)`$, with $`E=E_W`$ and $`[W]/𝒟`$, is isomorphic to the $`A_i`$-module

$$V_i(\beta )=\{f=f_0+\mathrm{}+f_iϵ^i\mathrm{Rat}(E)A_i\text{such that}f\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\beta )\text{is regular}pC\}.$$
(3.4)
An element $`fV_i(\beta )`$ is called an $`i`$-th order deformation of the global section $`f_0H^0(E)`$. In the case $`i=2`$, the condition $`fV_i(\beta )`$ is equivalent to the following three elements,

$$f_0,f_1+f_0\beta ,f_2+f_1\beta +f_0\frac{\beta ^2}{2},$$
(3.5)
being regular at all points $`pC`$ — for $`i=1`$, we consider the first two elements. Alternatively this means that their classes in $`\mathrm{Prin}(E)`$ are zero. We note that, given two representatives $`\beta =\left(\beta _p\right)_{pI}`$ and $`\beta ^{}=\left(\beta _p^{}\right)_{pI^{}}`$ with $`[\beta ]=[\beta ^{}]`$, the two subspaces $`V_i(\beta )`$ and $`V_i(\beta ^{})`$ of $`\mathrm{Rat}(E)A_i`$ are different and that any rational function $`\phi \mathrm{Rat}(𝒪)`$ satisfying $`\mathrm{pp}(\phi )=\mathrm{pp}(\beta ^{}\beta )`$ induces an isomorphism $`V_i(\beta )V_i(\beta ^{})`$.

We consider a class $`bH^1(𝒪)W^{}`$ and a representative $`\beta `$ such that $`[\beta ]=b`$. By taking cohomology of (3.2) tensored with $`E`$, we observe that a first order deformation of $`f_0`$, i.e., a global section $`f=f_0+f_1ϵV_1(\beta )H^0(C\times D_1,𝕃_2(b)E)`$ always exists. Since $`\mathrm{rk}(b)=2`$, the global section $`f_0`$ is uniquely determined up to a scalar

$$f_0=\mathrm{ker}(b:H^0(E)H^1(E)).$$

Moreover any two first order deformations of $`f_0`$ differ by an element in $`ϵH^0(E)`$.

We now state a criterion for a tangent vector $`b=[\beta ]`$ to lie on the quartic tangent cone $`F_W`$ in terms of a second order deformation of $`f_0H^0(E)`$.

###### 3.5 Lemma.

A cohomology class $`b=[\beta ]H^1(𝒪)W^{}`$ is contained in the cone over the quartic $`F_W`$ if and only if there exists a global section

$$f=f_0+f_1ϵ+f_2ϵ^2V_2(\beta )H^0(C\times D_2,𝕃_3(b)E).$$

###### Proof.

The proof is similar to \[KS\] Lemma 4. We work over the Artinian ring $`A_4`$, i.e., $`ϵ^5=0`$. By Theorem 3.1 applied to the family $`𝕃_5(b)E`$ over $`C\times D_4`$, there exists an approximating homomorphism of $`A_4`$-modules

$$A_4^3\stackrel{\phi }{}A_4^3,$$
(3.6)
such that $`\mathrm{ker}\phi _{|D_2}H^0(C\times D_2,𝕃_3(b)E)`$, $`\mathrm{coker}\phi _{|D_2}H^1(C\times D_2,𝕃_3(b)E)`$, and $`\phi _0=0`$. We denote by $`\phi _{|D_2}`$ the homomorphism obtained from (3.6) by projecting to $`A_2`$. Note that any $`A_4`$-module is free. The matrix $`\phi `$ is equivalent to a matrix

$$M:=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}ϵ^u& 0& 0\\ 0& ϵ^v& 0\\ 0& 0& ϵ^w\end{array}\right).$$

Since $`\phi _0=0`$, we have $`u,v,w1`$. Moreover we can order the exponents so that $`1uvw`$. It follows from the definition of $`D(E_W)`$ as a determinant divisor that the pull-back of $`D(E_W)`$ by $`\mathrm{exp}_4:D_4JC`$ is given by the equation (in $`A_4`$)

$$\mathrm{det}M=ϵ^{u+v+w}.$$

We immediately see that $`bF_W`$ if and only if $`u+v+w5`$. Let us now restrict $`\phi `$ to $`D_1`$,i.e., we project (3.6) to $`A_1`$. Since we assume $`b/W^{}=\mathrm{ker}\mathrm{\Delta }`$, the restriction $`\phi _{|D_1}`$ is nonzero and by skew-symmetry of rank $`2`$, i.e., $`u=v=1`$ and $`w2`$. Hence $`bF_W`$ if and only if $`w3`$.

On the other hand the $`A_2`$-module $`\mathrm{ker}\phi _{|D_2}H^0(C\times D_2,𝕃_3(b)E)`$ has length $`2+w`$. Let $`\mu `$ be the multiplication by $`ϵ^2`$ on this $`A_2`$-module. Then by (3.4) the $`A_2`$-module $`\mathrm{ker}\mu `$ is isomorphic to the $`A_1`$-module $`H^0(C\times D_1,𝕃_2(b)E)`$, which is of length $`4`$, provided $`b/W^{}`$. Hence we obtain that $`w3`$ if and only if there exists an $`fH^0(C\times D_2,𝕃_3(b)E)`$ such that $`\mu (f)=ϵ^2f_0`$. This proves the lemma.

## 4 Study of the quartic $`F_W`$

In this section we prove geometric properties of the quartic $`F_W`$.

### 4.1 Criteria for $`bF_W`$

We now show that the criterion of Lemma 3.5 simplifies to a criterion involving only a first order deformation $`f=f_0+f_1ϵV_1(\beta )`$ of $`f_0`$. As above we assume $`b/W^{}`$.

First we observe that the rational differential form $`f_1f_0`$ is independent of the choice of the representative $`\beta `$, i.e., $`f_1f_0`$ only depends on the cohomology class $`b=[\beta ]`$: suppose we take $`\beta ^{}=\left(\beta _p\phi \right)_{pI}`$, where $`\phi \mathrm{Rat}(\omega )`$. Then $`f_0`$ and $`f_1`$ transform into $`f_0^{}=f_0`$ and $`f_1^{}=f_1+\phi f_0`$, from which it is clear that $`f_1^{}f_0^{}=f_1f_0`$.

Secondly one easily sees that $`f_0=\pi (b)`$ (section 2.1) and that, under the canonical identification $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2W^{}=\mathrm{\Lambda }^2H^0(E)=W`$, the $`2`$-plane $`H^0(E)f_0`$ coincides with the intersection $`V_b:=H_bW`$, where $`H_b`$ denotes the hyperplane determined by $`bH^1(𝒪)`$.

It follows from these two remarks that, given $`b`$ and $`W`$, the form $`f_1f_0`$ is well-defined up to a regular differential form in $`V_bW`$.

###### 4.1 Proposition.

We have the following equivalence

$$bF_Wf_1f_0H_b.$$

###### Proof.

Since $`f_1f_0`$ does not depend on $`\beta `$, we may choose a $`\beta `$ with simple poles at the points $`pI`$. By Lemma 3.5 and relation (3.5) we see that $`bF_W`$ if and only if the cohomology class $`[f_1\beta +f_0\frac{\beta ^2}{2}]`$ is zero in $`H^1(E)/\mathrm{im}(b)`$ — we recall that $`f_1`$ is defined up to $`H^0(E)`$.

First we will prove that $`[f_0\frac{\beta ^2}{2}]\mathrm{im}(b)`$. The commutativity of the upper right triangle of the diagram (see e.g. \[K1\])

$$\begin{array}{ccccccc}& & & & H^0(E)& & \\ & & & & & & \\ & & & & \frac{\beta ^2}{2}& [\frac{\beta ^2}{2}]& \\ & & & & & & \\ H^0(E)& & H^0(E(2I))& & E(2I)_{|2I}& & H^1(E)\\ & & & & & & \\ & & & & & & \\ & & & & & & \\ & & \mathrm{Rat}(E)& \stackrel{\mathrm{pp}}{}& \mathrm{Prin}(E)& & \end{array}$$

implies that $`[f_0\frac{\beta ^2}{2}]=f_0[\frac{\beta ^2}{2}]`$. Moreover the skew-symmetric cup-product map $`b`$

$$b=\overline{b}:H^0(E)=W^{}H^1(E)=W=\mathrm{\Lambda }^2W^{}$$

identifies with the exterior product $`\overline{b}`$, where $`\overline{b}=\pi (b)W^{}`$. It is clear that $`\mathrm{im}(b)=\mathrm{im}(\overline{b})=\mathrm{ker}(\overline{b})`$, where $`\overline{b}`$ also denotes the linear form

$$\overline{b}:\mathrm{\Lambda }^2W^{}\mathrm{\Lambda }^3W^{}.$$
(4.1)
As already observed, we have $`f_0=\overline{b}`$. Denoting by $`cW^{}`$ the class $`\pi ([\frac{\beta ^2}{2}])`$, we see that the relation $`(f_0c)\overline{b}=\overline{b}c\overline{b}=0`$ implies that $`f_0[\frac{\beta ^2}{2}]\mathrm{ker}(\overline{b})=\mathrm{im}(b)`$.

Therefore the previous condition simplifies to $`[f_1\beta ]\mathrm{im}(b)`$. We next observe that the linear form $`\overline{b}`$ on $`H^1(E)`$ (4.1) identifies with the exterior product map

$$H^1(E)\stackrel{f_0}{}H^1(\omega ).$$

Since we have a commutative diagram

$$\begin{array}{cccccc}\hfill f_1& H^0(E(I))& \stackrel{\beta }{}& \mathrm{Prin}(E)& & H^1(E)\\ & & & & & \\ & & & f_0& & f_0\\ & & & & & \\ \hfill f_1f_0& H^0(\omega )& \stackrel{\beta }{}& \mathrm{Prin}(\omega )& & H^1(\omega ),\end{array}$$

and since $`f_1f_0H^0(\omega )\mathrm{Rat}(\omega )`$, we easily see that the condition $`[f_1\beta ]\mathrm{im}(b)`$ is equivalent to $`f_1f_0H_b=\mathrm{ker}(b:H^0(\omega )H^1(\omega )).`$

In the following proposition we give more details on the element $`f_1f_0H^0(\omega )`$. We additionally assume that $`\pi (b)/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, which implies that the global section $`f_0H^0(E)`$ does not vanish at any point and hence determines an exact sequence

$$0𝒪\stackrel{f_0}{}E\stackrel{f_0}{}\omega 0.$$
(4.2)
The coboundary map of the associated long exact sequence

$$\mathrm{}H^0(\omega )\stackrel{e}{}H^1(𝒪)\mathrm{}$$
(4.3)
is symmetric and coincides (e.g. \[K1\] Corollary 6.8) with cup-product $`e`$ with the extension class $`eH^1(\omega ^1)=|\omega ^2|^{}`$. Moreover $`e`$ is the image of $`e`$ under the dual of the multiplication map

$$H^1(\omega ^1)=H^0(\omega ^2)^{}\mathrm{Sym}^2H^0(\omega )^{},ee.$$
(4.4)
We note that $`\mathrm{corank}(e)=2`$ and that $`\mathrm{ker}(e)=V_b`$. Hence $`(f_1f_0)e`$ is well-defined.

###### 4.2 Proposition.

If $`\pi (b)/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, then $`f_1f_0/\mathrm{ker}(e)`$ and we have (up to a nonzero scalar)

$$(f_1f_0)e=bH^1(𝒪).$$

###### Proof.

We keep the notation of the previous proof. The condition $`f_1f_0V_b`$ implies that $`f_1`$ is a regular section and, by (3.5), that $`f_0`$ vanishes at the support of $`b`$, i.e., $`\pi (b)\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. As for the equality of the proposition, we introduce the rank-$`2`$ vector bundle $`\widehat{E}`$ which is obtained from $`E`$ by (positive) elementary transformations at the points $`pI`$ and with respect to the line in $`E_p`$ spanned by the nonzero vector $`f_0(p)`$. Then we have $`E\widehat{E}E(I)`$ and $`\widehat{E}`$ fits into the exact sequence

$$0E\widehat{E}𝒪_I0.$$

Moreover $`f_1H^0(\widehat{E})`$, which follows from condition (3.5). We also have the following exact sequences

$$\begin{array}{ccccccccccc}0& & 𝒪(I)& & \widehat{E}& \stackrel{f_0}{}& \omega & & 0& & (\widehat{e})\\ & & & & & & & & & & \\ & & & & & & & & & & \\ & & & & & & & & & & \\ 0& & 𝒪& \stackrel{f_0}{}& E& \stackrel{f_0}{}& \omega & & 0& & (e),\end{array}$$

and the extension class $`\widehat{e}H^1(\omega ^1(D))`$ is obtained from $`e`$ by the canonical projection $`H^1(\omega ^1)H^1(\omega ^1(I))`$. Taking the associated long exact sequences, we obtain

$$\begin{array}{cccccc}f_1& H^0(\widehat{E})& \stackrel{f_0}{}& H^0(\omega )& \stackrel{\widehat{e}}{}& H^1(𝒪(I))\\ & & & & & \\ & & & & & \pi _I\\ & & & & & \\ & H^0(E)& \stackrel{f_0}{}& H^0(\omega )& \stackrel{e}{}& H^1(𝒪),\end{array}$$

where the two squares commute. This means that

$$\pi _I\left((f_1f_0)e\right)=(f_1f_0)\widehat{e}=0.$$

Since $`f_1f_0`$ does not depend on $`\beta `$ (nor on $`I`$), the latter relation holds for any $`I`$ with $`I=\mathrm{supp}\beta `$. Hence, denoting by $`I`$ the linear span in $`|\omega |^{}`$ of the support $`I`$ of $`\beta `$, we obtain

$$(f_1f_0)e\underset{I=\mathrm{supp}\beta }{}\mathrm{ker}\pi _I=\underset{bI}{}I=b.$$

### 4.2 Geometric properties of $`F_W`$

###### 4.3 Proposition.

For any $`[W]/𝒟`$ we have the following

1. The quartic $`F_W`$ contains the canonical curve $`C`$,i.e., $`F_W|I(4)|`$.
2. The quartic $`F_W`$ contains the secant line $`\overline{pq}`$, with $`pq`$, if and only if $`\overline{pq}W^{}\mathrm{}`$ or $`\mathrm{dim}WH^0(\omega (2p2q))>0`$.
3. Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be the set of points $`p`$ at which the tangent line $`𝕋_p(C)`$ intersects the vertex $`W^{}`$. Then $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is empty for general $`[W]`$ and finite for any $`[W]`$. Moreover any point $`pC\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is smooth on $`F_W`$ and the embedded tangent space $`𝕋_p(F_W)`$ is the linear span of $`𝕋_p(C)`$ and $`W^{}`$.

###### Proof.

All statements are easily deduced from Proposition 4.1. Given a point $`pC`$ we denote by $`𝔭_p\mathrm{Prin}_p(𝒪)`$ the principal part supported at $`p`$ of a rational function with a simple pole at $`p`$. Then the class $`[𝔭_p]H^1(𝒪)`$ is proportional to $`i_\omega (p)|\omega |^{}=H^1(𝒪)`$ and the section $`f_0`$ vanishes at $`p`$. Hence $`f_0𝔭_p\mathrm{Prin}(E)`$ is everywhere regular and we may choose $`f_1=0`$. This proves part 1. See also \[PP\].

As for part 2, we introduce $`\beta _{\lambda ,\mu }=\lambda 𝔭_p+\mu 𝔭_q\mathrm{Prin}(𝒪)`$ for $`\lambda ,\mu `$ and denote by $`s_p`$ and $`s_q`$ the global sections $`\pi ([𝔭_p])`$ and $`\pi ([𝔭_q])`$, which vanish at $`p`$ and $`q`$ respectively. Then one checks that $`f_0=\lambda s_p+\mu s_q\mathrm{ker}([\beta _{\lambda ,\mu }])`$ and $`\mathrm{pp}(f_1)=\lambda \mu (s_q𝔭_p+s_p𝔭_q)\mathrm{Prin}(E)`$. With this notation the condition of Proposition 4.1 transforms into

$$0=l_{\lambda ,\mu }(f_0f_1)=\lambda \mu (\lambda ^2\gamma _p+\mu ^2\gamma _q),$$
(4.5)
where $`l_{\lambda ,\mu }`$ is the linear form defined by $`[\beta _{\lambda ,\mu }]H^1(𝒪)`$. The scalars $`\gamma _p`$ and $`\gamma _q`$ are the values of the section $`s_ps_qWH^0(\omega (pq))`$ at $`p`$ and $`q`$ respectively. We now conclude noting that $`s_ps_q=0`$ if and only if $`\overline{pq}W^{}\mathrm{}`$.

As for part 3, we first observe that the assumption $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=C`$ implies that the restriction $`\pi _{|C}:CW^{}`$ contracts $`C`$ to a point, which is impossible. Next we consider the tangent vector $`t_q`$ at $`p`$ given by the direction $`q`$. By putting $`\lambda =1`$ and $`\mu =ϵ`$, with $`ϵ^2=0`$, into equation (4.5) we obtain that $`t_q𝕋_p(F_W)`$ if and only if $`ϵ\gamma _p=0`$, i.e., $`\pi (q)𝕋_{\pi (p)}(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$. Hence $`𝕋_p(F_W)=\pi ^1(𝕋_{\pi (p)}(\mathrm{\Gamma }))`$, which proves part 3.

### 4.3 The cubic polar $`P_x(F_W)`$

Firstly we deduce from Propositions 4.1 and 4.2 a criterion for $`bP_x(F_W)`$, with $`xW^{}`$. Let $`H_x`$ be the hyperplane determined by $`xH^1(𝒪)`$. As above we assume $`b/W^{}`$ and $`\pi (b)/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, i.e., the pencil $`V=V_b`$ is base-point-free.

###### 4.4 Proposition.

We have the following equivalence

$$bP_x(F_W)f_1f_0H_x.$$

###### Proof.

We recall from section 4.1 that $`e`$ induces a symmetric isomorphism $`e:(V^{})^{}\stackrel{}{}V^{}`$ and we denote by $`Q^{}(V^{})^{}`$ and $`QV^{}`$ the two associated smooth quadrics. Note that $`Q`$ and $`Q^{}`$ are dual to each other. Combining Propositions 4.1, 4.2 and 3.3 (1) we see that the restriction of the quartic $`F_W`$ to the linear subspace $`V^{}|\omega |^{}`$ splits into a sum of divisors

$$\left(F_W\right)_{|V^{}}=2W^{}+Q.$$

We also observe that $`Q`$ only depends on $`V`$ (and on $`W`$) and not on $`b`$. Taking the polar with respect to $`xW^{}`$, we obtain

$$\left(P_x(F_W)\right)_{|V^{}}=2W^{}+P_x(Q).$$

Finally we see that the condition $`bP_x(Q)`$ is equivalent to $`f_0f_1=(e)^1(b)H_x`$. ∎

We easily deduce from this criterion some properties of $`P_x(F_W)`$.

###### 4.5 Proposition.

The cubic $`P_x(F_W)`$ contains the canonical curve $`C`$, i.e., $`P_x(F_W)|I(3)|`$.

###### Proof.

We first observe that the two closed conditions of Proposition 4.4 are equivalent outside $`\pi ^1(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$. Hence they coincide as well on $`\pi ^1(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ and we can drop the assumption $`\pi (b)/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Now, as in the proof of Proposition 4.3(1), we may choose $`f_1=0`$. ∎

###### 4.6 Proposition.

We have the following properties

$$\underset{xW^{}}{}P_x(F_W)=S_WW^{}\underset{n2}{}\mathrm{\Lambda }_n,$$

$$F_WS_W=C\mathrm{\Lambda }_1,\text{and}\underset{n0}{}\mathrm{\Lambda }_nF_W,$$

where $`S_W`$ is an irreducible surface. For $`n0`$, we denote by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_n`$ the union of $`(n+1)`$-secant $`^n`$’s to the canonical curve $`C`$, which intersect the vertex $`W^{}`$ along a $`^{n1}`$. If $`W`$ is general, then $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_n=\mathrm{}`$ for $`n2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1`$ is the union of $`2(g1)(g3)`$ secant lines.

###### Proof.

We consider $`b`$ in the intersection of all $`P_x(F_W)`$ and we first suppose that $`\pi (b)/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Then by Propositions 4.1 and 4.4 we have

$$f_0f_1\underset{xW^{}}{}H_x=W.$$

Hence we obtain that $`V^{}_{xW^{}}P_x(F_W)`$ is reduced to the point $`(e)(W)V^{}`$. On the other hand a standard computation shows that $`S_W`$ is the image of $`^2`$ under the linear system of the adjoint curves of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Hence $`S_W`$ is irreducible.

If $`\pi (b)\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, we denote by $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_{n+1}C`$ the points such that $`\pi (p_i)=\pi (b)`$. Then $`f_0`$ vanishes at $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_{n+1}`$. Since $`f_1f_0`$ does not depend on the support of $`b`$, we can choose $`\mathrm{supp}b`$ such that $`p_i/\mathrm{supp}b`$. Then $`f_1`$ is regular at $`p_i`$ and we deduce that $`f_1f_0H^0(\omega (p_i))W=V_b.`$ Now any rational $`f_1`$ satisfying $`f_1f_0V_b=\mathrm{im}(f_0)`$ is regular everywhere, which can only happen when $`f_0`$ vanishes at the support of $`b`$. By uniqueness we have $`\mathrm{supp}b\{p_1,\mathrm{},p_{n+1}\}`$ and $`b\mathrm{\Lambda }_n`$. Note that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_0=C`$. This proves the first equality.

If $`bF_WS_W`$, we have $`f_1f_0WH_b=V_b`$ and we conclude as above. Note that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1`$ is contained in $`S_W`$ and is mapped by $`\pi `$ to the set of ordinary double points of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. ∎

For any $`[W]\mathrm{Gr}(3,H^0(\omega ))𝒟`$ we introduce the subspace of $`I(3)`$

$$L_W=\{RI(3)|R\text{is singular along the vertex}W^{}\}.$$

Then Propositions 4.5 and 3.3(2) imply that $`P_x(F_W)L_W`$. More precisely, we have

###### 4.7 Proposition.

The restriction of the polar map of the quartic $`F_W`$ to its vertex $`W^{}`$

$$𝐏:W^{}L_W,xP_x(F_W),$$

is an isomorphism.

###### Proof.

First we show that $`\mathrm{dim}L_W=g3`$. We choose a complementary subspace $`A`$ to $`W^{}`$,i.e. $`H^0(\omega )^{}=W^{}A`$, and a set of coordinates $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_{g3}`$ on $`W^{}`$ and $`a_1,a_2,a_3`$ on $`A`$. This enables us to expand a cubic $`FS^3H^0(\omega )`$

$$F=F_3(x)+F_2(x)G_1(a)+F_1(x)G_2(a)+G_3(a),F_i[x_1,\mathrm{},x_{g3}],G_i[a_1,a_2,a_3],$$

with $`\mathrm{deg}F_i=\mathrm{deg}G_i=i`$. Let $`𝒮_A`$ denote the subspace of cubics singular along $`A`$,i.e. $`G_2=G_3=0`$. We consider the linear map

$$\alpha :I(3)𝒮_A,FF_3(x)+F_2(x)G_1(a).$$

Since by Lemma 2.1 any monomial $`x_ix_jH^0(W^{},𝒪(2))`$ lifts to a quadric $`Q_{ij}I(2)`$, we observe that the monomials $`x_ix_jx_k`$ and $`x_ix_ja_l`$, which generate $`𝒮_A`$, also lift e.g. to $`Q_{ij}x_k`$ and $`Q_{ij}a_l`$ in $`I(3)`$. Hence $`\alpha `$ is surjective and $`\mathrm{dim}L_W=\mathrm{dim}\mathrm{ker}\alpha `$ is easily calculated. One also checks that this computation does not depend on $`A`$.

In order to conclude, it will be enough to show that $`𝐏`$ is injective. Suppose that the contrary holds,i.e., there exists a point $`xW^{}`$ with $`P_x(F_W)=0`$. Given any base-point-free pencil $`VW`$ and any $`bV^{}`$, we obtain by Proposition 4.4 that $`f_0f_1H_x`$. Since $`e:(V^{})^{}\stackrel{}{}V^{}`$ is an isomorphism, we see that for $`b/(e)^1(H_x)`$ the element $`f_0f_1`$ must be zero. This implies that $`b\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and since $`b`$ varies in an open subset of $`|\omega |^{}`$, we obtain $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=|\omega |^{}`$, a contradiction.

### 4.4 The quadric bundle associated to $`F_W`$

Let $`\stackrel{~}{}_W^{g1}|\omega |^{}`$ denote the blowing-up of $`|\omega |^{}`$ along the vertex $`W^{}|\omega |^{}`$. The rational projection $`\pi :|\omega |^{}^2=W^{}`$ resolves into a morphism $`\stackrel{~}{\pi }:\stackrel{~}{}_W^{g1}^2`$. Since $`F_W`$ is singular along $`W^{}`$ (Proposition 3.3 (2)), the proper transform $`\stackrel{~}{F}_W\stackrel{~}{}_W^{g1}`$ admits a structure of a quadric bundle $`\stackrel{~}{\pi }:\stackrel{~}{F}_W^2`$.

The contents of Propositions 4.3 and 4.5 can be reformulated in a more geometrical way.

###### 4.8 Theorem.

For any $`[W]\mathrm{Gr}(3,H^0(\omega ))𝒟`$, the quadric bundle $`\stackrel{~}{\pi }:\stackrel{~}{F}_W^2`$ has the following properties

1. Its Hessian curve is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^2`$.
2. Its Steinerian curve is the (proper transform of the) canonical curve $`C|\omega |^{}`$.
3. The rational Steinerian map $`\mathrm{St}:\mathrm{\Gamma }C`$, which associates to a singular quadric its singular point, coincides with the adjoint map $`\mathrm{ad}`$ of the plane curve $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Moreover the closure of the image $`\mathrm{ad}(^2)`$ equals $`S_W`$.

###### 4.9 Remark.

We note that Theorem 4.8 is analogous to the main result of \[KS\] (replace $`^2`$ with $`^1\times ^1`$). In spite of this striking similarity and the relation between the two parameter spaces $`\mathrm{Sing}\mathrm{\Theta }`$ and $`\mathrm{Gr}(3,H^0(\omega ))`$ (see \[PP\]), we were unable to find a common frame for both constructions.

## 5 The cubic hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Psi }_V^{g3}`$ associated to a base-point-free pencil $`V|\omega |`$

In this section we show that the symmetric cup-product maps $`e\mathrm{Sym}^2H^0(\omega )^{}`$ (see (4.3)) arise as polar quadrics of a cubic hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Psi }_V`$, which will be used in the proof of Theorem 6.1.

Let $`V`$ denote a base-point-free pencil of $`H^0(\omega )`$. We consider the exact sequence given by evaluation of sections of $`V`$

$$0\omega ^1𝒪_CV\stackrel{ev}{}\omega 0.$$
(5.1)
Its extension class $`v\mathrm{Ext}^1(\omega ,\omega ^1)H^1(\omega ^2)H^0(\omega ^3)^{}`$ corresponds to the hyperplane in $`H^0(\omega ^3)`$, which is the image of the multiplication map

$$\mathrm{im}\left(VH^0(\omega ^2)H^0(\omega ^3)\right).$$
(5.2)
We consider the cubic form $`\mathrm{\Psi }_V`$ defined by

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_V:\mathrm{Sym}^3H^0(\omega )\stackrel{\mu }{}H^0(\omega ^3)\stackrel{\overline{v}}{},$$

where $`\mu `$ is the multiplication map and $`\overline{v}`$ the linear form defined by the extension class $`v`$. It follows from the description (5.2) that $`\mathrm{\Psi }_V`$ factorizes through the quotient

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_V:\mathrm{Sym}^3𝒱,$$

where $`𝒱:=H^0(\omega )/V`$. We also denote by $`\mathrm{\Psi }_V𝒱`$ its associated cubic hypersurface.

A $`3`$-plane $`WV`$ determines a nonzero vector $`w`$ in the quotient $`𝒱=H^0(\omega )/V`$ and a general $`w`$ determines an extension (4.2) — recall that $`W^{}H^0(E)`$. Hence we obtain an injective linear map $`𝒱H^1(\omega ^1),we`$, which we compose with (4.4)

$$\mathrm{\Phi }:𝒱H^1(\omega ^1)=H^0(\omega ^2)^{}\mathrm{Sym}^2H^0(\omega )^{},wee.$$

Since $`V\mathrm{ker}(e)`$, we note that $`\mathrm{im}\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{Sym}^2𝒱^{}`$.

We now can state the main result of this section.

###### 5.1 Proposition.

The linear map $`\mathrm{\Phi }:𝒱\mathrm{Sym}^2𝒱^{}`$ coincides with the polar map of the cubic form $`\mathrm{\Psi }_V`$, i.e.,

$$w𝒱,\mathrm{\Phi }(w)=P_w(\mathrm{\Psi }_V).$$

###### Proof.

This is straightforwardly read from the diagram obtained by relating the exact sequences (5.1) and (2.1) via the inclusion $`VW`$. We leave the details to the reader. ∎

We also observe that, by definition of the Hessian hypersurface (see e.g. \[DK\] section 3), we have an equality among degree $`g2`$ hypersurfaces of $`𝒱=^{g3}`$

$$\mathrm{Hess}(\mathrm{\Psi }_V)=𝒟𝒱,$$
(5.3)
where we use the inclusion $`𝒱\mathrm{Gr}(3,H^0(\omega ))`$.

###### 5.2 Remark.

We recall (see \[DK\] (5.2.1)) that the Hessian and Steinerian of a cubic hypersurface coincide and that the Steinerian map is a rational involution $`i`$. In the case of the cubic $`\mathrm{\Psi }_V`$, the involution

$$i:\mathrm{Hess}(\mathrm{\Psi }_V)\mathrm{Hess}(\mathrm{\Psi }_V)$$

corresponds to the involution of \[BV\] Propositions 1.18 and 1.19, i.e., $`w𝒟𝒱`$, the bundles $`E_w`$ and $`E_{i(w)}`$ are related by the exact sequence

$$0E_{i(w)}^{}𝒪_CH^0(E_w)\stackrel{ev}{}E_w0.$$

Since we will not use that result, we leave its proof to the reader.

## 6 Base loci of $`|F_3|`$ and $`|F_4|`$

Let us denote by $`|F_3||I(3)|`$ and $`|F_4||I(4)|`$ the linear subsystems spanned by the image of the rational maps $`𝐅_3`$ and $`𝐅_4`$ respectively. Then we have the following

###### 6.1 Theorem.

The base loci of $`|F_3|`$ and $`|F_4|`$ coincide with the canonical curve $`C|\omega |^{}`$.

###### Proof.

Let $`b\mathrm{Bs}|F_3|`$ and let us suppose that $`b/C`$. We consider a base-point-free pencil $`VH_b`$. With the notation of section 5, we introduce the rational map

$$r_b:𝒱𝒱,wr_b(w)=w^{},\text{with}\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }}_V(w,w^{},)=b,$$

where $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }}_V`$ is the symmetric trilinear form of $`\mathrm{\Psi }_V`$. We note (Proposition 4.2) that, for $`w/(H_b/V)`$, the element $`r_b(w)`$ is collinear with the nonzero element $`f_0f_1\mathrm{mod}V`$ and that $`r_b`$ is defined away from the hypersurface $`\mathrm{Hess}(\mathrm{\Psi }_V)`$, which we assume to be nonzero. Since $`b\mathrm{Bs}|F_3|`$ we obtain by Proposition 4.4 that

$$r_b(w)=\left(\underset{xW^{}}{}H_x\right)\text{mod}V=W\text{mod}V=w.$$

Hence $`r_b`$ is the identity map (away from $`\mathrm{Hess}(\mathrm{\Psi }_V)`$). This implies that $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }}_V(w,w,)=b`$ for any $`w𝒱`$, hence $`\mathrm{\Psi }_V=x_0^3`$, where $`x_0`$ is the equation of the hyperplane $`(H_b/V)𝒱`$. This in turn implies that $`\mathrm{Hess}(\mathrm{\Psi }_V)=0`$, i.e., $`𝒱𝒟`$. Since for a general $`[W]\mathrm{Gr}(3,H^0(\omega ))`$ the pencil $`V=WH_b`$ is base-point-free, we obtain that a general $`[W]`$ lies on the divisor $`𝒟`$, which is a contradiction.

As for $`|F_4|`$, we recall that the fact $`\mathrm{Bs}|F_4|=C`$ follows from \[We\]. Alternatively, it can also be deduced by noticing (see Proposition 2.3) that $`\mathrm{Bs}|F_4|\mathrm{Bs}|I(2)|`$. Hence, if $`C`$ is not trigonal nor a plane quintic, we are done. In the other cases, the result can be deduced from Proposition 4.3 — we leave the details to the reader. ∎

## 7 Open questions

### 7.1 Dimensions

The projective dimensions of the linear systems $`|F_3|`$ and $`|F_4|`$ are not known for general $`g`$. The known values of $`\mathrm{dim}|F_4|`$ for a general curve $`C`$ are given as follows (see \[PP\]).

$$\begin{array}{ccccc}& & & & \\ g& 4& 5& 6& 7\\ & & & & \\ \mathrm{dim}|F_4|& 4& 15& 40& 88\end{array}$$

The examples of \[PP\] section 6 show that $`\mathrm{dim}|F_4|`$ depends on the gonality of $`C`$. Moreover it can be shown that $`|F_4||I(4)|`$.

### 7.2 Prym-canonical spaces and symplectic bundles

The construction of the quartic hypersurfaces $`F_W`$ admit various analogues and generalizations, which we briefly outline.

(1) Let $`P_\alpha :=\mathrm{Prym}(C_\alpha /C)`$ denote the Prym variety of the étale double cover $`C_\alpha C`$ associated to the nonzero $`2`$-torsion point $`\alpha JC`$. Given a general $`3`$-plane $`ZH^0(C,\omega \alpha )`$, we associate the rank-$`2`$ vector bundle $`E_Z`$ defined by

$$0E_Z^{}𝒪_CZ\stackrel{ev}{}\omega \alpha 0.$$

By \[IP\] Proposition 4.1 we can associate to $`E_Z`$ the divisor $`\mathrm{\Delta }(E_Z)|2\mathrm{\Xi }|`$, where $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ is a symmetric principal polarization on $`P_\alpha `$. Its projectivized tangent cone at the origin $`0P_\alpha `$ is a quartic hypersurface $`F_Z`$ in the Prym-canonical space $`T_0P_\alpha |\omega \alpha |^{}`$. Kempf’s obstruction theory equally applies to the quartics $`F_Z`$. We note that $`F_Z`$ contains the Prym-canonical curve $`i_{\omega \alpha }(C)|\omega \alpha |^{}`$.

(2) Let $`W`$ be a vector space of dimension $`2n+1`$, for $`n1`$. We consider a general linear map

$$\mathrm{\Phi }:\mathrm{\Lambda }^2W^{}H^0(C,\omega ).$$

By taking the $`n`$-th symmetric power $`\mathrm{Sym}^n\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and using the canonical maps $`\mathrm{Sym}^n(\mathrm{\Lambda }^2W^{})\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2n}W^{}W`$ and $`\mathrm{Sym}^nH^0(\omega )H^0(\omega ^n)`$, we obtain a linear map

$$\alpha :WH^0(\omega ^n),$$

which we assume to be injective. We then define the rank $`2n`$ vector bundle $`E_\mathrm{\Phi }`$ by

$$0E_\mathrm{\Phi }^{}𝒪_CW\stackrel{ev}{}\omega ^n0.$$

The bundle $`E_\mathrm{\Phi }`$ carries an $`\omega `$-valued symplectic form and the projectivized tangent cone at $`𝒪JC`$ to the divisor $`D(E_\mathrm{\Phi })`$ is a hypersurface $`F_\mathrm{\Phi }`$ in $`|\omega |^{}`$ of degree $`2n+2`$. Moreover $`F_\mathrm{\Phi }|I(2n+2)|`$.

Christian Pauly

Laboratoire J.-A. Dieudonné

Université de Nice-Sophia-Antipolis

Parc Valrose

06108 Nice Cedex 2

France

e-mail: pauly@math.unice.fr


text:
# Lattice and superexchange effects in doped CMR manganites

## Abstract

We report on the influence of the lattice degrees of freedom on charge, orbital and spin correlations in colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) manganites. For the weakly doped compounds we demonstrate that the electron-phonon coupling promotes the trapping of charge carriers, the disappearance of the orbital polaron pattern and the breakdown of ferromagnetism at the CMR transition. The role of different superexchange interactions is explored.

, ,∗

Manganese oxides with perovskite structure, such as $`\mathrm{La}_{1\mathrm{x}}[\mathrm{Sr},\mathrm{Ca}]_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{MnO}_3`$, are examples of highly correlated electron systems near the metal-insulator transition. In these materials strong Coulomb interaction $`U`$ and Hund’s rule coupling $`J_h`$ introduce a spin background and affect the charge mobility via double-exchange . Delocalisation of the $`e_g`$ valence electrons favours ferromagnetism (FM) because the kinetic energy of an itinerant carrier is minimised when all the core ($`t_{2g}`$ electron) spins are aligned. A competing tendency towards localisation comes about through the electron-phonon (EP) interaction $`g`$, which stabilises a local distortion $`q_\delta `$ of the oxygen octahedron surrounding each manganese ion. At every Mn site two Jahn-Teller (JT) modes of $`E_g`$ symmetry, $`q_\theta `$ and $`q_\epsilon `$, couple to the orbital degree of freedom of the $`e_g`$ electrons. In addition, a breathing-mode $`q_{a_1}`$ is sensitive to the local density of doped holes. It is the novelty of the manganites that even at high densities $`x`$ carriers can be trapped by self-induced lattice distortions, which provides an efficient additional mechanism for the suppression of the resistivity at the CMR transition .

Based on a recently derived microscopic model for doped manganites,

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`H_{\text{double-exchange}}+H_{\text{spin-orbital}}^{\text{2nd order}}+H_{\text{electron-JT}}`$ (1)
$`+H_{\text{hole-breathing}}+H_{\text{phonon}},`$
which restricts the local electronic Hilbert space to the spin-$`2`$ orbital doublet $`{}_{}{}^{5}E`$ \[Mn3+ with $`t_2^3(^4A_2)e`$\] and the spin-$`\frac{3}{2}`$ orbital singlet $`{}_{}{}^{4}A_{2}^{}`$ \[Mn4+ with $`t_2^3`$\] but includes the full quantum dynamics of charge, spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom (for details see Ref. ), we study the properties of a small manganite cluster in the physically most interesting doping regime $`x=0.25`$ using exact diagonalisation techniques. In the present numerical work we focus on the role of second order superexchange interactions $`t^2/U`$ and compare the cases $`U=6`$ eV and $`U\mathrm{}`$, where only antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin-exchange terms $`t^2/J_h`$ survive. Taking realistic values for the hopping $`t=0.4`$ eV, $`t/t_\pi =3`$, the Hund’s coupling $`J_h=0.7`$ eV, and the phonon frequency $`\omega =70`$ meV, we solve the model (1) for increasing EP interaction $`g`$.

The behaviour of selected quantities characterising the ground state properties in different electron-electron and EP coupling regimes are shown in Fig. 1. The main results are the following:

(i) Increasing EP interaction leads to a polaronic reduction of the kinetic energy (Fig. 1 (a)) which in turn destroys the FM state (Fig. 1 (b)). For finite $`U`$ the system goes through a intermediate canted state, since second order FM and AFM interactions compete.

(ii) The change from FM to AFM spin correlations is accompanied by a finite net lattice distortion $`q_yq_x0`$ in the $`x`$-$`y`$-plane (Fig. 1 (c)). The associated fluctuation $`q_y^2q_y^2`$ shows a kink near the FM to AFM transition point .

(iii) Orbital correlations change with increasing $`g`$: Fig. 1 (d) displays the behaviour of the $`EA_2`$ states $`(\mathrm{cos}\phi |\theta _i+\mathrm{sin}\phi |\epsilon _i)|a_2_j`$ on a bond $`ij`$, where $`|\theta `$, $`|ϵ`$ and $`|a_2`$ denote the orbital doublet and singlet states, respectively. We observe the expected orbital polaron pattern, as long as the itinerant hole is mobile, and static uniform orbital order, as soon as the lattice is distorted. The orbital correlations do not depend much on the value of $`U`$.

(iv) The expectation value of the spin-orbital interaction is dominated by the orbital correlations below and above the transition (cf. Fig. 1 (e)). Moreover, it is important to notice that the coupling between spin and orbital degrees of freedom, which is measured by $`𝐒_i𝐒_{i+\delta }\tau _i^\delta \tau _{i+\delta }^\delta 𝐒_i𝐒_{i+\delta }\tau _i^\delta \tau _{i+\delta }^\delta `$ and shown in Fig. 1 (f), is almost negligible except for the canted state near the FM-AFM transition point at finite $`U`$. This observation corroborates the decoupling scheme proposed by Khaliullin and Oudovenko  for the use with Greens function approaches.

The schematic drawing in the lowest line of Fig. 1 summarises, to some extent, the evolution of the lattice, spin and orbital correlations with increasing EP interaction. It is evident that the interplay between the double-exchange, superexchange-orbital, and electron-lattice interactions is the reason for the rich phase diagram of the manganites.