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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The existence of the odderon , the partner of the Pomeron which is odd under charge conjugation $`C`$, is an important prediction of perturbative QCD. It is a direct consequence of the number of colours $`N_c`$ being greater than two. In the leading order, the odderon appears as a bound state of three reggeized gluons. Its experimental observation is a strong challenge for the experimentalists. A particular promising scattering process where the exchange of the odderon may be seen is the diffractive production of particles with a C-odd exchange, such as photo- and electroproduction of pseudoscalar mesons (PS), provided a large momentum scale is involved, which gives a justification for the use of perturbative QCD. This includes, in particular, the diffractive production of charmed pseudoscalar mesons, for example the process $`\gamma +p\eta _c+p`$. Correspondingly, a large amount of literature has been devoted to this class of diffractive processes. For large photon virtualities $`Q^2`$, for heavy mass PS mesons (such as $`\eta _c`$), and for large momentum transfers the relevant impact factors for the transition $`\gamma (\gamma ^{})`$PS have been be calculated perturbatively . As to the odderon structure, different models have been used: the exchange of three noninteracting gluons in a C=-1 state , and, more recently, the perturbative QCD odderon with intercept exactly unity , used to calculate the production rates of the $`\eta _c`$ in  111A different approach, a nonperturbative odderon based upon the idea of a “stochastic QCD vacuum” has been used in .. In both models, there is some uncertainty coming from the coupling of the odderon to the proton. Numerical estimates for the cross sections turn out to be somewhat different in these approaches. However in all cases they are very small and, most unfortunately, do not grow with energy (in the case of the perturbative QCD odderon, they even slowly decrease with energy). This leaves little hope to see the odderon by raising the energy of the reaction.

However the situation may become different if, instead of the quasielastic process $`\gamma +p\eta _c+p`$, one considers the inclusive cross section $`\gamma +p\eta _c+X`$ in the triple Regge region. In this case the odderon does not couple directly to the quarks of the target proton but rather to the diffractive system $`{}_{}{}^{}X_{}^{}`$ which, for high masses, can modelled by a cut gluon ladder, the gluon density inside the proton. The proton is therefore coupled to the cut gluon ladder, i.e. the Pomeron, and this coupling is known through the gluon density. This fact permits to avoid the previously mentioned uncertainties in the odderon-proton coupling. Together with this process also the low mass diffractive state (the proton) with the meaning of a double odderon exchange is usually considered.

In the Regge language this new situation basically involves the coupling of two odderons to a cut Pomeron, the POO vertex. Since we are using perturbative QCD both for the odderon and for the cut Pomeron, also this vertex has to be calculated in perturbative QCD. This has been done in : the vertex has been obtained in an analysis of a six gluon amplitude $`D_6`$. In our application of this vertex we shall restrict ourselves to the leading large-$`N_c`$ limit, which leads to a relatively simple form of $`D_6`$. In  it was also shown that the full amplitude $`D_6`$ can be decomposed into the sum of two contributions, where the first one results from the reggeization of the gluon and , and the second one contains the POO vertex. Correspondingly, also our cross section comes as the sum of two pieces (denoted by $`P`$ and $`POO`$, respectively). The second one corresponds to the normal ‘triple Regge picture’ where the Pomeron splits into two odderons, whereas the first one is related to reggeization of the gluon and leads the exchange of three noninteraction gluons in the odderon channel. We will calculate both of them. For the odderon states we will use the solution found in , which has a maximal intercept (unity) and a very simple analytical form. This solution has already been used by us to calculate the odderon exchange in the process $`\gamma +p\eta _c+p`$ .

The use of these elements allows to compute the diffractive cross section $`\frac{d^2\sigma }{dtdM^2}`$ for the process $`\gamma +p\eta _c+X`$. Our perturbative QCD analysis only depends upon one free parameter, the coupling of the gluon ladder to the proton: this coupling will be fixed by fitting the model to the gluon density of the proton. To simplify the calculations we restrict ourselves to the integrated (over $`M^2`$) cross section: the calculation of the differential (in $`M^2`$) cross section requires a slightly different treatment of the $`D_6`$ amplitude which will not be pursued in the present work. Nevertheless the most inportant and basic information is given by the integrated cross section.

As we have indicated before, we expect that the cross section for the inclusive process $`\gamma +p\eta _c+X`$ is larger than that for the quasielastic process $`\gamma +p\eta _c+p`$. We know that the cut gluon ladder grows as $`\mathrm{exp}\mathrm{\Delta }y`$, where $`y`$ is the rapidity gap between the proton and the POO vertex, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the value of the Pomeron intercept minus unity. From this it follows that the bulk of the inclusive cross-section will come from the region where $`y`$ is as large as possible. i.e. close to the total rapidity of the process (note however, that, in order to see the exchange of an odderon, one needs also a large rapidity gap between the outgoing $`\eta _c`$ and the diffractive system). In other words, the mass of the diffractive system “X” wants to become as large as possible. Because of this growth (with energy) of the cut gluon ladder we expect to see a strong enhancement of the inclusive cross-section at high energies, compared to the quasielastic process $`\gamma +p\eta _c+p`$ where the gluon ladder is absent. The comparison of our results with the quasielastic cross section is made difficult by the intrinsic uncertainty of the odderon-proton coupling: a recent analysis shows that the estimate obtained in  and also adopted in  may have used a too large value of this coupling and has to be reduced: if this is the case, the cross section obtained in the present paper is, in fact, much larger that the quasielastic one.

Our paper is organized as follows. In the next section we shall briefly recall some results which constitute our starting point to attack the problem, the cross section formula. In section 3 the first contribution (P) is considered, and the corresponding integrated (in $`M^2`$) cross section is written in terms of a multidimensional integral which, later on, will be be computed numerically. In sections 4 and 5 the structure of the second contribution (POO) is considered. Both contributions are calculated in the large $`N_c`$ limit, which leads to considerable simplifications and shows a symmetry shared by the leading odderon states . Finally, the numerical analysis is presented and discussed in section 6, followed by the conclusions.

## 2 The cross-section formula in perturbative QCD

.

We start from the analysis  of QCD Feynman diagrams in the leading $`\mathrm{log}s`$ approximation, and we recapitulate the main results. The approach taken from  is a generalization of a previous analysis  of the $`4`$ gluon system (related to the triple pomeron vertex): it extends this analysis up to $`6`$ gluons in the $`t`$ channel, and so it encounters, for the first time, the two-odderon state. As described in , the analysis of Feynman diagrams in the high energy limit leads to a tower of gluon amplitudes, $`D_2`$, $`D_3`$, $`D_4`$, $`D_5`$, and $`D_6`$, which satisfy a set of coupled integral equations. These functions are non-amputated, i.e. they contain reggeon denominators for the outgoing (reggeized) gluon states (see Ref. ). The latter are more convenient degrees of freedom than the elementary gluons in this kinematics. In the present context we are interested in the $`D_6`$ amplitude which can be used to build the cross section, integrated in the diffractive mass.

In the analysis in refs.  and , all functions $`D_2,\mathrm{}`$ start from the impact factor of a virtual photon which splits into a quark-antiquark pair. In the present case, the external particle is the proton: assuming that, to a good approximation, the proton can be viewed as a quark-diquark system, the coupling of the gluons to the proton should have the same structure as in the photon case; only the overall normalization of this coupling has to be treated as a phenomenological parameter.

The diagrammatic structure of the differential cross section $`\frac{d^2\sigma }{dtdM^2}`$ for the process $`\gamma +p\eta _c+X`$ is illustrated in Fig.1a. In the two exchange channels one recognizes the two odderon states, consisting of three gluons with pairwise interactions. The structure of the blob (related to $`D_6`$) will be discussed in a future paper. When the integration over the squared missing mass $`M^2`$ is performed, the expression for the cross section $`\frac{d\sigma }{dt}=𝑑M^2\frac{d^2\sigma }{dtdM^2}`$ simplifies. The result is illustrated in Fig.1b: the blob now stands for $`D_6`$ which can directly be taken from . It depends upon the angular momentum variable $`\omega `$ which is conjugate to the total rapidity $`Y`$.

The cross section can be written as

$$\frac{d\sigma }{dt}=\xi \underset{i=1,2}{}\frac{d\omega }{2\pi i}e^{Y\omega }\frac{d\mu _1d\mu _2}{_{i=1}^6k_i^2}\mathrm{\Phi }^i(1,2,3)[\mathrm{\Phi }^i(4,5,6)]^{}D_6(1,2,3,4,5,6;\omega ).$$
(1)
Here $`\mathrm{\Phi }^i`$ denotes the impact factor for the transitions $`\gamma ^{}\eta _c`$ with the photon polarizations $`i=1,2`$ and the color structure $`d_{abc}`$. $`Y`$ is the overall rapidity; $`t=q^2`$ is the invariant associated to the momentum transfer across the impact factor, and the arguments 1,2,3 and 4,5,6 refer to both the colour indices $`a_i`$ and transverse momenta, $`k_i`$, of the gluons exchanged in the initial amplitude $`i=1,2,3`$ and final (conjugated) amplitude $`i=4,5,6`$. Finally, $`d\mu _1`$ is the integration measure for the 3 t-channel gluons on the lhs:

$$d\mu _1=d^2k_1d^2k_2d^2k_3\delta ^2(k_1+k_2+k_3q)$$
(2)
and $`d\mu _2`$ is the analogous integration measure for the three t-channel gluons 4,5,6 on the rhs. The normalization factor $`\xi `$ will be discussed in the next section.

From the analysis  of the coupled integral equations it follows that $`D_6`$ can be presented as a sum of different terms. One term (denoted by $`D_6^R`$) is obtained by collecting the reggeizing pieces: the outgoing six gluon state may contain configurations where a pair of two gluons is in an antisymmetric color octet configuration, which satisfies the BFKL bootstrap condition and collapses into a single gluon. As a result, one obtains contributions with a smaller number of reggeized gluons. It is convenient to separate these configurations from the rest, i.e. to define the sub-amplitude $`D_6^I`$ which is ’irreducible’ with respect to this reduction procedure. This reduction leads to the decomposition $`D_6=D_6^R+D_6^I`$, separating the reggeizing (R) and irreducible (I) parts. The $`D_6^I`$ term (eq.(6.3) of ) is rather lengthy; however, for an odderon in the (123) and (456) channels, we will need, in the large-$`N_c`$ limit, only one term, denoted by $`W`$, which describes the transition of two reggeized gluons into six reggeized gluons: all other terms will be shown (see section $`4`$) to be suppressed by a factor of $`1/N_c^2`$ (or even higher powers of this). It is this piece of $`D_6^I`$ which yields the POO vertex.

Diagrammatically, the piece of $`D_6^I`$ which, in the large-$`N_c`$ limit contains the Pomeron $``$ odderon vertex has the structure shown in Fig.2.

The internal blob - with two gluons entering from above and six gluons leaving below - defines the Pomeron $``$ odderon (POO) vertex, and its color structure is quite simple:

$$\delta _{b,b^{}}d_{a_1a_2a_3}d_{a_4a_5a_6}W(1,2,3|4,5,6),$$
(3)
where the $`b`$, $`b^{}`$ are the color labels of the reggeized gluons of the ladder above the POO vertex, $`a_i`$ the color indices of the reggeized gluons below the vertex (counting from left to right). The arguments of the function $`W`$ refer to the momenta of the gluons. Below the POO vertex, we have the two noninteracting odderons: the pairwise interactions inside (123) and (456) lead to the color singlet odderon Green’s functions. We note that this simple form emerges only after taking the large-$`N_c`$ limit. In the more general case of finite $`N_c`$, the expression (3) has to be summed over permutations of the indices (123456). Moreover, in Fig.2 below the POO vertex, we would have to include all pairwise interactions between the reggeized gluons. It is only in the large-$`N_c`$ limit that any rung which connects the two color singlet (123) and (456) costs a suppression factor of the order $`1/N_c^2`$ and, therefore, can be neglected.

The $`D_6^R`$ term is nothing but a sum of BFKL ladders in which, at the lower end, the reggeized gluons split into two three or four elementary gluons. Inserting this sum into the blob in Fig.1b and taking the large-$`N_c`$ limit, we arrive at structures illustrated in Fig.3: the BFKL ladder couples to odderon states consisting of three noninteracting gluons. Below we will discuss this in further detail: starting from the color structure of $`D_6^R`$, given in , eq.(6.2), it can be shown that all these contributions are subleading in $`1/N_c`$; in our further discussion we will keep one of them which is suppressed by a factor $`1/N_c`$ (all others are further suppressed).

All this discussion refers to Fig.1b which illustrates the integrated inclusive cross section. In order to derive the pQCD formula for the differential cross section, an alternative separation of $`D_6`$ is more suitable. For the case of $`D_4`$ which leads to the triple Pomeron vertex, such a separation has been discussed in  and : as a result, a slightly different expression for the triple Pomeron emerges. This question will be discussed in a forthcoming paper.

## 3 Contribution of the reggeizing piece $`D_6^R`$

Let us now analyze the two contribution to our inclusive cross section in some detail. We start with the ideologically (but not calculationally!) simpler part of the transition rate corresponding to the reggeizing piece, $`D_6^R`$, of  (Fig. 3). In the following, we will denote this piece by the superscript $`P`$. The corresponding inclusive cross-section is given by the expression

$$\frac{d\sigma ^{(P)}}{dt}=\xi \underset{i=1,2}{}\frac{d\omega }{2\pi i}e^{Y\omega }\frac{d\mu _1d\mu _2}{_{i=1}^6k_i^2}\mathrm{\Phi }^i(1,2,3)[\mathrm{\Phi }^i(4,5,6)]^{}D_6^R(1,2,3,4,5,6;\omega ).$$
(4)
The function $`D_6^R`$ depending on all gluonic momenta is the reggeizing piece of the 6-gluon amplitude found in . It is given by the sum of BFKL pomerons depending on various partial sums of the momenta of the 6 gluons 1,..6, multiplied by certain colour factors. All colour factors are obtained by permutations of inital (123) or final (456) gluons from

$$d^{a_1a_2a_3a_4a_5a_6}=\mathrm{tr}(t^{a_1}t^{a_2}t^{a_3}t^{a_4}t^{a_5}t^{a_6})+\mathrm{tr}(t^{a_6}t^{a_5}t^{a_4}t^{a_3}t^{a_2}t^{a_1}),$$
(5)
where $`t^a`$ is the quark colour matrix. This evidently gives 8 different colour factors, so that $`D^R`$ contains 8 terms with different colour structure. Coupling $`D^R`$ to the two impact factors in (1) one has to contract its colour indeces with a product $`d_{a_1a_2a_3}d_{a_4a_5a_6}`$ corresponding to the $`C=1`$ exchange of three gluons. Then one finds that all colour factors in $`D^R`$ are transformed into the same common colour factor $`F_c^{(R)}`$

$$d^{a_1a_2a_3a_4a_5a_6}d_{a_1a_2a_3}d_{a_4a_5a_6}=\frac{(N_c^21)^2(N_c^24)^2}{8N_c^3}N_c^5F_c^{(P)}.$$
(6)
At large $`N_c`$ it is $`N_c^5/8`$, in correspondence with the general rules of the $`1/N_c`$ expansion. Note however at $`N_c=3`$ its value 200/27$`7.4`$ is nearly 4 times smaller than given by the $`N_c\mathrm{}`$ limit 243/8 $`30`$. Finally the overall factor $`\xi `$ is equal to

$$\xi =\frac{1}{2}\frac{\pi }{16\pi ^3}\left(\frac{1}{44(2\pi )^6(3!)}\right)^2.$$
(7)
The first factor $`1/2`$ corresponds to the averaging over the two photon polarizations (we just consider transverse photon). Then one has the standard $`1/(16\pi ^3)`$ phase space volume for the diffractive process times a $`\pi `$ factor due to angular averaging. In the squared term there is the contribution of $`(2\pi )^4`$ absent in each $`d\mu `$ and an extra $`(2\pi )^2`$ which we associate to the impact factor  in our normalization. Moreover one has the symmetry factor $`1/3!`$ for each of the gluon triplets, 1/4 from the colour factor which is in fact $`(1/4)d_{abc}`$ and 1/4 from the integrations over $`s_i`$, instead of over $`k_i`$ in the definition of the impact factor.

Separating the common factor $`g_s^4N_c^5F_c^{(P)}`$, where $`g_s`$ is the strong coupling constant, we shall reproduce the rest of the amplitude $`D^R`$ from  in a simplified manner, taking into account that, first, in the pomeron of Fig. 3 the total momentum of the two gluons is zero and, second, in the high-energy limit the amplitude for the leading contribution is symmetric in the two gluons. Thus this ampitude $`P(k)`$ (amputated, that is, without external gluon propagators) depends only on one of the gluon momenta. In terms of $`P(k)`$ the reggeizing piece is then given by a sum of 31 terms:

$$D_6^R=\underset{i=1}{\overset{6}{}}P(i)\underset{ik=1}{\overset{3}{}}P(ik)\underset{ik=4}{\overset{6}{}}P(ik)\underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}\underset{k=4}{\overset{6}{}}P(ik)+\underset{ik=1}{\overset{3}{}}\underset{l=4}{\overset{6}{}}P(ikl)+P(q).$$
(8)
Here the notations $`il`$ and $`ilm`$ denote sums of gluon momenta $`k_i+k_l`$ and $`k_i+k_l+k_m`$ respectively. Expression (8) can further be simplified if we take into account that in (4) the integration over all momenta is done for a function which is totally symmetric in the gluons (123) and (456). Moreover, it is symmetric under the interchange $`(123)(456)`$. Therefore, on the rhs of (8) the terms inside each sum are identical, and we get

$$D_6^R=6P(1)6P(12)9P(14)+9P(124)+P(q).$$
(9)
The $`\gamma ^{}\eta _c`$ impact factor is given by

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^i(1,2,3)=bϵ_{ij}\frac{q_j}{q^2}\varphi (1,2,3),i,j=1,2.$$
(10)
Here

$$\varphi (1,2,3)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}\frac{q(q2k_i)}{M^2+(q2k_i)^2}\frac{q^2}{M^2+q^2}$$
(11)
and $`M^2=Q^2+4m_c^2`$, where $`Q^2`$ is the photon virtuality and $`m_c`$ the charmed quark mass. The coefficient $`b`$ is given by

$$b=\frac{16}{\pi }e_cg_s^3\frac{1}{2}m_{\eta _c}b_0,$$
(12)
where $`e_c=(2/3)e`$ is the electric charge of the charmed quark $`m_{\eta _c}`$ is the $`\eta _c`$ meson mass and $`b_0`$ can be determined from the known radiative width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\eta _c\gamma \gamma )`$= 7 KeV:

$$b_0=\frac{16\pi ^3}{3e_c^2}\sqrt{\frac{\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }}{m_{\eta _c}}}.$$
(13)
The impact factor (10) is symmetric in the three gluon momenta, and it vanishes if any of the momenta goes to zero. Taking in (4) the product of the two impact factors and summing over polarizations we obtain

$$F_{\gamma ^{}\eta _c}\varphi (1,2,3)\varphi (4,5,6),$$
(14)
where

$$F_{\gamma ^{}\eta _c}=\frac{b^2}{q^2}.$$
(15)
The pomeron $`P(k)`$ can be presented as a convolution of the BFKL Green function with the colour distribution $`\rho (r)`$ in the hadronic target

$$P(k)=g_s^2d^2r^{}G(Y,k,r^{})\rho (r^{}).$$
(16)
Note the minus sign. After transforming the initial momentum space expression for the impact factor into the coordinate space, the impact factor is proportional to $`1\mathrm{exp}(ikr)`$. When multiplying with the Pomeron Green’s function and doing the $`k`$-integral, there is no contribution from the ‘1’ (since, in coordinate space, the Pomeron Green’s function vanishes when both arguments coincide), and the nonzero contribution comes from the second term, $`\mathrm{exp}(ikr)`$. The Green function has to be taken in a mixed representation, momentum $`k`$ at the odderon side, coordinate $`r^{}`$ at the proton side. Also, one side of the Green’s function is amputated, the other not.

$$G(Y,k,r^{})=\frac{1}{8\pi ^2}qr^{}\frac{d\nu }{\nu ^2+1/4}e^{Y\omega (\nu ,0)}\left(\frac{qr^{}}{2}\right)^{2i\nu }$$
(17)
with

$$\omega (\nu ,n)=2\overline{\alpha }_s\left(\psi (1)\mathrm{Re}\psi (\frac{1+|n|}{2}+i\nu )\right),\overline{\alpha }_s=\frac{\alpha _sN_c}{\pi }.$$
(18)
At large rapidities small $`\nu `$’s dominate. Due to the finite dimension of the target, in (17 the values of $`r^{}`$ are limited by the radius $`R`$. So we can neglect factor the $`(r^{})^{2i\nu }`$, and the integration over $`r^{}`$ will be replaced by the average transverse dimension of the target $`R`$. So at high $`Y`$ the Green function gives a factor

$$\frac{1}{2\pi ^2}kR\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{aY}}e^{\mathrm{\Delta }Y}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{ln}^2kR}{4aY}\right).$$
(19)
Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\omega (0,0)=\overline{\alpha }_s\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}\mathrm{ln}2`$ is the BFKL intercept with $`a=7\overline{\alpha }_s\zeta (3)`$. The second exponential factor cuts the integration over $`k`$ to values $`\mathrm{ln}^2k<aY`$. However, since the integration in (4) is in fact convergent, we may drop this factor at high enough $`Y`$. Putting (19) into (8) we get for the cross-section

$$\frac{d\sigma ^{(P)}}{dt}=\xi g_s^6\frac{b^2}{2\pi ^2q^2M^3}N_c^5F_c^{(P)}Re^{\mathrm{\Delta }Y}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{aY}}I\left(\frac{q}{M}\right),$$
(20)
where the dimensionless function $`I(q/M)`$ is given by the integral

$$I\left(\frac{q}{M}\right)=M^3\frac{d\mu _1d\mu _2}{_{i=1}^6k_i^2}\varphi (1,2,3)\varphi (4,5,6)\left(6|k_1|6|qk_1|9|k_1k_4|+9|qk_1k_4|+q\right).$$
(21)
The cross section (20) is of the order $`\alpha _s(\alpha _sN_c)^5`$. The 8-dimensional integral (21) is non-factorizable and can be done only numerically.

As an alternative way of evaluating this contribution to the cross section, one might try to factorize the integration over gluonic momenta and to transform the pomeron amplitude to the coordinate space using

$$k^{1+2i\nu }=(1+4\nu ^2)\frac{d^2r}{2\pi r^3}\left(\frac{2}{r}\right)^{2i\nu }e^{ikr}.$$
(22)
Taking the limit $`\nu 0`$ and introducing a function of $`r`$

$$h(r)=\frac{d\mu _1\varphi (1,2,3)}{k_1^2k_2^2k_3^2}e^{ik_1r},$$
(23)
we find the integral $`I`$ as

$$I\left(\frac{q}{M}\right)=M^3\frac{d^2r}{2\pi r^3}$$

$$\left\{\left(6h(r)h(0)6e^{iqr}h(r)h(0)9h(r)h(r)+9e^{iqr}h^2(r)+e^{iqr}h^2(0)\right)\left(r=0\right)\right\}.$$
(24)
In obtaining this expression we used the fact that the change $`qq`$ is equivalent to changing $`rr`$ in $`h(r)`$. Also, we have taken into account that $`P(k=0)=0`$, in order to subtract the value of the brackets at $`r=0`$ and thus to improve the convergence of the integral at $`r=0`$. Passing to the function

$$h_1(r)=h(r)e^{iqr}h(r),h_1(0)=0,$$
(25)
we can rewrite (23) in a simpler form, which also shows that the right-hand side is real:

$$I\left(\frac{q}{M}\right)=M^3\frac{d^2r}{2\pi r^3}\left(6h(0)\mathrm{Re}h_1(r)\frac{9}{2}|h_1(r)|^2(1\mathrm{cos}(qr))h^2(0)\right).$$
(26)
Now we have only 6 integrations to be done numerically. However the presence of the oscillating factor makes such calculations very difficult. We therefore use Eq. (21) and performed the integrations by Monte-Carlo methods. The results will be presented in Sec.6, together with the contribution from the POO vertex.

## 4 The POO vertex in leading order in $`N_c`$

Next let us consider the irreducible part $`D_I`$ of the amplitude for 6 reggeized gluons. Its contribution to the cross section will be denoted by the superscript POO. Starting from  (eq.(6.3), we note that the rhs satisfies a BFKL-like equation which we write in the symbolic form

$$(H_6E)D_I=D_I^{(0)}.$$
(27)
Here $`H_6`$ is the total Hamiltonian for 6 reggeized gluons, which is a sum of pairwise interactions and of gluon trajectories and describes their evolution, without changing the number of gluons. The energy $`E=1j=\omega `$ is just one minus the intercept. The driving term of the equation is a sum of terms which describe transitions with a change of the number of gluons, from ”irreducible” configurations of 2, 4, or 5 gluons to 6 gluons. At this moment it is important to invoke the approximation of large number of colours $`N_c\mathrm{}`$. In this approximation, any interaction inside the outgoing six gluon state which connects colourless groups of gluons is damped by $`1/N_c^2`$ and can be neglected. This means, in particular, that once a pair of states with colour color structure of two odderons is formed in the driving term, $`H_6`$ in Eq. (27) contains no further interaction between these two odderon states. All what $`H_6`$ does is to build up the bound states of the gluons (123) and (456). So in order to find the terms relevant for the POO transitions we only have to see whether the final two 0dderon states couples to the driving term. One immediately sees that, at large $`N_c`$, the irreducible configurations of 4 and 5 gluons, $`D_4^I`$ and $`D_5^I`$, reduce to the splitting of the initial pomeron into two pomerons and thus cannot couple to the two odderon final state. Therefore, the transitions of interest can only occur in terms which describe transitions of 2 gluons to 6 gluons. In  4 such terms of different colour structure were found.

The first group is given by a sum

$$d_{a_1a_2a_3}d_{a_4a_5a_6}W(1,2,3|4,5,6)+d_{a_1a_2a_4}d_{a_3a_5a_6}W(1,2,4|3,5,6)+\mathrm{},$$
(28)
where the sum extends over all (ten) partitions of the six gluons into two groups containing three gluons each. Projecting onto the two odderon colour state we find the colour factor for the first term in (28)

$$d_{a_1a_2a_3}d_{a_4a_5a_6}d_{a_1a_2a_3}d_{a_4a_5a_6}=\frac{(N_c^21)^2(N_c^24)^2}{N_c^2}N_c^6F_c^{(POO)}N_c^6,$$
(29)
whereas for all the rest terms we have

$$d_{a_1a_2a_4}d_{a_3a_5a_6}d_{a_1a_2a_3}d_{a_4a_5a_6}=\frac{(N_c^21)(N_c^24)^2}{N_c^2}N_c^4.$$
(30)
So at large $`N_c`$ we will retain only the first term in the sum, (28).

Apart from the $`W`$ terms, the remaining driving terms in (6.3) of (27) with transitions from 2 to 6 gluons contain 3 more groups of terms of different colour structure. Terms denoted by $`L`$ in  are given by a sum

$$f_{a_1a_2a_3}f_{a_4a_5a_6}L(1,2,3|4,5,6)+f_{a_1a_2a_4}f_{a_3a_5a_6}L(1,2,4|3,5,6)+\mathrm{},$$
(31)
with the sum, again, extending over all (ten) partitions of the six gluons into two groups containing three gluons each, and the function being described in . Obviously these terms give zero when projeted onto the colour state of two odderons.

Finally, the terms denoted by $`I`$ and $`J`$ are given by sums

$$d^{a_1a_2a_3a_4}\delta _{a_5a_6}I(1,2,3,4|5,6)+d^{a_1a_2a_3a_5}\delta _{a_4a_6}I(1,2,3,5|4,6)+\mathrm{}$$
(32)
and

$$d^{a_2a_1a_3a_4}\delta _{a_5a_6}I(1,2,3,4|5,6)+d^{a_2a_1a_3a_5}\delta _{a_4a_6}I(1,2,3,5|4,6)+\mathrm{},$$
(33)
with the sum extending over all partitions of 6 gluons into two groups with 4 and 2 gluons,known function $`I`$ and $`J`$ and

$$d^{a_1a_2a_3a_4}=\mathrm{tr}(t^{a_1}t^{a_2}t^{a_3}t^{a_4})+\mathrm{tr}(t^{a_4}t^{a_3}t^{a_2}t^{a_1}).$$
(34)
Projecting onto the colour state of two odderons we find non-zero colour factors of the type

$$d^{a_1a_2a_4a_5}\delta a_3a_6d_{a_1a_2a_3}d_{a_4a_5a_6}=\frac{(N_c^21)(N_c^24)^2}{4N_c^2}N_c^4.$$
(35)
So although these terms seem to involve transitions POO, they are down by a factor $`N_c^2`$ as compared to (29).

So in the end we find that, in the large $`N_c`$ limit, the transitions POO are fully described by the function $`W(1,2,3|4,5,6)`$ which represents a convolution of the pomeron with a POO vertex. The functional form of $`W`$ in  is rather complicated, however a closer inspection shows a surprisingly simple structure . Let us briefly recapitulate this structure. It is convenient to introduce two operators which transform a function of momenta of two gluons into a new function which depends upon momenta of three gluons. Namely, define $`\widehat{S}`$ to be an operator acting on 2-gluon states and with values on the 3-gluon states, which performs an antisimmetrization in the 2 incoming gluons, splits the first of them in two and sums over the cyclic permutations of the outgoing gluons:

$$\widehat{S}(1,2,3|1^{},2^{})\varphi (1^{},2^{})=\frac{1}{2}\underset{(123)}{}[\varphi (12,3)\varphi (23,1)].$$
(36)
Next define another operator $`\widehat{P}`$ which performs an antisimmetrization in the 2 incoming gluons and splits the first of them in three outgoing gluons:

$$\widehat{P}(1,2,3|1^{},2^{}))\varphi (1^{},2^{})=\frac{1}{2}[\varphi (123,0))\varphi (0,123)].$$
(37)
Apart from these operators we introduce a function $`f(1,2|3,4)`$, antisymmetric in the first and second pairs of gluons and symmetric under the interchange $`(12)(34)`$, as a sum of functions $`G(1,2,3)`$, which were introduced in  in the context of the three-pomeron vertex:

$$f(1,2|3,4)=G(1,23,4)G(2,13,4)G(1,24,3)+G(2,14,3).$$
(38)
The explicit form of the general function $`G(1,2,3)`$ is not important for our purpose (it can be found e.g. in ). We only have to know that

$$G(1,2,3)=G(3,2,1),G(0,2,3)=G(1,2,0)=0,$$
(39)
and that, up to a coefficient, $`G(1,0,3)`$ is given by the BFKL Hamiltonian $`H_2`$ applied to the pomeron:

$$G(1,0,3)=\frac{1}{N_c}\left(H_2P\right)(1,3).$$
(40)
In terms of $`\widehat{S}`$, $`\widehat{P}`$ and $`f`$ we find

$$W(1,2,3|4,5,6)=\frac{1}{8}g_s^4(\widehat{S}_1\widehat{P}_1)f_{12}(\widehat{S}_2^{}\widehat{P}_2^{}),$$
(41)
where the indices 1 and 2 refer to the triplets of gluons (123) and (456), respectively.

## 5 Part of the cross-section with a POO transition

To find the cross-section corresponding to the $`\eta _c`$ production via the POO transition (Fig. 1) we have to couple the POO vertex with the two odderons attached to the initial and final $`\gamma ^{}\eta _c`$ impact factors. To write it in a compact form we introduce the Green functions $`G_3^{(1)}`$ and $`G_3^{(2)}`$ for the initial and final odderons composed of gluons 123 and 456 respectively. They evolve the odderon state in the rapidity interval with length $`y<Y`$. Then using (41) we can write the cross-section as

$$\frac{d\sigma ^{(POO)}}{dt}=\frac{1}{8}g_s^4N_c^6F_c^{(POO)}\xi \underset{i=1,2}{}𝑑y<\mathrm{\Phi }_1^i|G_3^{(1)}(\widehat{S}_1\widehat{P}_1)f_{12}(\widehat{S}_2^{}\widehat{P}_2^{})G_3^{(2)}|\mathrm{\Phi }_2^i>,$$
(42)
where it is assumed that the averaging is done independently over the gluons 123 (index 1) and 456 (index 2), function $`f`$ depending on both groups of variables.

At this point we recall that the full set of odderon states and consequently the full Green function $`G_3`$ are unknown. We are going to use a part of it corresponding to the solutions found in , which have the maximal intercept of all known states and besides have a non-zero coupling to the perturbative $`\gamma ^{}\eta _c`$ impact factor. These odderon states are expressed via the known antisymmetric pomeron states $`E^{(\nu ,n)}`$ with odd values of $`n`$:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }^{(\nu ,n)}(1,2,3)=c(\nu ,n)\frac{1}{k_1^2k_2^2k_3^2}\widehat{S}(1,2,3|1^{},2^{})k_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}k_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}E^{(\nu ,n)}(1^{},2^{}),$$
(43)
where

$$c(\nu ,n)=\sqrt{\frac{g_s^2N_c}{3(2\pi )^3\omega (\nu ,n)}}$$
(44)
and $`\omega (\nu ,n)`$ is given by Eq. (18). The part of the Green function $`G_3`$ corresponding to these states then aquires a form similar to the pomeron Green function

$$G_3(y_1|1,2,3|1^{},2^{},3^{})=\underset{\mathrm{odd}n}{}d\nu e^{y_1\omega (\nu ,n)}\beta (\nu ,n)\mathrm{\Psi }^{(\nu ,n)}(1,2,3)\mathrm{\Psi }_{}^{(\nu ,n)}{}_{}{}^{}(1^{},2^{},3^{}),$$
(45)
with

$$\beta (\nu ,n)=\frac{(2\pi )^2(\nu ^2+n^2/4)}{[\nu ^2+(n1)^2/4][\nu ^2+(n+1)^2/4]}$$
(46)
and $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{(\nu ,n)}`$ given by (43).

Now we use the fact that we only study our cross-section in the region where both the rapidity of the pomeron $`y`$ and that of the odderon $`y_1=Yy`$ are large. This allows to retain in (45) only the branch $`|n|=1`$ with a maximal intercept and also restrict the integration over $`\nu `$ to small values. In the limit $`\nu 0`$ the coupling of the odderon to $`\gamma ^{}\eta _c`$ impact factor was calculated in  to give

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{\gamma \eta _c}^i|\mathrm{\Psi }^{(\nu ,n)}=\frac{i}{\pi }bϵ_{ij}\frac{q_j}{q}\frac{1}{c(\nu ,n)}q^{2i\nu }\frac{1}{q^2+M^2}.$$
(47)
After summation over the photon polarizations the two matrix elements (47) provide a factor

$$\frac{1}{\pi ^2}\frac{b^2}{c(\nu _1,n_1)c(\nu _2,n_2)}\frac{1}{(q^2+M^2)^2}q^{2i(\nu _1\nu _2)},$$
(48)
where $`(\nu _1,n_1)`$ and $`(\nu _2,n_2)`$ refer to the summation and integration variables in $`G_3^{(1)}`$ and $`G_3^{(2)}`$ respectively. At finite value of $`q`$ one can neglect the last factor in (48).

We are left with the matrix element

$$T<\mathrm{\Psi }_1^{(\nu _1n_1)}|(\widehat{S}_1\widehat{P}_1)f_{12}(\widehat{S}_2^{}\widehat{P}_2^{})|\mathrm{\Phi }_2^{(\nu _2,n_2)}>.$$
(49)
Its calculation is greatly simplified by the property of the odderon state (43) found in . For any function $`\varphi (1,2)`$ of two gluon momenta and odderon state (43) one has

$$<\mathrm{\Psi }^{(\nu ,n)}|(\widehat{S}\widehat{P})|\varphi >=\frac{1}{c(\nu ,n)}<E^{(\nu ,n)}|\varphi >.$$
(50)
Note that the matrix element on the left-hand side is taken in the space of three gluons, whereas that on the right-hand side is taken in the space of only two gluon momenta. This property greatly simplifies the matrix element (49). Using (50) we get for it

$$T=\frac{1}{c(\nu _1,n_1)c(\nu _2,n_2)}<E_1^{(\nu _1,n_1)}|f_{12}|E_2^{(\nu _2,n_2)}>.$$
(51)
Now we again use the fact that $`y_1`$ is large and so only values $`|n|=1`$ and $`|\nu |<<1`$ contribute. At $`|n|=1`$ and small $`\nu `$ the pomeron wave funtions entering (51) reduce to $`\delta `$ functions of gluon momenta

$$E^{(\nu ,\pm 1)}(1,2)_{\nu 0}=\frac{i}{2\pi q}\left(\delta ^2(k_1)\delta ^2(k_2)\right),E^{(\nu ,\pm 1)}(4,3)_{\nu 0}=\frac{i}{2\pi q}\left(\delta ^2(k_4)\delta ^2(k_3)\right).$$
(52)
Note that the second wave function has to be taken conjugate. Putting this into (51) and recalling (38) and the properties of the function $`G`$ (Eq. (39) and (40) we get

$$T=\frac{1}{c(\nu _1,n_1)c(\nu _2,n_2)}\frac{4}{(2\pi )^2q^2}G(q,0,q)=\frac{1}{c(\nu _1,n_1)c(\nu _2,n_2)}\frac{1}{\pi ^2q^2}\frac{1}{N_c}(H_2P)(q).$$
(53)
The last factor is just the BFKL Hamiltonian applied to the Pomeron state.

As in Sec. 2, to find the pomeron $`P(q)`$ attached to the hadronic target we present it as the BFKL Green function applied to the colour distribution in the hadron, Eq. (16). Again we need a mixed amputated-non-amputated Green function in the momentum space in its amputated part, Eq. (17). Applying the BFKL Hamiltonian we get

$$H_2G(y,q,r)=\frac{1}{8\pi ^2}qr𝑑\nu \omega (\nu ,0)e^{y\omega (\nu ,0)}\frac{2^{2i\nu }(qr)^{2i\nu }}{\nu ^2+1/4}.$$
(54)
At large $`y`$ with finite $`q`$ and $`r`$ we neglect all dependence on $`\nu `$ except in the exponential to obtain similarly to (19)

$$HG(y,q,r)=\frac{1}{2\pi ^2}qr\mathrm{\Delta }e^{y\mathrm{\Delta }}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{ay}}.$$
(55)
Integration of $`r`$ with the target colour density converts it into the average target transverse radius $`R`$ with a minus sign , see (16)).

So we find for the matrix element $`T`$

$$T=\frac{1}{2\pi ^4q^2}\frac{1}{c(\nu _1,n_1)c(\nu _2,n_2)}\frac{g_s^2}{N_c}qR\mathrm{\Delta }e^{y\mathrm{\Delta }}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{ay}}.$$
(56)
We have finally to do the integrations over $`\nu _1`$ and $`\nu _2`$ and summations over $`n_1`$ and $`n_2`$, which in the limit of high $`y_1`$ only take values $`\pm 1`$. These latter summations are trivial and give a factor 4. At $`|n|=1`$ and small $`\nu `$ we have

$$\omega (\nu ,\pm 1)=2\overline{\alpha }_s\zeta (3)\nu ^2.$$
(57)
One of the denominators in (46) reduces to $`\nu ^2`$ and is singular at $`\nu 0`$. However this singularity is cancelled by the square of the $`1/c^2(\nu ,\pm 1)`$ coming from (48) and (56). Therefore we find at small $`\nu `$

$$\frac{\beta (\nu ,\pm 1)}{c^2(\nu ,\pm 1)}=12\pi ^3\zeta (3).$$
(58)
Neglecting all the rest $`\nu `$-dependence except in the exponential in (45), integrations over $`\nu _1`$ and $`\nu _2`$ provide a factor

$$\frac{\pi }{2\overline{\alpha }_s\zeta (3)y_1}.$$
(59)
Combining all the factors we finally get for the cross-section a simple expression

$$\frac{d\sigma ^{(POO)}}{dt}=18\pi \xi N_c^6F_c^{(POO)}𝑑yg_s^6\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{N_c}\frac{b^2R\zeta (3)}{q(q^2+M^2)^2}e^{\mathrm{\Delta }y}\frac{1}{\overline{\alpha }_sy_1}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{ay}}.$$
(60)
It steadily grows as $`q^2`$ diminishes and behaves as $`1/q`$ at small $`q`$. Integrating over all $`q`$ we find the cross-section

$$\sigma ^{(POO)}=9\pi ^3\xi N_c^6F_c^{(POO)}𝑑yg_s^6\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{N_c}\frac{b^2R\zeta (3)}{M^3}e^{\mathrm{\Delta }y}\frac{1}{\overline{\alpha }_sy_1}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{ay}}.$$
(61)
It falls with $`Q^2`$ and the meson mass as $`1/(Q^2+m_{PS})^{3/2}`$. The cross-section has an order $`\alpha _s(\alpha _sN_c)^6`$, an order higher in $`\alpha _sN_c`$ than the leading contribution given by the reggeizing part (Fig. 2). This implies that the vertex POO has the same order $`\alpha _sN_c`$ as the triple pomeron vertex.

## 6 Numerical results

Both the cross-section with a pure pomeron exchange and with a POO vertex have a simple dependence on energies, which separates into a factor with the expected behaviour at large rapidities. Separating also all the rest non-trivial factors we find the pure pomeron exchange contribution as

$$\frac{d\sigma ^{(P)}}{dt}=c^{(P)}\alpha _{em}\alpha _s(\overline{\alpha }_s)^5b_0^2\frac{m_{\eta _c}^2R}{q^2M^3}I\left(\frac{q}{M}\right)f^{(P)}(Y),$$
(62)
where

$$f^{(P)}(Y)=e^{\mathrm{\Delta }Y}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{aY}}$$
(63)
and

$$c^{(P)}=\frac{F_c^{(P)}}{5184\pi ^6}.$$
(64)
The part originating from the POO vertex is

$$\frac{d\sigma ^{(POO)}}{dt}=c^{(POO)}\alpha _{em}\alpha _s𝑑y(\overline{\alpha }_s)^6b_0^2\frac{m_{\eta _c}^2R}{q(q^2+M^2)^2}f^{(POO)}(Y,y),$$
(65)
where now

$$f^{(POO)}(Y,y)=\frac{1}{\overline{\alpha }_s(Yy)}e^{\mathrm{\Delta }y}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{ay}}$$
(66)
and

$$c^{(POO)}=\frac{F_c^{(POO)}\zeta (3)\mathrm{ln}2}{36\pi ^4}.$$
(67)
The cross-section with the POO vertex integrated over all transferred momenta is

$$\sigma ^{(POO)}=\frac{1}{2}\pi c^{(POO)}\alpha _{em}\alpha _s𝑑y(\overline{\alpha }_s)^6b_0^2\frac{m_{\eta _c}^2R}{M^3}f^{(POO)}(Y,y).$$
(68)
With $`N_c=3`$ the colour factors become

$$F_c^{(P)}=2003^8,F_c^{(POO)}=16003^8.$$
(69)
Regarding the region of integration in rapidity $`y`$, as explained in the introduction, we consider the interval $`\delta Y<y<Y\delta Y`$ to warrant the use of the asymptotic forms for both the pomeron and the odderons. We choose $`\delta Y=3`$.

One should also take a certain care with the coupling constants in the expressions for the cross-sections. In fact they refer to different scales relevant to the studied processes. Obviously one of the coupling constants refers to the coupling to the proton at a small and so non-perturbative scale. For the process mediated by the pure pomeron all other coupling constants are to be taken at the scale of the $`\gamma ^{}\eta _c`$ transition, that is the maximal of $`q`$ and $`M`$. The cross-section falls quite rapidly as $`q`$ becomes larger than $`M`$, so that we can safely take $`M`$ as the relevant scale. For the process with the POO transition however only three of the remaining 6 $`\alpha `$’s refer to this scale. Other three are to be taken at an intermediate scale, characteristic for the POO transition at rapidity $`y`$. For high rapidities $`Y`$ and $`y`$ one can use the fact that the characteristic momenta $`k`$ in the BFKL pomeron at rapidity $`Y`$ have the order $`\mathrm{ln}k\sqrt{Y}`$. Then one obtains a crude estimate for the coupling constant at the POO junction as

$$\alpha _{POO}\sqrt{\frac{Y}{y}}\alpha _s(M).$$
(70)
We have taken $`Y=\mathrm{ln}(1/x)`$ with $`x`$ defined as

$$x=\frac{m_{\eta _c}^2+Q^2}{s+Q^2}.$$
(71)
Passing to concrete values of the coupling constants we take $`\alpha _s(M)`$ as given by the leading order $`\beta `$-function with 3 or 4 flavours $`N_f`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}=0.2`$ GeV/c. The value of $`\alpha _s`$ at the POO junction was taken according to (70). As to the values of the pomeron intercept and its coupling to the proton, we have borrowed them from , where the proton structure function at small $`x`$ was fitted by the pomeron exchange. From this fit one extracts both $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and the product $`\alpha _sR`$:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=0.377,\alpha _sR=0.096\mathrm{fm},(N_f=3),\alpha _sR=0.058\mathrm{fm}(N_f=4).$$
(72)
At first sight one may expect a large difference in the results for different $`N_f`$. However a smaller value of $`\alpha _sR`$ for $`N_f=4`$ is compensated by a larger value of the rest of the coupling constants, so that the final results are practically independent of the number of flavours taken into account (see Fig. 7 below).

The calculation of the POO contribution (65) is straightforward. To find the contribution from the pure pomeron exchange (62) one has to calculate integral (21). We did this using the standard Monte-Carlo program VEGAS. The results for $`I(q/M)`$ are presented in Fig. 4.

Our final results for the differential cross-sections (62) and (65) and their sum (for $`N_f=3`$) are presented in Figs. 5 and 6 for $`\sqrt{s}=300`$ GeV and $`Q^2=0`$ and 25 (GeV/c)2 respectively.

As we see, the contribution from the POO transition turns out to be of the same order as the one coming from the direct coupling of the pomeron to non-interacting gluons (P contribution). However the two contributions seem to behave differently at small transferred momenta. From (65) we see that at $`q0`$ the POO contribution rises as $`1/q`$. On the other hand, the P contribution does not show such a behaviour and seems to tend to a constant or zero at small $`q`$. This may help to see the POO contribution against the reggeizing pomeron contribution at very low $`q`$.

Integrated over transferred momenta the total cross-sections are found at $`Q^2=0`$ to be

$$\sigma ^{(P)}=34\mathrm{pb},\sigma ^{(POO)}=31\mathrm{pb},\sigma =\sigma ^{(P)}+\sigma ^{(POO)}=65\mathrm{pb}$$

and at $`Q^2=`$25 (GeV/c)2

$$\sigma ^{(P)}=0.87\mathrm{pb},\sigma ^{(POO)}=0.67\mathrm{pb},\sigma =\sigma ^{(P)}+\sigma ^{(POO)}=1.54\mathrm{pb}.$$

The total integrated cross sections $`\sigma `$ (sum of P and POO) in the range of photon virtualities $`0<Q^2<25`$ GeV-2 are shown in Fig. 7. Here we presented results for both $`N_f=3`$ and 4. As one observes the difference is quite insignificant.

With the growth of energy both contributions increase, preserving their shape in $`q`$. The increase is much more pronounced in the reggeizing pomeron contribution, since in this case the pomeron occupies the whole rapidity range, whereas for the POO transition this range is shorter.

## 7 Conclusions

We have calculated the cross section of inclusive diffractive photo- and leptoproduction of $`\eta _c`$ mesons, $`\gamma ^{}p\eta _c+X`$. We have considered the ‘triple Regge’ contribution which contains the coupling POO of the pomeron to two odderons. Inclusion of a second contribution where the pomeron directly couples to two three-gluon states results in a significant rise of the cross-section which grows with energy. However, in order to see the structure of the QCD odderon state with $`C=1`$ state one has to select diffractive events with a large enough gap between the missing mass state “X” and the $`\eta _c`$. The total production rate is found to be of the order 60 pb for photoproduction.

In our previous publication  we calculated the production rate for the quasielastic reaction $`\gamma ^{}+p\eta _c+p`$ due to odderon exchange. The photoproduction cross-section was reported to be 27 pb, which would be smaller by a factor of $`2`$ compared to the present case. However, note that for the quasielastic process considered in  one had to make an assumption of the non-perturbative odderon-proton coupling. In  we used the coupling proposed in , and we put the effective coupling constant $`\alpha _s`$ equal to unity. However, in a recent analysis of the $`pp`$ and $`p\overline{p}`$ elastic scattering data this coupling constant has been estimated to be 0.3 . With this value of the effective coupling constant the cross-sections reported in  have to be reduced by a factor 30, and, in fact, the cross section of the inclusive $`\eta _c`$ is much larger than the quasielastic one.

In the present calculation the very poorly known odderon-proton coupling does not enter. Instead one has to know also the non-perturbative pomeron-proton coupling, transformed into the value of the product $`\alpha _sR`$ where $`R`$ is the effective proton radius. This product can be found with a much higher degree of reliability. In this study we have used the fit to the experimental proton structure function in . Note that it gives physically reasonable values $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.377`$ and $`R=0.59`$ fm (for $`N_f=4`$), which more or less agree with estimates made by different methods. Correspondingly, we feel that the cross-sections found in this paper are much less affected by the uncertainty in the nonperturbative coupling of the proton.

## 8 Acknowledgements

M.A.B. is deeply thankful to the University of Hamburg for hospitality and financial support. This study was also partially supported by the RFFI (Russia) grant 01-02-17137. G.P.V. thanks the II. Inst. für Theor. Physik of the Hamburg University for the warm hospitality.


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# Quasi-positive curvature on homogeneous bundles

## 1. Introduction

There are very few known examples of compact manifolds with strictly positive sectional curvature. However, new examples have been recently constructed of nonnegatively curved manifolds with positive curvature either at a point (called quasi-positive curvature) or on an open dense set of points (called almost-positive curvature). Gromoll and Meyer discovered a 7-dimensional exotic sphere with quasi-positive curvature . This exotic sphere was later shown to admit almost-positive curvature ,. Petersen and Wilhelm endowed $`T^1S^4`$ and a 6 dimensional quotient of $`T^1S^4`$ with almost-positive curvature .

More recently, in , Wilking discovered several families of manifolds admitting almost-positive curvature, including the projective tangent bundles $`P_{}T^n`$, $`P_{}T^n`$ and $`P_{}T^n`$, and a family of lens space bundles over $`^n`$. His result for $`P_{}T^n`$ implies that its cover, $`T^1S^n`$, admits almost-positive curvature, which is particularly interesting in the cases of $`T^1S^3=S^3\times S^2`$ and $`T^1S^7=S^7\times S^6`$. Amongst his examples are spaces known not to admit positive curvature. On the other hand, it remains unknown whether every manifold admitting quasi-positive curvature must admit almost-positive curvature.

The main results of this paper are the following new examples:

###### Theorem 1.1.

The following manifolds admit metrics with quasi-positive curvature:

1. The unit tangent bundles $`T^1^n`$, $`T^1^n`$ and $`T^1a^2`$.
2. The homogeneous space $`M=U(n+1)/\{\text{diag}(z^k,z^l,A)zU(1),AU(n1)\}`$, where $`(k,l)`$ is a pair of integers with $`k0`$, and $`n2`$.
3. The homogeneous space $`Sp(n+1)/\{\text{diag}(z,1,A)zSp(1),ASp(n1)\}`$, $`n2`$.

The space in part (2) is a lens space bundles over $`^n`$. Wilking proved that the sub-family with $`kl<0`$ admit almost-positive curvature. Our larger family contains new examples, including the case $`k=l=1`$, which is $`T^1^n`$.

The space in part (3) is an $`S^{4n1}`$-bundle over $`^n`$. Wilking proved that a quotient of this space by a free $`S^3`$-action, namely the bi-quotient $`Sp(1)\backslash Sp(n+1)/Sp(1)Sp(n1)`$, admits almost-positive curvature. Since our metric is $`S^3`$-invariant, it at least follows from our result that this quotient admits quasi-positive curvature. More generally, our methods provide a simple way to prove quasi-versions of all of Wilking’s almost-positive curvature results.

All of our examples are homogeneous bundles over homogeneous spaces. If $`B=H\backslash G`$ is a homogeneous space, then a fiber bundle $`FMB`$ is called *homogeneous* if the transitive right $`G`$-action on $`B`$ lifts to $`M`$. Said differently, a homogenous fiber bundle over $`B`$ is one which can be written as a quotient $`M=H\backslash (G\times F)`$, for some left action of $`H`$ on the fiber $`F`$. If the action of $`H`$ on $`F`$ is transitive, then $`M`$ is diffeomorphic to $`H\backslash (G\times (H/K))=G/K`$, where $`K`$ is the isotropy group of this action. So the bundle looks like:

$$H/KG/KG/H.$$

In this case, we will endow $`M=H\backslash (G\times F)`$ with the submersion metric (using a natural left-invariant metric on $`G`$ and the product metric on $`G\times F`$), and derive conditions under which this metric on $`M`$ has quasi-positive curvature.

The author is pleased to thank Burkhard Wilking and Wolfgang Ziller for helpful conversations about this work.

## 2. Summary of Conditions

In this section, we summarize our conditions under which a homogeneous bundle admits quasi-positive curvature. We adopt the following notation and assumptions for the remainder of the paper. Let $`B=H\backslash G`$ denote a homogenous space, with $`G`$ and $`H`$ compact Lie groups. Let $`g_0`$ denote a bi-invariant metric on $`G`$, and assume that $`H\backslash (G,g_0)`$ has positive curvature. Let $`F`$ denote a compact Riemannian manfold which has positive curvature or is one dimensional. Assume that $`H`$ acts transitively and isometrically on $`F`$ on the left. Let $`KH`$ denote the isotropy group at some point $`p_0F`$. Denote the Lie algebras of $`KHG`$ as $`𝔨𝔥𝔤`$. Let $`𝔪:=𝔥𝔨`$ and $`𝔭:=𝔤𝔥`$, where “$``$” denotes the $`g_0`$-orthogonal compliment.

Let $`g_l^H`$ denote the left-invariant and right-H-invariant metric on $`G`$ obtained from $`g_0`$ by rescalling in the direction of $`𝔥`$. More precisely, fix $`t(0,1)`$ and define:

(2.1)
$$g_l^H(X,Y)=g_0(X^𝔭,Y^𝔭)+tg_0(X^𝔥,Y^𝔥)$$

where $`X^𝔭`$ (respectively $`X^𝔥`$) denotes the projection of $`X`$ orthogonal to (respectively onto) $`𝔥`$. Notice that $`(G,g_l^H)`$ is nonnegatively curved by , since it can be described as a submersion metric:

(2.2)
$$(G,g_l^H)=((G,g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0|_H))/H,$$

where $`\lambda =t/(1t)`$.

Let $`M=H\backslash ((G,g_l^H)\times F)`$, where $`H`$ acts diagonally, and denote the projections as follows:

$$(G,g_l^H)\times F\stackrel{\pi }{}M\stackrel{\varphi }{}H\backslash (G,g_l^H).$$

Notice that the maps $`\pi `$ and $`\varphi \pi `$ are Riemannian submersions by construction, so it follows that $`\varphi `$ is a Riemannian submersion as well. The fibers of $`\varphi `$ are not in general totally geodesic, although they would be if $`g_l^H`$ were replaced by a right-invariant and left-$`H`$-invariant metric.

As for the isometries remaining on $`M`$, the following is straightforward to verify:

###### Remark 2.1.

The right $`H`$-action on the first factor of $`(G,g_l^H)\times F`$ induces an isometric action of $`H`$ on $`M`$. A subgroup $`LH`$ acts freely if and only if $`L(g^1Kg)=\{0\}`$ for all $`gG`$. In this case, the quotient $`M/L`$ is diffeomorphic to the bi-quotient $`L\backslash G/K`$.

The space $`M`$ has nonnegative curvature. Our first goal is to derive conditions under which $`M`$ has points of positive curvature. Our conditions turn out not to depend on $`t`$.

###### Theorem 2.2.

1. If $`[Z,W]0`$ for all linearly independent vectors $`Z𝔤𝔨`$ and $`W𝔭`$, then $`M`$ has positive curvature.
2. If there exists $`A𝔤`$ such that $`[Z^𝔥,[A,W]^𝔥]0`$ for all linearly independent vectors $`Z𝔤𝔨`$ and $`W𝔭`$ for which $`[Z,W]=0`$, then $`M`$ has quasi-positive curvature.
3. If $`(G,H)`$ is a compact rank one symmetric pair, and if there exists $`A𝔭`$ such that $`[X,A]0`$ for all non-zero $`X𝔪`$, then $`M`$ has quasi-positive curvature.

We will prove this theorem in section 4. We prove part (1) by deriving straightforward conditions for zero-curvature planes. We prove part (2) by differentiating these conditions to show that for small $`ϵ>0`$, points in $`M`$ of the form $`\pi ((\mathrm{exp}(ϵA),p_0))`$ have positive curvature. When $`(G,H)`$ is a symmetric pair, the hypothesis of part (2) simplifies to the hypothesis of part (3). All of our new examples are consequences of part (3) of the theorem. We construct these new examples in section 6, and also recover quasi-versions of Wilking’s almost-positive curvature results. In fact, our metrics are isometric to his, which we prove in section 7.

## 3. Positive Curvature?

At first glance, it seems possible to use part 1 of Theorem 2.2 to find new examples of positively curved manifolds. However, the hypothesis implies that $`[Z,W]0`$ for all non-zero vectors $`Z𝔪`$ and $`W𝔭`$, which is called “fatness” of the homogeneous bundle (the hypothesis if equivalent to fatness when $`(G,H)`$ is a rank one symmetric pair). See  for an overview of literature related to the fatness condition.

Berard Bergery classified all fat homogeneous bundles in . Our theorem provides hindsight motivation for his classification. If $`(G,H)`$ is a rank one symmetric pair, he found that the bundle is fat if and only if $`M`$ admits a homogeneous metric of positive curvature. Further, if the fiber dimension is $`>1`$, he found that fatness implies that $`(G,H)`$ must be a rank one symmetric pair. Therefore, no new examples of positive curvature can be found with Theorem 2.2, with the possible exception of circle bundles.

It is already known which circle bundles over rank one symmetric spaces admit positive curvature. The three non-symmetric positively curved normally homogeneous spaces discovered in  and  are odd dimensional, making a circle bundle over one be even-dimensional. But our metric on a circle bundle looks like $`M=H\backslash ((G,g_l^H)\times S^1)`$, which admits the free isometric $`S^1`$-action induced by the action of $`S^1`$ on the second factor of $`(G,g_l^H)\times S^1`$. So positive curvature on $`M`$ would contradict Berger’s Theorem, which says that an even dimensional positively curved manifold cannot admit a nonvanishing Killing field. Thus, our construction does not yield new examples of positive curvature.

## 4. Proof of Theorem 2.2

Notice that any point of $`M`$ can be written as $`\pi ((g^1,p_0))`$ for some $`gG`$. If $`(g^1,p_0)`$ does not contain a $`\pi `$-horizontal zero-curvature plane, then $`\pi ((g^1,p_0))`$ is a point of positive curvature. We begin with the following lemma, which is more generally valid when $`g_l^H`$ is replaced by any left-invariant metric on $`G`$.

###### Lemma 4.1.

There exists a $`\pi `$-horizontal zero-curvature plane at $`(g^1,p_0)`$ if and only if there exist vectors

$$X𝔤\text{Ad}_g(𝔨)=\{Y𝔤g_l^H(Y,\text{Ad}_gA)=0A𝔨\},$$

$$W_i𝔤\text{Ad}_g(𝔥)=\{Y𝔤g_l^H(Y,\text{Ad}_gA)=0A𝔥\}$$

such that $`\text{span}\{X+W_1,X+W_2\}`$ is a 2-plane in $`𝔤`$ with zero-curvature with respect to $`g_l^H`$.

###### Proof.

Suppose that $`\sigma `$ is a $`\pi `$-horizontal zero-curvature plane at $`(g^1,p_0)`$. Since $`\sigma `$ has zero-curvature, it is spanned by vectors of the form $`\{dL_{g^1}\overline{W}_1+V,dL_{g^1}\overline{W}_2+V\}`$, where $`VT_{p_0}F`$, and $`\overline{W}_1,\overline{W}_2𝔤`$ span a $`g_l^H`$-zero curvature plane (notice that $`\overline{W}_1`$ and $`\overline{W}_2`$ are linearly independent because $`V`$ is not $`\pi `$-horizontal).

The vertical space of $`\pi `$ at $`(g^1,p_0)`$ is the set $`\{dR_{g^1}A+A(p_0)A𝔥\}`$, where $`A(p_0)T_{p_0}F`$ denotes the value at $`p_0`$ of the Killing field on $`F`$ associated with $`A`$. So for all $`i\{1,2\}`$ and $`A𝔥`$, we have:

$$0=dL_{g^1}\overline{W}_i+V,dR_{g^1}A+A(p_0)=g_l^H(\overline{W}_i,Ad_gA)+V,A(p_0).$$

In particular,$`\overline{W}_1,\overline{W}_2𝔤\text{Ad}_g(𝔨)`$. Further, $`\overline{W}_1`$ and $`\overline{W}_2`$ have the same $`g_l^H`$-orthogonal projections onto $`\text{Ad}_g(𝔥)`$. We denote their common projection as $`X`$. Denote $`W_i=\overline{W}_iX`$. Then $`\text{span}\{X+W_1,X+W_2\}=\text{span}\{\overline{W}_1,\overline{W}_2\}`$ is a zero-curvature plane in $`𝔤`$ as required.

Conversely, suppose there exist vectors $`X𝔤\text{Ad}_g(𝔨)`$ and $`W_i𝔤\text{Ad}_g(𝔥)`$ such that $`\text{span}\{X+W_1,X+W_2\}`$ is a zero-curvature plane in $`𝔤`$. For any $`VT_{p_0}F`$, the plane $`\sigma =\text{span}\{dL_{g^1}(X+W_1)+V,dL_{g^1}(X+W_2)+V\}`$ is a zero-curvature plan in $`G\times F`$ at $`(g^1,p_0)`$. It will suffice to choose $`V`$ such that $`\sigma `$ is $`\pi `$-horizontal; that is, such that for all $`i\{1,2\}`$ and $`A𝔥`$,

$$0=dL_{g^1}(X+W_i)+V,dR_{g^1}A+A(p_0)=g_l^H(X,\text{Ad}_gA)+V,A(p_0).$$

By linearity, it will suffice to find $`VT_{p_0}F`$ such that $`V,A_i(p_0)=g_l^H(X,\text{Ad}_gA_i)`$ for each element $`A_i`$ of a basis of $`𝔥`$. Choose a basis $`\{A_i\}`$ such that $`A_i𝔨`$ for $`i\text{dim}(𝔨)`$ and such that $`\{A_i(p_0)i>\text{dim}(𝔨)\}`$ is a basis of $`T_{p_0}F`$. Since $`X`$ is orthogonal to $`𝔨`$, it is easy to see that such a vector $`V`$ can be chosen. ∎

In order to apply Lemma 4.1, we require Eschenburg’s description of the planes in $`𝔤`$ which have zero curvature with respect to $`g_l^H`$. The case $`t=1/2`$ is found in , and the general case is similar. To phrase his condition, we define $`\mathrm{\Phi }:𝔤𝔤`$ by the rule: $`\mathrm{\Phi }(A)=tA^𝔥+A^𝔭.`$ It’s easy to verify that for all $`A,B𝔤`$,

$$g_l^H(A,B)=g_0(A,\mathrm{\Phi }(B))\text{ and }g_0(A,B)=g_l^H(A,\mathrm{\Phi }^1(B)).$$

###### Lemma 4.2 (Eschenburg).

Let $`\sigma =\text{span}\{X,Y\}`$ be a plane in $`𝔤`$.

1. $`\sigma `$ has zero-curvature if and only if $`[\mathrm{\Phi }(X),\mathrm{\Phi }(Y)]=0`$ and $`[X^𝔥,Y^𝔥]=0`$.
2. If $`(G,H)`$ is a symmetric pair, then $`\sigma `$ has zero-curvature if and only if $`[X,Y]=0`$ and $`[X^𝔥,Y^𝔥]=0`$.

Combining Lemmas 4.1 and 4.2 yields the following condition:

###### Lemma 4.3.

There exists a $`\pi `$-horizontal zero-curvature plane at $`(g^1,p_0)`$ if and only if there exist linearly independent vectors $`Z𝔤𝔨`$ and $`W𝔭`$ such that $`[Z,W]=0`$ and $`[(\text{Ad}_gZ)^𝔥,(\text{Ad}_gW)^𝔥]=0`$.

###### Proof.

Assume there exists a $`\pi `$-horizontal zero curvature plane at $`(g^1,p_0)`$. By Lemma 4.1, there exists vectors $`\overline{X}𝔤\text{Ad}_g(𝔨)`$ and $`\overline{W_i}𝔤\text{Ad}_g(𝔥)`$ such that

$$\text{span}\{\overline{X}+\overline{W}_1,\overline{X}+\overline{W}_2\}=\text{span}\{\overline{X}+\overline{W}_1,\overline{W}_2\overline{W}_1\}$$

is a zero curvature plane in $`𝔤`$ with respect to $`g_l^H`$.

It is possible to write $`\overline{X}+\overline{W}_1=\mathrm{\Phi }^1(\text{Ad}_gZ)`$ and $`\overline{W}_2\overline{W}_1=\mathrm{\Phi }^1(\text{Ad}_gW)`$ for some $`Z,W𝔤`$. In fact, $`Z𝔤𝔨`$ because for all $`A𝔨`$,

$$0=g_l^H(\overline{X}+\overline{W}_1,\text{Ad}_gA)=g_l^H(\mathrm{\Phi }^1(\text{Ad}_gZ),\text{Ad}_gA)=g_0(\text{Ad}_gZ,\text{Ad}_gA)=g_0(Z,A).$$

Similarly, $`W𝔭`$. Applying Lemma 4.2 gives:

$`0`$ $`=`$ $`[\mathrm{\Phi }(\overline{X}+\overline{W}_1),\mathrm{\Phi }(\overline{W}_2\overline{W}_1)]=[\text{Ad}_g(Z),\text{Ad}_g(W)]=[Z,W].`$
$`0`$ $`=`$ $`[(\overline{X}+\overline{W}_1)^𝔥,(\overline{W}_2\overline{W}_1)^𝔥]=[(1/t)(\text{Ad}_g(Z))^𝔥,(1/t)(\text{Ad}_gW)^𝔥].`$
Therefore, the vectors $`\{Z,W\}`$ satisfy the conclusions of the lemma. The other direction of the lemma follows analagously. ∎

The previous lemma simplifies with the symmetric pair conditions $`[𝔭,𝔭]𝔥`$ and $`[𝔭,𝔥]𝔭`$.

###### Lemma 4.4.

Assume that $`(G,H)`$ is a symmetric pair. Then there exists a $`\pi `$-horizontal zero-curvature plane at $`(g^1,p_0)`$ if and only if there exists non-zero vectors $`X𝔪`$ and $`W𝔭`$ such that $`[X,W]=0`$ and $`[(\text{Ad}_gX)^𝔥,(\text{Ad}_gW)^𝔥]=0`$.

###### Proof.

Assume there exists a $`\pi `$-horizontal zero curvature plane at $`(g^1,p_0)`$. So by Lemma 4.3, there exists linearly independent vectors $`Z𝔤𝔨`$ and $`W𝔭`$ for which $`[Z,W]=0`$ and $`[(\text{Ad}_gZ)^𝔥,(\text{Ad}_gW)^𝔥]=0`$. Then, $`0=[Z^𝔥+Z^𝔭,W]=[Z^𝔥,W]+[Z^𝔭,W]`$. But since $`[Z^𝔥,W]𝔭`$ and $`[Z^𝔭,W]𝔥`$, both vectors must be zero. Since $`H\backslash (G,g_o)`$ has positive curvature, $`Z^𝔭`$ and $`W`$ are parallel. So $`Z^𝔥0`$, and the pair $`\{X=Z^𝔥,W\}`$ satisfies the conclusions of Lemma 4.4. The other direction of the lemma is argued similarly. ∎

Finally, we prove Theorem 2.2.

###### Proof of Theorem 2.2.

Part (1) is immediate from Lemma 4.3. To prove part (2), assume that $`A𝔤`$ satisfies its hypothesis. Notice that Lemma 4.3 remains true if the phrase “linearly independent” is replaced by the phrase “$`g_0`$-orthonormal”. So fix $`g_0`$-orthonormal vectors $`Z𝔤𝔨`$ and $`W𝔭`$ for which $`[Z,W]=0`$. Define:

$$f(s)=\left|[\left(\text{Ad}_{\mathrm{exp}(sA)}Z\right)^𝔥,\left(\text{Ad}_{\mathrm{exp}(sA)}W\right)^𝔥]\right|^2.$$

Then $`f(0)=0`$, $`f^{}(0)=0`$ and:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}f^{\prime \prime }(0)`$ $`=`$ $`|{\displaystyle \frac{\text{d}}{\text{ds}}}|_{s=0}[\left(\text{Ad}_{\mathrm{exp}(sA)}Z\right)^𝔥,\left(\text{Ad}_{\mathrm{exp}(sA)}W\right)^𝔥]|^2`$
$`=`$ $`|[Z^𝔥,{\displaystyle \frac{\text{d}}{\text{ds}}}|_{s=0}\left(\text{Ad}_{\mathrm{exp}(sA)}W\right)^𝔥]|^2=|[Z^𝔥,\left({\displaystyle \frac{\text{d}}{\text{ds}}}|_{s=0}\text{Ad}_{\mathrm{exp}(sA)}W\right)^𝔥]|^2`$
$`=`$ $`\left|[Z^𝔥,[A,W]^𝔥]\right|^2>\delta >0.`$
By compactness (of the space of orthonormal vectors $`\{Z,W\}`$ with $`[Z,W]=0`$), $`\delta `$ can be chosen to depend only on $`A`$ (not on $`Z`$ and $`W`$). It follows that $`\delta ^{}>0`$ can be chosen (independent of $`Z`$ and $`W`$) such that $`f(s)>0`$ for all $`s(0,\delta ^{}]`$. It now follows from Lemma 4.3 that for $`s(0,\delta ^{}]`$, $`\pi ((\mathrm{exp}(sA),p_0))`$ is a point of positive curvature.

To prove part (3), suppose there exists $`A𝔭`$ such that $`[X,A]0`$ for all non-zero $`X𝔪`$. Then for all non-zero $`X𝔪`$ we have:

$$0g_0([X,A],[X,A])=g_0([X,[X,A]],A).$$

In particular, $`[X,[X,A]]0`$.

Now let $`Z𝔤𝔨`$ and $`W𝔭`$ be linearly independent vectors for which $`[Z,W]=0`$. Using the assumption that $`(G,H)`$ is a rank one symmetric pair, $`X:=Z^𝔥0`$ and $`[X,W]=0`$. From part (2) of the theorem, it will suffice to show that the following is non-zero:

$$[Z^𝔥,[A,W]^𝔥]=[X,[A,W]]=[W,[X,A]]\text{ (Jacobi identity)}$$

But if $`[W,[X,A]]=0`$, then $`W`$ would be parallel to $`[X,A]`$, which would mean $`[X,[X,A]]=0`$. This is a contradiction. Therefore $`M`$ has quasi-positive curvature. ∎

## 5. The Space $`S^2\times S^3`$

In this section, we use Lemma 4.4 to recover Wilking’s theorem that $`S^2\times S^3`$ admits a metric with almost-positive curvature. Although our proof is very similar to the original, we find it worthwhile to translate the original proof into the vocabulary of this paper.

###### Proposition 5.1 (Wilking).

The space $`S^2\times S^3`$ admits almost-positive curvature.

###### Proof.

One way to describe $`S^3`$ as a symmetric space $`S^3=H\backslash G`$ is $`G=S^3\times S^3`$ and $`H=\mathrm{\Delta }(S^3)`$. If we let $`H`$ act on $`(S^2,\text{round})`$ as $`SO(3)`$, then the associated bundle $`M=H\backslash (G\times S^2)`$ is diffeomorphic to $`T^1S^3=S^3\times S^2`$. One isotropy group of the action of $`H`$ on $`S^2`$ is $`K=\{(e^{i\theta },e^{i\theta })\theta S^1\}`$. The Lie algebras of $`KHG`$ are:

$$𝔨=\text{span}\{(i,i)\}𝔥=\mathrm{\Delta }(\text{sp}(1))𝔤=\text{sp}(1)\times \text{sp}(1).$$

Let $`g=(g_1,g_2)G`$. Let $`X=(a,a)𝔪=𝔥𝔨`$ and $`W=(b,b)𝔭=𝔤𝔥`$ be non-zero vectors, which means that $`a,b\text{sp}(1)`$ are not zero, and $`a`$ is orthogonal to $`i`$. Assume that $`[X,W]=0`$ and $`[(\text{Ad}_gX)^𝔥,(\text{Ad}_gW)^𝔥]=0`$. By Lemma 4.4, it will suffice to prove that $`g`$ lies in the compliment of an open dense set of $`G`$.

Since $`0=[X,W]=[(a,a),(b,b)]=([a,b],[a,b])`$, we see that $`[a,b]=0`$. Thus $`a`$ is parallel to $`b`$, so $`b=\lambda a`$ for some $`\lambda `$. Next,

$`0`$ $`=`$ $`[(\text{Ad}_g(a,a))^𝔥,(\text{Ad}_g(\lambda a,\lambda a))^𝔥]`$
$`=`$ $`\lambda ^2[(\text{Ad}_{g_1}a,\text{Ad}_{g_2}a)^𝔥,(\text{Ad}_{g_1}a,\text{Ad}_{g_2}a)^𝔥]`$
$`=`$ $`\lambda ^2[({\displaystyle \frac{\text{Ad}_{g_1}a+\text{Ad}_{g_2}a}{2}},{\displaystyle \frac{\text{Ad}_{g_1}a+\text{Ad}_{g_2}a}{2}}),({\displaystyle \frac{\text{Ad}_{g_1}a\text{Ad}_{g_2}a}{2}},{\displaystyle \frac{\text{Ad}_{g_1}a\text{Ad}_{g_2}a}{2}})]`$
From this we see that $`[\text{Ad}_{g_1}a,\text{Ad}_{g_2}a]=0`$. This implies that $`\text{Ad}_{g_1}a=\pm \text{Ad}_{g_2}a`$; in other words, $`a=\pm \text{Ad}_{(g_1^1g_2)}a`$. Using the fact that $`ai`$, this implies that $`(g_1^1g_2)1`$ or $`(g_1^1g_2)i`$. ∎

## 6. Old and New examples

In this section, we will use part (3) of Theorem 2.2 to obtain all of the new examples in Theorem 1.1, and also to recover quasi-versions of Wilking’s almost-positive curvature results.

###### Proposition 6.1.

The unit tangent bundle of any compact rank one symmetric space admits quasi-positive curvature.

###### Proof.

Assume $`(G,H)`$ is a compact rank one symmetric pair. Let $`S=G/H`$, which is one of $`^n,S^n,^n`$ or $`a^2`$. There is a natural $`G`$ action on the unit tangent bundle $`T^1S`$, obtained by differentiating the $`G`$-action on $`S`$. This action on $`T^1S`$ is transitive because the isotropy representation of $`H`$ on $`𝔭=T_{[e]}S`$ is transitive on the unit-sphere $`𝔭^1`$, which can be checked for each of the four possibilities for $`S`$. Fix $`A𝔭^1`$. Then $`T^1S=G/K`$, where $`K`$ is the collection of elements of $`H`$ fixing $`A`$ under the isotropy representation of $`H`$ on $`𝔭`$. By part (3) of Theorem 2.2, it suffices to prove that $`[A,X]0`$ for all non-zero $`X𝔪`$.

Each element, $`Y𝔥`$ determines a Killing vector field on $`𝔭^1`$ via the isotropy representation of $`H`$ on $`𝔭`$. The value of this Killing field at $`V𝔭^1`$ equals $`[Y,V]`$. Since the action of $`H`$ on $`𝔭^1`$ is transitive, these Killing fields must span $`T_V𝔭^1`$ for every $`V𝔭^1`$. Since the Killing field associated to an element $`Y𝔨`$ vanishes at $`A`$, and since $`\text{dim}(𝔪)=\text{dim}(𝔭^1)`$, the Killing fields associated to a basis for $`𝔪`$ must be linearly independent at $`A`$. Therefore, $`[A,X]0`$ for all non-zero $`X𝔪`$. ∎

###### Proposition 6.2.

When $`n`$ is even, there is a free $`S^1`$-action on $`T^1S^n`$ such that the quotient, $`T^1S^n/S^1=SO(2)\backslash SO(n+1)/SO(n1)`$, admits quasi-positive curvature.

Wilking proved that $`T^1S^n/S^1`$ admits almost-positive curvature.

###### Proof.

The groups for $`T^1S^n`$ are $`K=SO(n1)H=SO(n)G=SO(n+1)`$. By the previous proposition, $`T^1S^n`$ admits quasi-positive curvature. By Remark 2.1, $`H=SO(n)`$ acts isometrically on $`T^1S^n`$, and the subgroup $`L=SO(2)`$ embedded diagonally in $`H`$ acts freely. Therefore the quotient admits quasi-positive curvature. ∎

###### Proposition 6.3.

The projective tangent bundles $`P_{}T^n`$, $`P_{}T^n`$ and $`P_{}T^n`$ admit metrics with quasi-positive curvature.

Wilking proved that these spaces admit almost-positive curvature. The projective tangent bundle of $`a^2`$ is known to admit a homogeneous metric with positive curvature .

###### Proof.

Let $`𝕂\{,,\}`$. Let $`G(n)`$ denote $`O(n)`$, $`U(n)`$ or $`Sp(n)`$, depending on $`𝕂`$. The unit tangent bundle $`T^1𝕂^n`$ and the projective tangent bundle $`P_𝕂T𝕂^n`$ come respectively from the groups:

$$\{\text{diag}(z,z,A)zG(1),AG(n1)\}G(1)G(n)G(n+1)$$

$$\{\text{diag}(z_1,z_2,A)z_iG(1),AG(n1)\}G(1)G(n)G(n+1).$$

In the previous proposition, we verified that the groups $`KHG`$ for $`T^1𝕂^n`$ satisfy the condition for quasi-positive curvature. Since $`K`$ is strictly larger in the groups for $`P_𝕂T𝕂^n`$, the condition is also satisfied there. ∎

###### Proposition 6.4.

The homogeneous space $`M_{kl}=U(n+1)/K_{kl}`$ admits quasi-positive curvature, where $`(k,l)`$ is a pair of integers with $`k0`$, $`n2`$ and $`K_{kl}=\{\text{diag}(z^k,z^l,A)zS^1,AU(n1)\}`$.

When $`l=0`$, we lose no generality in assuming that $`k=1`$. When $`l0`$, we lose no generality in assuming that $`k`$ and $`l`$ are relatively prime, since dividing both by a common factor does not change the group $`K_{kl}`$. In these case, $`M`$ is a homogeneous bundle over $`^n=U(n+1)/(U(1)U(n))`$ with fiber equal to the homogeneous lens space $`L_k=S^{2n1}/^k=U(n)/(_kU(n1))`$. To describe the transitive isometric action of $`H=U(1)U(n)`$ on $`L_k`$ which yields these bundles, denote a point of $`L_k`$ as $`[C]`$, where $`CU(n)`$. The action is:

$$[C]\stackrel{(z,A)}{}[z^{l/k}AC],$$

where $`z^{l/k}`$ means the $`l^{\text{th}}`$ power of any $`k^{\text{th}}`$ root of $`z`$. Since the answer does not depend on the choice of root, this action is well-defined, and has isotropy group $`K_{kl}`$.

A more general action of $`H`$ on $`L_k`$ is:

$$[C]\stackrel{(z,A)}{}[z^{l_1/k}(detA)^{l_2/k}AC].$$

However, the total space of the resultant lens space bundle over $`^n`$ depends only on the integers $`k`$ and $`l_1+l_2`$, so we lose no generality in assuming that $`l_2=0`$. So see this, notice that isotropy group of this more general action is:

$`K_{kl_1l_2}`$ $`=`$ $`\{(z,w,A)U(1)U(1)U(n1)z^{l_1/k}w^{l_2/k}(detA)^{l_2/k}w_k\}`$
$`=`$ $`\{(z,w,A)z^{l_1}w^{k+l_2}(detA)^{l_2}=1\}.`$
Next observe that $`SU(n+1)U(n+1)`$ acts transitively on $`M_{kl_1l_2}=U(n+1)/K_{kl_1l_2}`$ because every coset intersects $`SU(n+1)`$. So $`M_{kl_1l_2}`$ is diffeomorphic to $`SU(n+1)/K_{kl_1l_2}^{}`$, where:

$$K_{kl_1l_2}^{}=SU(n+1)K_{kl_1l_2}=\{(z,w,A)SU(n+1)z^{l_1l_2}w^k=1\}.$$

###### Proof of Proposition 6.4.

The Lie algebra of $`H`$ is $`𝔥=𝔲(1)𝔲(n)`$. The Lie algebra of $`K`$ is:

$$𝔨=\{\text{diag}(tki,tli,B)𝔲(1)𝔲(1)𝔲(n1)t\}.$$

We use the bi-invariant metric on $`𝔤=𝔲(n+1)`$ defined by $`A,B=\text{Real}(\text{trace}(A\overline{B}^T))`$. Arbitrary vectors $`X𝔪`$ and $`A𝔭`$ look like:

$$X=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}tli& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ 0& tki& Z_1& \mathrm{}& Z_{n1}\\ 0& \overline{Z}_1& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}\\ 0& \overline{Z}_{n1}& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\end{array}\right),A=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0& W_1& \mathrm{}& W_n\\ \overline{W}_1& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}\\ \overline{W}_n& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\end{array}\right),$$

where $`t`$ and $`W_i,Z_i`$. Using the shorthand $`A=\{W_1,W_2,\mathrm{},W_n\}`$,

$$[X,A]=\{t(l+k)iW_1+\overline{Z}_1W_2+\mathrm{}+\overline{Z}_{n1}W_n,Z_1W_1tliW_2,\mathrm{},Z_{n1}W_1tliW_n\}$$

If we set $`W_1=W_2=1,W_3=\mathrm{}=W_n=0`$, then $`[X,A]=0`$ implies $`X=0`$. Thus, no non-zero vector in $`𝔪`$ commutes with $`A`$, so $`M_{kl}`$ admits quasi-positive curvature.

###### Proposition 6.5.

The homogeneous space $`M=Sp(n+1)/\{\text{diag}(z,1,A)zSp(1),ASp(n1)\}`$ admits quasi-positive curvature. Further, there is a free isometric $`S^3`$-action $`M`$, so the quotient $`M/S^3=Sp(1)\backslash Sp(n+1)/Sp(1)Sp(n1)`$ admits quasi-positive curvature.

Wilking proved that $`M/S^3`$ admits almost-positive curvature, but he did not prove anything about $`M`$ itself. Notice that $`M`$ is the total space of a homogeneous $`S^{4n1}`$-bundle over $`^n=Sp(n+1)/(Sp(1)Sp(n))`$. The corresponding action of $`H=Sp(1)Sp(n)`$ is the one whereby $`pS^{4n1}`$ is sent by $`(A,q)H`$ to $`Ap`$. Notice that sending $`p`$ to $`Apq^1`$ would yield $`T^1^n`$.

###### Proof.

We use the bi-invariant metric on $`\text{sp}(n+1)`$ defined by $`A,B=\text{Real}(\text{trace}(A\overline{B}^T))`$. Arbitrary elements $`X𝔪`$ and $`A𝔭`$ can be described as:

$$X=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}0& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ 0& Y& Z_1& \mathrm{}& Z_{n1}\\ 0& \overline{Z}_1& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}\\ 0& \overline{Z}_{n1}& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\end{array}\right),A=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0& W_1& \mathrm{}& W_n\\ \overline{W}_1& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}\\ \overline{W}_n& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\end{array}\right),$$

where $`W_i,Z_i,Y`$ with $`\text{Real}(Y)=0`$. Using the shorthand $`A=\{W_1,W_2,\mathrm{},W_n\}`$, we have:

$$[X,A]=\{YW_1+W_2\overline{Z}_1+\mathrm{}+W_n\overline{Z}_{n1},W_1Z_1,\mathrm{},W_1Z_{n1}\}$$

The choice $`W_1=1,W_2=\mathrm{}=W_n=0`$ insures that no non-zero vector in $`𝔪`$ commutes with $`A`$.

By Remark 2.1, the subgroup $`L=\{zIzSp(1)\}H`$ acts freely and isometrically on $`M`$, where $`I`$ denotes the identity in $`Sp(n+1)`$. $`L`$ is isomorphic to $`S^3`$, and the quotient $`M/S^3`$ inherits quasi-positive curvature. ∎

## 7. Normal biquotient metrics

So far we have searched for points of positive curvature on the space $`H\backslash ((G,g_l^H)\times F)`$, which is diffeomorphic to the homogeneous space $`G/K`$. Most of Wilking’s examples are homogeneous spaces $`G/K`$ with bi-quotient metrics of the form:

(7.1)
$$\mathrm{\Delta }(G)\backslash ((G,g_l^H)\times (G,g_l^H))/1\times K.$$

More precicely, his metrics on $`P_{}T^n`$, $`P_{}T^n`$, $`P_{}T^n`$, and $`U(n+1)/K_{lk}`$ all have this form. Further, his example $`SO(2)\backslash SO(2n+1)/SO(2n1)`$ is a quotient of $`T^1S^{2n}`$ by a free isometric $`S^1`$-action, so his metric on this space also comes from one of the above form. His only example not coming from a metric of the above form is the bi-quotient $`Sp(1)\backslash Sp(n+1)/Sp(1)Sp(n1).`$

In this section, we show that these biquotient metrics are isometric to our metrics.

###### Proposition 7.1.

The normal biquotient $`\mathrm{\Delta }(G)\backslash ((G,g_l^H)\times (G,g_l^H))/1\times K`$ is isometric to the space $`H\backslash ((G,\overline{g}_l^H)\times F)`$, where $`F`$ has a normal homogeneous metric and $`\overline{g}_l^H`$ is defined like $`g_l^H`$, but with a different choice of $`t`$ and a different scaling of the bi-invariant metric $`g_0`$.

In the proof we use the standard notational convention for biquotient. That is, if $`AG\times G`$, then $`G//A`$ denotes the orbit space of the action of $`A`$ on $`G`$ defined by $`g\stackrel{(a_1,a_2)A}{}a_1ga_2^1`$. In the special case that $`A=\{(a_1,a_2)a_1A_1,a_2A_2\}`$, we denote $`G//A`$ as $`A_1\backslash G/A_2`$.

###### Proof.

The equivalent definition of $`g_l^H`$ from equation 2.2 is:

$$(G,g_l^H)=((G,g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0))/H.$$

The isometry sends $`[g,h]((G,g_0)\times (H,g_0))/H`$ to $`gh^1(G,g_l^H)`$. Notice that $`(G,g_l^H)`$ is left invariant and right H-invariant. Via this isometry, the left G-action on $`((G,g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0))/H`$ acts only on the first factor as $`[g,h]\stackrel{aG}{}[ag,h]`$, and the right $`H`$-action acts only on the second factor as $`[g,h]\stackrel{aH}{}[g,a^1h]`$. Using this, the biquotient $`N=\mathrm{\Delta }(G)\backslash ((G,g_l^H)\times (G,g_l^H))/1\times K`$ can be re-described as:

$$\{(g,1,g,k^1)gG,kK\}\backslash ((G,g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0)\times (G,g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0))/\{(h_1,h_1,h_2,h_2)h_iH\}$$

The two copies of $`(G,g_0)`$ in the above description of $`N`$ can be combined using the identity:

$$(G,(1/2)g_0)=G\backslash ((G,g_0)\times (G,g_0)).$$

The isometry sends $`[a,b]G\backslash ((G,g_0)\times (G,g_0))`$ to $`a^1b(G,(1/2)g_0)`$. Via this isometry, the right $`G`$-action on the first factor of $`G\backslash ((G,g_0)\times (G,g_0))`$ becomes the following right action of $`G`$ on $`(G,(1/2)g_0)`$: $`g\stackrel{aG}{}a^1g`$. Similarly, the right $`G`$-action on the second factor of $`G\backslash ((G,g_0)\times (G,g_0))`$ becomes the following right action of $`G`$ on $`(G,(1/2)g_0)`$: $`g\stackrel{aG}{}ga`$. Therefore $`N`$ can be re-described as:

$$N=\{h_1^1,1,k^1\}\backslash ((G,(1/2)g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0))/\{h_2,h_1,h_2\},$$

which is our notational shorthand for the biquotient:

$$((G,(1/2)g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0))//\{((h_1^1,1,k^1),(h_2^1,h_1^1,h_2^1))kK,h_iH\}.$$

Next using the isometry of $`(G,(1/2)g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0)`$ defined as $`(a,b,c)(a^1,b,c^1)`$, we re-describe $`N`$ as:

$$N=\{h_2,1,h_2\}\backslash ((G,(1/2)g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0))/\{h_1,h_1,k\}.$$

On the other hand, if $`F`$ has the normal homogeneous metric $`F=(H,\lambda g_0)/K`$, then:

$$H\backslash ((G,g_l^H)\times F)=\{h_2,1,h_2\}\backslash ((G,g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0)\times (H,\lambda g_0))/\{h_1,h_1,k\}.$$


text:
# Proof of a Conjecture on the Slit Plane Problem

## 1. Introduction and Theorems

The problem of walks on the slit plane was first studied by M. Bousquet-Mélou and G. Schaeffer in . See also .

Let $`a_{i,j}(n)`$ denote the number of walks in $`n`$ steps from $`(0,0)`$ to $`(i,j)`$, with steps $`(\pm 1,0)`$ and $`(0,\pm 1)`$, never touching a point $`(k,0)`$ with $`k0`$ after the starting point. These are called walks on the slit plane.

Let $`\overline{x}`$ denote $`x^1`$ and $`\overline{y}`$ denote $`y^1`$. In , the authors showed (Theorem $`1`$) that

$`S(x,y;t)`$ $`={\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{i,j}{}}a_{i,j}(n)x^iy^jt^n={\displaystyle \frac{(12t(1+\overline{x})+\sqrt{14t})^{1/2}(1+2t(1\overline{x})+\sqrt{1+4t})^{1/2}}{2(1t(x+\overline{x}+y+\overline{y}))}},`$ (1.1)
where $`S(x,y;t)`$ is the complete generating function for walks on the slit plane.

The authors also conjectured a closed form for $`a_{i,i}(2n)`$ for $`i1`$. By reflecting in the $`x`$-axis, we see that $`a_{i,i}(2n)=a_{i,i}(2n)`$, the closed form of which is given as (1.2) in the following theorem.

###### Theorem 1.1.

For $`i1`$ and $`ni`$, we have

$`a_{i,i}(2n)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{i}{2n}}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2i}{i}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+i}{2i}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{4n}{2n}\right)}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n+2i}{2i}\right)}},`$ (1.2)
$`a_{i,i}(2n)`$ $`=a_{i,i}+4^n{\displaystyle \frac{i}{n}}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2i}{i}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n}{ni}}\right).`$ (1.3)
We will prove this theorem in the next section. Theorem 1.4 below is a basic tool to prove the conjecture.

There are two key steps in proving the conjecture that might be worth mentioning: one is using Theorem 1.4 to obtain the generating function (2.2) that involves $`a_{i,i}(2n)`$ for all integers $`i`$; the other is guessing the formula (1.3).

Let $`R`$ be a commutative ring with unit, and $`R[x,\overline{x}][[t]]`$ the ring of formal power series in $`t`$ with coefficients Laurent polynomials in $`x`$. An element of $`R[x,\overline{x}][[t]]`$ is written as $`f(x;t)`$, to emphasize that $`f(x;t)`$ is regarded as a power series in $`t`$.

If $`f(x;t)R[x,\overline{x}][[t]]`$, then it can be written as

$$f(x;t)=\underset{n0}{}\underset{i}{}f_{i,n}x^it^n.$$

Let $`CT_xf(x;t)`$ denote the constant term of $`f(x;t)`$ in $`x`$, i.e.,

$$\underset{x}{CT}f(x;t)=\underset{n0}{}f_{0,n}t^n.$$

Note that if we are working in $`R[x,\overline{x}][[t]]`$, and if $`utR[[t]]`$, then $`\frac{x}{xu}`$ has to be interpreted as

$$\frac{x}{xu}=\frac{1}{1u/x}=\underset{n0}{}u^n/x^n.$$

So

$$\underset{x}{CT}\frac{x}{xu}x^k=\{\begin{array}{cc}u^k\hfill & \text{if }k0,\hfill \\ 0\hfill & \text{if }k<0.\hfill \end{array}$$

By linearity, we have the following:

###### Lemma 1.2.

Let $`Q(x;t)R[x][[t]]`$ be a formal power series in $`t`$, with coefficients in the polynomial ring $`R[x]`$. If $`u=u(t)tR[[t]]`$ is a formal power series in $`t`$ with constant term $`0`$, then

$`\underset{x}{CT}{\displaystyle \frac{x}{xu}}Q(x;t)=Q(u;t).`$ (1.4)
The following lemma is a well-known result. See, e.g., \[3, Theorem 4.2\].

###### Lemma 1.3.

If $`G(x,t)R[[x,t]]`$, then there is a unique $`X=X(t)`$ in $`tR[[t]]`$ such that $`XtG(X,t)=0`$.

###### Theorem 1.4.

Let $`G(x,t),F(x,t)R[[x,t]]`$, and let $`X=X(t)`$ be the unique element in $`tR[[t]]`$ such that $`XtG(X,t)=0`$. Then

$$\underset{x}{CT}\frac{x}{xtG(x,t)}F(x,t)=\frac{F(X,t)}{1t{\displaystyle \frac{}{x}}G(x,t)}|_{x=X}.$$
(1.5)
###### Proof.

Write $`G(x,t)=_{n0}a_n(t)x^n`$. Then

$$\frac{xtG(x,t)}{xX}=\frac{xtG(x,t)(XtG(X,t))}{xX}=1t\underset{n0}{}a_n(t)(x^{n1}+x^{n2}X+\mathrm{}+X^{n1}),$$

which is an element in $`R[[x,t]]`$ with constant term $`1`$. Setting $`x=X`$, we get

$$\frac{xtG(x,t)}{xX}|_{x=X}=1t\frac{}{x}G(x,t)|_{x=X}.$$

By Lemma 1.2, we have

$`\underset{x}{CT}{\displaystyle \frac{x}{xtG(x,t)}}F(x,t)`$ $`=\underset{x}{CT}{\displaystyle \frac{x}{xX}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{xtG(x,t)}{xX}}\right)^1F(x,t)`$
$`=\left({\displaystyle \frac{xtG(x,t)}{xX}}\right)^1F(x,t)|_{x=X}`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{F(X,t)}{1t{\displaystyle \frac{}{x}}G(x,t)}}|_{x=X}.`$
Theorem 1.4 is a generalization of Lagrange’s inversion formula. If we set $`F`$ and $`G`$ to be independent of $`t`$, we can easily derive Lagrange’s inversion formula. See \[4, Theorem 5.4.2\]. This topic will be explored further in .

## 2. The Proof of the Conjecture

Let

$$C(t)=\underset{n0}{}C_nt^n=\frac{1\sqrt{14t}}{2t}$$

be the Catalan generating function, and let

$$u=tC(t)C(t)=\frac{\sqrt{1+4t}1}{\sqrt{14t}+1}.$$

Much of the computation here involves rational functions of $`u`$. We shall use the following facts from .

$$(u)=(t,\sqrt{14t},\sqrt{1+4t}),$$

$$C(t)=\frac{1+u^2}{1u},C(t)=\frac{1+u^2}{1+u},C(4t^2)=\frac{(1+u^2)^2}{(1u^2)^2}.$$

We shall prove Theorem 1.1 by computing the diagonal generating function $`F(y;t)`$. More precisely, let

$$F(y;t)=\underset{n0}{}\underset{i}{}a_{i,i}(2n)y^it^{2n}.$$

Since $`S(x,y\overline{x};t)`$ belongs to $`[x,y,\overline{x},\overline{y}][[t]]`$, it is easy to check that

$`F(y;t)=\underset{x}{CT}S(x,y\overline{x};t)=\underset{x}{CT}S(\overline{x},xy;t).`$ (2.1)
###### Lemma 2.1.

$$F(y;t)=\frac{\left[\frac{1+\sqrt{14t}}{2}t\left(1+\frac{1\sqrt{14t^2(1+y)^2/y}}{2t(1+y)}\right)\right]^{1/2}\left[\frac{1+\sqrt{1+4t}}{2}+t\left(1\frac{1\sqrt{14t^2(1+y)^2/y}}{2t(1+y)}\right)\right]^{1/2}}{\sqrt{14t^2(1+y)^2/y}}.$$
(2.2)
###### Proof.

Using (2.1) and (1.1), we get

$`F(y;t)=`$ $`\underset{x}{CT}S(\overline{x},xy;t)`$
$`=`$ $`\underset{x}{CT}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2(1t(x+\overline{x}+xy+\overline{x}\overline{y}))}}(12t(1+x)+\sqrt{14t})^{1/2}(1+2t(1x)+\sqrt{1+4t})^{1/2}`$
$`=`$ $`\underset{x}{CT}{\displaystyle \frac{x}{2(xt(x^2+1+x^2y+\overline{y}))}}(12t(1+x)+\sqrt{14t})^{1/2}(1+2t(1x)+\sqrt{1+4t})^{1/2}.`$
Applying Theorem 1.4 with $`R=[y,\overline{y}]`$, this becomes

$$\frac{1}{2\left(1t(2X+2Xy)\right)}(12t(1+X)+\sqrt{14t})^{1/2}(1+2t(1X)+\sqrt{1+4t})^{1/2},$$

where $`X=X(t)`$ is the unique solution in $`tR[[t]]`$ such that $`X=t(X^2+1+\overline{y}+X^2y)`$. We can solve for $`X`$ by the quadratic formula:

$$X=\frac{1\sqrt{14t^2(1+y)^2/y}}{2t(1+y)}.$$

Equation (2.2) then follows.

It is clear that for any $`G(y;t)R[y,\overline{y}][[t]]`$, there is a unique decomposition $`G(y;t)=G_+(y;t)+G_0(t)+G_{}(\overline{y},;t)`$, such that $`G_+(y;t),G_{}(y;t)yR[y][[t]]`$ and $`G_0(t)R[[t]]`$.

Our task now is to find this decomposition of $`F(y;t)`$. There is no general theory to do this. For this particular $`F(y;t)`$, thanks to the work of Bousquet-Mélou and Schaeffer, we can guess the formulas for $`F_+`$ and $`F_{}`$ and prove them.

The variable $`s`$ defined by the following is useful:

$$s=tC(4t^2)=\frac{u}{1u^2}\text{ and }t=\frac{s}{1+4s^2}.$$
(2.3)
Note that $`s`$ is also $`S_{0,1}(t)`$, the generating function of walks on the slit plane that end at $`(0,1)`$. See \[1, p. 11\].

###### Lemma 2.2.

We have the decomposition

$$F(y;t)=F_+(y,t)+1+F_{}(\overline{y},t),$$

where

$`F_+(y,t)`$ $`=F_{}(y,t)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}((14s^2y)^{1/2}1),`$ (2.4)
$`F_{}(y,t)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{(1u^2)s^2yC(s^2y)}{1+u^2C^2(s^2y)s^2y}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{14s^2y}}}.`$ (2.5)
###### Proof.

Let

$`T(y;t)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{(1u^2)s^2yC(s^2y)}{1+u^2C^2(s^2y)s^2y}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{14s^2y}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}((14s^2y)^{1/2}1)+1+{\displaystyle \frac{(1u^2)s^2\overline{y}C(s^2\overline{y})}{1+u^2C^2(s^2\overline{y})s^2\overline{y}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{14s^2\overline{y}}}}.`$
From Lemma 2.1, we have

$`F(y;t)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{\left[\frac{1+\sqrt{14t}}{2}t\left(1+\frac{1\sqrt{14t^2(1+y)^2/y}}{2t(1+y)}\right)\right]^{1/2}\left[\frac{1+\sqrt{1+4t}}{2}+t\left(1\frac{1\sqrt{14t^2(1+y)^2/y}}{2t(1+y)}\right)\right]^{1/2}}{\sqrt{14t^2(1+y)^2/y}}}.`$
Therefore, it suffices to show that $`T(y;t)=F(y;t)`$. Since it is easy to see that $`T(y;0)=F(y;0)=1`$, the proof will be completed by showing that $`T^2(y;t)F^2(y;t)=0`$.

Using the variable $`u`$, we can get rid of the radicals $`\sqrt{14t}`$ and $`\sqrt{1+4t}`$ by the following:

$$\sqrt{14t}=\frac{12uu^2}{1+u^2},\text{ and }\sqrt{1+4t}=\frac{1+2uu^2}{1+u^2}.$$

The radicals left are $`D=\sqrt{14s^2y}`$, $`E=\sqrt{14s^2\overline{y}}`$, and $`\sqrt{14t^2(1+y)^2/y}`$, which is easily checked to be equal to $`DE`$.

Rewriting $`T^2F^2`$ in terms of $`u,D,E`$, we get a rational function of $`u,D,E`$. For $`i=1,2`$ (the degrees in $`D`$ and $`E`$ are both $`4`$), replacing $`D^{2i}`$ by $`(14s^2y)^i`$, $`D^{2i+1}`$ by $`(14s^2y)^iD`$, $`E^{2i}`$ by $`(14s^2\overline{y})^i`$, and $`E^{2i+1}`$ by $`(14s^2\overline{y})^iE`$, we find that the expression reduces to $`0`$.

Now we need to show the following.

###### Lemma 2.3.

$`F_{}(y,t)`$ $`={\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}b_i(2n)t^ny^i,`$ (2.6)
where

$`b_i(2n)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{i}{2n}}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2i}{i}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+i}{2i}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{4n}{2n}\right)}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n+2i}{2i}\right)}}.`$ (2.7)
We will give two proofs of this lemma. The first one starts from a formula in . We include it here as an example of computing the generating function by Theorem 1.4. The second proof is self-contained, and is simpler.

Let

$`f(y,t)={\displaystyle \underset{n1}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}b_i(2n)t^ny^i.`$ (2.8)
We need to show that $`F_{}(y,t)=f(y,t)`$.

###### First Proof of Lemma 2.3..

It was stated in  that

$$\underset{n0}{}b_i(2n)t^n=\frac{(1)^i}{(1u^2)^{2i1}}\underset{k=i}{\overset{2i1}{}}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2i1}{k}\right)(1)^ku^{2k}.$$
(2.9)
Let $`s`$ be as in (2.3). Using the following fact

$$\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{k}\right)=\underset{\alpha }{CT}\frac{1}{\alpha ^k}(1+\alpha )^n,$$

we can compute $`f(y,t)`$ by Theorem 1.4:

$`f(y,t)`$ $`={\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1)^i}{(1u^2)^{2i1}}}{\displaystyle \underset{k=i}{\overset{2i1}{}}}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2i1}{k}}\right)(1)^ku^{2k}y^i`$
$`={\displaystyle \underset{i1}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1u^2)(1)^i}{(1u^2)^{2i}}}{\displaystyle \underset{r=0}{\overset{i1}{}}}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2i1}{i+r}}\right)(1)^{i+r}u^{2i+2r}y^i,\text{ where }r=ki`$
$`=(1u^2){\displaystyle \underset{r0}{}}(1)^ru^{2r}{\displaystyle \underset{ir+1}{}}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2i1}{i1r}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{u^{2i}}{(1u^2)^{2i}}}y^i`$
$`=(1u^2){\displaystyle \underset{r0}{}}(u^2)^r{\displaystyle \underset{ir+1}{}}\underset{\alpha }{CT}(1+\alpha )^{2i1}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\alpha }}\right)^{i1r}(s^2y)^i`$
$`=\underset{\alpha }{CT}(1u^2){\displaystyle \underset{r0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{1+\alpha }}(u^2)^r\alpha ^r{\displaystyle \underset{ir+1}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1+\alpha )^{2i}}{\alpha ^i}}(s^2y)^i`$
$`=\underset{\alpha }{CT}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{1+\alpha }}(1u^2){\displaystyle \underset{r0}{}}(u^2\alpha )^r\left({\displaystyle \frac{(1+\alpha )^2}{\alpha }}s^2y\right)^{r+1}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1{\displaystyle \frac{(1+\alpha )^2}{\alpha }}s^2y}}`$
$`=\underset{\alpha }{CT}(1u^2)(1+\alpha )s^2y{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+u^2(1+\alpha )^2s^2y}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1{\displaystyle \frac{(1+\alpha )^2}{\alpha }}s^2y}}.`$
Now

$$(1u^2)(1+\alpha )s^2y\frac{1}{1+u^2(1+\alpha )^2s^2y}$$

is a power series in $`t`$ with coefficients in $`[y][\alpha ]`$, and

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1\frac{(1+\alpha )^2}{\alpha }s^2y}}`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{\alpha (1+\alpha )^2s^2y}}.`$
Solving the denominator for $`\alpha `$, we get two solutions:

$$\frac{12s^2y+\sqrt{14s^2y}}{2s^2y}\text{ and }\frac{12s^2y\sqrt{14s^2y}}{2s^2y}.$$

Only the latter is a power series in $`t`$ with constant term $`0`$, which can also be written as $`A=C(s^2y)1`$.

Thus we can apply Theorem 1.4 to get

$`f(y,t)=`$ $`\underset{\alpha }{CT}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{\alpha (1+\alpha )^2s^2y}}(1u^2)(1+\alpha )s^2y{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+u^2(1+\alpha )^2s^2y}}`$
$`=`$ $`(1u)^2s^2y(1+A){\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+u^2(1+A)^2s^2y}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{12s^2y(A+1)}}`$
$`=`$ $`(1u^2)s^2yC(s^2y){\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+u^2C^2(s^2y)s^2y}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{14s^2y}}},`$
which completes the proof.

The second proof derives a different form of $`F_{}(y;t)`$.

###### Second Proof of Lemma 2.3..

We begin with finding the generating function of $`2nb_i(n)`$, which equals $`t\frac{}{t}f(y,t)`$.

We claim that

$`{\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+i}{2i}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{4n}{2n}\right)}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n+2i}{2i}\right)}}t^{2n}={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{1+4s^2}s^{2i}}{14s^2}},`$ (2.10)
where the relation between $`t`$ and $`s`$ is given in (2.3).

It is easy to check that

$$\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+i}{2i}\right)\frac{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{4n}{2n}\right)}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n+2i}{2i}\right)}=\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n1/2}{ni}\right)4^{ni}.$$

In the well-known formula

$$\frac{C(x)^k}{\sqrt{14x}}=\underset{n0}{}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n+k}{n}\right)x^n,$$

by setting $`x=4t^2`$, and $`k=2i1/2`$, we get

$$\underset{n0}{}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+i}{2i}\right)\frac{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{4n}{2n}\right)}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n+2i}{2i}\right)}t^{2n}=t^{2i}\frac{C(4t^2)^{2i1/2}}{\sqrt{116t^2}}.$$

Using (2.3) to write the above in terms of $`s`$, we get (2.10).

Now we have

$$t\frac{}{t}f(y;t)=\underset{i1}{}\underset{n0}{}i\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2i}{i}\right)\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+i}{2i}\right)\frac{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{4n}{2n}\right)}{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n+2i}{2i}\right)}t^{2n}y^i=\frac{2s^2y}{(14s^2y)^{3/2}}\frac{\sqrt{1+4s^2}}{14s^2}.$$

Hence

$`f(y;t)=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2s^2y}{(14s^2y)^{3/2}}\frac{\sqrt{1+4s^2}}{14s^2}\frac{dt}{t}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2s^2y}{(14s^2y)^{3/2}}\frac{\sqrt{1+4s^2}}{14s^2}\frac{14s^2}{s(1+4s^2)}𝑑s}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{y\sqrt{1+4s^2}}{2(1+y)\sqrt{14s^2y}}}+\text{constant},`$
where the constant is independent of $`t`$. By setting $`t=0`$, and hence $`s=0`$, we get $`f(y;0)=\frac{y}{2(1+y)}+\text{constant}`$.

Recalling equation (2.8), we see that $`f(y;0)=0`$. Thus the constant equals $`\frac{y}{2(1+y)}`$. This gives another form of $`f(y;t)`$:

$$f(y;t)=\frac{y\sqrt{1+4s^2}}{2(1+y)\sqrt{14s^2y}}\frac{y}{2(1+y)}=\frac{y(1+u^2)}{2(1+y)(1u^2)\sqrt{14s^2y}}\frac{y}{2(1+y)},$$

which is easily checked to be equal to $`F_{}(y;t)`$ as given in (2.5).

###### Proof of Theorem 1.1.

We gave a formula for the generating function

$$F(y;t)=\underset{n0}{}\underset{i}{}a_{i,i}(2n)y^it^{2n}$$

in Lemma 2.1. In Lemma 2.2, we showed that

$$F_{}(y,t)=\underset{n0}{}\underset{i>0}{}a_{i,i}(2n)y^it^{2n}$$

has a formula as given in (2.5). The proof of (1.2) is thus accomplished by Lemma 2.3.

For equation (1.3), once we get the formula (2.4), it is an easy exercise to show that

$$\frac{1}{2}((14s^2y)^{1/2}1)=\underset{n1}{}\underset{i1}{}4^n\frac{i}{n}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2i}{i}\right)\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n}{ni}\right)y^it^{2n}.$$

Acknowledgment. I am very grateful to my advisor Ira Gessel, without whose help this paper would never have been finished.