If an array is antisymmetric in every orthonormal basis and its contractions with every antisymmetric second-rank tensor are invariant scalars, it obeys the Cartesian second-rank tensor transformation law. The difference is antisymmetric and orthogonal to every antisymmetric test matrix. Choosing the test matrix equal to gives , hence . The Frobenius inner product is nondegenerate on the antisymmetric subspace.
In three-dimensional Euclidean space, contracting an antisymmetric second-rank tensor with the Levi-Civita symbol gives an axial vector. The epsilon contraction identity proves the inverse formula: . With this index convention,
Thus is minus the cross-product matrix for . Proper rotations transform as a vector; an orientation-reversing orthogonal change adds a determinant sign. Stating the index convention prevents a sign ambiguity when converting an antisymmetric tensor into a cross-product operator.
Use target signature and a closed-string spatial coordinate . Write for the compact coordinate and for the noncompact coordinates. In conformal gauge, the wave equation factorizes, so every coordinate is a sum of a function of and a function of . The closed-string boundary conditions are
Thus the derivatives of each chiral part are periodic and have integer Fourier modes; only their worldsheet zero modes can produce the winding displacement. Integrating these Fourier series gives the closed-string mode expansion
The oscillator reality conditions are and similarly for the tilded modes. The coefficient of follows by integrating the canonical momentum density . Single-valued wavefunctions of the center coordinate have momentum , with . Equivalently, the compact chiral worldsheet zero modes are and , where
Here tildes denote the left-moving sector. This convention will also fix the sign in compact-circle closed-string level matching.
Choose a noncompact light-cone pair and impose light-cone gauge in string theory , with . The Virasoro constraints then solve for in terms of the transverse coordinates. For example, with , one has . Thus there are two independent transverse oscillator Fock spaces, including among the transverse coordinates. Quantization gives , and the same relation for the tilded oscillators, with the two sectors commuting. Lorentz consistency gives the critical dimension of the bosonic string and string intercept one in each sector. Accordingly
count 24 transverse oscillator species. The two zero-mode constraints give the lower-dimensional bosonic string mass spectrum
Taking their difference and average yields
Every choice of transverse string oscillators and integer charges satisfying this closed-string level matching is a physical string state in light-cone gauge. The eliminated longitudinal oscillators do not supply additional polarizations.
To classify all massless states, positivity of the two compact terms implies . When the sum is two, masslessness forces , and closed-string level matching then forces . The states have polarizations. In 25 noncompact dimensions, their decomposition gives a graviton, a Kalb–Ramond field, a dilaton, two Abelian gauge vectors from the metric and two-form with one compact index, and the radius scalar field. Their physical polarization counts are
The first two numbers are the symmetric traceless second-rank tensor and antisymmetric second-rank tensor of the massless little group .
When , closed-string level matching requires . The compact contribution obeys
and equality occurs precisely at . The charges have ; the charges have . Each charge has 24 polarizations supplied by its single excited sector. At a general radius these have
Finally, requires . The exceptional massless ground states of a bosonic circle occur at
Each charge is a scalar field. These special radii must be included if “general radius” is to mean a complete classification, rather than only a generic radius. At a generic radius the massless spectrum is the neutral 576-state spectrum above; at exceptional radii one adds exactly the states just listed. The neutral ground state remains tachyonic.
The map
sends to and to . Reversing all right-moving compact string oscillators, , preserves their commutators and oscillator number; the left-moving oscillators are unchanged. Both the mass formula and compact-circle closed-string level matching are therefore unchanged, with a one-to-one map of the complete oscillator basis. This proves T-duality of the full spectrum, including winding, massive and tachyonic states.
At the self-dual circle the four single-oscillator charge families give new massless states. Each family decomposes into a 25-dimensional gauge vector with 23 polarizations and one scalar field. There are also four massless ground states, with charges and . Thus the massless spectrum at the bosonic self-dual circle has
The gauge interpretation follows directly from the chiral compact-boson operators. With , the exponential has conformal weight . At the self-dual radius,
have weight one and satisfy , , and . These are the level-one current relations; the right sector supplies another copy. Multiplying these currents by a noncompact oscillator produces six gauge vectors in total. The nine scalar string vertex operators form the representation, accounting for the radius scalar field and eight new scalar fields. The remaining neutral fields are the graviton, two-form and dilaton.
A radius deformation as a Higgs mechanism is the expectation value of the Cartan–Cartan scalar string vertex operator . Its stabilizer is , so
The four compact single-oscillator scalar field polarizations become longitudinal polarizations of the four massive vectors, exactly as in the Higgs mechanism. The other four extra scalar fields have masses or and need not remain massless; one pair becomes tachyonic on either side of the self-dual point. Together with the original bosonic tachyon, this means that the gauge-symmetry interpretation is formal and does not assert a stable bosonic-string vacuum.
Let denote the spatial average. Assume periodicity, or an equivalent homogeneous averaging limit in which total derivatives average to zero and integration by parts is valid. Fix the induced field to have zero mean. Expand the solution of the resistive induction equation in small magnetic Reynolds number:
The uniform test magnetic field commutes with differentiation. Since , the first equation has solution .
The quadratic second-order forcing need not be monochromatic, so one must not simply replace its inverse Laplacian by multiplication by . Instead use the self-adjointness of the Laplacian under the average:
This proves the monochromatic small-Reynolds-number mean electromotive force expansion
For the symmetry of the first-order monochromatic alpha tensor, write
Its antisymmetric part is determined by contraction with the Levi-Civita symbol. The contraction identity gives
The second term vanishes by incompressibility; the first is . Since every three-dimensional antisymmetric second-rank tensor is equivalent to its contracted axial vector, is symmetric. No Fourier series or Fourier transform is required.
To derive the next identity, set . Expanding the curl and cross product in components,
The average of the second term is zero: integration by parts makes it . Integrating the first term by parts gives
Extracting the coefficient of now yields
Interchanging and reverses the cross product, proving the antisymmetry of the second-order monochromatic alpha tensor:
The second coefficient of the alpha tensor can therefore contribute turbulent magnetic pumping, while its symmetric part vanishes at this order.
For a Cartesian second-rank tensor, write
The first term is a symmetric second-rank tensor and the second is an antisymmetric second-rank tensor. Taking the trace of the symmetric term and subtracting it gives the scalar, symmetric-traceless and axial tensor decomposition:
Here and . To check reconstruction of the antisymmetric part, contract the Levi-Civita symbols:
Thus , and the displayed contractions also prove uniqueness. The vector associated with the antisymmetric part is an axial vector under reflections, and an ordinary vector under proper rotations.
For the specified isotropic tensor law, contract the Kronecker deltas first:
Write , where and is symmetric and traceless. Transposition preserves its scalar and symmetric-traceless parts and reverses its antisymmetric part. Therefore
Uniqueness of the decomposition gives the isotropic elasticity on tensor components relations. Provided their respective coefficients are nonzero, the requested inverses are
If one coefficient vanishes, that strain component has zero stress response: the corresponding stress component must be zero for a solution to exist, and that strain component is not uniquely recoverable. Isotropy by itself does not guarantee invertibility.
If is symmetric then , hence and the stress is symmetric. Equivalently, direct transposition gives . Restricting to this symmetric-strain case gives
This final two-parameter expression uses the symmetry assumption from the preceding request. For a general nonsymmetric array, the transpose term cannot be absorbed into the same coefficient: it acts with on the symmetric-traceless part and with on the antisymmetric part. The stated coefficient is the coefficient of itself; if one instead writes the conventional elastic law with multiplying the strain, that shear-modulus convention is half this coefficient.
Define
They sum to , with and . Interchanging two slots of a tensor still produces a tensor, so these are a symmetric second-rank tensor and an antisymmetric second-rank tensor, not merely symmetric and antisymmetric arrays in a selected frame.
For uniqueness, if , then . The common difference is both symmetric and antisymmetric, so each of its components equals its own negative and vanishes over . Thus the decomposition is unique. These are the symmetric and antisymmetric parts of a matrix, with their tensor transformation law preserved.
Take the four-divergence of the Proca equation. Commuting partial derivatives and using that is an antisymmetric second-rank tensor give
Consequently, for , . This is the Lorenz constraint in Proca theory: an equation of motion enforces it, rather than a choice of gauge fixing. It leaves . At the divergence argument supplies no such constraint; the massless gauge symmetry requires a separate treatment.
Use the Minkowski metric , , and . The Proca field has nonzero mass . Vary its action, using the fact that the gauge field strength is an antisymmetric second-rank tensor:
The integration by parts discards a boundary term, with the variation fixed at the boundary. Thus the Euler-Lagrange field equation is the Proca equation
The minus sign on is required by the chosen Minkowski metric; after imposing the constraint below, the plane waves have positive energy .
True. Since and are antisymmetric, the matrix is antisymmetric. Invariance of contractions with every antisymmetric second-rank tensor gives for every antisymmetric test matrix . Such a matrix can be freely prescribed in one basis and then transformed to define a valid test tensor. Choose in that basis. Then
so and . Together with the given antisymmetry, this proves that is an antisymmetric second-rank tensor. The antisymmetric contraction test for an antisymmetric tensor works because the Frobenius inner product is nondegenerate on the antisymmetric subspace.
Writing and differentiating gives
Its symmetric second-rank tensor part and antisymmetric second-rank tensor part are
Taking the trace makes the two symmetric terms cancel, so the divergence is
Contracting the antisymmetric part with the Levi-Civita symbol gives the curl
A second-rank tensor is antisymmetric when
Under an orthogonal Cartesian coordinate change with matrix ,
Therefore
after relabelling the dummy indices. Hence the antisymmetric second-rank tensor property is independent of Cartesian coordinates.
The unique symmetric and antisymmetric decomposition is , . Both pieces are Cartesian tensors: transposing gives , so and . Hence this is a decomposition into a symmetric tensor and an antisymmetric second-rank tensor, rather than just a decomposition of numerical arrays.
For the axial vector of an antisymmetric second-rank tensor, contract the two Levi-Civita symbols:
Thus
With this convention , so the displayed matrix is the negative of the cross-product matrix for .
The required invariant is obtained by tensor contraction, rather than by an ordinary sum of squares of the entries of the electromagnetic field tensor. With , raising both indices gives
The electromagnetic field tensor is an antisymmetric second-rank tensor, so every independent off-diagonal entry occurs twice in its contraction. The three electric contributions each acquire a minus sign, whereas the magnetic contributions retain their sign. Consequently
All indices are contracted, so this quantity is a Lorentz scalar. Since the speed of light is invariant,
is Lorentz invariant. Both terms have the units of squared electric field, in SI units.
The first coefficient of the alpha tensor is . Its contraction with the Levi-Civita symbol is
by incompressibility and vanishing averages of total derivatives. Every antisymmetric second-rank tensor in three dimensions is detected by this contraction, so the coefficient is a symmetric matrix. The proof needs no Fourier analysis.
// Target: fluid-mechanics.bigb