't Hooft symbol

The 't Hooft η symbol is a symbol which allows one to express the generators of the SU(2) Lie algebra in terms of the generators of Lorentz algebra. The symbol is a blend between the Kronecker delta and the Levi-Civita symbol. It was introduced by Gerard 't Hooft. It is used in the construction of the BPST instanton.

η^a_μν is the 't Hooft symbol:

$\eta _{\mu \nu }^{a}={\begin{cases}\epsilon ^{a\mu \nu }&\mu ,\nu =1,2,3\\-\delta ^{a\nu }&\mu =4\\\delta ^{a\mu }&\nu =4\\0&\mu =\nu =4\end{cases}}.$

In other words, they are defined by

($a=1,2,3;~\mu ,\nu =1,2,3,4;~\epsilon _{1234}=+1$)

$\eta _{a\mu \nu }=\epsilon _{a\mu \nu 4}+\delta _{a\mu }\delta _{\nu 4}-\delta _{a\nu }\delta _{\mu 4}$

${\bar {\eta }}_{a\mu \nu }=\epsilon _{a\mu \nu 4}-\delta _{a\mu }\delta _{\nu 4}+\delta _{a\nu }\delta _{\mu 4}$

where the latter are the anti-self-dual 't Hooft symbols.

More explicitly, these symbols are

$\eta _{1\mu \nu }={\begin{bmatrix}0&0&0&1\\0&0&1&0\\0&-1&0&0\\-1&0&0&0\end{bmatrix}},\quad \eta _{2\mu \nu }={\begin{bmatrix}0&0&-1&0\\0&0&0&1\\1&0&0&0\\0&-1&0&0\end{bmatrix}},\quad \eta _{3\mu \nu }={\begin{bmatrix}0&1&0&0\\-1&0&0&0\\0&0&0&1\\0&0&-1&0\end{bmatrix}},$

and

${\bar {\eta }}_{1\mu \nu }={\begin{bmatrix}0&0&0&-1\\0&0&1&0\\0&-1&0&0\\1&0&0&0\end{bmatrix}},\quad {\bar {\eta }}_{2\mu \nu }={\begin{bmatrix}0&0&-1&0\\0&0&0&-1\\1&0&0&0\\0&1&0&0\end{bmatrix}},\quad {\bar {\eta }}_{3\mu \nu }={\begin{bmatrix}0&1&0&0\\-1&0&0&0\\0&0&0&-1\\0&0&1&0\end{bmatrix}}.$

They satisfy the self-duality and the anti-self-duality properties:

$\eta _{a\mu \nu }={\frac {1}{2}}\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }\eta _{a\rho \sigma }\ ,\qquad {\bar {\eta }}_{a\mu \nu }=-{\frac {1}{2}}\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }{\bar {\eta }}_{a\rho \sigma }\$

Some other properties are

$\epsilon _{abc}\eta _{b\mu \nu }\eta _{c\rho \sigma }=\delta _{\mu \rho }\eta _{a\nu \sigma }+\delta _{\nu \sigma }\eta _{a\mu \rho }-\delta _{\mu \sigma }\eta _{a\nu \rho }-\delta _{\nu \rho }\eta _{a\mu \sigma }$

$\eta _{a\mu \nu }\eta _{a\rho \sigma }=\delta _{\mu \rho }\delta _{\nu \sigma }-\delta _{\mu \sigma }\delta _{\nu \rho }+\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }\ ,$

$\eta _{a\mu \rho }\eta _{b\mu \sigma }=\delta _{ab}\delta _{\rho \sigma }+\epsilon _{abc}\eta _{c\rho \sigma }\ ,$

$\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho \theta }\eta _{a\sigma \theta }=\delta _{\sigma \mu }\eta _{a\nu \rho }+\delta _{\sigma \rho }\eta _{a\mu \nu }-\delta _{\sigma \nu }\eta _{a\mu \rho }\ ,$

$\eta _{a\mu \nu }\eta _{a\mu \nu }=12\ ,\quad \eta _{a\mu \nu }\eta _{b\mu \nu }=4\delta _{ab}\ ,\quad \eta _{a\mu \rho }\eta _{a\mu \sigma }=3\delta _{\rho \sigma }\ .$

The same holds for ${\bar {\eta }}$ except for

${\bar {\eta }}_{a\mu \nu }{\bar {\eta }}_{a\rho \sigma }=\delta _{\mu \rho }\delta _{\nu \sigma }-\delta _{\mu \sigma }\delta _{\nu \rho }-\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }\ .$

and

$\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho \theta }{\bar {\eta }}_{a\sigma \theta }=-\delta _{\sigma \mu }{\bar {\eta }}_{a\nu \rho }-\delta _{\sigma \rho }{\bar {\eta }}_{a\mu \nu }+\delta _{\sigma \nu }{\bar {\eta }}_{a\mu \rho }\ ,$

Obviously $\eta _{a\mu \nu }{\bar {\eta }}_{b\mu \nu }=0$ due to different duality properties.

Many properties of these are tabulated in the appendix of 't Hooft's paper and also in the article by Belitsky et al.

See also

• Instanton