Euclidean Maxwell theory in the presence of boundaries. II
Abstract
Zeta-function regularization is applied to complete a recent analysis of the quantized electromagnetic field in the presence of boundaries. The quantum theory is studied by setting to zero on the boundary the magnetic field, the gauge-averaging functional and hence the Faddeev-Popov ghost field. Electric boundary conditions are also studied. On considering two gauge functionals which involve covariant derivatives of the 4-vector potential, a series of detailed calculations shows that, in the case of flat Euclidean 4-space bounded by two concentric 3-spheres, one-loop quantum amplitudes are gauge independent and their mode-by-mode evaluation agrees with the covariant formulae for such amplitudes and coincides for magnetic or electric boundary conditions. By contrast, if a single 3-sphere boundary is studied, one finds some inconsistencies, i.e. gauge dependence of the amplitudes.
- Publication:
-
Classical and Quantum Gravity
- Pub Date:
- December 1994
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0264-9381/11/12/009
- arXiv:
- arXiv:gr-qc/9506061
- Bibcode:
- 1994CQGra..11.2939E
- Keywords:
-
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- 24 pages, plain-tex, recently appearing in Classical and Quantum Gravity, volume 11, pages 2939-2950, December 1994. The authors apologize for the delay in circulating the file, due to technical problems now fixed