No Arabic abstract
In $d$ dimensions, the model for a massless $p$-form in curved space is known to be a reducible gauge theory for $p>1$, and therefore its covariant quantisation cannot be carried out using the standard Faddeev-Popov scheme. However, adding a mass term and also introducing a Stueckelberg reformulation of the resulting $p$-form model, one ends up with an irreducible gauge theory which can be quantised `a la Faddeev and Popov. We derive a compact expression for the massive $p$-form effective action, $Gamma^{(m)}_p$, in terms of the functional determinants of Hodge-de Rham operators. We then show that the effective actions $Gamma^{(m)}_p$ and $Gamma^{(m)}_{d-p-1}$ differ by a topological invariant. This is a generalisation of the known result in the massless case that the effective actions $Gamma_p$ and $Gamma_{d-p-2}$ coincide modulo a topological term. Finally, our analysis is extended to the case of massive super $p$-forms coupled to background ${cal N}=1$ supergravity in four dimensions. Specifically, we study the quantum dynamics of the following massive super $p$-forms: (i) vector multiplet; (ii) tensor multiplet; and (iii) three-form multiplet. It is demonstrated that the effective actions of the massive vector and tensor multiplets coincide. The effective action of the massive three-form is shown to be a sum of those corresponding to two massive scalar multiplets, modulo a topological term.
We construct a Lorentz and generally covariant, polynomial action for free chiral $p-$forms, classically equivalent to the Pasti-Sorokin-Tonin (PST) formulation. The minimal set up requires introducing an auxiliary $p-$form on top of the physical gauge $p-$form and the PST scalar. The action enjoys multiple duality symmetries, including those that exchange the roles of physical and auxiliary $p-$form fields. Actions of the same type are available for duality-symmetric formulations, which is demonstrated on the example of the electromagnetic field in four dimensions. There, the degrees of freedom of a single Maxwell field are described employing four distinct vector gauge fields and a scalar field.
We review the covariant canonical formalism initiated by DAdda, Nelson and Regge in 1985, and extend it to include a definition of form-Poisson brackets (FPB) for geometric theories coupled to $p$-forms, gauging free differential algebras. The form-Legendre transformation and the form-Hamilton equations are derived from a $d$-form Lagrangian with $p$-form dynamical fields $phi$. Momenta are defined as derivatives of the Lagrangian with respect to the velocities $dphi$ and no preferred time direction is used. Action invariance under infinitesimal form-canonical transformations can be studied in this framework, and a generalized Noether theorem is derived, both for global and local symmetries. We apply the formalism to vielbein gravity in $d=3$ and $d=4$. In the $d=3$ theory we can define form-Dirac brackets, and use an algorithmic procedure to construct the canonical generators for local Lorentz rotations and diffeomorphisms. In $d=4$ the canonical analysis is carried out using FPB, since the definition of form-Dirac brackets is problematic. Lorentz generators are constructed, while diffeomorphisms are generated by the Lie derivative. A doubly covariant hamiltonian formalism is presented, allowing to maintain manifest Lorentz covariance at every stage of the Legendre transformation. The idea is to take curvatures as velocities in the definition of momenta.
The in-out formalism is a systematic and powerful method for finding the effective actions in an electromagnetic field and a curved spacetime provided that the field equation has explicitly known solutions. The effective action becomes complex when pairs of charged particles are produced due to an electric field and curved spacetime. This may lead to a conjecture of one-to-one correspondence between the vacuum polarization (real part) and the vacuum persistence (imaginary part). We illustrate the one-loop effective action in a constant electric field in a Minkowski spacetime and in a uniform electric field in a two-dimensional (anti-) de sitter space.
We review past and present results on the non-local form-factors of the effective action of semiclassical gravity in two and four dimensions computed by means of a covariant expansion of the heat kernel up to the second order in the curvatures. We discuss the importance of these form-factors in the construction of mass-dependent beta functions for the Newtons constant and the other gravitational couplings.
We study the quasinormal modes of $p$-form fields in spherical black holes in $D$-dimensions. Using the spherical symmetry of the black holes and gauge symmetry, we show the $p$-form field can be expressed in terms of the coexact $p$-form and the coexact $(p-1)$-form on the sphere $S^{D-2}$. These variables allow us to find the master equations. By utilizing the S-deformation method, we explicitly show the stability of $p$-form fields in the spherical black hole spacetime. Moreover, using the WKB approximation, we calculate the quasinormal modes of the $p$-form fields in $D(leq10)$-dimensions.