On the Gravitationally Induced Schwinger Mechanism

In this paper we will present very recent results obtained in the ambit of quantum electrodynamics in curved spacetime. We utilize a newly developed non-perturbative heat kernel asymptotic expansion on homogeneous Abelian bundles over Riemannian manifolds in order to compute the one-loop effective action for scalar and spinor fields in curved spacetime under the influence of a strong covariantly constant electromagnetic field. In this framework we derived, in particular, the gravitational corrections, up to linear terms in Riemannian curvature, to Schwinger's result for the creation of particles in a strong electric field.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX file. To appear in the proceedings of the Conference "QFEXT09: Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions", Norman OK, September 21 - September 25, 200

The Casimir Effect for Generalized Piston Geometries

In this paper we study the Casimir energy and force for generalized pistons constructed from warped product manifolds of the type $I\times_{f}N$ where $I=[a,b]$ is an interval of the real line and $N$ is a smooth compact Riemannian manifold either with or without boundary. The piston geometry is obtained by dividing the warped product manifold into two regions separated by the cross section positioned at $R\in(a,b)$. By exploiting zeta function regularization techniques we provide formulas for the Casimir energy and force involving the arbitrary warping function $f$ and base manifold $N$.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX. To appear in the proceedings of the Conference on Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions (QFEXT11). Benasque, Spain, September 18-24, 201

The Spectral Zeta Function for Laplace Operators on Warped Product Manifolds of the type I×fNI\times_{f} N

In this work we study the spectral zeta function associated with the Laplace operator acting on scalar functions defined on a warped product of manifolds of the type $I\times_{f} N$ where $I$ is an interval of the real line and $N$ is a compact, $d$-dimensional Riemannian manifold either with or without boundary. Starting from an integral representation of the spectral zeta function, we find its analytic continuation by exploiting the WKB asymptotic expansion of the eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator on $M$ for which a detailed analysis is presented. We apply the obtained results to the explicit computation of the zeta regularized functional determinant and the coefficients of the heat kernel asymptotic expansion.Comment: 29 pages, LaTe

Low-Energy Effective Action in Non-Perturbative Electrodynamics in Curved Spacetime

We study the heat kernel for the Laplace type partial differential operator acting on smooth sections of a complex spin-tensor bundle over a generic $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold. Assuming that the curvature of the U(1) connection (that we call the electromagnetic field) is constant we compute the first two coefficients of the non-perturbative asymptotic expansion of the heat kernel which are of zero and the first order in Riemannian curvature and of arbitrary order in the electromagnetic field. We apply these results to the study of the effective action in non-perturbative electrodynamics in four dimensions and derive a generalization of the Schwinger's result for the creation of scalar and spinor particles in electromagnetic field induced by the gravitational field. We discover a new infrared divergence in the imaginary part of the effective action due to the gravitational corrections, which seems to be a new physical effect.Comment: LaTeX, 42 page

Heat Kernel Coefficients for Laplace Operators on the Spherical Suspension

In this paper we compute the coefficients of the heat kernel asymptotic expansion for Laplace operators acting on scalar functions defined on the so called spherical suspension (or Riemann cap) subjected to Dirichlet boundary conditions. By utilizing a contour integral representation of the spectral zeta function for the Laplacian on the spherical suspension we find its analytic continuation in the complex plane and its associated meromorphic structure. Thanks to the well known relation between the zeta function and the heat kernel obtainable via Mellin transform we compute the coefficients of the asymptotic expansion in arbitrary dimensions. The particular case of a $d$-dimensional sphere as the base manifold is studied as well and the first few heat kernel coefficients are given explicitly.Comment: 26 Pages, 1 Figur

Non-Perturbative One-Loop Effective Action for Electrodynamics in Curved Spacetime

In this paper we explicitly evaluate the one-loop effective action in four dimensions for scalar and spinor fields under the influence of a strong, covariantly constant, magnetic field in curved spacetime. In the framework of zeta function regularization, we find the one-loop effective action to all orders in the magnetic field up to linear terms in the Riemannian curvature. As a particular case, we also obtain the one-loop effective action for massless scalar and spinor fields. In this setting, we found that the vacuum energy of charged spinors with small mass becomes very large due entirely by the gravitational correction.Comment: LaTeX, 23 page

Noncommutative Einstein Equations

We study a noncommutative deformation of general relativity where the gravitational field is described by a matrix-valued symmetric two-tensor field. The equations of motion are derived in the framework of this new theory by varying a diffeomorphisms and gauge invariant action constructed by using a matrix-valued scalar curvature. Interestingly the genuine noncommutative part of the dynamical equations is described only in terms of a particular tensor density that vanishes identically in the commutative limit. A noncommutative generalization of the energy-momentum tensor for the matter field is studied as well.Comment: 17 Pages, LaTeX, reference adde

Scalar Casimir effect between two concentric D-dimensional spheres

The Casimir energy for a massless scalar field between the closely spaced two concentric D-dimensional (for D>3) spheres is calculated by using the mode summation with contour integration in the complex plane of eigenfrequencies and the generalized Abel-Plana formula for evenly spaced eigenfrequency at large argument. The sign of the Casimir energy between closely spaced two concentric D-dimensional spheres for a massless scalar field satisfying the Dirichlet boundary conditions is strictly negative. The Casimir energy between D-1 dimensional surfaces close to each other is regarded as interesting both by itself and as the key to describing of stability of the attractive Casimir force. PACS number(s): 03.70.+k, 11.10.Kk, 11.10.Gh, 03.65.GeComment: 14 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1207.418

A Non-Singular One-Loop Wave Function of the Universe From a New Eigenvalue Asymptotics in Quantum Gravity

Recent work on Euclidean quantum gravity on the four-ball has proved regularity at the origin of the generalized zeta-function built from eigenvalues for metric and ghost modes, when diffeomorphism-invariant boundary conditions are imposed in the de Donder gauge. The hardest part of the analysis involves one of the four sectors for scalar-type perturbations, the eigenvalues of which are obtained by squaring up roots of a linear combination of Bessel functions of integer adjacent orders, with a coefficient of linear combination depending on the unknown roots. This paper obtains, first, approximate analytic formulae for such roots for all values of the order of Bessel functions. For this purpose, both the descending series for Bessel functions and their uniform asymptotic expansion at large order are used. The resulting generalized zeta-function is also built, and another check of regularity at the origin is obtained. For the first time in the literature on quantum gravity on manifolds with boundary, a vanishing one-loop wave function of the Universe is found in the limit of small three-geometry, which suggests a quantum avoidance of the cosmological singularity driven by full diffeomorphism invariance of the boundary-value problem for one-loop quantum theory.Comment: 21 Pages, Latex and .eps files with JHEP3 style. The discussion in Section 5 has been improved, and Ref. 26 has been adde