Reply to "Comment on 'Gravitating Magnetic Monopole in the Global Monopole Spacetime' "

In this Reply I present some arguments in favor of the stability of the topological defect composed by global and magnetic monopoles.Comment: 1 page, no figures. Revised version improves the theoretical analysis about electrostatic self-interaction in the global monopole spacetim

Electrostatic in Reissner-Nordstrom space-time with a conical defect

We calculate the electrostatic potential generated by a point charge in the space-time of Reissner-Nordstrom with a conical defect. An expression for the self-energy is also presented.Comment: 7 pages, LATEX fil

Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a conducting wall in cosmic string spacetime

The Casimir-Polder interaction potential is evaluated for a polarizable microparticle and a conducting wall in the geometry of a cosmic string perpendicular to the wall. The general case of the anisotropic polarizability tensor for the microparticle is considered. The corresponding force is a function of the wall-microparticle and cosmic string-microparticle distances. Depending on the orientation of the polarizability tensor principal axes the force can be either attractive or repulsive. The asymptotic behavior of the Casimir-Polder potential is investigated at large and small separations compared to the wavelength of the dominant atomic transitions. We show that the conical defect may be used to control the strength and the sign of the Casimir-Polder force.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

Vacuum polarization induced by a cylindrical boundary in the cosmic string spacetime

In this paper we investigate the Wightman function, the renormalized vacuum expectation values of the field square, and the energy-momentum tensor for a massive scalar field with general curvature coupling inside and outside of a cylindrical shell in the generalized spacetime of straight cosmic string. For the general case of Robin boundary condition, by using the generalized Abel-Plana formula, the vacuum expectation values are presented in the form of the sum of boundary-free and boundary-induced parts. The asymptotic behavior of the vacuum expectation values of the field square, energy density and stresses are investigated in various limiting cases. The generalization of the results to the exterior region is given for a general cylindrically symmetric static model of the string core with finite support.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Relativistic Quantum Scattering on a Cone

We study the relativistic quantum mechanical scattering of a bosonic particle by an infinite straight cosmic string, considering the non-minimal coupling between the bosonic field and the scalar curvature. In this case, an effective two-dimensional delta-function interaction takes place besides the usual topological scattering and a renormalization procedure is necessary in order to treat the problem that appears in connection with the delta-function.Comment: 22 pages, LATEX fil

Fermionic current densities induced by magnetic flux in a conical space with a circular boundary

We investigate the vacuum expectation value of the fermionic current induced by a magnetic flux in a (2+1)-dimensional conical spacetime in the presence of a circular boundary. On the boundary the fermionic field obeys MIT bag boundary condition. For irregular modes, a special case of boundary conditions at the cone apex is considered, when the MIT bag boundary condition is imposed at a finite radius, which is then taken to zero. We observe that the vacuum expectation values for both charge density and azimuthal current are periodic functions of the magnetic flux with the period equal to the flux quantum whereas the expectation value of the radial component vanishes. For both exterior and interior regions, the expectation values of the current are decomposed into boundary-free and boundary-induced parts. For a massless field the boundary-free part in the vacuum expectation value of the charge density vanishes, whereas the presence of the boundary induces nonzero charge density. Two integral representations are given for the boundary-free part in the case of a massive fermionic field for arbitrary values of the opening angle of the cone and magnetic flux. The behavior of the induced fermionic current is investigated in various asymptotic regions of the parameters. At distances from the boundary larger than the Compton wavelength of the fermion particle, the vacuum expectation values decay exponentially with the decay rate depending on the opening angle of the cone. We make a comparison with the results already known from the literature for some particular cases.Comment: 34 pages, 6 figure

Self-Forces on Electric and Magnetic Linear Sources in the Space-Time of a Cosmic String

In this paper we calculate the magnetic and electric self-forces, induced by the conical structure of a cosmic string space-time, on a long straight wire which presents either a constant current or a linear charge density. We also show how these self-forces are related by a Lorentz tranformation and, in this way, explain what two different inertial observers detect in their respective frames.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, to be published in Phys. Rev. D