Ghost Condensates and Dynamical Breaking of SL(2,R) in Yang-Mills in the Maximal Abelian Gauge

Ghost condensates of dimension two in SU(N) Yang-Mills theory quantized in the Maximal Abelian Gauge are discussed. These condensates turn out to be related to the dynamical breaking of the SL(2,R) symmetry present in this gaugeComment: 16 pages, LaTeX2e, final version to appear in J. Phys.

Electromagnetic semitransparent δ\delta-function plate: Casimir interaction energy between parallel infinitesimally thin plates

We derive boundary conditions for electromagnetic fields on a $\delta$-function plate. The optical properties of such a plate are shown to necessarily be anisotropic in that they only depend on the transverse properties of the plate. We unambiguously obtain the boundary conditions for a perfectly conducting $\delta$-function plate in the limit of infinite dielectric response. We show that a material does not "optically vanish" in the thin-plate limit. The thin-plate limit of a plasma slab of thickness $d$ with plasma frequency $\omega_p^2=\zeta_p/d$ reduces to a $\delta$-function plate for frequencies ($\omega=i\zeta$) satisfying $\zeta d \ll \sqrt{\zeta_p d} \ll 1$. We show that the Casimir interaction energy between two parallel perfectly conducting $\delta$-function plates is the same as that for parallel perfectly conducting slabs. Similarly, we show that the interaction energy between an atom and a perfect electrically conducting $\delta$-function plate is the usual Casimir-Polder energy, which is verified by considering the thin-plate limit of dielectric slabs. The "thick" and "thin" boundary conditions considered by Bordag are found to be identical in the sense that they lead to the same electromagnetic fields.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, references adde

Many-Body Contributions to Green's Functions and Casimir Energies

The multiple scattering formalism is used to extract irreducible N-body parts of Green's functions and Casimir energies describing the interaction of N objects that are not necessarily mutually disjoint. The irreducible N-body scattering matrix is expressed in terms of single-body transition matrices. The irreducible N-body Casimir energy is the trace of the corresponding irreducible N-body part of the Green's function. This formalism requires the solution of a set of linear integral equations. The irreducible three-body Green's function and the corresponding Casimir energy of a massless scalar field interacting with potentials are obtained and evaluated for three parallel semitransparent plates. When Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed on a plate the Green's function and Casimir energy decouple into contributions from two disjoint regions. We also consider weakly interacting triangular--and parabolic-wedges placed atop a Dirichlet plate. The irreducible three-body Casimir energy of a triangular--and parabolic-wedge is minimal when the shorter side of the wedge is perpendicular to the Dirichlet plate. The irreducible three-body contribution to the vacuum energy is finite and positive in all the cases studied.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

Semiclassical Casimir Energies at Finite Temperature

We study the dependence on the temperature T of Casimir effects for a range of systems, and in particular for a pair of ideal parallel conducting plates, separated by a vacuum. We study the Helmholtz free energy, combining Matsubara's formalism, in which the temperature appears as a periodic Euclidean fourth dimension of circumference 1/T, with the semiclassical periodic orbital approximation of Gutzwiller. By inspecting the known results for the Casimir energy at T=0 for a rectangular parallelepiped, one is led to guess at the expression for the free energy of two ideal parallel conductors without performing any calculation. The result is a new form for the free energy in terms of the lengths of periodic classical paths on a two-dimensional cylinder section. This expression for the free energy is equivalent to others that have been obtained in the literature. Slightly extending the domain of applicability of Gutzwiller's semiclassical periodic orbit approach, we evaluate the free energy at T>0 in terms of periodic classical paths in a four-dimensional cavity that is the tensor product of the original cavity and a circle. The validity of this approach is at present restricted to particular systems. We also discuss the origin of the classical form of the free energy at high temperatures.Comment: 17 pages, no figures, Late

Local and Global Casimir Energies for a Semitransparent Cylindrical Shell

The local Casimir energy density and the global Casimir energy for a massless scalar field associated with a $\lambda\delta$-function potential in a 3+1 dimensional circular cylindrical geometry are considered. The global energy is examined for both weak and strong coupling, the latter being the well-studied Dirichlet cylinder case. For weak-coupling,through $\mathcal{O}(\lambda^2)$, the total energy is shown to vanish by both analytic and numerical arguments, based both on Green's-function and zeta-function techniques. Divergences occurring in the calculation are shown to be absorbable by renormalization of physical parameters of the model. The global energy may be obtained by integrating the local energy density only when the latter is supplemented by an energy term residing precisely on the surface of the cylinder. The latter is identified as the integrated local energy density of the cylindrical shell when the latter is physically expanded to have finite thickness. Inside and outside the delta-function shell, the local energy density diverges as the surface of the shell is approached; the divergence is weakest when the conformal stress tensor is used to define the energy density. A real global divergence first occurs in $\mathcal{O}(\lambda^3)$, as anticipated, but the proof is supplied here for the first time; this divergence is entirely associated with the surface energy, and does {\em not} reflect divergences in the local energy density as the surface is approached.Comment: 28 pages, REVTeX, no figures. Appendix added on perturbative divergence

Casimir interaction between two concentric cylinders: exact versus semiclassical results

The Casimir interaction between two perfectly conducting, infinite, concentric cylinders is computed using a semiclassical approximation that takes into account families of classical periodic orbits that reflect off both cylinders. It is then compared with the exact result obtained by the mode-by-mode summation technique. We analyze the validity of the semiclassical approximation and show that it improves the results obtained through the proximity theorem.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures include

Two loop effective potential for < A^2_\mu > in the Landau gauge in quantum chromodynamics

We construct the effective potential for the dimension two composite operator 1/2 A^{a 2}_\mu in QCD with massless quarks in the Landau gauge for an arbitrary colour group at two loops. For SU(3) we show that an estimate for the effective gluon mass decreases as N_f increases.Comment: 17 latex page

Zeta functions of quantum graphs

In this article we construct zeta functions of quantum graphs using a contour integral technique based on the argument principle. We start by considering the special case of the star graph with Neumann matching conditions at the center of the star. We then extend the technique to allow any matching conditions at the center for which the Laplace operator is self-adjoint and finally obtain an expression for the zeta function of any graph with general vertex matching conditions. In the process it is convenient to work with new forms for the secular equation of a quantum graph that extend the well known secular equation of the Neumann star graph. In the second half of the article we apply the zeta function to obtain new results for the spectral determinant, vacuum energy and heat kernel coefficients of quantum graphs. These have all been topics of current research in their own right and in each case this unified approach significantly expands results in the literature.Comment: 32 pages, typos corrected, references adde

Comments on the Sign and Other Aspects of Semiclassical Casimir Energies

The Casimir energy of a massless scalar field is semiclassically given by contributions due to classical periodic rays. The required subtractions in the spectral density are determined explicitly. The so defined semiclassical Casimir energy coincides with that obtained using zeta function regularization in the cases studied. Poles in the analytic continuation of zeta function regularization are related to non-universal subtractions in the spectral density. The sign of the Casimir energy of a scalar field on a smooth manifold is estimated by the sign of the contribution due to the shortest periodic rays only. Demanding continuity of the Casimir energy under small deformations of the manifold, the method is extended to integrable systems. The Casimir energy of a massless scalar field on a manifold with boundaries includes contributions due to periodic rays that lie entirely within the boundaries. These contributions in general depend on the boundary conditions. Although the Casimir energy due to a massless scalar field may be sensitive to the physical dimensions of manifolds with boundary, its sign can in favorable cases be inferred without explicit calculation of the Casimir energy.Comment: 39 pages, no figures, references added, some correction