https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2004-02080-3
theoretical physics
Casimir effect for gauge fields in spaces with negative constant curvature
1
Departamento de Física, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Caixa Postal 6001, Londrina-Paraná, Brazil
2
Departamento de Matemática, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil
* e-mail: abyts@uel.br
We consider gauge theories based on abelian p-forms on real compact hyperbolic spaces. Using the zeta-function regularization method and the trace tensor kernel formula, we determine explicitly an expression for the vacuum energy (Casimir energy) corresponding to skew-symmetric tensor fields. It is shown that the topological component of the Casimir energy for co-exact forms on even-dimensional spaces, associated with the trivial character, is always negative. We infer on the possible cosmological consequences of this result.
© Springer-Verlag, 2005
