Vector Fields on a Disk with Mixed Boundary Conditions

Abstract

We study vector fields on a disk satisfying two types of mixed boundary conditions. These boundary conditions are selected by BRST-invariance in electrodynamics. They also appear in the de Rham complex. The manifest construction of the harmonic expansion is presented. The eigenfunctions of the vector Laplace operator are expressed in terms of fields satisfying pure Dirichlet or Robin boundary conditions. For the case of four-dimensional disk several first coefficients of the heat kernel expansion are computed. An error in the analitical expression by Branson and Gilkey is corrected.