Euclidean Maxwell Theory in the Presence of Boundaries

Abstract

This paper describes recent progress in the analysis of relativistic gauge conditions for Euclidean Maxwell theory in the presence of boundaries. The corresponding quantum amplitudes are studied by using Faddeev-Popov formalism and zeta-function regularization, after expanding the electromagnetic potential in harmonics on the boundary 3-geometry. This leads to a semiclassical analysis of quantum amplitudes, involving transverse modes, ghost modes, coupled normal and longitudinal modes, and the decoupled normal mode of Maxwell theory. On imposing magnetic or electric boundary conditions, flat Euclidean space bounded by two concentric 3-spheres is found to give rise to gauge-invariant one-loop amplitudes, at least in the cases considered so far. However, when flat Euclidean 4-space is bounded by only one 3-sphere, one-loop amplitudes are gauge-dependent, and the agreement with the covariant formalism is only achieved on studying the Lorentz gauge. Moreover, the effects of gauge modes and ghost modes do not cancel each other exactly for problems with boundaries. Remarkably, when combined with the contribution of physical (i.e. transverse) degrees of freedom, this lack of cancellation is exactly what one needs to achieve agreement with the results of the Schwinger-DeWitt technique. The most general form of coupled eigenvalue equations resulting from arbitrary gauge-averaging functions is now under investigation.