Vacuum Polarization of a Scalar Field in a Rectangular Waveguide

Abstract

An analysis of the one-loop vacuum fluctuations associated with a scalar field confined in the interior of a infinite waveguide of rectangular cross section is presented. We first consider the massless scalar field defined in a four-dimensional Euclidean space. To identify the infinities of the vacuum fluctuations we use a combination of dimensinal and zeta function analytic regularization procedures. The infinities which occur in the one-loop vacuum fluctuations fall into two distinct classes: ultraviolet divergences that are renormalized by the introduction of bulk counterterms and also surface and edges divergences that demand countertems concentrated on the boundaries. We present the detailed form of the surface and edge divergences. Finally we discuss how to generalize our calculations for a confined massive scalar field defined in a higher dimensional Euclidean space.