Forms on Vector Bundles Over Hyperbolic Manifolds and the Conformal Anomaly

Abstract

We study gauge theories based on abelian $p-$forms on real compact hyperbolic manifolds. An explicit formula for the conformal anomaly corresponding to skew--symmetric tensor fields is obtained, by using zeta--function regularization and the trace tensor kernel formula. Explicit exact and numerical values of the anomaly for $p-$forms of order up to $p=4$ in spaces of dimension up to $n=10$ are then calculated.