Worldline approach to vector and antisymmetric tensor fields II

Fiorenzo Bastianelli, Paolo Benincasa, Simone Giombi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Scopus citations

Abstract

We extend the worldline description of vector and antisymmetric tensor fields coupled to gravity to the massive case. In particular, we derive a worldline path integral representation for the one-loop effective action of a massive antisymmetric tensor field of rank p (a massive p-form) whose dynamics is dictated by a standard Proca-like lagrangian coupled to a background metric. This effective action can be computed in a proper time expansion to obtain the corresponding Seeley-DeWitt coefficients a0, a1, a 2. The worldline approach immediately shows that these coefficients are derived from the massless ones by the simple shift D→D+1, where D is the spacetime dimension. Also, the worldline representation makes it simple to derive exact duality relations. Finally, we use such a representation to calculate the one-loop contribution to the graviton self-energy due to both massless and massive antisymmetric tensor fields of arbitrary rank, generalizing results already known for the massless spin 1 field (the photon).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2741-2761
Number of pages21
JournalJournal of High Energy Physics
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2005
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Keywords

  • Duality in Gauge Field Theories
  • Gauge Symmetry
  • Sigma Models

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