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 language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2741-2761 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Journal of High Energy Physics |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 2005 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Keywords
- Duality in Gauge Field Theories
- Gauge Symmetry
- Sigma Models