English

Heat Kernel Coefficients for Chern-Simons Boundary Conditions in QED

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-10-31 v3 Condensed Matter

Abstract

We consider the four dimensional Euclidean Maxwell theory with a Chern-Simons term on the boundary. The corresponding gauge invariant boundary conditions become dependent on tangential derivatives. Taking the four-sphere as a particular example, we calculate explicitly a number of the first heat kernel coefficients and obtain the general formulas that yields any desired coefficient. A remarkable observation is that the coefficient a2a_2, which defines the one-loop counterterm and the conformal anomaly, does not depend on the Chern-Simons coupling constant, while the heat kernel itself becomes singular at a certain (critical) value of the coupling. This could be a reflection of a general property of Chern-Simons theories.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/9809211,
  title  = {Heat Kernel Coefficients for Chern-Simons Boundary Conditions in QED},
  author = {E. Elizalde and D. V. Vassilevich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9809211},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Several changes (including the title). Version to appear in Class Q. Grav. LaTeX, 12 pages