arXiv subjects

A. A. Saharian

Publications and source records attributed to A. A. Saharian.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Casimir densities from coexisting vacua

Wightman function, the vacuum expectation values (VEVs) of the field squared and the energy-momentum tensor are investigated for a massive scalar field with general curvature coupling in a spherically symmetric static background geometry described by two distinct metric tensors inside and outside a spherical boundary. The exterior and interior geometries can correspond to different vacuum states of the same theory. In the region outside the sphere, the contributions in the VEVs, induced by the interior geometry, are explicitly separated. For the special case of the Minkowskian exterior geometry, the asymptotics of the VEVs near the boundary and at large distances are discussed in detail. In particular, it has been shown that the divergences on the boundary are weaker than in the problem of a spherical boundary in Minkowski spacetime with Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. As an application of general results, dS and AdS spaces are considered as examples of the interior geometry. For AdS interior there are no bound states. In the case of dS geometry and for nonminimally coupled fields, bound states appear for a radius of the separating boundary sufficiently close to the dS horizon. Starting from a critical value of the radius the Minkowskian vacuum in the exterior region becomes unstable. For small values of the AdS curvature radius, to the leading order, the VEVs in the exterior region coincide with those for a spherical boundary in Minkowski spacetime with Dirichlet boundary condition. The exceptions are the cases of minimal and conformal couplings: for a minimal coupling the VEVs are reduced to the case with Neumann boundary condition, whereas for a conformally coupled field there is no reduction to Dirichlet or Neumann results.

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arXiv2013

Electromagnetic two-point functions and Casimir densities for a conducting plate in de Sitter spacetime

We evaluate the two-point function for the electromagnetic field tensor in $(D+1)$-dimensional de Sitter spacetime assuming that the field is prepared in Bunch-Davies vacuum state. This two-point function is used for the investigation of the vacuum expectation values (VEVs) of the field squared and the energy-momentum tensor in the presence of a conducting plate. The VEVs are decomposed into the boundary-free and plate-induced parts. For the latter, closed form analytical expressions are given in terms of the hypergeometric function. For $3\leqslant D\leqslant 8$ the plate-induced part in the VEV of the electric field squared is positive everywhere, whereas for $D\geqslant 9$ it is positive near the plate and negative at large distances. The VEV of the energy-momentum tensor, in addition to the diagonal components, contains an off-diagonal component which corresponds to the energy flux along the direction normal to the plate. Simple asymptotic expressions are provided at small and large distances from the plate compared with the de Sitter curvature scale. For $D\geqslant 4$, all the diagonal components of the plate-induced vacuum energy-momentum tensor are negative and the energy flux is directed from the plate.

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arXiv2013

Finite temperature fermionic condensate and currents in topologically nontrivial spaces

We investigate the finite temperature fermionic condensate and the expectation values of the charge and current densities for a massive fermion field in a spacetime background with an arbitrary number of toroidally compactified spatial dimensions in the presence of a non-vanishing chemical potential. Periodicity conditions along compact dimensions are taken with arbitrary phases and the presence of a constant gauge field is assumed. The latter gives rise to Aharonov-Bohm-like effects on the expectation values. They are periodic functions of magnetic fluxes enclosed by compact dimensions with the period equal to the flux quantum. The current density has nonzero components along compact dimensions only. Both low- and high-temperature asymptotics of the expectation values are studied. In particular, it has been shown that at high temperatures the current density is exponentially suppressed. This behavior is in sharp contrast with the corresponding asymptotic in the case of a scalar field, where the current density linearly grows with the temperature. The features for the models in odd dimensional spacetimes are discussed. Applications are given to cylindrical and toroidal nanotubes described within the framework of effective Dirac theory for the electronic subsystem.

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arXiv2013

Fermionic vacuum polarization in compactified cosmic string spacetime

We investigate the fermionic condensate (FC) and the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the energy-momentum tensor for a charged massive fermionic field in the geometry of a cosmic string compactified along its axis. In addition, we assume the presence of two types of magnetic fluxes: a flux running along the cosmic string and another enclosed by the compact dimension. These fluxes give rise to Aharanov-Bohm-like effects on the VEVs. The VEVs are decomposed into two parts corresponding to the geometry of a straight cosmic string without compactification plus a topological part induced by the compactification of the string axis. Both contributions are even periodic functions of the magnetic fluxes with period equal to the flux quantum. The vacuum energy density is equal to the radial stress for the parts corresponding to the straight cosmic string and the topological one. Moreover, the axial stress is equal to the energy density for the parts corresponding to the straight cosmic string; however, for massive fermionic field this does not occur for the topological contributions. With respect to the dependence on the magnetic fluxes, both, the fermionic condensate and the vacuum energy density, can be either positive or negative. Moreover, for points near the string, the main contribution to the VEVs comes from the straight cosmic string part, whereas at large distances the topological ones dominate. In addition to the local characteristics of the vacuum state, we also evaluate the part in the topological Casimir energy induced by the string.

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arXiv2013

Scalar and fermionic vacuum currents in de Sitter spacetime with compact dimensions

Vacuum expectation values (VEVs) of the current densities for charged scalar and Dirac spinor fields are investigated in (D+1)-dimensional de Sitter (dS) spacetime with toroidally compactified spatial dimensions. Along compact dimensions we impose quasiperiodicity conditions with arbitrary phases. In addition, the presence of a classical constant gauge field is assumed. The VEVs of the charge density and of the components for the current density along noncompact dimensions vanish. The gauge field leads to Aharonov-Bohm-like oscillations of the components along compact dimensions as functions of the magnetic flux. For small values of the comoving length of a compact dimension, compared with the dS curvature scale, the current density is related to the corresponding current in the Minkowski spacetime by a conformal relation. For large values of the comoving length and for a scalar field, depending on the mass of the field, two different regimes are realized with the monotonic and oscillatory damping of the current density. For a massive spinor field, the decay of the current density is always oscillatory. In supersymmetric models on the background of Minkowski spacetime with equal number of scalar and fermionic degrees of freedom and with the same phases in the periodicity conditions, the total current density vanishes due to the cancellation between the scalar and fermionic parts. The background gravitational field modifies the current densities for scalar and fermionic fields in different ways and for massive fields there is no cancellation in the dS spacetime.

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arXiv2013

Electromagnetic two-point functions and the Casimir effect in Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies

We evaluate the two-point functions of the electromagnetic field in (D+1) -dimensional spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes with a power-law scale factor, assuming that the field is prepared in the Bunch-Davies vacuum state. The range of powers are specified in which the two-point functions are infrared convergent and the Bunch-Davies vacuum for the electromagnetic field is a physically realizable state. The two-point functions are applied for the investigation of the vacuum expectation values of the field squared and the energy-momentum tensor, induced by a single and two parallel conducting plates. Unlike to the case of conducting plates in the Minkowski bulk, in the problem under consideration the stresses along the directions parallel to the plates are not equal to the energy density. We show that, in addition to the diagonal components, the vacuum energy-momentum tensor has a nonzero off-diagonal component which describes energy flux along the direction normal to the plates. For a single plate this flux is directed from the plate. The Casimir forces are investigated in the geometry of two plates. At separations between the plates smaller than the curvature radius of the background spacetime, to the leading order, we recover the corresponding result in the Minkowski spacetime and in this case the forces are attractive. At larger separations, the influence of the curvature on the Casimir forces is essential with different asymptotic behavior for decelerated and accelerated expansions. In particular, for the latter case there is a range of powers of the expansion law in which the forces become repulsive at large separations between the plates.

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arXiv2013

Fermionic vacuum polarization by a cosmic string in anti-de Sitter spacetime

In this paper we investigate the fermionic condensate (FC) and the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the energy-momentum tensor, associated with a massive fermionic field, induced by the presence of a cosmic string in the anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. In order to develop this analysis we construct the complete set of normalized eigenfunctions in the corresponding spacetime. We consider a special case of boundary conditions on the AdS boundary, when the MIT bag boundary condition is imposed on the field operator at a finite distance from the boundary, which is then taken to zero. The FC and the VEV of the energy-momentum tensor are decomposed into the pure AdS and string-induced parts. Because the analysis of one-loop quantum effects in the AdS spacetime has been developed in the literature, here we are mainly interested to investigate the influence of the cosmic string on the VEVs. The string-induced part in the VEV of the energy-momentum tensor is diagonal and the axial and radial stresses are equal to the energy density. For points near the string, the effects of the curvature are subdominant and to leading order, the VEVs coincide with the corresponding VEVs for the cosmic string in Minkowski bulk. At large proper distances from the string, the decay of the VEVs show a power-law dependence of the distance for both massless and massive fields. This is in contrast to the case of Minkowski bulk where, for a massive field, the string-induced parts decay exponentially.

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arXiv2013

Fermionic current induced by magnetic flux in compactified cosmic string spacetime

In this paper, we investigate the fermionic current densities induced by a magnetic flux running along the idealized cosmic string in a four-dimensional spacetime, admitting that the coordinate along the string's axis is compactified. In order to develop this investigation we construct the complete set of fermionic mode functions obeying a general quasiperiodicity condition along the compactified dimension. The vacuum expectation value of the azimuthal current density is decomposed into two parts. The first one corresponds to the uncompactified cosmic string geometry and the second one is the correction induced by the compactification. For the first part we provide a closed expression which includes various special cases previously discussed in the literature. The second part is an odd periodic function of the magnetic flux along the string axis with the period equal to the flux quantum and it is an even function of the magnetic flux enclosed by the string axis. The compactification of the cosmic string axis in combination with the quasiperiodicity condition leads to the nonzero axial current density. The latter is an even periodic function of the magnetic flux along the string axis and an odd periodic function of the magnetic flux enclosed by the string axis. The axial current density vanishes for untwisted and twisted fields in the absence of the magnetic flux enclosed by the string axis. The asymptotic behavior of the vacuum fermionic current is investigated near the string and at large distances from it. In particular, the topological part of the azimuthal current and the axial current are finite on the string's axis.

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arXiv2013

Fermionic current from topology and boundaries with applications to higher-dimensional models and nanophysics

We investigate combined effects of topology and boundaries on the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the fermionic current in the space with an arbitrary number of toroidally compactified dimensions. As a geometry of boundaries we consider two parallel plates on which the fermion field obeys bag boundary conditions. Along the compact dimensions, periodicity conditions are imposed with arbitrary phases. In addition, the presence of a constant gauge field is assumed. The nontrivial topology gives rise to an Aharonov-Bohm effect for the fermionic current induced by the gauge field. It is shown that the VEV of the charge density vanishes and the current density has nonzero expectation values for the components along compact dimensions only. The latter are periodic odd functions of the magnetic flux with the period equal to the flux quantum. In the region between the plates, the VEV of the fermionic current is decomposed into pure topological, single plate and interference parts. For a massless field the single plate part vanishes and the interference part is distributed uniformly. The corresponding results are generalized for conformally-flat spacetimes. Applications of the general formulas to finite-length carbon nanotubes are given within the framework of the Dirac model for quasiparticles in graphene. In the absence of the magnetic flux, two sublattices of the honeycomb graphene lattice yield opposite contributions and the fermionic current vanishes. A magnetic flux through the cross section of the nanotube breaks the symmetry allowing the current to flow along the compact dimension.

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arXiv2013

Fermionic Casimir densities in anti-de Sitter spacetime

The fermionic condensate and vacuum expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor, for a massive fermionic field on the background of anti-de Sitter spacetime, in the geometry of two parallel boundaries with bag boundary conditions, are investigated. Vacuum expectation values, expressed as series involving the eigenvalues of the radial quantum number, are neatly decomposed into boundary-free, single-boundary-induced, and second-boundary-induced parts, with the help of the generalized Abel-Plana summation formula. In this way, the renormalization procedure is very conveniently reduced to the one corresponding to boundary-free AdS spacetime. The boundary-induced contributions to the fermionic condensate and to the vacuum expectation value of the energy density are proven to be everywhere negative. The vacuum expectation values are exponentially suppressed at distances from the boundaries much larger than the curvature radius of the AdS space. Near the boundaries, effects related with the curvature of the background spacetime are shown to be subdominant and, to leading order, all known results for boundaries in the Minkowski bulk are recovered. Zeta function techniques are successfully used for the evaluation of the total vacuum energy in the region between the boundaries. It is proven that the resulting interaction forces between them are attractive and that, for large separations, they also decay exponentially. Finally, our results are extended and explicitly translated to fermionic Casimir densities in braneworld scenarios of Randall-Sundrum type.

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arXiv2012

Finite temperature current densities and Bose-Einstein condensation in topologically nontrivial spaces

We investigate the finite temperature expectation values of the charge and current densities for a complex scalar field with nonzero chemical potential in background of a flat spacetime with spatial topology $R^{p}\times (S^{1})^{q}$. Along compact dimensions quasiperiodicity conditions with general phases are imposed on the field. In addition, we assume the presence of a constant gauge field which, due to the nontrivial topology of background space, leads to Aharonov-Bohm-like effects on the expectation values. By using the Abel-Plana-type summation formula and zeta function techniques, two different representations are provided for both the current and charge densities. The current density has nonzero components along the compact dimensions only and, in the absence of a gauge field, it vanishes for special cases of twisted and untwisted scalar fields. In the high-temperature limit, the current density and the topological part in the charge density are linear functions of the temperature. The Bose-Einstein condensation for a fixed value of the charge is discussed. The expression for the chemical potential is given in terms of the lengths of compact dimensions, temperature and gauge field. It is shown that the parameters of the phase transition can be controlled by tuning the gauge field. The separate contributions to the charge and current densities coming from the Bose-Einstein condensate and from excited states are also investigated.

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arXiv2012

Fermionic vacuum polarization by a flat boundary in cosmic string spacetime

In this paper we investigate the fermionic condensate and the renormalized vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the energy-momentum tensor for a massive fermionic field induced by a flat boundary in the cosmic string spacetime. In this analysis we assume that the field operator obeys MIT bag boundary condition on the boundary. We explicitly decompose the VEVs into the boundary-free and boundary-induced parts. General formulas are provided for both parts which are valid for any value of the parameter associated with the cosmic string. For a massless field, the boundary-free part in the fermionic condensate and the boundary-induced part in the energy-momentum tensor vanish. For a massive field the radial stress is equal to the energy density for both boundary-free and boundary-induced parts. The boundary-induced part in the stress along the axis of the cosmic string vanishes. The total energy density is negative everywhere, whereas the effective pressure along the azimuthal direction is positive near the boundary and negative near the cosmic string. We show that for points away from the boundary, the boundary-induced parts in the fermionic condensate and in the VEV of the energy-momentum tensor vanish on the string.

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arXiv2012

Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a conducting wall in cosmic string spacetime

The Casimir-Polder interaction potential is evaluated for a polarizable microparticle and a conducting wall in the geometry of a cosmic string perpendicular to the wall. The general case of the anisotropic polarizability tensor for the microparticle is considered. The corresponding force is a function of the wall-microparticle and cosmic string-microparticle distances. Depending on the orientation of the polarizability tensor principal axes the force can be either attractive or repulsive. The asymptotic behavior of the Casimir-Polder potential is investigated at large and small separations compared to the wavelength of the dominant atomic transitions. We show that the conical defect may be used to control the strength and the sign of the Casimir-Polder force.

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arXiv2012

Scalar self-energy for a charged particle in global monopole spacetime with a spherical boundary

We analyze combined effects of the geometry produced by global monopole and a concentric spherical boundary on the self-energy of a point-like scalar charged test particle at rest. We assume that the boundary is outside the monopole's core with a general spherically symmetric inner structure. An important quantity to this analysis is the three-dimensional Green function associated with this system. For both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions obeyed by the scalar field on the sphere, the Green function presents a structure that contains contributions due to the background geometry of the spacetime and the boundary. Consequently the corresponding induced scalar self-energy present also similar structure. For points near the sphere the boundary-induced part dominates and the self-force is repulsive/attractive with respect to the boundary for Dirichlet/Neumann boundary condition. In the region outside the sphere at large distances from it, the boundary-free part in the self-energy dominates and the corresponding self-force can be either attractive or repulsive with dependence of the curvature coupling parameter for scalar field. In particular, for the minimal coupling we show the presence of a stable equilibrium point for Dirichlet boundary condition. In the region inside the sphere the nature of the self-force depends on the specific model for the monopole's core. As illustrations of the general procedure adopted we shall consider two distinct models, namely flower-pot and the ballpoint-pen ones.

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arXiv2012

Quantum effects in higher-dimensional cosmological models

Vacuum energy density and stresses are investigated for a scalar field in de Sitter spacetime with an arbitrary number of toroidally compactified spatial dimensions and in anti-de Sitter spacetime with two parallel branes. On the branes the field obeys the Robin boundary conditions. The behavior of the vacuum expectation values is discussed in various asymptotic regions of the parameters. Applications are given to Randall-Sundrum type braneworlds.

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arXiv2012

Casimir densities for a spherical boundary in de Sitter spacetime

Two-point functions, mean-squared fluctuations, and the vacuum expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor operator are investigated for a massive scalar field with an arbitrary curvature coupling parameter, subject to a spherical boundary in the background of de Sitter spacetime. The field is prepared in the Bunch-Davies vacuum state and is constrained to satisfy Robin boundary conditions on the sphere. Both the interior and exterior regions are considered. For the calculation in the interior region, a mode-summation method is employed, supplemented with a variant of the generalized Abel-Plana formula. This allows us to explicitly extract the contributions to the expectation values which come from de Sitter spacetime without boundaries. We show that the vacuum energy-momentum tensor is non-diagonal with the off-diagonal component corresponding to the energy flux along the radial direction. With dependence on the boundary condition and the mass of the field, this flux can be either positive or negative. Several limiting cases of interest are then studied. In terms of the curvature coupling parameter and the mass of the field, two very different regimes are realized, which exhibit monotonic and oscillatory behavior of the vacuum expectation values, respectively, far from the sphere. The decay of the boundary induced expectation values at large distances from the sphere is shown to be power-law (monotonic or oscillating), independent of the value of the field mass.

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arXiv2012

Fermionic Casimir densities in a conical space with a circular boundary and magnetic flux

The vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the energy-momentum tensor for a massive fermionic field is investigated in a (2+1)-dimensional conical spacetime in the presence of a circular boundary and an infinitely thin magnetic flux located at the cone apex. The MIT bag boundary condition is assumed on the circle. At the cone apex we consider a special case of boundary conditions for irregular modes, when the MIT bag boundary condition is imposed at a finite radius, which is then taken to zero. The presence of the magnetic flux leads to the Aharonov-Bohm-like effect on the VEV of the energy-momentum tensor. For both exterior and interior regions, the VEV is decomposed into boundary-free and boundary-induced parts. Both these parts are even periodic functions of the magnetic flux with the period equal to the flux quantum. The boundary-free part in the radial stress is equal to the energy density. Near the circle, the boundary-induced part in the VEV dominates and for a massless field the vacuum energy density is negative inside the circle and positive in the exterior region. Various special cases are considered.

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arXiv2012

Vacuum polarization induced by a cosmic string in anti-de Sitter spacetime

In this paper we investigate the vacuum expectation values (VEVs) of the field squared and the energy-momentum tensor associated with a massive scalar quantum field induced by a generalized cosmic string in D-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. In order to develop this analysis we evaluate the corresponding Wightman function. As we shall observe, this function is expressed as the sum of two terms: the first one corresponds to the Wightman function in pure AdS bulk and the second one is induced by the presence of the string. The second contribution is finite at coincidence limit and is used to provide closed expressions for the parts in the VEVs of the field squared and the energy-momentum tensor induced by the presence of the string. Because the analysis of vacuum polarizations effects in pure AdS spacetime have been developed in the literature, here we are mainly interested in the investigation of string-induced effects. We show that the curvature of the background spacetime has an essential influence on the VEVs at distances larger than the curvature radius. In particular, at large distances the decay of the string-induced VEVs is power-law for both massless and massive fields. The string-induced parts vanish on the AdS boundary and they dominate the pure AdS part for points near the AdS horizon.

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