Vacuum polarization energy for general backgrounds in one space dimension

For field theories in one time and one space dimensions we propose an efficient method to compute the vacuum polarization energy of static field configurations that do not allow a decomposition into symmetric and anti-symmetric channels. The method also applies to scenarios in which the masses of th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: H. Weigel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2017-03-01
Series:Physics Letters B
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269316308012
Description
Summary:For field theories in one time and one space dimensions we propose an efficient method to compute the vacuum polarization energy of static field configurations that do not allow a decomposition into symmetric and anti-symmetric channels. The method also applies to scenarios in which the masses of the quantum fluctuations at positive and negative spatial infinity are different. As an example we compute the vacuum polarization energy of the kink soliton in the ϕ6 model. We link the dependence of this energy on the position of the soliton to the different masses.
ISSN:0370-2693
1873-2445