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We develop a method to compute the fermion contribution to the vacuum polarization energy of string--like configurations in a non--abelian gauge theory. This calculation has been hampered previously by a number of technical obstacles. We use gauge invariance of the energy and separation of length scales in the energy density to overcome these obstacles. We present a proof-of-principle investigation that shows that this energy is small in the MS-bar renormalization scheme. The generalization to other schemes is straightforward., Comment: 21 pages, 5 tables, matches version accepted by Nucl Phys B

We investigate an extension to the phase shift formalism for calculating one-loop determinants. This extension is motivated by requirements of the computation of Z-string quantum energies in D=3+1 dimensions. A subtlety that seems to imply that the vacuum polarization diagram in this formalism is (erroneously) finite is thoroughly investigated., Comment: Based on talk by O.S. at QFEXT07, Leipzig Sept. 2007. 8 pages

We study classically unstable string type configurations and compute the renormalized vacuum polarization energies that arise from fermion fluctuations in a 2+1 dimensional analog of the standard model. We then search for a minimum of the total energy (classical plus vacuum polarization energies) by varying the profile functions that characterize the string. We find that typical string configurations bind numerous fermions and that populating these levels is beneficial to further decrease the total energy. Ultimately our goal is to explore the stabilization of string type configurations in the standard model through quantum effects. We compute the vacuum polarization energy within the phase shift formalism which identifies terms in the Born series for scattering data and Feynman diagrams. This approach allows us to implement standard renormalization conditions of perturbation theory and thus yields the unambiguous result for this non--perturbative contribution to the total energy., Comment: 26 pages, 20 eps-files combined to 8 figures, minor typos corrected. Version to be published in Nucl. Phys. B

We study the Casimir energy of a massless scalar field that obeys Dirichlet boundary conditions on a hyperboloid facing a plate. We use the optical approximation including the first six reflections and compare the results with the predictions of the proximity force approximation and the semi-classical method. We also consider finite size effects by contrasting the infinite with a finite plate. We find sizable and qualitative differences between the new optical method and the more traditional approaches., Comment: v2: 14 pages, 11 eps figures; typo in eq. (21) removed, clarification added, fig. 10 improved; version published in Phys. Rev. A

We compute energies and energy densities of static electromagnetic flux tubes in three and four spacetime dimensions. Our calculation uses scattering data from the potential induced by the flux tube and imposes standard perturbative renormalization conditions. The calculation is exact to one-loop order, with no additional approximation adopted. We embed the flux tube in a configuration with zero total flux so that we can fully apply standard results from scattering theory. We find that upon choosing the same on-shell renormalization conditions, the functional dependence of the energy and energy density on the parameters of the flux tube is very similar for three and four spacetime dimensions. We compare our exact results to those obtained from the derivative and perturbation expansion approximations, and find good agreement for appropriate parameters of the flux tube. This remedies some puzzles in the prior literature., Comment: 49 pages, 13 figures, minor changes in wording, accepted for publication in Nucl. Phys. B

Casimir forces are conventionally computed by analyzing the effects of boundary conditions on a fluctuating quantum field. Although this analysis provides a clean and calculationally tractable idealization, it does not always accurately capture the characteristics of real materials, which cannot constrain the modes of the fluctuating field at all energies. We study the vacuum polarization energy of renormalizable, continuum quantum field theory in the presence of a background field, designed to impose a Dirichlet boundary condition in a particular limit. We show that in two and three space dimensions, as a background field becomes concentrated on the surface on which the Dirichlet boundary condition would eventually hold, the Casimir energy diverges. This result implies that the energy depends in detail on the properties of the material, which are not captured by the idealized boundary conditions. This divergence does not affect the force between rigid bodies, but it does invalidate calculations of Casimir stresses based on idealized boundary conditions., Comment: 29 pages, 4 figures

The zero modes of the Dirac operator in the background of center vortex gauge field configurations in $\R^2$ and $\R^4$ are examined. If the net flux in D=2 is larger than 1 we obtain normalizable zero modes which are mainly localized at the vortices. In D=4 quasi-normalizable zero modes exist for intersecting flat vortex sheets with the Pontryagin index equal to 2. These zero modes are mainly localized at the vortex intersection points, which carry a topological charge of $\pm 1/2$. To circumvent the problem of normalizability the space-time manifold is chosen to be the (compact) torus $\T^2$ and $\T^4$, respectively. According to the index theorem there are normalizable zero modes on $\T^2$ if the net flux is non-zero. These zero modes are localized at the vortices. On $\T^4$ zero modes exist for a non-vanishing Pontryagin index. As in $\R^4$ these zero modes are localized at the vortex intersection points., Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX2e, references added, treatment of ideal vortices on the torus shortened

We study the relevance of strange degrees of freedom for nucleon structure functions. For this purpose we employ the three flavor generalization of the collective quantization approach to the chiral soliton of the bosonized Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. Contrary to many other soliton models the hadronic tensor is tractable in this model. By applying the Bjorken limit to the hadronic tensor we extract the leading twist contributions to the nucleon structure functions at the low energy scale at which the model is assumed to approximate QCD. After transforming to the infinite momentum frame and performing the DGLAP evolution program to these structure functions we compare with available data for deep inelastic electron-nucleon scattering., Comment: 33 pages, 14 eps-files included via epsfig

We study nucleon structure functions within the bosonized version of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model in which the nucleon emerges as the soliton in the chiral field. Upon boosting to the infinite momentum frame and performing the $q^2$-evolution in the context of the Gottfried sum rule for electron nucleon scattering we determine the intrinsic scale $\mu^2$ of the NJL chiral soliton. We also compute the leading twist contributions of the polarized structure functions $g_1$ and $g_2$. We compare these model predictions with experiment by evolving them from $\mu^2$ to the scale where the data are taken. Analogously we analyze the chiral-odd structure functions $h_T$ and $h_L$. Finally we generalize the treatment to flavor SU(3)., Comment: 4 pages, uses col2.sty (included). Talk presented by HW at the Int. Conf. QCD-98, Montpellier, July 1998. To appear in the proceedings

The three flavor version of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio chiral soliton model for baryons is employed to calculate the twist-2 contribution to the polarized nucleon structure function $g_1(x)$. In particular the role of the strange quark degree of freedom as a collective excitation of the chiral soliton is investigated in the context of flavor symmetry breaking. The model prediction for $g_1(x)$ refers to a low momentum scale $Q_0^2$. The leading order corrections to the scale dependence is computed along the QCD evolution program allowing to compare with data from SLAC., Comment: 12 pages, 5 ps-files included via epsfig