PHYSICAL REVIEW D VOLUME 35, NUMBER 2 15 JANUARY 1987

Quantum field theory in the space-time of a cosmic string

B. Linet
Unite Associee au Centre National de la Recherche Scient~fiqueNo. 769, Uniuersite Pierre er Marie Curie,
Institut Henri Poincare. 11, rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
(Received 16 September 1986)
For a massive scalar field in the static cylindrically symmetric space-time describing a cosmic
string, we determine explicitly the Euclidean Green's function. We obtain also a n alternative local
form which allows us to calculate the vacuum energy-momentum tensor. In the case of a conformal
scalar field, we carry out completely the calculations.

I. I N T R O D U C T I O N The plan of the present work is as follows. In Sec. 11,

we will recall some results, which will be needed, on the
massive scalar field in the space-time of a cosmic string.
The metric of the space-time in which a conical singu- In the corresponding Riemannian manifold, we will give
larity describes a static, cylindrically symmetric cosmic in Sec. I11 the different expressions of the Green's func-
string have recently been found.' The cosmic strings have tion for a massive scalar field. As an example we will cal-
some interesting implications for cosmology.2 In particu- culate in Sec. IV the vacuum energy-momentum tensor of
lar, such a space-time is locally flat but of course it is not the conformal scalar field. We will add in Sec. V some
globally flat. Therefore it presents some distinctive global concluding remarks.
gravitational effects: it can act as a gravitational lens"
and it can induce a repulsive force on an electric ~ h a r g e . ~ 11. P R E L I M I N A R I E S
The theory of a free quantum field in a curved back-
ground space-time is also a global problem and conse- The metric of the space-time describing a static,
quently vacuum expectation values of some physical cylindrically symmetric cosmic string can be written as
quantities should not vanish. d s 2 = - d t 2 + d p 2 + ~ 2 p 2 d d 2 + d ~ with
2 O<B 1 (I)
To study quantum field theory, there are certain advan-
tages to working within the Euclidean where in a coordinate system ( t,p,d,z) with p 2 0 and 0 5 d < 277.
techniques exist for obtaining well-defined physical quan- The constant B is related to the linear mass density p of
tities, especially the vacuum expectation values of the the cosmic string located at p=O by
energy-momentum tensor operator. It is the principal 1-B
purpose of the present paper to determine explicitly the P = 4 with 0 $ ; L < f
Green's function GE( x , x o) (i.e., the Feynman propagator)
for a massive scalar field in the Riemannian manifold re- We will work in units for which G =c =Ti= I.
sulting from the complexification of the time coordinate In a previous work,' we investigated in detail the solu-
(i.e., a Wick rotation) in the space-time describing a static, tion, denoted G (p,d,z;po,do,zo;m ), to the equation
cylindrically symmetric cosmic string. In order to give (A-m2)~ ,)
= -6'3'(p,d,z;po,d0,~O (3)
the expressions of the vacuum energy-momentum tensor,
it will be more convenient to determine also G E ( x , x 0 )as a where A is the Laplacian operator for metric (1) in the
sum of the usual Green's function in Euclidean space and static case. We found that G can be expressed in an in-
a regular term, assuming that point x o is near point x . tegral form:

where is defined by the case B > which is physically justified (on the
p2+po2+(z -zo)* cosmological level p - Then, for all points ( p , b , z )
coshv = (7720). and (po,do,zo)of space-time (1) such that the coordinates
~PPO d and do verify the inequalities
For certain calculations, we derived in our previous work7 -
a more convenient form for G. We restrict ourselves to

35
- 536 81987 The American Physical Society
35
- QUANTUM FIELD THEORY IN THE SPACE-TIME OF A . . . 537

G can be expressed as the sum of two terms biscalar G E ( x , x O )on the manifold which obeys the co-
variant equation
(0-m E -8(4)(X; X o )
2 ) ~= ,
where the quantities r, R , and FBhave the expressions where is the Laplacian operator, and which vanishes
when the points x and x o are infinitely separated. In our
metric ( I ) , we replace t by - i r and the Riemannian
metric can be written

z 2 O<B < 1
d s 2 = d ~ + d p 2 + ~ Z p 2 d d 2 + d with (9)
in the coordinate system (r,p,d,z) with p 2 0 and
0 d < 2 ~ Equation
. (8) takes the form

The first term in (6) is a solution to Eq. (3) which coin-

cides with the usual solution in the Minkowskian space-
time (by performing the change of coordinate f3=Bd) and
the second term in ( 6 ) is regular.
In the Euclidean approach of the quantum field theory, The solution to Eq. (10) can be written in the following in-
the definition of the Green's function is simple: this is a tegral form:

GE(x,xo)=-
2.rr
1
S -m
+m
~ ~ ~ , d , z ; ~ ~ , d ~ , z ~ ; ( m ~ + h. ~ ) ~ ~ ~ ) c ~ ~ h ( ~ - - r ~ ~ d h
Result (11) can be easily verified taking into account the formula

8(7-r0)=-
1
27~
1- c o s h ( r - r O ) d h .
+m

111. THE GREEN'S FUNCTION

We are now in a position to determine the Green's function GE(x,xO). T O do this, we first integrate by parts integral
(4):

where

g,(<,*)= -
dl sinh({/B)
d < sinh<[cosh(</B) -cos$]
Then we apply formula ( 1 1) with G given by ( 13); we may interchange the order of integrations. We have thereby

With the aid of the Fourier cosine transformation

where Jo denotes the Bessel function, we can perform the h integration in (14) and we obtain finally the integral form
 B. LINET

where y is defined by
( Z -z0 )'
(r-ro)2+p2+po2+
coshy = ( ~ 2 0 ) .
~PPO
Result (16) is the desired Green's function which can be integrated for B = 1 to give the familiar Green's function
m
GE(x,x~)= ,/,
~ l ( [mr 2 + ( r - r o ) 2 ] " 2 )
4 ~ ~ [ r ~ + ( r -] r ~ )
for B =1 , (17 )

where K 1 is the modified Bessel function.

In order to calculate in the next section the vacuum energy-momentum tensor, it is more convenient to use an alterna-
tive form for the Green's function G E ( x , x O )It can be obtained by applying formula (11) with G given by (6) for B > t.
With the aid of the Fourier cosine transformation
Some ~ ~ [ - b ( a ~ + x ~ ) ' / ~ ]dxc o= saxb ~( b 2 + Y 2 ) 1 /l2( a~( b 2 + y 2 ) 1 / 2,) ( 1 8)
we obtain immediately G E ( x , x o )as the sum of two terms:

where

Result (19) is valid for all points x and x o of the manifold (9) such that the coordinates d and do verify inequalities ( 5 ) .
The first term in (19) is a solution to Eq. (10) which coincides with the usual Green's function in Euclidean space (by per-
forming the change of coordinate O=Bd). The second term G;(x,x,) and its derivatives are regular in the coincidence
limit x = x o
It may be of some interest to give the limit of G E ( x , x o )given by (16) when the mass m goes to zero. As J o ( 0 ) = 1, we
obtain obviously

Expression (21) corresponds to a result of ~ o w k e r 'on the Green's function, which is periodic in the imaginary Rindler
time, for a massless scalar field in a Rindler space-time.

IV. THE VACUUM ENERGY-MOMENTUM TENSOR

T o regularize the vacuum expectation values of the energy-momentum tensor operator within the Euclidean theory of
quantum field, a standard prescription is the f-function regularization. However, in our present problem we point out
that there is no trace anomaly because the Riemann tensor of metric (9) vanishes identically. Moreover, expression (19)
of the Green's function G E ( x , x o )shows off the singular part which coincides with the usual Green's function. We can
ignore infinities arising from it because we are locally in a Euclidean space and these divergences are familiar. On the
other hand, the second term and its derivatives are regular in the coincidence limit x =x,; therefore, there is no problem
for well defining the vacuum expectation values.
We consider a general form of the energy-momentum tensor parametrized by a constant 6. A procedure similar to the
one of ~ a w k i n gyields
~

where V, (VPo) means covariant differentiation with respect to the coordinates x p ( x i ) . We check that
VPpG;(x,x) = m ' G ~ ( x , x). It should be remarked that ( p P v ( x )) will not depend on the coordinate r . Consequently, ex-
pression (22) gives the vacuum energy-momentum tensor in the space-time since the change of time coordinate is r=it.
T o determine ( p P v ( x ) )given by (22), the calculations are straightforward but give complicated expressions. We have
simple results for a conformal scalar field (i.e., <=
and m =O).
The limit of G;(x,xo) when the mass m goes to zero is
-
35 QUANTUM FIELD THEORY I N T H E SPACE-TIME OF A ...

By making use of the identity

we find that ( F P v ( x ) can be written

for B > t. V. CONCLUSION

The vacuum energy-momentum tensor in the case of a
conformal scalar field has been already computed by Hel-
liwell and ~ o n k o w s k i "using another method. They have The static, cylindrically symmetric space-time describ-
found ing a cosmic string gives an example of a curved space-
time in which the scalar Green's function in the corre-
sponding Riemannian manifold has been explicitly deter-
mined. The origin of the nonvanishing vacuum energy-
momentum tensor is purely topological since the space-
A numerical analysis shows that expressions (25) and (26) time is locally flat. We remark that the energy density of
coincide for B > +. (Unfortunately, we have not a formal the vacuum energy-momentum tensor (25) or (26) diverges
proof of this result.) negatively as p+O.

'B. Linet, Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 17, 1109 (1985); and also for an Survey, edited by S . W. Hawking and W. Israel (Cambridge
extended cosmic string see J. R. Gott 111, Astrophys. J. 288, University Press, Cambridge, England, 19791, p. 639.
422 (1985);W. A. Hiscock, Phys. Rev. D 31, 3288 (1985). 6R. M. Wald, Commun. Math. Phys. 70, 221 (1979).
'A. Vilenkin, Phys. Rep. 121, 263 (19851, and references therein. 'B. Linet, Ann. Inst. Henri Poincare 45, 249 (1986).
3A. Vilenkin, Astrophys. J. Lett. 282, 51 (1984); C. J. Hogan 8J. S. Dowker, Phys. Rev. D 18, 1856 (1978).
and R. Narayan, Mon. Not. R . Astron. Soc. 211, 575 (1984). 9S. W. Hawking, Commun. Math. Phys. 55, 133 (1977).
4B. Linet, Phys. Rev. D 33, 1833 (1986). l q . M. Helliweil and D. A. Konkowski, Phys. Rev. D 34, 1918
5G. W. Gibbons, in General Relativity: A n Einstein Centenary (1986).