Vacuum polarization induced by a cosmic string and a brane in AdS spacetime

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the vacuum polarization effects associated to a charged quantum massive scalar field on a $$(D+1)$$ ( D + 1 ) -dimensional anti-de Sitter background induced by a magnetic-flux-carrying cosmic string in the braneworld model context. We consider the brane parallel to the anti-de Sitter boundary and the cosmic string orthogonal to them. Moreover, we assume that the field obeys the Robin boundary condition on the brane. Because the brane divides the space into two regions with different properties of the quantum vacuum, we calculate the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the field squared and the energy–momentum tensor (EMT) in each region. To develop these analyses, we have constructed the positive frequency Wightman function for both regions. The latter is decomposed in a part associated with the anti-de Sitter bulk in the presence of a cosmic string only, and the other part induced by the brane. The vacuum polarization effects associated with the higher-dimensional anti-de Sitter bulk in the presence of cosmic string have been developed in the literature, and here we are mainly interested in the effects induced by the brane. We show that the VEVs of the field squared and the components of the EMT induced by the cosmic string are finite on the brane. Explicitly, we compare these observables with the corresponding ones induced by the brane only, and show that near the brane the contribution induced by the latter is larger than the one induced by the string; however, for points distant from the brane the situation is reversed. Moreover, some asymptotic expressions for the VEV of the field squared and EMT are provided for specific limiting cases of the physical parameters of the model. Also, an application of our results is given for a cosmic string in the $$Z_2$$ Z 2 -symmetric Randall–Sundrum braneworld model with a single brane.