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Agullo, I., del Rio, A., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2018). Classical and quantum aspects of electric-magnetic duality rotations in curved spacetimes. Phys. Rev. D, 98(12), 125001–22pp.
Abstract: It is well known that the source-free Maxwell equations are invariant under electric-magnetic duality rotations, F -> F cos theta +*F sin theta. These transformations are indeed a symmetry of the theory in the Noether sense. The associated constant of motion is the difference in the intensity between self-dual and anti-self-dual components of the electromagnetic field or, equivalently, the difference between the right and left circularly polarized components. This conservation law holds even if the electromagnetic field interacts with an arbitrary classical gravitational background. After reexamining these results, we discuss whether this symmetry is maintained when the electromagnetic field is quantized. The answer is in the affirmative in the absence of gravity but not necessarily otherwise. As a consequence, the net polarization of the quantum electromagnetic field fails to be conserved in curved spacetimes. This is a quantum effect, and it can be understood as the generalization of the fermion chiral anomaly to fields of spin one.
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Marañon-Gonzalez, F. J., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2023). Adiabatic regularization for spin-1 fields. Phys. Rev. D, 108(12), 125001–11pp.
Abstract: We analyze the adiabatic regularization scheme to renormalize Proca fields in a four-dimensional Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker spacetime. The adiabatic method is well established for scalar and spin-1/2 fields, but is not yet fully understood for spin-1 fields. We give the details of the construction and show that, in the massless limit, the renormalized stress-energy tensor of the Proca field is closely related to that of a minimally coupled scalar field. Our result is in full agreement with other approaches, based on the effective action, which also show a discontinuity in the massless limit. The scalar field can be naturally regarded as a Stueckelberg-type field. We also test the consistency of our results in de Sitter space.
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Agullo, I., Landete, A., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2014). Electric-magnetic duality and renormalization in curved spacetimes. Phys. Rev. D, 90(12), 124067–7pp.
Abstract: We point out that the duality symmetry of free electromagnetism does not hold in the quantum theory if an arbitrary classical gravitational background is present. The symmetry breaks in the process of renormalization, as also happens with conformal invariance. We show that a similar duality anomaly appears for a massless scalar field in 1 + 1 dimensions.
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Agullo, I., del Rio, A., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2017). Electromagnetic Duality Anomaly in Curved Spacetimes. Phys. Rev. Lett., 118(11), 111301–5pp.
Abstract: The source-free Maxwell action is invariant under electric-magnetic duality rotations in arbitrary spacetimes. This leads to a conserved classical Noether charge. We show that this conservation law is broken at the quantum level in the presence of a background classical gravitational field with a nontrivial Chern-Pontryagin invariant, in parallel with the chiral anomaly for massless Dirac fermions. Among the physical consequences, the net polarization of the quantum electromagnetic field is not conserved.
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Agullo, I., Navarro-Salas, J., Olmo, G. J., & Parker, L. (2010). Reply to "Comment on 'Insensitivity of Hawking radiation to an invariant Planck-scale cutoff' ''. Phys. Rev. D, 81(10), 108502–3pp.
Abstract: We clarify the relationship between the conclusions of the previous Comment of A. Helfer [A. Helfer, preceding Comment, Phys. Rev. D 81, 108501 (2010)] and that of our Brief Report [I. Agullo, J. Navarro-Salas, G. J. Olmo, and L. Parker, Phys. Rev. D 80, 047503 (2009).].
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