Evaporating black-holes, wormholes, and vacuum polarisation : must they always conserve charge?

Gratus, Jonathan and Kinsler, Paul and McCall, Martin (2019) Evaporating black-holes, wormholes, and vacuum polarisation : must they always conserve charge? Foundations of Physics, 49 (4). pp. 330-350. ISSN 0015-9018

[thumbnail of Gratus-KM-2017fp]
Preview
PDF (Gratus-KM-2017fp)
Gratus_KM_2017fp.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (622kB)

Abstract

Abstract A careful examination of the fundamentals of electromagnetic theory shows that due to the underlying mathematical assumptions required for Stokes' Theorem, charge conservation cannot be guaranteed in topologically non-trivial spacetimes. However, in order to break the charge conservation mechanism we must also allow the electromagnetic excitation fields D, H to possess a gauge freedom, just as the electromagnetic scalar and vector potentials and A do. This has implications for the treatment of electromagnetism in spacetimes where black holes both form and then evaporate, as well as extending the possibilities for treating vacuum polarisation. Using this gauge freedom of D, H we also propose an alternative to the accepted notion that a charge passing through a wormhole necessarily leads to an additional (effective) charge on the wormhole's mouth.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Foundations of Physics
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3100
Subjects:
?? lectromagnetismtopologycharge-conservationconstitutive relationsgauge freedomphysics and astronomy(all) ??
ID Code:
132271
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
27 Mar 2019 16:35
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
24 Nov 2023 00:26