INEQUIVALENCE OF THE MASSIVE VECTOR-MESON AND HIGGS MODELS ON A MANIFOLD WITH BOUNDARY

The exact quantization of two models, the massive vector meson model a nd the Higgs model in the London limit, both describing massive photon s, is presented. Even though naive arguments (based on gauge-fixing) m ay indicate the equivalence of these models, it is shown here that thi s is not true in general when we consider these theories on manifolds with boundaries. We show, in particular, that they are equivalent only for a special choice of the boundary conditions that we are allowed t o impose on the fields.