SCALAR WAVES IN A WORMHOLE GEOMETRY

The reflection and transmission of massless scalar waves in the curved background geometry of a typical Lorentzian wormhole (in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensions) are discussed. Using the exact solutions which involve mod ified Mathieu (in 2+1 dimensions) and radial oblate spheroidal (in 3+1 dimensions) functions, explicit analytic expressions are obtained for the reflection and transmission coefficients at specific values of th e quantity omega b(0) (omega being the energy of the scalar wave and b (0) the throat radius of the wormhole). It is found that both near-per fect reflection as well as transmission are possible for specific choi ces of certain parameters.