WORMHOLE EFFECTIVE INTERACTIONS IN ANTI-DE SITTER SPACETIME

The effects of asymptotically anti-de Sitter wormholes in low-energy f ield theory are calculated in full detail for three different matter c ontents: a conformal scalar field, an electromagnetic field and gravit ons. There exists a close relation between the choice of vacuum for th e matter fields and the selection of a basis of the Hilbert space of a nti-de Sitter wormholes. In the presence of conformal matter (i.e., co nformal scalar or electromagnetic fields), this relation allows us to interpret the elements of these bases as wormhole states containing a given number of particles. This interpretation is subject to the same kind of ambiguity in the definition of particle as that arising from q uantum field theory in curved spacetime. In the case of gravitons, owi ng to the nonconformal coupling, it is not possible to describe wormho le states in terms of their particle content.