GAUGE-INDEPENDENT TRACE ANOMALY FOR GRAVITONS

Authors
CHO HT KANTOWSKI R
Citation
Ht. Cho et R. Kantowski, GAUGE-INDEPENDENT TRACE ANOMALY FOR GRAVITONS, Physical review. D. Particles and fields, 52(8), 1995, pp. 4600-4608
Citations number
24
Categorie Soggetti
Physics, Particles & Fields
Journal title
Physical review. D. Particles and fields → ACNP
ISSN journal
05562821
Volume
52
Issue
8
Year of publication
1995
Pages
4600 - 4608
Database
ISI
SICI code
0556-2821(1995)52:8<4600:GTAFG>2.0.ZU;2-V
Abstract
We show that the trace anomaly for gravitons calculated using the usua l effective action formalism depends on the choice of gauge when the b ackground spacetime is not a solution of the classical equation of mot ion, that is, when off shell. We then use the gauge-independent Vilkov isky-DeWitt effective action to restore gauge independence to the off- shell case. Additionally we explicitly evaluate trace anomalies for so me N-sphere background spacetimes.