Probing global aspects of a geometry by the self-force on a charge: Cylindrical thin-shell wormholes

EMILIO RUBIN DE CELIS; OSVALDO SANTILLAN; CLAUDIO SIMEONE

PHYSICAL REVIEW D - PARTICLE AND FILDS

American Physical Society (APS)

Año: 2012 vol. 86 p. 1240091 - 1240097

0556-2821

We obtain the self-interaction for a point charge in the space-time of a cylindrical thin-shell wormholeconnecting two identical locally flat geometries with a constant deficit angle. Although this wormholegeometry is locally indistinguishable from a cosmic string background, the corresponding self-forces aredifferent even at the qualitative level. In fact, in the cosmic string geometry the force is always repulsivewhile for the wormhole background we find that the force may point outward or toward the wormholethroat depending on the parameters of the configuration. These results suggest that the study of theelectromagnetic fields of charged particles is a useful tool for testing the global properties of a givenbackground.