Quantum effects due to a moving Dirichlet point

Abstract

We study quantum effects induced by a point-like object that imposes Dirichlet boundary conditions along its world-line, on a real scalar field $\phi$ in 1, 2 and 3 spatial dimensions. The boundary conditions result from the strong coupling limit of a term quadratic in the field and localized on the particle's trajectory. We discuss the renormalization issues that appear and evaluate the effective action. Special attention is paid to the case of 2 spatial dimensions where the coupling constant is adimensional.

20 pages, 5 figures