Casimir Energies for 6D Supergravities Compactified on T_2/Z_N with Wilson Lines

TL;DR

This paper calculates the one-loop Casimir energy in 6D supergravity compactified on T_2/Z_N orbifolds, analyzing its dependence on shape, Wilson lines, and mass, with implications for dark energy models.

Contribution

It extends previous calculations of Casimir energies to general boundary conditions and includes detailed regularization, applicable to supersymmetric 6D theories with potential cosmological implications.

Findings

Explicit dependence of Casimir energy on mass and moduli

Regularization methods for divergent potentials

Potential applications to Dark Energy in SLED models

Abstract

We compute (as functions of the shape and Wilson-line moduli) the one-loop Casimir energy induced by higher-dimensional supergravities compactified from 6D to 4D on 2-tori, and on some of their Z_N orbifolds. Detailed calculations are given for a 6D scalar field having an arbitrary 6D mass m, and we show how to extend these results to higher-spin fields for supersymmetric 6D theories. Particular attention is paid to regularization issues and to the identification of the divergences of the potential, as well as the dependence of the result on m, including limits for which m^2 A<< 1 and m^2 A>> 1 where A is the volume of the internal 2 dimensions. Our calculation extends those in the literature to very general boundary conditions for fields about the various cycles of these geometries. The results have potential applications towards Supersymmetric Large Extra Dimensions (SLED) as a theory of the Dark Energy. First, they provide an explicit calculation within which to follow the dependence of the result on the mass of the bulk states which travel within the loop, and for heavy masses these results bear out the more general analysis of the UV-sensitivity obtained using heat-kernel methods. Second, because the potentials we find describe the dynamics of the classical flat directions of these compactifications, within SLED they would describe the present-day dynamics of the Dark Energy.