Electrostatic interaction of a pointlike charge with a wormhole

A pointlike static (or quasistatically moving) electric charge q is considered in the spacetime which is a wormhole connecting two otherwise Minkowskian spaces. The electrostatic force acting on the charge is found to be a sum of two terms. One of them is uniquely determined by the value of q and the geometry of the wormhole. The other has the Coulomb form and is proportional to a freely specifiable parameter (the ‘charge of the wormhole’). These terms are interpreted, respectively, as the self-force and the force exerted on the charge by the wormhole. The self-force is found explicitly in the limit of vanishing throat length. The result differs from that obtained recently by Khusnutdinov and Bakhmatov.