Peer-Reviewed Journal Details
Mandatory Fields
Taylor, P;Breen, C
2017
November
PHYSICAL REVIEW D
Mode-sum prescription for vacuum polarization in black hole spacetimes in even dimensions
Published
9 ()
Optional Fields
SCHWARZSCHILD SPACETIME
96
We present a mode-sum regularization prescription for computing the vacuum polarization of a scalar field in static spherically symmetric black hole spacetimes in even dimensions. This is the first general and systematic approach to regularized vacuum polarization in higher even dimensions, building upon a previous scheme we developed for odd dimensions. Things are more complicated here since the even-dimensional propagator possesses logarithmic singularities which must be regularized. However, in spite of this complication, the regularization parameters can be computed in closed form in arbitrary even dimensions and for arbitrary metric function f(r). As an explicit example of our method, we show plots for vacuum polarization of a massless scalar field in the Schwarzschild-Tangherlini spacetime for even d = 4 , ... ,10. However, the method presented applies straightforwardly to massive fields or to nonvacuum spacetimes.
COLLEGE PK
2470-0010
10.1103/PhysRevD.96.105020
Grant Details