Vacuum polarization around stars: nonlocal approximation

ALEJANDRO SATZ, FRANCISCO D. MAZZITELLI, EZEQUIEL ALVAREZ

PHYSICAL REVIEW D - PARTICLE AND FILDS

American Physical Sociey

Lugar: Oak Ridge; Año: 2005 vol. 71 p. 640010 - 640017

0556-2821

 We compute the vacuum polarization associated with quantum massless fields around stars with spherical symmetry. The nonlocal contribution to the vacuum polarization is dominant in the weak field limit, and induces quantum corrections to the exterior metric that depend on the inner structure of the star. It also violates the null energy conditions. We argue that similar results also hold in the low energy limit of quantum gravity. Previous calculations of the vacuum polarization in spherically symmetric spacetimes, based on local approximations, are not adequate for newtonian stars.