Schwarzschild geometry counterpart in semiclassical gravity

We investigate the effects of vacuum polarization on vacuum static spherically symmetric spacetimes. We start from the Polyakov approximation to the renormalized stress-energy tensor (RSET) of a minimally coupled massless scalar field. This RSET is not regular at r=0, so we define a regularized version of the Polyakov RSET. Using this regularized RSET, and under the previous symmetry assumptions, we find all the solutions to the semiclassical field equations in vacuum. The resulting counterpart to the Schwarzschild classical geometry substitutes the presence of an event horizon by a wormhole throat that connects an external asymptotically flat region with an internal asymptotic region possessing a naked singularity: there are no semiclassical vacuum solutions with well-defined Cauchy surfaces. We also show that the regularized Polyakov RSET allows for wormhole geometries of arbitrarily small throat radius. This analysis paves the way to future investigations of proper stellar configurations with an internal nonvacuum region. © 2020 American Physical Society.
Financial support was provided by the Spanish Government through Projects No. FIS2017-86497-C2-1-P, No. FIS2017-86497-C2-2-P (with FEDER contribution), and No. FIS2016-78859-P (AEI/FEDER,UE) and by the Junta de Andalucía through Project No. FQM219. C. B. and J. A. acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (Grant No. SEV-2017-0709). R. C. R. acknowledges support from the Preeminent Postdoctoral Program ( P 3 ) at UCF.