Semiclassical corrections to the photon orbits of a non-rotating black hole

TL;DR

This paper investigates how semiclassical metric fluctuations affect photon orbits around a non-rotating black hole, revealing that these fluctuations cause photons to bounce off rather than orbit infinitely.

Contribution

It introduces a calculation of semiclassical effects on photon orbits, showing how quantum fluctuations modify classical trajectories near black holes.

Findings

Photon impact parameters differ from the classical critical value due to fluctuations.

Photon orbits are altered, causing photons to bounce instead of orbiting infinitely.

Semiclassical effects are significant at the scale of metric fluctuations.

Abstract

In this brief article we discuss the corrections to the photon orbits of a non-rotating black hole due to semiclassical fluctuations of the metric. It is found that the photon orbit impact parameter differences with the critical impact parameter become of the order of the semiclassical fluctuations. We calculate the effect of the semi-classical fluctuations on the photon orbits and show that instead of circulating the black hole infinite number of times at the critical orbit, the photons bounce off the semiclassical geometry.