Macroscopic backreaction of the trace anomaly on classical vacuum backgrounds

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum effects, specifically the trace anomaly, influence classical black hole backgrounds by analyzing the backreaction of quantum fields in the Schwarzschild spacetime using a specialized stress-energy tensor.

Contribution

It introduces an order-reduction method for the stress-energy tensor derived from the conformal anomaly and compares its effects on the Schwarzschild geometry with other approximation methods.

Findings

Quantum backreaction modifies the Schwarzschild geometry.

The order-reduction approach preserves stress-energy conservation.

Results align with other approximation methods in the literature.

Abstract

We study the backreaction of quantum fields in the Boulware vacuum state on the Schwarzschild geometry, using the Riegert--Mottola--Vaulin renormalized stress-energy tensor derived from the conformal anomaly. An order-reduction procedure is applied to the first order, paying special attention to the conservation of the resulting stress-energy tensor. The results obtained in these different situations are compared between them, and also to recent works in the literature using other approximations for the renormalized stress-energy tensor.