Stress-energy of a quantized scalar field in static wormhole spacetimes

TL;DR

This paper calculates the vacuum stress-energy of a quantized massive scalar field in static wormhole spacetimes using the Dewitt-Schwinger approximation, finding it insufficient to support the wormhole geometry.

Contribution

It provides analytic expressions for the stress-energy tensor in five static wormhole spacetimes, assessing its role as exotic matter.

Findings

Stress-energy does not support wormhole geometry in all cases.

Results apply to both minimally and conformally coupled scalar fields.

Analytic expressions derived for specific wormhole models.

Abstract

Static traversable wormhole solutions of the Einstein equations require ``exotic'' matter which violates the weak energy condition. The vacuum stress-energy of quantized fields has been proposed as the source for this matter. Using the Dewitt-Schwinger approximation, analytic expressions for the stress-energy of a quantized massive scalar field are calculated in five static spherically symmetric Lorentzian wormhole spacetimes. We find that in all cases, for both minimally and conformally coupled scalar fields, the stress-energy does not have the properties needed to support the wormhole geometry.