English

Vacuum polarization in the Schwarzschild black hole with a global monopole

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-02-12 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We investigate vacuum polarization on the event horizon of a Schwarzschild black hole carrying a global monopole. For a massless scalar field Ψ\Psi in the Hartle-Hawking state and with arbitrary curvature coupling, we compute the renormalized vacuum expectation value Ψ2ren\langle \Psi^2 \rangle_{\textrm{ren}}. The monopole produces a solid-angle deficit and makes the spacetime non-Ricci-flat. Working perturbatively in the monopole parameter η\eta and retaining terms through O(η2)O(\eta^2), we find that Ψ2ren\langle \Psi^2 \rangle_{\textrm{ren}} on the horizon splits into two contributions: a genuinely monopole-induced term evaluated at the horizon and the usual Schwarzschild result - with the event horizon radius modified by the presence of η\eta. Our result parallels earlier analyses for Schwarzschild black holes pierced by a cosmic string.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.10899,
  title  = {Vacuum polarization in the Schwarzschild black hole with a global monopole},
  author = {Leonardo G. Barbosa and Victor H. M. Ramos and João Paulo M. Pitelli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.10899},
  year   = {2026}
}