New exact solution and $\mathcal{O}\,(1/\sqrt\omega)$ anomaly in Brans-Dicke gravity with trace-carrying matter

Abstract

We present an exact static spherisymmetric solution for the Brans-Dicke action sourced by a self-gravitating massless Klein-Gordon helicity-0 field. In contrast to the Maxwell electromagnetic field, a Klein-Gordon field possesses an energy-momentum tensor with $\textit{non-vanishing trace}$. Upon a Weyl mapping into the Einstein frame, the transformed Brans-Dicke scalar field takes on the role of a "dilaton" coupled with the Klein-Gordon field. Despite this dilatonic coupling, the field equations of the resulting Einstein-Klein-Gordon-dilaton action are fully soluble when employing the harmonic radial coordinate. The exact solution derived herein can serve as a prototype for future Brans-Dicke gravity studies involving trace-carrying matter fields. Notably, in the limit of infinite $\omega$, the Brans-Dicke scalar field exhibits an anomalous behavior of ${\cal O}\,(1/\sqrt\omega)$ as opposed to ${\cal O}\,(1/\omega)$. As a consequence, the solution converges to a spacetime configuration of General Relativity sourced by the original Klein-Gordon field and a free scalar field, the latter of which is the ${\cal O}\,(1/\sqrt\omega)$ "remnant" of the Brans-Dicke scalar field. Furthermore, we provide a formal mathematical proof substantiating these two conclusions. Although the ${\cal O}\,(1/\sqrt\omega)$ anomaly has been previously discovered for Brans-Dicke vacuum and Brans-Dicke-Maxwell electrovacuum, our findings establish its prevalence in Brans-Dicke gravity $\textit{regardless}$ of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor of the source. Taken together, the ${\cal O}\,(1/\sqrt\omega)$ anomaly challenges the conventional belief in the ${\cal O}\,(1/\omega)$ signature commonly associated with Brans-Dicke gravity. In particular, it may have implications in improving the relativistic corrections to Newtonian gravity beyond the weak-field parametrized post-Newtonian formalism.