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

Abstract

An analytical approximation of $<T_{\mu\nu}>$ for a quantized scalar field in a static spherically symmetric spacetime with a topology $S^2 \times R^2$ is obtained. The gravitational background is assumed slowly varying. The scalar field is assumed to be both massive and massless, with an arbitrary coupling $\xi$ to the scalar curvature and in a zero temperature vacuum state. It is demonstrated that for some values of curvature coupling the stress-energy has the properties needed to support the wormhole geometry.