Gravitational self-force in non-vacuum spacetimes: an effective field theory derivation

Abstract: In this paper we investigate the motion of small compact objects in non-vacuum spacetimes using methods from effective field theory in curved spacetime. Although a vacuum formulation is sufficient in many astrophysical contexts, there are applications such as the role of the self-force in enforcing cosmic-censorship in the context of the overcharging problem, which necessitate an extension into the non-vacuum regime. The defining feature of the self-force problem in non-vacuum spacetimes is the coupling between gravitational and non-gravitational field perturbations. The formulation of the self-force problem for non-vacuum spacetimes was recently provided in simultaneous papers by Zimmerman and Poisson [1] and Linz, Friedmann, Wiseman [2]. Here we distinguish ourselves by working with the effective action rather than the field equations. The formalism utilizes the multi-index notation developed by Zimmerman and Poisson [1] to accommodate the coupling between the different fields. Using dimensional regularization, we arrive at a finite expression for the local self-force expressed in terms of multi-index quantities evaluated in the background spacetime. We then apply the formalism to compute the coupled gravitational self-force in two explicit cases. First, we calculate the self-force on a massive particle possessing scalar charge and moving in an scalarvac spacetime. We then derive an expression for the self-force on an electrically charged, massive particle moving in an electrovac spacetime. In both cases, the force is expressed as a sum of local terms involving tensors defined in the background spacetime and evaluated at the current position of the particle, as well as tail integrals that depend on the past history of the particle.