Quantum Love Numbers are Non-Zero

Abstract: The static Love numbers of four-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes vanish classically. We show that this is not true in the quantum theory. Working in the worldline effective field theory, we compute the leading quantum correction to the Compton amplitude for massless scalars and photons scattering off a Schwarzschild black hole at first post-Minkowskian order, and find logarithmic divergences associated with the renormalization of the static Love numbers. We conclude that renormalization-group running necessarily generates Love numbers suppressed by the square of the Planck length in units of the horizon radius, $\ell_{\rm pl}^{2}/r_{\rm h}<sup>{2}$. This is consistent with the classical vanishing being a consequence of an accidental symmetry of static general relativity, broken by quantum loops. Extrapolated to gravitational perturbations, our results suggest that the quadrupolar static Love numbers of Schwarzschild are of size $$λ\sim M r_{\rm h}^{2} \ell_{\rm pl}<sup>{2}$$.