Self-force on a static scalar charge in a class of traversable wormhole spacetimes

Abstract

We consider the problem of computing the contribution of the self-force to the total force needed to keep a scalar charge at rest in a two-parameter family of static and spherically-symmetric wormhole spacetimes introduced by Konoplya and Zhidenko. Such wormholes belong to the more general Morris-Thorne class of traversable wormholes. This self-force is computed numerically by mode-sum regularization approach, and we investigate its dependence on redshift function (parametrized by p) determining the strength of tidal forces in the wormhole spacetime. We found that for certain range of p values, the self-force can be attractive or repulsive depending on the location of the scalar charge.