We compute the renormalized vacuum polarization for a massless, conformally coupled scalar field on asymptotically anti–de Sitter black hole backgrounds. Mixed (Robin) boundary conditions are applied on the spacetime boundary. We consider black holes with nonspherical event horizon topology as well as spherical event horizons. The quantum scalar field is in the Hartle-Hawking state, and we employ Euclidean methods to calculate the renormalized expectation values. Far from the black hole, we find that the vacuum polarization approaches a finite limit, which is the same for all boundary conditions except Dirichlet boundary conditions.

• Received 24 October 2020
• Accepted 8 December 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.045007

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Published by the American Physical Society