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Interaction of the gravitational Hawking radiation and a static point mass

João P. B. Brito1,2,*, Atsushi Higuchi2,†, and Luís C. B. Crispino1,‡

  • *Contact author: joao.brito@icen.ufpa.br
  • †Contact author: atsushi.higuchi@york.ac.uk
  • ‡Contact author: crispino@ufpa.br
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 124084 – Published 26 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/8wm9-lx6j

Abstract

We study the interaction of a stress-energy tensor describing a static point mass supported by a string outside a Schwarzschild black hole with the gravitons of the Hawking radiation. We derive a closed-form analytic expression for the total response rate of this stress-energy tensor to the thermal gravitons in the Unruh state, which models the quantum state in the spacetime of a spherically symmetric black hole formed by gravitational collapse. This response rate is finite in contrast with the infrared divergent response rate for a static point mass supported by a string in Rindler spacetime, i.e., a point mass accelerated uniformly by a string in Minkowski spacetime. By comparing the response rate near the black hole horizon with that in Rindler spacetime, we show that the size of the black hole acts as a natural infrared cutoff. We also find that the response rate of this stress-energy tensor to the thermal gravitons incoming from past null infinity in the Hartle-Hawking state vanishes. As a result, the total response rates of a static point mass (supported by a string) in the Unruh and Hartle-Hawking states for gravitons are identical. This is also the case for a static charge interacting with the electromagnetic field but not for a static source for a massless scalar field.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 124084– Published 26 June, 2026
  • Received 18 March 2026
  • Accepted 2 June 2026
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