The Hadamard representation of the Green's function of a quantum field on a curved space-time is a powerful tool for computations of renormalized expectation values. We study the Hadamard form of the Feynman Green's function for a massive charged complex scalar field in an arbitrary number of space-time dimensions. Explicit expressions for the coefficients in the Hadamard parametrix are given for two, three and four space-time dimensions. We then develop the formalism for the Hadamard renormalization of the expectation values of the scalar field condensate, current and stress-energy tensor. These results will have applications in the computation of renormalized expectation values for a charged quantum scalar field on a charged black hole space-time, and hence in addressing issues such as the quantum stability of the inner horizon.

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The Hadamard parametrix is a representation of the short-distance singularity structure of the Feynman Green’s function for a quantum field on a curved spacetime background. Subtracting these divergent terms regularizes the Feynman Green’s function and enables the computation of renormalized expectation values of observables. We study the Hadamard parametrix for a charged, massive, complex scalar field in five spacetime dimensions. Even in Minkowski spacetime, it is not possible to write the Feynman Green’s function for a charged scalar field exactly in closed form. We, therefore, present covariant Taylor series expansions for the biscalars arising in the Hadamard parametrix. On a general spacetime background, we explicitly state the expansion coefficients up to the order required for the computation of the renormalized scalar field current. These coefficients become increasingly lengthy as the order of the expansion increases, so we give the higher-order terms required for the calculation of the renormalized stress-energy tensor in Minkowski spacetime only.

We study the canonical quantization of a massless charged scalar field on a Reissner-Nordström black hole background. Our aim is to construct analogues of the standard Boulware, Unruh and Hartle-Hawking quantum states which can be defined for a neutral scalar field, and to explore their physical properties by computing differences in expectation values of the scalar field condensate, current and stress-energy tensor operators between two quantum states. Each of these three states has a non-time-reversal-invariant "past" and "future" charged field generalization, whose properties are similar to those of the corresponding "past" and "future" states for a neutral scalar field on a Kerr black hole. In addition, we present some tentative, time-reversal-invariant, equilibrium states. The first is a "Boulware"-like state which is as empty as possible at both future and past null infinity. Second, we posit a "Hartle-Hawking"-like state which may correspond to a thermal distribution of particles. The construction of both these latter states relies on the use of nonstandard commutation relations for the creation and annihilation operators pertaining to superradiant modes.