Electrostatic self-force in the field of an (n + 1)-dimensional black hole: Dimensional regularization

Abstract

The self-energy of a classical charged particle localized at a relatively large distance outside the event horizon of an (n + 1)-dimensional Schwarzschild–Tangherlini black hole for an arbitrary n ≥ 3 is calculated. An expression for the electrostatic Green function is derived in the first two orders of the perturbation theory. Dimensional regularization is proposed to be used to regularize the corresponding formally divergent expression for the self-energy. The derived expression for the renormalized self-energy is compared with the results of other authors.