| dc.description.abstract | In this thesis, we calculate the one-loop corrections induced by a non-minimally coupled massive scalar to the gravitational potentials sourced by a static point mass and the gravitational waves emitted by a binary system, by solving the effective Einstein field equations. We show that the dressed graviton propagator is proportional to the bare propagator at the infrared limit, which allows us to choose the convenient on-shell renormalization scheme. At large distances, the corrections to the gravitational potentials are found to fall off at the same rate as the vacuum polarization correction to the electric potential, showing a connection between gravity and electromagnetism. For the gravitational waves, due to the non-zero mass of the scalar, the quantum corrections contain not only outgoing but also incoming and standing waves, which seems as if the waves are partially reflected by the massive scalar. | |
