O\,(1/√ω) anomaly in Brans-Dicke gravity with trace-carrying matter

We present an exact static spherisymmetric solution for the Brans-Dicke action sourced by a self-gravitating massless Klein-Gordon helicity-0 field. In contrast to the Maxwell electromagnetic field, a Klein-Gordon field possesses an energy-momentum tensor with non-vanishing trace. Upon a Weyl mapping into the Einstein frame, the transformed Brans-Dicke scalar field takes on the role of a "dilaton" coupled with the Klein-Gordon field. Despite this dilatonic coupling, the field equations of the resulting Einstein-Klein-Gordon-dilaton action are fully soluble when employing the harmonic radial coordinate. The exact solution derived herein can serve as a prototype for future Brans-Dicke gravity studies involving trace-carrying matter fields. Notably, in the limit of infinite ω, the Brans-Dicke scalar field exhibits an anomalous behavior of O\,(1/√ω) as opposed to O\,(1/ω). As a consequence, the solution converges to a spacetime configuration of General Relativity sourced by the original Klein-Gordon field and a free scalar field, the latter of which is the O\,(1/√ω) "remnant" of the Brans-Dicke scalar field. Furthermore, we provide a formal mathematical proof substantiating these two conclusions. Although the O\,(1/√ω) anomaly has been previously discovered for Brans-Dicke vacuum and Brans-Dicke-Maxwell electrovacuum, our findings establish its prevalence in Brans-Dicke gravity regardless of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor of the source. Taken together, the O\,(1/√ω) anomaly challenges the conventional belief in the O\,(1/ω) signature commonly associated with Brans-Dicke gravity. In particular, it may have implications in improving the relativistic corrections to Newtonian gravity beyond the weak-field parametrized post-Newtonian formalism.