Regular Solutions in Vacuum Brans-Dicke Theory Compared to Vacuum Einstein Theory

We will confront some static spherically symmetric vacuum Brans-Dicke solutions in the Jordan and Einstein Frames with the Robertson parameters. While the regular solution in the vacuum Einstein theory is just the Schwarzschild black hole, the same in the Jordan frame Brans-Dicke theory is shown to represent not a black hole but a traversable wormhole. But, in this case, the valid range of becomes too narrow to yield the observed weak field Robertson parameters at the positive mass mouth. The corresponding solution in the Einstein frame also provides a regular wormhole, and it yields the correct parametric values but only up to “one and half order.” We argue that a second-order contribution can in principle distinguish between the signatures of the regular wormhole and the singular Buchdahl solution in the Einstein frame. Thus, at the level of regular solutions, Brans-Dicke theory in each frame predicts effects very different from those of Einstein’s theory. To our knowledge, these theoretical distinctions seem not to have received adequate attention so far.