We present a mode-sum regularization prescription for computing the vacuum
polarization of a scalar field in static spherically-symmetric black hole
spacetimes in even dimensions. This is the first general and systematic
approach to regularized vacuum polarization in higher even dimensions, building
upon a previous scheme we developed for odd dimensions. Things are more
complicated here since the even-dimensional propagator possesses logarithmic
singularities which must be regularized. However, in spite of this
complication, the regularization parameters can be computed in closed form in
arbitrary even dimensions and for arbitrary metric function f(r). As an
explicit example of our method, we show plots for vacuum polarization of a
massless scalar field in the Schwarzschild-Tangherlini spacetime for even
d=4,...,10. However, the method presented applies straightforwardly to
massive fields or to nonvacuum spacetimes.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1609.0816