FINITE QUANTUM FLUCTUATIONS ABOUT STATIC-FIELD CONFIGURATIONS

We develop an unambiguous and practical method to calculate one-loop q uantum corrections to the energies of classical time-independent field configurations in renormalizable field theories. We show that the sta ndard perturbative renormalization procedure suffices here as well. We apply our method to a simplified model where a charged scalar couples to a neutral ''Higgs'' field, and compare our results to the derivati ve expansion. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights r eserved.