We study the absorption of a massless scalar field by a static black hole. Using the continuity equation that arises from the Klein-Gordon equation, it is possible to define a normalized absorption rate Γ(t) for the scalar field as it falls into the black hole. It is found that the absorption mainly depends upon the characteristics wavelengths involved in the physical system: the mean wavenumber and the width of the wave packet, but that it is insensitive to the scalar field's strength. By

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... g a limiting procedure, we determine the minimum absorption fraction of the scalar field's mass by the black hole, which is around 50