Heat Kernel and Quantum Gravity

Description:

This book tackles quantum gravity via the so-called background field method and its effective action functional. The author presents an explicitly covariant and effective technique to calculate the de Witt coefficients and to analyze the Schwinger-de Wit asymptotic expansion of the effective action. He also investigates the ultraviolet behaviour of higher-derivative quantum gravity. The book addresses theoretical physicists, graduate students as well as researchers, but should also be of interest to physicists working in mathematical or elementary particle physics.

subjects: Spectral geometry,  Quantum gravity,  Kernel functions,  Quantum field theory,  Physics,  Relativity (Physics),  Mathematical physics,  Physics beyond the Standard Model,  Mathematical Methods in Physics,  Relativity and Cosmology