Heat Kernel and Quantum Gravity
Author: Ivan G. Avramidi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2003-07-01
Total Pages: 153
ISBN-13: 3540465235
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis 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.