Title: 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