Avramidi I.G. Heat Kernel and Quantum Gravity

Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2000 — 152p. — (Lecture Notes in Physics Monographs 64) — ISBN: 978-3-540-46523-2 (eBook), 978-3-642-08646-5 (Softcover), 978-3-540-67155-8 (Hardcover).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.Background Field Method in Quantum Field Theory
Technique for Calculation of De Witt Coefficients
Partial Summation of Schwinger-De Witt Expansion
Higher-Derivative Quantum Gravity