Mathematical Tools for Calculation of the Effective Action in Quantum Gravity

We review the status of covariant methods in quantum field theory and quantum gravity, in particular, some recent progress in the calculation of the effective action via the heat kernel method. We study the heat kernel associated with an elliptic second-order partial differential operator of Laplace type acting on smooth sections of a vector bundle over a Riemannian manifold without boundary. We develop a manifestly covariant method for computation of the heat kernel asymptotic expansion as well as new algebraic methods for calculation of the heat kernel for covariantly constant background, in particular, on homogeneous bundles over symmetric spaces, which enables one to compute the low-energy non-perturbative effective action.Comment: 71 pages, 2 figures, submitted for publication in the Springer book (in preparation) "Quantum Gravity", edited by B. Booss-Bavnbek, G. Esposito and M. Lesc

Distribution Functions for Random Variables for Ensembles of positive Hermitian Matrices

Distribution functions for random variables that depend on a parameter are computed asymptotically for ensembles of positive Hermitian matrices. The inverse Fourier transform of the distribution is shown to be a Fredholm determinant of a certain operator that is an analogue of a Wiener-Hopf operator. The asymptotic formula shows that up to the terms of order $o(1)$, the distributions are Gaussian

Hypoellipticity: Geometrization and Speculation

To any finite collection of smooth real vector fields $X_j$ in $\reals^n$ we associate a metric in the phase space $T^*\reals^n$. The relation between the asymptotic behavior of this metric and hypoellipticity of $\sum X_j^2$, in the smooth, real analytic, and Gevrey categories, is explored

Gravitational Waves in Open de Sitter Space

We compute the spectrum of primordial gravitational wave perturbations in open de Sitter spacetime. The background spacetime is taken to be the continuation of an O(5) symmetric instanton saddle point of the Euclidean no boundary path integral. The two-point tensor fluctuations are computed directly from the Euclidean path integral. The Euclidean correlator is then analytically continued into the Lorentzian region where it describes the quantum mechanical vacuum fluctuations of the graviton field. Unlike the results of earlier work, the correlator is shown to be unique and well behaved in the infrared. We show that the infrared divergence found in previous calculations is due to the contribution of a discrete gauge mode inadvertently included in the spectrum.Comment: 17 pages, compressed and RevTex file, including one postscript figure fil