One-Loop Effective Action in Orbifold Compactifications

Abstract

We employ the covariant background formalism to derive generic expressions for the one-loop effective action in field theoretic orbifold compactifications. The contribution of each orbifold sector is given by the effective action of its fixed torus with a shifted mass matrix. We thus study in detail the computation of the heat kernel on tori. Our formalism manifestly separates UV sensitive (local) from UV-insensitive (nonlocal) renormalization. To exemplify our methods, we study the effective potential of 6d gauge theory as well as kinetic terms for gravitational moduli in 11d supergravity.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, v2: appendix on zeta function regularization added, discussion of 6d example expanded, version to appear in JHE