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Main Authors: Barvinsky, Andrei O., Kalugin, Alexey E., Wachowski, Władysław
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06439
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author Barvinsky, Andrei O.
Kalugin, Alexey E.
Wachowski, Władysław
author_facet Barvinsky, Andrei O.
Kalugin, Alexey E.
Wachowski, Władysław
contents We suggest a systematic calculational scheme for heat kernels of covariant nonminimal operators in causal theories whose characteristic surfaces are null with respect to a generic metric. The calculational formalism is based on a pseudodifferential operator calculus which allows one to build a linear operator map from the heat kernel of the minimal operator to the nonminimal one. This map is realized as a local expansion in powers of spacetime curvature, dimensional background fields, and their covariant derivatives with the coefficients -- the functions of the Synge world function and its derivatives. Finiteness of these functions, determined by multiple proper time integrals, is achieved by a special subtraction procedure which is an important part of the calculational scheme. We illustrate this technique on the examples of the vector Proca model and the vector field operator with a nondegenerate principal symbol. We also discuss smoothness properties of heat kernels of nonminimal operators in connection with the nondegenerate nature of their operator symbols.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_06439
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Schwinger--DeWitt expansion for the heat kernel of nonminimal operators in causal theories
Barvinsky, Andrei O.
Kalugin, Alexey E.
Wachowski, Władysław
High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We suggest a systematic calculational scheme for heat kernels of covariant nonminimal operators in causal theories whose characteristic surfaces are null with respect to a generic metric. The calculational formalism is based on a pseudodifferential operator calculus which allows one to build a linear operator map from the heat kernel of the minimal operator to the nonminimal one. This map is realized as a local expansion in powers of spacetime curvature, dimensional background fields, and their covariant derivatives with the coefficients -- the functions of the Synge world function and its derivatives. Finiteness of these functions, determined by multiple proper time integrals, is achieved by a special subtraction procedure which is an important part of the calculational scheme. We illustrate this technique on the examples of the vector Proca model and the vector field operator with a nondegenerate principal symbol. We also discuss smoothness properties of heat kernels of nonminimal operators in connection with the nondegenerate nature of their operator symbols.
title Schwinger--DeWitt expansion for the heat kernel of nonminimal operators in causal theories
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06439