Notes on peculiarities of Schwinger--DeWitt technique: one-loop double poles, total-derivative terms and determinant anomalies

TL;DR

This paper analyzes peculiarities in the Schwinger--DeWitt technique, revealing how nonminimal operators cause double-pole divergences and determinant anomalies in quantum effective actions for massive fields in curved spacetime.

Contribution

It uncovers the origin of double-pole divergences and determinant anomalies due to nonminimal operators, extending heat kernel theory beyond standard assumptions.

Findings

Double-pole divergences originate from total-derivative terms.

Nonminimal operators violate assumptions of standard heat kernel theory.

Determinant anomalies are linked to total-derivative terms in functional determinants.

Abstract

We discuss peculiarities of the Schwinger--DeWitt technique for quantum effective action, associated with the origin of dimensionally regularized double-pole divergences of the one-loop functional determinant for massive Proca model in a curved spacetime. These divergences have the form of the total-derivative term generated by integration by parts in the functional trace of the heat kernel for the Proca vector field operator. Because of the nonminimal structure of second-order derivatives in this operator, its vector field heat kernel has a nontrivial form, involving the convolution of the scalar d'Alembertian Green's function with its heat kernel. Moreover, its asymptotic expansion is very different from the universal predictions of Gilkey-Seeley heat kernel theory because the Proca operator violates one of the basic assumptions of this theory -- the nondegeneracy of the principal symbol of an elliptic operator. This modification of the asymptotic expansion explains the origin of double-pole total-derivative terms. Another hypostasis of such terms is in the problem of multiplicative determinant anomalies -- lack of factorization of the functional determinant of a product of differential operators into the product of their individual determinants. We demonstrate that this anomaly should have the form of total-derivative terms and check this statement by calculating divergent parts of functional determinants for products of minimal and nonminimal second-order differential operators in curved spacetime.