Eur. Phys. J. C (2004) 37: 511-523
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2004-02021-2

theoretical physics

Covariant derivative expansion of the heat kernel

Departamento de Física Moderna, Universidad de Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain

^* e-mail: salcedo@ugr.es

Abstract

Using the technique of labeled operators, compact explicit expressions are given for all traced heat kernel coefficients containing zero, two, four and six covariant derivatives, and for diagonal coefficients with zero, two and four derivatives. The results apply to boundaryless flat space-times and arbitrary non-Abelian scalar and gauge background fields.