This book tackles quantum gravity via the socalled background field method andits effective action functional. The author presents an explicitly covariantand ef... » 

This book tackles quantum gravity via the socalled background field method andits effective action functional. The author presents an explicitly covariantand effective technique to calculate the de Witt coefficients and to analyzethe Schwingerde Wit asymptotic expansion of the effective action. He alsoinvestigates the ultraviolet behaviour of higherderivative quantumgravity.BRThe book addresses theoretical physicists graduate students as wellas researchers but should also be of interest to physicists working inmathematical or elementary particle physics. TOCBFrom the contentsB Introduction. Background Field Method in Quantum Field Theory. Techniquefor Calculation of De Witt Coefficients. Partial Summation of SchwingerDeWitt expansion. Higherderivative Quantum Gravity. References. Notation.Index. «