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# New Nonlocal Effective Action

## 1. Introduction

Effective action is among the fundamental ideas of modern quantum field theory. Calculated analytically for a given background field, it gives information about the induced energy-momentum tensor of quantum fields and quantum corrections to the classical equations of motion. The nonlocal part of the effective action should contain, for instance, particle creation effects. For black holes it should be able to account simultaneously for vacuum polarization and asymptotic Hawking radiation. Various important applications of the effective action can also be found in fundamental string theory. The Lorentzian effective action, which we actually need, can be obtained from the Euclidian one, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[\varphi ]`$, via analytic continuation. In turn, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[\varphi ]`$ can be defined by the following path integral

$$\mathrm{exp}\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }[\varphi (x)]\right)=D\phi \mathrm{exp}\left(S[\phi ]+(\phi \varphi )\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Gamma }[\varphi ]}{\delta \varphi }\right),$$
(1.1)
where $`\varphi (x)`$ is a given mean field, and the functional integration over quantum fields $`\phi (x)`$ is assumed. The general semiclassical expansion of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[\varphi ]`$ begins with the one-loop contribution, which is given by the gaussian path integral

$$\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Gamma }[\varphi (x)])=D\phi \mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{2}𝑑x\sqrt{g}\phi (x)\widehat{F}(,\varphi (x))\phi (x)\right)$$
(1.2)
The operator $`\widehat{F}(,\varphi (x))`$ here determines the propagation of small field disturbances $`\phi (x)`$ on the background of $`\varphi (x)`$ and in bosonic case can generically be written down as

$$\widehat{F}=\mathrm{}+V(x),$$
(1.3)
where $`\mathrm{}=`$ $`^2g^{\mu \nu }_\mu _\nu `$ is the Laplacian in the Euclidean field theory, which becomes the d’Alembertian when analytically continued to the Lorentzian sector, and $`V(x)`$ is the potential term. Note that, for some fields, the one-loop contribution is exact, for instance, for the scalar field without self-coupling. For a properly defined measure the gaussian integral (1.2) can be formally calculated as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ln}\left(\underset{\lambda }{}\lambda \right)=\frac{1}{2}\underset{\lambda }{}\mathrm{ln}\lambda =\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{Tr}\mathrm{ln}\widehat{F},$$
(1.4)
where $`\lambda `$ are the eigenvalues of the operator $`\widehat{F}`$ corresponding to appropriately normalized eigenfunctions $`\varphi _\lambda (x)`$, $`𝑑x\sqrt{g}\varphi _\lambda (x)\varphi _\lambda ^{}(x)=\delta _{\lambda \lambda ^{}}`$. Here the functional trace $`\mathrm{Tr}`$ does not depend on a particular basis in the functional space of disturbances $`\phi `$ and, therefore, in an appropriate representation it reduces to the integral over spatial coordinates $`x`$ of the diagonal element of the operator kernel.

The effective action (1.4) is, of course, ultraviolet divergent and should be regularized, with the subsequent interpretation of explicitly isolated divergences in terms of infinite renormalizations of the coupling constants of the theory. These divergences are well understood and it is unlikely that anything new can be added here. Therefore, we concentrate on more interesting finite, and generally nonlocal, contributions to one-loop effective action. These contributions depend on infrared properties of the theory and contain nontrivial information about real physical effects. Analytical calculational schemes for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are usually based on the following integral representation of the functional trace of $`\widehat{F}`$

$$\mathrm{Tr}\mathrm{ln}\widehat{F}=\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{ds}{s}\mathrm{Tr}e^{s\widehat{F}},$$
(1.5)
where all local divergences can be easily isolated with the aid of dimensional regularization. The kernel

$$K(s|x,y)\mathrm{exp}(s\widehat{F})\delta ^{(d)}(x,y),$$
(1.6)
where $`d`$ is spacetime dimensionality, obviously satisfies the heat kernel equation

$$\frac{}{s}K(s|x,y)=\widehat{F}K(s|x,y)(\mathrm{}V(x))K(s|x,y),$$
(1.7)
with the initial condition

$$K(0|x,y)=\delta ^{(d)}(x,y)$$
(1.8)
at $`s=0.`$ The auxiliary parameter $`s`$ is usually called the proper time. Thus, calculating the effective action can be reduced to the solution of the Cauchy problem for $`K(s|x,y)`$. In fact, what we actually need is the coincidence limit of this function, since in the representation we used, the functional trace of the operator $`e^{s\widehat{F}}`$ corresponds to the integration of the diagonal elements of $`K`$ over the spacetime coordinates $`x`$, so that

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{1}{2}𝑑x\left(_0^{\mathrm{}}\frac{ds}{s}K(s|x,x)\right).$$
(1.9)
It is clear that the success of the calculation of mainly depends on our ability to find an analytical solution of the heat kernel equation and carry out the integration over the proper time in (1.9). The integral is obviously divergent as $`s0`$. As we have already mentioned above, this divergence can be easily isolated and interpreted in terms of the local ultraviolet properties of the theory. On the other hand, the behavior of the integral at infinity, $`s\mathrm{}`$, determines infrared properties of the theory and carries the physical information, e.g., particle creation. If the field has a big positive mass the proper time integral is convergent at $`s\mathrm{}`$. However, in the case of massless fields, the situation is much less trivial. The infrared convergence here depends on the approximation scheme used to calculate $`K(s|x,y)`$. Then, it is often even unclear to what extent the obtained effective action reflects the physical properties of the theory rather than the features of the approximation scheme used.

Below, we discuss the known calculational techniques, namely, the local Schwinger-DeWitt expansion , nonlocal covariant perturbation theory  and the modified gradient expansion  and point out why all of them fail when applied to interesting physical problems. Instead of them, we suggest a new method based on resummation of perturbation series and calculate new, essentially nonperturbative terms in the effective action. This method becomes indispensable in low-dimensional models $`(d2)`$ where all previously known techniques are inapplicable. In this paper, we demonstrate how our method works in flat space of dimension $`d>2,`$ while the generalization to the curved space and low-dimensional case will be considered in .

One of the main results of this paper is an exact (nonperturbative in $`V`$) late-time asymptotics for the heat kernel which in a spacetime of dimension $`d>2`$ for the coincidence limit takes the following form

$$K(s|x,x)=\frac{1}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}\left(1+\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}V(x)\right)^2,s\mathrm{}.$$
(1.10)
This asymptotics can also be found when the arguments of $`K(s|x,y)`$ are different - see Sect.4 for details. Another important result is the nonperturbative in potential expression

$$\mathrm{Tr}K(s)=\frac{1}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑x\left\{1s\left(V(x)+V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}V(x)\right)\right\}s\mathrm{}$$
(1.11)
for the functional trace of $`K(s)`$111Note that this expression for $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$ cannot be obtained directly by integrating the asymptotics (1.10) over the whole spacetime because for a given $`s`$ this asymptotics fails at $`\left|x\right|^2>s`$. Its derivation is given in Sect. 4 and Appendix B, where we show that the expressions (1.10) and (1.11) are in complete agreement with each other..

To avoid excessive use of integration signs we employ here and throughout the paper the following shorthand notation

$$\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}J(x)𝑑yG(x,y)J(y),$$
(1.12)
where $`G(x,y)`$ is the Green’s function of the operator $`\widehat{F}=\mathrm{}V`$ with zero boundary conditions at spacetime infinity, that is

$$(\mathrm{}V)G(x,y)=\delta ^{(d)}(x,y),G(x,y)0,|x|\mathrm{},$$
(1.13)
and $`J(x)`$ can be any function of various field quantities like powers of potential, its derivatives, etc. We always presume that the spacetime has the positive definite (Euclidean) signature, so that the Laplacian $`\mathrm{}`$ is negative definite assuming zero boundary conditions at infinity. Moreover we consider only non-negative potentials $`V\left(x\right)0,`$ so that the whole operator $`\widehat{F}=\mathrm{}+V`$ is positive definite. Therefore, the Green’s function (1.13) is uniquely defined and guarantees that the nonlocal expression (1.12) makes sense for $`d>2`$.

As we shall see, the asymptotics (1.10) and (1.11) are the corner stone of the technique we develop for the calculation of nonlocal contributions to the effective action. In particular, they lead to essentially nonperturbative terms which can be explicitly calculated for two broad classes of potentials with compact support, namely, for those ones which are, respectively, very small or very big in units of the inverse size of their support. For small potentials we get the terms which replace the conventional Coleman-Weinberg contribution to the effective action. In four dimensions, for instance, these terms read

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{1}{64\pi ^2}d^4xV^2\mathrm{ln}\left(d^4yV^2\right)\frac{1}{64\pi ^2}d^4xV^2\mathrm{ln}\left(d^4yV\frac{\mu ^2}{V\mathrm{}}V\right),$$
(1.14)
where the mass parameter $`\mu ^2`$ reflects the usual ultraviolet renormalization ambiguity. On the contrary, in the case of big potentials the Coleman-Weinberg action is supplemented by the nonlocal term of the form

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{1}{64\pi ^2}\underset{|x|R}{}d^4x<V+V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}V>^2.$$
(1.15)
Here $`R`$ is the size of the compact support of $`V(x)`$, that is, $`V(x)=0`$ at $`|x|>R`$, and $`<\mathrm{}>`$ denotes the spacetime averaging of the corresponding quantity over this compact domain. The obtained expressions are both nonlocal and non-analytic in the potential $`V(x)`$.

The paper is organized as follows. In Sect.2 we consider the known approximation schemes and discuss their applicability in the infrared region. Sect.3 is devoted to the nonlocal and nonlinear resummation of the Schwinger-DeWitt perturbation series, corresponding to the so-called connected graph expansion of the heat kernel. In Sect.4, as an extention of this resummation, we derive the asymptotics (1.10) and discuss its relation to the functional trace (1.11) of the heat kernel. The nonperturbative, nonlocal contributions to the effective action are obtained in Sect.5 with the aid of the new technique based on a piecewise smooth approximation for the heat kernel. In two appendices we give details of the resummation technique and derive from the covariant perturbation theory the asymptotics of the heat kernel trace (1.11) up to the first subleading order in $`1/s`$ inclusive.

## 2. Approximation schemes and infrared properties of the effective action

In flat space, which we consider in this paper, the solution of the heat kernel equation can be easily found if the potential vanishes. For an arbitrary spatially dependent potential the analytical expressions are, of course, available only in certain approximations. In the general case, it is convenient to factorize the ”zero potential” part of the solution explicitly and use the following ansatz for $`K(s|x,y)`$

$$K(s|x,y)=\frac{1}{\left(4\pi s\right)^{d/2}}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\left|xy\right|^2}{4s}\right]\mathrm{\Omega }(s|x,y),$$
(2.1)
where the factor singular in $`s`$ guarantees that the initial condition (1.8) is satisfied, provided that $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is analytic in $`s`$ at $`s=0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }(0|x,y)=1`$. If $`V=0`$, then $`\mathrm{\Omega }1`$ and hence all nontrivial information about the potential is encoded in the deviation of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ from unity.

The most well-known approximation used for the calculation of $`K(s|x,y)`$ is the so-called local Schwinger-DeWitt expansion, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is written down as a series in growing powers of the proper time $`s`$. This expansion is a very powerful tool for revealing local ultraviolet properties of the theory. However, when applied in the infrared region, it gives a finite result only for massive fields. If the potential $`V(x)`$ has a large positive constant part, that is,

$$V(x)=m^2+v(x),$$
(2.2)
where $`m^2`$ is the squared mass of the field, then the function $`\mathrm{\Omega }(s|x,y)`$ contains an overall exponential factor $`e^{sm^2}`$ and the independent of mass part is expanded in powers of $`s`$

$$\mathrm{\Omega }(s|x,y)=e^{sm^2}\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}a_n(x,y)s^n.$$
(2.3)
Here $`a_n(x,y)`$ are the two-point Schwinger-DeWitt coefficients, whoes coincidence limits $`\left(xy\right)`$ are explicitly calculable in general field theories, including gravity. Substituting (2.3) in (2.1) and then the obtained expression at $`x=y`$ in (1.9) one gets:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{1}{2\left(4\pi \right)^{d/2}}𝑑x\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left(_0^{\mathrm{}}s^{nd/21}e^{sm^2}𝑑s\right)a_n(x,x).$$
(2.4)
It is important that the exponent $`e^{sm^2}`$ is not expanded here in powers of $`s`$. Therefore, in the proper time integral it provides a cutoff at the upper limit, so that the powers of $`s`$ in this expansion get effectively replaced by powers of $`1/m^2`$. The first $`(d/2+1)`$ integrals in (2.4) diverge at $`s0`$ and should be regularized. To do that, we apply the dimensional regularization method. Namely, by replacing the dimensionality $`d`$ by $`2\omega `$, we calculate the integrals in the domain of their convergence and then analytically continue the result to $`\omega d/2`$. In spaces with even number of dimensions, which we mainly consider in what follows, this gives rise to the contribution $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{div},\mathrm{log}}`$ containing the pole at $`\omega =d/2`$ and the term logarithmic in $`m^2`$

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{div},\mathrm{log}}=\frac{1}{2(4\pi )^{\frac{d}{2}}}𝑑x\underset{n=0}{\overset{d/2}{}}\frac{(m^2)^{\frac{d}{2}n}}{\left(\frac{d}{2}n\right)!}\left[\frac{1}{\omega \frac{d}{2}}\mathrm{\Gamma }^{}\left(\frac{d}{2}n+1\right)+\mathrm{ln}\frac{m^2}{4\pi \mu ^2}\right]a_n(x,x),$$
(2.5)
where $`\omega d/2.`$ The pole corresponds to an infinite ultraviolet renormalization of the terms proportional to $`a_0,\mathrm{},a_{d/2}`$ in the original Lagrangian. Other terms in the expansion (2.4) are finite and give the infrared contribution to the total action

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{div},\mathrm{ln}}\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{m^2}{4\pi }\right)^{d/2}𝑑x\underset{n=d/2+1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(nd/2)}{(m^2)^n}a_n(x,x).$$
(2.6)
The Schwinger-DeWitt coefficients $`a_n(x,x)`$ are the homogeneous polynomials of dimensionality $`2n`$ in the units of inverse length, which are built of $`v(x)`$ and its multiple derivatives . Therefore, on dimensional grounds, they can be symbolically written down as

$$a_n(x,x)v^k(x)(^iv^j)(x),$$

where $`i`$ denotes an overall number of derivatives acting in all possible ways on $`j`$ factors of $`v(x)`$, and $`k`$ powers of $`v(x)`$ stay undifferentiated. The positive integers $`(k,j,i)`$ are related to $`n`$ as $`2(k+j)+i=2n`$. It is clear that the infinite series in (2.6) represents the expansion in growing powers of the following dimensionless quantities

$$\frac{v\left(x\right)}{m^2}1,\frac{^iv(x)}{m^{2+i}}1,$$
(2.7)
which obviously should be much smaller than unity. Only in this case the first few terms in the asymptotic series (2.6) are reliable.

Thus, the Schwinger-DeWitt expansion is applicable only in theories with small and slowly varying fields as compared to a big mass parameter. This expansion contains only local terms. This is not surprising because all nonlocal effects, e.g., particle creation, are very small for heavy particles in a weak external field and cannot be handled by this method. The Schwinger-DeWitt technique can be easily extended to curved spacetime and to theories with covariant derivatives built with respect to an arbitrary fibre-bundle connection. In this case, the perturbation potential $`v(x)`$ will also depend on the spacetime curvature tensor and fibre-bundle curvatures (commutator of covariant derivatives). The smallness of fields and their derivatives includes the requirement of the smallness of these curvatures and their derivatives as well. Despite its universality, the Schwinger-DeWitt expansion becomes inefficient when the ratios in (2.7) become of the order of unity and completely fails for massless fields. In the last case all integrals over the proper time integral are infrared divergent. This divergence has, of course, no physical meaning and is an artifact of the approximation technique used.

There are two known ways to proceed with massless fields. One possibility is the resummation of all terms which contain the undifferentiated potential $`V(x)`$ in the local Schwinger-DeWitt series (2.3). They are summed up to form an exponent similar to $`e^{sm^2}`$

$$\mathrm{\Omega }(s|x,x)=e^{sV(x)}\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\stackrel{~}{a}_n(x,x)s^n.$$
(2.8)
This method was suggested in , where a regular technique for the calculation of the modified Schwinger-DeWitt coefficients $`\stackrel{~}{a}_n(x,y)`$ was also presented. The proper time integral in (1.9) has now an infrared cutoff at $`s1/V(x)`$ and in this case the effective action is similar to (2.5) - (2.6), where $`m^2`$ is replaced by $`V(x)`$ and $`a_n(x,x)`$ by $`\stackrel{~}{a}_n(x,x)`$. It is convenient to write this action as a sum of three terms

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{div}}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CW}}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{fin}},$$
(2.9)
where the divergent part is equal to

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{div}}=\frac{1}{2(4\pi )^{\frac{d}{2}}}𝑑x\underset{n=0}{\overset{d/2}{}}\frac{(V)^{\frac{d}{2}n}}{\left(\frac{d}{2}n\right)}\left[\frac{1}{\omega \frac{d}{2}}\mathrm{\Gamma }^{}\left(\frac{d}{2}n+1\right)\mathrm{ln}4\pi \right]\stackrel{~}{a}_n(x,x).$$
(2.10)
The pole part of this action coincides with that of (2.5) if we take $`m^20`$ limit of (2.5). Actually, in this case, only the term proportional to $`a_{d/2}`$ survives in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{div},\mathrm{log}}`$ and by virtue of the relation between twiddled and untwiddled coefficients, namely,

$$a_{d/2}(x,x)=\underset{n=0}{\overset{d/2}{}}\frac{(V)^{d/2n}}{(d/2n)!}\stackrel{~}{a}_n(x,x),$$
(2.11)
the pole parts of (2.5) and (2.10) are the same. The terms proportional to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^{}(d/2n+1)`$ perform finite renormalization of the local terms $`V^{d/2n}\stackrel{~}{a}_n.`$ The logarithmic terms of (2.5) are replaced in the modified action (2.9) by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CW}}=\frac{1}{2(4\pi )^{d/2}}𝑑x\underset{n=0}{\overset{d/2}{}}\frac{(V)^{d/2n}}{(d/2n)!}\mathrm{ln}\frac{V}{\mu ^2}\stackrel{~}{a}_n=\frac{1}{2(4\pi )^{d/2}}𝑑x\mathrm{ln}\frac{V}{\mu ^2}a_{d/2}.$$
(2.12)
This is nothing but the space-time integral of the Coleman-Weinberg effective potential. For instance, in four dimensions the leading term is the original Coleman-Weinberg effective potential, $`V^2\mathrm{ln}(V/\mu ^2)/64\pi ^2`$, while the rest represents corrections due to the derivatives of $`V(x)`$. Similarly to (2.6), the finite part $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{fin}}`$ is an infinite series

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{fin}}=\frac{1}{2}𝑑x\left(\frac{V(x)}{4\pi }\right)^{d/2}\underset{n=d/2+1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\mathrm{\Gamma }(nd/2)\frac{\stackrel{~}{a}_n(x,x)}{V^n(x)}.$$
(2.13)
The modified Schwinger-DeWitt coefficients do not contain the undifferentiated potential and the typical structure of the terms entering $`\stackrel{~}{a}_n(x,x)`$ is $`^mV^j(x)`$, where $`m+2j=2n`$. Every $`V`$ here should be differentiated at least once and therefore $`mj`$. Thus the coefficients $`\stackrel{~}{a}_n`$ can be symbolically written down as

$$\stackrel{~}{a}_n(x,x)\underset{j=1}{\overset{[2n/3]}{}}^{2n2j}V^j,$$
(2.14)
where the upper value of $`j`$ is the integer part of $`2n/3`$.

This perturbation theory is efficient as long as the potential is slowly varying or bounded from below by a large positive constant, so that

$$\frac{^2V(x)}{V^2(x)}1,\frac{\left(V(x)\right)^2}{V^3(x)}1,\mathrm{}.$$
(2.15)
The case of bounded potentials reproduces the original Schwinger-DeWitt expansion for nonvanishing mass. Therefore, let us consider the potentials which vanish at spacetime infinity $`(|x|\mathrm{})`$. Namely, we assume the case of power-like falloff

$$V(x)\frac{1}{|x|^p},^mV(x)\frac{1}{|x|^{p+m}},|x|\mathrm{}$$
(2.16)
for some positive $`p`$. For such a potential terms of the perturbation series (2.13) behave as

$$\frac{\stackrel{~}{a}_n}{V^n}\underset{j=1}{\overset{[2n/3]}{}}|x|^{(p2)(nj)}$$
(2.17)
and thus decrease with $`n`$ only if $`p<2`$. For $`p2,`$ the modified gradient expansion completely breaks down. It makes sense only for slowly decreasing potentials of the form (2.16) with $`p<2`$. In this case the potential $`V(x)`$ is not integrable over the whole spacetime $`\left(𝑑xV(x)=\mathrm{}\right)`$ and moreover even the operation $`(1/\mathrm{})V(x)`$ is not well defined222For the convergence of the integral in $`\left(1/\mathrm{}\right)V`$ the potential $`V(x)`$ should fall off at least as $`1/|x|^3`$ in any spacetime dimension .. Therefore the above restriction is too strong to account for many interesting physical problems. In addition, similarly to (2.6), the asymptotic expansion (2.13) is completely local. It does not allow us to capture nonlocal effects, which are exponentially small for potentials satisfying (2.15).

The way to overcome this difficulty and to take into account nonlocal effects was suggested in the form of covariant perturbation theory (CPT) . In this theory the full potential $`V(x)`$ is treated as a perturbation and the solution of the heat equation is found as a series in its powers. From the viewpoint of the Schwinger-DeWitt expansion it corresponds to an infinite resummation of all terms with a given power of the potential and arbitrary number of derivatives. The result reads as

$$\mathrm{Tr}K(s)𝑑xK(s|x,x)=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\mathrm{Tr}K_n(s),$$
(2.18)
where

$$\mathrm{Tr}K_n(s)=𝑑x_1𝑑x_2\mathrm{}𝑑x_nF_n(s|x_1,x_2,\mathrm{}x_n)V(x_1)V(x_2)\mathrm{}V(x_n),$$
(2.19)
and the nonlocal form factors $`F_n(s|x_1,x_2,\mathrm{}x_n)`$ were explicitly obtained in . It was shown that at $`s\mathrm{}`$ the terms in this expansion behave as

$$\mathrm{Tr}K_n(s)=O\left(\frac{1}{s^{d/21}}\right),n1,$$
(2.20)
and, therefore in spacetime dimension $`d3`$ the integrals in (1.9) are infrared convergent

$$\stackrel{\mathrm{}}{}\frac{ds}{s}O\left(\frac{1}{s^{d/21}}\right)<\mathrm{}.$$
(2.21)
In one and two dimensions this expansion for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ does not exist except for the special case of the massless theory in curved two-dimensional spacetime, when it reproduces the so-called Polyakov action333This action can be obtained by integrating the conformal anomaly .. CPT should always be applicable whenever $`d3`$ and the potential $`V`$ is sufficiently small444 The conditions of the smallness of the potential are exactly opposite to those of (2.15), e.g., $`V^2/^2V1`$. However, this is true only as a rather rough estimate, because CPT is a nonlocal perturbation theory and its actual smallness “parameters” are some nonlocal functionals of the potential., so that its effective action explicitly features analyticity in the potential at $`V=0`$. Therefore, its serious disadvantage is that this theory does not allow one to overstep the limits of perturbation scheme and, in particular, discover non-analytic structures in the action if they exist.

All this implies the necessity of a new approximation technique that would allow us to overcome disadvantages of the above methods. In the rest of this paper we develop such a technique, involving further resummation of the perturbation series. We develop an infrared improved perturbation theory for the heat kernel and reveal new nonlocal and non-analytical structures in the effective action.

## 3. Resummation of proper time series

We use the exponential ansatz for the function $`\mathrm{\Omega }(s|x,y)`$ defined by Eq.(2.1):

$$\mathrm{\Omega }(s|x,y)=\mathrm{exp}\left[W(s|x,y)\right].$$

Our goal is to develop an approximation technique for $`W`$ similar to CPT, which is an alternative to the expansion in $`s`$. By virtue of (1.7) and (1.8) the function $`W(s|x,y)`$ satisfies the equation

$$\frac{W}{s}+\frac{(xy)^\mu }{s}_\mu W\mathrm{}W=V(W)^2,$$
(3.1)
with the initial condition

$$W(s=0|x,y)=0.$$
(3.2)
This equation is nonlinear in $`W`$ and we solve it by iteration, considering $`(W)^2`$ as a perturbation. For this purpose it is convenient to rewrite (3.1) - (3.2) as an integral equation. In Appendix A, it is shown that this integral equation takes the following form

$$W(s|x,y)=s_0^1𝑑\alpha e^{s\alpha (1\alpha )\stackrel{-}{\mathrm{}}}\left(V(\overline{x})(W(s\alpha |\overline{x},y))^2\right),$$
(3.3)
where the operator $`\stackrel{-}{\mathrm{}}`$ acts on the argument $`\overline{x}\overline{x}(\alpha |x,y)=\alpha x+(1\alpha )y.`$ The equation (3.3) can be easily solved if $`(W)^2V`$. As we will see later, this condition is satisfied for a broad class of potentials $`V`$. The lowest order approximation for $`W`$ is obtained by omitting $`(W)^2`$ in eq. (3.3)

$$W_0(s|x,y)=s_0^1𝑑\alpha e^{s\alpha (1\alpha )\stackrel{-}{\mathrm{}}}V(\overline{x})|_{\overline{x}=\alpha x+(1\alpha )y}.$$
(3.4)
This is a linear but essentially nonlocal functional of the potential. Further terms of the perturbation theory, $`W_n=O\left[(W_0)^n\right]`$, can be graphically represented by connected tree graphs with two derivatives in the vertices, internal lines associated with the nonlocal operator

$$f(s\mathrm{})=_0^1𝑑\alpha e^{s\alpha (1\alpha )\mathrm{}},$$
(3.5)
and external lines given by (3.4)555This graphical interpretation should not be taken too literally because integration over $`\alpha `$-parameter(s) involves also the argument $`\overline{x}\overline{x}(\alpha |x,y)`$ of the potential.. Note that this connected graph structure arises in the exponential and when expanded gives rise to the disconnected graphs. In context of the heat kernel expansion this property was observed in . Resummation of the perturbation series in $`V`$ explicitly features exponentiation of the quantities containing only connected graphs. Here we showed how this exponentiated set of connected graphs directly arises from the solution of the simple nonlinear equation (3.1). The ”propagator” (3.5) was worked out within the covariant perturbation theory in  and was also obtained in  by direct summation of gradient series.

At this stage the efficiency of the connected graph expansion is not yet obvious. Crudely, it runs in powers of the dimensionless quantity $`\left(sf(s\mathrm{})\right)^2V(x)`$ which, at least naively, should be small for slowly varying or/and small potentials. Apart from this, infrared properties of the effective action strongly depend on the lowest order approximation for $`W`$ (3.4). The effective action involves only diagonal elements of the two-point function $`W(s|x,y),`$ which look much simpler than (3.4)

$$W_0(s|x,x)=s_0^1𝑑\alpha e^{s\alpha (1\alpha )\mathrm{}}V(x).$$
(3.6)
Note that, at small $`s,`$ the function $`W_0`$ can be expanded as $`W_0=sV+O\left(s^2\right).`$ The only term with undifferentiated potential entering $`W_0`$ is linear in $`s,`$ while all other terms contain derivatives of the potential $`V.`$ The same is also true for the exact $`W,`$ which differs from $`W_0`$ by higher powers of the differentiated potential. This completely agrees with the modified gradient expansion discussed in Sect.2. However, the expression (3.6) directly involves the nonlocal operator and its late time behavior is very different from that naively expected in the modified gradient expansion and in CPT.

To show that, let us first find the coordinate representation of the operator (3.5), that is, the kernel $`f(s\mathrm{})\delta ^{(d)}(x,y)`$. Using a well-known result for the exponentiated $`\mathrm{}`$-operator

$$e^{s\alpha (1\alpha )\mathrm{}}\delta ^{(d)}(x,y)=\frac{1}{(4\pi s\alpha (1\alpha ))^{d/2}}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{|xy|^2}{4s\alpha (1\alpha )}\right),$$
(3.7)
one can write

$`{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑\alpha e^{s\alpha (1\alpha )\mathrm{}}\delta ^{(d)}(x,y)`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{e^{|xy|^2/2s}}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\beta {\displaystyle \frac{(1+\beta )^{d2}}{\beta ^{d/2}}}\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{|xy|^2}{4s}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta }}+\beta \right)\right],`$ (3.8)
where we have changed the integration variable, $`\alpha =\beta /(1+\beta )`$, $`0\beta <\mathrm{}`$. For $`d3,`$ the integral can be easily calculated and the result is expressed as a sum of McDonald functions of the argument $`|xy|^2/2s`$

$$f(s\mathrm{})\delta ^{(d)}(x,y)=\frac{2e^{|xy|^2/2s}}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}\underset{k=1}{\overset{d1}{}}C_{k1}^{d2}K_{k\frac{d}{2}}\left(|xy|^2/2s\right),$$
(3.9)
where $`C_{k1}^{d2}`$ are the binomial coefficients. For very large $`s`$, the argument of $`K_{k\frac{d}{2}}(z)`$ is small. Using the asymptotics: $`K_\nu (z)\mathrm{\Gamma }(|\nu |)(2/z)^{|\nu |}/2,z0`$, we find that at large $`s`$ the form factor is dominated by the following term

$$f(s\mathrm{})\delta ^{(d)}(x,y)=\frac{1}{2s}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(d/21)}{\pi ^{d/2}|xy|^{d2}}+O\left(\frac{1}{s^2}\right).$$
(3.10)
Taking into account the fact that

$$\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}\delta ^{(d)}(x,y)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(d/21)}{4\pi ^{d/2}|xy|^{d2}},$$
(3.11)
we finally obtain:

$$W_0(s|x,x)=sf(s\mathrm{})V=\frac{2}{\mathrm{}}V(x)+O\left(\frac{1}{s}\right).$$
(3.12)
This behavior agrees with the formal asymptotics found by the Laplace method in . Therefore, at $`s\mathrm{}`$, the function $`W_0`$ approaches a constant. The nonlocal functional (3.12) is well-defined for $`d3`$ only if the potential $`V`$ vanishes fast enough at $`|x|\mathrm{}`$.

For splitted arguments the asymptotics of $`W_0(s|x,y)`$ is more intricate. In this case the form factor (3.5) no longer arises as a whole because the integration parameter $`\alpha `$ appears in eq.(3.4) also in the argument $`\overline{x}=\alpha x+(1\alpha )y`$ of the potential $`V(\overline{x})`$. Applying the Laplace method, one can show that the integral (3.4) is dominated by the contribution of the end points, $`\alpha =0`$ and $`\alpha =1`$. These contributions are different because $`\overline{x}(\alpha =0)=y`$ and $`\overline{x}(\alpha =1)=x`$, whence

$$W_0(s|x,y)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}V(x)\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}V(y)+O\left(\frac{1}{s}\right).$$
(3.13)
Substituting this expression in (3.3) and solving the integral equation by iterations one can find the late time asymptotics $`W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)`$ for the exact $`W(s|x,y)`$

$$W(s|x,y)=W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)+O\left(\frac{1}{s}\right)$$
(3.14)
as a nonlocal gradient series

$$W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}V(x)+\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}(\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}V(x))^2+\mathrm{}+(xy).$$
(3.15)
It is remarkable, however, that this series can be ”summed up” and the nonlocal expression for $`W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)`$ can be found exactly in terms of the Green’s function of the original operator $`\widehat{F}=\mathrm{}+V`$.

## 4. Late time asymptotics of the heat kernel

By substituting the late time ansatz (3.14) in equation (3.1), it is easy to see that the first two terms in its left hand side vanish at $`s\mathrm{}`$, while the rest reduce to the equation for $`W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)`$

$$(\mathrm{}V)e^{W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)}=0.$$
(4.1)
Despite the positivity of the operator $`\mathrm{}+V`$ with Dirichlet boundary conditions at $`|x|\mathrm{}`$, this equation admits non-trivial solutions. In fact, $`e^{W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)}`$ does not have to go to zero at infinity666The boundary condition $`K(s|x,y)0`$ at $`|x|\mathrm{}`$ is enforced by the gaussian factor in (2.1), even for nonvanishing finite $`\mathrm{\Omega }(s|x,y)=\mathrm{exp}(W(s|x,y)`$.. In view of the iterative solution (3.15) it should tend to some unknown function of $`y`$

$$e^{W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)}C(y),|x|\mathrm{}.$$
(4.2)
The equation (4.1) with this boundary condition is then solved by

$$e^{W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)}=C(y)\mathrm{\Phi }(x),$$
(4.3)
if the new function $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ satisfies the equation

$$(\mathrm{}V)\mathrm{\Phi }(x)=0,$$
(4.4)
and $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)1`$ at $`|x|\mathrm{}`$. The solution of this problem for $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ is uniquely determined in terms of the Green’s function (1.13)

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(x)=1+\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}V(x).$$
(4.5)
This function of $`x`$ is a nonlocal and essentially nonlinear functional of the potential, and it will play a very important role in what follows.

The heat kernel is symmetric in its arguments $`x,y`$ and, therefore, the unknown function $`C(y)`$ should coincide with $`\mathrm{\Phi }(y)`$. Thus, finally we obtain the following exact late time asymptotics

$$e^{W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)}=\mathrm{\Phi }(x)\mathrm{\Phi }(y).$$
(4.6)
Expanding $`W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)`$ in powers of the potential $`V`$ one gets

$`W_{\mathrm{}}(x,y)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Phi }(x)\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Phi }(y)`$ (4.7)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}}}V(x){\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}}}V{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}}}V(x)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}}}V(x)\right)^2+\mathrm{}+(xy).`$
The first term here is in agreement with the perturbative asymptotics (3.15). However, beyond that, the iterative solution (3.15) seems to be in contradiction with (4.7). The series (3.15) runs in powers of the differentiated potential, while the expansion (4.7) contains only undifferentiated potential. However, integration by parts in the second term of (3.15) exactly reproduces the second and third terms of (4.7). Thus, both expansions are equivalent, but the first one reveals more explicitly the gradient of the potential as a small parameter, while in (4.7) the smallness is a result of non-trivial cancellations between different terms.

Finally we write down the exact late time asymptotics for the heat kernel, advocated in Introduction,

$$K(s|x,y)=\frac{1}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}\mathrm{\Phi }(x)\mathrm{\Phi }(y),s\mathrm{}.$$
(4.8)
Its heuristic interpretation is rather transparent. The heat kernel can be decomposed in the series

$$K(s|x,y)=\underset{\lambda }{}e^{\lambda s}\mathrm{\Phi }_\lambda (x)\mathrm{\Phi }_\lambda (y),$$
(4.9)
where $`\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\lambda `$ are, respectively, the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the operator $`\widehat{F}=\mathrm{}+V(x)`$. Since $`\widehat{F}`$ is a positive-semidefinite operator, only the lowest eigenmode with $`\lambda =0`$ survives in this expression in the limit $`s\mathrm{}`$. The appropriate eigenfunction satisfies the equation $`\widehat{F}\mathrm{\Phi }_{\lambda =0}=0`$, which coincides with (4.4) and therefore $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\lambda =0}(x)=\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$. The spectrum of the operator is continuous and the eigenmodes are not square integrable $`\left(\mathrm{\Phi }_0(x)1\text{ at }|x|\mathrm{}\right)`$. This is why the integral over the spectrum, denoted above by $`_\lambda `$, yields within the steepest decent approximation the power-like asymptotics, $`1/s^{d/2}`$, rather than the exponential one. Of course, these arguments are not very rigorous. The zero mode $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ with unit boundary condition at infinity, does not even belong to the continuous spectrum of modes normalized to the delta function. Nevertheless, as we have seen, this particular mode gives the leading contribution to the late time asymptotics of the heat kernel.

If we want to calculate the contribution to the effective action due to the late time behavior of the heat kernel we need its functional trace – spacetime integral of the coincidence limit $`K(s|x,x)`$. Unfortunately, the expression (4.8) cannot be used directly to calculate $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$ for a given $`s`$. Point is that this asymptotic expression taken at a fixed large $`s`$ is applicable only for $`|x|^2<s`$ and fails at $`|x|^2s`$777This follows from the derivation of (4.8) above, which is based on discarding the second term of eq.(3.1) linearly growing in $`(xy)/s`$.. At the same time, when calculating the trace we have to integrate over the whole spacetime up to $`|x|\mathrm{}`$ and therefore need the heat kernel behavior for $`|x|^2s`$. The attempt to disregard this subtlety and integrate the coincidence limit of (4.8) over $`x`$ results in a poorly defined quantity – the spacetime integral strongly divergent at infinity. Nevertheless, one can use the expression (4.8) to find $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$ with the aid of the following somewhat subtler procedure.

First let us write the variational relation

$$\delta \mathrm{Tr}K(s)=s\mathrm{Tr}\left(\delta VK(s)\right)=s𝑑x\delta V(x)K(s|x,x),$$
(4.10)
where, of course, $`K(s)=\mathrm{exp}[s(\mathrm{}V)]`$. Then it follows that

$$\frac{\delta \mathrm{Tr}K(s)}{\delta V(x)}=sK(s|x,x).$$
(4.11)
Substituting $`K(s|x,x)`$ from (4.8) in the right hand side of this relation we obtain the following functional differential equation

$$\frac{\delta \mathrm{Tr}K(s)}{\delta V(x)}=\frac{s}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}\mathrm{\Phi }^2(x).$$
(4.12)
This equation satisfies the intergrability condition, because the variational derivative

$$\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }^2(x)}{\delta V(y)}=2\mathrm{\Phi }(x)\mathrm{\Phi }(y)\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}\delta (x,y)$$
(4.13)
is symmetric in $`x`$ and $`y`$. Therefore (4.12) can be integrated to determine $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$. The solution subject to the obvious boundary conditions at $`V=0`$ reads

$$\mathrm{Tr}K(s)=\frac{1}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑x\left(1sV\mathrm{\Phi }\right),s\mathrm{}.$$
(4.14)
One can easily check that this expression satisfies the equation (4.12).

It is remarkable that in the covariant perturbation theory the leading and next subleading (in $`s`$) terms of the heat kernel trace can be explicitly calculated for $`s\mathrm{}`$ in every order of expansion in powers of $`V`$. The corresponding infinite series can be explicitly summed up to yield essentially nonlocal and nonlinear in $`V(x)`$ expression for $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$. This is done in Appendix B to the first subleading order inclusive. The following very simple and concise result reads as

$`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\left\{1sV\mathrm{\Phi }2_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }+O\left(\frac{1}{s}\right)\right\}}`$ (4.15)
in terms of the function $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ and its derivatives. As we see, it exactly reproduces the leading order term of (4.14), $`O(s/s^{d/2})`$, and also gives a nontrivial $`O(1/s^{d/2})`$-correction. Below we use this asymptotics for obtaining new types of the nonlocal effective action.

## 5. Effective action

The functional trace of the heat kernel is everything we need for the calculation of the effective action. Unfortunately, only its asymptotics are known. Namely, at small $`s`$ one can use the modified gradient expansion (2.1), (2.8) and at large $`s`$ – the nonlocal and nonlinear expression (4.15). The goal of this section is to unify both of these approximations to get the expression for the effective action which would incorporate both the ultraviolet and infrared properties of the theory. The calculation will be explicitly done in four dimensional case. The generalization to other dimensions $`d>2`$ is straightforward.

The key idea is to replace $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$ in (1.9) by some approximate function $`\mathrm{Tr}\overline{K}(s)`$ such that the integral over $`s`$

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}=\frac{1}{2}\frac{ds}{s}\mathrm{Tr}\overline{K}(s)$$
(5.1)
becomes explicitly calculable. The difference $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)\overline{K}(s)`$ can then be treated as a perturbation. Certainly, the efficiency of this procedure very much depends on the successful choice of $`\overline{K}(s)`$. Here we exploit the simplest possibility – namely, let us take two simple functions $`\mathrm{Tr}\overline{K}_<(s)`$ and $`\mathrm{Tr}\overline{K}_>(s)`$, which coincide with the leading asymptotics of $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$ at $`s0`$ and $`s\mathrm{}`$ and use them to approximate $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$ respectively at $`0ss_{}`$ and $`s_{}s<\mathrm{}`$. In turn, the value of $`s_{}`$ will be determined from the requirement that these two functions match at $`s_{}`$. This will guarantee the stationarity of $`\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}`$ with respect to the choice of $`s_{}`$, $`\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}/s_{}=0`$. We will discuss the justification of this procedure a little later, while now let us proceed with the calculation of $`\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}`$.

At small $`s`$ we use the lowest order term of the modified gradient expansion

$$\mathrm{Tr}K_<(s)=\frac{1}{(4\pi s)^2}𝑑x\mathrm{exp}\left(Vs\right),s<s_{}$$
(5.2)
and disregard all terms containing derivatives of the potential $`V`$. The rest of the asymptotic series (2.8), containing $`\stackrel{~}{a}_n`$, will be treated by perturbations. Correspondingly, at large $`s>s_{}`$ we use the late time asymptotics (4.14)

$$\mathrm{Tr}K_>(s)=\frac{1}{(4\pi s)^2}𝑑x(1sV\mathrm{\Phi }),s>s_{}.$$
(5.3)
The requirement of stationarity of $`\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}`$ with respect to $`s_{}`$ leads to the equation

$$𝑑x\mathrm{exp}\left(Vs_{}\right)=𝑑x(1s_{}V\mathrm{\Phi }),$$
(5.4)
which determines the value of $`s_{}`$ as some nontrivial functional of the potential, $`s_{}=s_{}[V(x)]`$. Unfortunately this functional is not calculable explicitly in general, but nevertheless, as we will see below, it can be obtained for two rather broad classes of potentials. The action (5.1) can be written down as a sum of two contributions

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_<+\mathrm{\Gamma }_>=\frac{1}{2}\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{ds}{s}\mathrm{Tr}K_<(s)\frac{1}{2}\underset{s_{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{ds}{s}\left(\mathrm{Tr}K_>(s)\mathrm{Tr}K_<(s)\right).$$
(5.5)
The first integral here has already been calculated and is given by the sum of the expressions (2.10) and (2.12) with $`\stackrel{~}{a}_0=1`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{a}_n=0,n1`$, which in our particular case give rise to

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_<=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{div}}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CW}}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{64\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\left[\left(\frac{1}{2\omega }+2𝐂3\mathrm{ln}4\pi \right)V^2+V^2\mathrm{ln}\frac{V}{\mu ^2}\right]},\omega 2,`$ (5.6)
where $`𝐂=0,577\mathrm{}`$ is the Euler’s constant. The first term here is responsible for the renormalization of the original action and the second one is just the Coleman-Weinberg potential. The second integral in (5.5) can also be calculated exactly. Integrating by parts and taking into account (5.4), we obtain

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_>{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{s_{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{ds}{s}}\left(\mathrm{Tr}K_>(s)\mathrm{Tr}K_<(s)\right)`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{64\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\left[\frac{V\mathrm{\Phi }}{s_{}}\frac{Ve^{s_{}V}}{s_{}}+V^2\mathrm{\Gamma }(0,s_{}V)\right]},`$ (5.7)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(0,x)`$ is an incomplete gamma function, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(0,x)=_x^{\mathrm{}}𝑑tt^1e^t`$, with the following asymptotics

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(0,x)\{\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{ln}\frac{1}{x}𝐂,\hfill & x1,\\ \frac{1}{x}e^x,\hfill & x1.\end{array}$$
(5.8)
Further steps strongly depend on the class of potentials, for which the consistency of the piecewise approximation (5.2) \- (5.3) should be carefully analyzed.

### 5.1. Small potential

The approximation (5.2) - (5.3) is efficient only if the ranges of validity of two asymptotic expansions (respectively for small and big $`s`$) overlap with each other and the point $`s_{}`$ belongs to this overlap. In this case the corrections due to the deviation of $`\mathrm{Tr}\overline{K}(s)`$ from the exact $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$ are uniformly bounded everywhere and one can expect that (5.1) would give a good zeroth-order approximation to an exact result. Below we show that this necessary requirement can be satisfied at least for two rather wide classes of potentials $`V(x)`$.

The modified gradient expansion is well applicable in the overlap range of the parameter $`s`$ if

$$sVV,$$
(5.9)
(cf. Eq.(2.15) with $`s`$ replaced by effective cutoff $`s=1/V`$) and the applicability of the large $`s`$ expansion in the same domain reads as

$$s𝑑xV\mathrm{\Phi }𝑑x_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }\frac{1}{V\mathrm{}}^\mu \mathrm{\Phi },$$
(5.10)
which means that the subleading term (quadratic in $`_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }`$) of the late time expansion (4.15) is much smaller than the leading second term.

To implement these requirements, let us make some simplifying assumptions. Instead of the power law falloff, assume that $`V(x)`$ has a compact support of finite size $`R`$

$$V(x)=0,|x|R.$$
(5.11)
Let us also assume that the characteristic magnitude of the potential inside its support is given by $`V_0`$. Then the estimate for the derivatives is obvious

$$V\frac{V_0}{R^2}$$
(5.12)
and (5.9) reads as $`sV_0/R^2V_0`$, that is

$$sR^2.$$
(5.13)
To find out what does the criterion (5.10) mean let us make a simplifying assumption, namely, that the potential $`V`$ is small. In this case it can be disregarded in the Green’s functions and $`1/(\mathrm{}V)`$ can be replaced by $`1/\mathrm{}`$. Therefore the following estimates hold

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}}V(x){\displaystyle _{|y|R}}𝑑y{\displaystyle \frac{1}{|xy|^{d2}}}V(y){\displaystyle \frac{1}{R^{d2}}}R^dV_0V_0R^2,`$
$`{\displaystyle 𝑑xV\mathrm{\Phi }}V_0R^d,`$
$`{\displaystyle 𝑑x_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }\frac{1}{V\mathrm{}}^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }}V_0^2R^{d+4}.`$ (5.14)
Roughly, every Green’s function gives the factor $`R^2`$, every derivative – $`1/R`$, integration gives the volume of compact support $`R^d`$, etc. Applying these estimates to eq. (5.10) we get $`sV_0R^dV_0^2R^{d+4}`$, whence

$$sV_0R^4.$$
(5.15)
Combining this with (5.13) one gets the following range of overlap of our asymptotic expansions

$$R^2sV_0R^4.$$
(5.16)
It immediately follows from here that this overlap domain is not empty only if

$$V_0R^21.$$
(5.17)
Moreover, the assumption of disregarding the potential in the Green’s function is also justified in this case since $`VV_01/R^2\mathrm{}`$. In other words this bound means that the potential is small in units of the inverse size of its compact support.

Now let us check whether $`s_{}`$ introduced above belongs to the overlap domain (5.16). Note that if it is really so, then $`s_{}V`$ in Eq.(5.4) is much smaller than unity because in the overlap range one has $`sVsV_0R^2V_01`$. Hence the exponent in the left hand side of (5.4) can be expanded in powers of $`s_{}V`$, and the resulting equation for $`s_{}`$ becomes888Note that the quadratic term should be retained in the expansion of $`e^{s_{}V}`$ if we want to get a nontrivial solution for $`s_{}`$.

$$𝑑x\left(1s_{}V+\frac{s_{}^2}{2}V^2+O\left(\left(s_{}V\right)^3\right)\right)=𝑑x\left(1s_{}V\mathrm{\Phi }\right)$$
(5.18)
Its solutions has the following form:

$$s_{}2\frac{𝑑xV(1\mathrm{\Phi })}{𝑑xV^2}=2\frac{𝑑xV\frac{1}{V\mathrm{}}V}{𝑑xV^2}.$$
(5.19)
Taking into account the estimates (5.14) we see that the point $`s_{}R^2`$ belongs to the upper edge of the interval (5.16). Late time expansions is fairly well satisfied here, but the small $`s`$ expansion is on the verge of breakdown. At this level of generality it is hard to overstep the uncertainty of this estimate. There is a hope that numerical coefficients in more precise estimates (with concrete potentials) can be large enough to shift $`s_{}`$ to the interior of the interval (5.16) and, thus, make our approximation completely reliable.

Bearing in mind all these reservations let us proceed with the calculation of the effective action. Using the small $`x`$ asymptotics (5.8) in the expression (5.7) we get

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_>\frac{1}{64\pi ^2}d^4x\left[V\frac{1\mathrm{\Phi }}{s_{}}+V^2\left(\mathrm{ln}\frac{1}{s_{}V}𝐂+1\right)\right].$$
(5.20)
It is interesting to note that in the whole action $`\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_<+\mathrm{\Gamma }_>`$ the Coleman-Weinberg term disappears and the final answer reads

$`\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{64\pi ^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\omega }}+𝐂2\mathrm{ln}4\pi \right){\displaystyle d^4xV^2}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{64\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle d^4xV^2\mathrm{ln}\left(𝑑xV^2\right)}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{64\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle d^4xV^2\mathrm{ln}\left(𝑑xV\frac{\mu ^2}{V\mathrm{}}V\right)}.`$ (5.21)
The first term here differs from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{div}}`$ in (5.6) by a finite renormalization of the local $`V^2`$-term, while the two other terms have entirely new nonlinear and nonlocal structure advocated in the Introduction. The ultraviolet renormalization mass parameter $`\mu ^2`$ makes the argument of the second logarithm dimensionless – it plays the same role as for the Coleman-Weinberg potential, but now it enters the new essentially nonlocal structure.

It is natural that the original Coleman-Weinberg term for the case of small potentials (5.17) gets replaced by the other qualitatively new nonlocal structure. Potentials which are small in units of the inverse size of their support are qualitatively very different from nearly constant potentials for which the Coleman-Weiberg action was originally derived. In the case of small potentials spacetime gradients dominate over their magnitude and, therefore, one should not expect that the Colman-Weiberg term would survive the inclusion of nonlocal structures.

### 5.2. Big potential

Remarkably, the case of the small potentials (5.17) is not the only one when one can find a non-empty domain of overlap where both asymptotics for $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$ are applicable. Namely, the opposite case of big potentials (in units of the inverse size of their support)

$$V_0R^21,$$
(5.22)
is equally good. The key observation here is that in this case the kernel of the Green’s function $`1/(\mathrm{}V)`$ can be replaced within the compact support of $`V`$ by $`1/V`$ ($`\mathrm{}1/R^2V_0V`$) and correspondingly

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}}V(x){\displaystyle \frac{1}{V}}V=1,`$ (5.23)
$`{\displaystyle 𝑑x_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }\frac{1}{V\mathrm{}}^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }}{\displaystyle \frac{R^4}{V_0R^2}}.`$ (5.24)
Therefore, the criterion of applicability of the late time expansion (5.10) becomes $`s1/V_0^2R^2`$. Together with (5.13) it yields the new overlap range

$$R^2s\frac{1}{V_0^2R^2}$$
(5.25)
which is obviously not empty if the potential satisfies (5.22).

To find $`s_{}`$ in this case we have to solve the equation (5.4) for the case when $`s_{}V`$ is not anymore a small quantity. Since $`V`$ is big, the exponent in (5.4) can be replaced by zero inside the compact support, $`\mathrm{exp}(s_{}V(x))0`$, $`|x|R`$, and by one outside of it where the potential vanishes, $`\mathrm{exp}(s_{}V(x))1`$, $`|x|>R`$. Rewriting the integrals in both sides of the equation (5.4) as a sum of contributions of $`|x|R`$ and $`|x|>R`$, we see that the contribution of the non-compact domain gets cancelled and the equation becomes

$$s_{}\underset{|x|R}{}𝑑xV\mathrm{\Phi }\underset{|x|R}{}𝑑x.$$
(5.26)
Then it follows that $`s_{}`$ is approximately given by the inverse of the function $`V\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ averaged over the compact support of the potential

$`s_{}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{<V\mathrm{\Phi }>}},`$ (5.27)
$`<V\mathrm{\Phi }>{\displaystyle \frac{\underset{|x|R}{}𝑑xV\mathrm{\Phi }}{\underset{|x|R}{}𝑑x}}.`$ (5.28)
A qualitative estimate of $`<V\mathrm{\Phi }>V_0`$ implies that $`s_{}1/V_0`$ and it belongs to the middle of the interval (5.25). This makes the case of big potentials fairly consistent. On the other hand, the value of $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ is close to zero inside the potential support (see (5.23)), so most likely the estimate for $`<V\mathrm{\Phi }>`$ is smaller by at least one power of the quantity $`1/V_0R^2`$, which is the basic dimensionless small parameter in this case. Therefore the magnitude of $`s_{}`$ becomes bigger by one power of $`V_0R^2`$, $`s_{}R^2`$, which is again near the upper boundary of the overlap interval (5.25). Similarly to the small potential case, a more rigorous analyses is needed (maybe for more concretely specified potentials) to account for subtle edge effects at the boundary of compact support, which might shift the value of $`s_{}`$ to a safe region inside (5.25).

With the above estimate for $`s_{}R^2`$ the magnitude of $`s_{}V`$ in the expression for the infrared part of the effective action (5.7) becomes big, $`s_{}Vs_{}V_0V_0R^21`$, and we use the big $`x`$ asymptotics in (5.8) to get the contribution

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_>\frac{1}{64\pi ^2s_{}}d^4xV\mathrm{\Phi }=\frac{1}{64\pi ^2}\underset{|x|R}{}𝑑x<V\mathrm{\Phi }>^2.$$
(5.29)
In this case the Coleman-Weinberg term is not cancelled in complete agreement with what we would expect for big potentials and the final result reads

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{div}}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{CW}}+\frac{1}{64\pi ^2}\underset{|x|R}{}d^4x<V\mathrm{\Phi }>^2.$$
(5.30)
## 6. Comments

We developed a new technique for the calculation of late time asymptotics of the heat kernel and its functional trace. Using these asymptotics we found previously unknown essentially nonlocal and nonperturbative contributions to the effective action for two large classes of potentials with compact supports. Therefore, the generalization of these results to potentials with power-law falloff, which would imply subtler analyses, deserves further studies.

Our results in their present form are applicable only in higher dimensions $`d3`$. One can easily check that the expression $`(1/\mathrm{})V`$ is not well defined in low dimensions $`\left(d2\right)`$. Note, that the logarithmic kernel of the Green’s function of the massless field is defined in $`d=2`$ only up to an additive constant. Moreover, the convolution of the Green’s function with the potential makes sense in $`d=2`$ only if the latter is the total derivative of some other function , as, for instance, the 2-dimensional curvature scalar in the Polyakov action . Thus, the extension of our results to low-dimensional models, where other calculational schemes completely fail, is especially important. This will be done in the forthcoming paper .

Another possibility is the generalization of our technique to potentials with isolated zeroes in the interior of spacetime. Even more interesting is the situation when the potential becomes negative $`V(x)<0`$ in some spacetime domains. In this case there is a tachionic instability, and it is worth deriving quantitative criteria describing this instability in terms of the properties of $`V(x)`$.

Finally, it is important to generalize our results to curved spacetimes and in addition consider fields with non-trivial spin-tensor structure. All these issues are addressed in . The nonlocal effective action can then be applied to study interesting physical problems, like quantum black holes evaporation , quantum cosmology, etc.

It is worth mentioning that the developed technique for late time asymptotics of the heat kernel could also be useful in statistical physics for calculating low temperature partition functions.

## A. Integral equation for $`W`$

In this Appendix we derive the integral form of the equation

$$\frac{W(s|x,y)}{s}+\frac{(xy)^\mu }{s}_\mu W(s|x,y)\mathrm{}W(s|x,y)=f(s|x,y),$$
(A.1)
where

$$f(s|x,y)V(x)(W(s|x,y))^2,$$
(A.2)
and $`W(s=0|x,y)=0`$. With this purpose we first introduce the new function $`\stackrel{~}{W}`$

$$W(s|x,y)=e^s\mathrm{}\stackrel{~}{W}(s|x,y).$$
(A.3)
Using the relation

$$e^s\mathrm{}(xy)^\mu e^s\mathrm{}=(xy)^\mu +2s^\mu $$
(A.4)
one finds that this function satisfies the following equation

$$\frac{\stackrel{~}{W}}{s}+\frac{(xy)^\mu }{s}_\mu \stackrel{~}{W}=e^s\mathrm{}f,$$
(A.5)
which does not contain anymore $`\mathrm{}`$-term on the left hand side. To write down the formal solution of this equation in terms of the ”source” term $`f=f(s|x,y)`$, let us introduce the characteristic curve $`\overline{x}^\mu (t)`$ of (A.5), which satisfies the equation

$$\frac{d\overline{x}^\mu (t)}{dt}=\frac{(\overline{x}(t)y)^\mu }{t},$$
(A.6)
with the boundary conditions

$$\overline{x}^\mu (t=0)=y^\mu ,\overline{x}^\mu (t=s)=x^\mu .$$
(A.7)
The solution of (A.6) is

$$\overline{x}^\mu (t)=y^\mu +\frac{(xy)^\mu }{s}t.$$
(A.8)
The total derivative of $`\stackrel{~}{W}(t|\overline{x}(t),y)`$ with respect to $`t`$ along this characteristic curve is then equal to

$$\frac{d}{dt}\stackrel{~}{W}(t|\overline{x}(t),y)=\left[\frac{}{t}+\frac{(xy)^\mu }{t}\frac{}{\overline{x}^\mu }\right]\stackrel{~}{W}(t|\overline{x},y)=e^{t\stackrel{-}{\mathrm{}}}f(t|\overline{x}(t),y),$$
(A.9)
where $`\stackrel{-}{\mathrm{}}^2/\overline{x}^\mu \overline{x}_\mu `$. Integrating this equation from $`0`$ to $`s`$ with the initial condition $`\stackrel{~}{W}=0`$ at $`t=0`$ and taking into account the boundary conditions (A.7) for $`\overline{x}(t)`$, one gets

$$\stackrel{~}{W}(s|x,y)=_0^s𝑑te^{t\stackrel{-}{\mathrm{}}}f(t|\overline{x}\left(t\right),y).$$
(A.10)
Returning to the original $`W`$ which is related to $`\stackrel{~}{W}`$ via (A.3) and taking into account that $`\mathrm{}=\left(t/s\right)^2\stackrel{-}{\mathrm{}}`$ we finally obtain:

$$W(s|x,y)=s_0^1𝑑\alpha e^{s\alpha (1\alpha )\stackrel{-}{\mathrm{}}}f(s\alpha |\overline{x},y)|_{\overline{x}=\alpha x+(1\alpha )y},$$
(A.11)
where instead of $`t`$ the new integration variable $`\alpha =t/s`$ was introduced. This is exactly the integral form (3.3) of the equation (A.1) that we used in Sect.3.

## B. Covariant perturbation theory and late time behavior of the functional trace of the heat kernel

Here we consider the nonlocal covariant perturbation theory (CPT) of . In CPT the functional trace of the heat kernel for the covariant second order differential operator is expanded as nonlocal series in powers of the potential $`V`$ with explicitly calculable coefficients - nonlocal form factors $`F_n(s|x_1,x_2,\mathrm{}x_n)`$. Their leading asymptotic behavior at large $`s`$ was obtained in . Here we calculate them up to the first subleading order in $`1/s`$ inclusive for a simple operator $`\widehat{F}=\mathrm{}V`$. Then we explicitly perform infinite summation of power series in the potential to obtain the nonlocal and nolinear expression (4.14) for late time behavior of $`\mathrm{Tr}K(s)`$.

According to  the heat kernel trace is local in the first two orders of the perturbation theory in the potential (2.18)

$`\mathrm{Tr}K_0(s)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x},`$ (B.1)
$`\mathrm{Tr}K_1(s)={\displaystyle \frac{s}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑xV(x)},`$ (B.2)
and in higher orders it reads as

$$\mathrm{Tr}K_n(s)=\frac{(s)^n}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}n}𝑑x<e^{s\mathrm{\Omega }_n}>V(x_1)V(x_2)\mathrm{}V(x_n)|_{x_1=\mathrm{}=x_n=x},n2.$$
(B.3)
Here $`\mathrm{\Omega }_n`$ is a differential operator acting on the product of $`n`$ potentials

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_n=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n1}{}}_{i+1}^2+2\underset{i=2}{\overset{n1}{}}\underset{k=1}{\overset{i1}{}}\beta _i(1\beta _k)_{i+1}_{k+1},$$
(B.4)
expressed in terms of the partial derivatives labelled by the indices $`i`$ implying that $`_i`$ acts on $`V(x_i)`$. It is assumed in (B.3) that after the action of all derivatives on the respective terms all $`x_i`$ are set equal to $`x`$. It is also assumed that the spacetime indices of all derivatives $`=^\mu `$ are contracted in their bilinear combinations, $`_i_k_i^\mu _{\mu k}`$. The differential operator (B.4) depends on the parameters $`\beta _i`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{}n1`$, which are defined in terms of the parameters $`\alpha _i`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{}n`$ as

$$\beta _i=\alpha _{i+1}+\alpha _{i+2}+\mathrm{}+\alpha _n,$$

and the angular brackets in $`<e^{s\mathrm{\Omega }_n}>`$ imply that this operator exponent is integrated over compact domain in the space of $`\alpha `$-parameters

$$<e^{s\mathrm{\Omega }_n}>\underset{\alpha _i0}{}d^n\alpha \delta \left(\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\alpha _i1\right)\mathrm{exp}(s\mathrm{\Omega }_n).$$

The late time behavior of $`\mathrm{Tr}K_n(s)`$ is thus determined by the asymptotic behavior of this integral at $`s\mathrm{}`$, which can be calculated using the Laplace method. To apply this method, let us note that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_n`$ is a negative semidefinite operator (this is shown in the Appendix B of ) which degenerates to zero at $`n`$ points of the integration domain: $`(0,\mathrm{}0,\alpha _i=1,0,\mathrm{}0)`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{}n`$. Therefore the asymptotic expansion of this integral is given by the contribution of the corresponding $`n`$ maxima of the integrand at these points. The integration by parts in (B.3) is justified by the formal identity $`_1+_2+\mathrm{}+_n=0`$ . Using it one can show that the contributions of all these maxima are equal, so that it is sufficient to calculate only the contribution of the point $`\alpha _1=1`$, $`\alpha _i=0`$, $`i=2,\mathrm{}n`$. In the vicinity of this point it is convenient to rewrite the expression for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_n`$ in terms of the independent $`(n1)`$ variables $`\alpha _2,\alpha _2,\mathrm{}\alpha _n`$, the remaining $`\alpha _1=1_{i=2}^n\alpha _i`$,

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_n=\underset{i=2}{\overset{n}{}}\alpha _iD_i^2\underset{m,k=2}{\overset{n}{}}\alpha _m\alpha _kD_mD_k,$$
(B.5)
where the operator $`D_m`$ is defined as

$$D_m=_2+_3+\mathrm{}+_m,m=2,\mathrm{}n.$$
(B.6)
Substituting this expression for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_n`$ in (B.3) and expanding in powers of the term bilinear in $`\alpha `$-parameters one gets

$`\mathrm{Tr}K_n(s)={\displaystyle \frac{(s)^n}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x_0^{\mathrm{}}d^{n1}\alpha \mathrm{exp}\left(s\underset{i=2}{\overset{n}{}}\alpha _iD_i^2\right)}`$
$`\times \left(1s{\displaystyle \underset{m,k=2}{\overset{n}{}}}\alpha _m\alpha _kD_mD_k+\mathrm{}\right)V_1V_2\mathrm{}V_n.`$ (B.7)
Here $`1/n`$ factor disappeared due to the contribution of $`n`$ equal terms and the range of integration over $`\alpha _2,\mathrm{}\alpha _n`$, $`_{i=2}^n\alpha _i1`$, was extended to all positive values of $`\alpha _i`$. This is justified since the error we make by extending the integration range is exponentially small and goes beyond the the accuracy of asymptotic expansion in inverse powers of $`s`$. The second term in the round brackets can be rewritten in terms of the derivatives with respect to $`D_m^2`$ acting on the exponential, so that

$`\mathrm{Tr}K_n(s)={\displaystyle \frac{(s)^n}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\left(1\frac{1}{s}\underset{m,k=2}{\overset{n}{}}D_mD_k\frac{}{D_m^2}\frac{}{D_k^2}+\mathrm{}\right)}`$
$`\times {\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}d^{n1}\alpha \mathrm{exp}\left(s{\displaystyle \underset{i=2}{\overset{n}{}}}\alpha _iD_i^2\right)V_1V_2\mathrm{}V_n.`$ (B.8)
In this form it is obvious that further terms of expansion in powers of the quadratic in $`\alpha `$ part of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_n`$ bring higher order corrections of the $`1/s`$-series. Doing the integral over $`\alpha `$ here and performing differentiations one obtains

$`\mathrm{Tr}K_n(s)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle }dx[s{\displaystyle \frac{1}{D_2^2\mathrm{}D_n^2}}+2{\displaystyle \underset{m=2}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{D_2^2\mathrm{}D_{m1}^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(D_m^2)^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{D_{m+1}^2\mathrm{}D_n^2}}`$
$`+2{\displaystyle \underset{m=2}{\overset{n1}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{k=m+1}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{D_2^2\mathrm{}D_{m1}^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{D_m^\mu }{(D_m^2)^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{D_{m+1}^2\mathrm{}D_{k1}^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{D_{k\mu }}{(D_k^2)^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{D_{k+1}^2\mathrm{}D_n^2}}`$
$`+O\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{s}}\right)]V_1V_2\mathrm{}V_n.`$ (B.9)
The first term in the square brackets gives the leading order term of the late time expansion. It can be further transformed by taking into account that any operator $`D_m`$ defined by (B.6) acts as a partial derivative only on the group of factors $`V_mV_{m+1}\mathrm{}V_n`$ in the full product $`V_1\mathrm{}V_n`$, $`D_mV_1\mathrm{}V_n=V_1\mathrm{}V_{m1}(V_{m+1}\mathrm{}V_n)`$. Therefore all the operators understood as acting to the right can be ordered in such a way

$$\mathrm{Tr}K_n(s)=\frac{s}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑xV_1\frac{1}{D_n^2}V_n\frac{1}{D_{n1}^2}V_{n1}\mathrm{}\frac{1}{D_2^2}V_2+O\left(\frac{1}{s^{d/2}}\right)$$

that the labels of $`D_m^2`$’s can be omitted and all $`D_m^2`$ can be identified with boxes also acting to the right

$$\mathrm{Tr}K_n(s)=\frac{s}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑x\underset{n1}{\underset{}{V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{}V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}}}V(x)+O\left(\frac{1}{s^{d/2}}\right).$$
(B.10)
Infinite summation of this series is not difficult to perform because this is the geometric progression in powers of the nonlocal operator $`V(1/\mathrm{})`$ and

$$\mathrm{Tr}K(s)=\mathrm{Tr}K_0(s)\frac{s}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑x\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left(V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}\right)^nV(x)+O\left(\frac{1}{s^{d/2}}\right),$$

or

$$\mathrm{Tr}K(s)=\frac{1}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑x\left(1s\mathrm{}\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}V(x)+O(s^0)\right).$$
(B.11)
The second term here looks as a total derivative. However, it does not vanish because this is a derivative of the nonlocal expression and the corresponding surface term does not vanish at infinity in view of the Green’s function asymptotics. This term can be rewritten as

$$\mathrm{}\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}V(x)=V(x)+V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}V(x)=V\mathrm{\Phi }(x),$$
(B.12)
and, therefore,

$$\mathrm{Tr}K(s)=\frac{1}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑x\left(1sV\mathrm{\Phi }(x)+O(s^0)\right),$$
(B.13)
where $`O(s^0)`$ denotes the subleading in $`s`$ terms which depend on the potential in a nontrivial way. They are given by infinite resummation over $`n`$ of the second and third terms in square brackets of Eq.(B.9). Remarkably, this summation can again be explicitly done. In this case one has to sum multiple geometric progressions.

Indeed, the second term of (B.9) gives rise to the series

$$\frac{2}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑x\underset{n=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\underset{m=2}{\overset{n}{}}V\underset{nm}{\underset{}{\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}V\mathrm{}\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}V}}\frac{1}{\mathrm{}^2}\underset{m2}{\underset{}{V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{}V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}}}V(x).$$
(B.14)
By summing the two geometric progressions with respect to independent summation indices $`0nm<\mathrm{}`$ and $`0m2<\mathrm{}`$ one finds that this series reduces to

$$\frac{2}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑xV\frac{1}{(\mathrm{}V)^2}V(x),$$
(B.15)
which after the integration by parts amounts to

$$\frac{2}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑x\left(\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}V(x)\right)^2=\frac{2}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}𝑑x\left(1\mathrm{\Phi }(x)\right)^2.$$
(B.16)
Similarly, the third term of (B.9) gives rise to the triplicate geometric progression which after summation and integration by parts reduces to

$`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑xV\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left(\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}V\right)^i\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}^\mu \frac{1}{\mathrm{}}\underset{j=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left(V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}\right)^j\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}^\mu \frac{1}{\mathrm{}}\underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left(V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}\right)^lV(x)}`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{2}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\left(_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }(x)\right)\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }(x)}.`$ (B.17)
Taking here into account that

$$\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}V\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}=\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}$$
(B.18)
one finds that the sum of (B.16) and (B.17) is equal to

$`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x\left((1\mathrm{\Phi })^2_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }+_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }\right)}`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{2}{(4\pi s)^{d/2}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }\frac{1}{\mathrm{}V}^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }},`$ (B.19)
where the cancellation of the first and the third terms takes place after rewriting $`_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }`$ in the third term as $`_\mu (\mathrm{\Phi }1)`$ and integrating it by parts999Straightforward integration by parts of $`_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }(1/\mathrm{})^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }`$ is impossible because $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)`$ does not vanish at $`|x|\mathrm{}`$, while $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x)1`$ does.. Together with (B.13) the contribution (B.19) forms the nonlinear and nonlocal late time expression for the heat kernel trace (4.14) up to the first subleading order in $`1/s`$ inclusive.

## Acknowledgement

A.O.B. is grateful for hospitality of the Physics Department of LMU, Munich, where a major part of this work has been done. The work of A.O.B. was also supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research under the grant No 02-02-17054. V.M. thanks SFB375 for support.