Vacuum effective actions and mass-dependent renormalization in curved space

Abstract

We review past and present results on the non-local form-factors of the effective action of semiclassical gravity in two and four dimensions computed by means of a covariant expansion of the heat kernel up to the second order in the curvatures. We discuss the importance of these form-factors in the construction of mass-dependent beta functions for the Newton's constant and the other gravitational couplings.

26 pages, review prepared for the special issue of Universe collecting the contributions for the workshop "Quantum Fields - from Fundamental Concepts to Phenomenological Questions" (Mainz 26-28 September 2018), covers the results of 1803.06948 and 1812.00460