Covariant derivative expansion for the renormalization of gravity

Abstract

The one loop UV divergences of Hilbert-Einstein gravity with a cosmological constant and spin 0, 1/2 and 1 matter are computed making use of a covariant derivative expansion and functional methods. For this purpose the transformation that yields the covariant derivative is extended to include a dynamical metric and the expansion in the fields themselves is made covariant which is relevant for the effective action due to the non-linear character of gravity