Heat kernel of non-minimal second-order operators

Abstract

We analyze the spectra of general non-minimal second-order operators. To do this, we derive the local part of the trace of the second Seeley-DeWitt heat kernel coefficient for such operators in a completely model-independent way. Afterwards, we provide three examples to show how our result can be applied in practical scenarios. In particular, we emphasize this discussion when dealing with a toy-model of dynamical torsion, which is viewed as a simple instance of higher-spin fields. All our results are compatible with the literature, and we provide a Mathematica notebook with the model-independent results that are written in the paper.