Vacuum expectation value asymptotics for second order differential operators on manifolds with boundary

Abstract

Let M be a compact Riemannian manifold with smooth boundary. We study the vacuum expectation value of an operator Q by studying Tr Qe^{-tD}, where D is an operator of Laplace type on M, and where Q is a second order operator with scalar leading symbol; we impose Dirichlet or modified Neumann boundary conditions.